Chapter 17: A-Yue, Please… Part 2

But Bai Xiaoxiao was so embarrassed she wished she could crawl into a crack in the ground and never come out.

She had no idea how to face Shen Zhiyue.

She’d said so many nonsensical things to the woman while out of her mind. Bai Xiaoxiao was mortified and annoyed at herself.

Had this been her usual self, she would never have said such things. But she’d not only said them—she’d also disobediently flipped the woman this way and that…

Bai Xiaoxiao took a deep, frustrated breath and forcibly kicked the embarrassment out of her head.

She remembered she was inside a secret realm. The urgent task was to find a way out, or she’d be trapped here until the secret realm ended, and her quest would fail outright.

The punishment for failing a quest was a lightning strike.

Bai Xiaoxiao froze.

She hadn’t had the chance to unlock the Side Quest before, since Rong Qingqing was still at the Sword Sect. If the girl never descended the mountain, there was no opportunity to seize.

But now that they’d come down the mountain, she couldn’t just stop at the starting line, could she?

This cave looked airtight no matter how she examined it. There was simply no exit.

If she were in the modern world and mysteriously appeared here, she’d be trapped until she died. But this was the Cultivation World, where one couldn’t think in conventional terms. Perhaps there was something she’d missed.

Bai Xiaoxiao finally settled her mind and prepared to observe more carefully.

“Host, I suggest using Spirit Vision. You won’t see anything with your naked eyes like that.”

Bai Xiaoxiao blinked. “Spirit Vision? What’s that?”

Her System rarely spoke. Aside from issuing quests, when it did volunteer information, it was usually reminding her of something.

The System’s presence was low-key, and Bai Xiaoxiao accepted that just fine—but when it suddenly spoke out of nowhere, it always startled her.

“Spirit Vision is when you cover your eyes with Spiritual Power to see things invisible to the naked eye. Essentially, it’s a Qi Observation Technique. However, Spirit Vision is limited by the user’s cultivation base. If the thing you’re examining ranks higher than your cultivation, you won’t be able to see it.”

Bai Xiaoxiao was a little surprised, but she did as the System said—gathering Spiritual Power over her eyes. When she opened them again, her surroundings had indeed changed dramatically.

The Heart-Capturing Grass Shen Zhiyue had warned her about, for instance, was shrouded in a faint, mist-like substance that looked oddly familiar.

Bai Xiaoxiao stared at the patch of grass for a few seconds, then it hit her.

No wonder it looked familiar. That mist-like thing resembled the clumps of spiritual qi she’d seen during cultivation—except this one didn’t drift; it clung tightly to the Heart-Capturing Grass.

In other words, this type of Spirit Plant should all carry spiritual qi, just in varying amounts.

She tentatively shifted her gaze to the pool and indeed found it shrouded in spiritual qi as well—even denser than the grass.

“Could the water in this pool be some kind of treasure too?”

Her mind stirred, and she immediately thought of the Gu Poison flare-up she’d just been forced to endure. Her eyes gradually turned wary.

Could it have been caused by the water in this pool?

The more Bai Xiaoxiao thought about it, the more likely it seemed. She promptly took a step back, afraid she’d fall into the pool again.

Steadying herself, she moved her gaze onward. Then she noticed a section of stone wall that was very different from its surroundings. It was clearly stone wall, yet in Spirit Vision, it gave off a faint glow—spiritual qi hung over it as well.

Bai Xiaoxiao immediately decided to investigate. She drew her sword, intending to fly up on it—but quickly discovered that Sword Flight didn’t work here.

“Huh? Why can’t I fly? If Spiritual Power was forbidden, I used the Water Control Art earlier, and I can still use Spirit Vision now. So why doesn’t Sword Flight work?”

“There’s a Restriction here. Flight is forbidden.”

Shen Zhiyue’s voice drifted over coolly.

Bai Xiaoxiao had been muttering to herself, but she hadn’t expected an answer. She immediately realized Shen Zhiyue was awake.

Or perhaps she’d never been asleep—her consciousness just hadn’t been on the Soul Fragment.

Heat rushed to Bai Xiaoxiao’s face. She stammered, “Your… Your Eminence.”

She’d expected a scolding, or at least a colder tone. But Shen Zhiyue said nothing of the sort. She only gave a soft “Mm” and let the matter drop.

Bai Xiaoxiao blinked, feeling a strange emptiness. But she quickly pulled herself together.

“Your Eminence, can this Restriction be lifted?”

“No. The Flowing Light Spirit Cave Secret Realm formed long ago; it’s a natural secret realm. It’s made up of many caves, each with different content, and every cave contains different Restrictions. This particular one forbids flight.”

Though she was explaining the origins of Flowing Light Spirit Cave, it was already rare for Shen Zhiyue to speak this much. Joy bubbled in Bai Xiaoxiao’s heart. At least Shen Zhiyue was still willing to talk to her—that meant the woman hadn’t been angered by those offensive words just now, and she wasn’t planning to ignore her.

Her tone brightened. “I see! Oh, by the way, Your Eminence, I found something wrong with that stone wall—I was just about to go check it out.”

Shen Zhiyue hummed in acknowledgment. “Go ahead. Entering this secret realm to train was your choice. Since it’s training, you have to rely on yourself. Unless it’s necessary, I won’t help you anymore from now on.”

Bai Xiaoxiao smiled sheepishly and obediently nodded. “I understand. Thank you, Your Eminence.”

Shen Zhiyue, true to her word, fell silent.

Bai Xiaoxiao lowered her gaze in thought. She’d been trying to figure out how to climb up—but as her gaze brushed past the pool, she froze for a second. She raised her hand and tentatively opened the Storage Ring. Sure enough, it worked fine, confirming that this cave only forbade flight.

She’d only given the Storage Ring Ye Xingtong gave her a quick glance and never gone through it carefully. Now that she searched, she found that apart from Spirit Stones, it was stuffed with all sorts of odds and ends—including a stack of empty jade bottles.

A thought struck her. Bai Xiaoxiao moved the jade bottles out into the real world, rolled up her sleeves, and carefully began filling them with pool water.

At first, she’d thought the water was problematic—the effects had certainly been unexpected. But after checking with Spirit Vision, she found the water was radiating spiritual qi too. If that was the case, it had to be something good. Since fate had brought her here, why not take some with her?

She busily filled bottle after bottle, and Shen Zhiyue, watching from the Sea of Consciousness, felt rather speechless.

She wanted to ask what Bai Xiaoxiao was doing with that water. But remembering what she’d just said—that she wouldn’t help unless necessary—she didn’t speak again. She simply watched the other woman happily fill her bottles.

Entangling Silk Spring…

Shen Zhiyue’s gaze gradually shifted. Looking at the spring made her unavoidably recall everything that had just happened, and again she revisited those shameless words Bai Xiaoxiao had spoken.

The heart she’d barely calmed rippled once more.

Shen Zhiyue abruptly closed her eyes and chose not to look.

Bai Xiaoxiao didn’t notice the slight disturbance in the Sea of Consciousness. She huffed and puffed as she filled bottle after bottle across the ground, then stowed them all back into the Storage Ring.

As she stood, her gaze caught the lush clumps of Heart-Capturing Grass. After a brief deliberation, she tentatively dug one clump out. Finding that it showed no signs of wilting, she happily began digging up more.

There weren’t many spirit items in this cave. Apart from the pool water and the Heart-Capturing Grass, she noticed that the stone pillars overhead also carried a faint fluorescent glow—their spiritual qi even denser than the water and the grass. Presumably they were good things too.

Unfortunately, flight was forbidden here. Even if she wanted to break off a piece, she couldn’t reach it.

Bai Xiaoxiao looked up at the stone pillars with regret and reluctantly turned away, finally turning her mind to the matter of how to climb up there.

After two seconds of thought, it struck her.

She’d been human for so long that she’d forgotten she wasn’t human anymore.

Bai Xiaoxiao immediately shifted back into her original form. Relying on her racial advantage, she climbed along the nooks and crannies without any effort at all, reaching the strange stone wall in no time.

It was only then that she realized there was a ledge here. She hadn’t noticed it from below because of the angle.

Bai Xiaoxiao transformed back into human form on the ledge, gathered a point of Spiritual Light at her fingertip, and tentatively touched the stone wall.

The wall absorbed the Spiritual Power. The next second, it rippled like water, then slowly dissolved into nothing, revealing a passage behind it.

“It wasn’t stone at all?”

Bai Xiaoxiao was startled, but looking at the road before her, she hesitated only briefly before heading down.

The passage wasn’t long, but it felt stifling. Fortunately, before long, she saw a faint glimmer of light ahead.

Bai Xiaoxiao quickened her pace. Completely without caution, she popped her head out—

And every hair on her body stood on end. She yanked her head back, and the next moment, a tremendous crash exploded overhead, sending rocks flying everywhere.

If not for her quick reflexes, she’d be dead by now.

This time, she’d learned her lesson. Rather than blindly poking her head out, she carefully extended a thread of Divine Sense.

She was only at Foundation Establishment, so her Divine Sense couldn’t see far—but for now, it was enough.

Sure enough, behind the passage lay another cave. But this cave was different: it was full of sheer cliffs and upright stone pillars. The only places to land were those pillars, and on one of them bloomed a soil-colored flower.

Bai Xiaoxiao was startled that a flower could grow on a stone pillar. It looked very strange—aside from a small bud, it had no leaves at all, only thin roots gripping the pillar. No matter how much noise rumbled around it, it didn’t sway a single bit.

The bizarre sight earned an extra glance from Bai Xiaoxiao, before a violent crash dragged her attention back. She realized that the crowd below was fighting over this pillar flower.

For a moment, Bai Xiaoxiao was grateful she’d been dumped into that pool. At least she hadn’t run into this many people—otherwise, there’d be no end to the fighting, just like in this cave.

After watching for a moment, Bai Xiaoxiao noticed the battling cultivators were behaving oddly.

She clearly saw a cultivator in the fray aim a strike at an opponent’s vital point, only for the attack to inexplicably veer off course, so the sword didn’t kill—it only wounded.

At first, Bai Xiaoxiao thought she was imagining it. But as she watched, she spotted the same thing happen in several other places, until she was sure.

Could this be the cave’s Restriction? And what kind of Restriction was this, so bizarre?

As Bai Xiaoxiao pondered, several more people suddenly joined the crowd below. She looked closely and was shocked to see that two of the newcomers were Ming Jingqiu and Jing Ying.

Unfortunately, the two appeared in a panic, their expressions flustered. They seemed to descend without much thought.

And once they landed, they were caught right in the middle of the free-for-all. Everyone assumed they’d come to seize the treasure, so without giving them a chance to explain, they swarmed. The battle escalated.

Bai Xiaoxiao was stunned, then grew anxious.

Just then, the System chimed in with an air of joining the fun: “Host, the flower below is called the Stone Flower. It’s one of the key ingredients for the Cleansing Pill. The Cleansing Pill can wash the marrow and refine the body—it’s an extremely rare medicine. The Stone Flower is even rarer. In this instance, the Female Lead’s opportunity includes this flower.”

Bai Xiaoxiao’s lips trembled. “So I have to go snatch it. That’s what you’re saying.”

“That’s right.”

“…”