Changqing Suddenly thought of something, and an incredible conjecture appeared in his mind.
“You are human?” he blurted out.
Luo Hongyan’s footsteps paused, and she turned her head, her beautiful eyes under the mask revealing a hint of helplessness.
“What’s the big fuss? Only you can be human, but I can’t be human?”
“But as far as I know, the Hehuan Sect only keeps males. If a female mistakenly enters…”
After a brief moment of surprise, Changqing quickly regained his composure. This woman’s identity was very special, and he naturally wanted to understand more, perhaps it would be helpful to him.
“Males are kept for breeding, females are divided and eaten?”
Luo Hongyan’s voice revealed a hint of playfulness.
“The fact that I’m alive and well naturally means I have my methods.”
“It’s you, don’t think that just because you have such a low level of Cultivation and got the identity of a Celestial Seed, your life will be easy. Instead of speculating about me, you should first think about what you should do in the future.”
After she finished speaking, the two had already reached a cave entrance. A crude wooden door stood at the entrance, and on the plaque above, two distorted Wen Character Branches were crookedly carved, presumably meaning Dan Room.
The Wen Character Branches of this world were very twisted and complex, completely different from the Chinese characters on Earth, and Changqing did not recognize them.
Luo Hongyan turned sideways, motioning for Changqing to enter.
“You wait here for Master to come. Don’t touch anything in the Dan Room, don’t touch.”
She seemed to emphasize the last few words intentionally, repeating them before closing the door.
Changqing pressed his ear against the door, listening as Luo Hongyan’s footsteps gradually faded, then began to look around the Dan Room.
In his previous four lives, he had never had the opportunity to come here, nor had he even heard of such a place.
The so-called Dan Room was a place where Cultivators Cultivated.
The inside of this cave was surprisingly clean and tidy, many times better than the so-called Huanyi Hall.
Several candles were lit in the cave, made from some unknown animal fat, crackling as they burned and emitting a faint fishy smell.
In the very center of the cave, a statue of a deity was enshrined, an image he had never seen before.
Deity statues he remembered were either benevolent, majestic, or had the aura of an immortal.
But the statue before him was merely an old man in a long robe, with a stooped posture, showing no trace of divinity.
Instead, his sparse hair on top of his head and his mouth full of protruding yellow teeth made him look gloomy and sinister, like a legendary lich.
Two futons were placed in front of the deity statue. Other than that, the most prominent features in the entire room were a Pill Furnace taller than a man, and a simple bookshelf filled with various yellowed ancient books.
Changqing, of course, had no reverence for the chaotic gods and Buddhas of this world. He first fiddled with the deity statue, finding no hidden mechanisms or compartments. The statue felt very solid and did not seem hollow.
Next, he raised the candle from the offering table and shone it into the Pill Furnace. The inside of the furnace was pitch black, without even a speck of residue.
Finally, he went to search through the ancient books on the bookshelf.
Aside from an unopenable wooden box, there was no other discovery.
There was nothing he could do. He was a “blind man” in this world, unable to recognize any of the Wen Character Branches, and thus unable to obtain any useful information from these ancient books.
However, this wooden box was very peculiar. He didn't know what material it was made of, but it felt exceptionally heavy and incredibly hard.
The surface of the box was very smooth, not locked, and had no keyhole. But no matter how hard Changqing tried, he couldn't open it.
Putting the box back in its original place, he again held the candle and meticulously searched every dim corner of the cave.
After confirming that there was nothing, Changqing returned all the items in the Dan Room to their original places and began to ponder.
“It’s normal that there’s nothing. Liu Lu certainly wouldn’t casually leave the Hundred Flowers Token here.”
“But what does she mean by having someone lead me to this Dan Room? Is she going to use me for Alchemy?”
“No, if she wanted to use me for Alchemy, she would have refined me in Caiyun Chamber already. Why go through all this trouble?”
“And that Luo Hongyan, I should probe her more later. I can’t let such an unstable factor disrupt my plan.”
Changqing did not relax his guard against Luo Hongyan just because she was human.
Whether on Earth or in the Otherworld, the principle that human hearts are unpredictable always applied.
Since she could mingle with these female demons, what did it matter if she was human? To Changqing, she was most likely an enemy, not a friend; it was just that the method of utilization might be different.
While he was pondering, the door of the Dan Room was pushed open, and Liu Lu walked in.
“Greetings, Fairy.” Changqing smartly bowed and saluted.
“Hmm, you don’t need to be so formal. Since you are a Cultivator, tell me your name, where you came from, who your master is, and what your current Cultivation level is.”
Liu Lu closed the door. Although she said there was no need to be formal, her condescending posture and tone carried authority.
“Replying to Fairy, my name is Lin Changqing. I am just a Loose Cultivator and have no master. As for my hometown, it is in a very distant place, a small barbaric land, not worth mentioning. As for my Cultivation, my Cultivation is low, only at Fleeting Rotation.”
He was already familiar with this set of excuses; except for his name, everything else was copied from Xuanhuan novels he had read on Earth. Anyway, saying it was as good as saying nothing.
He certainly had no master. All the knowledge of Cultivation in this world he had pieced together through several Rebirths, haphazardly learning bits and pieces.
As for his name, when he Transmigrated, he had a black token on him. He actually recognized the Wen Character Branches carved on it.
“Lingyu Changqing” was carved on it, and he thought it must be the name of the original owner of this body.
However, he had always kept this name hidden. In his first life, when he Transmigrated here, he had cleverly reported the name on the token in the Caiyun Hall.
But upon hearing the two Wen Character Branches “Lingyu,” the female demons seemed to have heard some taboo. Even Liu Lu froze on the spot, and then Yue Gui beside her suddenly attacked, and before he could react, he was killed on the spot.
It wasn’t until his second life, when he was Reborn and spoke his original name, Lin Changqing, that things went smoothly.
As for the origin of this token and why the Wen Character Branches carved on it were Chinese characters from Earth, he had no time to investigate.
He just felt that things he hadn’t figured out shouldn’t be discarded so casually. After all, even the slightest clue could become the key to breaking the situation. So he vaguely kept this token until now.
Fortunately, the female demons did not recognize the Wen Character Branches carved on the token, so it was fine for him to wear it.
“A distant place, a small barbaric land…” Liu Lu murmured.
“Has your barbaric land been civilized? Does it have Wen Character Branches and books?”
Changqing had expected her to be more concerned about his Cultivation, guessing that she might have some hidden illness that required a special method to cure, but he didn’t expect her to be interested in his origins.
“Has it been civilized? Does it have Wen Character Branches and books? Is she asking this because she needs someone to help her identify some foreign Wen Character Branches?”
While pondering, Changqing felt a bit amused and helpless. Although it was highly probable that he wouldn’t recognize other foreign Wen Character Branches in this world, he could agree first. Even if he didn’t recognize them later, there would be no loss.
Besides, when he was on Earth, he was at least a university student. If he were to admit that the five-thousand-year civilization of the great China had not been civilized, he subconsciously didn’t want to say it against his conscience.
“Replying to Fairy, although my hometown is a small barbaric land, it does have its own Wen Character Branches and books.”
After hearing this, Liu Lu turned to the bookshelf, searched, and then took the box that Changqing had found earlier into her hand.
She usually wore a large, beautiful brocade robe, completely concealing her withered body.
But at this moment, she extended her hand from the wide sleeve, her fingers tapping on the box with a special frequency.
Her fingers were dry and long, like a mummified hand, completely inconsistent with her beauty. The vibrating taps sounded like a rattlesnake’s tail.
A moment later, the box opened automatically.
Only then did Changqing see that there was a lock mechanism inside the box, with a small snake originally tightly coiled around it, locking the box.
As Liu Lu tapped, the small snake slowly uncoiled its body, and the box naturally opened easily.