The water-like spiritual patterns on the jade tablet slowly rippled outwards.

Circle after circle, they surrounded everyone.

When Song Yan approached within ten feet of the mountain wall, the water-like spiritual patterns drifted away from him, and the mountain wall before his eyes vanished.

In its place was an empty Immortal Cave.

"Is it an Illusion Formation?"

Song Yan reached out, wanting to touch the spiritual patterns, but his hand met nothing. "What a marvelous treasure, it can bypass the Illusion Formation directly and reveal the true appearance."

Formations usually need to be broken by disturbing the Formation’s core or base.

Of course, if one’s Realm far exceeds that of the Formation master, a forceful breakthrough is also possible.

Leaving aside these rare situations, breaking a Formation without external aids requires extremely strong insight and understanding of Formations.

Song Yan happened to have a slight understanding of Formations.

He knew that this jade tablet didn’t break the Illusion Formation, but rather bypassed it directly.

"It’s probably an item left by this Foundation Establishment Senior from back then..."

"But this Senior passed away in the Immortal Cave, so how did this ’key’ end up in Che Ning’s hands..."

Such questions were destined to remain unanswered.

Everyone entered the Immortal Cave. There were some mottled traces and circular patterns on the ground, and in the very center was a protruding black stone pillar.

The stone pillar was covered with densely inscribed profound runes.

"This is the Restriction for opening the Immortal Cave."

Che Ning slowly said, "Previously, Che had a stroke of Opportunity and obtained clues to this Senior’s Immortal Cave, as well as that ’jade tablet of friendship,’ but he never found a way to break this Restriction."

"Therefore, at present, we can only break it with brute force..."

He cupped his hands and said, "Now, all Fellow Daoists need to work together to break the Restriction."

No one objected. Everyone came here precisely to break the Restriction together and then explore for treasures within the Immortal Cave.

They immediately spread out, surrounding the Restriction stone pillar.

They all formed Dao Seals, channeling Spiritual Qi towards the Restriction.

Song Yan was the last among them to act, for a simple reason: he was debating whether to use Sword Qi or Spiritual Qi.

After a moment of thought, he decided to play it safe and use ordinary Spiritual Qi.

Lest any mishap occur and he be held accountable by others.

Breaking this Restriction was a task that tested Spiritual Qi reserves and intensity. Che Ning was unable to break the Restriction before because the amount of Spiritual Qi he could activate in a short time was too little.

Now, with ten Cultivators working together, it was naturally not a problem.

The profound patterns on the Restriction lit up one by one. Everyone’s Spiritual Qi did not stop, but rather they all surged with Spiritual Qi, increasing their Spiritual Qi output.

"Boom—"

A loud bang came, and Che Ning was the first to stop breaking the Restriction. The other Cultivators also withdrew their powers one by one.

"It’s done."

The circular patterns under their feet quickly lit up, and the bluestones between the two circular patterns actually began to slowly rotate.

The Cultivators present were not foolish; they all stepped onto the circular bluestones one by one.

As the mechanism operated, they slowly descended.

After an unknown amount of time, a narrow passage appeared before everyone’s eyes. At the same time, the mechanism also stopped operating.

"This place... is the true entrance to Senior Lin Qinglong’s Immortal Cave."

It was dim here, so everyone used their Spiritual Qi to illuminate the path and walked forward.

On one wall of this passage, which connected to the Immortal Cave, several powerful lines of text were carved with what appeared to be a knife or a sword.

It seemed to be Lin Qinglong’s autobiography, inscribed by himself.

The content was not extensive; it was very brief.

According to the self-narration on it, when Senior Lin Qinglong was young, he was noticed by a Disciple from a small Sect called "Yunxi Sect" in Hujiang County, who was traveling, and was taken to an Immortal Mountain to Cultivate.

Initially, due to his extremely poor talent, his Cultivation progress was unsatisfactory, and he became weary.

So he also tried to learn some arts of cultivating the mind, but he became addicted to them and could not extricate himself, immersing himself in the Dao of painting all day, with no intention of Cultivating.

After not Cultivating for long, knowing that staying longer would be futile, he voluntarily left the Sect.

"Fate plays tricks on people..."

He sought to Cultivate his mind, but instead, he suffered Qi Deviation.

However, misfortune is what good fortune leans on, and good fortune is what misfortune lurks in.

After becoming a Loose Cultivator, Senior Lin Qinglong still indulged in the Dao of painting every day. By chance, he actually obtained the Relics of a predecessor who was equally obsessed with ink wash painting.

What happened in between was not elaborated upon.

It only said that Senior Lin therefore made great strides in the Cultivation World of Chu at that time.

His Spells, combining fire and thunder, were superb.

Reaching the very end of the passage, this Senior Lin’s life also came to an end.

Before passing away, he recalled with some self-mockery, perhaps if he had spent less time on painting, he might have been able to advance further?

Seemingly regretful, everyone could actually tell that there was no hint of regret in his words.

Only at the end did he mention that he was sorry to his master from Yunxi Sect, who had introduced him to Cultivation, and that he had failed his elder’s earnest expectations.

It seemed that the master he spoke of, even at the very end, did not blame him, and even retained his status as a Disciple of Yunxi Sect back then.

After establishing his Dao Foundation, he had also returned to the Sect, protecting this small mountain Sect from intrusion for a hundred years.

However, by then, his former master had long since passed away.

"After I pass away, there will be no mechanisms or traps in the Immortal Cave, nor any difficult tests."

"As long as someone discovers this place by chance, all the antiques, spiritual objects, classic texts, and secret records in the Immortal Cave can be taken."

"You bring nothing into life, and you take nothing out of death. What do the things behind me have to do with me."

Unrestrained.

Truly unrestrained.

Originally, they thought this Senior was without hope for the Golden Core Dao, and there was always some unwillingness and regret.

Unexpectedly, at the time of his Lifespan’s exhaustion and impending death, he had such thoughts.

In about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, everyone arrived at a relatively spacious area.

This stone chamber was very wide, like a large hall. In front were four stone doors, also unlocked and without mechanisms.

In the corner was a narrow pool, which looked like it originally had a mountain spring, but due to its age, the original spring had long since dried up.

A rusty short sword was stuck in the pool.

The lowest part of the sword, where it touched the soil and rocks, even had some nameless plants resembling moss growing on it.

The appearance of this sword was simply too poor. Although it was left by a Foundation Establishment Senior, it had no spiritual charm.

Moreover, this Senior was proficient in Spells and did not Cultivate Flying Swords, so this sword was probably picked up casually and left here.

No one tried to snatch it.

Everyone was even wondering if this sword was made of ordinary iron.

Song Yan originally had no intention of taking the sword, and the liangyi pearl also showed no fluctuations.

But then he thought, after all, it was a "collection" from a Foundation Establishment Cultivator’s Immortal Cave. If he cleaned and repaired it a bit, and then gave it the gimmick of a Foundation Establishment Senior’s relic, could he sell some Spirit Stones?...Anyway, no one else wanted it.

Picking up junk in a Foundation Establishment Cultivator’s Immortal Cave was more practical than returning to Fire Worker Village and fantasizing about picking up another liangyi pearl.

He used his Spiritual Qi to pull the short sword out of the pool.

Only then did everyone realize that the sword was even broken.

Among the Cultivators, there were originally a few who were hesitant, hoping to find a hidden gem, but now they completely gave up that idea.

Song Yan still put it into his qiankun bag.

Che Ning was a little surprised: "Junior Brother Tong has very unique taste..."

Che Ning’s words were very polite, without any mocking tone or manner.

Song Yan nodded: "I usually like to collect antiques; it’s purely a personal hobby."

"Since everyone isn’t interested, I’ll just take it to play with."

"I see."

After passing through the small pool outer room, which was like an entrance hall, the few people finally arrived at the interior of the Immortal Cave.

"Hmm?"

Everyone looked at the empty stone chamber, all a bit confused.

They saw that the inner chamber of the Immortal Cave was completely empty, with only a huge and ancient scroll hanging on the wall at the far end.

"Fellow Daoist Che..."

That scarred-faced Loose Cultivator, at Qi Refining Stage 6, spoke to Che Ning rather impolitely.

"You painstakingly gathered us here, and then said you only wanted a single piece of ink painting..."

"Could it be that this Immortal Cave only contains this one scroll?"

All the Cultivators looked at Che Ning, their expressions somewhat unfriendly.

Rong Xiaofeng and Wu Huaguo pulled Song Yan and stepped back.

Che Ning, however, was unhurried and laughed loudly: "Hahaha... Fellow Daoists, don’t panic..."

"This Senior’s Immortal Cave is truly different from an ordinary Cultivator’s Immortal Cave."

"How is it different?"

Che Ning pointed into the distance.

"The true Immortal Cave and the Senior’s Relics are within this painting."