C865 Ancestor's Relics!
"He actually managed to cultivate a Lunar Spirit."
Yan Yu watched in amazement as a phantom soul emerged from Yu Yuan's forehead.
When she first met Yu Yuan, he hadn't even reached the Veil Breaking stage. She found it hard to believe that in such a short time, this young man from the Yu family had already ascended to the Lunar Spirit stage.
And now, they were on the same level.
She had progressed to the late period of the Lunar Spirit stage and was on the cusp of advancing to the Spirit Walk stage. Yet, her progress paled in comparison to Yu Yuan's rapid advancement.
"Be careful!"
Suddenly remembering the dangers, she quickly warned Yu Yuan, concerned he might be unaware of the risks.
Without reaching the Spirit Walk realm, the Lunar Spirit becomes exceedingly vulnerable once separated from the body. Whirling winds, ice, flames, blades, and spiritual light could all harm the Lunar Spirit.
Except in the rare Land of Terror, those who have just attained the Lunar Spirit stage typically do not let their Lunar Spirit leave their bodies unless they are in a sealed chamber, deliberately refining their Lunar Spirit.
"It's fine with me here."
Yan Qiling gestured into the air, and the space vibrated abruptly, placing the entire Yu family in a vacuum-like state.
The external wind, spiritual energy, light, and even the cultivators' remnant souls were all blocked out.
In this new environment, no danger would present itself unless a being more powerful than him shattered the vacuum.
He was confident that no one in the Silvermoon Empire or Asvetaesi would dare to attempt such a feat at this moment.
"Explore the underground as you wish." Yan Qiling said with a radiant smile, glancing down at the earth beneath them. "I'm quite intrigued to discover what secrets lie beneath the Yu family's estate."
Yu Yuan's Lunar Spirit acknowledged Yan Yu and Qiling with a nod before plunging downward.
Effortlessly, it pierced the earth's surface and vanished below, swiftly flying onward.
Before long, he encountered a white jade slab engraved with innumerable glyphs. The slab was cool and solid, its glyph lines forming an exceedingly intricate array.
A soft glow emanated from the slab, sealing off everything.
"This is the place!"
He had sensed this very slab the last time he probed with his spiritual sense.
The difference now was that his Lunar Spirit was present, allowing him to observe all the glyphs in detail.
"Just as I suspected, many from the Colddeath, and some from the Forgeroses too!"
Yu Yuan's Lunar Spirit leisurely made contact with the stone tablet using his spirited body. The instant the ethereal spirited body touched the stone tablet, the glyphs carved into it sprang to life.
Initially, eight arrays shone with a vivid red light, as if blood were coursing through them.
Whoosh!
From the center of the arrays, eight beams of blood light burst forth, tracking the essence of his Lunar Spirit to locate his real body standing on the ground, and promptly penetrated his chest.
The Altar of Rebirth within his little world of vitality was triggered, beginning to spin softly.
Boom!
His real body erupted with a fierce and immense aura, as strands of vital energy intermingled with the eight beams of blood light before diving back into the earth.
As the eight beams of blood light soared back to the array on the white jade tablet, additional arrays were lit and activated. The myriad seals, like a series of closed doors, began opening one after another.
With a swift whoosh, Yu Yuan's Lunar Spirit moved through the stone tablet and entered a white jade secret chamber.
Inside the secret chamber was a lone white jade table, upon which lay several objects.
Yu Yuan's Lunar Spirit hovered above the table, peering down.
He saw a crystal as thick as a thumb, filled with countless tiny specks of light. Upon touching it with his Lunar Spirit, thousands of minuscule characters floated in an immense expanse.
"This heart-controlling technique, a unique creation of the Evil King Yu Xi, possesses the power to dominate minds. It is suitable for those with formidable mental strength to cultivate."
A thought struck Yu Yuan's Lunar Spirit, and he instantly recognized that the thumb-sized crystal contained a record of an enigmatic mystique, seemingly crafted by his ancestor, Yu Xi.
Beside it lay a triangular silver token, engraved with the words "Evil King Token" at each of its three corners.
The token was silvery and cool to the touch, its appearance rather unremarkable.
Next to the Evil King Token was a dark green iron ring. Upon sensing it with his Lunar Spirit, he immediately perceived a remnant soul: the Seven Star Aegis, a heavenly eighth-level item.
Heavenly level, eighth level!
Yu Yuan's heart trembled with realization. This Seven Star Aegis was no ordinary artifact; it far surpassed Qi Nandou's Ethereal Vial and Bone-Devouring Shuttle in rank.
The Ethereal Vial, a second-level heavenly item, and the Bone-Devouring Shuttle, merely a third-level heavenly item, were both treasures that would be highly prized by sects such as the Skyblight Cult and the Ruby Hand. Such items were passed down through generations, treasured even more than disciples with exceptional talent.
The Seven Star Aegis, an eighth-level heavenly treasure, was undoubtedly a renowned artifact within the Skyblight Cult.
His gaze shifted to a wooden puppet with indistinct features. Carved from wood and no larger than the palm of a hand, its gender was indiscernible. A single glance at it evoked a terrifying sensation that his Lunar Spirit was on the verge of being devoured by the tiny figure.
"The soul puppet, a seventh-level heavenly item, can imprison a cultivator's three souls of heaven, earth, and man, or their Lunar Spirit. Once trapped, the puppet can be used to control the person's real body and other aspects. Even an Unbound cultivator, whose primordial spirit is not yet fully formed, would struggle to escape its control if their Lunar Spirit were confined within it."
Another detailed message streamed into Yu Yuan's mind as if a cascade of beans were spilling into a bamboo tube, altering his expression dramatically.
He had faintly heard of such an item three hundred years ago when he was known as Hong Qi. The soul puppet was an infamous and malevolent artifact of the Skyblight Cult. Legend had it that a millennium ago, the cult's powerful members manipulated both Solar Spirits and Unbound cultivators with the puppet, compelling them to commit heinous acts.
The Skyblight Cult's reputation for evil deeds, before Yu Xi rose to infamy as the Evil King, was largely associated with the soul puppet. Once Yu Xi ascended as the sect's leader, this vile treasure was seemingly sealed away, forbidden from reemerging.
Yet, to his surprise, this very item had resurfaced in the Yu family's subterranean chamber seven centuries later.
"Eh! There's also a Cosmos Ring!"
A smile played at the corners of Yu Yuan's lips as he projected a strand of his remnant soul into the ring, discovering an assortment of pills, modestly ranked armor, and heaps of Soul Crystals.
"What is this?"
He paused, his gaze falling upon a few thin pages nestled within the Cosmos Ring.
The pages bore elegant script.
"I am Yu Ying. Whoever you are, if you're reading this, you are a descendant of the Yu family and have successfully cultivated a Lunar Spirit. The Yu family..."
Yu Yuan's remnant soul absorbed the words, piecing together the unfolding story.
The soul puppet, the Seven Star Aegis, the Cosmos Ring, and the treasures within were all bequeathed by her for the future generations of the Yu family.
More precisely, they were left by the Evil King Yu Xi.
She had secured these items with the assistance of the Colddeath, covertly extracting them for the Yu family.
During this time, Yun Hao from the Skyblight Cult became aware of her actions and dispatched Lee Tihai to pursue and intercept her.
Thanks to the Colddeath's intervention, she managed to evade Lee Tihai's assault, hiding long enough to stash the items beneath the Yu family estate.
She dared not linger. Once her task was complete, she departed swiftly.
The significance of these treasures was immense. She had instructed Yu Cen that only an exceptionally talented descendant who had formed a Lunar Spirit should attempt to uncover them.
For if the family was feeble, the items hidden beneath would spell nothing but catastrophe for the Yu clan.
"No wonder the Skyblight Cult has been relentlessly seeking her whereabouts without giving up." As Yu Yuan's thoughts flowed, he noticed objects from the table being drawn into the Cosmos Ring. Eight beams of blood-red light pierced through the stone and into the ring, forging an instant soul connection between him and the ring.
In that moment, the ring became his.
"My great aunt was favored by Ruan Lengling of the Forgeroses, who imparted the arts of cultivation to her. But after Ruan Lengling perished in the Star River of the extraterrestrial realms, my great aunt, who should have been inducted into the Forgeroses, was left to fend for herself as an independent cultivator."
"Ruan Lengling..."
Yu Yuan mulled over the name, then a realization dawned on him, "The same lineage as Tan Yuan and Du Huang's ancestor. This means Great Aunt Yu Ying and Tan Yuan were fellow disciples. I just wonder if Great Aunt Yu Ying managed to evade the Skyblight Cult's pursuit. Is she still alive, or has she perished?"
With these thoughts in mind, he searched the stone chamber once more. Finding nothing else of note, his Lunar Spirit soared outward.
The Cosmos Ring emerged from the earth as well.
