Stew It!

The two people hadn't noticed her yet, only thinking the snake had gone mad. Since that was the case...

Bai Lan frowned slightly, secretly contemplating countermeasures. If she wanted to conceal her presence, she couldn't actively attack the Crimson Serpent. She had to find a way to make Long Aotian attack first.

The best way to make someone attack proactively was to put the danger right in front of their face.

Bai Lan's eyes sharpened, and with a turn of her body, she charged directly towards Long Aotian, the Crimson Serpent closely following her.

Just as she was about to collide with Long Aotian, Bai Lan dodged, stepped onto a nearby boulder, and hid behind it, holding her breath. She had successfully forced Long Aotian into a confrontation with the Crimson Serpent.

Seeing the Crimson Serpent suddenly charge towards him...

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

Xue'er quickly reacted, began setting up a formation around them, and occasionally threw talismans at the giant serpent.

The Crimson Serpent turned its head to look at Bai Lan, wanting to pursue her, but due to the attacks from the two humans beside it, it had to shift its attention to them.

Working together, Long Aotian and Xue'er, with their combined talismans and mystical techniques, successfully redirected the Crimson Serpent's fury towards themselves.

"Hoo." Bai Lan let out a long sigh of relief.

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

"This snake is crazy," Bai Lan gritted out.

"Exactly! Exactly!" the System agreed.

"System, do you want to eat snake soup?"

"Yes!"

"We have to stew it!"

"Stew it!"

Bai Lan rested for a moment, recovering some spiritual energy during the lull. She began to scout around the combat zone between Long Aotian and the giant serpent.

Long Aotian, at the mid-stage of Qi Refining, was facing a peak second-tier demonic beast, one on the verge of entering the Foundation Establishment stage. It would take him considerable effort.

According to the plot guidance, there should be a soul-related cultivation method here, but this place didn't look like a cultivator's dwelling...

Could it be hidden somewhere?

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

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

"Host, tell me!"

"We've searched every part of this cave, and there are no abnormal spiritual energy fluctuations. If there's a fortuitous encounter here, it's most likely hidden deep within this pool."

Otherwise, it would be inside the snake's belly.

The safest place is often the most dangerous. The fortuitous encounter was likely hidden in one of these two locations.

The System's brain momentarily froze, but it still nodded. "I thought so too!"

"So, I'll go down to investigate. You stay up here and observe Long Aotian's battle," Bai Lan said, patting the System's shoulder before preparing to enter the water.

The System was startled. "Ah? Host, you're going down alone?"

"What else?"

The System scratched its head and fell into thought.

Damn, it seems like having the Host with me isn't really useful. It's better to just be a camera up here watching Long Aotian.

"Keep an eye on Long Aotian, don't let him escape. He's been exploring this secret realm for so long, his storage bag must be quite full," Bai Lan said with a smile, patting the System's shoulder.

The System: "..."

She still couldn't forget about Long Aotian's storage bag.

Long Aotian hadn't done much else since entering the cultivation world, but he certainly knew where to buy the cheapest storage bags by heart.

Saved the game, then held her breath and spread her divine sense. Bai Lan decisively leaped into the water.

In an instant, the bone-chillingly cold water soaked through her clothes and seeped into her very bones. Bai Lan froze for a moment.

So cold...

It was so cold that she felt her internal spiritual energy circulation become sluggish.

The ice spiritual energy in this pool was off the charts; it was clearly no ordinary pool water.

Closing her eyes, she held her breath and dived deeper. Just as her limbs were about to go numb from the cold, Bai Lan suddenly discovered an anomaly in the spiritual energy fluctuations at the bottom of the pool.

Reaching forward, a small stone door slowly appeared before her. The formation seal on its outer perimeter, lacking the spirit stones to maintain it, had already lost nine-tenths of its effectiveness over time, leaving only a trace of spiritual energy underwater.

Looking at the golden formation before her, Bai Lan's expression flickered.

Water and metal are mutually generative. Placing this metal-element formation underwater not only served to conceal it but also enhanced its power.

And in the five elements, fire counteracts metal.

Raising her hand, she conjured a fireball, maintaining it with her spiritual energy, and struck it against the formation. When fire was strong and metal was weak, the moment the two spiritual energies collided, the remaining wisp of gold also dissipated, and the stone door slowly opened.

The water miraculously parted around the stone door, as if an invisible barrier within had separated the incoming water from the outside flow.

Bai Lan's eyes flickered. She saved her progress, then 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 it.

Looking at the aura emanating from the skeleton before her, it was at least at the Tribulation Crossing stage, clearly unrelated to the elder in the Eight-sided Glazed Pagoda.

That old geezer had indeed lied to her; he was definitely not the master of the Nine Yin Secret Realm. Otherwise, how could there be another person's cave dwelling and a skeleton after their seated death within his secret realm?

The old man was full of lies, tsk.

Bai Lan secretly shook her head, her gaze pausing on the skeleton in front of her. She extended her spiritual sense to search, but detected no soul presence nearby.

It seemed the senior here had truly passed away without leaving a soul behind.

"Ahem, senior. According to the rules of the cultivation world, after a person dies and their lamp extinguishes, if their remains are seated in a certain place and their inheritance cannot be left to family, their entire fortune should go to those who come after," Bai Lan said, cupping her fist towards the skull. "This junior will handle your remains, so it's not like I'm taking it for free."

After bowing, Bai Lan stood up straight and began exploring the stone chamber.

The stone chamber was very simple, containing nothing but items for cultivation. Bai Lan searched around and finally found only a cultivation method manual and a bowl.

The bowl's design strongly resembled a Buddhist alms bowl. It was entirely black, with talismans carved around it, seemingly a spiritual artifact of unknown grade.

The structure of this stone chamber was also quite intriguing.

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

She was a Dao cultivator, while the seated cultivator before her appeared to be a Buddhist cultivator.

Thinking carefully, she felt she had a connection with Buddhism.

When she was seeking a master, besides her master, there was also a white-bearded monk who said she had spiritual roots and wanted to take her as a disciple.

She had quite liked that kind-faced, gentle-voiced old abbot. But a single sentence from her master pulled her away from the idea of converting to Buddhism.

"If you convert to Buddhism, you'll have to eat vegetarian food every day. Follow Master, and you can drink and eat meat every day! When you grow up, Master can even find you a handsome Dao companion!" the old Daoist's grinning voice was quite captivating.

With just that sentence, Bai Lan's last shred of spiritual root was extinguished.

Vegetarianism versus eating meat every day; with the two options before her, the young Bai Lan decisively chose the latter.

She never expected that even in the cultivation world, she would still have such a connection with Buddhism.

"Host! Long Aotian is about to kill that snake!" The System's urgent voice echoed in her mind.

Bai Lan snapped back to attention. "How is Long Aotian doing?"

"He seems to be on his last legs too!"

Long Aotian is on his last legs? That's great, then it's her turn to make a move.

If you find this book good, remember to add it to your bookshelf to avoid losing it next time.