After exploring several unknown locations, Liu Bai did gain a few minor rewards, but they were barely worth mentioning.
Many items might be extremely useful for cultivators below the Sovereign Realm, yet their value diminished greatly in the eyes of a Sovereign level expert. Moreover, based on the rules of the Five Great Academies, he could not simply collect these things as he had done with the Divine Spiritual Fruits.
After all, as long as the Divine Spiritual Tree remained, it would continue producing new fruit. Even though Liu Bai picking all of them in one go was somewhat greedy, it was still acceptable.
But many other spiritual artifacts, spiritual items, and even spiritual arts were different. These were nonrenewable. Once taken, they were gone forever. Therefore, unless something was truly precious, Liu Bai would not touch it.
Spiritual arts were an exception. With the system in his possession, he did not need to physically take manuals or scrolls. He only needed to record them into the system.
Besides, these sects had vanished countless years ago. No one would suddenly appear to accuse him of stealing their techniques.
"What a pity I did not find any Divine Arts, not even a minor Divine Art…"
This left Liu Bai somewhat disappointed. Ordinary spiritual arts were useless to him now. Even Deity-grade rank spiritual arts could not compare to a true Divine Art.
It seemed that to find truly valuable things, he had to take risks. After thinking for a moment, Liu Bai chose an area that had been marked as dangerous and headed straight toward it.
When he arrived, he discovered a vast, endless sea. The water was crystal clear, revealing faint outlines of palaces beneath the waves.
It was obviously the site of an underwater ruin. Whether the sect had originally been built beneath the water or if the shift had occurred after its destruction in an ancient war, he had no way of knowing.
Staring at the transparent water surface, Liu Bai frowned. Although he sensed no danger, his heartbeat instinctively quickened.
After contemplating briefly, Liu Bai activated his power. A five colored spiritual disk emerged from his dantian and hovered above his head, brilliant radiance cascading down and surrounding his entire body.
After making all necessary preparations, Liu Bai stepped forward and entered the water.
The moment he submerged, an extreme and piercing cold surged toward him. As soon as it came into contact with the radiance of the Innate Five Spirit Disk, it was blocked by a stream of black water that absorbed the chilling energy entirely.
The Black Water Mystic Serpent on the Innate Five Spirit Disk let out sharp hissing cries, clearly excited by the cold energy it had consumed.
Liu Bai smiled faintly. As expected, with the Innate Five Spirit Disk, dangers like these could be easily resolved.
Soon, Liu Bai approached the underwater palace. Only then did he realize that a twisted spatial seal surrounded the palace, completely isolating it from the surrounding water.
He frowned again before extending his hand to tear open the distorted space, stepping directly into the palace's domain.
Perhaps sensing his arrival, the massive dark stone doors of the palace suddenly rumbled open. A surge of ancient aura swept outward from within, pressing heavily upon Liu Bai's heart.
"Is someone controlling this manually, or is the palace itself a spiritual artifact with its own awareness…"
Liu Bai could not determine the answer, but he did not hesitate. He stepped into the palace.
As soon as he entered the ancient hall, the space around him rippled. The surroundings shifted instantly into a vast dark corridor. On both sides, the corridor connected to numerous silent, ancient chambers.
Liu Bai casually approached one of the tightly shut doors and placed his hand upon it. As expected, the door was protected by a restrictive barrier.
But after countless years, the restriction had weakened to the point of fragility. Liu Bai felt he only needed to exert a small amount of force to break it entirely.
However, instead of using brute strength, he carefully studied the restriction and opened a narrow gap large enough for one person to enter.
Once inside, Liu Bai discovered that the room was not what he expected. It was not an alchemy chamber or a scripture vault. It was simply an empty cultivation room.
"This place…"
Liu Bai shook his head. It seemed this chamber would not contain anything valuable.
The stone room was empty except for a meditation cushion, a table, and a chair. There were no scrolls, jade slips, or anything else resembling storage items.
The meditation cushion, however, caught his eye. It was carved from black jade and bore mysterious patterns that resembled a formation.
With curiosity, Liu Bai walked over and picked up the cushion to examine the formation carved upon it.
"Ding. Minor Deity-grade Art Water God Chant detected. Record it?"
Liu Bai froze for a moment, then his expression brightened with delight.
"An unexpected surprise?"
Yet no matter how many times he turned the cushion over, he found no trace of anything related to the Water God Chant. Even after deciphering the calming array inscribed upon it, he still found nothing. This was indeed perplexing.
"Could it be an ancient legacy art that requires specific seals or techniques to reveal its contents?"
Other than guessing, Liu Bai had no way to know. Fortunately, no matter what the reason was, it could not escape the system's detection.
"Record."
In less than a second, the minor Deity-grade Art appeared on his system panel.
Minor Deity-grade Arts only required one thousand experience points to reach the entry level. With Liu Bai possessing over one hundred thousand experience points, he could easily upgrade the Water God Chant to its perfect level.
But he did not do so. The Water God Chant was simply a method to control True Water. Its power was closely linked to the level and quality of the True Water a cultivator possessed.
At the moment, Liu Bai could only use the uniqueness of his spiritual power and the Black Water Mystic Serpent of the Innate Five Spirit Disk to create some basic Black Water. Its power was limited. Even if he upgraded the Water God Chant, it would not be very useful. He decided to save his experience points for future emergencies.
Leaving the cultivation chamber, Liu Bai continued exploring room after room along the corridor using the same method. However, his luck did not repeat itself.
Even after deliberately touching every object in every chamber, the system made no further sound.
From the remaining traces within the palace, Liu Bai deduced that this place had once belonged to a sect named the Taiyi Palace, which specialized in water attribute spiritual power and had even passed down many water related Divine Arts and Divine Abilities.
Unfortunately, when the continent shattered, this place suffered severe damage. Most of the items were lost over the endless years, and others simply disintegrated into dust over time.
Liu Bai could not help feeling a touch of melancholy. Even in a fantastical world like the Great Thousand World, tens of thousands of years was a long and ancient measure of time.
Still, he carried a sliver of anticipation in his heart, hoping he might discover some high rank spiritual water or True Water within the ruins.
It was not because of the Water God Chant that he had such expectations. In truth, even back on the Five Elements Continent, Li Bai had already begun collecting high grade Five Elements treasures.
For example, the Hao Tian True Flame. For example, those hundreds of thousands of kilograms of Taiyi Fine Gold.
After receiving the Five Emperors Divine Sovereign inheritance in the Fallen Land and learning the method to condense the Five Emperor Celestial Body, this desire became even stronger.
To condense the Five Emperor Celestial Body, he needed Five Elements divine treasures of sufficient grade. Yet right now, he only had the Hao Tian True Flame and the Taiyi Fine Gold.
Originally, the Five Emperor Celestial Body required all Five Elements to gather so that the five could coexist in balance. However, there were some special methods that could temporarily bypass this limitation.
For example, Li Bai's Five Element Spiritual Apertures. Just like the former Five Element Source Power, he could condense a single Emperor Celestial Body within its corresponding aperture. Later, by using a special vessel to connect the Five Emperors, he could merge them into a complete Five Emperor Celestial Body once he obtained all five.
All the preparations for this step had already been completed.
The Five Element Source Power stored within the Spirit Apertures and the innate Five Spirit Disk as the carrier were all in place. Technically, the best carrier should have been the Five Element Spiritual Talisman he had personally condensed, but their creation time was too short. If used as the main vessel, they were still lacking. That was why Li Bai chose to use the innate Five Spirit Disk instead.
This method was actually quite good. At the very least, after the Celestial Bodies were eventually formed, they could also merge with the innate Five Spirit Disk's original powers. Perhaps this would even bring about some unexpected benefits.
After walking through the long corridor, Li Bai finally arrived at the end. This area connected to the main hall of the Taiyi Palace.
It was an extremely majestic great hall. Enormous black ice pillars, each hundreds of meters tall, stood like celestial supports. Coiling ice dragon carvings covered their surfaces, shimmering with faint light, giving the great hall an imposing and mysterious presence.
Because the hall was far too vast, any person standing inside would seem as insignificant as an ant. Even Li Bai felt an inexplicable sense of loneliness just by standing here.
This main hall truly possessed an awe inspiring grandeur.
Li Bai looked around and soon noticed something at the far end of the hall. There stood a female statue roughly a hundred meters tall.
The statue's icy blue hue sharply contrasted with the hall. Her appearance was comparable to a beauty of Jiu You's level. Although it was only a statue, her features were soft and lifelike. When Li Bai gazed at it, he even felt as though her eyes were quietly observing him.
"Could this thing be alive?"
As if cursed by his own words, the moment he spoke, the previously lifeless statue erupted with a blinding radiance.
Li Bai's heart tightened. He quickly raised his hand to shield his eyes while retreating, trying to observe what was happening.
What shone was not the statue itself, but a blue pearl in her hand.
The instant Li Bai saw the pearl, his heart throbbed fiercely.
Although he did not yet know its true identity, he was certain that this pearl was an absolute treasure of the water attribute.
As the light gradually faded, he saw that within the pearl was a mass of flowing blue liquid. The sudden eruption of radiance earlier had undoubtedly originated from this liquid.
"That is Taiyi True Water."
When he uttered the final four words, his voice involuntarily rose.
From the ancient records he had seen earlier, Li Bai had already learned a lot about Taiyi Palace, including Jiu You's mention of the Taiyi True Water, which had been revered as the palace's supreme treasure.
This was an extremely rare and extraordinarily powerful divine water, in no way inferior to the Hao Tian True Flame. It was one of the highest grade divine waters in existence.
Originally, seeing the ruins of Taiyi Palace in such a shattered state and after searching so many places without finding even the slightest trace, Li Bai had already given up hope of discovering the Taiyi True Water.
Who would have thought that a sudden twist of fate would allow him to encounter it here, on a statue within the main hall.
If the liquid inside that pearl was truly Taiyi True Water, then this pearl must be the Taiyi Divine Water Pearl, one of the legendary divine relics of Taiyi Palace.
This was a genuine water controlling divine artifact. According to legend, one could freely control the Taiyi True Water within it to fight enemies. A single sweep was enough to corrode even a Sovereign from the inside out, reducing both body and soul to nothingness.
For Li Bai, however, its greatest significance was not its offensive power. It could help him condense genuine Taiyi True Water, serving as the divine treasure necessary for forming the Water Emperor Celestial Body.
With this, he would only need Wood and Earth attribute treasures to complete the collection required for the Five Emperor Celestial Bodies.
"This is truly the greatest gain of my journey in this ancient ruin."
Delight stirred in Li Bai's heart. He drew the Taiyi Divine Water Pearl toward himself using the innate Five Spirit Disk. A drop of blood fell upon it, after which he immediately sat down in the great hall and began refining it.
Three days later, Li Bai opened his eyes.
At this moment, the blue Taiyi Divine Water Pearl no longer required suppression from the innate Five Spirit Disk. It now obediently hovered before him, ready to respond the moment he stirred his mind.
"Time is limited. A preliminary refinement is enough. That way I can store it in my Dantian Qi Sea without worrying about inspections on the way out."
Although they had agreed beforehand that all gains belonged to him, the temptation of a divine artifact was simply too great. Moreover, the Taiyi Divine Water Pearl was far from an ordinary artifact. Its importance to Li Bai was immense. To prevent any accidents, refining it first was the safest choice.
After that, Li Bai wandered through Taiyi Palace one last time. Aside from a few ordinary treasures, he found nothing else that caught his interest. Finally, he decided to leave.
Before leaving, he made sure to pick up a fallen Taiyi Palace disciple token and take it with him.
....
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