"You're in luck. Just as your lamp was about to run dry of oil, I, your lord, arrived."
Gu Qingfeng walked over, tossed a piece of Yuan Essence in front of the person, and casually set up a Spirit Gathering Formation around them. "Whether you can catch that last breath depends entirely on your own fortune," he said.
He had never been a particularly benevolent man. Even back in the Great Desolation, he rarely bothered with saving lives and aiding the wounded, let alone here in this mysterious and unknown Ancient Desolation ruin. This person's origins were unclear; there was every possibility that reviving them could lead to a nasty bite in return.
However.
Gu Qingfeng still intervened to save them. Not out of compassion or pity, but because he needed to revive this person to glean some information.
After setting up the formation, Gu Qingfeng paid the other no further mind. Instead, he walked over to the Magical Treasure Eye and began observing it closely.
Since the Magical Treasure Eye was sealed, Gu Qingfeng couldn't discern anything with his naked eye. He released his Divine Sense to probe it, but to no avail. It simply couldn't penetrate, completely blocked off. He tried several times, but there were no flaws or gaps in the seal to exploit.
Since his Divine Sense couldn't penetrate, Gu Qingfeng didn't persist.
The seal on the Magical Treasure Eye looked like a watery mirror. Tapping it with a finger caused ripples and watery halos to spread. Withdrawing his hand, he suddenly threw a punch at the seal. A thunderous boom echoed as the watery mirror seal trembled violently, the entire Giant Cauldron shook fiercely, and its already chaotic internal structure was thrown into even greater disarray.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
He threw three consecutive punches, each more powerful than the last. In the end, not only did he fail to break the seal, but the Giant Cauldron's structure was nearly shaken apart.
"Damn it! This is actually a bit tricky!"
Gu Qingfeng rubbed his chin, staring at the sealed Magical Treasure Eye with considerable annoyance.
After unblocking his meridians and acupoints, the power of his physical body was as immense as he could possibly make it. Even the Ancient Desolation black hole had been thrown into chaos by the mere force of his shout.
If he wished, breaking open this sealed Magical Treasure Eye wouldn't be difficult. He had the confidence to do it.
The key issue was this:
If he forced it open with brute strength, the structure of this Giant Cauldron would inevitably collapse. Once the structure collapsed, the cauldron would be essentially useless, and the Magical Treasure Origin sealed within the Magical Treasure Eye probably wouldn't survive either. All that effort would be for nothing, leaving him empty-handed.
There's a saying: killing a person is easy, but enlightening them is far more difficult.
The situation Gu Qingfeng faced now was similar. Using brute force to smash the seal wasn't hard, but if he wanted to properly *break* the seal, it would be quite troublesome.
No choice.
Since he wanted both this Giant Cauldron and to see what treasure was sealed inside the Magical Treasure Eye, he'd have to put in some mental effort to figure out how to break the seal.
To break a seal, one must understand it.
So-called seals, along with barriers and restrictions, are all types of supernatural techniques. Moreover, they all evolved from Formations. It's just that Formations are far too complex. The more powerful the Formation, the more Great Dao mysteries it involves. Over time, Formations fell into decline.
In the current era, the Formations popular across the myriad heavens and worlds are mostly third-rate.
Even if there are powerful Formations, most are legacies passed down from ancient times.
To this day, few can set up powerful Formations. These things encompass everything; it's not something you can comprehend just because your cultivation is high, your understanding is good, or your fortune is great. You need to understand numerous Great Dao mysteries.
In this day and age, comprehending the mysteries of a single Great Dao is already no easy feat. Looking across heaven and earth, beings who have comprehended the mysteries of many Great Daos are not numerous.
Therefore, powerful Formations are difficult to pass down.
In contrast, seals, restrictions, and barriers, which evolved from Formations, are not as complex as Formations themselves, so their inheritance has been much smoother.
To be honest.
Gu Qingfeng wasn't very knowledgeable about seals.
He hadn't encountered them much, and he himself had rarely studied seals. But this didn't hinder his ability to break them.
The reason was simple.
Gu Qingfeng knew a lot, and his learning was eclectic, covering a broad range. He dabbled in all sorts of Great Daos, whatever they might be. Most importantly, he had a particular fondness for Formations. He was proficient in all kinds of Formations. Moreover, the more he experienced, the more he witnessed, and the deeper his comprehension of the Great Dao became, the more he felt that Formations shared a wondrous similarity with nature and the workings of heaven and earth.
If you asked him what the true essence of the Great Dao was,
Gu Qingfeng might not be able to say.
But if you asked which technique best illustrated the mysteries of the Great Dao, Gu Qingfeng believed it could only be Formations.
With a *thump*, he opened a jar of Heaven's Path Exists and another of Hell's Inconstancy. Mixing the two fine wines, he took a drink while probing the mysteries of the seal.
You had to admit,
this seal was truly profound upon profound, marvelous upon marvelous.
And its profundity came layer upon layer, profundity nested within profundity. Layer upon layer of profundity seemed endless, with truth and falsehood intermixed, falsehood and truth intertwined. It was exceedingly complex. The more Gu Qingfeng looked, the more he admired the person who had set up this seal.
Generally speaking, few people would seal a Magical Treasure Eye.
As everyone knows, the Magical Treasure Eye contains the Magical Treasure Origin. That thing is the lifeblood of a Magical Treasure, its source of power. It certainly needs protection. But the Magical Treasure Eye itself exists to protect the Magical Treasure Origin. Under normal circumstances, at most, a few extra layers of barriers or some Formations might be added for multi-layered protection.
No one seals a Magical Treasure Eye.
Because seals are basically used for suppression, to prevent whatever is sealed from breaking out.
Who would be so idle and bored as to seal a Magical Treasure Eye? Could it be that the person who set the seal wasn't worried about external forces damaging the Magical Treasure Origin, but was instead worried about the Magical Treasure Origin escaping *out* from the Magical Treasure Eye?
To harm others?
If that were truly the case, then what kind of Magical Treasure Origin would it be?
Suddenly,
Gu Qingfeng thought of that blade from the Nine Underworlds.
What kind of Magical Treasure that Shadow Blade was, he didn't know. The only thing he knew was that its power was terrifying, and it could influence one's mind. Gu Qingfeng still clearly remembered that the Shadow Blade's Magical Treasure Eye was also sealed. What kind of Magical Treasure Origin was sealed inside the Shadow Blade's Magical Treasure Eye, he didn't know. He had never attempted to break the Shadow Blade's seal, nor had he even probed its mysteries.
Not that he didn't want to, but he didn't dare.
Truly didn't dare.
Whenever Gu Qingfeng wielded the Shadow Blade, his mind would be affected, becoming bloodthirsty, violent, like a frenzied demon. Under such circumstances, how could he dare to try breaking the Shadow Blade's seal?
The Shadow Blade's Magical Treasure Eye was sealed.
Now, this Giant Cauldron's Magical Treasure Eye was also sealed.
The existence of the Shadow Blade was terrifying, mysterious, unknown, and dreadfully powerful, hailed as the Nine Underworlds' number one killing weapon.
Could it be that this Giant Cauldron was also some Great Dao killing weapon of significant origin?
Hard to say.
After all, this was an Ancient Desolation ruin, and the Ancient Desolation Era was itself a mysterious and terrifying age. Many Great Dao progenitors perished in this era, and various legendary Great Dao treasures were lost during this time. Who the hell knew if this Giant Cauldron was one of them.