Stew It!

Luckily, those two had yet to notice her presence. They only thought the snake had gone mad. Since that was the case...

Bai Lan frowned slightly, quietly pondering a countermeasure. To keep herself hidden, she could not take the initiative to attack the Crimson Serpent. She could only find a way to make Long Aotian strike first.

The best way to make someone take the initiative was to fling danger right in their face.

Bai Lan's gaze sharpened. With a turn of her body, she led the relentless serpent behind her charging straight toward Long Aotian.

Just as she was about to crash into Long Aotian, Bai Lan swerved aside, stepped onto a massive boulder, and ducked behind it while holding her breath, successfully forcing Long Aotian into a standoff with the serpent.

Looking at the Crimson Serpent that had suddenly rushed at him...

"Xue'er! Quickly, set up the formation! This beast is coming for me!" Long Aotian jumped in fright.

Xue'er reacted quickly, beginning to set up a formation around them while occasionally throwing several talismans at the giant serpent.

The serpent turned its head to glance at Bai Lan. It wanted to pursue her, but the attacks of the two humans beside it forced it to shift its attention to them.

Long Aotian and Xue'er joined forces. Under the combined assault of talismans and Mystical Techniques, they successfully redirected the Crimson Serpent's fury onto themselves.

"Whew." Bai Lan let out a long breath.

The system also breathed a sigh of relief. "That scared me to death."

"There's something wrong with that snake." Bai Lan gritted her teeth.

"Exactly, exactly!" the system echoed.

"System, do you want snake soup?"

"Yes!"

"We have to stew it!"

"Stew it!"

After resting for a moment and using the opening to recover some spiritual energy, Bai Lan began exploring around the battle circle between Long Aotian and the giant serpent.

Long Aotian, at the middle stage of Qi Refinement, would have to spend no small amount of effort facing a Second Tier peak beast on the verge of entering the Foundation Establishment stage.

According to the plot's guidance, there was a soul-type cultivation technique here. But this place did not look like a cultivator's cave abode...

Could it be hidden somewhere in the shadows?

After following the surrounding walls and inspecting the cave from top to bottom, Bai Lan's gaze finally settled on the pool from which the giant serpent had emerged.

"System," Bai Lan said softly, "I have a guess."

"Go ahead, Host!"

"We've checked every part of this cave. There are no unusual spiritual energy fluctuations. If there really is a fortuitous opportunity here, then it is most likely hidden deep within this pool."

Otherwise, it was inside the snake's belly.

The safest place was the most dangerous place. The hiding place of that opportunity was most likely one of those two locations.

The system's brain crashed for a moment, but it still nodded. "That's what I think too!"

"So, I'll go down and take a look. You stay up here and watch Long Aotian's battle." Bai Lan patted the system on the shoulder as she spoke, then prepared to enter the water.

The system was startled. "Huh? Host, you're going down alone?"

"Otherwise?"

The system scratched its head and sank into thought.

This is bad. Bringing him along really did seem useless. He might as well stay up here as a camera and keep an eye on Long Aotian.

"Keep an eye on Long Aotian. Don't let him run away. He's been exploring the secret realm for so long; his Storage Bag must be quite full by now." Bai Lan smiled and patted the system's shoulder.

System: "..."

She still had not forgotten Long Aotian's Storage Bag.

Since entering the cultivation world, Long Aotian might not have done much else, but he was surely thoroughly familiar with where to buy the cheapest Storage Bags.

After saving, Bai Lan held her breath, spread out her divine sense, and decisively leaped into the water.

In an instant, the icy pool water soaked through her clothes and seeped into her bones. Bai Lan's entire body stiffened for a moment.

So cold...

The cold pierced to the bone. She could even feel the circulation of spiritual energy within her becoming sluggish.

The ice spiritual energy in this pool exceeded all bounds. This was clearly no ordinary pool water.

She closed her eyes, held her breath, and dived deeper. Before her hands and feet could freeze numb, Bai Lan suddenly discovered an abnormal fluctuation of spiritual energy at the bottom of the pool.

As she probed forward, a small stone door slowly appeared before her. The formation seal around it had no Spirit Stones to sustain it and had lost ninety percent of its effect over time, leaving only a trace of spiritual energy beneath the water.

Seeing the golden formation before her, Bai Lan's expression shifted.

Water and metal generated one another. Placing this metal-element formation underwater not only concealed it from sight, but also enhanced its power.

And among the five elements, fire happened to overcome metal.

She raised her hand and formed a fireball, sustaining it with spiritual energy as she struck the formation. When fire waxed and metal waned, the instant the two streams of spiritual energy collided, the last wisp of gold dissipated, and the stone door slowly opened.

The water miraculously flowed around the stone door, as though an invisible barrier within had cut off the water outside.

Bai Lan's eyes flashed. After saving, she slowly swam into the stone chamber.

The Nascent Soul stage elder within the Eight-sided Glazed Pagoda claimed to be the master of this secret realm, yet he knew very little about its secrets.

Judging by the aura emitted by the skeleton before her, it had at least been at the Tribulation Crossing stage. It was clearly unrelated to the elder in the eight-sided tower.

That old man really had been lying to her. He definitely was not the master of the Nine Yin Secret Realm. Otherwise, how could his secret realm contain someone else's cave abode and the skeleton left behind after their death in meditation?

That old bastard's mouth was full of lies. Tsk.

Bai Lan secretly shook her head. Her gaze paused on the skeleton before her for a moment as she extended her divine sense to search it, but she did not detect any soul nearby.

It seemed this senior had truly passed away in meditation and left no soul behind.

"Ahem, Senior, according to the rules of the cultivation world, once a person dies and their lamp is extinguished, if they pass away in meditation somewhere and cannot leave their inheritance to their family, then all their worldly possessions belong to those who come after." Bai Lan cupped her hands toward the skull. "This junior will collect your corpse for you, so it does not count as taking it for nothing."

After performing the salute and straightening up, Bai Lan began exploring the stone chamber.

The chamber was exceedingly ancient and plain. Other than cultivation items, there was nothing else. After searching around, Bai Lan found only a cultivation manual and a bowl.

The bowl looked remarkably like a Buddhist alms bowl. It was entirely black, with runes carved around it. It seemed to be a spiritual artifact, though its grade was unknown.

The structure of this stone chamber was also quite thought-provoking.

Bai Lan looked at the skeleton before her, her expression turning complicated for a moment.

She was a Dao cultivator, while this cultivator who had passed away in meditation before her appeared to have been a Buddhist Cultivator.

Thinking carefully, she and Buddhism could be considered fated.

When she had chosen a master back then, aside from her master, there had also been a white-bearded monk who said she possessed spiritual insight and wanted to take her as his disciple.

She had originally liked that kindly, gentle old abbot who spoke in a soft and pleasant voice, but one sentence from her master had pulled her heart back from taking refuge in Buddhism.

"Once you take refuge in Buddhism, you'll have to eat vegetarian food every day. Follow your master instead, and you can drink wine and eat meat every day! When you grow up, your master can even find you a handsome Dao companion!" The old Daoist's grinning voice was incredibly bewitching.

With just one sentence, he had scraped away even Bai Lan's last trace of spiritual insight.

Vegetarian food or eating meat every day—faced with those two choices, young Bai Lan decisively chose the latter.

She had not expected that after arriving in the cultivation world, she would still be as fated with Buddhism as ever.

"Host! Long Aotian is about to kill that snake!" the system's urgent voice sounded in her mind.

Bai Lan came back to herself. "How is Long Aotian doing?"

"He seems to be about to collapse too!"

Long Aotian was about to collapse? Perfect. Then it was time for her to make her move.