Digging Three Feet Deep

The Blue Eagle landed atop the cliff. The two took out ropes, tied them to a massive tree, and climbed down the cliff one after the other, arriving at the cave entrance.

Xiao Yan spread his palm and circulated his Dou Qi. A cluster of Beast Flame immediately appeared in his hand, illuminating the dark cave.

"Eight Extremes Collapse!"

With the Beast Flame's aid, Xiao Yan easily spotted the Rock Snake curled off to one side, waiting to ambush them. He punched it dead.

Xiao Yan skillfully skinned it, removed its gallbladder, and stored the snake meat away, regretting the lack of a Magical Core.

There was no helping it. First Grade Magical Beasts had sparse Dou Qi within their bodies, making it difficult for them to produce Magical Cores.

After that minor interruption, Xiao Yan held up the Beast Flame and kicked all the rubble and branches blocking the cave entrance down into the ravine.

With the trees and rubble no longer concealing it, the two could finally get a close look at this cave left behind by someone from the past.

The entrance was not particularly wide, allowing only two or three people to pass through at once. The interior was pitch-black, yet faint glimmers of light seeped out from within, giving it a rather mysterious air.

There were quite a few chisel-like marks around the entrance. However, perhaps due to the passage of time, they had become exceedingly blurred.

"Could this cave have been carved out bit by bit by whoever came before?" Xiao Yan could not help but remark.

As they walked through the quiet, dark cave, a faint chill lingered around them. The only sounds in the silent passage were their soft footsteps.

After walking in that silence for more than ten minutes, they found their way blocked by a stone door emitting a faint yellow glow.

Xiao Yan carefully examined the stone door, which was infused with Earth Attribute Dou Qi. Perhaps because it was too old, it had deteriorated to the point where Xiao Yan could smash it apart with a few more Eight Extremes Collapses.

Of course, to prevent the stone door from causing a cave-in when shattered, Xiao Yan obediently waited for Xiao Yi Xian to find the mechanism and open it by normal means.

Beyond the stone door was a massive Stone Chamber. It looked somewhat plain and empty, with Moonlight Stones embedded in the walls for illumination, keeping the chamber from being too dim.

At the center of the Stone Chamber stood a chair, upon which sat a dried skeleton.

Perhaps because too much time had passed and the skeleton had not been very strong in life, even its skull had fallen from its spine and landed among the pale thigh bones.

Before the chair stood a broad, long bluestone platform, upon which three locked stone boxes were neatly arranged.

The three corners of the Stone Chamber held some useless Gold Coins and treasures, worth only a few hundred thousand at most—barely enough to buy the Medicine Cauldron Xiao Yan had thrown away.

In the final corner was a small flower bed piled up with soil, where all kinds of herbs had been planted.

Xiao Yan walked over and took a look. The herbs had been arranged entirely according to rarity. That they could survive in a Stone Chamber lit only by Moonlight Stones was simply against all reason.

"Purple Blue Leaf, White Spirit Ginseng Fruit, Snow Lotus Seed..." Xiao Yi Xian also ran over with shining eyes, her love for the herbs practically overflowing.

Watching Xiao Yi Xian eagerly dig up the herbs, Xiao Yan did not interrupt her. Instead, he called out to Old Yao in his heart.

"Teacher, something's not right here, is it? How can Snow Lotus Seeds and Purple Blue Leaves be planted together? There's even a stalk of Ice Spirit Flame Grass between them! How did these herbs survive? Is there something wrong with this soil?"

"Hm? You do have a point. Let me take a closer look..."

Both Xiao Yi Xian and Old Yao became busy, but Xiao Yan was not idle either. He pulled the Key from the skeleton's hand, took out the scroll hidden among its bones, then used the Key to open the three boxes one by one.

The three boxes contained the Seven-Colored Poison Scripture, the Flying Dou Technique Purple Cloud Wings, and the High Profound Tier Dou Technique Raging Lion's Chant.

The Seven-Colored Poison Scripture was for Xiao Yi Xian; the Purple Cloud Wings had been made from wings taken from a Fifth Grade Magical Beast, the Black Flame Purple Cloud Sculpture, and could be used at most until the Dou Wang level; as for Raging Lion's Chant, there was not much to say about it—its power was not even comparable to Eight Extremes Collapse.

Nothing inside the boxes looked particularly rare, but Xiao Yan was very interested in the metal locks sealing them.

He did not know what material the metal locks were made from, but despite having sat in the Stone Chamber for who knew how many years, they were still warm.

"Teacher, are you done examining that flower bed? I feel like there's something strange about these metal locks too. They've been here for so many years, yet they're still warm. And this Fragmented Map—its material is unusual as well. Maybe it hides some great secret."

"Dig up the flower bed. There's something good beneath it—something truly good. These locks... this Fragmented Map... there's something special about this Stone Chamber!"

After finishing his examination of the flower bed, Old Yao immersed himself in studying the metal locks and the Fragmented Map.

Xiao Yan handed the Seven-Colored Poison Scripture to Xiao Yi Xian after she had put away the herbs, then continued digging through the now-empty flower bed in search of the "good thing" Old Yao had mentioned.

After digging half a meter down, Xiao Yan finally struck a stone.

Xiao Yan picked up the stone. It felt cool in his hand, and after wiping away the dirt, he discovered that it was actually a green fruit?

"What is this?" Xiao Yi Xian leaned over and asked.

"I don't know exactly what it is, but those herbs could survive for so long because of this thing."

Xiao Yan stored the fruit away and thoroughly dug through the flower bed. He kept digging until he had turned over every bit of soil in it and reached the stone beneath, finding a total of eleven green fruits.

Even after putting away those fruits, Xiao Yan still felt that there had to be something else in the Stone Chamber. He went to the other three corners, collected all the Gold Coins and valuables, and began feeling around the corners.

Xiao Yi Xian did not understand why, but assumed there was another mechanism in the Stone Chamber, so she joined him in searching.

"There seems to be a keyhole here." Xiao Yi Xian was ultimately more attentive than Xiao Yan. She noticed a patch of shadow on the ceiling directly above one corner.

Xiao Yan took out the three black Keys used to open the stone boxes and found that one of them fit the keyhole perfectly.

The two exchanged a glance, then found keyholes in the other two corners as well and inserted the black Keys.

Once Keys had been inserted into all three keyholes, the entire bluestone platform holding the stone boxes suddenly flipped open, revealing a pitch-black passageway.

"I knew it. How could there possibly be such a poor ruin?" A smile appeared at the corner of Xiao Yan's mouth as he finally grew excited.

Xiao Yan removed a Moonlight Stone and tossed it down through the passage. Its faint light illuminated the tunnel, and at its end were uneven patterns that seemed to be a rug made of beast hide.

The passage was not very deep, less than ten meters in total. The two tied their ropes to the chair in the center of the Stone Chamber and easily made their way down to the bottom.

There was another Stone Chamber beneath the passage. Xiao Yan summoned a cluster of Beast Flame, illuminating the room.

However, once the two saw what was inside, both were shocked—

A massive python lay coiled within the room. The patterns Xiao Yan had seen were unmistakably its scales.

They were standing on its scales.