Chapter 358: Chapter 75: Deep Exploration, the Strange Chamber
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The eruption of the Fire Element True Qi lasted a full fifteen minutes.
Trapped at the end, Long Long also had to maintain the Five Elements Divine Light to prevent them both from being engulfed by the Fire Element True Qi.
When the tide of Fire Gang receded, he could only lean against the cave wall exhaustedly, feeling his Qi Sea was almost completely drained.
If it had been any other cultivator here, even one who mastered the Five Elements Divine Light, they would not have had enough True Yuan to sustain it… This Fire Element Cave really lived up to its reputation as an extremely perilous place.
“Long Long, are you okay?” the little fox asked anxiously.
“I’m fine,” Long Long waved his hand.
With the degree of perfection his Jade Mansion had reached, he could replenish his Qi Sea in minutes.
The real trouble, however, was not knowing where to go…
After dragging Long Hu out of the long corridor, Long Long pondered for a moment before deciding to delve deeper.
Since the Fire Element Cave altered its cave structure with every eruption of Fire Element True Qi, it meant new passageways leading to the outside could form at any time.
If worse came to worst, he would choose a spot deep within the Sanzu Mountains, but away from the Golden Crow clan, then use the Five Elements Divine Light to transform the earth and stones to dig his way out.
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Considering the terrifying speed at which the Five Elements Divine Light consumed True Yuan, Long Long could only keep it as a last resort and decided to explore the Fire Element Cave further for the time being.
The two continued deeper into the cave, the structure of which had drastically changed due to the recent Fire Gang eruption.
An unusual and particularly spacious cave had also appeared on Ah Jing’s new map for the first time.
“Ah Jing,” Long Long asked doubtfully, “what is that place?”
“I don’t know,” the Kunlun Mirror replied. “It was beyond the range of my scan before… Hmm, it might have been blocked, and the recent eruption just happened to melt the blockage at the entrance.”
“Although this explanation is a bit far-fetched, it seems not entirely impossible,” Long Long sighed, “Let’s go take a look.”
He moved carefully, constantly on guard in case the Fire Element True Qi erupted again suddenly.
Long Hu, on the other hand, feared nothing out of ignorance, playing with the Golden Crow True Fire Fan in her hands, trying to figure out how to use it.
“Long Long, Long Long!” she cried out in frustration after failing to figure it out, “How do you activate this Magical Treasure?”
“First, you must perform a blood recognition,” Long Long said with a sigh.
“But I’m afraid it will hurt,” the little fox said pitifully.
Long Long: ……
“I’ll do it,” he took the Golden Crow True Fire Fan and tried dripping a drop of blood onto it.
There was no reaction.
The fan obviously was rejecting ownership, and it might require the bloodline of the Golden Crow clan to activate it, just as the Golden Crow Cultivator had said.
Long Long silently concluded this and was about to explain it to the little fox, only to see her eyes shining as she stared at him, as if gazing at an idolized figure.
No, failing to activate the Magical Treasure was a minor issue, but losing face in front of the little fox was a major one!
As is well known, foxes are canids, and canids are social animals that place great importance on hierarchy and power dynamics within their species.
If he showed weakness in front of the little fox, he would lose his authority, and then he wouldn’t be able to do as he pleased with her anymore.
“Ah Jing, I need your assistance,” Long Long said sternly in his mind.
The Kunlun Mirror was silent for a while before it spoke:
“For most of the Demon Race bloodline templates, I have none… but the Golden Crow is one of the few exceptions.”
“Since you only need to make the Golden Crow True Fire Fan acknowledge you as its master, there’s no need to establish a corresponding personage. I’ll just make a slight adjustment to your Mirror Flower Water Moon Illusion Technique,” it suggested.
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As soon as her words fell, Long Long felt the feather fan in his hand tremble for a moment, and the sensation it conveyed to him became more familiar.
After disguising herself with the Golden Crow bloodline using the Mirror Flower Water Moon technique, she finally managed to deceive the fan. Considering it lacked an Artifact Spirit, she should be able to wield it without any issues now that it had recognized her as its master.
Long Long channeled her True Yuan into it and then gave the fan a forceful wave.
Countless flames of the Golden Crow True Fire rose with the wind and directly struck the rock wall, quickly corroding into it as if a hot spatula had been pressed onto a block of butter.
After briefly evaluating its power, Long Long found that this device was slightly stronger than Junior Sister Xu’s Great Bright Fire.
Xu Yinglian’s Great Bright Fire mainly had the characteristics of vanquishing evils and purifying spirits, and it spread over a broader range, but its intensity was about thirty percent inferior to the Golden Crow True Fire.
He was deep in thought when Long Hu, noticing the completion of the fan’s ownership, immediately cheered:
“Wow, Long Long! Let me play with it, let me play with it!”
Long Long was about to casually toss the fan to her when he suddenly thought again—why did she act like Miss Shi, wanting anything fun she saw?
No! If he directly gave her the fan, it would definitely further cultivate her spoiled nature, and eventually, she would become a fox version of Miss Shi… Wouldn’t that be an overlap of character settings?
I absolutely will not allow such a thing to happen!
“No!” said Long Long.
“Give it to me!” Long Hu quickly leaped up to snatch it but was held out of reach by Long Long’s raised arm, starting to tear up, “You’re bullying me again! You promised Mom you would take good care of me.”
“Don’t make up weird promises out of thin air,” Long Long said speechlessly, “I only promised your mother that I would deliver you safely to Beiming Fanyang.”
“If you don’t let me play with it, I will be angry all the way!” Little Fox huffed, “I am angry now, can it still count as ‘safely’?”
Long Long: …
He didn’t know where she learned this ability to twist words so brazenly. Considering she had only interacted with him since awakening, did that mean…
Ahem, it meant that the racial talent of foxes was so strong that even someone with an upright character like him couldn’t influence her, and she would need to be properly disciplined in the future.
After sighing, Long Long threw the fan to Long Hu.
Long Hu caught the fan as if it were a precious treasure and then began to wave it vigorously, excitedly starting fires everywhere.
Long Long led her deeper and finally arrived at the entrance of the spacious cave chamber marked on the map.
The area around this place showed no signs of artificial construction; it seemed to be a naturally formed vast space, with uneven walls and floors and nothing noteworthy.
Long Long checked the mini-map given by Ah Jing again and found no traces of spiritual power here either.
Well, let’s just consider it a natural cave, then.
“Let’s go, Long Hu,” he called to the little fox.
Long Hu was still engrossed with the Golden Crow True Fire Fan, heartily waving it toward the front, releasing a vast quantity of fierce true fire.
Hmm?
The rock wall in front, having been melted clean by Long Hu’s unleashed Golden Crow True Fire, revealed the inside… which was still rock.
That was to be expected, after all, if there was a hollow space behind the rock wall, Ah Jing would have noticed that something was off.
However, as the rock wall continued to be melted by Long Hu’s released Golden Crow True Fire, something inlaid in the stone was rapidly becoming apparent.
This object… made from the same material as the surrounding rock, was reddish stone and almost seamlessly connected without any gaps.
But as the surrounding rock wall swiftly melted in the true fire, this object showed no signs of deformation; based on the exposed shape, it appeared to be a…
An archway?