Chapter 86: The Pearl of the Abyss

Ling Tian sat in the back seat, gripping the bottle that held the Dark Pearl. His eyes were half closed, as if he were simply resting with them shut, but in truth his spiritual sense had already entered the jade slip and was searching for any mention of the Dark Pearl.

The contents recorded within the jade slip were vast and profound, encompassing countless precious treasures of heaven and earth as well as all manner of strange phenomena. For that reason, Ling Tian believed there might be some record of the Dark Pearl hidden there.

After more than ten minutes of searching, he had combed through everything in the jade slip concerning extraordinary creatures and oddities of heaven and earth, yet found not the slightest trace of the Dark Pearl.

When he had nothing better to do during tedious missions, Ling Tian liked to read strange and curious books. But he had discovered that many things contained in the jade slip were utterly different from the creatures and wonders described in books such as the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Great Wilderness Classic.

Only a small portion overlapped; the overwhelming majority were entirely different.

For instance, the jade slip did contain a record of the crowned snake king, which resembled certain myths and legends Ling Tian had once read. Yet there was nothing at all about the Dark Pearl.

That gave Ling Tian a terrifying thought: could the person who made this jade slip have not been from Earth? Could they have come from another world?

Or perhaps they had once been a cultivator on Earth, but for some reason many of the records left behind had vanished?

Countless questions rose in Ling Tian’s mind, but none could be answered. It seemed that if he wanted the truth, he would have to uncover it slowly on his own.

Withdrawing his spiritual sense, Ling Tian opened his eyes and found Mu Qingcheng gazing at him with evident curiosity, her bright and lively eyes full of interest.

“Were you asleep just now?” Mu Qingcheng asked.

“Just dozed off for a moment. Are we almost there?” Ling Tian deliberately changed the subject. He knew Mu Qingcheng had many questions for him. After all, lately he had shown her many miraculous sides of himself. For example, just now in the game of go, he had made a single decisive move and shattered a deadlock that had stood unbroken for ten years.

One had to know that Old Master Mu, who was not interested in managing the family business, possessed profound mastery in go and had a fondness for traditional Chinese metaphysics.

Mu Qingcheng realized that the more she saw of Ling Tian, the less she understood him. At first she had thought he was nothing more than a violent man, but as their contact deepened, especially after today, she knew her earlier judgment had been wrong. Ling Tian not only possessed formidable martial strength, but also great wisdom.

Being with such a man did not seem like a disadvantage at all.

Mu Qingcheng thought this quietly to herself.

Why would I even think such a thing? How shameful!

Her cheeks burned. Embarrassed, she covered her face and turned to look out the window, trying her best to stop her wandering thoughts. At that moment, even she did not realize that she had already begun to rely on Ling Tian. What started as curiosity was slowly becoming affection.

The frost around Mu Qingcheng’s heart was slowly melting...

“Zhang Ding, take Miss Mu to Elegant City Group first,” Ling Tian said. He was eager to study the Dark Pearl and see whether fire essence could be refined from it. If it could, he would be able to transform his own pill fire, and there might even be a heavenly flame hidden within.

For cultivators, heavenly flames were exceedingly important. If one relied only on pill fire, the results in alchemy, artifact forging, and talisman crafting would be far inferior to those achieved with a heavenly flame.

“You can just call me Qingcheng,” Mu Qingcheng said, feeling somewhat uncomfortable at being addressed as Miss Mu.

“Then take Qingcheng to Elegant City Group first,” Ling Tian corrected himself at once. To this point, he did indeed have some fond feelings toward Mu Qingcheng. Though she appeared cold and unapproachable on the surface, once he saw the difficult side of her life, he felt a pang of sympathy and could not help wanting to protect her.

Perhaps it was a sense of responsibility, or perhaps something else entirely...

Zhang Ding replied cheerfully, “All right, I’ll take the boss’s wife home first.”

At that address, Mu Qingcheng’s cheeks turned warm. It felt unexpectedly pleasant. She secretly turned her head to steal a glance at Ling Tian’s expression, and when she saw how calm he looked, she felt a little sour and thought indignantly, Hmph! You jerk, Ling Tian. Am I really that lacking in charm?

After dropping Mu Qingcheng off at Elegant City Group, Zhang Ding drove to the apartment Ling Tian rented. After setting Ling Tian down, he turned back and headed for the welfare home.

Ling Tian had not returned for several days, and the spirit gathering formation in the courtyard had already accumulated a great deal of spiritual energy. The flowers and plants around the formation were growing with astonishing vigor, as though injected with some powerful stimulant, flourishing wildly under the nourishment of spiritual energy.

In just a few days, the originally short weeds and wildflowers had grown over a foot tall, exuding a strong life force.

Ling Tian briefly cleared away the weeds, then walked to the center of the formation and sat down cross-legged.

Although the spiritual energy here was relatively abundant, compared with the blessed cultivation lands recorded in the jade slip, it was like heaven and earth. There was simply no comparison. That only deepened Ling Tian’s longing. If he could find a true cultivation sanctuary, then with his aptitude, his strength would soar at an astonishing rate.

Ling Tian did not immediately absorb the spiritual energy. Instead, he urged his spiritual sense to gather it into a ball the size of a soccer ball, letting it hover above his head. Then he took out two healing talismans and placed them before him.

This was the most complete preparation he could currently manage.

Everything was ready. Ling Tian drew a deep breath, took from his chest the small bottle containing the Dark Pearl, opened the lid, and removed the crimson pearl within. It was only the size of a pearl, but its entire body was a blazing red.

Holding it in his palm, Ling Tian’s spiritual sense felt a fierce, scorching presence, yet his palm itself showed no unusual reaction.

He activated his true qi and formed a protective layer around his body, then once again used his spiritual sense to examine the Dark Pearl. The moment his spiritual sense touched it, he felt a powerful surge of energy erupt from within, forcing his perception back outside.

Ling Tian was astonished.

What kind of force could possibly block spiritual sense?

He tested it three times in succession. In the end, pouring out all his strength, his spiritual sense finally broke through the Dark Pearl’s defenses and entered its interior. But the instant it went in, Ling Tian felt an unimaginable heat. In the next moment, the spiritual sense that had penetrated the pearl was devoured completely by that scorching aura.

Instead of being alarmed, Ling Tian was delighted.

This meant there truly was a heavenly flame inside the Dark Pearl, or at the very least, fire essence.

“This Dark Pearl is only an outer shell,” Ling Tian said, unable to contain his excitement.

From the earlier probing, he could confirm that this Dark Pearl was like a silkworm cocoon: the outside was merely a shell, while within lay a whole hidden world, with its true core concealed inside. The fact that it could emit such searing heat and even devour flame was proof enough that it was absolutely not merely the essence of the Dark Flame Beast, as Old Master Mu had said.

A bold guess began to form in Ling Tian’s heart...