A mountainous area surrounding Cangxian Lake.
A human “zongzi,” bound tightly in Immortal-Binding Rope, hung from a pole carried on the shoulder of the tallest of three cultivators. Behind them followed a pointed-eared spirit hound, wagging its tail.
“Seriously, I'm just a Seventh Level of Qi Refinement weakling! What do you want with me? If you run into a demon beast and throw me at it, all I'd do is choke it to death if it tries to swallow me whole. Is that useful? No, it's not! You'd just be giving it a full stomach and more energy!”
Despite taking every conceivable precaution, Yao Dai had still been captured.
She never would have imagined in her wildest dreams that one of those rogue cultivators had a dog as a spiritual pet!
Dogs loved eating poop.
And so, her cave—smeared in all sorts of animal droppings—had turned into an all-you-can-eat buffet.
She had huddled inside the cave, trembling with utter terror.
In the end, forced to choose between being captured or bitten by a dog with a mouth full of feces...
She had chosen to drop to her knees and beg for mercy.
Well, now she was still captured, but at least she was alive.
Besides, it was better than getting beaten half to death before clinging to life. As Master always said, life was far more important than pride.
“If you could choke it to death, that would be a skill in itself.”
The three surrounding cultivators found her amusing. Whether out of disdain for arguing with a thirteen-year-old girl or because they had other motives, they merely bound her without causing her harm.
Well, except for forcing her to swallow an extraordinarily bitter pill.
Yao Dai had tried to hide it between her teeth, but the man saw right through her. He pinched her chin, forcing her to swallow before letting go.
Yao Dai whimpered miserably from inside her zongzi-like bindings. “Big brothers, can you stop dangling me like this? All this swaying is making me dizzy and nauseous.”
“Noisy,” the cold-faced cultivator carrying her snapped, shoving a white rag directly into her mouth.
The other two cultivators, holding long swords in their arms, chimed in, “Alright, she's only in Qi Refinement, don't kill her. She'll be useful later.”
Hearing this, the lead cultivator said no more and continued trudging forward with her over his shoulder.
“Mmh! Mmh!”
Forced into silence, Yao Dai widened her eyes, putting on an innocent, adorable expression, though a glint of gloom flickered deep in her eyes. Her capture had happened too suddenly for her to send a message to Master, and she wasn't sure if Master would be able to find the secret mark she had left behind.
...
Covered in weeds and mud, their robes shredded by the sharp claws of demon beasts, the group was thoroughly exhausted, hanging on by pure willpower as they dragged themselves forward.
All they wanted was to leave this godforsaken place as quickly as possible. They didn't care about first place anymore.
“Where is this exit you talked about?”
In the crowd, Wang Xianlin stared at Wen Li with a deep frown.
Wen Li ignored him completely, continuing forward with single-minded focus as if searching for a trail.
Seeing her ignore him, Wang Xianlin's face darkened. But noticing how obediently everyone else followed her, he had no choice but to swallow his rage.
Although the others were equally doubtful, seeing Wen Li's grim expression made them hesitant to ask questions.
And so, they continued following behind her.
Until, finally, the true face of Cangxian Lake appeared before their eyes.
“We've arrived!”
Joy flooded their faces as the sect disciples let out collective sighs of relief, believing they were finally safe.
The rogue cultivators hidden among them harbored varied expressions, but all feigned the same delight as genuine sect disciples, taking care not to expose themselves.
As Wen Li walked forward, the corpse bug in her storage bag suddenly reacted. She tapped the pouch, releasing one bug that guided her into a grove of trees to the right.
Seeing that they had reached Cangxian Lake, the rest of the group didn't bother to see what Wen Li was doing and refrained from following her.
Xie Tinglan glanced at her and quietly stepped back into a corner where he could keep an eye on everyone. The handsome youth lowered his head, his sharp eyes clear as if having vaguely guessed something.
Wen Li walked to the mouth of a foul-smelling cave. Studying the flattened vegetation crushed underfoot, she estimated the build and weight of each person—there were four people in total.
Three men, and the remaining one was Yao Dai.
Nobody except Yao Dai would come up with the idea of using manure to mask their scent. The paw prints on the ground likely belonged to a dog.
...
Wen Li didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She couldn't decide if Yao Dai was clever for putting her lessons to practical use or just absurdly unlucky. Just as a helpless smile touched her lips, she suddenly noticed something inside the cave.
She raised a hand, sending a flash of spiritual energy inward, and the object instantly flew out into her grasp.
“The girl has some wits after all.” It was actually a hair tie shaped into a bow.
Yao Dai had surrendered willingly to distract them, confident they wouldn't bother searching the cave further, and dropped it inside.
She remembered Wen Li teaching her that leaving behind an enemy's hair at a scene allowed high-cultivation practitioners to track a person through intimate items bearing their aura.
Even though Wen Li was only at Foundation Establishment Great Perfection, Yao Dai was certain her master had ways to track her down.
What she didn't know was that Wen Li had left countless tracking methods on her body; tracking via hair was merely the most basic one.
Wen Li retrieved a black brocade box from her storage bag, placed the hair bow neatly inside, and stowed it back away.
“System, is Yao Dai injured?”
[Huh? She got caught?] The laid-back system, long accustomed to its host being prepared for everything, logged on and pulled up the scene near Yao Dai. [She was captured by three cultivators, wrapped up like a zongzi, and hung over someone's shoulder. As for injuries... well, aside from a rag stuffed in her mouth, her cheeks are rosy and she seems completely fine.]
Wen Li nodded, her expression unreadable. “Understood.”
She turned around and headed back to the group.
“Let's go.”
However, the disciples who had only just relaxed their tense minds and bodies had no desire to move again so soon.
“Go? Where else would we go? Haven't we already reached Cangxian Lake?”
“Fellow Daoist Wen Li, are you hiding something from us?”
“If you don't explain clearly, we won't travel with you anymore. And we don't care about the tokens, either.”
At present, Cangxian Lake appeared free of demon beasts, making it far safer than the path they had taken earlier.
Faced with these people and their ulterior motives, Wen Li lifted her cold, aloof face and didn't bother wasting words. She merely glanced at Xie Tinglan.
Leaning against a tree with one leg propped up, the youth shifted. Taking long, lazy strides forward, he matched Wen Li's disdain for idle chatter. With a flip of his right hand, the suffocating aura of a Late-Stage Golden Core cultivator suddenly burst forth.
Like a blooming flare of fire, the crimson glow reflected in the eyes hidden behind his messy bangs, lending him an eerie intensity.
He raised his eyes.
In an instant, his disguised black round pupils split into bloody, cold, vertical crimson slits. Staring at them with a lethal, terrifying gaze, the youth curled his lips into a wicked smile, revealing two sharp canine teeth like a man-eating demon.
“Ah!”
“You! You're a demon beast!”
Only demon beasts had eyes like that.
Panic struck the crowd, and those who had just claimed they wouldn't travel with her instantly changed their tune.
“Fellow Daoist Wen Li, you and I are both humans! We'll listen to you and keep moving, but please don't let him take our lives!”
“Y-Yes, we'll go right away!”
The group was terrified out of their wits. Xie Tinglan was already the strongest among them, possessing Late-Stage Golden Core cultivation, whereas most of them were only at Foundation Establishment. Even if a few rogue cultivators among them were at Early-Stage Golden Core, how could they possibly win?
Wen Li tilted her head, having no inclination to mediate, and simply stated coldly:
“Keep up.”
With Xie Tinglan bringing up the rear, no one dared to slow down even a fraction of a second, moving faster and more nimbly than ever before.
...
“According to the map, it's right here.”
The three cultivators stared solemnly at a stone tablet by the lake's edge.
“Mmh!” Yao Dai squirmed where they had tossed her on the ground.
Ignoring her, they walked straight to the edge of the lake. This was a tributary of Cangxian Lake, formed by a rushing waterfall plunging down from the mountaintop.
The scarred-eyed man who had been carrying Yao Dai squatted down, cast a spell on a bronze mirror in his hands, and tossed it into the lake.
Plop.
The other two cultivators simultaneously formed hand seals. A ripple suddenly manifested in midair, refracting the live image from the bronze mirror.
It sank continuously through the water.
Tumbling.
Buffeted by fish.
And finally...
Yao Dai's eyes widened as she watched the bronze mirror sink onto the sandy, weed-choked lake bed—only to pass straight through it as if breaking through an illusion, continuing its descent.
It entered an entirely different world, where the sky looked like the bottom of a lake.
It fell through the open sky for dozens of seconds.
Thud!
The bronze mirror finally landed in a bed of flowers—flowers that turned out to be man-eating plants equipped with sharp fangs!
That was it—Wan Yinxun, whom she had met back at Yunxiao Treasure Pavilion, had said that after being swallowed by a man-eating plant, he awoke in a world beneath the lake.
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