Beneath the crimson remnants of the setting sun, the broken temple stood among the desolate grasses as if time had come to a complete halt.
The main structure of the temple was incomplete, with most of the architecture weathered into dust over the long course of time, its beams cracked, and the wood turned to sand.
Chu Zheng sidled into the temple, activating his Spiritual Eye, and cautiously observed his surroundings.
There were no arrays, no traces of battle, no special fluctuations of spiritual energy, and the occasional pop-up information on the panel was about exceedingly common objects.
After scanning the area, Chu Zheng turned his gaze towards the broken divine statue seated high upon the sacred platform.
The statue was a shade of teal-gray, with its upper half shattered, only the broad hem of its robes visible, the lines simple yet rugged.
Chu Zheng examined it for a while, and promptly the panel sent a prompt.
[Incomplete Divine Statue (Fifth Order/Incomplete): The golden body of a powerful being, fashioned more than 740,000 years ago. It lost contact with the outside world due to the closure of heaven and earth, gradually lost its divine powers, and covered in dust over the long years. It can be restored (0/1000) (Details)]
[Detailed Information: Ancestral Dao Statue, once revered with the incense of myriad spirits, after the seal of heaven and earth, it was tainted by heretic qi, underwent a mutation, and exhausted its divine powers to resist the corruption of heretic qi. After restoration, paying homage in accordance with the rites of the Taoist School could gain the blessings of the Ancestral Dao.]
Ancestral Dao Statue?
Chu Zheng's eyes suddenly sharpened; this seemingly unremarkable ruin of a temple was actually dedicated to an ancestor of the Taoist School.
For a moment, he couldn't be sure if this was the same ancestor Ji Yuyan had mentioned to him previously at the Immortal Martial Battlefield.
Chu Zheng moved closer, pinched the dust under the statue, and his expression subtly changed.
He detected a faint and abnormal qi, very similar to the heretic qi that seeped from the spatial passage above the Giant Marsh.
Perhaps it was the erosion of this heretic qi that had caused the statue to collapse.
What shocked him even more was that the statue was made from the most ordinary clay, devoid of any spiritual energy, but its quality was so high that it certainly defied common sense.
By the side of the statue, there was a broken piece of curtain, at which Chu Zheng looked a few times, his expression unsuppressedly moved.
Embroidered with cranes and auspicious clouds at the top of the curtain, although faded, it was still possible to make out traces that implied it was not a magic artifact, but a hand-embroidered item, with exquisite workmanship.
In his past life, he had also seen countless treasures passed down from ancient times, and this piece belonged in the high-quality category, no less superior to the top-notch famous embroideries.
However, no matter how extraordinary the embroidery, it was just an ordinary item.
Everything in this ruined temple was utterly ordinary, except for this one divine statue, not even a single entry-stage spiritual object was present.
It was hard to imagine that a true Ancestral Dao Golden Body was enshrined here.
Calming his thoughts, Chu Zheng stood up and began to restore the temple. A Golden Body of the Ancestral Dao lay before him, and it was clearly inappropriate to ignore it.
Furthermore, a divine statue of such a high quality as Fifth Order, could bring him some new insights once restored.
According to the panel's prompt, one could receive the blessings of the Ancestral Dao after restoration.
However, now that this region of heaven and earth had been sealed, it was still questionable whether the blessings could be conferred upon him.
As he restored the temple, Chu Zheng couldn't help speculating in his mind.
The moment he stepped into the secret realm, he found this broken temple.
He practiced the Qi-refining Technique of the Taoist School, and the fact that he just so happened to encounter a temple dedicated to an Ancestor of the school seemed too coincidental.
For Chu Zheng, the only explanation was that the secret realm, based on the Qi-refining Technique he practiced, deliberately transported him here.
If it were an Immortal Path Cultivator, they might have ended up in a place with an opportunity to connect with the Immortal Path.
If this speculation were true, then this secret realm undoubtedly concealed enormous secrets.
This piece of heaven and earth might possibly be sentient.
If this conclusion were correct, then it was not so strange that Shang Cangyun could receive the inheritance of the Immortal King back then.
An opportunity right in front of him was not to be missed.
Chu Zheng sorted through the thoughts in his mind, his hands continuing to move as he cleared all the wild grass within a hundred yards. In just a short moment, under the repair feature of the panel, the broken temple was revitalized, spotlessly clean.
Green bricks and tiles, beams as red as blood, the sacred platform was immaculate, with only the half-ruined divine statue looking somewhat out of place.
The newly restored plaque in front of the door bore only two gilt words: 'Dao Palace,' simple and clear.
With the current daily repair limit of twenty times, the statue could be restored in a mere fifty days, more than enough time.
After exhausting the twenty repair attempts for the day on the panel, Chu Zheng left the Dao Palace, took out the Cangyun Secret Realm Map given to him by Geng Yiyang, and began to ascertain his location.
With such a vast secret realm before him, and so much time, it would be a pity to waste it just sitting idle.
On the Cangyun Secret Realm Map, the explored area already spanned millions of miles.
There, the regions were divided into three categories, marked by black, red, and gold colors, and on this map, Geng Yiyang thoughtfully provided explanations.
The gold symbolized regions where opportunities related to the Immortal Path had appeared, red indicated traces of the Heretic Path, and black represented dangerous areas where one should not tread.
Beyond these three types of regions, the outer perimeter of the entire map, as well as some areas, were shrouded in a mist.
These were lands yet to be touched by anyone, or rather, areas the Taixuan Holy Land did not understand.
Geng Yiyang's map was considered outdated compared to what the other great Holy Lands had.