The ruined buildings of the Heaven Seal Gate stretched endlessly beneath the dim artificial sky.
Ancient pavilions stood half-collapsed.
Stone bridges connected mountain peaks that had long since cracked apart.
Broken formation pillars littered the ground while countless halls bore the scars of a battle that had ended countless years ago.
Yet despite the destruction, the ancient grandeur remained visible.
This had once been a flourishing sect.
One capable of dominating an entire region during the ancient era.
Qin Fenxing sped through the ruined pathways without hesitation.
His Core Disciple jade slip floated before him, releasing faint ripples of light that continuously pointed toward different directions.
Unlike the other cultivators, he wasn't wandering blindly.
He had a destination.
The Array Center.
To many people, such a decision would appear foolish.
If one entered an ancient sect, shouldn't the medicinal gardens be searched first?
Or perhaps the Weapon Hall?
Maybe even the Scripture Pavilion?
Yet Qin Fenxing merely sneered inwardly.
"They know nothing."
His speed increased.
The Heaven Seal Gate wasn't an ordinary sect.
It specialized in formations.
Naturally...
Everything within the sect would have been protected by formations.
The medicinal gardens?
They undoubtedly contained spirit herbs that had grown for countless years.
Some might even have reached unimaginable medicinal ages.
Unfortunately...
Those gardens would almost certainly remain protected by powerful restrictions.
Even worse...
Some medicinal gardens intentionally raised guardian beasts.
If those beasts survived through the countless years...
Entering recklessly would simply be courting death.
As for the Alchemy Pavilion...
Ordinary cultivators naturally imagined mountains of pills waiting for them.
Reality was far crueler.
Pills possessed lifespans.
Even preserved inside specially crafted jade bottles or spiritual containers, time eventually eroded everything.
Thousands...
Perhaps tens of thousands...
Of years had already passed.
Even the finest pill containers would have gradually failed.
The medicinal pills inside had most likely long since turned into dust.
Perhaps a few extremely high-grade pills still remained.
But Qin Fenxing wasn't willing to gamble on such a possibility.
The Weapon Hall?
He shook his head.
Weapons suffered the same fate.
Unless they had reached exceedingly high grades, most spirit artifacts would have gradually lost their spirituality over countless years.
Many would already have become useless scrap metal.
Perhaps some precious spirit ores remained.
Perhaps fragments of ancient treasures.
But compared to what awaited him elsewhere...
They weren't his priority.
The Array Center...
That was different.
Formation inheritances didn't rely upon medicinal efficacy.
Nor did they depend upon artifact spirituality.
Knowledge endured.
As long as the jade slips survived...
The inheritance survived.
For a Formation Master...
Nothing surpassed knowledge.
Especially knowledge left behind by one of the greatest formation sects of the ancient era.
His breathing gradually quickened.
Soon...
A massive circular complex appeared before him.
Twelve towering buildings surrounded a central plaza.
Countless formation lines remained engraved across the ground.
Although many had dimmed with time, they still emitted terrifying fluctuations.
Even now...
One glance was enough to understand their complexity.
Ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators would probably trigger dozens of killing formations before taking ten steps.
Qin Fenxing remained completely calm.
The jade slip in his hand emitted another gentle glow.
Immediately...
The surrounding formations reacted.
Rather than attacking...
They withdrew.
Formation lines quietly dimmed.
Ancient barriers parted before him.
The countless restrictions that should have annihilated intruders instead welcomed him like their rightful master.
A smile appeared upon Qin Fenxing's face.
"As expected..."
"The Core Disciple token still possesses authority."
Without slowing down, he walked directly through layer after layer of defensive formations.
Not a single one activated.
To the Heaven Seal Gate...
He wasn't an outsider.
He was recognized as one of their own.
A Core Disciple.
Among ancient sects, Core Disciples occupied extraordinary status.
Outer Disciples merely formed the foundation.
Inner Disciples represented the sect's elites.
Core Disciples...
Were the future of the sect.
Each one possessed astonishing talent.
Each one received the finest inheritances.
Each one had the potential to eventually shoulder the sect itself.
Within a Golden Core sect like the Heaven Seal Gate, every Core Disciple was expected to possess the potential to step into the Golden Core Realm one day.
Otherwise...
They wouldn't have qualified for such status.
Qin Fenxing couldn't help feeling envious.
"What kind of monsters existed during the ancient era..."
In the current Eastern Region...
Someone capable of reaching Golden Core could already establish a Rank Four hegemonic power.
Yet within the Heaven Seal Gate...
Such people had merely been disciples.
The difference between eras truly couldn't be compared.
Passing through the outer plaza, Qin Fenxing finally entered the Array Center itself.
Silence greeted him.
Bookshelves.
Formation platforms.
Jade tables.
Everything remained exactly where it had been left countless years ago.
Dust covered nearly every surface.
Yet surprisingly...
Very little had decayed.
Formation Masters naturally understood preservation.
Many rooms still possessed low-level preservation formations.
Although weakened, they had prevented complete destruction.
The jade slip floated once again.
Then pointed toward one of the twelve surrounding halls.
Qin Fenxing followed immediately.
Reaching the entrance, he gently pushed open the stone doors.
Rumble...
The doors slowly opened.
Inside...
Rows upon rows of jade slips and scrolls rested neatly upon ancient shelves.
His pupils contracted.
"So many..."
Without hesitation, he picked up the nearest scroll.
His eyes quickly scanned its contents.
Rank One Spirit Gathering Formation.
Complete theory.
Construction process.
Material selection.
Common mistakes.
Formation optimization.
More importantly...
The scroll didn't merely describe the formation.
It contained annotations.
Observations.
Corrections.
Experiences recorded by previous Heaven Seal Gate elders.
Their failures.
Their discoveries.
Their insights.
For Formation Masters...
Such records were more precious than the formation itself.
Books taught knowledge.
Experience taught mastery.
Qin Fenxing slowly exhaled.
"No wonder..."
"No wonder ancient sects produced so many Formation Grandmasters."
These annotated inheritances allowed later generations to avoid countless mistakes.
A path that normally required decades could perhaps be shortened to years.
He quickly stored every scroll into his storage pouch before entering the second room.
Rank One offensive formations.
Third room.
Rank One illusion formations.
Fourth room.
Rank One defensive formations.
The further he advanced...
The higher the knowledge became.
His excitement grew increasingly intense.
By the time he reached the seventh room...
Rank Two inheritance had already begun.
Even as a Peak Rank Two Formation Master, Qin Fenxing occasionally found himself stunned.
Several theories completely overturned ideas he had believed for years.
Several techniques appeared unbelievably ingenious.
"This..."
"So it can be done like this..."
He almost slapped his forehead.
Many bottlenecks instantly became clear.
The inheritance before him wasn't merely knowledge.
It was guidance.
The guidance of countless generations of ancient Formation Masters.
Time gradually passed unnoticed.
One room.
Then another.
By the time Qin Fenxing finally reached the tenth room...
His breathing had already become uneven.
He slowly pushed open the heavy stone door.
Rows of jade slips shimmered faintly beneath the dim light.
Upon the central shelf...
Several ancient scrolls rested quietly.
A single glance at their titles caused Qin Fenxing's heartbeat to accelerate.
Rank Three Formation Inheritance.
His eyes widened.
Then...
He completely forgot about everything else.
The secret realm.
The treasures.
The competition.
The dangers.
All vanished from his mind.
Like a starving man discovering an endless feast...
He rushed toward the nearest jade slip before immediately immersing himself within its contents.
For Qin Fenxing...
This inheritance alone was already worth risking his life to obtain.
Days quietly slipped by within the ruins of the Heaven Seal Gate.
The artificial sun hanging high above the secret realm rose and set with unwavering regularity, illuminating the broken mountains and collapsed halls that had once housed one of the ancient era's greatest formation sects.
Outside the Array Center, everything appeared peaceful.
No cultivators approached.
No battles erupted nearby.
The ancient complex remained eerily silent.
The reason was simple.
Qin Fenxing's Core Disciple token.
Although Qin Fenxing himself remained completely absorbed within the inheritance, unaware of the outside world, the moment he officially entered the Array Center as a recognized Core Disciple, the surrounding formations had quietly awakened.
Unlike the killing formations protecting the rest of the sect, these formations weren't designed to eliminate disciples.
Instead—
They sealed the Array Center itself.
Layer after layer of defensive barriers rose silently around the complex.
Ancient runes gradually lit up across the ground.
To outsiders, the entire Array Center now appeared wrapped within a translucent curtain of light.
Anyone attempting to enter without sufficient authority would immediately activate the defensive formations.
Naturally...
Qin Fenxing knew none of this.
His entire consciousness remained immersed within countless jade slips.
Every scroll he opened overturned years of accumulated understanding.
Every formation record expanded his horizons.
Many techniques that had seemed impossible suddenly became obvious after reading the annotations left behind by ancient Formation Masters.
For someone who had struggled at the peak of Rank Two for years...
This inheritance was equivalent to a starving man discovering an endless banquet.
Even the passage of time gradually lost meaning.
...
Elsewhere.
Far deeper within the ruined sect.
Lin Sheng stood before an enormous ancient building.
Unlike the shattered halls surrounding it, this structure remained remarkably intact.
Although cracks covered its stone walls, the overall framework had survived.
Above the entrance hung an enormous plaque.
The faded characters upon it still retained traces of ancient pressure.
Scripture Pavilion.
Looking upward, Lin Sheng silently counted.
Seven floors.
Each floor rose nearly thirty meters high.
The entire pavilion towered above every nearby structure.
If the Array Center represented the heart of the Heaven Seal Gate's formations...
Then this place represented the accumulation of its countless years of knowledge.
Without hesitation, Lin Sheng stepped inside.
The moment he crossed the entrance, his Mental Perception spread outward.
His perception field expanded rapidly.
Every bookshelf...
Every jade slip...
Every broken scroll...
Everything entered the Chip's scanning range.
---
[Mental Perception Expanding...]
[Scanning Environment...]
[Recording Information...]
---
Countless notifications immediately appeared.
Lin Sheng paid them no attention.
Instead, his gaze slowly swept across the first floor.
Then...
He frowned slightly.
Destroyed.
Almost everything had been destroyed.
Broken bookshelves lay scattered everywhere.
Fragments of jade slips littered the floor.
Ancient scrolls had already decayed into dust.
Only scattered remnants remained.
He bent down and picked up half of a broken jade slip.
The spiritual fluctuations inside had long disappeared.
Even the information stored within had completely dissipated.
"It was emptied..."
Lin Sheng murmured softly.
No.
Not entirely.
Someone had deliberately taken the valuable inheritance away.
The remaining pieces merely represented what couldn't be carried or had already become worthless.
He slowly walked between the ruined shelves.
Occasionally, the Chip successfully reconstructed fragments of damaged manuals.
Unfortunately...
Most remained incomplete.
---
[Reconstruction Progress: 11%...]
[Insufficient Data.]