Chapter 371: Clearly We Were Here First!
Bai Feng stared at the system notification, his brain suddenly flashing a question mark—System Master, what does “hic” mean? Did you eat until you’re stuffed? No wait, can this system even eat stuff?
Then he recalled the last time the system underwent maintenance and upgrade—when he accidentally encountered a virtual shadow left by Fairy Tian Yan inside his storage ring. Could this time be the same…?
Thinking of this, he looked once more at the ring lying motionless on the ground. Could the remnant soul of that fairy also have been gobbled up by the system?
At the same time, he realized that the usual sense of danger that lurked in his heart had vanished.
“Master… Owner…”
Suddenly, Zuo Qiu’s voice rang in his ear. He instinctively turned his head to look at her, only to find himself gripping her arm so tightly that there were bruises starting to show.
“Oh, sorry!” Bai Feng quickly loosened his grip.
Zuo Qiu lowered her head. She reached out with her other hand, instinctively touching the bruise on her arm, her breathing slightly ragged.
She was quite sure she hated pain. But when facing Bai Feng, she felt a strange sensation in her heart. Even if she was battered and hurt physically, she didn’t feel uncomfortable. In fact, she even felt… a bit… Enjoyable.
Perhaps since awakening her divine body, this phenomenon began. At first, she thought it was because of the divine body’s changes, but only when facing Bai Feng did this feeling appear. Being injured in battle didn’t bring pleasure, only anger and fury.
Bai Feng had no idea what weird thoughts Zuo Qiu was having. He took a few steps forward and reached for the ring.
Even when it collided with the Tian Yan Sword, the ring bore no mark—probably an immortal weapon comparable to the Tian Yan Sword.
Looking at the system popup, he guessed that the fairy hidden inside the ring was also devoured by the system.
But just to be safe, he kept the Tian Yan Sword floating beside him, then probed the ring with a trace of divine consciousness.
His spiritual sense slipped in easily—no resistance at all.
Inside was a vast space, like a tiny secret realm, even containing a patch of land—though utterly dried out. No herbs, no weeds, nothing alive.
He then swept over other items—little piles of spirit stones depleted of spiritual power. Judging by their intact appearance, these stones should be of a relatively high grade. Normal spirit stones would have shattered or turned to powder after losing their spiritual energy, but only top-tier ones remained whole.
He silently mourned—the owner of the ring must have absorbed all the spirit stones’ energy over the long years.
It wasn’t just the spirit stones; the spiritual equipment inside had also lost its spiritual vitality, unable to be refashioned into materials.
“Truly broke…” Bai Feng muttered, eyeing the pile of junk inside the ring.
Thinking again, it made sense—only one finger remained of the ring’s owner, sealed away for who knows how many years. During this time, anything with even a hint of spiritual energy was probably devoured by him.
Not to mention the spiritual stones, even the spiritual tools were drained of their spirits. They couldn’t even be melted down into materials now.
“So poor,” Bai Feng sighed.
He reflected that, after all, only a single finger was left of the owner, and it had been sealed for countless years. Most likely, everything with spiritual energy inside was eaten away long ago.
But even if the ring contained some usable materials, they still couldn’t compare to this ring itself.
While inspecting the contents, he also figured out the ring’s true purpose: a self-contained little world, capable of planting things, raising spiritual beasts and fish, even allowing cultivators to rest inside.
Too bad the original owner had absorbed all the spiritual energy in the ring, leaving it empty now. Entering would be like eating only sand.
“Eh? What’s this?”
Suddenly, Bai Feng spotted something among the miscellaneous items. Using his divine sense, he carefully pulled it out for closer inspection—an odd-looking board, feeling surprisingly lightweight. It looked like wood but also had a metallic feel.
“Looks like a map…”
He stared at the pattern on it, flashes of thought crossing his mind. Could this be a secret realm map?
“Let’s check it out once we go out.”
He paused his pondering; sensing that with each passing moment, this space was becoming less stable, even forming a faint crack in the room. Through the crack, the dark, scorched land outside was faintly visible.
“Zuo Qiu, let’s go,” he said, grabbing the distracted girl and heading toward the crack.
After a dizzying moment, they found themselves back on the scorched land. This time, the sky was no longer dark, and the broken protective array in the distance was now utterly destroyed.
Bai Feng didn’t rush to leave; instead, he held the strange board. It started emitting a faint glow, especially from a circle pattern drawn on the lower right corner, shining more prominently.
‘Is this little glowing dot my position?’
He looked thoughtfully at the valley, and it definitely looked like a circle.
Turns out, what can fit in this ring isn’t just any ordinary map—it probably has more uses, perhaps even acting as a ‘key’ to control the secret realm.
He examined the small icons on the map while sensing the location of other divine consciousnesses. The closest was Yun Yue Yao, and — what a coincidence — both Yun Yue Yao and Bai Yu Mo were going in the same direction. As for Tian Yan, she didn’t bother sharing her divine sense—she said she could find him herself.
Putting aside his thoughts, he quickly traced a route on the map.
“Let’s go, Zuo Qiu. It’s time to leave.”
He turned to look at her and found her in a daze. “What’s wrong?”
Zuo Qiu lowered her head and whispered, “I feel like I haven’t been able to help much. It’s always the owner doing the hard work.”
A loyal dog to her master, yet somehow she was hiding behind him…
“No choice,” Bai Feng said with a shake of his head. “This time, the enemy was a bit too over-the-top. I used some special means to take care of it. Besides, didn’t you also help block for me earlier?”
And if Zuo Qiu accidentally got injured, the system might just take the chance to stuff more luck points into him.
One of his goals in the secret realm was even to keep an eye on the Child of Destiny—make sure they didn’t cause trouble.
Then he looked at her again and said, “Alright, we need to explore the secret realm some more. You’ll have your work cut out for you soon.”
“Yes…” Zuo Qiu nodded, but inside, she couldn’t help feeling a bit down—despite her intense cultivation, she still couldn’t keep up with her master’s pace.
“Wait, Zuo Qiu, this next part—yours turn to shine,” Bai Feng suddenly sensed something and withdrew his map, eyes seemingly gazing beyond the mountain valley. “Our ‘trap’ has been triggered.”
Outside the valley…
“d*mn it! Who the hell set up this phantom formation on the main road! Nutcase!”
“Our target is right in front of us, and we’re trapped inside this array—if I find out who did this, I’ll tear them apart!”
“Wait, no good! The demon core inside me isn’t moving!”
“Could someone have beaten us there? d*mn! We came first, and this d*mn formation should have been ours if not for that!”
A few demon-path disciples were spinning inside the formation, while Bai Feng and Zuo Qiu watched from outside, observing them.
**End of Chapter.**
