Moments later, Yuan Ming opened his eyes and swept his spiritual consciousness over his body, nodding slightly in satisfaction.

After a period of nurturing with mana, the runes on the golden inner armor had stabilized somewhat. He was now reassured, and planned to slowly nurture it daily once he returned to his residence.

He then took out Sha Hao’s storage ring and performed a gesture.

A flash of white light on the ground revealed a pile of items, mostly spirit stones, stacked about a meter high.

Besides the spirit stones, there were several magical artifacts, three jade boxes, a large gourd taller than a man, two jade bottles, and two jade slips, one grey and one white.

Yuan Ming first counted the spirit stones, finding nearly a hundred thousand, which brought him great joy.

Although he had been earning thousands of spirit stones monthly from his spiritual incense shop in Xiaohu City, most of it was spent on cultivation resources. He had been continuously consuming elixirs and spiritual incense to reach his current level of cultivation, but had still not broken through to the middle stage.

This was partly due to his innate talent and partly because he lacked the financial means to purchase better elixirs. If he could really afford to cultivate without restraint, he believed his progress would be much faster, but the required spirit stones would more than double.

For instance, at the Tianxiang Auction, he had seen a spirit-gathering formation that could greatly enhance cultivation efficiency. The starting bid was ten thousand spirit stones, and it eventually sold for seventeen thousand. Each activation reportedly consumed several mid-grade spirit stones, making it an extreme luxury that he had previously shied away from.

Moreover, although he had devoted most of his energy to cultivation, he still needed to take time to make incense in exchange for spirit stones, preventing him from truly secluding himself for cultivation.

This time, in order to deal with Sha Hao, he had nearly spent all his spirit stones, and feared that he wouldn’t be able to return to his previous cultivation conditions for a while. Now, with this large sum of spirit stones, he could finally afford a proper seclusion.

Yuan Ming gleefully stored the spirit stones and turned his attention to the magical artifacts.

There were nine artifacts in total, five of which were command flags that seemed to belong to the same formation.

The flags were red, yellow, blue, green, and gold, all identical in size and shape. The yellow flag he had used to open the cave dwelling’s door was among them.

From Sha Hao’s memories, he knew these five flags controlled the formation around the cave dwelling.

The formation was called the “Five Elements Illusionary Formation,” far more intricate than the Thousand Mechanism Water Rope Formation or the Bronze Thunder Pattern Formation.

It was said that the Five Elements Illusionary Formation was not only an illusion formation but also contained complex principles of the Five Elements. Due to its ingenious design, even ordinary cultivators could activate its illusionary restrictions, trapping intruders within. It was difficult for a typical Foundation Establishment cultivator to escape, earning it the nickname “Minor Immortal Trapping Formation.”

If one mastered certain Five Elements techniques, they could easily control the formation to produce corresponding elemental changes, enhancing the synergy between illusions and the Five Elements, shifting between reality and illusion, and greatly increasing its power.

With this thought, Yuan Ming summoned the command flags and tried to activate the formation.

Soon, the area around the cave dwelling was bathed in red, yellow, blue, green, and gold lights, which then transformed into the illusory forms of flames, flowing water, giant trees, rocks, and golden blades. These images flickered and shifted, sometimes solidifying into real objects, though they appeared somewhat chaotic and disordered.

Having little experience with formations, Yuan Ming was clumsy at first, but after repeated practice, he began to grasp the basics.

Since his cultivation of the Nine Elements Formula was among the best of the wood attribute techniques, he also mastered several wood attribute changes within the Five Elements.

However, to truly master these wood attribute changes for combat or to comprehend other elemental changes would require more time for reflection and practice.

The Five Elements Illusionary Formation was powerful but also consumed a great deal of resources. Each setup could cost over a thousand spirit stones, far beyond what an ordinary cultivator could afford.

Yuan Ming stored the command flags and examined the remaining four artifacts: a black short sword, a blue flying boat, a white round bead, and a blue round mirror.

He was familiar with the black short sword and the blue flying boat; the former was a high-grade magical artifact with formidable attack power, while the latter was a common flying artifact.

The white round bead, named the “Soul Locking Bead,” was a high-grade soul cultivator artifact capable of locking onto someone’s soul aura for long-distance tracking.

As long as the target was within a hundred miles, the Soul Locking Bead could precisely sense their location. During their previous encounter, Sha Hao had used this artifact to firmly lock onto Yuan Ming’s position, nearly driving him into a desperate situation.

The Soul Locking Bead was not only capable of long-distance tracking but also extremely covert; even Nascent Soul stage cultivators might not detect it.

The only drawback was its time limitation; each lock could only last for three days, after which the soul aura within the bead would dissipate, requiring a new lock.

The blue round mirror, known as the “Water Viewing Mirror,” was a mid-grade water attribute magical artifact with a certain level of detection ability. In areas rich in water vapor, it could probe hundreds of feet around.

However, without water nearby, the Water Viewing Mirror’s effectiveness would be greatly reduced, perhaps even inferior to ordinary artifacts.

Sha Hao had ingeniously combined the Water Viewing Mirror with the Five Elements Illusionary Formation, allowing him to probe within three hundred feet around the formation with the mirror.

Both artifacts were valuable and could be highly effective if used properly.

Yuan Ming stored the artifacts and opened the three jade boxes, which contained a piece of shiny black metal, a piece of emerald-green crystal, and a yellowish-brown round bead.

He recognized these items as Black Profound Iron, Green Water Amber, and Earth Soul Bead, all precious materials for crafting top-grade magical artifacts, though he had no immediate use for them.

Next, he checked the large gourd and found it filled with nearly a thousand white, jade-like elixirs.

He took out one elixir, feeling a cool sensation in his palm like holding a snowball, and the rich medicinal fragrance indicated it was a spirit-nourishing elixir, superior to what he was currently consuming.

“Could this be the Snow Essence Pill?”

The Snow Essence Pill was one of the best spirit-nourishing elixirs for the Foundation Establishment stage, but it was prohibitively expensive. Yuan Ming could not afford to use it long-term, yet Sha Hao had so many.

Yuan Ming was secretly delighted; with so many Snow Essence Pills and the large sum of spirit stones he had acquired, he wouldn’t have to worry about elixirs for a long time. These pills would be enough to support his cultivation to the late Foundation Establishment stage.

The other two jade bottles contained detoxifying and healing elixirs, both of high quality.

Finally, Yuan Ming picked up the two jade slips for inspection. The grey slip contained a technique called “Mysterious Jade Art” and a soul cultivation technique called “Heart Cleansing Formula.”

Already possessing many techniques, he paid little attention to the “Mysterious Jade Art,” focusing instead on the “Heart Cleansing Formula.”

This was his first encounter with a soul cultivation technique other than the “Death Moon Method,” and he was quite curious. He studied it carefully and quickly finished.

The “Heart Cleansing Formula” was a refined soul cultivation technique, but it still paled in comparison to the “Death Moon Method.” However, the “Heart Cleansing Formula” had unique aspects in purifying the mind and eliminating emotional distractions.

According to the slip, at advanced levels, this technique could sever all emotions and desires, even achieving the “Four No’s” state of “no heart,” “no knowledge,” “no consciousness,” and “no pain.”

“What a sinister technique,” Yuan Ming couldn’t help but remark. If one truly cultivated to that extent, their mental state would indeed be unshakable, but they would likely become a being devoid of thought, likely a side effect of the “Heart Cleansing Formula.”

Fortunately, his “Death Moon Method” did not have such a cost.

Yuan Ming then picked up the white jade slip and immersed his spiritual consciousness into it.

Suddenly, his expression turned to one of surprise; the white jade slip actually absorbed his spiritual consciousness, but quickly released it again.

“What’s going on?” Yuan Ming was astonished and once again sent his spiritual consciousness into the white jade slip.

This time there were no surprises, and his spiritual consciousness smoothly entered the slip.

He paused for a moment, setting aside the earlier anomaly, and focused on the contents of the slip.

The white jade slip contained the Grand Elder’s insights into soul cultivation, mostly related to the “Heart Cleansing Formula,” and was quite valuable for reference.

At the end of the slip, there were several secret soul cultivation techniques that caught his eye.

The one that interested Yuan Ming the most was a soul division technique, a soul-shaking secret technique, and a dream butterfly illusion technique.

The soul division technique allowed the division of one’s soul form, maintaining the ability of the soul cultivation illusion techniques, albeit weakened.

The Grand Elder had used this technique during the massacre at Bi Luo Cave, splitting his blood bats into hundreds, nearly reversing the entire battle.

However, using this technique consumed a great deal of soul power, and carelessness could lead to soul exhaustion, making it quite dangerous.

The soul-shaking secret technique, as the name suggested, was a technique that could shake the soul, specifically targeting illusions, allowing one to free themselves from illusory realms.

Yuan Ming realized why Sha Hao had easily escaped his illusions during the battle in the Yunluo Mountains.

After mastering and becoming proficient with this secret technique, he would no longer need to use soul collision to escape illusions in the future.

As for the dream butterfly illusion technique, it was a powerful illusion technique that could ensnare someone in an illusion without their knowledge, unable to escape, and even use the illusion to consume the enemy’s soul power, harming them invisibly.

This technique was on a different level from the illusions Yuan Ming had used before, and what Sha Hao had cast on him was this very technique.

The dream butterfly illusion technique was profound and mysterious, divided into four realms: Mirror Flower, Mirage, Dream Illusion, and Void Emptiness, and was very difficult to cultivate.

Sha Hao had only cultivated to the first realm, Mirror Flower, which was just the beginning. However, his soul form was a blood bat, capable of spitting out blood-colored soul waves with strong penetration power. During the previous battle, this allowed him to be unaffected by the white fog and easily infiltrate deep into the soul, making his illusions doubly effective.

Sha Hao had combined the dream butterfly illusion technique with his blood bat soul waves, making it exceptionally powerful. From the Southern Border to the Central Plains, no low-level cultivator could escape his illusions. If not for Yuan Ming’s quick thinking to use the soul collision secret technique to save himself, he would likely have faced defeat today.