The jade disc slotted seamlessly into the circular aperture, becoming the pupil of the three-legged golden crow. At that moment, the stone carving—over a dozen meters tall—trembled violently, as if endowed with a soul, brought to life, or awoken from a deep slumber.
Under everyone's expectant gazes, a clear light gradually sparked within the crow's eye. It grew denser and more intense by degrees until it turned into a dazzling gem, illuminating the pitch-black floor of the pit as bright as day.
Next, the piercing, luminous light fully receded, condensing inside the pupil of the three-legged golden crow.
A second later, a beam of light shot from the crow's pupil, projecting onto the rock wall to form a six-meter-tall gate of light.
It was like a projector casting light onto a screen.
"The gate to Takamagahara!" Kobe Ichiro's breathing abruptly turned ragged. His calm, solemn face broke into excitement and joy.
Behind him, the vice leaders struggled just as much to contain their exhilaration.
The Fangshi, Onodera Yosuke, spoke up:
"Everyone, please don't rush. Let me send a robot in first to scout."
With that, he retrieved a waist-high mechanical box from his inventory. Amid the soft hiss of releasing hydraulics, the box's lid popped open, and two miniature drones flew out, hovering midair with the relentless hum of their propellers.
"These are scouts I built. They function without needing any signal and are equipped with high-intensity illumination systems and night vision."
Onodera Yosuke introduced his creations with evident pride, put on high-tech glasses, and piloted the small drones toward the gate of light.
*Aside from lacking in direct combat, a Fangshi's utility far surpasses other classes—they're practically the ultimate support class, followed by Musicians...* Watching the two miniature drones pass through the portal, Zhang Yuanqing couldn't help but think of that protagonist from the Xiahou family.
After the Battle of Yashan instance concluded, he had sent an invitation to join his guild to Protagonist Xiahou, but had been rejected.
His pride as a protagonist forbade him from tolerating being someone else's underling.
Zhang Yuanqing quietly activated his Star Eyes to examine everyone's physiognomy, seeing no omen of bloody disaster.
He then drew the Ghost Mirror from his backpack and examined his own reflection. His features looked normal.
Inside his hiking backpack were various items: the Ghost Mirror, Yin-Yang Robe, Little Pumpkin, Skateboard Shoes, and Gale Walker Gloves.
If the Thousand Cranes Group's executives went back on their word, he would attempt to wipe them all out.
Confirming that his countenance showed nothing amiss, he put away the Ghost Mirror and waited with the others for the reconnaissance results. Several minutes later, Onodera Yosuke, wearing his glasses, suddenly murmured:
"Incredible... Simply incredible..."
The impatient Furugori Magatsu asked hurriedly, "What did you see? Is it dangerous inside?"
Taking off his glasses, lingering shock written across his face, Onodera Yosuke said:
"Leader, no danger has been found so far. We can enter..."
He then added with deep emotion, "So Takamagahara was a Spirit Realm all along."
*Takamagahara is a Spirit Realm? What kind of nonsense is that? If Takamagahara were a Spirit Realm, we wouldn't be able to enter at all without a quest.* Zhang Yuanqing secretly frowned.
Furugori Magatsu was the first who couldn't hold back. Striding toward the gate of light, he charged inside.
Seeing this, Kobe Ichiro led the executives right behind him.
Once the executives had passed through, Kobe Ichiro halted at the entrance, turned back, and said:
"Yuanshi-kun, after you!"
*Afraid I might take this chance to remove the jade disc and trap them inside to death? Quite cautious.* With a Star Escape, Zhang Yuanqing arrived in front of the gate of light and stepped through of his own accord.
The next second, he entered a pitch-black world. The only sources of light were the two small drones.
*Whoosh!*
A fireball over five meters in diameter rose, slowly drifting high into the air and casting leaping flames and scorching heat.
"Holy shit, it really is a Spirit Realm..."
Holding aloft the fireball, Furugori Magatsu stared at the world before him, muttering to himself.
By the firelight, the group could also see the distant scenery. At that moment, they stood at the foot of a mountain, perched upon mottled, cracked stone stairs that stretched toward the peak and reached beyond the edge of their vision.
The illumination of the fireball was limited; anything beyond a hundred meters was obscured in darkness.
Yet one thing was certain: this was not Mount Fuji, but an independent small world, just like a Spirit Realm instance.
*Wait, that's not right. I remember the old crone saying that ancient spirit realms were grotto-heavens and blessed lands in the traditional sense—today's scenic and historic sites—which is an entirely different concept from a Spirit Realm instance...* Zhang Yuanqing frowned.
Yet Takamagahara before him clearly resembled a Spirit Realm instance far more than a so-called grotto-heaven or blessed land, except that it lacked a "Spirit Realm quest."
Pondering for a few seconds, he thought of a possibility: in the distant past—such as the mythological era or the pre-Qin period—practitioners possessed the power to split heaven and earth and carve out new realms.
Whereas in the Song Dynasty when the old crone lived, Dominators were already the ceiling, so they did not possess such abilities.
If this speculation held true, then instances were not unique to the Spirit Realm. Rather, once a certain status or rank was attained, any class could create and achieve them.
This also explained why teleportation jade talismans could grant access to certain low-level instances.
Because in essence, an instance was a kind of spell or ability, rather than a spectacle exclusive to the Spirit Realm.
*I just don't know whether this place was created by Xu Fu or if it already existed in the age of myth. Come to think of it, why wasn't this place absorbed into the Spirit Realm?* As Zhang Yuanqing pondered, a sharp, piercing whistle rang out.
A streak of fire shot swiftly into the sky, suddenly expanding high in the deep darkness to become a miniature sun, showering this world with light.
Furugori Magatsu promptly dispersed his fireball to conserve spiritual energy.
Light bathed the entire world, allowing everyone to finally see both near and distant scenes clearly.
This was a solitary mountain towering into the clouds, far more majestic than Mount Fuji.
Below the mountain lay endless wilderness dotted with dry riverbeds and desiccated lake basins, devoid of grass or trees—a vista of utter deathly stillness.
There was likewise no vegetation on the mountain. Clustered architecture could be seen around the mountainside, growing sparser the higher up it went.
The rigid, taciturn Ryuzaki Hajime spoke up:
"This is a dead world. Judging by the remaining traces, it was once fit for habitation. In legends, the gods dwelt in Takamagahara and only permitted mortals to enter when receiving sacrifices."
*The "gods" probably refers to Xu Fu, the Spirit Realm walkers who accompanied him, and the virgin boys and girls?* Zhang Yuanqing guessed inwardly.
Asano Ryo asked, "Sensei, why did Takamagahara perish?"
Ryuzaki Hajime said, "Evidently, it is related to the depletion of spiritual energy."
Zhang Yuanqing urged, "Let's head up the mountain and see what treasures your Great Deity Amaterasu left behind here."
Under the illumination of the slowly descending "sun," the group climbed the stairs. With the physique and speed of Saints, it took them merely ten minutes to reach the mountainside and stop outside the complex of buildings.
These buildings had brick-and-timber structures: walls built of adobe bricks, roofs framed with timber, and surfaced with black tiles.
Ravaged by the passage of time, the beams had rotted and the roofs were in tatters. Only the adobe walls still stood, yet they were reduced to crumbling ruins, with almost none preserved intact.
After a brief exploration, the group continued climbing along the stone stairs. The higher they went, the more exquisite the buildings became.
Near the summit, palatial pavilions came into view, featuring bluestone foundations, fired-brick walls, soaring upturned eaves, and stacked bracket sets—the architectural style of royal palaces from the Qin Dynasty.
There were not many such buildings, only a dozen or so in total; half had collapsed, half were badly damaged, and only one or two remained well preserved.
The utensils and fixtures inside the pavilions had long succumbed to severe decay over the passage of time; they found nothing of value here either.
"There are no remains. From the utensils left in the ruins, we can deduce that the gods who lived here migrated away," Ryuzaki Hajime said, furrowing his brows. "Hopefully, we will find something at the summit."
The group crossed through the complex and made for the summit. Having searched for so long without finding anything of value, the Thousand Cranes Group executives were growing somewhat anxious.
Zhang Yuanqing could have actually traveled via Star Escape, but so as not to provoke or unsettle the Thousand Cranes Group executives, he chose to walk with them.
Finally, half an hour later, they reached the mountaintop.
This place was already outside the range of the flare's illumination; that gradually dimming miniature sun was already below their feet.
Blessed with night vision, Zhang Yuanqing was the first to see the scene at the summit, and he froze in his tracks.
*Whew—*
A sharp whistle broke through the air as Onodera Kichita fired a second flare. As intense light soared into the sky, the Thousand Cranes Group executives also caught sight of the scene before them.
Just like Zhang Yuanqing, they stood petrified.
At the mountaintop stood a bronze tree of unfathomable height. Its massive trunk was like a city wall stretching beyond sight, engraved with intricate patterns.
It had ten branches in all, every single one unimaginably massive.
Looking directly at this bronze tree, a boundless, desolate grandeur welled up within them, as if they had arrived at the dwelling of a deity.
Zhang Yuanqing gauged it with his eyes: if this bronze tree were viewed as an ordinary tree, then humans would be ants—that was roughly the proportion.
"Heavens... what a wondrous creation. This is beyond human craftsmanship. Compared to this, the surviving ancient structures of human civilization are simply not worth mentioning," muttered Onodera, as a Fangshi.
"Is this the creation of the Great Deity Amaterasu, or..." Kobe Ichiro paused for a moment before his voice fell low, "...what the First Emperor desired?"
Onodera shook his head. "I don't know. My heart is completely overwhelmed by it."
While the two were talking, Zhang Yuanqing had already shifted his gaze from the bronze tree. He spotted a figure vaguely seated cross-legged at the base of the tree. The distance was too great; even with his night vision, he could not make it out clearly.
"There's someone under the tree," he said.
When the group reached the base of the tree, the first thing they saw was a dried-up deep pool. The bottom was pitch-black and filled with jagged, craggy rocks, appearing bottomless.
Beside the pool sat a cross-legged skeleton. Its robes were rotted away and covered in dust, and a roll of bamboo slips lay across its knees.
In front of the skeleton lay three items: a two-foot-long bronze sword, its blade covered in verdigris and engraved with patterns; a brass mirror without a handle, its reflective surface coated in a layer of dust; and the final item was a curved magatama, with an eight-foot-long tassel coiled around it.
Zhang Yuanqing heard ragged breathing coming from the Thousand Cranes Group executives.
"They really are here! The legendary Three Sacred Treasures are truly here!" Kobe Ichiro was ecstatic. Hurrying forward, he picked up the bronze sword.
Meanwhile, Furugori Magatsu and Watanabe Kichita picked up the brass mirror and the magatama, respectively.
Zhang Yuanqing and Onodera both reached out simultaneously toward the bamboo slips on the skeleton's lap.
"I'm a Scholar. Leave the bamboo slips to me to inspect," Onodera said.
Zhang Yuanqing gave it some thought and withdrew his hand.
The latter nodded in thanks, cautiously picked up the bamboo slips, placed them on the ground, and gingerly unrolled them.
"It has no item attributes. It really must be Ame no Murakumo..."
As he said this, Kobe Ichiro wore a somewhat complicated expression.
In the era Ame no Murakumo appeared, Japanese katanas had not yet been invented; katanas were adapted from the Tang Dynasty's horizontal sabers.
If Ame no Murakumo had been in the style of a katana, that would have been truly bizarre.
Yet honestly speaking, a bronze sword was truly not the Ame no Murakumo Sword he had envisioned.
Suppressing his mixed emotions, he held the bronze sword and tentatively swung it toward the distance.
Instantly, a surging wave of white sword qi billowed forth, rushing outward for dozens of zhang before dissipating.
The fierceness of the sword qi made the hair on the backs of everyone's hands stand on end.
Kobe Ichiro froze.
Ryuzaki Hajime's eyebrows twitched, and he cried out in wild joy, "The sharpness of this sword qi is comparable to a Puppeteer's! This is a Dominator-grade item!"
Even as a Swordsman, he couldn't unleash sword qi so dense and potent.
Kobe Ichiro said in excitement, "With this sword, I can hold my own even against a Dominator. Furugori-kun, Watanabe-kun, what about yours?"
Furugori Magatsu wiped the dust off the mirror's surface, looked at his reflection, and frowned.
"How do you use this thing?"
As soon as he spoke, light flared across the mirror's surface, and a burst of yellow radiance sprang forth, landing beside Furugori Magatsu and transforming into another Furugori Magatsu.
The two were identical in every way.
Furugori Magatsu was stunned. Uncharacteristically, he didn't make a fuss; instead, he closed his eyes and pondered for a few seconds before snapping them open, laughing wildly:
"I understand! It can create an avatar—an avatar with power equal to mine, but without an inventory!"
What a formidable ability! The eyes of the Thousand Cranes Group executives lit up.
*Dominator-grade items are indeed precious, but these guys look like complete country bumpkins...* Zhang Yuanqing roasted them silently.
Still ecstatic, Kobe Ichiro laughed and said, "The functions and costs of weapons used by ancient superhumans must be explored slowly. It might not have just this single function."
With that, he looked toward Watanabe Kichita.
"It carries the aura of a Wood Demon. It's a powerful healing item. Besides that, it's scorching to the touch, seemingly possessing the power of a Fire Specialist as well?" Watanabe Kichita said.
"Let me take a look," Furugori Magatsu chimed in hurriedly.
Yuanshi Tianzun said in a hoarse voice:
"It's not a Fire Specialist's power. It's the divine power of the sun."
Asano Ryo translated simultaneously.
The divine power of the sun? Kobe Ichiro's eyes lit up instantly. The divine power of the sun was the signature ability of a Day Wanderer—overbearing, fierce, and embodying the blazing sun.
"Let me inspect it," Zhang Yuanqing said, extending his hand.
"This..." Watanabe Kichita cast an inquiring glance at their leader.
Hesitating slightly, Kobe Ichiro nodded. "Please evaluate it, Yuanshi-kun."
Zhang Yuanqing took the magatama handed over by Watanabe. Feeling the scalding warmth against his fingertips, he immediately understood.
"Wearing this jade pendant wards off evil, defends against vengeful spirits harassing or possessing you, and counters mental control skills, including but not limited to illusions. Coupled with its potent healing function, it is an exquisite support item," Zhang Yuanqing concluded after his evaluation.
As for whether it had other functions, that remained unknown for now. Even so, all three items were top-tier among top-tier items.
Kobe Ichiro thought for a moment, raised the bronze sword, and lightly sliced his arm.
Instantly, a wound deep enough to expose bone appeared.
Zhang Yuanqing understood his intention and tossed the magatama over.
Catching the magatama, Kobe Ichiro saw it glow with a gentle green light. The wound on his arm swiftly stopped bleeding and knitted shut, leaving not even a scar.
"This healing effect already exceeds my limit," said Watanabe Kichita, the Mountain God.
This object was likewise of Dominator quality.
At this moment, Onodera Watanabe finally finished reading the bamboo slips and drew in a sharp breath.
Chapter 412