It turned out to be a very ordinary-looking stone slab.

Yang Che immediately dug out the stone slab.

The stone slab was about three feet long, two inches thick, broken at the top and bottom, but quite neat on the sides.

After studying it carefully for a while, Yang Che discovered that this stone slab must have been mixed with some special Materials, otherwise it would not be so hard, even Sword Four couldn't pierce it.

Taking out a Moon Stone in his hand, the small and cramped underground space immediately lit up.

Yang Che examined the stone slab again and found that it was engraved with strange patterns and symbols that looked like characters.

However, these characters were not the common script used in the current Cultivation World, so Yang Che could not understand them.

As for the strange patterns on it, after careful exploration and research, Yang Che vaguely judged that these patterns seemed to be some kind of route map.

However, because this stone slab was not complete, he couldn't make sense of it.

Yang Che speculated that this stone slab should have been part of some stele or stone wall.

Originally, there should have been a complete large piece, but for some unknown reason, it was broken into several pieces.

Thinking of this, Yang Che put away the stone slab, and driven by curiosity, immediately began to dig, hoping to dig out another such stone slab.

However, after digging around for a long time, he found nothing.

Just as Yang Che was about to give up, the stone wall he had just dug into, perhaps because too much had been hollowed out beneath it, strangely let out a 'rumble' and a section of it collapsed.

After the collapse, a dark hole was revealed, from which gusts of cold wind continuously blew out.

The cold wind also subtly carried a rotten and musty smell.

Yang Che's Divine Sense spread out, wanting to explore it first, but he found that as soon as his Divine Sense entered it, it was like falling into a muddy swamp, unable to penetrate deeply.

"There's a Formation Restriction!"

Yang Che was slightly startled.

He didn't expect that so deep underground, not only did a mysterious dark hole appear, but there was also a Formation Restriction laid out.

This made Yang Che suddenly feel a bit eager.

He was not only curious about this dark hole but also wanted to break the Formation and test his Formation skills.

Moreover, at such a deep underground location, the Crimson Robed Youth should not be able to discover it.

Thinking of this, Yang Che weighed his options and finally decided to enter and explore.

However, he was still extremely careful and first laid down six Formations outside this hole, expending a considerable amount of Spirit Stones.

These six Formations consisted of two illusion Formations, two trapping Formations, and two killing Formations.

Formations within Formations, and within the trapping Formations, Yang Che also placed several kinds of poisonous smoke he had refined.

Within the killing Formations, Yang Che also specially placed more than a dozen Sky Thunder Pearls.

If that Nascent Soul Initial Stage Crimson Robed Youth really found this place, these six Formations would definitely cost him a lot of effort.

Taking a deep breath, Yang Che composed himself before stepping into the dark hole.

Holding the Moon Stone in his hand, Yang Che quickly discovered that it was an existence like an underground ruin.

As far as his eyes could see, there were collapsed great halls, broken pavilions, and some strange collapsed buildings that Yang Che couldn't identify.

Even in the corners of these broken walls and ruins, he could see many shriveled corpses or incomplete skeletons.

Yang Che took a few steps forward and was blocked by an invisible Restriction.

This Restriction was the very Formation Restriction that had previously slowed down his probing Divine Sense and prevented it from penetrating deeply.

Yang Che reached out to touch it and began to sense it carefully.

After a long time, he slowly withdrew his hand, carefully examining it up, down, left, and right, his face constantly showing a thoughtful expression.

Breaking Formations is extremely tedious.

Without enough accumulated experience, it is very difficult to discern the methods and hidden tricks of a Formation's layout in a very short time.

Therefore, Yang Che could only constantly compare it with what he had learned, verify it one by one, and try out the several common Formation-breaking techniques that Tianxie Ziyin had taught him.

More than half a month later.

Yang Che, slightly fatigued, sat cross-legged on the ground, constantly forming hand seals and sending out strange golden runes onto the invisible Restriction in front of him.

With a 'hum' sound.

After the air at the location of the invisible Restriction rapidly intertwined and flowed, a faint gray light curtain slowly appeared.

Seeing this, a hint of joy finally appeared on Yang Che's face, and he let out a long sigh of relief in his heart, feeling as if a heavy burden had been lifted.

After so many days of trying, he finally started to see some progress.

As the saying goes, 'all things are difficult before they are easy'; the most feared thing about breaking a Formation is having no direction.

Now that he had found the 'direction,' even if it took some time, this Formation could be broken.

For the next period, Yang Che continued to focus wholeheartedly on breaking the Formation.

...

Another month passed.

On this day, when Yang Che expended two Mid-Grade Spirit Stones and extremely wearily sent out the last golden rune onto the gray light curtain.

The entire light curtain suddenly flickered.

Then, like water ripples, it slowly and automatically separated little by little, revealing a main path paved with bluestone.

At this point, after nearly two months, this Formation Restriction was finally broken by Yang Che alone.

During this period, Yang Che tried all Formation-breaking techniques more than once, bringing out almost everything he had learned in his life, and finally, through continuous deduction and ingenious rearrangement and combination, he broke this Formation Restriction.

A feeling of immense pride, satisfaction, and accomplishment surged into his heart.

It seemed that all the fatigue and consumption were already insignificant.

And Yang Che's Formation attainments naturally received a huge boost once again during this Formation-breaking process.

It also made Yang Che realize the crucial role of deduction ability in it.

And deduction ability relies heavily on Divine Sense, which made Yang Che have to face the fact that his Divine Sense was weak, feeling a bit bitter.

"It seems that the refinement of Soul Pills can no longer be delayed."

Yang Che murmured to himself, and then leisurely stepped onto the bluestone main path of this underground ruin.

What greeted him was antiquity and desolation.

Looking at the skeletons in the corners, each seeming to have suffered immense fear in life, Yang Che inexplicably felt a sense of sorrow spreading through this ruin.

Along this bluestone main path, every time Yang Che walked a section, he felt as if time was fleeting behind him.

This magical and strange feeling made Yang Che somewhat addicted to it, unable to extricate himself.

When he finished walking the long bluestone main path and arrived in front of a ruined building that looked like an altar, Yang Che felt as if he had walked through a long river of time.

Suddenly, the bluestone main path behind him disappeared, and everything was somewhat different from when he came.

Yang Che's expression changed slightly, but he quickly calmed down again.

He recognized that this was a Formation barrier.

Yang Che had inadvertently triggered it after walking the bluestone main path, entering the barrier.

A barrier is a Formation Restriction with pre-set conditions.

Once triggered, if the set conditions are met, one can enter and exit freely, so Yang Che quickly stopped worrying.

He was now standing at the edge of the altar.

It was exactly like the altar in the Mist Hidden Realm, which led to the blood coffin cave at the bottom of the river.

However, this altar was already damaged and its purpose could not be discerned.

But very quickly, Yang Che's heart suddenly stirred, his pupils narrowed, staring intently at the center of the huge altar, and a monstrous wave immediately surged in his heart.