Yin Lingxi and I scrutinized the ancient structure in front of us while keeping away from it so that we don’t trigger any unknown mechanisms of formations around it.
“You think this is it?”
I frowned at her question and tried to see if the bead reacted to it. However, I felt no reaction whatsoever to it.
Just in case, I decided to check with Xiang.
‘You feel anything from this structure?’
‘Nothing. The bead is not reacting to it. Whatever it is that caused this thing to react before, this place is not it.’
‘Well, I think we should still survey it, just in case.’
‘Sure. But, be careful. This building’s architecture suggests that it belongs to the 2nd era, or maybe even the 1st era. Things and buildings of those times tend to operate on heaven-defying powers and logic so who knows what’s inside it.’
‘Point Noted.’
I turned to Yin Lingxi and shook my head.
“I don’t think this is it. But we should still look into this place, just in case.”
“Alright. Let’s go.”
The ruined building looked like a cross between a utilitarian design of the commoner district in the capital and the royal pagoda. A strange but somehow visually appealing mix.
As we slowly entered the building, we encountered our first challenge.
I felt a burst of fire elemental Qi rush out from below the floor, heading straight for us.
I pushed Yin Lingxi behind me and created a barrier around us with my Primal Qi, causing the fire Qi to rush around us.
The searing heat caused our clothes to wrinkle a little bit, showing just how strong the fire Qi was.
‘Damn! How do the creators of this place expect someone in the Foundation Establishment realm to withstand this kind of power?’
‘….I don’t think this building was left behind by the owner of this secret realm.’
‘…You mean whoever this realm belonged to was spiteful enough to think about denying access to this building to other people even in his last thoughts?’
‘It wouldn’t be the first time such spiteful people denied peerless treasure from falling into the hands of others in one way or another.’
‘….’
I felt my mood sour at those words and moved forward, ignoring the rushing fire Qi.
Using my spear for this door would be overkill since I don’t sense any formation beyond the Master grade in this place. This is quite unusual since any place belonging to the 1st and 2nd eras is trapped to hell and back with at least Grandmaster grade formations, hence the difficulty of accessing them without some special circumstance or treasure in hand.
Of course, there are always exceptions, like the ruins that are found within secret realms formed in those eras which are usually geared towards testing their potential inheritors according to the requirements of the person whose remnants created the secret realm.
Once again, I took a stance and flooded my fist with Primal Qi, and struck the door, blowing it inwards with the sheer force of a Nascent Soul realm cultivator.
As my Primal Qi flooded the area after the attack, I felt some of it being forcefully pulled behind us toward the bushes nearby.
I sighed in annoyance and turned to the bush.
“Come out, you stupid thing. I can sense you devouring my Qi.”
With an adorable noise, a white and black form tumbled out of the bushes, rolling towards me and rubbing his head against my leg, trying to act cute after shamelessly devouring my Primal Qi as if it were a delicacy.
I picked up the Demonic Beast with the scuff of its neck, which was not easy because of all the fur, and pulled it to eye level where the beat reached out to me as if I were its mother.
I sighed again as I heard Yin Lingxi’s snickering from behind and Xiang’s tired sigh from within the bead.
“Why are you following me? Didn’t I tell you to go back home?”
The beast once again squeaked adorably before rolling up its body again and somehow becoming heavier than before.
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As I released it onto the ground, it rolled over to Yin Lingxi and pawed at her legs while staring up at the girl with its adorable eyes.
“It’s fine, little one. I’ll keep you safe from the big and scary Da Wei.”
“Oi.”
“Hush now, can’t you tell that this one wants to go with us?”
She rubbed the beast’s belly as it released noises of contentment, causing Yin Lingxi to continue cooing at it.
‘Give up, David. You are not going to win against her in this matter. Besides, if his mother hasn’t attacked us already, it means that she has given her approval towards his decision to follow us.’
‘Didn’t you say you knew nothing about this beast?’
‘True. But, that does not mean I don’t know the general behavior of Demonic Beasts.’
‘You may know the general behavior of Demonic Beasts, but I know the general behavior of Pandas, and I am telling you, the mother of this little thing was just trying to get rid of him by letting him follow us since Panda don’t raise more than one cub at a time.’
‘Even still…’
‘Fine. Fine. We will talk about this later.’
I turned back towards Yin Lingxi and watched as she continued playing with the Demonic Beast, who looked exactly like a Panda. Or rather, I think it really is a Panda that evolved to become a Demonic Beast thanks to the abundant Pure Qi in this realm.
It was a few days ago, during our travel eastward, that we stumbled upon a cave surrounded by a massive bamboo forest.
Since it was deep into the night, we decided to use the cave as a temporary shelter. However, we did not anticipate that the cave was already home to a family of demonic beasts.
When we entered the cave, we saw a mother Panda nursing two cubs.
Originally, I thought they were regular Pandas since there was nothing strange about their appearance. However, the moment the mother sensed our presence, she immediately released a powerful surge of Qi, making herself known as a Core Formation realm Demonic Beast.
However, the moment her Qi, which strangely felt familiar, touched mine, she immediately became docile and continued nursing her cubs.
Things changed, however, when one of the cubs, the same one that is now being hugged by Yin Lingxi like a stuffed toy, moved closer to me and felt my Qi.
The shock I felt when the cub straight-up devoured the residual Primal Qi on my body was beyond anything that words could describe. Especially since I knew that my Primal Qi was way too potent for any beast’s endurance.
However, unlike what I expected, the cub did not explode and cover the cave with its gore. Instead, this little bastard sighed in contentment before nuzzling up to me as if I were its mother and not the multi-ton black and white themed bear on the other side of the cave.
Ever since then, this one has been following us non-stop, which is an impressive feat all on its own considering the fact that we were travelling with my airship.
Shaking my head, I turned back to the structure.
“Let’s go. We can decide later if we want to keep this one with us. But first, we need to explore this place.”
With that, we slowly entered the structure.
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Da Ling stared curiously at the due of cultivators kneeling in front of her as her friend, Jin Ruiying peeked out from behind Da Ling’s back and gave cautious stares at the two.
The two cultivators who barged into their village were extremely domineering when they arrived. Demanding to speak with the village leader and take away Da Ling, who they kept calling Yan Ling, a name that the girl had not used in more than a year at this point.
Of course, the villagers did not like their attitude and told them that no such girl lived in the village, directly shielding Da Ling from them despite knowing the girl’s original name. A gesture that made the little girl’s heart fill up with gratitude and happiness.
However, the visitors did not like that answer and tried to show off their cultivation to the old village chief and intimidate him.
Unfortunately, this show of force was interpreted by the Heaven and Earth defensive formation as hostile intent and directly suppressed their cultivation until they were nothing more than mortals, causing these lofty cultivators to fall from the sky in an undignified manner and land with a smack that caused everyone within earshot to wince.
After that, the fuming village chief beat the two cultivators black and blue until they became extremely obedient.
This was two days ago.
Ever since then, these two were told to continue kneeling at the center of the village until Da Wei returned and decided their punishment.
However, Da Ling grew curious as to their intentions and finally decided to visit these two people, much to Jin Ruiying’s chagrin and disbelief.
And yet, Jin Ruiying showed that she was her brother’s sister and followed Da Ling in her decision and visit the two kneeling cultivators despite her terror and suspicions.
In her words, she could never be able to call herself Da Ling’s friend if she let her face such danger alone.
“So, why did you two people come to this village?”
The two unfortunate cultivators, Yan Xinyan and Yan Liehuo, looked at the girl with crimson locks and ruby-red eyes and felt their minds jolt in shock as their hearts swelled in joy.
Even without the artifact in Yan Xinyan’s clothing vibrating crazily in Da Ling’s presence, they would have immediately recognized the girl as their target due to how much she resembled their mistress when she was young.
Immediately, the two bowed towards the girl, much to Da Ling’s discomfort.
“Lady Yan Ling, I am Yan Xinyan and this is my brother, Yan Liehuo. We are the servants and Dao Protectors of your aunt, Yan Huo’er. We are here to take you back to your family-“
“No thanks.”
The straight, no-nonsense, rejection from the girl left the two speechless as Da Ling turned around and started walking away.
The two immediately panicked.
“Lady Yan Ling! Please listen to what we have to say!!”
“Nope. You two should continue waiting here until Father comes back and talk to him about whatever you want. Because there is no way I am going anywhere without telling him nor am I really interested in going to find an aunt I’ve never even known about.”
“But Lady Yan Ling! We are your family-“
“ ‘Family’?”
The sheer venom in the girl’s words caused the two to be taken aback just like the rest of the villagers nearby and Old Feng who were keeping an eye on the situation just in case the two tried to pull something with the girl.
“Where was this ‘family’ when I- sigh never mind. I am not in the mood for this. Let’s go, Ruiying.”
Da Ling nearly exploded when the two had the audacity to call themselves family. However, she reigned in her temper and decided that those two were not worth the pain of dragging up those long past days filled with grief, pain, terror, and anguish.
She directly left the place, leaving behind a frowning crowd of villagers who now looked at the two with even more suspicious glares while the two cultivators in question felt their hearts drop at the venom in the tone of the girl.
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