After being reborn, the villain comes with a spoiler tag.

Huo Yu ran his fingertips along the dark patterns on the sword sheath, and the records about Lingxiaozi in the jade slip came to mind.

Lingxiaozi was extremely skilled in spatial magic. He became famous in the cultivation world with his self-created "Free and Easy Wandering Technique" and even attained the supreme Dao with this technique. Therefore, he was able to perform the earth-shattering feat of hiding the entire cave in a spatial rift.

The short sword in his hand was obtained by Lingxiaozi when he was accidentally teleported to a spatial rift while deducing his cultivation technique.

The term "spatial rift" used by the monks is actually a very misleading one.

If we compare the Spirit Gathering Realm to a crystal goblet submerged in a chaotic sea, then the so-called cracks are merely tiny fissures through which light occasionally shines. If a cultivator inside the goblet were to cross these fissures and fall out, they would find themselves in the chaotic sea, churning with temporal and spatial turbulence.

Within this boundless chaotic sea, there is not only the Spirit Gathering Realm, but also the Demon Realm, the Immortal Realm, and the Demon-Immortal Realm, all situated within the same chaotic sea.

Therefore, this ancient sword from the depths of the Chaos Sea may have originated from any world, accidentally falling here through a spatial rift and being obtained by Lingxiaozi.

"That saves us the trouble of tracing our origins."

Huo Yu lowered his eyes slightly, his gaze sweeping over the short sword in his hand. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he put it into his storage bag.

Regardless of the fact that the spatial rift leads to the vast, endless void, making it impossible to pinpoint a location, the more important point is that for the vast majority of cultivators, once they step into a spatial rift, they often never return.

Even if one is lucky enough not to be torn to pieces by the spatial turbulence, finding a way back to the original world would be no more difficult than finding a specific bubble in a vast ocean.

Only a prodigy like Lingxiaozi, who has cultivated the Dao of Space to the Mahayana level, can travel freely and easily through this spatial rift.

Just then, Long Yucheng's slightly hesitant voice rang out from not far away, breaking the silence within the cave:

"Senior brother, look at these, could they be Ascension Tokens?"

Upon hearing this, Huo Yu looked up and followed the sound, only to see Long Yucheng staring at an inconspicuous bamboo basket in the corner of the cave.

As Huo Yu stepped closer and saw the contents of the bamboo basket, he immediately understood the source of the hesitation and confusion in Long Yucheng's tone.

Inside the bamboo basket, a pile of tokens lay scattered about. These tokens were neither made of gold nor wood, and each one was engraved with the powerful and vigorous characters "Ascension to Immortality." A rough count revealed that there were more than a dozen of them.

These tokens were piled up haphazardly, like discarded trash thrown into a bamboo basket. No wonder Long Yucheng was suspicious and couldn't be sure that these were the legendary Ascension Tokens that could stir up a monstrous wave upon their appearance.

Huo Yu casually picked up a token, and the moment he held it, he felt a strange power within it. This power seemed to be a condensation of countless times spiritual energy, yet it was firmly bound within the token, and even after tens of thousands of years, it had not leaked out in the slightest.

Huo Yu immediately made up his mind. His gaze narrowed slightly, and he gently traced the familiar patterns on the edge of the token with his fingertips, saying calmly:

"That's right."

Upon hearing this, Long Yucheng's face showed disbelief. His eyes widened, his Adam's apple bobbed, and he asked again to confirm:

"So many... are they all Ascension Tokens?"

Huo Yu nodded slightly. Under Long Yucheng's incredulous gaze, he casually picked up a token and tossed it lightly. The token streaked towards Long Yucheng like a shooting star.

After that, he never looked at the basket of Ascension Tokens again, which were enough to shake the entire cultivation world.

The Ascension Token can only be used once; taking more is pointless.

Moreover, after this cave reappears in the world, these Ascension Tokens will fly out of the cave on their own and go in all directions. It is unknown whether this is due to the inherent characteristics of the Ascension Tokens themselves, or one of the contingency plans deliberately left behind by Lingxiaozi before his departure.

But for Huo Yu, these Ascension Orders were undoubtedly an excellent way to distract outsiders, allowing him to buy himself more time.

Lingxiaozi's cave dwelling is a world unto itself, separated from the surrounding checkpoints by a one-way barrier, clearly not in the same spatial rift.

As soon as Huo Yufu stepped into this place, he keenly noticed this strange thing.

The connection between this place and the Metal Array has been completely severed. Huo Yu is unable to return to the previous Metal Array, let alone return directly to the Spirit Gathering Realm from this place.

Huo Yu also took a look at the positioning jade slip given to him by Changsun Ning. The jade slip should have had six light spots flashing inside, representing the location of the six of them.

However, at this moment, only two lonely points of light, one large and one small, were flickering slightly, and the positions of the other four people were clearly beyond the limits that the jade slip could locate.

In other words, if Huo Yu wanted to escape from this cave, he only had two options:

One option is to wait for the four people outside to successfully pass the fourth level and trigger the restriction, causing the cave to move to the Spirit Gathering Realm on its own. The other option is to wait until the Ancient Immortal Realm opens, then use the Ascension Token he just obtained to be introduced into the Ancient Immortal Realm, and then return to the Spirit Gathering Realm from the Ancient Immortal Realm.

There are still several years until the next opening of the Ancient Immortal Realm, so in terms of time, the former is obviously closer.

This turn of events was something Huo Yu had not anticipated before he arrived.

But since things have come to this, he can only remain calm and wait for the moment when the cave appears, and then look for an opportunity to escape this place of trouble that is about to unleash a monstrous storm.

At that time, these coveted Ascension Orders will become Huo Yu's best bargaining chip to divert outside attention and escape smoothly.

Although Long Yucheng didn't understand why Huo Yu only took two Ascension Tokens from that basket, after asking the Heavenly Dao Assistant and confirming that these tokens couldn't be sold to the system shop for points, his interest in the pile of Ascension Tokens vanished instantly, and he turned his attention to the other furnishings in the cave.

He was well aware of the saying "possessing a treasure is a crime," so he didn't dwell too much on the pile of Ascension Tokens. Moreover, when he received the Ascension Token that Huo Yu had given him, the system had already notified him that the main quest was complete.

However, Lingxiaozi's cave dwelling was indeed rather simple, especially compared to the elaborate restrictions outside the cave. The cave dwelling, which was heavily protected by layers of restrictions, could only be described as "shabby".

Long Yucheng was not discouraged and began to check every item in the cave one by one. In less than a quarter of an hour, he had touched everything in the cave.

Unfortunately, apart from the incense burner on the table that could be sold for 500 points, there was nothing else of value.

As for the runes engraved on the four walls of the cave, Long Yucheng initially thought they were some profound cultivation techniques or secret manuals, and his heart was filled with excitement.

However, when he leaned closer to examine them closely, he felt dizzy. The runes seemed to come alive, twisting and changing before his eyes. He couldn't concentrate on reading them, let alone memorizing them.

Left with no other choice, Long Yucheng had to abandon the dazzling array of runes and instead put the incense burner on the stone table into his pocket.

After thinking for a moment, he also took the jade slips next to the incense burner with him.

Although these jade slips did not contain the ancient secret manuals he had hoped for, they could at least be read as a cultivation version of "The Eccentrics of the Mundane World" to pass the time, which was better than nothing.