Thinking of those fractured memories from the Yun Zou Sect that he hadn't seen anymore since leaving from there Leng Jin Yu felt another sort of determination rise up within himself.
Yes, he was here to help the crown prince through his trial and make sure that the dragon king wouldn't interfere too much. He had done what he could in that regard. But who said that he couldn't do something for himself, too? This wouldn't hinder him in accomplishing his task.
He kept the Fractured Crystal Leaf, stepped in front of the statue of the man who reminded him of the God of War and put his palms on the shoulders. He had looked at all this from the perspective of a human cultivator. But if these two had been a god and a demon instead, then he naturally couldn't find the same clues from their statues. So, he had to look for the things he had encountered in the Nine Heavens and the demon realm instead.
Leng Jin Yu closed his eyes, took a deep breath and sent some of his spiritual energy out. He didn't find anything at first but he didn't give up that fast. He searched further and finally found a trace of something at the tip of the handle of the sword the statue held.
Leng Jin Yu probed the spot further but couldn't tell what exactly it was. It seemed like a trace of spiritual energy but he couldn't feel any sign of a specific element inside. That shouldn't be. If a human had left this trace, then there would inevitably be some trace of the element the person used. Leng Jin Yu frowned. No, wait. If the person had full spirit veins, then things were different. And, well, trueborn gods had, as far as they could be compared to humans, always full spirit veins.
He sighed. It really was a little strange to investigate something done by a god. After all, he had only lived about two weeks in the Nine Heavens. Sure, he had tried to find out everything he could but that definitely wasn't enough time to get a thorough understanding of them. In most regards, he still thought like a human being and not like the ascended deity he now was.
He slightly furrowed his brows and continued to ponder. If there wasn't just one element involved, then he couldn't rely on this to find changes that had been made by the realm's master. So, what distinguished the handle of the sword from the rest of the statue? There definitely was something there.
He took one hand from the shoulder of the statue and carefully touched the sword handle in the hope of finding another clue. The stone there was just as cold as the part on the statue's shoulders and there was no obvious difference in the spiritual energy, neither in the use of one element nor in the overall level of energy.
Something told him that there was something different though. Well, he wouldn't be able to find it like this. It seemed he'd have to take a risk this time.
Leng Jin Yu took another deep breath and put both of his hands against the handle. He circulated his spiritual energy and made sure to have all six elements equally distributed. Then he carefully inserted a sliver of energy into the stone.
The energy inside the stone instantly reacted. It threw his spiritual energy right back at him and started to whiz around uncontrollably. If this went on, even the stone of the statue might be shattered.
Leng Jin Yu frowned. Just what had happened? It was normal for there to be some reaction but it shouldn't be to this extent. He had only carefully probed the energy inside not fired a large amount at it.
It was too late to regret now though. It was already done. He could only find a way to somehow calm it again. What to do? Maybe the composition of his own energy had been wrong? Maybe it hadn't been as balanced as he thought?
He once again inserted a bit of energy but the result stayed the same. It entered the stone only to clash with a part of the energy already inside. It was thrown the other way in the process but at least it wasn't reflected back at him this time.
Leng Jin Yu's brows knitted further. Why? Why had it been reflected the first time but had now been able to stay inside? That certainly had to do with the energy in the statue. But how?
The spiritual energy inside right now was chaotic so that was probably what had led to the change. So … could it be the spiritual energy had been organized in a specific way before? Might that also be the key to finding the secret realm's core?
Leng Jin Yu lifted one hand and carefully put it onto the statue's torso. He tried to search for some other spot where the spiritual energy felt different while still keeping an eye on the handle of the sword and the energy rampaging inside.
Finally, he found what he had been looking for. There was a spot the size of a fingernail that was different from its surroundings. All the spiritual energy in the statue seemed to be balanced and this part wasn't an exception but it seemed to be cut off from the rest of the energy. The energy of this spot seemed to slowly spin around itself and thus created a small layer where spiritual energy was missing.
Leng Jin Yu's expression slightly eased. A spinning vortex of energy would certainly be able to reflect his spiritual energy. The composition hadn't been the problem. So, in other words … everything seemed to have to do with the movement of the energy.
His hand glided over the surface of the statue, searching for other parts where these kind of little energy whirlpools were present. There were quite a few. Maybe there was even some deeper meaning behind them and their arrangement but he didn't have the time to care about that now. First of all, he had to calm the rampant energy in the sword's handle.
Leng Jin Yu once again placed both his hands against the sword and calmly imbued some energy. This time he steered it into a spiral first and had it form its own vortex in the middle of the handle where he had first felt the original energy.
The rampant spiritual energy shot against it but the smaller strands had no chance to disturb it and were instead sucked into it. Leng Jin Yu made sure that it was stable again and bit by bit the rampant energy was assimilated and it seemed as if nothing had happened at all.
Leng Jin Yu's eyes opened and he took his hands back, his gaze moving up and down on the statue. It might not seem as if anything had happened but since he himself had made sure that the vortex of spiritual energy wasn't further disturbed the little changes hadn't eluded him. There was always some energy drifting away from the vortex when it was stable and other energy was coming in from a different direction. So this vortex, most likely, was connected to the other ones and maybe this connection was the key to controlling this secret realm.
Maybe if he found out more about these vortexes of spiritual energy and how they were connected he would be able to leave here and return to the Yun Zou Sect.