Read Hero of Hearts Chapter 7490 The Journey Home.

Charlie never expected that after exploring almost the entire underground city without finding any cultivation materials, he would find a large number of spiritual stones inside the ring Maria gave him!

It is no exaggeration to say that the number is very large, because Charlie carefully counted them, and there were more than two thousand spiritual stones of various sizes in total!

Moreover, Charlie discovered that without exception, all of these spiritual stones had extremely high Qi content. Compared to the Peace and Wealth Stone he had previously obtained, the Qi content of the same volume was at least ten or twenty times higher, and some high-grade spiritual stones could even be hundreds of times higher.

Two thousand spirit stones was an astronomical figure for Charlie. It was like an ordinary person who spent less than a hundred yuan a day suddenly receiving hundreds of millions in assets. With so much Qi in front of him, he didn’t even know what he could do with it.

Although the Qi in spiritual stones can be absorbed directly, Charlie realized after visiting this place that absorbing the Qi in spiritual stones directly would be a huge waste of the spiritual stones.

Because spirit stones are more like high-capacity batteries in the world of cultivators, a kind of universal energy source. Using them directly to replenish Qi is actually very uneconomical. It’s like a portable diesel generator that can run anywhere. Although the electricity generated by a diesel generator has a high per-unit cost, it can even save lives in the wilderness or in situations where there’s no electricity. But if you use them to power your own home, it’s clearly not cost-effective.

The best use of spiritual stones is to power arrays with different functions, so that the array can continue to operate even when no one is around.

Moreover, compared to batteries or generators, spiritual stones have a major advantage: they don’t deteriorate or degrade. Unlike batteries, which run out of power after a few years, spiritual stones contain Qi that can be retained indefinitely. This is why such teleportation arrays can continue operating for thousands of years.

Charlie couldn’t help but sigh. It was a shame he didn’t know much about formations. As an introductory cultivation method, the Nine Profound Heavens Scripture didn’t mention many formations, and most of them were quite basic. For example, the formations used in the Lightning Token and the Soul-Piercing Sword were mentioned, but there were no records of concealment formations, protection formations, or even teleportation formations.

However, for Charlie, it didn’t matter if he hadn’t yet grasped the secrets of this formation. Possessing this spirit stone was tantamount to possessing a large amount of rare cultivation resources. If he took good care of this spirit stone, it would certainly be useful in the future.

As for daily cultivation and Qi replenishment, one could come here to cultivate at any time through the teleportation array. Not only would the spiritual energy be limitless, but cultivation speed would also increase greatly. If one could seclude themselves here for a period of time, opening the Niwan Palace might not be a major issue.

If Maria, Yun Rugo, and Song Ruyu weren’t still waiting for him at the research station in Northern Europe, Charlie would have wanted to stay here for a month to experience it first.

After thinking about this, Charlie began to ponder two things: first, whether he should tell others about the secret of this place; second, if the first conclusion was yes, whether he would be able to get others to join him.

Based on the first question, the only person that came to Charlie’s mind right now that he didn’t need to worry about was Maria.

With such a shocking secret, the only person Charlie can truly trust is Maria. This trust isn’t just about whether he can keep it a secret, but also whether he can adapt to it.

Take Claire, for example. Even if she hadn’t left and I believed her, especially since she was completely unreachable now, she would probably have a very hard time adjusting to such a shocking event.

As for Yun Rugo and Song Ruyu, they were both cultivators, so adapting to this secret shouldn’t be a problem for them, but Charlie still didn’t dare to trust them completely.

Therefore, Charlie quickly concluded that this secret could only be shared with Maria for now, and he would try to involve Maria if he had the chance.

As for the others, we will keep them secret for now and will decide on the date at a later date depending on the situation.

After that, Charlie wanted to continue exploring the other levels of the Four Directions Pagoda, but when he tried to exit through the windows around the pagoda, he found that the windows also had invisible barriers that he could not pass through, and therefore he could not leave the pagoda through the windows.

However, Charlie didn’t know which floor the pagoda was on. He only knew that there were no stairs or entrances leading up or down, which confused him. Upon arrival, he was teleported here by a teleportation array that suddenly appeared in the Sanqing Palace. However, the nine teleportation arrays here all corresponded to places outside of Antarctica. He could travel to these nine places, located on different continents and countries, but he couldn’t go outside this square pagoda.

Just as Charlie was confused, a detailed map suddenly appeared in his mind. The map depicted an underground city, and eighteen teleportation arrays were marked on it, each corresponding to a mental cultivation spell.

It was through this map that Charlie discovered that the Four Directions Pagoda had nine floors, each with a teleportation array, and there was also a teleportation array beneath the plaza.

In addition, there were teleportation arrays in the Sanqing Hall and other important public areas in the city. What surprised Charlie even more was the existence of another teleportation array on the ground at an altitude of 1,000 meters.

In other words, if you leave the Four Corners Pagoda and want to go out, you don’t have to go back the same way you came.

This relieved Charlie, as the exit was again on a cliff dozens of feet high. With Charlie’s current cultivation level, it wouldn’t be difficult to climb down without the aid of a flying sword or other magical artifact, but it would be extremely difficult to jump dozens of feet high.

It’s likely that the cultivators who lived here previously were all extremely skilled. For them, this height, if not as easy as walking on flat ground, should be as easy as climbing stairs.

Furthermore, the stone walls were so finely carved, there were almost no places to hold on to. The possibility of climbing up or jumping up was practically nil. If there wasn’t a teleportation array to reach the ground directly, at least some holes had to be carved out for climbing.

But now everything is much simpler.

Charlie recited the spell silently, and a moment later, he found himself on a layer of ice on the ground, surrounded by golden light, as if he was inside a glass dome filled with golden light.

At this moment, another clue appeared in Charlie’s mind, allowing him to instantly understand the purpose of the golden light. It turned out that this teleportation array was different from the nine teleportation points corresponding to the Bagua diagram. The teleportation arrays corresponding to those nine teleportation points were almost all hidden within caves deep in the mountains, and these caves were protected by formations so that they would not be seen by those who did not know the truth just because they had just been teleported.

However, the teleportation array in the Antarctic ice sheet lacks the protection of a cave. Therefore, this golden light is actually a protective mechanism. While you’re inside this golden light, you can’t see yourself or the golden light from the outside. It’s like isolation and protection. After ensuring there’s no danger, you can exit this golden light and enter the outside environment.

Charlie looked around and realized that this was the place where he and Bolin had fought. There was no one, not even a penguin, around, so there was no risk of being discovered. So he walked out of the golden light.

After emerging from the golden light, Charlie looked back and saw that everything had completely disappeared. However, he knew that the teleportation array was right there. He only needed to stand there and silently recite an incantation to go to one of the 17 arrays.