Chapter 117 - 114: The Disappointing Ruins

Cang Beichun was about to rush into the Stone Gate when he noticed a figure in front of him, instinctively taking several steps back. "Old man, you're quite fast," Ding Huan said with a smile, looking at Cang Beichun. "You..." Cang Beichun was as though he had seen a ghost, completely unable to believe his eyes. Ding Huan snorted coldly, "What about me? I kindly spared your life to lead the way, yet you deceived me, hiding ahead while avoiding me. You provided false information, almost causing me to fall off a cliff." "My friend, this is indeed a misunderstanding. I was somewhat afraid that you would strike, so I was overly cautious. I, Cang Beichun, now swear..." Ding Huan interrupted Cang Beichun's words, "There's no need for oaths. Just tell me, were you cultivating here?" Cang Beichun's forehead was dripping with cold sweat. He was constantly wondering how Ding Huan could appear right in front of him. He was certain that he had been extremely cautious along the way, definitely not leaving any trail to be followed. Being so careful, how was he blocked by the other party? Wasn't this guy supposed to be searching each branch cave one by one outside? If he followed that pace, finding this place would take at least a day or two. At the very fastest, it would take one day. Everyone came without any preparations, so he assumed Ding Huan would need to go out once to gather various mine lights and food before coming back in. "This..." Cang Beichun hesitated. He was sure that his Innate was not perfect; if he wanted to break through the Innate, this was the only place. In his heart, this place was the true relic of the Daoists of the Kunlun Mountain Range. As for going deeper, he had been there as well. The deepest part was just finding some Primordial Qi Stones, nothing else. This place had a cultivating spot rich in Primordial Qi, and although it was a bit small, he always felt there were too many secrets in this tiny place. It was just that his cultivation and insight were too low to understand it at the moment. If he handed this place over to someone else, how could he progress in the future? "Poof!" A splash of blood burst forth, and Cang Beichun felt a chill on his shoulder, then he was horrified to discover that one of his arms had been chopped off by Ding Huan. "My friend, I say, this is indeed the place where I secluded myself for cultivation." Cang Beichun suddenly realized that his life was in the hands of the man before him. What right and reason did he have not to speak out? "How did you enter this Stone Cave just now?" asked Ding Huan indifferently. Cang Beichun hurriedly said, "This Stone Cave is open for a few hours each day. I planned to block the cave once I entered, preventing my friends from knowing. I admit I was selfish. I am willing to..." "Poof!" A splash of blood exploded on Cang Beichun's neck. Cang Beichun saw his own back, his last awareness being that his head was chopped off. Why? Hadn't he not yet revealed anything? Ding Huan stretched out his hand, and before Cang Beichun's body fell, a pouch hanging at his waist was grabbed by Ding Huan. Then a flame fell on Cang Beichun's body, rapidly reducing it to ashes beneath the fire. Only at this moment did Qi Xinyue and Lao Liu anxiously run over. "Big brother..." Qi Xinyue glanced at the Stone Cave behind Ding Huan and the smell of burning flesh, she could roughly guess some of it. Ding Huan walked to where Cang Beichun had placed the Array Flags and noticed that this notch was indeed different from others. This notch seemed to contain some dense patterns. This reminded Ding Huan of the Divine Runes of the Undying Spider—could this be the same thing? He took out a small flag from Cang Beichun's bag. The material of this flag was unknown, but holding it gave a warm, smooth sensation. The flag was no more than twelve centimeters long, with a brown flag surface measuring about five square centimeters apart from the flagpole. Without holding it in hand, he wouldn't have noticed the dense patterns on the flagpole and flag surface. Sending his Divine Will, Ding Huan was shocked to find that his Divine Will couldn't penetrate it. This was definitely not an ordinary treasure. In addition to these, there were also some Primordial Qi Stones in the bag and a few hand-copied breathing methods, seemingly written by Cang Beichun. "Let's go in," Ding Huan, holding the flag, was the first to enter the side Stone Cave. Previously, his Divine Will had only scanned halfway before being blocked by something, which made Ding Huan even more interested. After entering the Stone Cave, Ding Huan saw another notch filled with intricate patterns in the back. Ding Huan inserted the small flag into it, and sure enough, the Stone Cave slowly returned to its original place. His Divine Will swept out, and he was immediately shocked to find that his Divine Will was blocked by the stone wall, unable to penetrate it. Just like previously when his Divine Will couldn't enter. Indeed it was so, Ding Huan felt fortunate he had come just in time to stop Cang Beichun. If there was enough food inside, and Cang Beichun stayed there for years without coming out, he could do nothing about it. "Chirp chirp..." Lao Liu came in and after looking around for a while, began to chirp noisily. Ding Huan simply took out a small bag, threw paper and a pen into it, and handed it to Lao Liu, "From now on, this is yours." Lao Liu excitedly grabbed the small bag, quickly pulled out the paper and pen, and wrote, "This is a Concealing Array, and the flag in your hand is the Array Flag that opens the Array Gate." As expected, it was an Array; Ding Huan nodded his head, as he had guessed earlier that this seemed to be an array. Unfortunately, he didn't understand Arrays at all. "Cang Beichun had secluded himself here for a long time; this place should be safe." Ding Huan called out to Qi Xinyue and headed deeper into the cave. After only walking a few dozen meters, Ding Huan came across another Stone Gate. He could clearly see the Stone Gate when he walked up close, but his Divine Will had swept over it earlier and it appeared blurred. A groove was still positioned beside the Stone Gate, and Ding Huan instinctively inserted the Array Flag in his hand into the groove. With a creak, the Stone Gate opened without any surprise. The scene in front of him left Ding Huan somewhat dazed. It was that simple? Ding Huan had imagined, since Cang Beichun had secluded himself here for such a long time, that this would be a spacious and complex palace-like place. But the area he saw definitely didn't exceed thirty square meters. It's not about the size of the area, but rather that the layout here could be clearly seen at a glance. Four Night Pearls emitting a misty glow were embedded in the four corners of the stone cave, a stone bed, a stone chair, and a green stone cushion. Besides these, there was an altar. At the side of the stone bed, on the stone wall, there was a smooth area that depicted some techniques of cultivation practice. Ding Huan glanced at it, quite ordinary, the same cultivation technique he had obtained from Cang Beichun previously. For this, Ding Huan had no interest at all. Besides this, no matter how he looked, the place didn't resemble a site of Daoist relics. Ding Huan began to doubt whether he had killed Cang Beichun a bit too early; at least he should have let him come in first to see if there were other mechanisms inside. The only difference was that the Primordial Qi of Heaven and Earth was very rich here. Ding Huan's Divine Will continuously scanned the area, and he quickly noticed a difference—the Primordial Qi was emanating from beneath the ground. His Divine Will couldn't penetrate further; it seemed that an Array had been engraved below too. "This seems like just a common man's stone cave for seclusion," Qi Xinyue couldn't help but comment. She, too, felt nothing special about this place. Ding Huan's Divine Will repeatedly swept through the stone cave; he was reluctant to believe that the Ancient Daoist relic he had been anticipating was just such an ordinary stone cave. After searching for nearly thirty minutes, Ding Huan's Divine Will suddenly stopped at a spot near the entrance of the stone cave. From observing until now, Ding Huan had already figured out a pattern. That was, Divine Will couldn't penetrate where Arrays were present. Now, as his Divine Will scanned this stone wall, it seemed no different from the walls of a common stone cave. But near the entrance, there was a spot that couldn't be penetrated. Ding Huan touched the unpenetrable spot with his hand; it was a protruding point indistinguishable from the surroundings. Clearly, this stone wall had been artificially chiseled, and there were many such uneven protrusions. With a flick of his hand, the protruding stone fell into Ding Huan's palm. With a squeeze, the small stone immediately smoothed out. It appeared to be only about two square centimeters in size, shaped like a star. Even when held in his hand, Ding Huan's Divine Will was still unable to penetrate the star-shaped stone. Ding Huan placed the star-shaped stone into his pocket and then said, "There probably isn't anything else here; I really didn't expect it to be just such an ordinary stone cave." Lao Liu chirped a bit, pointing to the ground. Casually, Ding Huan sent several Wind Blades bombarding the ground, quickly revealing a faint white light. "There's actually a three-meter Primordial Qi Vein here," Ding Huan exclaimed in surprise. He had noticed the seepage of Qi from the ground as soon as he entered, and he had always thought that many Divine Crystal Stones were buried underground. To be honest, possessing a stack of Blossom God Crystal Stones, Ding Huan no longer had the previous longing for Divine Crystal Stones. Unexpectedly, after digging, it turned out not to be Divine Crystal Stones but a Primordial Qi Vein. Ding Huan hadn't seen a Primordial Qi Vein before. However, in his view, this, like Divine Crystal Stones, contained Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi and formed a whole—naturally, it was a Primordial Qi Vein. Ding Huan continuously chopped with Wind Blade, and soon he had pulled out nearly a ten-meter-long Primordial Qi Vein. Squeaking excitedly, Lao Liu was extremely thrilled, buzzing around the Primordial Qi Vein constantly. "Let's go, there's nothing good left to explore here," Ding Huan said somewhat disappointedly. Previously, he had indeed wanted to get some Divine Crystal Stones at the Daoist relics in the Kunlun Mountain Range. Now, he only wanted to get some Daoist Cultivation Techniques or Daoist Divine Powers or the like. In the end, he didn't get the Divine Crystal Stones, nor did he obtain any Divine Power Techniques; instead, he had pulled out an almost ten-meter-long Primordial Qi Vein.