Treasure Medicine Fiendish Grotto

Fang Shu entered beneath the abandoned mine vein and found it pitch-dark inside, so dark he could not see his hand before his face.

Every so often, strange low growls drifted from within the mine vein. He could not tell whether they were caused by wind blowing into the tunnels or whether some ferocious beast lurked inside.

After pondering it several times, he took out the fox pelt again, draped it over himself, and transformed into a gray fox upon landing.

He then held a Breath-Holding Insect in his mouth and pasted several Still-Step Talismans onto himself before cautiously creeping deeper into the mine tunnel.

The tunnel wound and twisted all the way through. Since the mine had been abandoned for so long, many openings had collapsed. Forget a person—even in fox form, he could barely squeeze through.

Faced with this, Fang Shu had no choice but to try detours and digging, one after another.

After being blocked time and again, he ventured deeper into the mine vein. Along the way, he saw many skeletons scattered or clustered across the tunnels. He did not know whether infighting had once erupted here, or whether there had been a mining disaster.

By then, even with Cheng the Jar's mine map in hand, Fang Shu had lost his bearings.

He repeatedly tried to return to the original route marked on the map, but after wandering beneath the mine for two whole days, he still failed.

Fortunately, Cheng the Jar seemed to have anticipated that merely recording the route would not be reliable enough. Besides the paths, the mine map also marked several distinctive locations, serving as signposts.

Following these "signposts," Fang Shu stumbled onward into the depths underground.

At last, he reached the final "signpost" marked on the mine map. There was truly