Zhang Ruochen was even faster. By the time Amazing Little Taoist had arrived, the piece of turtle shell was already in his hand.
"Give it to me!"
Amazing Little Taoist turned into a beam of purple light and flew towards Zhang Ruochen's palm, wanting to snatch it away.
"Whoosh-"
Zhang Ruochen flashed away and appeared at the entrance of Taoist Garden.
Immediately after, Zhang Ruochen took out another piece of the turtle shell from his Spatial Ring and compared the two pieces. It turned out that the two pieces could actually be pieced together.
The only difference was that the piece of turtle shell from the Saint Tree was bigger.
"It has the same material, and both had people carving out shapes and glyphs on it. It should have been one piece originally, and were all originally on the Purple-Gold Bagua Mirror." Zhang Ruochen mumbled to himself.
"Gimme!"
Amazing Little Taoist jumped on him again, with exceeding speeds.
But it was all in vain as Zhang Ruochen teleported away again.
After this repeated a dozen of times, Amazing Little Taoist didn't even manage to catch Zhang Ruochen's shadow. Amazing Little Taoist frustratedly declared, "Zhang Ruochen! If you do not give the two pieces of turtle shell to me, we cannot even remain as friends! You know how high my cultivation is."
At this moment, Amazing Little Taoist's palms clenched into a fist that was about the size of a goose egg. It was as though showing off his muscles.
Zhang Ruochen took out Time and Space Secret Guide, and asked. "Do we really have to fight?"
Seeing that, Amazing Little Taoist instantly deflated, and tried to defuse the conflict, "I merely wanted to take a look. You know how my spells and cultivation all came from that piece of turtle shell. If I was able to take a look at the other piece, it might very well allow me to breakthrough to the next stage of cultivation. With our relationship, is that even a problem?"
"I remember our relationship is just merely that of cooperation."
Pausing for a while, Zhang Ruochen continued, "That piece of turtle shell from you will be returned to you after we leave the Taoist Garden. But the piece just now was obtained by me. Whether I want to lend it to you for viewing will entirely depend on my mood."
Amazing Little Taoist righteously proclaimed, "Zhang Ruochen, listen to me. Show me the turtle shell and I will check for its authenticity. I am a Taoist, will I lie to you on this? My cultivation is many times that of yours. I take no interest in lying to a small fry like you. PAss it over. I am really just gonna check it for you and will return you once I am done checking."
Zhang Ruochen rolled his eyes, and stated, "I think, since we could find one in the Saint Tree. Perhaps there will be more pieces around here."
Zhang Ruochen also released his Spiritual Power to investigate, but strangely, this place was rather weird. Any object seemed to be able to block his spiritual power, rendering him to be unable to penetrate beyond the surface to investigate.
It was even worse for underground.
Like a streak of purple light, Amazing Little Taoist dashed around in the Tao Garden. Soon he flipped the entire place upside down, but didn't obtain anything.
And neither did Zhang Ruochen.
"Whatever, we should leave this place. If King Flame and Queen Ling from the Yin Yang Field are here, we would be in a lot of trouble." Zhang Ruochen keep eyeing the surroundings, worried about an ambush.
Amazing Little Taoist seemed to be still hung up over the turtle shell, and said, "You go first. Since there appeared one piece of turtle shell, there could definitely be other pieces. I must find it even if I raze this Tao Garden to the ground."
Amazing Little Taoist dashed to the exterior of the Tao Garden and started to find again.
Zhang Ruochen said, "You are a Hundred-thousand years Saint Medicine. If you land in their hands, even if you are not immediately consumed, you would be brewed into a Saint Pill. Are you sure you don't want to leave?"
"Whatever King and Queen you were talking about, are they really that strong? With my overwhelming cultivation, how could I fear them? Go, go, if you are really scared, just leave now. I will keep searching for it."
Zhang Ruochen felt that he was a bit too concerned by the pieces of turtle shell, and said casually, "There should be other uses to the pieces of turtle shell."
"How did you know?"
Just as he said it, Amazing Little Taoist realized that he let the cat out of the bag.
Zhang Ruochen smiled, "Tell me what is the other ways of using it. Maybe I will stay behind and look for it with you."
"Did you think I am stupid? Secrets are only secrets when only I know about it."
Amazing Little Taoist did not speak much more. He dashed into nearby ruins and continued the search.
But just as he dashed in, an explosion occurred.
Even the earth around seemed to be shaking slightly from the explosion.
Smoking, Amazing Little Taoist came out with his body covered in soot, and shrieked, "Even in this pieces of ruins, there exist ancient inscriptions of Battle Formation. Luckily, I am alert enough and was only struck by one of the attacks before being able to escape. If I was completely caught within…. Ouch, it hurts..."
"Since this used to be a holy place of the Taoist people, it naturally would be dangerous to randomly dash around."
Amazing Little Taoist asked, "Why are you still here?"
Zhang Ruochen rubbed his chin as he observed the medicine plants growing on the Five Elements Soil, and mumbled, "Strange, how strange."
Amazing Little Taoist felt a bit nervous by that mumbling, and asked, "What happened?"
Zhang Ruochen replied, "This is a very dangerous place, thus very few people can come here. Furthermore, this place is filled with Five Elements Soil, so logically there should be many ancient medicinal plants growing here. Even those of tens of thousands of age should not be rare. But look here, there are plants here that do not seem to really be that old, and we could not even find a single plant that is over twenty thousand years old. Isn't that strange by itself?"
Amazing Little Taoist felt it was not strange at all, and instead lambasted him, "Didn't you say that whatever King and Queen could be around? Maybe, they were the ones who had taken the plants before this."
Zhang Ruochen shook his head, and said, "Within the Five Elements Soil, there exist extremely dangerous Battle Formations. Even though King Flame and Queen Ling are powerful, they are still very vulnerable to these Formations. Thus, they are definitely not the ones who took the plants away."
"Then, where do you think those plants went to?"
Just as he asked that, Amazing Little Taoist had a bold hypothesis, and cheered, "Great, that could be amazing. Are you saying that in the bottom of the Tao Garden, there are some ancient bodies buried. They were the ones who had climbed out from underground and ate those Saint Plants?"
Zhang Ruochen replied, "Such could indeed be possible. But even if they climb out from underneath, the first plant they would eat would probably be you, the Hundred-thousand Years Saint Plant."
Amazing Little Taoist seemed to be really fearful of that, and with his legs trembling, he whispered, "Zhang Ruochen, maybe… we should leave..?"
"BOOM"
An explosion echoed from afar. And instantly a pair of powerful Yin Yang forces shoot up into the sky like a beacon.
Amazing Little Taoist was terrified, his legs softened and sat on the ground, and exclaimed, "Zhang Ruochen, quick! Bring me away from here. I don't want to be eaten by an undead."
"What are you howling about?"
Zhang Ruochen stared at him.
Amazing Little Taoist immediately shut up, and looked around. After noticing that there were no undead around, he heaved a sigh of relief. Then he wondered, "Two streams of cold and hot wind just blew past, what happened?"
"It must be King Flame and Queen Ling."
Zhang Ruochen's gaze turned to the direction of the explosion, and solemnly explained, "After receiving Yuwen Jing's call for help, why did they not rush here to rescue him?"
Amazing Little Taoist stood up again, and after dusting off his pants, coldly said, "Perhaps, they were really collecting Saint Plants."
"Clang!"
In the direction of the explosion, suddenly, a bright beam of Saintly Light shot out. Zhang Ruochen and Amazing Little Taoist quickly closed their eyes.
The entire Tao Garden seemed to be encased by a white ball of light.
After a short while, the white light finally seemed to subside.
Amazing Little Taoist's mouth was left agape by what had just happened and asked, "What kind of treasure was that? Zhang Ruochen, did you see?"
Zhang Ruochen shook his head, "Let's go and check it out."
"Didn't you say that King Flame and Queen Ling were two masters? If we go over there, will we be their opponent?" Amazing Little Taoist seemed to be worried.
"Even if we can't defeat them, we should still be able to run away."
Zhang Ruochen was rather curious, what kind of treasure must it be for King Flame and Queen Ling to cast aside the survival of Yuwen Jing?
Activating the Twelve Emperor Buddha Beads to conceal their presence, the duo quickly arrived at a ruin that was a few acres in size.
Within the ruin, there were still sounds of explosions.
At the same time, that blinding white light was also transmitted intermittently outwards.
Entering the ruin and hiding behind a broken wall, Zhang Ruochen finally say the figure of King Flame and Queen Ling.
Each of them controlled 4 pieces of Divine Bones that were each the side of a small house, and created a Yin Yang Life and Death Formation. Within the Formation, a pristine snow white rabbit was trapped.
The rabbit was about seven meters across in size, and was round and plump. It had a size larger than that of an elephant, and emitted a jade white light from its body.
Amazing Little Taoist was trembling excitedly, and tried his best not to make any sounds.
Only after half a minute did he turn around and transmitted a thought to Zhang Ruochen, "It's a Saint Jade Emperor… A Saint Jade Emperor !"
"That rabbit is the legendary Saint Jade Emperor?" Zhang Ruochen was rather surprised.
Amazing Little Taoist nodded, and replied, "It must be! It's real form is a piece of Saint Jade Emperor . I understood why the older plants are all missing! They must all be eaten by this! That's why it is so powerful."
Saint Jades had many different levels: Saint Jade, Saint Jade Marrow, and Saint Jade Marrow Essence.
Saint Jade Marrow Essence was also known as a Jade Spirit, and possessed some consciousness.
As long as it continued to absorb Saint Qi and Essence from the world, its cultivation will increase. Once it reached a high enough level, it would be called the Saint Jade Lord.
The cultivation of the Saint Jade Lord was comparable to that of a Saint King.
And above that would be the Saint Jade Emperor.
Zhang Ruochen shook his head, and said, "The cultivation of a Saint Jade Emperor would be comparable to a Supreme Saint. If that rabbit is really a Saint Jade Emperor, just a tinge of its Saint Might would be able to hold off King Flame and Queen Ling. How could it be trapped?"
Amazing Little Taoist said, "This is the God-naming Platform. Even if Saint Jade Marrow Essence could reach Saint Jade Emperor, it does not have any spells or cultivation techniques to use. Even with its high cultivation level, it did not learn how to release the full might of its power. It is like a Tiger that was raised like a sheep with its teeth and claws taken away. It could only be bullied by others."