Chapter 11: Cave Dwelling

Perhaps because it had not been touched by sunlight for many years, there was a bone-chilling cold within the deep, cavernous cave. In the silent passage, only the *tap-tap* of footsteps echoed.

As they ventured deeper, the icy aura constantly invaded her skin. Little Fairy Doctor hugged her shoulders, shivering slightly; the hot air exhaled from her mouth condensed into white mist before her eyes, emitting a pale glow under the illumination of the firelight.

Xiao Yan naturally noticed this and moved closer to Little Fairy Doctor, hooking his left arm to pull her into his embrace. Fire-attribute Dou Qi coursed through his body, radiating a warmth that was intoxicating.

She tried to struggle away, but clearly, Xiao Yan's physical strength would not grant Little Fairy Doctor that opportunity. Knowing she could not break free, and since Xiao Yan made no further moves, Little Fairy Doctor let him be. After all, she really was quite cold.

But whether it was because walking side-by-side slowed their pace or for some other reason, a journey that should have taken ten-odd minutes was dragged out by someone for half an hour before it ended. Poor young lady, she never realized it from start to finish.

When the young man and young lady stopped, a pale yellow stone door appeared before them, accompanied by a barely audible sigh from someone.

Gazing at the stone door before her, Little Fairy Doctor's delicate brows furrowed slightly. She walked to the side of the door and carefully stroked it with both hands: "This is a mechanism door; behind it should be our destination. Behind the door should be the cave dwelling of a powerful expert, and by the looks of it, no one has entered yet. We've struck gold!"

"A mechanism door? Do you know mechanisms?" Xiao Yan also looked at the stone door with some fervor. He remembered what was inside: the remnant map of the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame. This thing was an incredible treasure even if placed across the entire Dou Qi Continent. Although he didn't know why it would appear in a place like this, could this be the legendary protagonist's halo?

"This... I don't know, do you?" Little Fairy Doctor said with some embarrassment; she had been so excited just now that she forgot about this.

The answer was somewhat beyond Xiao Yan's expectations. Only then did he recall that they had arrived here nearly three years earlier than in the original story; Little Fairy Doctor should not have dabbled in mechanism arts yet.

"Looking at the sturdiness of this stone door, it would take at least the attack power of a Dou Shi to break it open." Looking at the stone door before her, Little Fairy Doctor felt some regret and turned to say to Xiao Yan: "Let's leave first. I have collected some books on mechanism arts; let's come back once we've figured something out."

"Dou Shi level?" However, Xiao Yan did not intend to leave. Instead, he sized up the stone door before him and said: "Little Fairy Doctor, move aside first."

"Move aside?" Seeing Xiao Yan already beginning to take a stance, even if Little Fairy Doctor were slow-witted, she would know what he wanted to do: "No, wait! We don't know what the situation is inside this stone door! What if you break the treasures inside!"

A scorching high temperature appeared along with the firelight, dispelling the cold within the cave. The seventeenth-ranked Heavenly Flame, superimposed with the Profound-tier high-level Eight Extremities Collapse, was enough to raise Xiao Yan's attack power to the level of a Dou Shi.

Seeing that Xiao Yan did not intend to stop, Little Fairy Doctor could only retreat to the side first, wisps of fragrant sweat seeping from her forehead under the baking heat.

The moment Little Fairy Doctor dodged, Xiao Yan unleashed an Explosive Step. A violent explosion occurred beneath his feet, shattering the surrounding rocks, and Xiao Yan charged toward the stone door like a missile.

BOOM!!!

A massive, deafening roar shook the air, and a scorching gale swept through, mingled with a cracking sound. The stone door, which could withstand a strike from a Dou Shi, suddenly cracked with rings of fissures, and wisps of faint white light shot out from the cracks. Xiao Yan pressed his advantage, slamming punch after punch of Eight Extremities Collapse onto the stone door. Before long, the stone door could no longer hold up and was completely blasted into debris.

Little Fairy Doctor gazed at the rock walls melted into magma-like shapes under the scorching flames, her small mouth agape in an 'O' shape. She couldn't help but wonder if the person before her was even human; how could a Dou Zhe be this fierce!

Fortunately, the sight of Xiao Yan, who was gradually revealing his figure amidst the smoke and panting heavily, let her know that he wasn't actually that relaxed, which made Little Fairy Doctor feel somewhat more accepting.

With the shattering of the stone door, the cave dwelling behind it was now completely revealed before Xiao Yan and the other.

On the surrounding walls, the white light emitted by several Moonstones illuminated the items within the cave dwelling.

The first thing that caught their eyes was a stark white skeleton sitting on a seat in the center of the cave. The skull, which had fallen to the base of the thighs, had its deep eye sockets pointed exactly at Xiao Yan and the other, as if questioning why they had disturbed his peace.

Although they knew it was just a harmless skeleton, Xiao Yan and Little Fairy Doctor still felt a bit hair-raising. However, when their gazes shifted to a bluestone platform in front of the skeleton, they became fervent again.

They saw three locked stone boxes neatly placed on the wide, long bluestone platform; the dust on them proved they had never been opened. And behind the three stone boxes, in several corners of the cave, there were also several piles of glittering gold coins and other treasures.

"Xiao Yan, look over there!" Little Fairy Doctor suddenly became excited. Following the direction pointed by her jade finger, various rare medicinal herbs were growing in a small flowerbed. And the most eye-catching one was naturally the white-and-red dual-colored strange herb in the center of the flowerbed.

"Heavens! It's an Ice Spirit Flame Herb!" Little Fairy Doctor was so excited she was about to jump up. Ignoring the three stone boxes that were obviously more precious, she took bounding steps and ran over quickly. For someone like Little Fairy Doctor who loved medicinal herbs, rare herbs were clearly more precious than other opportunities.

Come to think of it, this was the first time Little Fairy Doctor had shown her girlish side without reservation in front of Xiao Yan. Xiao Yan naturally wouldn't run over to compete and spoil the mood. Although the Ice Spirit Flame Herb was one of the main ingredients for refining the Blood Lotus Pill, Xiao Yan, who already possessed the Volcanic Stone Flame, would not need the assistance of drugs like the Blood Lotus Pill for future refining. Naturally, there was no need to compete with Little Fairy Doctor.

While Little Fairy Doctor happily took out bottles and jars to collect the herbs, Xiao Yan strolled toward the skeleton on the central seat. It was not just for the three keys floating above the skeleton, but more importantly, Xiao Yan knew that on the skeleton lay the most precious treasure in this cave dwelling—the remnant map of the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame!

Sure enough, after Xiao Yan removed the three keys, he discovered a primitive-looking scroll within the skeletal arm that had fallen along with the keys.

Xiao Yan's heart grew hot, and he quickly reached out to tuck the scroll into his Bone Flame Ring; most of Xiao Yan's precious items were kept here. To avoid attracting attention, Xiao Yan usually kept it inside his clothes.

After doing all this, Xiao Yan breathed a sigh of relief. Respectfully placing the accidentally detached arm back into its original position, Xiao Yan bowed respectfully to the remains of this unknown expert. Afterward, he dug a grave for him behind the seat, buried him, and carved a tombstone: "Tomb of the Master of the Stone Cave."

After burying this unknown expert, Xiao Yan looked at the young lady in the distance who was still busy packing herbs and grinned: "Little Fairy Doctor! If you don't come over now, these three stone boxes won't have a share for you!"

"Oh! I know! Don't rush me!" The young lady's somewhat coquettish voice came over. What could the young man do? He could only wait.

After finally packing all the herbs into bottles, the young lady walked over holding a dozen jade bottles. Placing the jade bottles on the bluestone platform, Little Fairy Doctor pursed her small lips, picked and chose until she finally selected half, and handed them to Xiao Yan with reluctance: "Here, these are yours."

"I don't need them, you keep them all." Xiao Yan did not take the jade bottles but pushed them back.

"You don't want them?" Little Fairy Doctor said in astonishment, then asked with some suspicion: "Are you really that kind?"

"Kind or not, I can just ask you for them when I need them, right?"

"What do you mean 'ask you when I need them', you treat me like your Storage Ring!" Little Fairy Doctor said with some anger.

"What Storage Ring, this should be called a housekeeper," Xiao Yan teased. You have to admit, this feeling of teasing Little Fairy Doctor was actually quite nice.

"You!" Little Fairy Doctor also realized this detestable guy was teasing her and stopped arguing with him. She took all the jade bottles into her Storage Ring in one go and said huffily: "Hmph! You didn't want them yourself, don't blame me later."

Xiao Yan smiled. In fact, both of them knew this was just a joke, but Xiao Yan tactfully didn't expose it, otherwise, a certain little beauty would really blow her top.

Shaking the three black keys in his hand, the two turned their attention back to the three stone boxes.

From left to right, Xiao Yan used the keys to open the stone boxes one by one.

"*Click... *" With a crisp sound, the three stone boxes opened in sequence.

The first stone box contained a Profound-tier high-level Dou Technique—Lion's Roar, an offensive Dou Technique. However, this didn't have much use for Xiao Yan and Little Fairy Doctor at the moment. After Xiao Yan put it away, the two quickly set their sights on the remaining two stone boxes.

The second stone box contained a Profound-tier high-level flying Dou Technique—Eagle Wings.

"A flying Dou Technique? What is that?" Little Fairy Doctor asked with some confusion. She had heard of offensive, defensive, and movement Dou Techniques before, but this was the first time she had heard of such a technique.

"It's exactly what it sounds like," Xiao Yan said, turning to look at Little Fairy Doctor: "You should know about the Dou Wang's 'Dou Qi Wings', right?"

"You mean that after practicing this, one can fly just like a Dou Wang expert?" Little Fairy Doctor widened her eyes and asked in disbelief.

"Yes, and not only that, even when one reaches the Dou Wang realm, a flying Dou Technique like this can increase flight speed; it is a very precious Dou Technique. We've struck gold." Xiao Yan grinned and then tossed it to Little Fairy Doctor: "You keep it, I'll ask you for it when I need to practice it later."

"Hey!" Little Fairy Doctor was startled and hurriedly reached out to catch the Eagle Wings Xiao Yan threw: "I told you I'm not your Storage Ring!"

Although she said that, Little Fairy Doctor was still very happy inside; after all, this showed Xiao Yan's trust in her, not worrying that she would secretly run off with the treasure one day.

"Alright, let's look at the next one quickly," Little Fairy Doctor carefully put away the Dou Technique and said.

The last stone box also contained a scroll, seven-colored in appearance, yet it had an inexplicable sense of dullness. Taking the scroll out to look, it was clearly written—

"Seven-Colored Poison Scripture?"