Chapter 23 : The Trial of the Space Ancestral Symbol

"The trial begins, catch the spatial ancestral symbol," the voice of the ancestor resonates once again.

As the virtual image of Zhou Zongxiao dissipates, Zhou Tong slowly closes his eyes. Elemental force swiftly surges from the seed of elemental force within him, transforming his figure into a shadow that rushes towards the spatial ancestral symbol, resembling a silver mirror.

Upon entering the mirrored space created by the spatial ancestral symbol, Zhou Tong's figure is enveloped in silver light. At this moment, a silver stone symbol appears in front of Zhou Tong, suspended in the air. Upon careful observation, the stone symbol is covered in dense and peculiar symbols, appearing profoundly mysterious, as if it contains some inexplicable power.

Staring at the stone symbol, a strong desire wells up in Zhou Tong's heart. He extends his right hand, intending to grab the stone symbol. However, in an instant, the symbol disappears, hovering several meters away in the air, flickering wildly.

Buzzing sounds echo as the stone symbol continuously trembles, intermittently glowing and dimming.

"Huh?" Zhou Tong expresses surprise.

"The spatial ancestral symbol truly deserves to be a spiritual object of heaven and earth; it even exhibits resistance!" Zhou Tong furrows his brows, continuously contemplating countermeasures.

"This trial is quite interesting. I'd like to see what extraordinary capabilities you, spatial ancestral symbol, truly possess!" Zhou Tong watches the scene with great interest. He is well aware of the formidable power of the spatial ancestral symbol; his ancestor used it to resist otherworldly forces, indicating its terrifying capabilities.

This situation persists for a long time. Zhou Tong continuously employs movement techniques but still fails to touch even a corner of the spatial ancestral symbol. Time seems to pass for an extended period, and Zhou Tong loses track of it in this endless mirrored space. Despite continuous attempts, all that awaits him is failure.

...

A figure continuously leaps in the space, and Zhou Tong watches the spatial ancestral symbol. Every time he thinks he can touch it, all that remains is a phantom in his hand.

"It seems that simply chasing after it won't catch the ancestral symbol. I need to think of another way." Zhou Tong thinks to himself.

After another failed attempt to capture, Zhou Tong sits cross-legged in space to restore his elemental force. An hour later, Zhou Tong tightly closes his eyes, contemplating a solution.

After a moment, Zhou Tong opens his eyes. They shimmer with silver light. Without standing up to capture, he remains seated, using his spiritual power to perform the Void Shadow Body Technique. However, each time his spiritual power separates from his body, it shatters in less than a breath.

After an unknown period, when Zhou Tong uses the body technique again, the silver light of the detached phantom flashes as if gaining consciousness. The phantom condenses into a real shadow and slowly approaches the spatial ancestral symbol. When the right hand of the real shadow touches the spatial ancestral symbol, time in the entire space seems to come to a standstill. Zhou Tong only feels a blackness before him, and the spatial illusion dissipates.

The spatial silver mirror shatters, turning into streams of silver light, gathering in front of him. They converge into an ancient silver rune, quietly suspended. Faintly, there is a blurry figure on the rune, the image of the ancestor.

Looking at the ancient rune, a tired smile slowly appears on Zhou Tong's face. He knows he has succeeded; this is the symbol spirit of the spatial ancestral symbol. Being able to see the symbol spirit means he has gained the recognition of the spatial ancestral symbol.

Zhou Tong looks at the spatial ancestral symbol, bows respectfully to the ancestor's figure, and extends his right hand to gently touch the symbol. Immediately, the figure inside the symbol transforms into the appearance of the ancestor Zhou Zongxiao.

As the symbol spirit transforms into the ancestor's figure, the runes from the symbol float out and hover over Zhou Tong's chest, eventually entering it.

Boom!

As the spatial ancestral symbol enters Zhou Tong's chest, a powerful spatial force erupts from him. Under the surging force, countless silver threads appear in the starry sky, tearing through space, causing stars to shatter, creating a terrifying scene.

Meanwhile, Zhou Tong sits amidst numerous fragments of space, his body motionless.

At the moment the symbol spirit enters Zhou Tong's body, a tremendous change occurs inside his Niwan Palace. The empty Niwan Palace, which was devoid of anything, instantly converges into a spiritual power rune, engraved in the Niwan Palace.

Buzzing!

At the location where the life spirit rune gathers, a formidable spatial force slowly emerges, spreading out.

Under such spatial force, the spatial ancestral symbol suddenly releases an extremely powerful spiritual power. This spiritual power, seemingly inherent to the spatial ancestral symbol, now continuously pours into Zhou Tong's Niwan Palace.

Accompanied by such a powerful infusion of spiritual power, Zhou Tong's Niwan Palace is almost immediately filled with refined spiritual power. He can feel his spiritual power rapidly increasing at a terrifying speed!

Under this turbulent and surging spiritual power, the spiritual power within Zhou Tong's Niwan Palace rapidly grows stronger. A formidable spiritual power also slowly emanates from Zhou Tong's body. Not only that, Zhou Tong also senses that, under the nourishment of spiritual power, his elemental force is becoming stronger and gradually shows signs of a breakthrough.

As for Zhou Tong himself, he gradually enters a state of intense cultivation. His consciousness involuntarily immerses itself, as if entering a mysterious realm.

...

Time passes, and in the blink of an eye, several more days have gone by.

On this day, Zhou Tong slowly wakes up. In these two days of cultivation, he has transformed from a martial artist who had no understanding of spiritual power into a two-seal symbol master! It's worth noting that this level of strength is comparable to an expert in the small Yuan Dan realm.

Zhou Tong suddenly opens his eyes, and brilliance radiates from them. His pupils are profound, constantly shimmering with silver light.

"Phew!"

Zhou Tong exhales a breath, and his lips curl slightly. "Finally succeeded!"

As he speaks, ripples of space spread across Zhou Tong's body. A silver light curtain appears on the surface of his body. This silver light curtain envelops his entire person, making his figure elusive, as if he has merged with space.

Zhou Tong lowers his head to look at the silver light curtain on his body, filled with joy. He murmurs, "My body technique should have reached the perfect state of the first layer!"

This silver light curtain is created by Zhou Tong, combining the power of the spatial ancestral symbol. Although it simply protects his body, even a martial artist in the Heavenly Yuan realm would find it challenging to harm it in the slightest.

Zhou Tong looks up at the ancient rune, extends his right palm, and slowly presses down. Suddenly, the ancient rune, as if summoned, drills out from Zhou Tong's palm and enters his mind.

In the next moment, the ancient rune integrates into Zhou Tong's mind, and a vast amount of memories is transmitted into Zhou Tong's consciousness.

"What's this?" Zhou Tong looks at the information in his mind with awe.

It's an explanation of the spatial ancestral symbol, indicating that besides guarding the spatial barrier, it also possesses the power to control space.

"The spatial ancestral symbol actually has the ability to traverse space..." Zhou Tong is excited. He quickly checks the information about traversing space but realizes that with his current strength, he cannot use it yet. Zhou Tong reluctantly puts away the spatial ancestral symbol and prepares to leave this space.

When Zhou Tong circulates his elemental power, he is pleasantly surprised to find an Elemental Dan inside his body. This is something only martial artists in the Elemental Dan realm can condense.

"This... could it be that I've reached the Elemental Dan realm?"