However, instead of going directly to the sea from the nearest pier to the sea, Daotong led them to the interior of the island. According to Daotong, there are few people on the other side of the island, and launching from that side is not too shocking. It is said that when Tian Xu and Ziyan went to the island, they had already caused a sensation among tourists near the pier, and the later Guanyin apparition made the believers crazy, and the vicinity of the pier at this time was indeed not a good place to go into the water.

The three of them crossed the island, crossed a saddle between the island's two peaks, and walked towards the opposite sea.

When he was on the way down the mountain after turning over the saddle, Tian Xu's keen sense of smell felt the changes in the aura here. Just as they were traveling, on the island where the aura was already abundant, the aura was getting stronger and stronger. Not only that, but these auras seem to be flowing slowly along a certain trajectory, which is completely counterintuitive.

The way this aura flowed was somewhat similar to the aura flow he felt when he watched Xu Jingyi's tribulation, which made him curious.

He looked around, exploring the source and destination of the aura flow, and soon discovered that the beginning and end of the aura flow were a pile of rocks. What made him the strangest was that these two piles of stones were ordinary bluestones, not treasures such as spirit jade.

Seeing Tian Xu stop, Ziyan and Daotong also stopped. They didn't have such powerful senses as Tian Xu, although they could distinguish the change in the concentration of the aura, and even feel the flow of aura, they couldn't see the whole picture of this flow.

Tian Xu ignored his questioning gaze and continued to observe the two piles of stones from a distance. He believed that the stone was certainly not the fundamental driving force for the flow of aura, because the flowing aura always had a source and a place to go.

When his olfactory image extended beyond the two piles of stones, he found that the stones were not really the beginning and the end, but just two transit stations for the flow of aura, which came from farther away and went farther away, only turning a small angle at the two stones, and constantly extracting the aura from the surrounding environment and merging into this aura.

And further afield, similar piles of stones exist.

"This is a spirit gathering formation!" Tian Xu can basically make a judgment, there are masters who have set up a spirit gathering formation here to extract the spiritual energy in the environment and use it for cultivation or other purposes.

Tian Xu was on this island, and in order to avoid disrespect for the power on the island, he did not use olfactory imaging on a large scale. At this time, driven by curiosity, his olfactory image spread out, and he quickly sketched the outline of this large spirit gathering array with a radius of several kilometers and composed of more than forty piles of stones.

The most peculiar thing about this Spirit Gathering Array is that these more than forty piles of stones form a ring, and the aura is not finally pointed to any position in this formation, but only rotates around the formation. In other words, the aura in this formation is only in and out. From the point of view of the conservation of matter, this conclusion is obviously not scientific.

Tian Xu's curiosity was aroused. This formation is too special, it can form a formation with ordinary stones, and it only inhales the spiritual energy, and the total amount of this spiritual qi flow is not strong, it is really too beyond the common sense of cultivation.

Ziyan didn't care about Tian Xu stopping, but at this time, Tian Xu noticed Daotong's searching gaze, so he didn't stay anymore, and walked forward, continuing to observe the formation as he walked, looking for the whereabouts of the gathered aura.

Until he was about to walk to the beach, Tian Xu did not find the whereabouts of the aura absorbed in this spirit gathering array, as if these aura were directly absorbed by the pile of stones used as a formation weapon.

Tian Xu was even more curious now, and focused his olfactory imaging on a pile of stones to observe, and finally found some abnormalities.

He noticed that in the shadows beneath the rubble of the stone pile, some low grass grew. Perhaps it can't be said to be a small grass, which is a moss-like plant. This plant is as short as ordinary moss, only a little more than a centimeter high, brownish-black, not as dense as ordinary moss, one in the east and one in the west, and grows quite sparsely. Tian Xu estimated that there were less than a hundred in this stone pile.

The surface characteristics of this plant are between stone and soil, there is almost no water, it is similar to a dry state, and there is no special smell, so that Tian Xu almost ignores their existence.

However, after Tian Xu's olfactory imaging turned on the inverted color mode, he found that these plants were slowly absorbing the aura.

Through further observation, Tian Xu found that the function of this stone pile as a formation weapon also seems to rely on this dwarf plant.

At the same time, Tian Xu learned another even more unbelievable fact: while these plants absorb aura, they are also constantly absorbing the signals of the five senses from the outside world!

Tian Xu shifted his attention to another pile of stones, and sure enough, he also found the same plant. He searched the rest of the mountain, but there was no sign of the small plant. He could already confirm that this dwarf plant was the key to this peculiar Spirit Gathering Array.

He looked closely at the tiny plants and saw that they were lying in the shadows beneath the stones, growing clinging to them. While breathing aura, he secretly observed the situation in the outside world, trying to hide the traces of his existence.

Tian Xu didn't know if these plants grew naturally or if someone planted them on purpose, but since they were able to gather spirits like this, at least they were dominated by intelligent beings. If it was said that such an exquisite spirit gathering array could be formed by relying entirely on coincidence, he would not believe it if he was killed.

The structure of these plants is also very different from ordinary plants, its body is composed of components similar to rocks, and there is no growth structure of ordinary plants inside the body, and the water content is much lower than that of ordinary plants, so it can be perfectly hidden on the stone. A term that he learned when he was in college suddenly jumped out of Tian Xu's mind - silicon-based life! Is this alien life?

Through further observation, Tian Xu found that although these plants were absorbing aura, there was no trace of aura left in their tiny bodies, and he didn't know where the aura they absorbed was hidden.

Tian Xu's curiosity was completely aroused.

He paused again, thought for a moment, and then turned and walked towards a nearby pile of rocks. He didn't move the stones, just looked at the amazing plants up close.

Closer, he could see the plant firsthand: brown, dwarf but very stout. Although only a little over a centimeter tall, the diameter of the root is as thick as a normal signature refill. An unforked single stem has four or five leaves the size of a mung bean, and the leaves are gray.

The whole plant was clearly displayed in front of Tian Xu's eyes, except for the peculiar color and no obvious signs of vitality, the rest of the plant was basically very similar to ordinary bryophytes.

Tian Xu touched it lightly, and the hard and rough feel startled him! This thing did not have the soft touch of ordinary plants at all, and it was like a stone to the touch. Just by this feel, it is enough to show that this is not an ordinary plant.

He looked closely, no, it wasn't an inanimate mineral, it was a plant, and on one of the rocks, there were two apparently juvenile juveniles. One plant is only half the height of the ordinary, and the main stem is much thinner, with only two leaves on it. The other, which was smaller, had just sprouted from the stones, only a little the size of a grain of rice, and the first leaf had just raised a little from the main trunk, and it was only slightly shaped.

In the vicinity of these two larvae, the aura absorbed by other plants is converging towards these two larvae. Under the stimulation of the aura, the plant selectively extracts some substances from the slightly damp stones, flows into the plant's body through some microtubule structures in its body, and part is absorbed by the plant, and the other part is expelled from the side of the plant as waste and falls under their feet. When other adult plants were observed, a similar process of material exchange with the stones they were attached to was found, a metabolic process that only living organisms have!

Metabolism is a typical feature that distinguishes living organisms from non-living organisms, and it is the existence of this metabolic mechanism that proves that this is real life.

Tian Xu's realm quietly activated, and after a more detailed observation of these plants, he found that these plants had no roots. Their surface has a hard crust similar in composition to epiphytic rocks and fused together. There is a small amount of water inside, creating an acidic environment that corrodes the epiphytic rocks into a hole that communicates with their inner cavities, and the nutrients they need come from the rocks they dissolve.

Similar to normal plants, their leaves also have stomata on them, except that these stomata are not used for breathing, but for expelling useless mineral powders. The excreted mineral powder accumulates in the roots of these plants, forming a thin layer that looks like soil.

Tian Xu's divine sense swept over these soils, and unexpectedly found that these soils were actually rich in aura, and he instantly understood that these plants absorbed aura, which could help them metabolize, and the waste products produced by their metabolism were combined with aura, and were expelled from the body under the action of aura, and piled up under their feet. The particles of these powders are extremely fine, and they have a porous structure inside, and their cavities are filled with aura.

There seemed to be a hidden formation covering these powders, which blinded Tian Xu's olfactory imaging scan at a slightly greater distance, and it was not discovered by him until he was close.

At this moment, a prompt sound of "Ding!" sounded in Tian Xu's mind, and the elixir spectrum was automatically activated, prompting the elixir found:

Chalcedony, 0-33977, a heavenly elixir, a pure fire elixir.