Chapter 130: Spirit Burying Terrace (4)

Behind the door was a small secret chamber.

There were no traps. There were vials, jugs, and large piles of books as far as the eye could see. It seemed like a very messy storage space.

At the center of the secret chamber was a large table.

Su Chen was very familiar with this kind of table - he had already taken two of them before. They had belonged to Ulrich and Master Feng, respectively.

It was a research workbench.

In front of the large workbench was a giant armchair, and there was a person sitting on the armchair.

Su Chen’s heart sank.

He cautiously watched the person sitting on the chair.

However, that person sat there unmoving, as if he were completely unaware that the secret chamber had been opened.

Su Chen cautiously walked closer. Upon walking around the chair, he discovered that the “person” sitting on it was actually a dried-up corpse.

That person’s head was extremely large, and his limbs were very short. He looked just like a big baby doll.

Of course, the dry corpse was not a big baby doll.

It belonged to someone of the Arcana Race.

The Arcana Race was quite short in the first place. After becoming a dried corpse, it had shrunk even more.

This Arcana Race member had most likely died for quite a long time. Because his corpse was in an isolated space, it had not decomposed. Instead, it had simply become desiccated.

He ignored the dried corpse, instead turning his attention to the Arcana Race member’s experimental logs.

Every good researcher had a habit of recording experiments. The Arcana Race was no different.

There was a pile of experimental logs on the counter, but Su Chen temporarily had no interest in the experiments themselves. What he was looking for was the experiment date.

The date was not hard to find. It was in the middle of the experiments.

Not outside of his expectations, the Arcana Race corpse in front of him was the real creator of the Spirit Burying Terrace.

He was called Mainbrooke, and he was a prominent scholar of the Arcana Race. He had a deep understanding of Origin Formations, the compositions of Origin Energy Patterns, as well as the mechanical behavior of Origin Energy. He also had a certain amount of research on biological organisms. This Spirit Burying Terrace had been set up by him singlehandedly, including all of the traps within traps and Origin Formations concealed within Origin Formations, which would not be damaged even after the passage of ten thousand years. His talent was so great that even of the current great Origin Formation masters, not many could compare to him.

However, Mainbrooke’s real ambition was not limited to this.

This guy had an extremely crazy idea - he reckoned that there was a method that could surpass the ability of bloodlines to control Origin Energy at a high layer.

In order to understand the implications of this sentence, it was important to break it down.

Was there a method to control Origin Energy without the use of a bloodline?

Yes!

Mankind didn’t need any bloodline help to charge into the Qi Drawing Realm.

But unfortunately, this was a low-layer method of controlling Origin Energy.

Without a bloodline, the highest realm that a human cultivator could reach was the Blood Boiling Realm.

If one wanted to go higher, they could only do it with the support of a bloodline.

Thus, there were methods to control Origin Energy without the power of a bloodline, but it was limited to a low-layer control.

Then were there any high-layer methods to control Origin Energy without a bloodline?

There were!

The Ferocious Race’s Origin Energy Temple and the Spirit Race’s Spirit Body Conversion allowed them to control Origin Energy at a high layer without the use of a bloodline.

But these two methods had their own large drawbacks. The Origin Energy Temple would cause those who used it to intermittently go berserk and lose reason, while the Spirit Body Conversion would even result in a change to their intrinsic nature. Whether or not they could still be considered alive was a good question.

Thus, they were methods that could be used to control Origin Energy at a high layer without a bloodline, but they were definitely not methods that were superior to bloodlines in that regard.

What Mainbrooke wanted was a method to control Origin Energy at a high layer that was superior to a bloodline.

More precisely, this was not his dream alone. It was also the dream of every single Intelligent Race on the Primordial Continent for tens of thousands of years.

But apart from the Origin Beasts, no one was able to achieve it!

They were the darlings of this world, and only the power of this world was enough to send them into hibernation and a deep sleep.

What Mainbrooke pursued was such an illusive destination in his dreams.

From the ancient times until now, who knew how many great talents of the Intelligent Races had advanced in the place of those who had fallen, unafraid of any difficulties.

But no one had ever achieved it before.

In reality, the Bloodline Extraction Instrument, the Origin Energy Temple, and the Spirit Body Conversion were all embodiments of the Intelligent Races’ insights they had gained while controlling Origin Energy.

Thus, rather than saying that Mainbrooke was pursuing a high-layer method to control Origin Energy that was superior to a bloodline, it was probably more accurate to say that he was pursuing the final dream of every lifeform and continuing on the path forwards. As for bloodline, temple, or Spirit Body, they were all like small traveler inns on the side of this long path.

Most people, having found a suitable place to stay in these inns, were satisfied.

There were still others who were never satisfied and who continued to forge onwards.

In this regard, Mainbrooke’s ideals were very majestic, and he could even be considered a pioneer.

However, the methods he used to pursue these dreams were not worthy of praise.

In order to obtain more resources, he did not shy away from large-scale wanton killings, using human beings to raise up Corpse Spirit Flowers.

In order to preserve his own life to that point, he had sealed himself in this isolated location, attempting to use such a method to evade the obliteration of time. Then, he could open up this place and obtain the ingredients.

However, he had evidently made one miscalculation.

Mainbrooke was originally a leader of an Arcana Organization. Everything that he had prepared here was done using the resources of the organization, but the beneficiary of his movements would only be himself.

To him, upon placing himself in such an isolated space, time would pause. Regardless of how many years it was, to him it would only be a single moment. After entering, he could then return to see how the world had changed, and what he would obtain would be a huge pit filled with Corpse Spirit Flowers.

And because so much time would have gone by, why care about what kinds of negative influences it would have on the organization? When faced with such an ultimate dream, everything else was insignificant, everything else could be sacrificed.

He had planned everything out well, but because his plans had been too good, he had completely overlooked the organization’s benefits. Thus, when a few people found out about the situation, they were enraged. Chaos ensued.

Mainbrooke and his underlings were embroiled in a fierce battle.

The conclusion of the battle was that a portion of those ingredients in the corpse pit belonged to those from the Arcana Organization.

Even though he had obtained victory, Mainbrooke was gravely injured.

Most fatally, his Origin Formation had been damaged because of this, and he would not be able to see the great changes that had occurred in a short period of time.

Mainbrooke knew that he was not long for this world, and so after he entered the tomb he created a secret chamber, then chose to quietly die here.

His recordings did not say why he had chosen to use such a method to conceal himself.

It seemed as if he did not hope to be discovered by others - he had not left behind any clues or methods on how to open the chamber. But at the same time it also seemed that he wanted to be discovered - the method of opening the door was not difficult.

Most likely, Mainbrooke himself was very conflicted. He didn’t know if he should allow all of the sins that he had ever committed to be known by later generations. This kind of useless concealment was the best portrayal of the inner conflict of Mainbrooke.

There was no answer.

This question would never have an answer. All that was certain was that Su Chen had become Mainbrooke’s last successor.

He did not have much wealth. Mainbrooke had only ever pursued knowledge, and he didn’t even have a single decent Origin Tool.

But he had left behind large quantities of knowledge!

Those countless recordings were Mainbrooke’s greatest treasure. They were much more superior to any kind of treasure.

In all honesty, just this collection of recordings was most likely equivalent to a high-tier institute’s library. If Su Chen was able to completely consume these recordings, it wasn’t a big deal even if he wasn’t able to enter the Hidden Dragon Institute..

Of course, apart from knowledge, the Hidden Dragon Institute also possessed resources, connections, opportunities, and pointers from instructors. These could not be conferred by mere recordings.

According to their agreement, all of these items belonged to Su Chen.

Thus, he unreservedly began to stow away the workbench and all kinds of research containers, as well as all of the recordings.

It really was true that with accidents came happy surprises. If it weren’t for the poisonous bugs and the Shadow Snakes, he didn’t know if he would’ve been able to discover this location.

But the greatest happy surprise was still the Origin Ring worn on Mainbrooke’s finger, as well as all the Origin Stones inside.

The Origin Ring was many times larger than Su Chen’s. In the end, it was still the ring of a great scholar, and the things that they used were naturally different. However, there wasn’t much inside. The last time this ORigin Ring was used was to transport everything inside the secret chamber to this place.

Unfortunately, this secret chamber had just been set up and hadn’t even been used yet. He hadn’t even brought in any ingredients before his commission had ended.

All that remained in the Origin Ring was a high-grade Origin Stone. This was the last bit of property that Mainbrooke possessed after that large battle. Most of the Origin Energy inside had already been ingested as well.

Even so, Su Chen was unbelievably excited.

This was too timely!

One had to know that he was still in the Hidden Dragon Institute’s entrance exam. None of the exam candidates possessed any Origin Stones to help themselves recover.

With this high-grade Origin Stone, he could recover Origin Energy. He had used up most of his Origin Energy in the two battles prior, so at this moment he hurriedly absorbed the Origin Energy that the stone contained.

A single high-grade Origin Stone, even if it no longer contained much Orign Energy, was enough to help Su Chen recover multiple times. Su Chen’s Origin Energy quickly was restored to its maximum level.

He stowed the Origin Stone away again, then glanced at Mainbrooke one last time. He was about to leave before his eyes fell on the pocket on Mainbrooke’s tattered clothes.

There, another thin experimental log was placed.

There was still one more book.

After Su Chen picked it up and carelessly flipped through it, he was unable to put it down.