Cave Abode

Perhaps because it had been deprived of sunlight for years, the depths of the cave were permeated by a bone-chilling cold. In the silent passage, only the tap-tap of footsteps echoed.

As they continued deeper, the frigid air seeped into her skin. Little Fairy Doctor shivered and wrapped her arms around her shoulders, her warm breath condensing into white mist before her eyes, glowing pale under the firelight.

Xiao Yan naturally noticed this and moved closer to Little Fairy Doctor. With a sweep of his left arm, he pulled her into his embrace. Fire-attributed Dou Qi coursed through his body, radiating an intoxicating warmth.

She tried to struggle free, but Xiao Yan's physical strength clearly gave Little Fairy Doctor no such opportunity. Knowing she could not break free, and seeing that Xiao Yan made no further moves, she simply let him hold her. After all, she really was cold.

Yet for some reason—whether because walking side by side had slowed them down or something else—a journey that should have taken just over ten minutes took a certain someone half an hour to finish. Poor Little Fairy Doctor never noticed from beginning to end.

When the young man and woman finally stopped, a pale yellow stone door appeared before them, accompanied by someone's nearly imperceptible sigh.

Looking at the stone door before her, Little Fairy Doctor furrowed her delicate brows and walked over. Her hands carefully traced its surface. "This is a mechanism door. What lies behind it should be our destination. There should be a powerful expert's cave abode behind it, and judging by the situation, no one has entered it before. We've struck it rich!"

"A mechanism door? Do you know mechanisms?" Xiao Yan stared at the stone door with growing excitement. He remembered what was inside: a fragment of the Pure Lotus Demon Flame map. Even across the entire Dou Qi Continent, that was an extraordinary treasure. Though why it had appeared in a place like this... Could this be the legendary protagonist's halo?

"Uh... I don't. Do you?" Little Fairy Doctor said awkwardly. In her excitement just now, she had forgotten that small detail.

Her answer surprised Xiao Yan. Only then did he remember that they had arrived here nearly three years earlier than in the original story. Little Fairy Doctor probably had not yet begun studying mechanisms.

"Judging from how sturdy this stone door is, it would take at least the attack power of a Dou Master to break it open." Little Fairy Doctor looked regretful as she turned to Xiao Yan. "Let's leave for now. I have some books on mechanisms in my collection. Once I figure something out, we can come back."

"A Dou Master?" Xiao Yan had no intention of leaving. Instead, he examined the stone door and said, "Little Fairy Doctor, move aside first."

"Move aside?" Seeing Xiao Yan already assuming a stance, even Little Fairy Doctor could guess what he intended to do. "No, wait! We don't even know what's inside! What if you damage the treasures?"

Scorching heat erupted alongside blazing firelight, driving the chill from the cave. The seventeenth-ranked Heavenly Flame combined with the High Black Tier Eight Extremes Collapse was enough to raise Xiao Yan's attack power to the level of a Dou Master.

Seeing that Xiao Yan had no intention of stopping, Little Fairy Doctor could only retreat to the side. Fragrant beads of sweat seeped from her forehead under the searing heat.

The instant Little Fairy Doctor moved away, Xiao Yan unleashed Explosive Step. A violent blast erupted beneath his feet, shattering the surrounding rock as he shot toward the stone door like a missile.

Boom!!!

A massive roar shook the cave as a scorching gale swept through it. Amid the sound of cracking, the stone door—which could withstand a Dou Master's strike—suddenly split with rings of fractures. Faint white light streamed from the cracks. Xiao Yan pressed on, throwing one Eight Extremes Collapse punch after another at the door. Before long, it could no longer hold and was completely blasted into fragments.

Little Fairy Doctor stared at the rock wall, melted into a lava-like state by the flames. Her small mouth formed a huge O as she could not help wondering whether the person before her was really human. How could a Dou Fighter be this fierce?

Fortunately, Xiao Yan's heavy panting as he gradually emerged from the smoke told her that he had not done it so easily after all, allowing Little Fairy Doctor to accept it somewhat.

With the stone door destroyed, the cave abode behind it was finally fully revealed before Xiao Yan and Little Fairy Doctor.

Moonstones embedded in the surrounding walls emitted white light, illuminating everything within the cave abode.

The first thing that caught their eyes was a stark white skeleton seated in the chair at the center of the cave abode. Its skull, which had fallen to the base of its thigh, happened to face its sunken eye sockets toward Xiao Yan and Little Fairy Doctor, as if questioning why they had disturbed its peace.

Though they knew it was merely a harmless corpse, Xiao Yan and Little Fairy Doctor still felt a chill run down their spines. But when their gazes shifted to a bluestone platform before the skeleton, their eyes soon turned fiery again.

Three locked stone boxes sat neatly arranged atop the broad bluestone platform. The dust covering them proved they had never been opened. Behind the three stone boxes, several corners of the cave abode also held piles of glittering gold coins and other treasures.

"Xiao Yan, look over there!" Little Fairy Doctor suddenly became excited. In the direction pointed out by her jade-like hand was a small flowerbed filled with all manner of rare medicinal herbs. Naturally, the most eye-catching one was the strange herb at its center, colored white and red.

"Heavens! It's Ice Spirit Flame Grass!" Little Fairy Doctor was so excited she nearly jumped up. Ignoring the three obviously more valuable stone boxes, she hurried over in bouncing steps. To someone like Little Fairy Doctor, who loved medicinal herbs, rare herbs were clearly more precious than any other opportunity.

Come to think of it, this was the first time Little Fairy Doctor had completely let down her guard and revealed her girlish side before Xiao Yan. Naturally, Xiao Yan would not spoil the mood by running over to compete with her. Though Ice Spirit Flame Grass was one of the main ingredients needed to refine Blood Lotus Pills, Xiao Yan already possessed Volcanic Rock Flame. He would not need medicinal assistance like Blood Lotus Pills when refining Heavenly Flames in the future. There was naturally no need to fight Little Fairy Doctor over it.

As Little Fairy Doctor happily took out bottles and jars to collect the herbs, Xiao Yan strolled toward the skeleton in the central seat. It was not only for the three stone box keys floating above the skeleton, but more importantly, Xiao Yan knew that the most precious treasure in this cave abode was also on the corpse—the fragment of the Pure Lotus Demon Flame map!

Sure enough, after Xiao Yan removed the three keys, he found an ancient-looking scroll within the bone arm that had fallen along with them.

Xiao Yan's heart heated up. He quickly reached out and stored the scroll in the Bone Flame Ring. Most of Xiao Yan's valuable possessions were kept there. To avoid drawing attention, he usually hid it beneath his clothes.

After doing all this, Xiao Yan let out a breath of relief. He respectfully returned the arm he had accidentally pulled off to its original place, then cupped his hands and bowed respectfully to the remains of this unknown expert. Afterward, he dug a grave behind the seat, buried him there, and carved a tombstone reading: Grave of the Cave Abode's Master.

After burying the unknown expert, Xiao Yan looked at the girl still collecting herbs in the distance and grinned. "Little Fairy Doctor! If you don't come over soon, you won't get a share of these three stone boxes!"

"Hey! I know! Stop rushing me!" The girl's voice came over with a hint of coquettishness. What else could the young man do? He could only wait.

Only after stuffing all the herbs into bottles did the girl finally walk over with more than a dozen jade bottles in her arms. She set them on the bluestone platform, pursed her lips, and picked through them for a long time before finally selecting half. Reluctantly, she handed them to Xiao Yan. "Here, these are yours."

"I don't need them. You can keep them all." Xiao Yan did not take the jade bottles and instead pushed them back toward her.

"You don't want them?" Little Fairy Doctor asked in surprise, then eyed him suspiciously. "You're being this kind-hearted?"

"Kind-hearted or not, I can just ask you for them whenever I need them."

"What do you mean, ask me whenever you need them? Are you treating me like your Storage Ring?" Little Fairy Doctor said angrily.

"What Storage Ring? You should be called the household manager." Xiao Yan teased. And he had to admit, teasing Little Fairy Doctor like this felt rather nice.

"You!" Little Fairy Doctor also realized that this hateful fellow was teasing her. She stopped arguing with him, swept all the jade bottles into her Storage Ring in one go, and said with puffed cheeks, "Hmph! You're the one who didn't want them. Don't blame me later."

Xiao Yan smiled. They both knew it was only a joke, but he tactfully did not point that out. Otherwise, a certain little beauty would truly lose her temper.

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 succession.

The first stone box contained a High Black Tier Dou Technique—Lion's Roar, an offensive Dou Technique. However, it was not particularly useful to either Xiao Yan or Little Fairy Doctor at the moment. After Xiao Yan put it away, the two quickly turned their attention to the remaining two stone boxes.

The second stone box contained a High Black Tier flying Dou Technique—Wings of the Eagle.

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

"It means exactly what it says." Xiao Yan said, turning to Little Fairy Doctor. "You know about Dou Kings forming Dou Qi Wings, right?"

"You mean that after cultivating this, one can fly like a Dou King?" Little Fairy Doctor widened her eyes and asked incredulously.

"Yes. Not only that, even after reaching the Dou King realm, a flying Dou Technique like this can increase one's flight speed. It's an extremely precious Dou Technique. We've found a treasure." Xiao Yan grinned, then casually tossed it to Little Fairy Doctor. "Keep it. I'll ask you for it when it's time to cultivate it."

"Hey!" Little Fairy Doctor was startled and hurriedly caught the Wings of the Eagle that Xiao Yan had thrown over. "I already told you, I'm not your Storage Ring!"

Though she said that, Little Fairy Doctor was still very happy inside. After all, it showed that Xiao Yan trusted her and was not worried that she might one day run off with the treasure.

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

The final stone box also contained a scroll. It was seven-colored, yet carried an inexplicable sense of dimness. When they took out the scroll and looked at it, several words were clearly written on it—

"Seven-Colored Poison Manual?"