Unfortunately, they didn’t find any more Spiritual Aura-Gathering Stones. Mo Tiange thought for a moment and shook her head with a smile. Spiritual Aura-Gathering Stones weren’t rare treasures, but they also weren’t particularly common. It already wasn’t easy to find one in such a small spirit stone vein, yet she wanted to find more?

Mo Tiange waved her hand to call Xiaofan back and said, “Let’s keep going.”

Xiaofan responded and carried her to continue swimming ahead.

The spirit stone vein was really small, and only a moment later, Xiaofan had swum out of range of the vein. They then faced the dark underground riverway again.

Mo Tiange had become accustomed to such darkness, so she simply calmed down and began to comprehend her inner realm silently.

In the Celestial Pole, the difference between Dao Cultivators and Devil Cultivators was that when Dao cultivators were working on improving their strength, they also needed to pay attention to their inner realm cultivation. Otherwise, they’d be stuck during advancement and that would be difficult to break through. Meanwhile, Devil Cultivators didn’t have to worry about this. All they had to do was absorb spiritual aura and turn it into devil aura. Therefore, the cultivation method of Devil Cultivators was rebuked by the Righteous Path as unorthodox; it had nothing to do with good and evil. However, Devil Cultivators were indeed more likely to be possessed by the Devil than Righteous Path cultivators.

Since cultivators’ inner realm had to keep up with their cultivation level, the higher their cultivation level was, the more restricted it would be. For example, while most Aura Refining cultivators performed evil acts, when they reached the Foundation Building realm, they would often begin to cultivate their inner realm because they needed to pass their inner demon if they wanted to advance, and it was very difficult for cultivators who performed too many evil deeds to refine their inner realm well. The situation for Core Formation and Nascent Soul cultivators was even stricter. Normally, they wouldn’t kill unless faced with enemies or if they faced the potential of great benefits.

Mo Tiange didn’t think this was abnormal before, but reaching the Core Formation realm herself, she took it seriously and felt this was a little weird.

The rules of the cultivation world were the laws of the jungle and required paying attention to one’s own concerns without thinking about others. But when it came to advancement, why did one’s Inner Demon appear? This was like trying to repress cultivators’ killing intentions.

Of course, not all cultivators followed this rule. Master Song Feng was one of the high-level cultivators who killed indiscriminately. However, Mo Tiange’s master told her that the old man Song Feng was a monster who couldn’t be viewed as a normal person!

Thinking of this, Mo Tiange was confused again. She felt as if she had missed something, as if she had grasped a key point. She closed her eyes and let herself sink into the darkness, slowly recalling…

Every day was dull, and gradually, even Xiaofan lost its patience. In order to appease it, Mo Tiange gave it a medicinal pill each day, and every time after it took a medicinal pill, Xiaofan was able to obediently march on. When it wanted to eat again, it would shamelessly ask for more.

Seeing Xiaofan acting like this, Mo Tiange actually felt very happy. No matter how obedient Xiaofan was, in the perspective of Sea Dragons, it was still a child. If it didn’t have any childish tempers, it would be far too depressed. Now it had returned to its original nature, which demonstrated that it had become closer to her.

They went on and on, not thinking that it was very difficult to pass through the underground riverway because of the Virtual Sky World. Gradually, the days passed…

“The water seems to be getting hot.” Mo Tiange stopped using the Art of Avoiding Water and reached out her hand to the river to feel the water then she frowned.

Xiaofan swam forward slowly and it answered, “Yes, it does seem a little hot, but never mind, Master. I’m not afraid of the heat.”

Although it said that, Mo Tiange was still alarmed. She didn’t forget that this was a path at the bottom of a volcano, and although the volcano had long ceased to erupt, who knew if anything might happen suddenly?

Xiaofan swam forward again for a while, and as expected, the water got hotter and hotter. This was really abnormal. There must be something happening since the water was suddenly becoming hot.

“Xiaofan!” Upon seeing that heat was rising from the water, Mo Tiange immediately shouted, “Wait, the water isn’t normal.”

Xiaofan raised its head and asked, “Master, do you think the water is too hot?”

“En.” Mo Tiange frowned. “We took a path under the volcano, if there’s lava in the depths, that would be dangerous.” Volcanic lava belonged to earth fire, if its grade was very high, it would be very troublesome to block it. Although this road was taken by Mo Yaoqing before, it had been more than five thousand years now, and Mo Tiange didn’t know whether any changes had occurred.

But Xiaofan said, “Master, I’m not afraid of the heat. Let me find a way.”

“You…” Mo Tiange hesitated. “What if it’s dangerous?”

“I’m in the fifth rank now; I’m not scared,” Xiaofan said. “Master, don’t treat me like a child who knows nothing. I’m at least part of the ‘uncle’ generation in my clan!”

“Oh?” Mo Tiange smiled as she listened to its serious tone. “Okay, you can go take a look. If there’s anything wrong, come back immediately or call me.”

“En,” Xiaofan responded. Mo Tiange then floated into midair, and Xiaofan wagged its tail to dive into the water.

Mo Tiange looked at the place where it disappeared and smiled.

Xiaohuo and Feifei were cute, but in the end, they couldn’t speak. But with Xiaofan, it seemed she had someone to accompany her and felt less lonely.

She couldn’t help thinking about Qin Xi, who was ten thousand miles away now. She didn’t know what he was doing. Was his cultivation going well?

After a while, the sound of water came, and Xiaofan finally came back. It jumped out of the water and said cheerfully, “Master, we’re here!”

“Huh? What’s the situation?”

Xiaofan continued happily, “I swam very far then found that there’s no way to the other side. I dove down, then found another waterway to a hot spring!”

“Hot spring!” Mo Tiange was happy to hear this. This path would lead them to a hot spring, so had they arrived at the destination?

“Master, come on, let’s get out!” Xiaofan was even more eager than her.

Mo Tiange didn’t delay and sat on Xiaofan’s back. “Okay, let’s go.”

Both of them couldn’t wait to get out. Xiaofan waved its fins and darted into the water like an arrow off its string.

Sure enough, not long after Xiaofan started swimming, they came to the end of the riverway. Since Xiaofan had scouted the way just now, it just dove in the water and swam for a long time, turning a lot of corners to the point where Mo Tiange couldn’t even figure out where they were, then finally, Mo Tiange began to float up.

The water was getting hotter and hotter, and hot mist was already steaming. Mo Tiange assumed there must also be a volcano there which hadn’t erupted for a long time, but she didn’t know if people were living nearby. There was some spiritual aura there, so presumably, there should be a spirit vein outside. Maybe there would also be some individual cultivators living there.

As Mo Tiange thought this, Xiaofan swam faster and faster, floating upward. All of a sudden, a faint light appeared overhead which grew brighter and brighter, then they rushed out of the water in one go.

They had been in the underground riverway for a month, so Mo Tiange hadn’t seen daylight for a long time. Now, she couldn’t help but squint her eyes and cover the light.

“Monster, monster!” But all at once they heard voices then steps and shrieks of terror.

Mo Tiange’s divine sense had already sensed these people, but these people were all mortals whom she didn’t care much about. They must’ve been frightened by the appearance of Xiaofan.

After adjusting to the light, Mo Tiange lowered her arms and quickly glanced around.

This hot spring wasn’t large but it also wasn’t very small. It covered acres of land with steam on the water’s surface, surrounded by trees. As she looked around, the scenery was very good; it was as beautiful as a fairyland.

“Xiaofan, let’s go up.” Mo Tiange patted Xiaofan’s head. Then she shook her sleeves and floated gently to the shore without touching any mist or water.

Xiaofan was reluctant to leave the water, but it followed up obediently.

The sound on the bank became more and more chaotic. Mo Tiange looked up and saw some women in coarse clothes hurrying away, leaving all their clothes and arment pestles on the ground.

She shook her head and ignored them. There was no difference, she thought, between the women here and those in the Celestial Pole. Their clothes were almost the same, but their accents were different.

Thinking like this, she came out from the hot spring slowly with Xiaofan.

A little farther from the hot spring, some of the courtyard walls were exposed. It looked like a wealthy and influential family in the secular world. Mo Tiange sensed that the location of the garden was the place with the richest spiritual aura in this spirit vein. Inside, she could also sense the breath of low-level cultivators. Was it possible that this was a secular cultivation family?

She smiled, thought of an idea, and said to Xiaofan, “Xiaofan, there’s too many people. Why don’t you go back into the spiritual beast bag?”

Xiaofan was always obedient and returned to the spiritual beast bag.

After she stored Xiaofan away, Mo Tiange pressed down her spiritual aura pressure and continued to march on. Not long after she started walking, several men in decent clothes came her way hurriedly as if they were on urgent business. They looked like guards for a rich family.

As they walked closer and saw Mo Tiange standing not far from the lake, they were surprised. Then the head of the group, who looked like a butler, came to her and stopped before her. He bowed politely. “Greetings to Fairy.”

Mo Tiange had hidden her spiritual breath, so these mortals could only vaguely sense her rich spiritual aura and couldn’t tell her cultivation level.

Mo Tiange nodded lightly.

She was all graceful, and her manner, though amiable, gave a feeling of superiority. Thus, the housekeeper didn’t dare to neglect her and hurriedly asked, “We’re from the Lv Family. May I dare ask you, Fairy, are you passing by?”

Upon seeing this person behaving so respectfully, Mo Tiange answered politely, “I’m an individual cultivator from some other place. I came here incidentally and startled the mortals by accident. The Lv Family you mentioned—is it a local family clan that cultivates?”

“Turns out you’re an individual cultivator from some other place.” The man heard Mo Tiange’s answer and was quite happy. “The Lv Family is the largest family cultivation clan in the South Pole Island; it’s rare for kindred spirits to come here. If our Old Master found out, he would be very glad. Fairy, would you like to visit our Lv Family?”

Hearing that this place was indeed called the South Pole Island, Mo Tiange was somewhat relieved. According to Xiaofan, the South Pole Island was already in the scope of Yunzhong, so she had finally arrived in Yunzhong now.

Her eyes fell on the housekeeper. This person was obviously a mortal, but his body had spiritual aura. It wasn’t enough spiritual aura to qualify him for the Aura Refining realm, but it already drenched his body. Mo Tiange thought in her heart that Yunzhong was indeed a holy land for cultivation; even this mortal before her was obviously a cultivator. Since this was her first time coming to Yunzhong and needed to obtain news, it might not be a bad idea to go to the Lv family and have a look.

Upon thinking this, Mo Tiange smiled and said, “It’s nice to be invited by people engaged in the same pursuit, so I’ll come with you then.”