Chapter 136

The clothes on his body had wide sleeves and robes, and the style was indeed elegant, made of a material that was neither silk nor satin but exceptionally smooth; he couldn't tell what it was. But when He Lingchuan reached out to tear it, it broke.

Why was everything here like paper?

The youth stood up, walked around inside and out, and discovered that the owner of this cave dwelling was truly poor, leaving behind nothing of value.

He returned to the meditation cushion and discovered that the skeleton was in a standard sitting posture, right hand clenched into a fist, with only the index finger pointing to the ground.

The ground?

He brushed away the thick dust and saw several hundred characters neatly engraved on the floor tiles, seemingly carved with fingertips.

Was this a suicide note left by the owner before he died? He must have known that no medium could withstand the long passage of time, so he simply carved it into the black stone floor for durability.

Unfortunately, although the handwriting was elegant, He Lingchuan couldn't understand most of it.

He thought for a moment, covered the floor with paper, brushed it with ink, and peeled it off, successfully rubbing the text. Not understanding it himself didn't mean others wouldn't; it wouldn't be bad to find a few old scholars to solve the mystery after going to Xiazhou or the capital in the future.

He carefully put away the rubbing, just about to stand up, when the divine bone necklace suddenly grew hot, almost burning him twice.

What did that mean? Was there something else here?

He Lingchuan's movements paused, and he carefully examined the surroundings again.

Everything was as usual; the dilapidated was still dilapidated, and the decadent was still decadent.

However, he noticed this time that the owner of the cave dwelling still had a black ring on the little finger of his left hand, which had been hidden under his sleeve earlier and hadn't been discovered.

"Forgive the junior for being rude." He Lingchuan bowed to the skeleton before carefully removing the ring.

This was a black jade ring, simple in style, without any ornamentation. However, he tried to probe it with his divine sense and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

This was a storage ring, and the content space was very large, equivalent to a room of seventeen or eighteen square meters.

It was no exaggeration to say that the ring itself was worth a fortune. The storage spaces of the current world were considered quite good if they had one or two cubic meters; the one He Lingchuan was wearing now would be basically full if he put two small wooden tea tables in it, so he usually could only store small, valuable items, and even storing food and water was considered taking up too much space.

With this treasure, it was equivalent to carrying a small warehouse with him.

Now, there were quite a few sundries in this space, including a stack of jade slips. This kind of thing was only as long as an index finger, looking like a bookmark; in the immortal legends He Lingchuan had heard, its appearance rate was second only to magic treasures.

It sounded like this object was the hard drive of the immortal era, capable of storing a large amount of information. However, when he truly held it in his hand and checked it excitedly, he discovered that these jade slips were all empty.

Right, without the nourishment of spiritual energy, the content stored in them would also be lost. He Lingchuan was a bit disappointed; he had originally thought there would be immortal-left-behind supernatural powers and cultivation techniques inside.

Everything in the world, it seemed, couldn't withstand the ravages of time. Immortals and cave dwellings were the same.

He walked out of the small courtyard and turned around everywhere.

The area of this "cave dwelling" was about seven or eight hundred square meters, with towering mountain rocks; if there were plants and flowing water, he imagined the scenery would also be quite beautiful. Unfortunately, it was now just a bare, barren mountain top.

Gray mist surged around the cave dwelling, and he couldn't see what was outside the mist.

He Lingchuan climbed over the mountain top, walked near the gray mist, and poked it with a tree branch.

At first, it felt light as nothing, but the further in he went, the more solid it felt; the feeling was a bit like poking a thick quilt with a finger, and in the end, he couldn't poke through.

This was likely the boundary of the cave dwelling.

The tour of the immortal's cave dwelling ended, and he returned the way he came. The short adventure was about to end, and He Lingchuan expressed great disappointment. But it had been discovered by the spirit turtle first, then visited by the crocodile demon; he didn't know which wave of visitors he was, so it was reasonable that the cave dwelling was empty.

Just as he wanted to walk out of this so-called "cave dwelling," the divine bone necklace grew hot again.

Was there anything else valuable here?

He Lingchuan had no choice but to turn back and walk inside.

If he walked too far, the necklace would grow hot, as if it were anxious; the closer he got to the center of the cave dwelling, the calmer it became.

Finally, He Lingchuan walked to the edge of the dried-up water pool: "Here?"

Only by standing here could the divine bone necklace remain quiet.

What should he do now? There were only stones and sandy soil here, without even a trace of wind. Except for himself, everything was completely still.

He Lingchuan used the broken blade as a shovel and dug a few times, discovering that the sandy ground was quite hard; ordinary sabers and swords probably couldn't even chisel it open.

This didn't look like something was hidden underneath.

This method of digging was too stupid, so He Lingchuan thought for a moment and simply removed the divine bone necklace and pressed it onto the ground.

You liked this place, right? Then figure it out yourself.

He was also a bit impatient; the divine bone necklace entered the soil as soon as it touched it, actually sinking like it had fallen into water.

He Lingchuan didn't grab it in time, and it disappeared beneath the surface.

"Hey!" He was startled; if this thing couldn't float up by itself, he would lose a fortune! He then dug three feet into the ground, but there was no sign of the divine bone necklace, not even a ready-made small pit.

Fortunately, after another few dozen breaths, when He Lingchuan was burning with anxiety, this thing popped out by itself, the red light flourishing, not knowing what it had encountered underground.

Just as he picked up the necklace, he heard a dull, strange sound.

It was like a human spine being snapped, or like a vine breaking; the sound was magnified dozens of times.

Immediately after, the ground began to show cracks, increasing from few to many, from shallow to deep, and small stones began to fall from high places.

At this moment, how could He Lingchuan not know that the strange change must have something to do with the divine bone necklace? He took to his heels and ran toward the cave entrance.

The ground shook so much he could barely stand.

Looking back one last time before the entrance, the immortal's house and the mountain cliff collapsed together, falling into the endless gray mist.

He Lingchuan didn't dare to look again and took a step out.

It was dark before his eyes, and it was the pitch-black cave again.

Then, with a *clatter*, the coconut-sized clam shell by his feet shattered into pieces.

This sound also startled the other two creatures; the Crocodile God and Wu Shaoyi looked over together: "What's going on?"

He Lingchuan turned back and pressed on the stone wall, but it didn't budge.

There had been an entrance here just now, but now it was just a rock wall, solid.

"The cave dwelling seems to have disappeared."

Both were a bit surprised, and the Crocodile God asked him: "What did you do?"

He Lingchuan's lie was told without any guilt: "I didn't do anything; I just walked around and came out."

He also asked the crocodile demon: "What do you think the reason could be?"

"Don't know." The Crocodile God didn't care either; anyway, it was empty inside, and there was nothing there.

Only He Lingchuan himself knew that the divine bone necklace must have done something inside the cave dwelling.

Wu Shaoyi had difficulty moving and could only look at him with longing: "Was it really an immortal's cave dwelling?"

(End of chapter)