Having previously heard that this water could nourish all things, and now seeing these few words describing it as something that exists in heaven but not on earth, Jian Chou couldn’t help but feel her heart tremble slightly.

She looked for a long time before slowly turning her gaze to the ground.

The dust had already been swept away, and on the clean black floor, the tiles were fitted together extremely tightly. Each gap looked as if it had been cast with molten iron, fitting seamlessly.

This was where Little Marten had circled before.

Earth Store Reincarnation Pool Water…

This phrase naturally floated up from the depths of Jian Chou’s heart.

She didn’t move for the moment. The excitement in her heart was slowly suppressed by force.

While it was good for pies to fall from heaven, if one were accidentally killed by the falling pie, there would be nowhere to cry.

Caution ensures ten thousand years of sailing.

Jian Chou made up her mind and looked at the book in front of her again, directly turning to the second page.

“Eh?”

At this look, Jian Chou was surprised again.

Before seeing the words “Reincarnation Pool Water,” she had thought this was a book with exaggerated claims about supernatural stories. After seeing “Reincarnation Pool Water,” she had assumed this should be a record book related to the Extreme Realm.

But now, she finally truly understood—

This was actually a book of pill formulas!

“First Formula: Reviving Dead Water.”

“Reincarnation Pool Water three parts, Earth Spirit Spring one part, Blood Azure Plum three parts. Light with hundred-year cypress fire, can be completed in three days.”

“Its use: grass and trees turned to ash can be revived, nourishing grass into forest is also possible.”

…

The clean and efficient handwriting was no different from what was written on the first page, still carrying a kind of majestic sharpness, with strokes that conveyed a commanding composure.

Jian Chou read it carefully, her gaze lingering on “First Formula” for a long time, finally slowly drawing in a breath of cold air.

Just as doctors prescribe medicine when treating illness, pill refiners also need recipes for making pills, called “pill formulas.”

Each pill formula was the experience summarized by pill refiners after countless failures, extremely precious.

But here…

Jian Chou already had a premonition in her heart and directly continued flipping through.

Second formula, third formula, fourth formula…

Page by page, indeed all were pill formulas!

Every formula used “Reincarnation Pool Water” as the most important ingredient!

This was not only a book of pill formulas, but a book of pill formulas researched around “Reincarnation Pool Water”!

At the end of each formula, there were annotations by the recorder about the formula, as well as descriptions of the pill’s effects.

Even someone like Jian Chou, who basically knew nothing about pill refining, could understand it clearly!

The terrifying knowledge and experience possessed by the writer of this pill formula book could thus be imagined.

“But… is Reincarnation Pool Water easy to obtain?”

Otherwise, how could this person have so much reincarnation water to use for pill refining?

This doubt immediately arose in Jian Chou’s mind.

So another doubt followed—

She still remembered what she had seen at Pinzi Tower. The Extreme Realm’s history was too short, and in the three paths of pill refining, artifact crafting, and array formations, there was too great a gap compared to the Nineteen Continents.

But looking at this book of pill formulas before her, Jian Chou could clearly know: her friend Lu Xiangleng, the medicine woman from Baiyue Valley, was probably still far inferior to this person!

Could it be left by an old predecessor?

Jian Chou could only think this way.

She continued flipping through. New pill formulas appeared before her eyes one by one.

The further back, the more amazing the formulas’ effects became, and of course, the more precious the required ingredients.

Some formulas could treat bodily injuries, some could nurture fertile soil, some could improve defense, some could regenerate limbs…

“Rustle…”

The room was completely dark, with nothing audible except the sound of Jian Chou turning pages.

The unread portion in her hands was gradually thinning.

Unknowingly, the night had grown very deep.

Jian Chou’s fingers slowly moved to the last page, but the situation was somewhat surprising.

This last page had actually been folded up at a large corner, as if marked.

The side without writing was folded over, covering the neat handwriting. Jian Chou couldn’t see what was written inside.

She was puzzled and immediately became interested in this last page’s content.

What was folded up was probably somewhat special.

Extending her finger, Jian Chou carefully lifted the folded corner and slowly opened it.

Thus, the content hidden behind was completely revealed before her eyes.

“Formula One Hundred and Sixteen: Soul Reversal Pill.”

“Reincarnation Pool Water one hundred parts, Cold Gastrodia five parts, Earth Chrysanthemum Root six parts, Blood Jade Buddha’s Hand one part, Wang Bu Liu Xing three parts upright.”

“Fire needs azure lotus, burn in white tile medicine cauldron, seven-nine to complete pill.”

“When pill is completed and consumed, medicine power is extremely strong, can be taken continuously. First supplements damaged souls, creating something from nothing; second nourishes soul power, elevating realms; third shapes golden body, without endless limit…”

“How is this possible!”

At that instant, Jian Chou’s eyes widened in shock, even showing an expression of disbelief!

Everything, everything flashed rapidly before Jian Chou’s eyes like a revolving lantern:

In the armory, the rusty Yi Xian Tian sealed under glacial ice;

By Guihe Well, Fudao Shanren’s seemingly relaxed but actually worried expression;

And also…

Since entering the Extreme Realm, all the cultivation difficulties she had faced!

“Incomplete soul, Heavenly Void constitution.”

“Invincible below Spirit Emergence, but certain death upon reaching Heart Questioning…”

Rich bitterness bloomed on Jian Chou’s tongue.

She held this book of pill formulas in a daze, looking at the three words “Soul Reversal Pill,” with only the feeling of someone in a dream: Had she really found it?

When hearing “can nourish all things,” Jian Chou hadn’t paid attention, since the existence of “souls” couldn’t be encompassed by the single word “things.”

When she returned to the study and opened this book, she realized she might have underestimated the effects of “Reincarnation Pool Water,” but still didn’t completely believe it, since exaggeration was still possible.

Until this moment…

The formula for “Soul Reversal Pill” was written here so clearly, even the refining method and functional effects were written in detailed layers.

The sudden falling pie still left Jian Chou dizzy and confused.

She even somewhat doubted whether someone was playing tricks on her from behind, deliberately creating such a thing.

But when she looked around—

The three plum branches still stood motionless in the plum vase, the window paper somewhat translucent white.

Nothing abnormal.

Originally thinking she had reached a dead end and even needed to take desperate risks, but in the blink of an eye, a turning point was placed right before her.

If…

If Reincarnation Pool Water was really this powerful, able to repair souls and elevate realms, though she dared not say she had definite confidence to escape her current predicament, at least she wouldn’t be so passive.

The book bore a deep fold mark.

Jian Chou’s gaze fell on the fold mark. After a long time, she blinked and slowly closed the book, her mind gradually clearing.

Whether the pill formula was real or fake was unknown, but this was the first time she had seen a formula for “repairing damaged souls,” so regardless of authenticity, she had to try.

Jian Chou took a deep breath and looked at the ground two zhang away from the desk, walking over.

She still remembered where Little Marten had landed, right on a floor tile in the very center of the study.

Two chi long and wide, deep black in color, without luster, looking no different from the surroundings.

Just looking like this revealed no clues.

Jian Chou bent down and gently knocked with her hand.

“Thud thud.”

A quite solid sound.

This was within Jian Chou’s expectations.

The space below the floor tile wasn’t directly hollowed out, so the Reincarnation Pool Water probably wasn’t hidden underneath in such a simple manner.

So after frowning and thinking briefly, she channeled soul power to her fingertips, took a breath, and carefully pressed on the floor tile with some caution.

A cold sensation immediately transmitted through her fingertips.

A thread of weak soul power followed her fingers, penetrating toward the ground, slowly going down…

One chi. Two chi. Three chi…

Just as the soul power reached three chi and was about to go beyond, an abnormal aura suddenly bounced up from deep underground!

“Bad!”

Jian Chou called out inwardly, reacting extremely quickly. Without hesitation, she withdrew her hand, flipped up, and her entire body floated in mid-air!

“Whoosh…”

A spray of bamboo-green soft light immediately surged up from deep underground, like suddenly rushing waves.

However, there was no violent wind and storm.

It was actually a very gentle force. Though swift, after emerging just one palm’s distance above ground, it naturally stopped.

The bamboo-green light flowed slowly, drop by drop, gradually outlining some strange contours on the surface.

Six semicircular shapes intersecting with each other.

Several points of emerald light were particularly conspicuous in this bamboo-green expanse, respectively located at the intersection points of these semicircles.

This pattern looked completely unfamiliar no matter how she looked at it.

Jian Chou was certain she had never seen it before.

But…

Why did she vaguely feel familiar?

A flash of inspiration struck her mind. Though Jian Chou was in mid-air, she instantly widened her eyes: “Array formation?”

Yes, what else could it be but an array formation?

This familiar construction, and those emerald lights distributed at intersection points!

This time, Jian Chou was thoroughly and completely surprised.

The Extreme Realm had array formations—she had seen them. Most were crude and rough. Even teleportation arrays were such simple and coarse circles, their stability far inferior to the Nineteen Continents.

But this one before her eyes…

She looked carefully for a long while but couldn’t help frowning tightly.

At first glance, there were layers of mist before her eyes, with lines moving one after another, as if several array formations intersected and transformed with each other…

Ever-changing, infinite and endless!

Even with Jian Chou’s outstanding talent and extraordinary intuition in this path, she couldn’t find even half a breakthrough point!

The array setter was actually a master?

But…

“This shouldn’t be right…”

Too many doubts vaguely surfaced in Jian Chou’s mind, and previously overlooked suspicious points also emerged at this moment.

What kind of foundation could the Extreme Realm as a whole have in the three paths of pill refining, artifact crafting, and array formations?

The owner of this house first had an amazing research book on “Reincarnation Pool Water” pill formulas, and now had created an array that seemed terrifyingly complex even to her—what exactly was his background?

Some hidden great cultivator?

But this was the City of Unjust Deaths.

Among the seventy-two cities of the underworld, the City of Unjust Deaths had the most new ghosts. Though there were geniuses, relatively speaking, it was also the weakest in strength.

Cultivators permanently residing in the City of Unjust Deaths wouldn’t rent here, great cultivators generally wouldn’t rent for fifty years, and new ghosts…

How could they possibly possess such profound knowledge, rich experience, and terrifying array formation attainments?

From old Zhou’s words when renting this residence, though all previous tenants of this house had somewhat strange and odd aspects, none were great cultivators—almost all were new ghosts without deep qualifications.

Where did these people get the ability to set up these things?

Could this have existed when the residence was built?

Jian Chou couldn’t figure it out and simultaneously developed great curiosity about the identity of this plum vase owner.

The pill formula was in that book—she had already seen it, claiming to repair damaged souls.

The most important pill ingredient “Reincarnation Pool Water” was probably beneath this floor tile, but she could only watch helplessly, at least for now, completely helpless.

Jian Chou knew the array formation was gentle and posed no danger, so she slowly descended back to the ground, standing at the edge of this floor tile.

Her current array formation attainments were only half-baked. Dealing with medium-level arrays might still work, but such complex, ever-changing arrays offered no hope.

As for forcefully breaking through…

With her current minimal strength, this was even more of a pipe dream.

How could she break the array formation, lift this floor tile, and obtain the Reincarnation Pool Water?

Jian Chou developed a headache.

She racked her brains but couldn’t think of any useful methods. For the moment, she could only pace around the room with her hands behind her back.

Walking out along the neatly arranged floor tiles under her feet, then walking back, with bookshelves on both sides framing her figure. On the neat book spines on the shelves, Jian Chou’s elongated shadow occasionally flashed by…

“Strange Tales of the Extreme Realm,” “Gazetteer of Eight Directions City,” “Study of Extreme Realm Battlefields”…

“Furnace Records,” “Hundred Herbs Collection”…

“Heaven Gate Array,” “Eight Trigrams Two Instruments,” “Qiankun Star Moon Array”…

All kinds of books were there, categorized and extremely rich—there were even books on array formations!

Jian Chou unconsciously thought about this and was about to laugh out loud.

But the moment she curved her lips, the names of those books just now suddenly flashed in her mind!

Array formations? Array formations!

Jian Chou’s steps immediately stopped, and she looked back.

On the bookshelf closest to her, there wasn’t just one book related to array formations—it was actually a full shelf packed with them!

At that instant, her mind rang with a “ding-dong-clang” of sounds—

The plum vase owner, the handwriting of “those with affinity for cherishing flowers,” the pill formulas related to Reincarnation Pool Water on the desk, the Reincarnation Pool Water hidden underground, the mysteriously appearing array formation…

And now, this tall shelf of old books!

Everything connected together.

Jian Chou suddenly felt those clues had become somewhat clearer.

The plum vase owner was an unknown number of house owners who used Reincarnation Pool Water to nourish plums.

Regardless of whether the pill formulas came from his hand, at least the phrase “Earth Store reincarnation water” was left by this person, which meant this array formation was also connected to the plum vase owner.

Since he wanted “someone with a wish to cherish flowers” to tend the plums for him, how could he deliberately make things difficult, preventing people from even obtaining the “Reincarnation Pool Water” needed to nourish the plums?

So…

Jian Chou’s gaze suddenly became bright and brilliant, like stars and moon in the night sky.

A smile bloomed at her lips as she turned around and walked back to this shelf of books.

The array formation was gentle in nature, not meant to harm people. Presumably, it was left by the plum vase owner to protect the Reincarnation Pool Water.

And the method to break the array formation should be hidden among these books before her eyes.

If she could find the correct breaking method, obtaining the Reincarnation Pool Water wouldn’t be difficult.

Thinking this way, everything became clear.

Jian Chou simply treated this as playing a game of setting up puzzles and solving mysteries with this mysterious plum vase owner. She looked at the bookshelf and immediately spotted the book called “Eight Trigrams Two Instruments.”

Two Instruments…

These two words weren’t unfamiliar to Jian Chou.

The missing bead on the ghost axe was the “Two Instruments Bead.”

The Northern Region was a magical place.

Buddhism had originally been in the Central Region, but after the Yin-Yang realm war, for unknown reasons, it migrated to the Northern Region.

Just upon setting foot in the Northern Region, the two major important branches within the sect—Chanzong and Esoteric Buddhism—directly parted ways, cutting ties with each other.

Thus there came to be the Western Sea Chan sect in the west and the Snowy Region Esoteric sect in the east.

Daoism had been in the Northern Region from the beginning, with two spring sources at the southern and northern ends of the sect, one yin and one yang. Drinking from them could improve constitution and cultivation methods.

However, since the two spring sources were divided into Two Instruments, the cultivation methods developed by sect cultivators were naturally completely different.

Contradictions arose from this.

Around the time of the Yin-Yang realm war, Daoism split in two, using the line between the yin and yang wells as the boundary, breaking into the Yin and Yang sects.

From then on, the four sects of Chan, Esoteric, Yin, and Yang stood together in the Northern Region, called the “Four Sects of the Northern Region.”

The term “Two Instruments” derived its meaning from the “Yin-Yang Twin Wells” of the Northern Region.

The Yin and Yang sects specialized in researching array formations and were famous throughout the Nineteen Continents.

So after seeing the words “Eight Trigrams Two Instruments,” Jian Chou didn’t hesitate much and directly took it down.

This book had apparently been read many times, with somewhat frayed edges.

The cover bore the four large characters “Eight Trigrams Two Instruments,” but the handwriting seemed different from what Jian Chou had seen in that pill formula book earlier, though…

“Why do I feel there’s some slight similarity between the strokes?”

Jian Chou muttered, not paying much attention.

There were plenty of people in the world with similar handwriting. This alone couldn’t determine anything.

She speculated this person either didn’t know jade slips existed, or couldn’t afford to buy them, or simply preferred collecting books. Otherwise, there was no reason not to use jade slips to record information—they lasted long, were easy to preserve, and convenient to carry.

Unlike now, with books filling the entire room.

However, this thought, like the handwriting thought, just flashed through Jian Chou’s mind.

She slowly opened the cover.

The first page of this book was quite old and severely yellowed.

The ink marks also showed some smudging traces. The handwriting was the same as on the cover, apparently from the same person’s hand, discussing the most basic eight trigram position divisions, judgment and functions of Two Instruments…

Jian Chou had seen much of this material in Yashan’s Sutra Repository and was quite familiar with it.

She skimmed through it and flipped a few pages back. When she saw a simple array diagram drawn on the left page, she stopped and was about to study it carefully.

But just at this moment, she suddenly noticed something wrong.

“The handwriting changed?”

The previous handwriting had been thick and ancient, carrying a sense of composure.

The current handwriting was sharp and strong like iron painting and silver hooks, quite sharp. Besides also having that bit of composure, it looked completely different on the surface.

This feeling…

It was as if the second type of handwriting had absorbed the first type, making it difficult for Jian Chou to distinguish.

She was quite surprised.

This was clearly one book, and the content seemed to connect top to bottom, as if some cultivator was recording his various insights and realizations about array formations while studying.

Logically, there shouldn’t be this situation of changing writers halfway through.

How very strange.

Abnormal events came one after another. Jian Chou thought for a while but couldn’t figure out why, so she simply continued reading.

It was apparent that the owner of this second handwriting style was somewhat rusty when first continuing the previous text, like a scholar who hadn’t studied for a long time entering an examination hall.

However, as the study deepened, this rusty feeling was rapidly fading.

Later, the array formation insights and ideas about constructing arrays described in the book had completely exceeded Jian Chou’s imagination, reaching an amazing level.

Jian Chou read with secret alarm.

If the owner of the first handwriting style hadn’t finished researching and the owner of the second handwriting style happened to continue the research, this could truly be called “the later surpassing the former.”

She concentrated on reading carefully, becoming more and more addicted.

“Eight trigrams should be divided into pre-heaven and post-heaven, among which yang lines… hm?”

When reading that “line” character, Jian Chou again made a sound of surprise.

She almost doubted she was seeing wrong—

The handwriting had changed again!

“Yang line” was a type of hexagram symbol in the eight trigrams, a complete term.

Here, the preceding “yang” character was still in the previous handwriting, but when it reached the “line” character, it had changed to a third handwriting style she had never seen before!

Following this further back, the “rusty” feeling that had previously disappeared returned.

Jian Chou truly felt indescribable—

“Is this a frivolous young master picking up his books again?”

But why had the handwriting changed again?

This time, it was standard small seal script, carrying a kind of balanced air of prosperous times, deep and broad as the sea, steady as mountains.

It seemed…

It seemed to have absorbed some aspects of the second handwriting style too!

What exactly was going on?

Even with Jian Chou’s sharp mind, she felt an unprecedented confusion at this moment.

Looking at the two completely different handwriting styles on this page, a bad premonition suddenly arose in her heart. She directly flipped through page after page rapidly…

After sixteen pages, the owner of the third handwriting had already researched into a completely new field—

Nine Palaces!

The initial rusty feeling likewise disappeared completely within an extremely short section, surpassing previous recorders with even more terrifying progress.

The principles were so abstruse that even Jian Chou found them convoluted and difficult to understand.

Then…

The handwriting changed again!

As Jian Chou sharply drew in a breath of cold air, a voice in her heart madly emerged: Again like this, again like this! Sure enough, again like this!

As if feeling she had discovered some secret, or wanting to verify that voice in her heart, Jian Chou flipped through the book faster and faster.

She no longer looked at those extremely profound contents, only focusing on one thing—

Handwriting!

Seven pages, handwriting changed;

Another nine pages, handwriting changed again;

Ten pages, thirteen pages, five pages…

When Jian Chou flipped to the last page, it was already the ninth type of handwriting!

Regular script small characters, upright and reserved.

Even with words on paper, it conveyed a commanding, bird’s-eye view quality.

This handwriting, she actually felt familiar with, not strange at all.

Slowly turning her head, Jian Chou looked toward the window sill where the plum vase sat, then at the desk with writing materials.

She took a deep breath, stepped forward, and returned to the desk, placing this book researching array formations—keeping it open to the last page—to the right of the book recording pill formulas.

The two books lay open side by side. The left book was newer, while the right book was much more aged.

But…

The characters on the pages were the same handwriting, identical strokes!

“How is this possible…”

Jian Chou’s voice became somewhat ethereal, as if floating among clouds.

A book researching eight trigram array formations was actually written in nine different handwriting styles!

From the content, these nine sections should be connected one after another, requiring the same person to accomplish, but aside from slight rustiness at connecting points, the latter’s summaries and research often surpassed the former, producing amazing insights.

Could one person continuously surpass themselves, surpassing eight times in succession?

Moreover, there were completely different handwriting styles.

Jian Chou believed that changing handwriting meant changing writers, but the most incomprehensible thing was precisely this—

Each newly appearing handwriting style always contained traces of the previous handwriting’s shadow, as if influenced by what came before.

But…

Without years of immersion, how could one be so easily influenced?

So the greater possibility was that each person continuing this book had handwriting that was naturally like this.

Mysteries upon mysteries—even analyzing them thread by thread was difficult.

Jian Chou looked at these two books before her, then back at the books on the shelf that hadn’t been opened yet. She simply grabbed a pile and opened them one by one to look.

It didn’t matter when she didn’t look, but once she did, her scalp tingled!

Every single one!

Every book on the shelf, regardless of what it was about, showed varying degrees of handwriting changes!

If the first handwriting appearing in “Eight Trigrams Two Instruments” was numbered one, with later appearances sequentially numbered two, three, four, five, six, then the handwriting order in other books appeared as one-two-three, one-three-four-five, two-four-six—but never three-two-one.

The order of each handwriting’s appearance was never broken.

Moreover, no matter how many books there were, the handwriting only existed among these nine types, with no additional varieties.

“Is this one person writing with changing handwriting, or nine people continuing one after another at different times…”

Looking at the pile of books before her, Jian Chou fell completely into confusion and bewilderment.