Size.

It was identical to the other Formation Beads, perhaps slightly larger, but the difference was minimal.

Color.

Waste Medicinal Pills were usually grayish-white, and the Formation Beads of this discarded Formation Plate were crescent white.

But this one had an indescribable feeling; if he had to pinpoint a difference.

The white of this bead was purer.

Weight and touch.

Song Yan held a Formation Bead in his left hand and the’strange bead’ in his right, weighing them up and down for a while, then carefully caressing them.

This strange bead seemed lighter and rougher to the touch, like unpolished jade.

His Divine Sense probed, but there was no Qi fluctuation within this strange bead.

A discarded Spiritual Artifact?

The peculiar stone bead looked perfectly intact, with no damage. Perhaps there was some internal problem.

He knew nothing about the Artifact Refining of Spiritual Artifacts.

He casually tossed it into his Storage Pouch.

"I’ll give it to Xiao He to play with when I go down the mountain. She loves these round things the most."

After searching around, he found a total of six Formation Beads.

A Small Spirit Gathering Array could be activated with five Formation Beads, but typically a few extra would be refined for backup.

In any case, there were enough for the Formation to operate normally.

He just didn’t know if his amateur repairs, done by simply imitating, would make this Formation Plate work.

"I’ll know once I try."

Having made up his mind, he walked out of the garbage dump.

There were no elaborate formalities; after paying the Spirit Stones, he could leave at any time without disturbing Manager Xu’s Cultivation.

Song Yan didn’t greet Manager Xu and left on his own.

...

Cave Abyss Sect, Outer Sect.

Green Leaf Peak. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Number Xuan-39, merely an ordinary Outer Sect Disciple’s Immortal Cave.

Song Yan sat cross-legged on the stone bed, manipulating a Formation Stone similar in size to the Formation Plate’s rune stone with his Qi, examining it.

With a subtle flow of Qi, a part of the Formation Stone was shaved off bit by bit.

"Hoo."

A moment later, he let out a long breath.

"That should be about right."

At this moment, he had little Qi left in his body, but he still condensed a wisp, letting it flow drop by drop along the patterns on the Formation Plate.

In the center of the Formation Plate, the patterns lit up inch by inch until they covered the entire Formation Plate.

"Good, good, it actually works."

Song Yan was overjoyed; his efforts hadn’t been in vain after all.

After all, it was something picked up from the Fire Worker Village, originally scrap. For it to work normally with simple repairs was pure luck.

He had been scavenging for half a year, and such situations had happened no more than a handful of times.

His research into the Dao of Formation was only the most basic superficial knowledge.

Perhaps due to his Transmigration and living two lives, his Divine Sense was slightly stronger than an ordinary person’s.

Just this one point could determine many things.

He found that he learned things very quickly, whether it was the Alchemy of Qi Nourishing Pills or the rudimentary entry into Formations, it didn’t take him too long.

Of course, this also included the factor that both of these were relatively simple.

He was well aware that with his Aptitude and talent, whether in the Dao of Alchemy or Formations, if he were to truly delve deep, his original Cultivation speed would plummet even further.

Therefore, for the Dao of Alchemy, he only researched and refined the simplest Qi Nourishing Pills to supplement his Cultivation resources.

For the Dao of Formation, he only had a rough understanding of the basics, enough to generally know how to operate them.

All his remaining time was dedicated to Cultivation.

After completing everything, Song Yan did not immediately attempt to Breakthrough.

Today’s Alchemy and Formation testing had left him somewhat fatigued, both in Qi and spirit. Attempting a Breakthrough now would be tantamount to courting disaster.

Taking a Spirit Stone in his left hand, he slowly recovered his Qi.

As if by a ghost’s whim, his gaze fell upon the strange bead.

The bead lay quietly in his palm, without a trace of Qi fluctuation.

What exactly was this thing?

His Divine Sense probed into it, finding nothing but an ownerless Qi Restriction.

It seemed this should be a Spiritual Artifact. or part of a Spiritual Artifact.

An ownerless Qi Restriction meant that the original owner of this Spiritual Artifact had either died or voluntarily severed their connection with it.

His Divine Sense carefully swept over it, discovering that the Qi contained within this Qi Restriction was incomplete and was currently recovering subtly and slowly.

"It seems someone has broken through the Restriction before, but ultimately discarded it."

Song Yan didn’t feel disappointed. Nine out of ten things salvaged from the Fire Worker Village’s garbage dump were useless; this was perfectly normal.

However, since he had brought it back.

Breaking the Restriction was just a matter of convenience. He would see what this thing actually was, and if it was truly useless, he would give it to Xiao He when he went down the mountain.

About an hour later, his internal Qi had mostly recovered.

Crack.

He watched with a pained heart as the Spirit Stone in his hand lost its luster, turned gray, and began to crack from the edges.

"Only sixteen Spirit Stones left."

Of the forty-two Spirit Stones earned from selling Medicinal Pills today, thirty needed to be reserved for purchasing Alchemy Materials and other expenses for next month.

Adding the four he originally had left, he was left with sixteen Spirit Stones.

These were all saved one by one, and refined one Medicinal Pill at a time.

"A thousand pieces of gold scattered will return... will return..."

He comforted himself, casually taking out the strange stone bead.

His Qi condensed, and he began to break the Restriction.

This was the most basic Restriction. Judging from its complexity, an ordinary Qi Refining First Layer Cultivator could open it.

"Whose failed Artifact Refining work is this?"

Song Yan wondered, as he broke the Restriction.

"..."

As he tentatively poured Qi into it, it was like a stone sinking into the sea, without a ripple.

"..."

Nothing happened.

His Divine Sense swept through it, likewise finding nothing.

"Sigh."

What a waste of time.

He scoffed at himself, preparing to put the stone bead away.

Just then, he suddenly felt a powerful suction force, and his Divine Sense was being torn by something.

The pain was excruciating, like a wound tearing directly from the depths of his Soul.

"This?"

He wanted to withdraw his Divine Sense, but it was too late. Before he could react, he was swept away by the suction.

His consciousness remained clear, yet he felt like he was falling into an abyss, sinking endlessly.

The suffocating sensation made him want to grasp something, but his consciousness began to blur until, at a certain moment, he sank into the water.

Bang.

Although he sank into water, it was as if the two worlds were inverted.

Song Yan floated out of the ground.

He knelt on the ink-like ground, gasping for breath.

"What a ghostly place."

Adjusting his state of mind, he looked up.

He stood in an ink-like illusory realm.

This illusory realm was empty, boundless, with only black and white interwoven, Chaos surging.

From time to time, ancient black and white characters emerged from an unknown place, dissipated, and repeated in a cycle.

"?"

Song Yan looked down at himself; he was still wearing the Daoist robe of a Cave Abyss Sect Outer Sect Disciple.

However, it was very blurry, indistinct. When he lightly touched it, it was only an illusion.

"Could I have experienced Primordial Spirit Leaving the Body?"

This thought arose and made him laugh at himself.

Ascension overnight?

Daydreaming.

Song Yan guessed that this was merely his Divine Sense’s simulated form in this space.

He no longer delved into why he could "Soul Emergence like an ant," but looked around, beginning to explore this space.

"It doesn’t seem to be for storage."

He had never seen such a large Storage space, and besides, he had tried it outside and couldn’t put anything in.

Unable to leave, he began to walk forward.

He soon discovered, to his surprise, that he seemed to be able to shrink the ground into an inch, moving incredibly fast.

"Eh?"

He tried floating in the air again.

"It actually works?"

In this space, he seemed to be able to do as he pleased.

However, this space was too monotonous.

After trying to fly for a while, the lack of realism quickly made him lose interest, and he landed back on the Ink Pool-like ground.

He reached out to touch the black and white characters that appeared and disappeared, but he couldn’t grasp anything.

"How do I get out."

Just then, in the illusory realm, at a certain spot in front of Song Yan, the two-colored ancient characters appeared faster and faster, more and more densely, until at one instant, they condensed into a black stone tablet.

Taking steps that covered several zhang at a time, he arrived in front of the black stone tablet.

On the pitch-black, ink-like tablet, ancient characters of pure white were engraved.

The first few small characters seemed to be an inscription’s title, but they were blurry and indistinct, so he ignored them.

After reading the inscription once, Song Yan’s heart was startled.

This should be a secret Cultivation Technique specifically for Cultivating Divine Sense.

The inscription was not long, totaling over three hundred and eighty characters, each a gem. After silently reading for a moment, he quickly memorized it.

Buzz—

Just as Song Yan was still immersed in this nameless Cultivation Technique, on the white sky, specks of black condensed, and in just a moment, they formed a giant black tablet that rapidly descended towards his location.

"?"

His heart leaped, and he immediately wanted to resist, but in this space, there was not a trace of Qi that could be wielded; only Divine Sense could be released.

Before he could think, the giant black tablet fell straight down. He subconsciously released his Divine Sense to meet the giant tablet.

Hiss.

Unexpectedly, as his Divine Sense emerged, it transformed into a sharp edge, splitting the giant black tablet in two, which then dissolved like ink into this space.

"Eh? This..."

Song Yan exclaimed in surprise, but before he could ponder why his Divine Sense had such an effect, a second giant black tablet condensed again and crashed down.

Without time to hesitate, his Divine Sense condensed once more, and another sharp edge sliced open the giant tablet.

At this moment, his Divine Sense was already difficult to sustain.

Transforming Divine Sense into a blade seemed to consume quite a bit.

The giant black tablet seemed tireless, condensing again above his head.

"Again?"

Song Yan subconsciously wanted to move and dodge. Only when it was close did he realize how massive this giant tablet truly was.

"..."

In that instant of facing life and death, he felt his movements and reactions become very, very slow, and all sounds receded from his ears like a tide.

Boom!!!

The deathly silence in his ears abruptly transformed into a roar.

Space, stone tablet, ancient characters.

Like shattered bubbles, they burst in an instant, and the scene in his vision receded like a tide.

...

"Hiss."

So painful.

Song Yan, with a splitting headache, awoke from the stone bed.

Having all his Divine Sense pulverized by that giant black tablet left his mind incredibly fatigued, and the moment his Divine Sense faced death was still vivid in his memory.

He frowned deeply, gazing intently at the stone bead still clutched in his hand.

The Immortal Cave fell into a dead silence.

"..."

"This item should not be known to outsiders."

At this point, how could he not know this was a treasure?

Putting aside everything else, Cultivation Techniques specifically for Cultivating Divine Sense were definitely rare; at least, Song Yan had never heard of one.

For this reason alone, this stone bead could be called a treasure.

But why were there multiple traces of it being probed before, yet it was still abandoned in the Fire Worker Village, even on the verge of being thrown into the Jiangyan Furnace?

"Hiss."

There were far too many questions he wanted to clarify about this stone bead.

However, at this moment, he no longer had the mental energy to think; the pain from the tearing of his Divine Soul left his mind blank.

Song Yan tried to refine it with Qi, but just like before, the Qi entered it like a mud ox entering the sea, so he could only hide it in his Storage Pouch.

It was only after completing all this that his heart relaxed, and an endless wave of fatigue and drowsiness washed over him.

He didn’t resist and simply collapsed into sleep.

No one would pay attention to an ordinary person.

Especially an Outer Sect Disciple like Song Yan, struggling on the subsistence line of Cultivation.

In the outside world, unknown to him, a major event had recently occurred in the Cave Abyss Sect.