Chapter 117

Cang Beichun was about to rush through the stone gate when he saw a figure ahead—he instinctively stepped back several paces.

"Old man, you're quick," Ding Huan smiled warmly at Cang Beichun.

"You…," Cang Beichun stared as if seeing a ghost, utterly unable to believe his eyes.

Ding Huan let out a cold snort:

"What do you mean 'you'? I spared your life out of kindness and let you guide me, yet you deceived me first and hid from me afterward. Because of your false information, I nearly fell off a cliff."

"Friend, this is truly a misunderstanding—I feared you might strike, so I acted out of petty caution. I, Cang Beichun, now swear…"

Ding Huan cut him off: "No need to swear. Just tell me—are you the one who trains here?"

Cang Beichun's forehead dripped with cold sweat; he kept wondering how Ding Huan could appear so precisely right before him.

He was certain he had been extremely careful all along, leaving no trace for anyone to follow.

With such caution, how had the other man blocked him ahead?

Wasn't this guy outside saying he'd search every side tunnel one by one? If he followed that pace, reaching this place would take at least one or two days.

Even at the absolute fastest, it would take a full day.

None of them had brought supplies when entering, so he assumed Ding Huan would have to leave again to gather lamps, food, and gear before returning.

"This…" Cang Beichun hesitated.

He was certain his primordial state wasn't ultimate—this was the only place to break through to the Primordial Realm.

In his heart, this place was the true relic of the Kunlun Mountains' Dao cultivators; he had even ventured further inside.

The deepest part held only a few Qi Stones—nothing else.

Inside this place was a cultivation spot thick with Qi. Though small, he always felt this tiny space held too many secrets.

But his cultivation level and knowledge were too low to understand them yet.

If he gave this place to someone else, how could he ever advance again?

"Puff!" A streak of blood exploded—Cang Beichun felt a chill on his shoulder, then horror-struck, realized one of his arms had been severed by Ding Huan.

"Friend, I'll tell you—it's truly where I secluded myself to cultivate."

Cang Beichun suddenly awakened: his life hung in the hands of this man—what right or reason did he have to withhold anything?

"How did you enter this stone cave just now?" Ding Huan asked calmly.

Cang Beichun hurriedly replied: "This stone cave opens for a few hours each day. I planned to enter, then block it so you wouldn't know I was here."

"I admit I was selfish—I'm willing to…"

"Puff!" A streak of blood exploded at Cang Beichun's neck.

Cang Beichun saw his own back—his final thought was that his head had been severed.

Why? He hadn't even spoken yet!

Ding Huan extended his hand; before Cang Beichun's body could fall, he snatched the cloth bag hanging from his waist.

Then a burst of flame landed on Cang Beichun's body—within moments, it turned to ash.

Only then did Qi Qi Xinyue and Lao Liu rush over, frantic.

"Big Brother…" Qi Qi Xinyue stared at the stone cave behind Ding Huan, the stench of charred flesh unmistakable—he could guess much already.

Ding Huan walked to where Cang Beichun had planted the small flag and noticed this recess was unlike the others.

Inside the recess, intricate patterns seemed carved.

This reminded Ding Huan of the divine patterns on the Undying Spider—could this be the same thing?

He took the flag from Cang Beichun's bag—it was made of some unknown material, warm and smooth to the touch.

The flag was no longer than twelve centimeters; besides the pole, it had a brown flag surface, roughly five square centimeters in area.

Without holding it, he hadn't noticed the pole and surface were also covered in dense patterns.

He probed with his spiritual sense—and was stunned to find it could not penetrate at all.

This was certainly no ordinary treasure.

Besides this, the bag contained some Qi Stones and several hand-copied breathing methods—the paper looked like Cang Beichun's own transcription.

"Let's go. Enter this place," Ding Huan said, gripping the flag and stepping first into the side stone cave.

Earlier, his spiritual sense had only scanned halfway before being blocked—this made him even more curious.

Inside the cave, Ding Huan saw another recess at the rear—also filled with patterns.

He inserted the small flag—and the cave slowly sealed shut again.

Ding Huan sent out his spiritual sense—and was stunned to find it blocked by the stone walls, unable to penetrate outward.

Just as it had been unable to penetrate inward before.

So it was true—he was glad he had arrived in time to stop Cang Beichun.

If there had been enough food inside, Cang Beichun could have stayed here for years—he'd have been powerless to stop him.

"Ji ji…" Lao Liu, upon entering, stared for a moment, then began chattering wildly.

Ding Huan simply pulled out a small pouch, stuffed in paper and pen, and tossed it to Lao Liu: "This is yours now."

Lao Liu snatched the pouch eagerly, pulled out pen and paper, and scribbled rapidly: "This is a concealment array—the flag in your hand is the array flag that opens the gate."

So it was an array—Ding Huan nodded. He had suspected as much earlier.

Unfortunately, he understood nothing about arrays.

"Cang Beichun secluded himself here for a long time—this place should be safe," Ding Huan called to Qi Qi Xinyue and walked deeper into the cave.

After only a few dozen meters, Ding Huan saw another stone door.

He could clearly see the door with his eyes, yet his spiritual sense had scanned it moments before as nothing but blurred chaos.

Beside the door was another recess—Ding Huan automatically inserted the array flag into it.

Creak—the stone door opened without surprise.

The scene before his eyes left Ding Huan momentarily stunned—was it really this simple?

Ding Huan had assumed that Cang Beichun had cultivated here for so long that it must be a vast, intricate palace-like chamber.

Yet the space visible here certainly did not exceed thirty square meters.

It wasn't about the size, but that every object inside could be seen at a glance.

Four dimly glowing night pearls were embedded in the four corners of Shi Dong, along with a stone bed, a stone chair, and a green stone meditation cushion.

In addition, there was an offering table.

Along the stone wall beside the bed, there was a smooth patch carved with some Qi-circulation cultivation methods.

Ding Huan glanced at it—it was utterly ordinary, just the same technique he had obtained from Cang Beichun.

He had zero interest in this.

Aside from this, every other part of the place, no matter how he looked, did not resemble a Daoist relic at all.

Ding Huan began to suspect he had killed Cang Beichun too soon—he should have at least let the man enter first to see if there were other traps inside.

The only difference was that the heavenly and earthly Qi here was extremely dense.

Ding Huan's spiritual sense continuously swept through the Shi Dong, and he soon discovered the anomaly: this heavenly and earthly Qi was emanating from underground.

His spiritual sense could not penetrate downward—it seemed some array was carved beneath.

"This seems like just an ordinary hermit's stone cave," Qi Qi Xinyue couldn't help saying.

She, too, felt nothing special about this place.

Ding Huan's spiritual sense repeatedly searched back and forth through the Shi Dong—he truly did not want to believe that the ancient Daoist relic he had long anticipated was nothing more than this utterly ordinary stone cave.

After searching for nearly thirty minutes, Ding Huan's spiritual sense suddenly halted at one spot near the entrance of the Shi Dong.

Having observed with his spiritual sense this long, Ding Huan had already deduced a pattern.

That pattern: where there was an array, his spiritual sense could not penetrate.

Now, as he swept his spiritual sense over this stone wall, it appeared no different from any ordinary cave wall.

But near the entrance, there was a patch his spiritual sense could not enter.

Ding Huan reached out and touched this impermeable spot—it was a protrusion identical to its surroundings.

This stone wall was clearly artificially chiseled; there were many other uneven, pitted protrusions as well.

Ding Huan pulled at it, and the protruding stone fragment fell into his hand.

With a firm squeeze, the small stone instantly became smooth.

It appeared to be roughly two square centimeters in size, shaped like a star.

Even held in his own hand, Ding Huan's spiritual sense still could not penetrate the star-shaped stone.

Ding Huan placed the star-shaped stone into his pocket and said, "There's nothing else here. I never expected it to be just this utterly ordinary stone cave."

Lao Liu chirped excitedly, pointing at the ground.

Ding Huan casually unleashed a dozen wind blades against the ground, and soon a faint white light seeped out.

"There's a three-meter Qi vein here!" Ding Huan exclaimed in surprise.

He had noticed the Qi seeping from underground upon entering, and had assumed the ground was buried with many Qi stones.

Honestly, with a pile of Zhan Shen crystals on him, Ding Huan no longer craved Qi stones as he once had.

He never expected that after digging, it wasn't Qi stones—but a Qi vein.

Ding Huan had never seen a Qi vein before.

But he assumed that, like Qi stones, it contained heavenly and earthly Qi and formed a unified whole—thus it must be a Qi vein.

Ding Huan kept slashing with wind blades, and soon the nearly one-zhang-long Qi vein was pulled out.

"Ji ji…" Lao Liu was extremely excited about the Qi vein, circling it and chirping incessantly.

"Let's go. There's nothing left to investigate here," Ding Huan said with disappointment.

His original intention had been to obtain some Qi stones from the Kunlun Mountains' Daoist relic.

Now he only wanted to acquire some Daoist cultivation techniques or Daoist divine arts.

Yet in the end, he obtained neither Qi stones nor divine techniques—only a one-zhang-long Qi vein.