Chapter 215: Chapter 7 It’s Not My Place to Give Directions
 

Miss Shi went to the adjacent cave room.

As a cultivator who had completed the Fasting, abdominal pain must have been an entirely new and novel experience for her. Luo Yan sincerely hoped that after this lesson, her psychological age would mature a bit more.

At the very least, don’t be excessively greedy for the pleasures of the palate and disgrace us cultivators.

Of course, educating Miss Shi was just something he did along the way. The most important thing right now was to figure out the mysteries within the Five Qi Dynasty Yuan Cave.

“Your corpse can read minds?” Luo Yan frowned and asked.

“What do you mean ‘your corpse’?” Kunlun Mirror protested his choice of words, “It’s not mind-reading, it’s just sensing your surface-level thoughts. Like last time in the secret realm of the West Queen Mother’s Divine Palace, it could sense you had the thought of stealing from it.”

“I remember that the Heavenly Demon seemed to have this ability too,” Luo Yan’s tone became even more skeptical.

“As long as one is proficient in illusion techniques, sensing thoughts is a basic skill,” the Kunlun Mirror replied, “I’ll help you shield against its senses first.”

“So before, it was your fragment that was sensing my thoughts and deliberately designed this labyrinth according to the map in my memory,” Luo Yan said with a darkened expression, “all to entice me to keep going deeper.”

“Not necessarily to entice you to go deeper,” Kunlun Mirror objected, “It might just want you to follow the original route, smoothly reach the vital energy vein to cultivate, and then hurry back, instead of searching everywhere and possibly discovering its existence.”

“But now I have learned of its existence,” Luo Yan sighed.

“So from now on, it won’t arrange the passages according to the original map,” the Kunlun Mirror also sighed.

“Last time it was constantly resetting, and this time it changed to the Universe’s Far-reaching Shift, right?” Luo Yan said with an expressionless face, “Kunlun, how do you always manage to come up with something new for me?”

“I am naturally proficient in the power of space and time!” Kunlun Mirror argued, “Space and time! Manipulating time and space isn’t it instinctive?”

“What’s the next step?” Luo Yan asked impatiently, “If it connects the ends of the cave rooms to form a circular path, wouldn’t I be walking forever without ever getting out?”

“Theoretically, that is possible,” the Kunlun Mirror stated seriously, “but don’t worry, I can also interfere with its manipulation of the space here.”

“Are you talking about teleportation?” Luo Yan asked, puzzled, “Just don’t let Shi Liuli catch on.”

“Of course not teleporting you over!” Kunlun Mirror explained with a laugh and a cry, “If it interferes with the teleportation, you might end up buried somewhere at the bottom of the sea halfway through the teleport!”

“So, instead of teleporting us to the location of your fragment, you’ll assemble the cave rooms ahead of us spatially, creating a passable route,” Luo Yan said thoughtfully, “Like the sliding-block puzzle game?”

“What’s a sliding-block puzzle game?” Kunlun Mirror asked curiously, “But you’re generally right.”

“If the Five Qi Dynasty Yuan Cave is divided into different sections with each room as the center, then each section is connected by corridors one zhang high and half a zhang wide.”

“The fragment is trying to continuously combine these sections in such a way that even if you keep going down, you will be getting farther and farther from it.”

“However, I’ve already stopped its assembly.”

“That is to say,” Luo Yan pondered for a moment, then said, “the terrain of the Five Qi Dynasty Yuan Cave no longer changes now.”

“As long as I’m not defeated in my confrontation with it, the terrain will not change,” Kunlun Mirror gave an affirmative reply, “Of course, it’s already different from what’s recorded in the map on the jade slip. You’ll have to explore on your own from now on.”

“That being said, you’re not going to lose to it, right?” Luo Yan asked with a mix of skepticism and teasing, “After all, as the original, it would be too embarrassing to lose to a fragment that has no Spiritual Wisdom and only instincts left.”

“I won’t!” Kunlun Mirror became annoyed, “You don’t have to worry about me; you should take care of yourself! The path below is very complicated now!”

The Kunlun Mirror stopped talking, and Luo Yan continued to ponder.

The Five Qi Dynasty Yuan Cave had transformed from a non-static simple maze into a static complex maze.

The former was meticulously designed and adjusted by the Kunlun Mirror shards at any given moment, with the purpose of concealing its own existence and allowing Luo Yan to quickly find the path to the Vital Energy veins and leave.

When Luo Yan suddenly realized something was amiss, that intent had already failed. Thus, the shard quickly scrambled the maze’s terrain. Realizing this, Ah Jing immediately intervened to stop it, eventually fixing the maze’s layout as static and unchangeable.

With that, it returned to a pure exploration activity.

“Oof.” Shi Liuli returned from a nearby chamber, looking a bit wilted, likely exhausted, “Little junior brother, my legs are numb.”

“Find somewhere to sit first.” Seeing Miss Shi like a rabbit with droopy ears, Luo Yan felt both annoyed and amused, and teased her, “Are you still going to eat things randomly in the future?”

“Not anymore.” Shi Liuli pouted, “I’ve completed the Marrow Cleansing.”

Luo Yan: ???

He slightly widened his eyes, as if trying to discern whether there was any pretense in Shi Liuli’s expression. However, from her eyes, he saw only pure emotion.

An emotion that was both happy and vexed from obtaining the desired object, yet having paid a heavy price.

“I don’t know why.” Shi Liuli gathered the hem of her robe, found a clean spot on the ground to sit, and grimaced, “The residual turbid qi in my marrow all rushed out at once… Although the process was truly painful.”

“That’s what happened.” The Green Duckweed Sword suddenly spoke, “The fish she ate before, those with white eyes and no sight, are called ‘Without Turbidity’.”

“The East Sea has an abyss, unknown in depth. It harbors fish without turbidity, embodying the path of combining Yin and Yang and spawning life. Eating them clears the ears, sharpens the sight, and purges deep-rooted ailments… In short, these fish only grow in seabeds where turbid qi is extremely dense and heavy, but eating them can cleanse one’s own turbid qi, which does echo the principle found in the Vital Energy veins.”

Luo Yan: ………

So, whatever is needed just appears, huh? Seems like you truly are blessed with invincible luck, Miss Shi, you illogical mystical being…

Well, wait a second, this might actually be useful now.

“Senior sister!” Luo Yan suddenly spoke earnestly, startling Shi Liuli so much she jumped, “This is bad!”

“What’s bad?” Miss Shi asked blankly.

“We took a wrong turn!” Luo Yan wore an expression of deep regret, “At a certain point earlier, I remembered the map steps wrong, and now I have no idea where we’ve ended up!”

“Oh.” Shi Liuli nodded with an air of understanding, “But you still remember the route we took to get here, right? Should we backtrack the same way then?”

“No.” Luo Yan said with a pleasing smile, “Since we’re here, let’s finish exploring the area ahead. If it’s all dead ends, it’s not too late to turn back. But since this time we’re going off the map, why don’t we let senior sister pick the route?”

“But…” Shi Liuli was somewhat tempted (to actually lead the way), and also a little proud (the junior brother admitted he was wrong), so she deliberately made a troubled face and said, “Didn’t we agree from the start that I would follow your instructions in the cave? Wouldn’t this be inappropriate…”

“I must retract my earlier arrogant claims.” Luo Yan smiled modestly, “Senior sister’s divinely favored luck is infinitely superior to my crude and inferior schemes by thousands and millions of times.”

“Fortunately, we have senior sister here, so there’s no reason for me to continue meddling with the journey planning or arrogantly directing. Please use your unique intuition and luck to help me conquer this insignificant Five Qi Dynasty Yuan Cave.”

“Can you stop talking? I’m going to throw up!” In his mind, accompanied by the flashing notice of Falsehood Synchronization Value, was the Kunlun Mirror’s almost uncontrollable outcry.