The atmosphere beside the Corpse Pit eased a little because the Little Snake Demon had opened her mouth wide and swallowed the dose of poison meant for all three of them.
“Are you all right?” Xian Yuan asked softly. “This person is strange. You can’t just eat whatever they take out…”
“Don’t worry,” Yin Luan replied confidently. “My digestion is excellent. Normal poisons have no effect on me.”
In terms of physical constitution, she was far stronger than her two companions. Even if she were poisoned, she could hold out much longer.
Besides, as long as it wasn’t an aphrodisiac poison, Yin Luan was confident that no other toxin could bring her down…
“What a touching scene,” the Black-Robed Woman recovered from her surprise, her tone laced with mockery. “This poison is called the Hundred-Zhang Self-Explosion Pill. Once you’re within a hundred zhang of me, your body will explode and kill you. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and try it.”
“Where’s the antidote?”
Xian Yuan frowned.
“Of course it’s on me,” the Black-Robed Woman chuckled. “Relax, I don’t like hurting people. Once the business is done, I’ll naturally give you the antidote and let you leave.”
No one believed a word of it except the Little Snake Demon.
If she truly wanted no enmity, she could simply drive them out of the Cave-Heaven. Why bother controlling them with poison?
“Whatever you say goes,” the Little Snake Demon declared, hands on her hips. “Right, can you take off the hood now? Aren’t you going to show us your real face? Even if you’re disfigured, we won’t laugh at you.”
“Heh, I’m not like that one beside you,” the Black-Robed Woman said as she removed her hood. “What is there to hide from people?”
Beneath the hood was a bewitching woman’s face: phoenix eyes, upturned brows, purple lips, and a black tattoo-like pattern on her left cheek.
She was not unattractive—her features could even be called beautiful—but the black tattoo and her overly bold style made her look anything but a good person.
At the very least, she didn’t seem like a girl from a respectable family…
“Black Peach,” the woman introduced herself. “Don’t ask for any more information. Know too much, and you might not live to regret it.”
“That face of yours,” Xian Yuan said after glancing at her twice, her brows furrowed tightly. “An Evil Cultivator? So there’s an Evil Cultivator inheritance in the Eastern Wastelands?”
“Oh?” Black Peach glanced at her in mild surprise. “Judging from your tone, and that Storage Ring and Spiritual Longsword… You’re not from around here, are you? We rarely see outsiders in the Eastern Wastelands.”
The Little Snake Demon shot Su Paopao a bewildered look. The latter leaned in and whispered an explanation.
“Evil Cultivators are those who practice cultivation methods tainted by demons, devils, ghosts, and monsters. They gain immense power at the cost of their lifespan, and their methods are utterly ruthless…”
Once demon beasts took humanoid form, they would learn human cultivation techniques in pursuit of the Great Dao.
Yet some humans went in the opposite direction, cultivating those “primitive” powers instead. Though they had not yet devolved into Evil Spirits, they had strayed from the proper path and were thus known as Evil Cultivators.
The woman before them differed from the one they had encountered near the Rift Valley, who had merely practiced an “Evil Technique.”
Those sorts only dabbled in a single technique and could not surpass the Postnatal Realm. But this one commanded swarms of black bugs in battle, which clearly pointed to a full inheritance.
If anyone was similar to her… the Mystic Master came to mind.
“Were an Evil Cultivator found in the outside world, everyone would seek to slay them,” Xian Yuan said coolly. “These Spirit Corpses are more than enough for you to raise a bug tide. Aren’t you satisfied?”
“You’re not just hiding behind a mask—you’re a hypocrite through and through,” Black Peach snorted. “You’ve come to this Bottle Pure Heaven to seek the Immortal Treasury, haven’t you?”
It seemed this woman knew just as much as Xian Yuan did.
Xian Yuan fell silent and ceased speaking with her, likely to avoid revealing any more information.
Seeing this, Black Peach waved her hand. The bug tide returned to the pit to resume devouring the corpses, while she herself stood at the edge, watching.
The Little Snake Demon bounced over and peered into the pit as well.
“You seemed to find something in Rat-Rat’s belly earlier. Is that thing really edible?”
“You’re awfully chummy already…”
Black Peach couldn’t help but remark, eyeing the demonic woman.
Any normal person—even without having swallowed poison—would have been terrified by her appearance and kept their distance. Yet this one showed no fear and had even approached of her own accord.
There were two possibilities. First, she was a fool with more guts than sense. Second, she no longer cared about living and had given up entirely.
“That’s a Demon Beast Inner Core,” Black Peach explained. “High-Cultivation Base demon beasts have a chance of forming one inside them. All the corpses you see here were slain by Immortals in their lifetime and discarded in this place, left for the Cave-Heaven to slowly refine them back into nature.”
“An Inner Core,” the Little Snake Demon nodded and pressed on. “Is this thing tasty? What does it taste like?”
“Not tasty at all,” Black Peach replied. “Normal people can’t consume Demon Beast Inner Cores. To demons, though, they’re a tremendous supplement. That one from earlier would add at least fifty years to your cultivation base.”
“Only fifty years?” Yin Luan pouted. “This is an Inner Core from a rat demon with five hundred years of cultivation base…”
“Fifty years and you’re still not satisfied?” Black Peach shot her a glance. “Without the Inner Core, even if you devoured the entire rat, it’s debatable whether you’d gain a straight ten years of cultivation base.”
The differences between demons were stark. No matter how large the rat grew, it was still just a rat—nowhere near as potent as a single goat leg from the Mythical Goat.
“Any more?”
Yin Luan stood on tiptoe to peer into the pit, swallowing hard.
“Didn’t you hear me clearly?” Black Peach’s mouth twitched. “Normal people can’t eat Demon Beast Inner Cores. The Demon Qi inside is lethal poison to humans…”
“Any more?” The Little Snake Demon gazed up at the woman before her with big, sparkling eyes, the picture of adorable innocence. “What’s it taste like?”
“Why do you want to eat everything? Poison, Demon Beast Inner Cores—you don’t let anything slip by…”
Black Peach regarded her with a mix of exasperation and resignation, her mind settling on a conclusion.
This girl wasn’t recklessly self-destructive… She was just plain dim-witted.
“Could you find one to share with me?”
“In your dreams! I don’t have enough for my own cultivation as it is!”
“Come on, share half a one—for how cute I am?”
“…Are you even listening to me?”
~~~
The group lingered by the Corpse Pit for the entire night.
The Little Snake Demon peppered Black Peach with endless questions, eager to glean more details about Evil Cultivators. Meanwhile, Xian Yuan and Su Paopao rested off to the side, recovering their Qi.
Should enemies strike and they prove no match, every bit of preserved strength would help them flee faster… As for the Little Snake Demon, they were all good sisters. They wouldn’t forget this sacrifice.
The black bugs gorged themselves in the pit throughout the night but turned up no second Inner Core. Come daytime, they poured into the surrounding jungle and rocky outcrops in perfect unison, vanishing from sight.
“Without the little bugs’ backup, won’t you be a lot weaker?”
Yin Luan asked, puzzled.
“The Black Spirit Insects will always stick with me,” Black Peach assured her. “No need to worry about that… Also, could you talk a little less? You’ve been at it all night—my ears are about to sprout calluses.”
She roused the other two from their rest and went on.
“Let’s move. Surely the Eldest Young Lady of that wealthy house has a tool for detecting energy flows? Lead on—no funny business. I’ve got one myself.”
Xian Yuan gave her a look, then quietly produced her device. The group pressed deeper into the Cave-Heaven.
They ran into a few waves of Cave Spirits along the way. Xian Yuan dispatched the weaker ones with ease, while Black Peach handled the tougher varieties.
The Cave-Heaven’s vistas were striking at first, but they soon grew repetitive, as if churned out from the same mold—tedious after a while.
What was more, the place lacked any real vitality, like a magnificent painting: all form, no soul.
Xian Yuan and Black Peach, however, seemed attuned to the subtle repetitions in the landscape. The deeper they ventured, the more their expressions brightened with excitement.
“Not bad at all—more intact than I expected,” Black Peach said cheerfully. “I figured an Immortal’s Cave-Heaven would suffer some damage after death.”
Two days of trekking brought them to the base of a mountain roughly a hundred zhang high.
Mists wreathed its peak, and lush greenery cloaked its slopes, lending it an air of profound Immortal Qi.
“A hundred-zhang peak wrapped in clouds?”
Su Paopao scratched her head.
The Cave-Heaven’s weather was monotonously uniform: endless clear skies without a single cloud. This place stood apart.
“Mm, this has to be it,” Black Peach confirmed. “The energy flows concentrate here like nowhere else—nothing like those ordinary hills. You three, take point.”
Xian Yuan drew her Spiritual Longsword and led the way. They climbed in single file, treading with utmost caution.
The mountainside offered no surprises—verdant as could be, yet utterly devoid of birds or beasts.
Gazing outward revealed drifting banks of white cloud, evoking the heights of a true lofty summit.
Before long, Yin Luan and the others crested the peak.
A vast, flat expanse stretched before them—empty as far as the eye could see.
No Immortal. No treasure trove.
“How can this be?” Black Peach’s brow furrowed at once. “This has to be the Immortal’s personal peak. There’s no way it’s completely barren!”
“Maybe the Immortal took all the treasures with them before dying?”
the Little Snake Demon ventured.
Black Peach was not ready to give up. She tapped her foot rhythmically on the ground a few times. Soon, a dense swarm of insects burst out from the earth and surged off in all directions, scouring the entire mountain peak.
Xian Yuan fiddled with her search device, likely doing much the same.
The idle Yin Luan and Su Paopao could only stand off to the side, watching helplessly.
“Senior,” Su Paopao muttered softly, “that poison… it doesn’t affect you, does it?”
“Huh? How did you know?”
The Little Snake Demon shot back.
“Good people get good rewards, Senior. You must be immune to all poisons!”
The twin-tailed girl chuckled.
“Is that the real reason?”
“Senior, you’re no fool. Why would you risk your life for two people you’ve only just met?” Su Paopao replied. “Besides, out of everyone in the group, I’ve known you the longest. I have faith in your strength!”
“Hmm, I have to admit… you’ve got a good eye.”
Yin Luan patted her head, quite pleased.
A girl with such sharp instincts should taste delicious…
“Hehe,” Su Paopao laughed. “Come on, Senior. Let’s search around too and try our luck. When it comes to finding treasures, skill is important, but luck matters even more!”
She had a point, but the Little Snake Demon couldn’t stray too far from Black Peach out in the open, or it would give everything away.
The two stuck to searching carefully around the nearby mountain peak.
After a while of looking…
“I’m worn out from all this walking. Time for a break. Walking really is exhausting.”
With that, the Little Snake Demon flopped down onto the ground.
“Sigh, looks like there really aren’t any treasures here,” Su Paopao said, plopping down beside her with a dejected sigh. “We’ve come all this way for nothing!”
No sooner had they sat down than their bodies suddenly began to sink into the earth.
“Wait—no way, not again?”
Yin Luan had barely gotten the words out when her body shot downward.
This time, though, the drop was swift. In the blink of an eye, she landed on solid ground.
Su Paopao arrived right behind her.
They seemed to have fallen inside the mountain itself. Rock walls loomed overhead and on all sides, but the space was far from dark—it was brightly lit, though no one could say where the light was coming from.
“Senior, look over there!”
Su Paopao glanced around and spotted three large gilded characters carved into the nearby rock wall: “Bottle Pure Heaven.”
“Is this the real Bottle Pure Heaven?” Yin Luan leaped to her feet. “We’ve found the right place?”
“Hehe, I told you—when it comes to treasure hunting, luck beats skill every time!”
The little girl shouted in excitement.
Up above, the other two had poured their efforts into the search with nothing to show for it, while she and Yin Luan had stumbled right into it purely by chance. Good people really did get good rewards…
“Who dares trespass in Bottle Pure Heaven!”
Their excitement lasted only a few seconds before a majestic voice thundered through the mountain interior, so powerful it shook their eardrums.
“…”
Oh no—trouble!
A series of thunderous booms echoed like lightning strikes, and the rock ceiling overhead split open, pouring in dazzling white light.
A few breaths later, the white light coalesced into a massive illusory figure dozens of feet tall.
Its upper body belonged to a flushed-faced, wide-eyed middle-aged man clutching a spear and halberd, while its lower half shrank into a long, slender form embedded deep in the ground.
“Surrender at once! Any who resist will be executed without mercy!”
The figure jabbed its spear and halberd toward them and bellowed.
“Don’t panic,” Yin Luan said, swallowing hard despite her tension. “It’s just an illusion. It can’t possibly have any attack power…”
“Ha!”
As if to prove her wrong, the figure slammed its weapon into the ground, blasting out a massive crater.
“Uh… it might have some attack power after all…”
This was the dwelling of an immortal. Nothing here could be judged by ordinary standards.
“Insignificant mortals, surrender now—or die!”
The enormous spear and halberd swung toward them. Yin Luan and Su Paopao huddled together, their teeth chattering in terror.
Bang!
A thunderous crash rang out, and the illusory figure’s attack halted midway.
“No need to worry,” Xian Yuan said. She stood protectively in front of them, spiritual longsword in hand. “It’s merely a gate guarding spirit.”
“You dared sneak in behind my back,” Black Peach huffed, appearing ahead of them. “I’ll deal with you two later!”
“Mortals, you dare resist me?”
The gate guarding spirit’s eyes blazed with golden light. It was seething with rage, its voice so deafening it left their heads spinning.
“A gate guarding spirit lacking true intelligence,” Xian Yuan said coolly. “Your master is long dead. What point is there in you lingering here?”
“Absurd! My master is an immortal who pierces the heavens and spans the earth—eternal and undying, nothing like you pathetic mortals!”
The gate guarding spirit swung its spear and halberd at them once more.
“Who says Immortals can’t die?” Xian Yuan raised her sword to block the attack, continuing, “With power strong enough, even a mortal can slay a god.”
“Nonsense!”
The guardian spirit’s face grew redder and redder, its voice sounding angrier with every word.
“The Master will not die! This is the world It created—here, It reigns as the sole sovereign!”
