Chapter 214: Chapter 6 Your Wreckage
After entering the cave, they were first met with a long, vertical tunnel going downward.
About a quarter of an hour later, the terrain gradually shifted to a slope, until two diverging paths appeared.
Take the one on the right.
“Wait a minute,” Shi Liuli said as she saw him head towards the right, unable to resist asking, “Didn’t Father give you a jade slip with the map? Aren’t you going to check it first?”
“Senior Sister,” Luo Yan said with resignation, “didn’t we agree to follow my lead?”
“I am following you,” Shi Liuli replied with a sweet smile. “If you say we absolutely must go right, of course, I’ll follow you, but that doesn’t prevent me from asking before you make a decision, right?”
“My answer is,” Luo Yan said as he tossed the jade slip to her, confidently declaring, “the entire map and steps to navigate are all recorded in my mind, so there’s no need to check again.”
Shi Liuli immersed her divine sense into the jade slip, looked carefully, and indeed the path on the right was the correct one.
She obediently returned the jade slip to Luo Yan, her expression somewhat sheepish as she whispered,
“It was just a subconscious feeling that we should take the one on the left…”
“This time we brought a map with us, so let’s not play with your metaphysical hunches, alright?” Luo Yan said decisively.
Shi Liuli fell silent and obediently followed Luo Yan.
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Proceeding to the next three-way intersection, take the middle tunnel;
Proceeding to a bottle-shaped cave chamber, descend to the bottom of the bottle and take the passage with the entrance shaped like a melon seed.
Proceeding to a slope, do not go uphill, but circle around to the back of the slope and take the hidden entrance beside the pile of rubble.
Following the map’s guidance, Luo Yan led Shi Liuli along the route, while he couldn’t help but grumble in his mind once more:
Even though he already knew it, what on earth was this map? Couldn’t they have just surveyed and drawn out a proper path?
After about a day’s effort, Shi Liuli started to feel exhausted—not physically, but moving through stone-walled cave tunnels was incredibly dull and uninteresting.
Understanding her predicament, Luo Yan considerately took a break. After all, with their current pace, they could reach the source of primordial vital energy deep at the bottom of the cave in about twenty-four days, so they had plenty of time to spare.
Shi Liuli let out a cheer, found an open space nearby, and took out the grill and ingredients to start cooking, leaving Luo Yan speechless.
Barbecue at the bottom of the sea, can you believe it? Only Miss Shi could think of something like this!
“If I hadn’t come out with you this time, Junior Brother, where would you get such good meat, huh!” Shi Liuli was still quite proud.
Luo Yan replied helplessly:
“Senior Sister, eating really isn’t a necessity for cultivators.”
“Put down my skewer before you speak!” Shi Liuli said, annoyed.
After the two leisurely finished their barbecue skewers, Miss Shi somehow produced several oddly-shaped fish and continued to roast them on the grill.
“What kind of fish is this?” Luo Yan asked with a frown. “I’ve never seen them before.”
“Caught them near the pile of rubble just now,” said Miss Shi.
You dare to eat fish caught so casually… Luo Yan quickly took one and thoroughly examined it with his divine sense.
Hmm, there were no toxins in the fish, clearly, these deep-sea caverns did not harbor predators that necessitated the evolution of toxic abilities.
The only issue was that it contained a lot of turbulence, with a higher content than that of ordinary meat.
In ancient times, the universe was chaotic and round like an egg. After Pangu created the world, the pure qi rose and the turbid qi sank, simply put, the lower the altitude, the higher the concentration of turbid qi in living beings.
Eating this would definitely cause diarrhea…
Well, no need to stop Miss Shi. It might be good for her to learn a lesson.
Luo Yan calmly ate his grilled meat, watching Miss Shi skillfully grill the fish with degenerated vision, then savored them with relish.
She even kindly offered him one, which Luo Yan declined under the pretext of “not wanting to try new foods.”
“Little Junior Brother, you are really too timid.” Shi Liuli covered her mouth and laughed, “I have already checked with my divine sense. These fish are not poisonous at all.”
Not poisonous means it’s edible? Luo Yan chuckled inwardly and pretended to focus his attention on observing his surroundings.
Hmm?
His expression suddenly changed, and he silently took out the jade slip that recorded the map.
Something isn’t right!
“Ah Jing,” Luo Yan asked in his mind, “there’s something off.”
“What’s wrong?” Kunlun Mirror asked in puzzlement, “Isn’t it exactly the same as what’s recorded on the map?”
“That’s exactly the problem,” Luo Yan frowned deeply, a worried look on his face, “The original version of the map jade slip was left by ancient cultivators and has since been passed down within the Penglai Yuqing sect. Each generation of cultivators would modify and supplement the map based on their actual exploration findings.”
“In fact, since the time gap between each exploration is generally much greater than the occurrence cycle of underwater earthquakes, the terrain explored each time and the routes recorded in the map jade slip always have roughly similar outer pathways, but differing inner pathways—this is also why one cannot rely solely on the map and must remember the way they came.”
“But look, we’ve already ventured this deep, yet it’s exactly the same as recorded on the map jade slip. Isn’t that strange?”
“If you put it that way, indeed it is,” Kunlun Mirror pondered, “Could it be that there just hasn’t been an underwater earthquake between the last exploration and this one? So the terrain here hasn’t changed?”
“The so-called underwater earthquake, which is thought to change the terrain of the Five Qi Dynasty Yuan Cave, is only a conjecture within the sect, without any solid proof,” Luo Yan said with a sigh of concern, “If this place is a mystical domain, and the terrain changes are caused by restrictions of the mystical domain, then why didn’t the terrain change this time? Thinking this way makes it even more troubling.”
“Mystical domain restrictions?” Kunlun Mirror pondered for a moment, “Wait, let me use more spiritual power and scan the surroundings.”
After a while, she suddenly exclaimed in shock:
“No way…”
“What happened?” Luo Yan hurriedly asked.
“At a position right below us…” Kunlun Mirror hesitated, “Though it’s weak, I indeed detected a spatial fluctuation.”
“That fluctuation frequency, it seems… it’s a characteristic of a fragment of my main body.”
“A fragment of your main body is in this cave?” Luo Yan suddenly realized with a start, “So you mean, it has been the fragment of your main body changing the terrain of the Five Qi Dynasty Yuan Cave all along, causing many cultivators to be trapped and die here?”
“Cough, cough.” Kunlun Mirror said awkwardly, “After all, I possess the ability of time and space.”
“Then during this trip to find the Vital Energy vein, let’s also take the opportunity to look for a piece of your ‘corpse,’” Luo Yan had just resolved to do so, when he saw Miss Shi holding her stomach and saying, “Junior Brother, my stomach feels a bit uncomfortable.”
“Would Sister like to go to the adjacent cave to relieve herself?” Luo Yan thought “as expected” inwardly and feigned a look of concern.
[Falsehood persona, Synchronization Value +1.]
“Yeah.” Shi Liuli nodded with a troubled expression, “But, Junior Brother, you mustn’t take the opportunity to leave me behind and run away on your own.”
“How could I!” Luo Yan immediately chuckled.