Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 1574: Chapter 973: Hidden Array (2)

Yang Zhenshan casually photographed a scarlet jade stone, “This should be a third-order spirit ore, Fire Separation Glazed Jade. Friend Hong, this can be used for your Lifebound Magical Treasure!”

They had just found a large amount of second-order ore, and now they have discovered a warehouse full of third-order ore.

A whole warehouse, with thousands of third-order ores, all kinds of attributes.

To be honest, if it weren’t for so many third-order ores right in front of him, Yang Zhenshan wouldn’t dare to believe it.

For years, he exchanged at the Ten Thousand Treasures Store for some third-rank spiritual materials. However, for each third-rank spiritual material exchanged, he had to trade some elixirs to earn contribution points.

Those elixirs were painstakingly refined by him, taking about three to four years before he could exchange for one type of third-rank spiritual material at the Ten Thousand Treasures Store.

And now?

There are actually thousands of third-order ores laid out before him.

Unfortunately, these are all ores, not Jie Dan Spirit Objects.

But with these ores, crafting Lifebound Magical Treasures in the future wouldn’t be such a hassle.

Yang Zhenshan boldly stepped forward, directly throwing these ores into the Spirit Source Land.

“Let’s go, the thundercloud is about to dissipate, this place is not suitable for staying too long!”

No one came to disturb them for such a long time mainly because the thundercloud in the sky had a powerful deterrent effect, preventing others from daring to come and investigate.

However, that thundercloud was forcibly triggered by Yang Zhenshan using the Mysterious Thunder Talisman, and it cannot be maintained for long.

“What a pity, if we search carefully, we might find some good stuff!”

The four flew close to the ground, leaving behind the palace ruins, as Kou Ta couldn’t help but glance back at the ancient array remnants of the palace, saying regretfully.

“This place is full of good stuff, there’s no need to stay in one spot!” Yang Zhenshan said.

In such a dangerous environment, the biggest taboo is greed without limits.

Perhaps there are still some good things there, but searching would take a lot of time. If they linger for too long, they will inevitably encounter others coming to explore, leading to another inevitable battle.

The four entered the mountains again, concealing their presence, and quietly traversing through the forest.

The battle fluctuations around them remained plentiful, and even in the distance, a terrifying sword intent faintly reached their ears.

Don’t be deceived by the slaughter Yang Zhenshan achieved just now, he appeared overwhelmingly fierce, but there weren’t truly powerful masters here.

The real experts mostly converged towards the central area of the Grotto Heaven, known as the Sea of Blazing Sun.

Yang Zhenshan took out a map and scanned it briefly. The ruins they visited should be the Blazing Sun Palace among the Twelve Palaces, a place of artifact refining for the Sun True Sect.

And the best place in the Twelve Palaces should be Chaoyang Palace, which is the place of elixir crafting for the Sun True Sect, where there are also many medicinal fields and spiritual fruit trees near Chaoyang Palace.

According to the information provided by the Golden Crow, Chaoyang Palace should be located in the northeast of the Sea of Blazing Sun, whereas they are currently in the southwest region.

“Forget about Chaoyang Palace, even if we go now, we won’t be able to get any good stuff!”

“As for the other palaces, they are probably all in the midst of chaotic battles now.”

“Next, we either roam around exploring, hoping for some lucky finds, or head to the Sea of Blazing Sun for a bold raid!”

Yang Zhenshan stood on a steep cliff, looking at the surging Cloud Sea in the distance.

“Apart from that, there are actually some other places to try our luck!”

Besides the Twelve Halls and Twelve Palaces in True Yang Heaven, there are many Immortal Cultivator grotto-heavens, even including Dao Fields of some Golden Core Cultivators.

Unlike the organized layout of the Twelve Halls and Twelve Palaces, these Immortal Cultivator grotto-heavens are scattered haphazardly within True Yang Heaven.

Unfortunately, the information provided by the Golden Crow is too vague, making it impossible for Yang Zhenshan to ascertain the locations of those grotto-heavens.

As Yang Zhenshan pondered whether to first take a look at the Sea of Blazing Sun or search the vicinity for traces of grotto-heavens, Yun Xiao suddenly transformed into a stream of light and darted over.

“Something seems off over there!” Yun Xiao pointed at the gorge beneath the cliff, saying.

Yang Zhenshan followed the direction of his finger, “Off? What’s off down there?”

“Use your Spiritual Sense to investigate!” Yun Xiao suggested.

Yang Zhenshan complied, extending his Spiritual Sense, and immediately understood what Yun Xiao was referring to as being off.

“There’s an Array, and not just any, but a Concealment Array!”

Generally, second-order arrays possess the function of obstructing Spiritual Sense, but if they only hinder Spiritual Sense, it’s easy to still discern an array area during inspection.

A true Concealment Array camouflages using the array, making the scenery cloaked by the array match the surrounding environment when others search using Spiritual Sense, thus deceiving them during their investigation.

The location mentioned by Yun Xiao was not far from them, only a dozen miles away. Yang Zhenshan had already checked it with his Spiritual Sense, noticing no abnormalities.

Of course, his check was only a rough sweep without a thorough examination.

Now that Yun Xiao pointed out the anomaly, Yang Zhenshan inspected more carefully and quickly identified the issue.

It was the aura!

An aura completely incongruous with the surroundings.

A subtle yet cryptically profound fluctuation.

If not for Yun Xiao pointing it out, Yang Zhenshan might have overlooked this tiny anomaly.

“Get Kou Ta and Hong Fuxiu back, and let’s check it out!”

After leaving the palace ruins, they rested briefly in the mountains, before splitting up to search the surroundings, which were rich in spirit plants, including not just second-order but also third-order spirit plants.

Though it’s a matter of gambling on luck, they still wished to search, hence the four momentarily separated to explore the area.

Otherwise, Yun Xiao wouldn’t have found the anomaly over there.

A moment later, Kou Ta and Hong Fuxiu returned.

The four rushed directly towards the array over there.

Beneath the steep and sheer reddish-brown mountain wall, nine Spirit Pines, each as thick as an arm’s embrace, formed a Big Dipper shape, with a faint golden light membrane floating among the trunks. This wasn’t particularly strange, for there were spirit plants everywhere here, many emitting a weak spiritual light.

However, scanning with Spiritual Sense would reveal something amiss here.

Yang Zhenshan’s eyes fixed closely on the nine Spirit Pines, with frigid green light flashing from his eyes.

This was the Vitality Eye, observing the vitality force in all things.

Accompanied by a Death Eye, to see the death aura in others.

Just a minor ability attached to the Path of Life and Death.

In the past, Yang Zhenshan utilized the Golden Light Eye, also a minor ability attached to the Golden Light Divine Spell. Using golden light to enhance vision, allowing Yang Zhenshan to observe meticulously.

Under his observation, the nine Spirit Pines in front of him were filled with vitality.

The abundant vitality vastly surpassed any spirit plants Yang Zhenshan had ever encountered before.

“Third-tier spirit plants! They are indeed third-tier spirit plants! And a third-tier spirit plant that has grown for ten thousand years!”

Yang Zhenshan squinted his eyes, scanning over each Spirit Pine.

“What’s going on? Are these Spirit Pines different in some way?” Yun Xiao asked, seeing Yang Zhenshan staring at the Spirit Pines.

Yang Zhenshan exhaled heavily, “These Spirit Pines are third-tier spirit plants!”

“What!” Yun Xiao exclaimed in shock.

Kou Ta and Hong Fuxiu, who were inspecting the situation, also paused their actions to look at Yang Zhenshan.

Yang Zhenshan stroked his beard, his lips slightly curved, “We seem to have stumbled onto a treasure trove!”

It’s not surprising Yun Xiao didn’t notice the distinctiveness of the Spirit Pines, as the nine pines should be nodes of the array, their aura concealed by the array. Without Yang Zhenshan’s ability to observe the vitality force in the Spirit Pines, their anomaly would have gone unnoticed.

The Spirit Pines are merely nodes, a component of the array, not the treasures hidden within the array itself.

Given that the Spirit Pines are third-tier spirit plants, what treasures might be hidden within the array?

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s break the array!” urged Yun Xiao.

“Can you break an array?” Yang Zhenshan inquired, glancing at Yun Xiao, then at Hong Fuxiu and Kou Ta.

The trio exchanged looks, “No!”

Well, none of them were Array Masters, nor are they proficient in breaking arrays.

“So, don’t rush, take it slow!” Yang Zhenshan said as he began examining the situation.

On the surface, it seemed like there were only nine Spirit Pines and a cliff face, no visible anomaly. Yet Yang Zhenshan could sense an extremely subtle fluctuation; this fluctuation was leaking from the array’s interior, indicating that the array before them had a flaw.

Indeed, it’s a ten-thousand-year-old array; even if it’s a third-tier array, time’s erosion over ten thousand years would probably introduce some flaws.