As the sky gradually darkened, something ominous seemed to be brewing within the dense spiritual qi around them.
"I sense it too." Wu Fei exchanged a glance with him and suggested, "Let's return to the cave we found earlier."
Jing Fanyu nodded.
The cave was not far behind them. They had discovered traces of a Demon Beast at its entrance and gone inside to investigate. After dealing with the beast, they had found spirit medicine deep within the cave that was remarkably effective at healing injuries.
By the time the two returned to the cave, the small world had fallen into complete darkness. They could not see their own hands before their faces.
Wu Fei took out a moonlight stone and hung it inside the cave. By its light, he cast a spell to clean the cave, then took out two meditation cushions, apparently intending to sit on them all night.
Thinking of the bedding, incense, and other supplies prepared in his storage ring, Wu Fei looked down at the plain meditation cushion in his hand and sighed deeply. To maintain his persona, this was his only choice. However...
Jing Fanyu probably would not sit on a meditation cushion with him all night.
His gaze flicked discreetly toward Jing Fanyu's storage ring. Sure enough, Jing Fanyu stiffened for a moment after accepting the cushion.
"Please wait a moment, Senior Brother Wu Fei."
With a raise of his hand, he took an exquisitely crafted couch out of his storage ring, its middle divided by a table.
"The tea you brewed last time was excellent, Senior Brother, but I was busy and had to leave after only a brief taste. Since we happened to meet in this small world, I'll shamelessly ask you to brew it once more..."
As he spoke, he placed the meditation cushion on the couch and sat down, looking earnestly at Wu Fei.
Pleased that he would not have to make do on a meditation cushion all night, Wu Fei revealed none of it on his face. He smiled faintly. "Why not?"
Late that night, the energies within the small world suddenly grew muddled. A strange energy had mingled with the previously pure spiritual qi. Circulating spiritual qi no longer felt clear and comfortable; instead, as it entered their bodies, their meridians grew sluggish, and a dull pain spread through their limbs and bones.
Wu Fei was the first to notice. The moment that strange energy entered his body, his Exquisite Heart rejected it. The intense pain made him grunt and stop cultivating.
At the same time, his brows drew together slightly. Why had those things come out on the very first night?
Something suddenly occurred to him, and he abruptly turned to look at Jing Fanyu on the other side of the couch. The greatest function of the Myriad Spirits Body was its ability to actively absorb spiritual qi. Now that something was wrong with the spiritual qi, the protagonist would undoubtedly suffer the most.
Sure enough, Jing Fanyu's brows were tightly knitted, and a trace of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. He was clearly badly injured.
Wu Fei frowned slightly. In the book, those things had only appeared on the third night. With no one else around him, Jing Fanyu had barely managed to separate out those impure energies by drawing on his Nascent Soul Peak cultivation.
Now that Wu Fei was here, Jing Fanyu would certainly refuse to expose his identity and could only struggle to endure...
After a moment's thought, Wu Fei removed the prayer beads from his hand and wound them around Jing Fanyu's wrist. The instant Jing Fanyu touched the beads, his complexion improved somewhat.
Unlike the tracking device Wu Fei had given him before, these prayer beads were made from the finest bodhi seeds in the sect. They had been soaked in the Cleansing Pool for decades and nurtured by his exquisite state of mind, giving them an exceptional ability to calm the mind.
He then set up a spiritual array at the cave entrance to keep the spiritual qi outside.
"Junior Brother Jing, focus on healing for now. This energy does me no harm. I'll go out and investigate."
With that, Wu Fei took a moonlight stone and walked into the boundless darkness. His first reason for leaving now was that the protagonist could heal more easily alone than with him present. The second, of course, was...
The Nascent Soul Late Stage Demon Beasts he had spared during the day.
Buddhist cultivators lived in poverty. In all the time since he had transmigrated here, he had truly learned just how poor the Buddha Spirit Sect was. It even had to rely on its disciples refining Youth-Preserving Pills to keep the sect running, while his persona prevented Wu Fei from amassing wealth.
Now, with the opportunity afforded by the inheritance tomb, he could openly gather more resources.
With that thought, Wu Fei unhurriedly killed another Demon Beast with his vajra stake, then reached out and plucked the Illusory Leaf Orchid it had been guarding. Though he was ruthlessly plucking a flower, his every movement carried an air of calm composure.
His robes fluttered, the muted golden patterns at his cuffs gleaming faintly beneath the moonlight stone.
When he turned his head, however, he saw a figure darker than the night standing beside the ferocious Demon Beast's corpse.
Demonic qi surged around black robes. Together with the black mask, the figure almost blended into the dense curtain of darkness behind him.
"Demon Venerable Yin Fan..."
Holding the Illusory Leaf Orchid, Wu Fei raised his eyes calmly. A miscalculation. Who would have thought the protagonist would recover from his injuries so quickly?
The corpse before him, still bearing traces of Nascent Soul Late Stage energy, seemed like evidence of a crime, exposing what Wu Fei had concealed for so long.
He could only be thankful that the highest cultivation anyone could wield in the small world was Nascent Soul Peak. In Yin Fan's eyes, he had merely concealed one major realm of cultivation.
"You've certainly put on quite a show for this venerable one, Buddha's Chosen!" Yin Fan's gaze burned. Wu Fei had actually hidden his cultivation. If Yin Fan had not decided to take advantage of Wu Fei's absence to collect the Nascent Soul Late Stage Demon Beasts they had spared during the day, he would never have discovered it.
Who would have thought they had both had the same idea?
Wu Fei calmly countered, "Only those in the Golden Core and Nascent Soul Realms can enter the inheritance tomb. May I ask how you slipped inside, Demon Venerable?"
After asking, he casually put the Illusory Leaf Orchid into his storage ring, then collected the Demon Beast's corpse from the ground.
Yin Fan said, "How this venerable one got in is unimportant. What matters is that this venerable one has discovered your secret."
Although he did not know why Wu Fei had hidden his cultivation, anything that could make the Buddha's Chosen with his exquisite state of mind do such a thing had to be highly unusual.
Unexpectedly, Wu Fei remained perfectly calm and even smiled faintly. Beneath the moonlight stone, his peerlessly handsome face nearly dazzled the Demon Venerable. Wu Fei spoke softly. "I had no choice but to conceal my cultivation, but being discovered does no harm. This hardly counts as a secret."
Since Yin Fan had already seen him, the restriction on Wu Fei's cultivation from the book no longer existed. Whatever punishment was due would come regardless. Since that was the case, there was no longer any point in concealing his cultivation.
He simply did not know whether having a cultivation different from the one in the book fell under the rules' constraints.