Li Yan walked slowly along a row of wooden frames. Walking between two rows of wooden frames, Li Yan's whole body was slanted by the yellow light and purple light on both sides. He looked a little illusory and unreal.
Soon, he came in front of Master Gong, who was spreading out his palm and looking at a gray round bead on his palm. The bead was as big as a baby's fist.
“Fellow Daoist Li, this is the eyeball of the Miluo Nine-tailed Turtle, which was obtained by our sect’s Nascent Soul ancestor tens of thousands of years ago during an expedition.
The Miluo Nine-tailed Turtle is also an ancient ferocious beast. Legend has it that when it reaches adulthood, its body is hundreds of thousands of miles long. A slight shake of its body can shake the heaven and earth. It can eventually evolve into the Black Tortoise, one of the four ancient ferocious beasts.
This eyeball is only the size of a baby's fist, which means that this Miluo Nine-tailed Turtle must have died in infancy."
Taoist Gong said this and handed the gray round bead in his hand to Li Yan.
After Li Yan took it, he suddenly felt a chill from his fingertips and quickly spread throughout his body.
He looked at it carefully. Although the bead was gray in color, it was extremely round both to the touch and to the eye.
There are ancient crisscrossing patterns on it with no regular pattern at all. If one wants to carefully follow one of the lines, even with Li Yan's current spiritual sense, he will feel dizzy, chest tightness and nausea after a while.
If the grey round bead was the eyeball of the Miluo Nine-tailed Turtle, it did not have the translucency that an eyeball should have, as if it had been petrified.
In addition to being unusually round, there is a golden sphere in the middle that occupies about 1/3 of the entire bead.
This makes it look like a large gray round bead with a golden round bead nested in it, which makes it look like an eyeball.
Just as Li Yan was observing, Taoist Gong's voice came again.
“After this item was taken back by our sect’s Nascent Soul Patriarch, he didn’t know what it was at first. No matter how he used his powerful divine sense to penetrate it or his spiritual power to spy on it again and again, he found nothing.
Finally, after checking many classics, the Yuanying Patriarch found a similar description in one of them.
It was a book written by an ancient monk that described the process of refining magic weapons. It included a magic weapon made from the flesh of the Miluo Nine-tailed Turtle, and it also contained a description of the eyeball.
Afterwards, the ancestor of our sect found a few good friends to come and make the judgment together. Even though they were all Nascent Soul cultivators, there were some people who did not know each other.
After all, the ancient times were too far away from them, but one or two people still identified it and determined that it should be the organ of a monster. In the end, they also agreed with the view that the ancestor was the Miluo Nine-tailed Turtle.
After some confirmation, the old ancestor was overjoyed.
For this kind of ancient ferocious beast, let alone a whole eyeball, even some fur and scale fragments would be enough to make a Nascent Soul cultivator ecstatic.
Even though the eyeball in his hand was just the juvenile of the Miluo Nine-tailed Turtle, he could definitely refine it into a treasure of such power that even the cultivators in the late Nascent Soul stage would avoid it.
So, the ancestor began to work on refining this thing, but what happened next was beyond his expectations.
No matter how he refined it, this thing didn't change at all. Even though he finally spent a lot of his essence and blood and used the Nascent Soul True Fire, it still had no effect on this thing.
This leaves aside the subsequent smelting of magic weapons, but the ancestor was still unwilling to give up. He tried various methods, such as borrowing the earth fire veins, demon fire, magic flames, melting the water of the abyss, etc., but all failed.
After many failures and many years, the ancestor gradually lost confidence in this thing.
But this also shows the mystery of this thing, so the old man placed this thing in the sect and kept it as a treasure.
Many years passed, and perhaps he had forgotten about it. When he went out to look for an opportunity to become a god, he took away many of his treasures, but left this thing behind. "
While listening to Master Gong's narration, Li Yan looked at the item over and over again.
He even used his spiritual consciousness and spiritual power to try to explore inside it, but as soon as his spiritual consciousness and spiritual power touched the surface of the bead, they were bounced back by a huge force and could not enter inside at all.
Looking at Li Yan's condition, Taoist Gong smiled bitterly.
"This pearl is not only mine, but all the past masters and those who are in charge of the Daojing Hall have tried to find out the secrets in their hands. But tens of thousands of years have passed, and this thing is still the same. No one can know the secrets inside.
It is possible that after the death of the Miluo Nine-tailed Turtle, something strange happened between heaven and earth, causing this object to turn into something else unknown. "
Taoist Gong looked at the gray round bead in Li Yan's hand and explained slowly.
Li Yan nodded, then said to Taoist Gong.
"Fellow Daoist Gong, Qin Chengyi has such wealth with his cultivation in the Condensation Stage. He must have the support of a powerful force behind him, or even the entire Qin family to support him in obtaining this item. So there are two possibilities:
One is that the other party knows the specific use of this mysterious Miluo Nine-tailed Turtle Eyeball;
The second possibility is that they heard from others that Xuanqing Temple had this item, and that it was similar to what they needed.
In either case, it means that he is in urgent need of this item, and it is very useful. Otherwise, he would not be so deliberate and murderous to rob.
If we consider what you said about the two sects nearby and their strange disappearance as a whole, plus the secret order issued by the Wuliang Sect, all these things combined.
If we forcefully link these together, we can probably conclude that there is one or several forces that are very powerful. They possess the poison "Xiren's Tears", which is unique to the world. They are even so powerful that the four major sects have to start treating them with caution.
If the disappearance of the two nearby sects is also related to this, then these two sects are either targeted by this force like Xuanqing Temple, or these two sects, like the Qin family, may be part of this force. In this way, their overall disappearance can be explained a little.
They might have been destroyed by this mysterious force while they were secretly searching for items similar to the Miluo Nine-tailed Turtle Eye Jewel, which caused the four major sects to treat it with caution;
It is also possible that they are part of this force, but the four major sects found out, and then turned around and wiped out the entire sect without letting you know."
Li Yan looked at the gray round beads, his mind racing, and after thinking for a while, he said these words.
Taoist Gong became more and more shocked the more he listened. If a second-rate sect like his was targeted by a force that even the Four Great Sects had to be cautious of, then how could their Xuanqing Temple resist
Even if the master came back, he would be helpless in the face of such a powerful dark force.
The more he thought about it, the colder he felt on his back, and finally even his heart began to tremble.
Looking at Taoist Gong's constantly changing expression, Li Yan knew what he was thinking and couldn't help but sigh in his heart. The sect was weak and even to save his life, he had to think twice.
He thought about it and spoke again.
"Fellow Daoist Gong, there is no need to worry so much. The above are just a forced connection between several things. It is also Li's speculation. I estimate that there is only a 10% to 20% possibility."
After hearing what Li Yan said, Taoist Gong calmed down and a bitter look appeared on his face.
"Friend Li, in fact, you and I both know that the probability is more than 10% or 20%! And even if it is only 10% or 20%, it is still not low.
It seems that when Master comes back, I have to ask him to tell your sect about this matter in secret, or secretly send this pearl to your sect for identification. With your sect’s strength, I think you will be able to find more problems... "
Having said this, he paused and frowned. He had already decided to persuade his master not to keep this eyeball for the ancestor, as it would be a disaster.
But after Master Gong finished speaking, he immediately shook his head.
“The plan just now is not appropriate. Even if Master sends this pearl to your sect, if that force really exists, it will definitely keep secretly monitoring my Xuanqing Temple. I think Master will not be able to reach your sect and will be ambushed along the way.
Otherwise, we should immediately send a message to your clan in various ways. Since the other party is a secret force, many of their methods cannot be used openly. Among these messages, there must be one that can be passed on to your clan.
Just like if I send out disciples, will every one of them go out to intercept and kill them, or go out to follow them? That would not be acting in secret, but being an open enemy against us.
Then, from today onwards, Xuanqing Temple will tighten up inside and loosen up outside, and open all the formations at all costs, waiting for the Wuliang Sect to send people to come. After they take this thing away, I think this catastrophe will be resolved.
I think with the formation set up by the Yuanying ancestor in the temple, unless the other party is blatant and also sends Yuanying cultivators to fight back, otherwise there is no way to break it. There is no problem holding out until the Wuliang Sect sends people."
Taoist Gong seemed to be talking to himself, but also seemed to be talking to Li Yan.
Then the light in his eyes became brighter and brighter, but when he thought of the spirit stones that were constantly consumed by the formation like flowing water every day, he shuddered in his heart.
Fortunately, over the years, Xuanqing Temple has made a lot of money from the teleportation array alone, and the family assets are quite solid.
After listening to this, Li Yan also felt that it was inappropriate to give this thing away directly. He might have become a fortune-giving boy invisibly. At this time, he secretly praised in his heart.
"Everyone who can be the head of a sect is not easy to deal with. This plan may seem like 'shifting the trouble eastward', but it is also an open conspiracy. Once the Wuliang Sect gets the news, they will not let it go no matter what.
This could be an excellent clue to finding the dark force. It must be that one of the ancestors in the sect came in person and took this thing away. Then Xuanqing Temple would lose its value.
The forces behind Qin Chengyi would either stop interfering or vent all their anger on Xuanqing Temple. However, with the intelligence of Gong Daoren and his master, they would expect these two results.
With advance prevention, we will have a plan for everything. I think they will directly ask the people from the Wuliang Sect for some requests and help, in order to find a more complete plan..."
Thinking of this, Li Yan stopped thinking about it immediately. The follow-up matters would be handled by others, so it was not his concern.
He reached out and handed the gray round bead back to Taoist Gong, saying at the same time.
"Qin Chengyi has been captured, and your master will be back soon! In that case, please ask Fellow Daoist Gong to take me away from here. I have important matters to attend to, and I cannot delay here any longer."
After Taoist Gong took the gray round bead, he put it back on the wooden rack again, but his eyes revealed a solemn look. Then he waved his hand, and a low "buzzing" sound came from all around.
The various colored lights on the ten rows of wooden frames suddenly lit up. It was obvious that he had activated the formation inside the place.
Add to that the sect protection formation, the external formation restrictions of the Taoist Scripture Hall, the layers of small formations inside, and so on. This is much safer than putting it on any individual.
After casting the forbidden seal, he turned to look at Li Yan, with some hesitation in his eyes. Li Yan was a cultivator of the Wuliang Sect, and the benefits of having him here were self-evident.
As he hesitated, he felt a chill coming from one side and directly attacking his whole body, causing him to tremble in his heart. It was because Li Yan saw that he did not answer immediately, and his eyes turned cold.
Taoist Gong was a very worldly-wise man, and he knew that this matter should not be mentioned at all, so he coughed dryly and spoke quickly.
"Oh, of course. I was just thinking that after my master comes back, I will be delighted if I can meet the monks of the upper sect. So I was distracted for a moment. Since Fellow Daoist Li has something to do, how dare I keep him? I will go out and see you off. Please!"