The ancestral jade pendant on Ling Tian's chest suddenly grew hot, startling him.
He had no idea what was happening.
Just then, he noticed something on the ground. It seemed as if the change in the jade pendant on his chest was caused by this object.
He walked closer and found it was a wooden plaque about the size of his palm.
Ling Tian recalled that when Luo Ran performed the Dragon Summoning technique earlier, he had used this wooden plaque.
And at the end, when he turned towards the giant snake, he had also used this wooden plaque, transforming it into a black mist that released the giant snake.
Clearly, this wooden plaque was no ordinary item; it was something extraordinary.
Just as he pocketed the plaque, he heard the sound of vehicles approaching from the distant road.
Before long, Wang Kai and Chen Yi arrived with over a dozen guards from the Wang family.
After all, it was late at night, with a fiery spiritual pearl and thunder. The people at Wang Family Manor had also noticed that something might have happened here.
The old master was awakened from his sleep. Upon hearing that something had happened at Ling Tian's residence, he immediately sent Chen Yi and Wang Kai with people to investigate.
They discovered Ling Tian by the pond, with the surrounding ground in disarray.
"Ling Tian, what happened?" Uncle Yi asked with concern.
"Nothing major. The person who set up the formation in that house earlier has returned. He wants to take back the snake that was kept there!"
"Where is he?" Uncle Yi's eyes widened.
"Smoked to ashes by lightning!" Ling Tian said with a wry smile.
"Lightning? You mean that flash of lightning just now?" Wang Kai asked suspiciously from the side.
Ling Tian nodded. "Indeed! Just a minor trick."
"Is there anything you need help with?" Uncle Yi asked.
"Then I would trouble you to send people to help clean up the scene and tidy up the traces here.
Oh, and those snake remains, just burn them. Be careful not to get any on you, they might be highly venomous."
"Alright, leave it to me!"
The next day, under Ling Tian's supervision, the Wang family sent people to thoroughly clean up the battlefield from the previous night. Even the pit created by the lightning strike on the ground was cleaned up.
That evening, Ling Tian went to the pavilion on the third floor. He took out the wooden plaque he had confiscated the night before, preparing to study it.
However, the moment he picked up the wooden plaque, the jade pendant on Ling Tian's chest became scorching hot again.
Ling Tian was puzzled. He instinctively felt that there should be some connection between these two items.
So, Ling Tian attempted to bring the wooden plaque in his hand closer to the jade pendant on his chest.
When the two items were less than 10 centimeters apart, a sudden change occurred! The wooden plaque suddenly emitted some black mist outwards, and almost all of this black mist was absorbed by the jade pendant.
The entire process lasted for over a minute, and all the black mist released by the wooden plaque was completely absorbed by the jade pendant.
At this point, the wooden plaque in Ling Tian's hand suddenly turned into black-purple powder and scattered with the wind!
Ling Tian held up the jade pendant on his chest. The jade pendant, originally pure white, had become slightly darker, and its texture became even more crystal clear.
At this moment, an idea suddenly surged into Ling Tian's mind. He concentrated all his mental energy and slowly permeated it into the jade pendant.
Suddenly, Ling Tian felt the world spin, as if he were being sucked into the jade pendant, losing consciousness.
After an unknown period, Ling Tian slowly woke up.
At this time, he found himself not in his own home, but in a small courtyard.
This small courtyard was entirely enveloped in dense mist.
Through the mist, Ling Tian could sense that there were several houses in the courtyard, and these houses seemed to have plaques above their doors.
However, when he tried to approach those houses and see the plaques clearly, he found that his body was being blocked by the mist, which seemed almost tangible.
He observed carefully again and was surprised to discover that this almost tangible mist was actually composed of a large amount of spiritual energy from heaven and earth.
The spiritual energy in this place was so dense that it could materialize.
Ling Tian was overjoyed. If he could cultivate in such a place, wouldn't he ascend to immortality on the spot?
However, when he tried to circulate his energy and refine the spiritual energy there, he found that his cultivation seemed to have no effect in this realm.
Just then, a large amount of information suddenly flooded in from all directions, desperately pouring into his mind. Ling Tian felt a wave of mental dizziness again.
After a while, he finally regained consciousness, and at this time, his mind suddenly contained a lot more information!
The place where Ling Tian was located was actually a blessed land.
This was a special space created by the powerful cultivators of ancient times, using fragments of planes.
Such a place was also known as a Sumeru Mustard Seed Space.
Such a space could be used for storage, for living, for evading disasters, and for cultivating single-mindedly.
Even if the owner of this space died, it could be passed on to successors.
And the space Ling Tian was in was inherited from Ling Tian's ancestors.
The jade pendant Ling Tian wore was the key to opening this Sumeru Mustard Seed Space.
Ling Tian's ancestors named this Sumeru Mustard Seed Space the "Spiritual Realm," and the jade pendant was called the "Key to the Spiritual Realm."
Later, the Ling family suffered a catastrophic disaster. Their ancestors hid all the cultivation techniques and rare treasures they had accumulated over the years in this Spiritual Realm.
To open the Spiritual Realm, the first requirement was that the person possessing the Key to the Spiritual Realm must have Ling family blood.
Secondly, to open it, a large amount of spiritual energy from heaven and earth was needed to activate this Spiritual Realm.
The third condition for opening it was the need for some external force to activate it.
Originally, with Ling Tian alone, it would have taken him many years of cultivation and accumulation of a large amount of spiritual energy to activate the Key to the Spiritual Realm.
As a result, he encountered Luo Ran. Luo Ran's wooden plaque was called the "Beast Taming Spiritual Plaque."
This plaque also contained a small Sumeru Mustard Seed Space, but its functions were far inferior, only capable of holding living creatures like animals.
Moreover, this space also contained a large amount of spiritual energy from heaven and earth.
When these two items came close, the Key to the Spiritual Realm sensed the vast spiritual energy on the wooden plaque and its similar Sumeru Mustard Seed Space attribute.
Thus, the Key to the Spiritual Realm inexplicably devoured the energy from the wooden plaque.
With the influx of a large amount of spiritual energy and the plaque's inherent properties, the remaining two activation conditions were met.
Coupled with Ling Tian being of Ling family blood and possessing the Ling family lineage, the Key to the Spiritual Realm was activated, opening the Spiritual Realm!