Besides the Sect’s own history, the jade slip also recorded some information related to the outside world.
During the period when the path to Divinity Transformation was open, no new Divinity Transformation cultivators emerged on Yao Guang Island.
The Canglan Sect was on good terms with the Flood Dragon clan of the sea, and they once had a long-term trade relationship for supplies.
The cultivator who previously broke through to Divinity Transformation had drained Yao Guang Island’s Spirit Vein dry during their breakthrough. Consequently, after that Divinity Transformation cultivator left, the source and stability of the Spiritual Qi within the Yao Guang Secret Realm have been unclear.
Li Yuan compared this information with the records from the jade slip he had previously obtained in the secret chamber.
The timeline mentioned in the jade slip of the late-stage Golden Core cultivator surnamed Zhou showed a significant discrepancy with the Canglan Sect’s records. The Zhou cultivator existed long before the events related to the Yao Guang Island Secret Realm.
The secret chamber was a product of the Canglan Sect’s golden age, specifically used by High-Tier cultivators for secluded cultivation to break through to the Nascent Soul realm. The cultivator surnamed Zhou was perhaps the last person to use this chamber.
Li Yuan put away the jade slip, stood up, and looked around.
The secret chamber, the cluster of cave abodes, the Spirit Vein, the dilapidated remains of Arrays. Everything pointed to a single conclusion: this was the site of the Canglan Sect’s core area ruins.
Li Yuan checked the remaining cave abodes but found nothing of note.
The Canglan Sect declined slowly; it wasn’t destroyed overnight. The disciples had ample time to pack their things before leaving.
What was left in the cave abodes was mostly things people couldn’t be bothered to move, or had even intentionally left behind. Jade slips were the most common.
Jade slips for Cultivation Techniques and Magic were small and light, so logically, they should have been the first things taken. In reality, however, most disciples had already memorized their cultivation techniques and had no need to carry the jade slips with them. The truly valuable, one-of-a-kind originals and secret techniques were stored in the Sect’s core area. What remained in the ordinary disciples’ cave abodes were mostly copies of basic techniques and personal cultivation notes.
Li Yuan gathered all the jade slips he could find and piled them in an open space in the center of the stone corridor. There was a considerable number, around forty or fifty in total.
The Spiritual Power imprints on most of the jade slips were too blurry to recognize, and their contents were severely damaged. Li Yuan went through them one by one, picking out the ones that were still readable.
After screening them, twelve remained.
The contents were varied. There were cultivation notes on a basic Water Element Cultivation Technique, a summary of experiences in underwater Artifact Refining, notes on Array deployment, and a few miscellaneous records of the Canglan Sect’s daily affairs.
None of them contained an entry.
Li Yuan put these jade slips away and turned his gaze to a stone door at the end of the corridor.
The stone door was ajar. Carved into the lintel above were three blurry characters. After a moment, Li Yuan vaguely recognized them as the characters for "Scripture Pavilion."
Pushing the stone door open revealed a spacious stone chamber, three times larger than an ordinary cave abode.
The four walls of the chamber were honeycombed with countless small compartments, each perfectly sized to hold a jade slip. Most were empty, with only a few shattered fragments of jade slips remaining in a handful of corners.
Li Yuan walked into the stone chamber and spread his Divine Sense throughout the area.
His Tier Three Minor Achievement in the Array Dao, combined with the penetrating effect of his Illusion-Breaking Spirit Eyes, made his Divine Sense probe incredibly precise. The chamber’s walls, floor, and ceiling—every inch was scanned meticulously.
On the southeastern wall of the chamber, Li Yuan’s Divine Sense caught a trace of an extremely faint Spiritual Power fluctuation.
The fluctuation came from within the wall, about half a foot deep.
Li Yuan walked to the wall and placed his right hand on its surface. His Spiritual Power seeped into the rock, following the path marked by his Divine Sense, until it touched a tiny hollow space.
’A hidden compartment.’
With a light slash of Void-Rending Slash, the surface of the rock wall was neatly cut away. A palm-sized recess was revealed, and nestled quietly inside was a jade slip.
The material of this jade slip was different from the others. It was a deep blue and covered by an extremely dense Spiritual Power seal. Although the seal had weakened to a very low level, it was still active, protecting the information within the jade slip from erosion.
As Li Yuan took out the jade slip, his perception triggered within a three-foot radius.
Blue light.
Li Yuan didn’t rush to inspect it. He put the jade slip away and continued searching the rest of the Scripture Pavilion.
After another half a day, Li Yuan had turned the entire Scripture Pavilion upside down. The compartments in the walls were checked one by one, and the rock of the floor and ceiling were carefully scanned with his Divine Sense. About two feet beneath the floor, he found another hidden compartment, which also contained a jade slip.
This one had no entry.
After leaving the Scripture Pavilion, Li Yuan returned along the stone corridor to the cluster of cave abodes and searched a few of the caves he hadn’t examined thoroughly before.
In a cave that seemed to be in better condition, he found a third hidden compartment in the rock beneath the stone bed. Inside the compartment was a jade slip and a sealed jade vial. The vial was shattered and its contents had long since dissipated, leaving only a layer of dried medicinal residue.
The jade slip was well-preserved, but had no entry.
With that, the search was basically complete.
Li Yuan went to the treasury’s location next. The treasury’s main doors were wide open, and the inside was completely empty—even the shelves had been dismantled and taken away.
Li Yuan returned to the secret chamber, placed the three jade slips before him, and began to examine them one by one.
The first was the deep blue jade slip from the hidden compartment in the Scripture Pavilion.
He sent his Divine Sense inside.
The seal slowly dissolved at the touch of his Spiritual Power, and the contents emerged.
It was a Tier Three Skill called the Tide Array Heart Scripture.
Li Yuan’s gaze lingered on the contents for a moment.
This was no ordinary Cultivation Technique, nor was it an ordinary Array. It was an Array Skill that integrated Arrays with cultivation.
A Cultivator would use their own meridians to simulate an Array’s Spiritual Power circuits, internalizing the Array’s operation as part of their cultivation. Once they reached a certain level of mastery, their body itself would become a living Array, capable of directly activating Array effects using their own Spiritual Power without the need for external materials.