Half a month later.
Underground, beneath the wooden cabin.
Chen Mu stood at the end of the tunnel, facing a dark crevice about half the height of a man.
Blasts of cool air hit his face, and he could faintly hear the sound of flowing water.
Chen Mu was surprised, “Could this gap be connected to an underground Yin River?”
Chen Mu’s heart leapt with joy, “If I can find a route along the Yin River, I wouldn’t need to go to the trouble of digging a tunnel.”
Despite this idea, he did not hurry to crawl down.
The Earth Spirit Vital Energy nourished all sorts of Exotic Beasts and Monsters, and there could be some strange fierce beast lurking below.
Chen Mu promptly dug a large rock from the nearby stone and blocked the entrance to the crevice.
“Since I’ve dug this far, there’s no rush. I’ll use the Five Ghosts Yin Spirit to explore slowly ahead.”
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…
Five days later, Chen Mu slowly widened the crevice, digging bit by bit downwards, until he finally came to a pitch-dark space.
The sound of water grew louder and louder.
Chen Mu activated the Qi Forbidden Hundred Miles, and a Glowing Algae Lamp, large as a human head, gently floated up.
The pale white light illuminated the underground cavern that had existed for untold years.
The cavern was elongated, oriented mainly north to south. It had an area about the size of two basketball courts, and the ceiling was about two to three stories high.
Strange stalactites were scattered around, and below was a stream over two meters wide that resembled more a creek than a river.
The water flowed from a crack in the rocks at the northern end and disappeared into a man-height crevice at the southern end.
“If I follow the water and widen the rock fissure, I can quickly dig out a tunnel.”
Chen Mu made up his mind that if the Cold Moon Toad really came for revenge and started a great battle, he would just burrow underground.
The sense of crisis brought by the Cold Moon Toad suddenly dissipated by half.
…
As the days and months passed, the weather grew increasingly cold.
According to the Liang Calendar, it was now January.
Overnight, Peng Yue Mountain was suddenly covered in heavy snow.
While cold winds howled outside, inside Chen Mu’s wooden cabin, it was as warm as spring.
A stone stove was placed beneath the window on the east side, with slivers of flame flickering in the gaps of the stove cover.
Next to the stove, Shang Huan looked around curiously.
The exceptionally thick cylindrical stone chimney, two transparent tubes leading to the floor below, and the occasional burble of boiling water in the chimney all made Shang Huan endlessly curious.
He also stepped on the warm floor and couldn’t help but exclaim, “You can do this too?”
“How about you make one for me? I’ll pay you with White Jade Coins!” Shang Huan declared extravagantly.
“I don’t have the time,” Chen Mu said, not even glancing at Shang Huan, focusing instead on preparing food on the kitchen counter by the stove.
“You’re inquiring about the Cold Moon Pond dojo, aren’t you? That means you want to go, right?”
“Just make one for me, and I’ll take you there. I promise you won’t lose out!” Shang Huan swore confidently.
Lose out?
Chen Mu’s mind stirred, “What’s the trick here?”
He indeed wanted to visit the dojo. He needed to lay the groundwork for revealing his Cultivation, wanting to scout it out in advance.
“Of course there’s a difference!” Shang Huan said with pride.
“The dojo of Peng Yue Mountain is located on the Twin Peaks Mountain on both sides of Cold Moon Pond. They are caves hollowed out on the cliffside, layer upon layer.”
“The closer the layer is to Cold Moon Pond, the denser the Earth Spirit Vital Energy.”
“Even within the same layer, the amount of Earth Spirit Vital Energy varies. And even within the same cave, it changes with different Hours.”
“With these differences, for some people, there’s a profit to be made,” Shang Huan chuckled.
“I can let you spend the same amount of money and find the dojo with the most concentrated Vital Energy.”
“If I make a set for you, you wouldn’t be at a loss, right?”
Chen Mu’s eyes shifted, glancing at Shang Huan before he responded evenly, “I’m not available.”
“Hey!” Shang Huan looked puzzled.
He immediately turned his head and glared at Old Hao, who was smiling and puffily smoking beside the stove.
“It’s exactly as you think,” Old Hao shrugged his shoulders.
“Chen Mu just made a set for me yesterday.” He comfortably exhaled a puff of white smoke, “You should know the conditions.”
“You old bastard! Ruining my plans!”
…
Scripture Transmission Institute.
At the entrance of the Scripture Cave.
While heavy snowflakes danced outside, it was perpetual spring inside.
Fu Zi, as usual, drooped his eyelids while reading a jade scroll behind the counter.
A middle-aged man with a round face whispered at the counter, “Director Song returned yesterday, and it seems he came back empty-handed.”
“The Cold Moon Toad excels at invisibility and can escape through the earth; it’s not easy to find,” Fu Zi said, undisturbed.
“I had someone stall Liang, the junior overseer, and sent a kitchen maid to deliver food to Director Song in place of Liang.”
“According to the kitchen maid, she thought she saw a bulge under the skin of Director Song’s neck, as if a bug was crawling underneath, creating the bulge,”
“But when she looked carefully again, it was gone. She wasn’t sure if it was an illusion.”
Fu Zi couldn’t help but lift his head at these words, and thought for a moment before saying, “It’s highly likely true.”
“The Mechanical Worm is an ancient Exotic Beast, not so easy to master.”
“I suspect that Song Wujie’s cultivation ran into trouble as early as at the Qi Forbidden Hundred Miles at Tongtian River Lower Courtyard.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been defeated so quickly by Yang Huan of Zhongshan Path.”
Fu Zi narrowed his eyes, “We need to help Director Song, help him find that Cold Moon Toad.”
“Does the dean want them to both suffer damage, or even perish together?!” the round-faced man’s eyes lit up.
“But that Cold Moon Toad is hard to find,” the middle-aged man frowned.
But Fu Zi couldn’t help but curl his lips upward, “Being the dean of Scripture Transmission Institute for decades has its uses.”
“Once I refine a batch of Monster Attracting Incense and combine it with the Earth Spirit Element of Cold Moon Pond, there’s no worry that the Cold Moon Toad won’t come.”
“Congratulations, Dean!” the round-faced middle-aged man complimented with a smile, “The position of director of Peng Yue Mountain Lower Courtyard is undoubtedly yours.”
Fu Zi smiled and waved his hand dismissively, sending the round-faced man away and sitting alone behind the counter to watch the snow.
“Director? A useless thing.”
“What I want is the Cold Moon Pond!” Fu Zi couldn’t help clenching his fist.
“As long as I absorb the Yin-Yang Primordial Earth Spirit Element above the Cold Moon Pond, I will definitely reach the Perfection of the Condensing Aperture, smoothly entering the Yin-Yang Refinement phase!”
“It’s a pity that Cold Moon Pond is too small, only enough for one person to cultivate,” Fu Zi’s expression returned to impassiveness, “which means I’ll have to ask Brother Wujie to die.”
…
Clang!
Like the deep tolling of a bronze bell, the sound abruptly echoed within a massive underground cavern.
Chen Mu sat cross-legged on the Five Ghosts dark cloud, floating in mid-air, staring at the calm water beneath.
Before long, accompanied by a series of snapping and splashing sounds,
All sorts of odd and bizarre aquatic creatures began to surface from the endless underwater lake.
“There really are fish?!”
Half a month had passed since the discovery of the first underground cavern.
Following the current, drilling through rock crevices, Chen Mu finally found this massive underground lake.
This place was fifty to sixty li from Peng Yue Mountain, well beyond the distance covered in the previous land reclamation.
“As long as I find a rock fissure similar to the one we came through and drill upstream against the current, an exit would be swiftly opened.”
“With that, this underground escape tunnel will truly be complete!” Chen Mu sighed with relief.
“Time to catch fish!” He watched with glee as more and more upside-down bellies of underwater creatures appeared.
The Fifth Rank culinary skills learned from the Exotic Beast Anatomy Manual allowed him easily to identify edible aquatic Exotic Beasts.
The inedible, unrecognized ones were all fed to the Five Ghosts Bag.
“No worries about high prices.”
“This entire underground lake’s bounty is waiting for me. Ha ha…”