Sect Leader Li pondered for a moment. "Back in the era of the Julu Kingdom, when our founding patriarch was still a youth, he followed the army into Baimao Mountain to hunt bears, and he even shot out one of the White Bear King's eyes. This event is recorded in our sect's annals."
"And afterward?" He Lingchuan pressed. "What was the White Bear King's fate? Was it slain by the army, or did it escape?"
"In my recollection, there seem to be no records on that point." Sect Leader Li was cautious. "Allow me to check the sect annals."
He Lingchuan got to the crux of the matter: "In other words, the White Bear King never came out to harm people again after that?"
"That is hard to say, but at least since our sect's founding, there are no records of the White Bear King harming anyone," Sect Leader Li said with certainty. "The period when that great demon was active in Baimao Mountain was confined to the era around the Julu Kingdom."
Which meant that after being severely wounded by the Julu army, the White Bear King never stirred up trouble again?
He Lingchuan thanked Sect Leader Li, then asked to purchase two pieces of zircon.
Baimao Mountain did not produce this ore, but disciples occasionally used it for crafting magical tools, and the shops at the foot of the mountain used it for jewelry. Sect Leader Li ordered someone to search the storehouse, and four or five pieces of zircon were quickly retrieved and placed in He Lingchuan's hands.
They were predominantly pale green. Two were of remarkably high quality, bearing a strong resemblance to diamonds.
Dong Rui looked puzzled. "What do you want this stuff for?"
Zircon was not a particularly valuable gemstone, nor could it serve as the centerpiece in jewelry.
"A gift."
"You're giving this as a gift?" Dong Rui clicked his tongue twice. "That person must have terrible taste."
He Lingchuan could not be bothered to bicker with him. "Let's go. Into the mountains."
What was there to seek in the Panlong World? He wanted to hunt for treasure in reality.
Compared to over a century ago, the villages, towns, and roads before Baimao Mountain were completely transformed.
Only the distant peaks remained changeless through the ages, their silhouette as clear as it was in He Lingchuan's memory.
Once they entered the mountains, He Lingchuan took the lead.
"The scenery here isn't bad, but you didn't come just to sightsee, did you?" The farther they walked, the more suspicious Dong Rui grew. "Hey, why do you seem so familiar with this place?"
He Lingchuan walked with total confidence. At times, when there clearly seemed to be no path ahead, he would draw his blade to hack through the weeds. Dong Rui kept expecting him to hit a dead end, only for the landscape to open up into another winding trail through the secluded brush.
How could someone who had never visited know where to go?
He Lingchuan answered in all seriousness, "I've been here in my dreams."
Dong Rui rolled his eyes.
Fine, keep it to yourself. What man doesn't have a few little secrets?
Yet He Lingchuan's words were soon put to the test.
He took the wrong path four or five times in a row, forced each time to double back and search anew.
He really could not be blamed. A hundred and fifty or sixty years ago, Baimao Mountain's vegetation had been entirely different from what it was now. For example, the vast expanse of pink muhly grass before him certainly had not existed back then.
He Lingchuan looked around, searching everywhere for landmarks.
Soon, several massive trees towering into the clouds caught his eye.
Giant cedars!
He had even hung a hammock between those very trees.
So many years had passed; things remained, but the people were gone.
He Lingchuan muttered, "It shouldn't be far from here."
These giant cedars, by contrast, had hardly changed. They were still just as colossal, merely a little thicker around the waist. The undergrowth beneath them, however, had turned over who knew how many generations.
Resting a hand against a trunk, He Lingchuan scrambled up in no time.
Only from high above could one see far into the distance.
Beneath the tree, Dong Rui saw him shading his eyes with one hand and scanning all around, seemingly searching for something.
No doubt about it—this guy had definitely been to Baimao Mountain before!
Before long, He Lingchuan slid down the tree and pointed his blade eastward. "Follow me."
The two pushed through thick groves once more.
There was no sign of human presence here, and the weeds grew as dense as walls. As Dong Rui followed He Lingchuan, he felt the ground beneath his feet change. Looking down, he noticed stretches of river cobbles.
Such stones usually appeared along riverbanks; it seemed a stream or river had once flowed where they now walked.
This time, He Lingchuan's heading was unmistakable: toward where the waterfall had once been.
As they walked, Dong Rui suddenly whispered, "Hey, we've been tailed the whole way. You know that, right?"
He Lingchuan gave a low grunt of acknowledgment. When they left the Xiaoyao Sect and entered Baimao Mountain, the mirror had already warned him that there were eyes watching from the sky.
"Ignore them."
This sensation of being watched from above had started back at Julu Port. He and Jin Bai had originally assumed that brown ravens dispatched by the court of the Bo Kingdom were tailing them.
Evidently, it was not just brown ravens.
After half a quarter-hour, they arrived.
He Lingchuan looked up, unable to suppress a quiet sigh.
The waterfall was gone. He had already noticed that from atop the giant cedar.
All that remained was a bare cliff face.
The pool where the white bear had once disappeared had also turned into a patch of woods. In corners untouched by sunlight, ferns and red-and-white mushrooms grew in profusion.
A mere hundred-odd years had wrought such vast changes upon the land.
He Lingchuan approached the site of the former waterfall and brushed aside the hanging vegetation. Sure enough, behind it lay a recessed stone trough. However, the Chinese trumpet creepers blooming outside grew so lush and vivid that they concealed the hidden world within.
Back then, it had endured the relentless pounding of cascading water; now, it was blanketed in green moss and ferns.
Only the rock face remained unchanged.
Indeed, He Lingchuan had come this time for the White Bear King.
Sect Leader Li said that in later generations, no further word of it was ever heard; only the people of the Julu Kingdom era had spoken of it with dread. Such a great demon had either healed and quietly slipped away from Baimao Mountain to vanish into obscurity, or...
He Lingchuan was here today to gamble on the latter possibility.
Over a century had passed. What harm could there be in giving it a try?
Dong Rui ran a hand along the stone wall, looking completely mystified. "What's here?"
"Good stuff," He Lingchuan said solemnly. "A cave abode might be hidden here!"
If it had only been speculation before, he was certain now.
Because the moment the divine bone necklace drew near this rock wall, it had turned scalding hot and quivered several times!
Ever since He Lingchuan crossed the ocean to the Yangshan Archipelago, this item had grown hot only twice. The first time was at the Platinum Island auction, where He Lingchuan bought the item on the spot and fed it to the necklace; the other time was upon encountering Nangong Yan.
At all other times, it remained quiet, as though plunged into deep slumber.
Regarding the divine bone necklace and the Dafang Pot, He Lingchuan had no one to consult and could only ponder on his own. He inferred that the divine bone necklace was becoming increasingly selective; after devouring various treasures—such as the avatar of Nailuotian—ordinary items could no longer pique its interest.
Yet this time was different.
He Lingchuan could feel the intense craving of the divine bone necklace. The last time it had been this voracious was beneath the steps of Zhaixing Tower in the Heavenly Palace, when it sensed the aura of the Dafang Pot lid.
Did that mean the minor world the White Bear King entered might contain something it desperately wanted to devour?
"Really?" Hearing that this was an expedition for treasure, Dong Rui's legs were no longer sore, and his throat was no longer parched. He stepped back a few paces to size up the rock wall. "Are you sure it's here?"
He did not bother asking how He Lingchuan knew. The guy harbored far too many secrets anyway.
"Sure, certain, positive," He Lingchuan said solemnly. "The problem is, I don't know how to get in."
"This minor world has an owner, doesn't it?"
"It originally did." He Lingchuan produced his tools and began clearing away the weeds around the rock face. "Back in the days of the Julu Kingdom, the White Bear King fled into this cave abode to escape human pursuers."
"No wonder you were asking Sect Leader Li about that monster!" Dong Rui had an epiphany. "Certain cave abodes have unique methods to open them. If you don't know the trick, you'll never cross the threshold in your lifetime."
"When the White Bear King rushed here back then, it vanished in the blink of an eye. So it didn't activate any elaborate formation—it could have used a passphrase, a secret code, or a token. Eyewitnesses at the time saw a bloody claw print left on the stone wall, right—" He Lingchuan pressed his hand against the wall, "—here! So it might also have triggered a hidden mechanism."
"I also heard another rumor: this cave abode is guarded by a spirit of metal, and to enter, you have to bribe it with zircon." With that, He Lingchuan took out the zircon.
Dong Rui realized in understanding, "So the recipient of your gift isn't human after all."
Where should it go? He Lingchuan casually tossed a zircon into the groove on the stone wall.
Sure enough, nothing happened.
He knew it would not be that simple.
"Let me do it!" Dong Rui shoved him aside. "You don't know the first thing, yet you're blocking the way. Go stand in the back!"
He Lingchuan raised both hands and quietly stepped aside. Formations and mechanisms were not his specialty; he could only yield to someone more qualified.
Watching Dong Rui touch here and knock there before the rock face, He Lingchuan tucked his hands into his sleeves and asked, "How did you break into the divine tomb back then?"
Indeed, if Dong Rui were not adept at finding entrances and tunneling, how could he have slipped into the divine tomb to steal divine bone and divine blood?
Caught off guard by a question probing his secrets, Dong Rui paused for a moment before saying, "I stumbled into it by accident."
"If that place were easy to find, it wouldn't have been your turn," He Lingchuan said with a chuckle. "If an ancient tomb can be plundered, why not a cave abode?"
What fundamental difference was there between the two?
Only now did Dong Rui understand He Lingchuan's motive in bringing him into the mountains. He said peevishly, "Cave abodes fall into two types. One is a naturally formed minor world that requires no human intervention; it grows on its own. As for the second type, it's artificially created using a foundation stone. After being carved out, only an extremely rare few can sustain their own growth, while most require constant human effort to maintain."
"And this one?"
"I haven't gone inside yet, so I can't say for sure." Dong Rui knocked several times in quick succession around the stone trough. "Though I'm inclined to think it's the first type."
He Lingchuan was about to ask more, but Dong Rui shushed him. "Shut up!"
He pressed his ear against the rock face, knocked a few more times, and listened intently for a moment. Then he wedged a small piece of zircon into the groove and muttered softly toward the wall.
A sudden, muffled thud resonated from within the rock.
Dong Rui immediately inserted a second piece of zircon.
He Lingchuan watched as the rock wall slowly recessed inward, revealing an opening that was pitch-black inside.
"It worked?" Had he underestimated Dong Rui all this time? "What did you just mutter?"
Open sesame?
Dong Rui leaned against the wall with a grin. "This is called 'throwing a stone to ask the way.'"
"How did you pull that off?"
"Very simple. Since a spirit of metal guards the gate, the key is to draw it over." Dong Rui pointed a thumb at the rock wall. "Baimao Mountain is so vast. Did you think it just stayed inside this wall all the time?"
"And then?"
"And then you can go in." Dong Rui chuckled twice. "It's all down to experience. Even if I told you, could you do it?"
This kid had areas he wasn't good at after all! Finally seeing him at a loss—refreshing, truly refreshing!
Chapter 1127