Chapter 675: Setting the Trap

He was mentally prepared to bear the consequences if he was scammed. As for the man in blue, he probably would have vanished long ago. "By the way, Brother Nine, do you have any news about Great-Uncle Nine or Seventh Uncle?"

Wang Qiuming shook his head and said, "No, the family head didn't mention anything. With 100,000 spirit stones suddenly missing, we probably don't have enough to bid for Core Formation spiritual items. We'll need to mortgage some assets."

"No problem. There's a batch of second-tier puppet beasts in the storeroom, plus the inventory from the pill shop. We can gather 100,000 spirit stones from that. However, there won't be many Core Formation spiritual items for sale, and even with enough spirit stones, we might not be able to acquire one."

Wang Qiuming sighed softly and said, "We'll do our best and leave the rest to fate. Hopefully, we can secure one."

"Brother Nine, you've had a long journey. Get some good rest; the auction is still half a month away."

Wang Qiuming nodded in agreement.

Lin Zhong, an eighth-level Foundation Establishment disciple of Huanglong Island, came from a lineage of cultivators on the island for three generations. He and several fellow disciples formed a monster hunting team to hunt demon beasts.

Lin Zhong was the powerful leader of the hunting team.

One day, as usual, they were hunting demon beasts on a certain desolate island.

A light-blue barrier enveloped a group of scarlet sea lizards. The sea lizards spat scarlet flames that struck the light-blue barrier, producing muffled sizzling sounds.

Lin Zhong's hunting team consisted of twelve powerful Foundation Establishment cultivators.

They each cast spells onto the formation disk, and a large amount of white cold air emerged within the barrier, slowing down the scarlet sea lizards.

As time passed, most of the scarlet lizards were gradually frozen into ice sculptures.

If nothing unexpected happened, this group of sea lizards would all perish within the formation.

From high above, an extremely bizarre screeching sound echoed, and dozens of blood-red figures appeared in the sky, rapidly diving down.

The blood-red figures were incredibly fast, and Lin Zhong and the others soon clearly saw their true forms.

They were a flock of blood-colored giant eagles with golden eyes.

"Oh no, it's Golden-Eyed Blood Eagles!"

Golden-Eyed Blood Eagles are highly sensitive to blood scent, fly extremely fast, know how to use Blood Shield Art, and frequently attack cultivators.

This flock of Golden-Eyed Blood Eagles numbered over fifty, with twenty second-tier ones and the rest being first-tier.

Before they even got close, they flapped their wings, releasing a vast expanse of blood-red wind blades that rained down upon Lin Zhong and the others.

Lin Zhong and his team members hastily cast defensive spells upon themselves and activated their magic tools to attack the Golden-Eyed Blood Eagles.

A series of deafening roars erupted, and spiritual light from spells flickered incessantly.

The sheer number of Golden-Eyed Blood Eagles was overwhelming, and they were struggling.

In less than five breaths, one Foundation Establishment cultivator's protective spiritual shield shattered, and he was torn to shreds by countless blood-red wind blades.

"Burrow underground, quickly!"

Lin Zhong unleashed two red-glowing talismans, which transformed into two massive scarlet fire clouds, hundreds of feet wide, striking the Golden-Eyed Blood Eagles.

Boom!

A deafening roar echoed, and a large expanse of scarlet flames engulfed over a dozen Golden-Eyed Blood Eagles, sending them plummeting from the sky.

Seizing this opportunity, Lin Zhong and the other eleven cultivators burrowed underground and vanished.

Wrapped in a yellow barrier, the eleven Huanglong Island cultivators rapidly descended.

After descending dozens of feet, they suddenly saw a faint yellow glow.

They moved closer and found it was a light-yellow formation disk.

"This is a formation disk. It looks like the formation is still active. Is there an ancient cultivator's abode here?"

They had passed by this desolate island many times without noticing anything unusual.

The formation they had just set up was ice-attributed, but this was an earth-attributed formation disk, its spiritual light flickering, clearly still operational.

After about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, they estimated that the Golden-Eyed Blood Eagles had left, so they returned to the surface.

Without a cultivator controlling the formation, the sea lizards had broken through and escaped. On the beach were the bodies of over a dozen Golden-Eyed Blood Eagles and also over a dozen sea lizards, indicating a fierce battle between them.

"Everyone spread out and see if you can find other formation disks. There might be an ancient cultivator's abode here."

The eleven Foundation Establishment cultivators dispersed and burrowed underground.

A short while later, the eleven returned to the surface one by one. Some came back empty-handed, while two held yellow formation disks.

"There must be an ancient cultivator's abode on this island. The formation disks we found belong to the outermost formation. Let's search towards the center of the island."

Lin Zhong analyzed that it was impossible for there not to be an ancient cultivator's abode, given that they had found more than a dozen second-tier formation disks.

If high-level cultivators were residing here, they would have already appeared to stop them.

Half an hour later, they discovered restriction fluctuations within a valley at the center of the island.

A faint yellow light enveloped an uneven stone wall.

"Let's attack the formation together! This is our destiny!"

Lin Zhong instructed, activating a yellow seal that instantly expanded and slammed into the stone wall enveloped in yellow light.

The other ten Foundation Establishment cultivators also didn't stand idle, activating their magic tools to attack the yellow stone wall.

After a series of tremendous roars, the yellow light vanished, and a cave entrance about ten feet wide appeared before them.

Lin Zhong sent a puppet beast ahead, and they followed behind.

To their great relief, there were no attacking restrictions.

After walking over a hundred feet, a faint yellow barrier appeared before them.

It took the eleven Foundation Establishment cultivators three days and three nights of continuous attack to break through the yellow barrier.

Behind the yellow barrier was a simple stone chamber several dozen feet in size.

In the center of the stone chamber lay a human skeleton, with a yellow storage bag at its waist.

Lin Zhong sent the puppet beast ahead to carefully inspect, but it found no abnormalities.

They took the storage bag and emptied its contents.

Inside were four magic treasures, seventy to eighty thousand spirit stones, a pile of formation materials, and dozens of jade slips.

They divided the treasures and began examining the contents of the jade slips.

"Nine Nether Sect! Heavenly-grade cultivation method, 'Nine Nether Heavenly Illusion Scripture'!"

Lin Zhong was extremely excited. He cultivated a profound-grade method, and this "Nine Nether Heavenly Illusion Scripture" was an illusion-type cultivation method. Although it was only the upper half, it was sufficient for cultivation up to the Nascent Soul stage.

Even Huanglong Island did not possess a Heavenly-grade cultivation method. Submitting this method would undoubtedly be a great contribution.

After examining the contents of all the jade slips, they discovered that the cave's owner was a third-tier formation master named Ye Lin. This person claimed to be from the Nine Nether Sect in the Northern Frontier. His father had failed in the struggle for the sect leader position and was severely wounded by the current sect leader.

Ye Lin fled to the Eastern Desolation, but the Nine Nether Sect pursued him there. Left with no choice, Ye Lin escaped to the South Sea, where he unexpectedly encountered an evil cultivator and was gravely injured. He left behind his knowledge, hoping that a fated person would inherit his legacy and avenge him.

Ye Lin specifically warned against cultivating the "Nine Nether Heavenly Illusion Scripture" and advised caution regarding the Nine Nether Sect of the Northern Frontier.

"A Heavenly-grade cultivation method, Senior Brother Lin! Submitting this method will definitely be a great contribution."

Lin Zhong nodded. His ancestors had been cultivators on Huanglong Island for three generations, so he felt a strong sense of belonging to the sect. Upon discovering a Heavenly-grade cultivation method, it was natural for him to submit it to the sect.

After leaving the cave, Lin Zhong released a yellow flying boat and carried everyone away.

About the time it takes to brew a cup of tea later, over a dozen giant blue seashells surfaced. Inside them stood more than a dozen Wang family cultivators, led by Wang Tianqi.

She had spent five years investigating Huanglong Island disciples, finally selecting Lin Zhong's monster hunting team as her target.

"Retreat! Leave the Coral Sea."

Wang Tianqi released a blue flying boat, carrying all her clansmen, and flew towards the sky, disappearing into the horizon.