The First Immortal of Destiny

Several days later, the black mist triggered by the Demon Soul General that had emerged due to the prohibition began to be gradually worn away by the magic barrier and various offensives!

Once the final wisp of black mist vanished, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and then dismissed the dense and numerous defensive measures around them.

"It seems that using the Imperial Soul to search the Moon Palace is somewhat infeasible!" Shen Mo swallowed a Seven Emperors Marrow Pill, recovering his mana, and then said with a wry smile.

The Demon Soul General under his command, Qin Zhen’s puppet, or other spell creations were suitable for clearing the path for exploration; there was no issue in that regard.

However, they couldn’t scatter them around to search the entire Celestial Palace!

The void in the Moon Palace was full of terrifying prohibitions that were difficult to detect. If they recklessly unleashed numerous Demon Soul Generals, they would continuously trigger these prohibitions, leading to more lethal traps; just dealing with the black mist had already exhausted their strength, and triggering more prohibitions might end in their deaths here.

The only way was to choose a direction, using the fewest Imperial Souls or puppet creations to probe the prohibitions and risks on the path. Then, they could proceed along this route to avoid most of the dangers!

After discussion, the four decided to start their search from the palace they were in.

There were hundreds of palaces in the Moon Palace; if their power weren’t limited, and there weren’t formations or prohibitions hindering them, they could have covered the entire Celestial Palace in little time.

However, their senses were limited, and every place was filled with terrifying prohibitions. Under these circumstances, searching for treasures and celestial artifacts was extremely difficult, akin to blind people in thorny wilderness searching for sweet berries!

Soon, Shen Mo summoned several Class IV Demon Soul Generals again, but unlike before, he only condensed three, treating them like the stones used to probe the path.

The more Demon Soul Generals he summoned, the greater his mana consumption and soul burden, and the easier it was to trigger ubiquitous prohibitions, which was useless!

The other three didn’t hold back any longer and released their path-probing creations.

Qin Zhen manipulated the Puppet Yama to spit out a glimmer of spirit light and sent out a fox-like intelligent puppet from her spatial treasure; the Silver-haired Child used two High-Level Talismans, transforming them into two imposing Golden Armored Talisman Generals, while Kang Haoxiu’s method was slightly inferior, only releasing several serpentine Spirit Pets with Class III strength.

Then, relying on the Demon Soul Generals, Fox Puppets, Golden Armored Talisman Generals, and serpentine Spirit Pets to explore the path, Shen Mo and the others carefully flew towards the depths of the palace.

...

"Hiss!"

"Hiss hiss!"

While passing a herb garden, the leading Demon Soul General once again triggered a prohibition. A burst of eerie black mist suddenly emerged, quickly corroding the ill-fated Demon Soul General entirely.

Though there were hundreds of Class IV Demon Soul Generals in the Soul Refining Flag, Shen Mo still felt a pang of distress witnessing them get continuously eroded by the black mist, resulting in their soul demise.

Just as the Class III Demon Soul Generals held little power and were utterly useless here;

Just like the Class III serpentine Spirit Pets released by Kang Haoxiu that could only trigger prohibitions repeatedly on the path and died one after another, failing to serve any path-finding role!

However, Qin Zhen’s Fox Puppets and Silver-haired Child’s Golden Armored Talisman Generals managed to narrowly avoid triggering prohibitions several times, like the Demon Soul Generals contributing significantly.

Yet, Kang Haoxiu was inherently less skilled in this area, and Shen Mo and the others did not blame him for it.

This time, the black mist that emerged wasn’t much in quantity. The remaining two Demon Soul Generals, together with the Fox Puppets and Golden Armored Talisman Generals, quickly exhausted the black mist with their spells.

"There ought to be numerous precious spiritual medicines planted in this herb garden! It’s unfortunate that we arrived too late." The Silver-haired Child leaned down, grabbed a handful of soil, and shook his head with a sigh.

The herb garden, spanning hundreds of feet, left nothing but pits behind, not even a single weed.

According to the Immortal Mansion Dungeon’s worldly manifestation patterns, there should have been several hundred millennium-old spiritual medicines here, but someone had dug them up ahead of time;

The soil did contain leftover roots and seeds, but it’d take decades for them to sprout and grow to a usable point, whereas the Immortal Mansion Dungeon only appears in the world every 30 to 50 years, which Shen Mo and the others wouldn’t be able to wait!

"Swish!"

Shen Mo slashed out a bit of Fairyland sword style, gathering up the soil with leftover roots and seeds, taking it all into his Sword Zone.

Anything planted in the Moon Palace wouldn’t be any ordinary spiritual plant, thus worth bringing back to the Green Cloud Cave for careful cultivation.

As for these spiritual medicines, their growth timeline typically spans decades to centuries, but it was no challenge for Shen Mo... The Riverside Sect originally controlled the Jade Pool Dungeon, which transformed into the Jade Pool Zone of the Green Cloud Cave, retaining the special characteristic of "ten days within domain for every day outside," allowing for elixir crafting in just a few years or decades!

Seeing Shen Mo strip the ground bare, the Silver-haired Child, Kang Haoxiu, and Qin Zhen displayed peculiar expressions but soon followed suit, digging up some soil mixed with roots and seeds.

However, they did not possess anything like the Jade Pool Zone’s Dungeon or extraordinary grounds, coupled with mediocre Alchemy Path accomplishments, so they weren’t very interested in collecting spiritual plants; they merely took a small amount as sample mother plants.

Passing the herb garden, the group continued exploring deeper into the palace.

...

In front of a temple with distinctive style, Shen Mo and the others paused.

Based on its building materials, shape, and layout inside the palace, this seemed to be a place for alchemy; using magic to probe, they found that although there were formations and prohibitions covering this temple, it was a defensive-type prohibition, unlike the retaliatory black mist prohibition!

"An Alchemy Room might have leftover finished elixirs; at worst, we might find a cauldron, elixir recipes, Spiritual Fire, and other items."

"As we have yet to find any Spirit Treasury, why not break through this prohibition first and see if we can gain anything! Moreover, the celestial treasures remain unseen, perhaps hidden in one of the palaces, so searching them one by one surely won’t be wrong!" The Silver-haired Child said.

The clues left in the Immortal’s scrolls, soul imprints, did not specify where the elixir, magic treasure, and cultivation method—the three celestial treasures—were located; furthermore, the structures of the palaces in the Celestial Palace had no distinguishable traits to determine which temple belonged to the Immortal, nor was there an inner or outer hierarchy.

Shen Mo and the others could only search each location, hoping for fortune!

However, there was one thing that bewildered them... Logically speaking, many strong explorers should have fallen over the years in this Moon Palace in pursuit of treasures; yet, until now, they hadn’t come across a single corpse or leftover treasure. Could it be that they were all corroded by the black mist?