Chapter 25 Dispute over the First Publication on Jinjiang
Yao Sisi took out a small bead from her storage bag. It glowed with a white light. She controlled the bead to float in the air and slowly sent it into the cave entrance.
The area of about ten meters within the reach of the bead was illuminated. Seeing that there was no danger inside, she tentatively took a step forward and asked Gong Yichen, "Did you probe inside before?"
Gong Yichen: "I've been inside. There's a corner about 20 meters ahead, blocked by a stone gate."
Yao Sisi followed the beads into the cave, with Ri Jiu closely following her. Just as Gong Yichen had said, they were indeed stopped by a stone gate not far away. The stone gate was gilded and engraved with intricate patterns, which were very mysterious. If the previous cave was like the underworld, then this stone gate was the entrance to the heavenly palace. No wonder Gong Yichen thought it was the cave of a senior. Now it seemed that it did have some significance.
Gong Yichen walked a short distance away from her and asked, "Look at the patterns on that stone door, do you recognize them?"
Yao Sisi moved the small lighting beads forward, took out a futon and sat at the door, "Let me study it for a while before I say anything."
After listening, Gong Yichen also took out a futon and sat down to the side, while Rijiu moved closer to Yao Sisi and studied the stone gate with her.
Thanks to Yao Sisi's hard work over the past year, she was able to recognize the patterns on the door. However, she noted, "There's something sealed inside this door. I don't know what it is, whether it's still alive, or how harmful it is..."
It would be dangerous for them to go in rashly.
Gong Yichen got up and went to the door, pressing his ear against it. "There's no way you can enter a treasure mountain and leave empty-handed. You have to try your luck no matter what it is."
He seemed very attached to this cave, as if he would die if he didn't succeed.
Yao Sisi took out a talisman pen and started sketching on the paper, as if calculating. After a quarter of an hour, she drew a few points on the door with the talisman pen. At first glance, the positions she drew were no different from the others.
"We'll attack here in a bit and then we'll be able to break down the door."
Without hesitation, the group took charge of a section of the stone door after receiving their orders. Just as their arms were going numb from attacking and they were starting to wonder if they had miscalculated, the stone door slowly moved, revealing a crack about the width of a finger. Seeing that it was working, the group attacked again with all their might. Cracks appeared in the stone door, and a powerful knocking sent small pebbles flying. In no time, Yao Sisi had managed to break a hole in it.
She said, "That's enough, let's go inside!"
The hole was only half a meter long and a foot wide, requiring one to turn sideways to enter. As for chipping away at another section, that would be extremely difficult; based on her previous calculations, she could only carve out such a large opening.
Yao Sisi didn't rush in. First, she sent the small light ball inside to check the environment through the opening, even looking at the cave ceiling.
"There's no immediate danger. Who wants to go in first?"
Gong Yichen took out a small white mouse, no bigger than the palm of his hand, and said, "Let it go deeper in first and take a look."
Yao Sisi nodded, stepped aside to make room, and quietly placed a wisp of divine thought into the white mouse's fur. This was a new skill she had learned, and as long as the other party's cultivation level was not much higher than hers, it would hardly be detected.
The white mouse was thrown into the doorway. It first raised its front paws and sat at the entrance. Its whiskers twitched, as if to confirm that there was no danger. Then, it stared at its big black eyes and ran into the depths of the cave.
Not far away, Gong Yichen sat on a futon, his eyes closed, sensing the messages from the white mice. Yao Sisi also vaguely sensed the situation inside the cave based on the white mice's walking routes.
It wasn't until the white mouse hurriedly ran away that Yao Sisi frowned slightly, realizing there were still living creatures inside the cave!
The white mouse didn't come out in the end. She saw that Gong Yichen had a thin layer of sweat on his forehead and wondered if he had seen something terrible.
Gong Yichen sighed: "There's a fire python inside, at least a fourth-tier one..."
Yao Sisi remained silent. She had thought she was exploring an uninhabited cave, but instead she had found the lair of a fourth-tier mystic beast. Fourth-tier was equivalent to the Foundation Establishment stage; the few of them wouldn't even be enough to fill its teeth...
What should we do? Should we just give up?
Gong Yichen, unwilling to give up, said, "I have a magical artifact that can temporarily trap it for a quarter of an hour. Let's search inside as soon as possible before coming out!"
Yao Sisi nodded, then asked the artifact spirit in her mind, "If you put that snake statue inside the space, can you suppress it?"
The spirit hesitated and said, "It can't be suppressed for long. The most important thing is that it will be released. Once it can't be suppressed anymore and is released, it will be right next to us. That's too dangerous!"
Yao Sisi: "Let me think of a solution first. If there's an emergency, please put me in the space!"
They slowly crawled into the cave through the doorway. It was pitch black inside. After walking several dozen meters, light finally came into the cave. Illumination beads were embedded in the walls, and the soft light made the dark cave less eerie and terrifying.
The stone wall had clearly been carved out, but not carefully. This place was probably someone's temporary residence. Could there really be anything good there? Yao Sisi couldn't help but wonder.
They tentatively walked forward, and at the fork in the road ahead, she stopped. A short distance ahead was the spot where the white mouse had disappeared…
Gong Yichen also stopped. He took out a small bell from his storage bag and gestured to everyone, meaning to hurry up. However, just as he unleashed the magic weapon, the fourth-order fire python had already swung its tail over.
Its body was several meters long and thicker than a person's embrace. Its dense scales looked as if they were coated with oil. It appeared silently in front of everyone. Yao Sisi took out several talismans and threw them at it as if they were free.
"Gong Yichen! Quickly activate the magic artifact!"
Before he could reply, the small bell-shaped magical artifact was activated and enlarged, flying towards the python like a pot lid. A flame spewed from the python's mouth, and the small bell dodged the flame but stopped in mid-air, looking hesitant as if it was unwilling to trap the python.
Everyone was stunned, never expecting that the magical artifact would not cooperate!
Yao Sisi threw out a few more talismans, wishing she could smash the magical artifact in mid-air. What a piece of junk! It failed them at the crucial moment. Was it trying to kill them?
The bell in the air was larger than a water vat, and it naturally required a lot of profound energy to drive it. Gong Yichen's face turned pale. The bronze bell landed on the python, but the python's body was too long, and most of its body was outside. Its tail slapped the ground forcefully, trying to escape from inside.
Gong Yichen's face turned even paler. Yao Sisi, fearing he wouldn't be able to hold on, threw out several mid-grade fixed characters. The giant python's body became sluggish. Yao Sisi decided to go all out and pulled out a large knife from her storage bag, slashing straight at its vital spot. A gash was cut into its tough scales, from which a few drops of blood seeped out.
Yao Sisi saw the giant python lash out at her with its tail, but its head was pinned under the bell, causing it to struggle even more violently. She worried that Gong Yichen wouldn't be able to hold on for more than a few breaths, and that even with Xiao Yi and Ri Jiu's help, it would be useless. However, she didn't want to expose the space for the time being...
Seeing the cut on his seventh inch, Rijiu hurriedly said, "Sisi, don't cut yet, let me do it!"
Xiao Yi paused, seemingly not believing he had any skill, and didn't want to stop at all. He continued to slash as before, and Yao Sisi's blade tip slightly blocked it, otherwise he would have almost hit Ri Jiu with his sword.
Sweat beaded on Ri Jiu's forehead as he reached out to pry at the giant python's vital spot. A flash of light appeared at his fingertips, as if some sharp weapon had sliced through it. The giant python let out a mournful cry and gradually went still.
At that moment, Gong Yichen could no longer hold on. The giant bell he was controlling rapidly shrank and fell to the ground. He himself also fell to the ground. The snake head that was originally trapped inside the bell opened its mouth, as if it wanted to devour people. Its death was terrifying.
Yao Sisi was slightly out of breath. She had killed many snakes in the Xuan Beast Forest and was particularly good at finding their vital points. However, this snake's body was even tougher. She didn't cut it in half with her knife, but only grazed its skin. Ri Jiu's claws were much sharper and slashed into the small wound she had cut.
Gong Yichen, who was lying on the ground, was gently helped up by Xiao Yi. "This snake is already at the fourth level, it must have an inner core!"
Ri Jiu pursed his lips. He had just taken the inner core, and not only that, he had also taken the heart...
Gong Yichen instructed Xiao Yi to examine the inner core. Xiao Yi carried his sword and went over, but after searching for a long time, he couldn't find it at all. He pointed the tip of his sword at the snake's heart, shook his head at the snake's body, and then glanced at Ri Jiu's hand.
The meaning is self-evident.
Gong Yichen's face turned ashen again. He was already exhausted, yet he had activated a magical artifact far exceeding his own cultivation level. His lips were pale, and he glared at Ri Jiu with great dissatisfaction.
"You didn't do all the fighting, so you can't have all the benefits, can you?"
Yao Sisi stood not far away, looking at everything in front of her. It was so familiar. The scene of unequal distribution of spoils that she often saw in TV shows or novels was now happening before her eyes. Her first reaction was not anger, but a sense of novelty.
"The young master made a vow that anything he gets his hands on within the cave is his own... How can you go back on your word?"
Gong Yichen: "I didn't sign a contract with him. Besides, I put in so much effort this time, lost a little spirit mouse, and now my Xuan energy is depleted. You can't expect me to only get a worthless snake body, can you?"
Ri Jiu said sullenly, "How can the body of a fourth-tier demon beast be worthless..."
Gong Yichen: "Then let's switch!"
Ri Jiu said angrily, "I clearly got it by my own ability. If I hadn't acted quickly, the snake would have broken free!"
Yao Sisi rubbed her forehead. She got a headache whenever she saw men arguing, especially when Ri Jiu came back to her side after arguing and whispered in her ear: "Sisi, this inner core is useful to me, much more useful to him. If I eat it, I can advance directly."
Gong Yichen was furious. He was really unwilling to have spent so much only to get a snake body. Seeing Ri Jiu whispering in his ear but not taking out the inner core, he couldn't help but retort: "Yao Sisi, are you going to take care of that pretty boy again!"
Yao Sisi: "???"
What makes you say that? Honestly, she hasn't said anything yet, has she?
"Let's explore the cave first! If we delay any longer, something might go wrong."
Gong Yichen's chest heaved violently with anger. He casually retracted his snake form and said, "Xiao Yi, let's go first!"
When Yao Sisi saw that he had chosen one path first, while she and Ri Jiu had chosen another, she touched her nose. They had started at the same time, but he had chosen first, so she could be considered to have gained an advantage.
Ri Jiu followed her carefully: "Sisi, the inner core is definitely more important to our demon race. My cultivation level is too low right now, and I suffered internal injuries before. Without the nourishment of this demon core, I don't know when I will be able to advance."
Yao Sisi looked into the distance. "Forget about that demon core for now. Go and scout ahead. Besides, if I wanted you to give it up, I wouldn't have said that earlier."
Seeing her like this, Ri Jiu smiled with satisfaction: "I knew Si Si wouldn't want me to suffer, after all, we are partners."
Yao Sisi: "..."
The key point is that it was indeed said back then that what an individual receives belongs to that individual, and since Ri Jiu didn't steal or rob, she naturally didn't want him to give it away for nothing.
The temperature ahead was a bit high, and the further they walked, the more stuffy it felt. Yao Sisi couldn't help but sweat. That seemed to be the lair of the fire serpent. It is said that the fire serpent likes heat and usually cultivates near earth fire. There should be earth fire here. Could it be that the cultivator needed to use earth fire, which is why he set up his cave here?
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