Sanli Grotto-Heaven

"What relic grotto-heaven?" Meng Jingzhou hadn't been present during the interrogation. Lu Yang explained, "The man we tortured is called Perfected Sanli. He left behind a grotto-heaven governed by a Rule that allows only cultivators at or below the Foundation Establishment stage to enter, and all his lifetime wealth is hidden inside." "The lifetime wealth of a Body Integration cultivator?" Meng Jingzhou inhaled sharply. While Lu Yang had no clear concept of it, Meng Jingzhou knew just how staggering a Body Integration cultivator's wealth could be. One only had to look at his family's elders to know—it was an unimaginable fortune that could never be squandered in a single lifetime, something he had envied since childhood. If they could get their hands on it, or even just secure a modest fraction of it, they would be set for life. Even a colossus like the Dao Seeking Sect could not simply overlook the wealth of a Body Integration cultivator! "Plus, only Foundation Establishment cultivators can go in. Heh heh, isn't that just handing the opportunity right to the two of us?" Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou chuckled. A realm with cultivation restrictions like this was where they could shine the most. Eldest Senior Sister had brought them along surely because she recognized their talents and intended for the two of them to enter the relic grotto-heaven. The auspicious cloud flew at incredible speed. People on the ground looking up saw a wisp of cloud zip past in the blink of an eye, so fast it felt like a hallucination. Before long, the three arrived at the location Perfected Sanli had described. Geographic divisions during the Dayu Era differed from those of today. In modern terms, Perfected Sanli's relic grotto-heaven was situated in eastern Jizhou, Huayun Commandery, beneath the sixteenth tree counting down from the summit of Dalang Mountain. Yun Zhi caressed the tree trunk. Sensing spatial fluctuations, she confirmed that a grotto-heaven truly lay here. The grotto-heaven was so well hidden that it was difficult to detect. Even someone as powerful as Yun Zhi had to be at point-blank range to determine its presence. Perfected Sanli's grotto-heaven had never been discovered by anyone else. Yun Zhi tapped the back of her index and middle fingers lightly against the trunk. With a brief spatial distortion, a pitch-black opening manifested before them. The entrance took the form of a black vortex, churning continuously. Runes flickered within the space, signifying that it had been sealed with Rules—a claimed grotto-heaven that could not be entered easily. And the entry Rule of this grotto-heaven was that only Foundation Establishment cultivators under the age of twenty could enter. Just as Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou assumed Eldest Senior Sister was about to send them in, they watched as she gripped both edges of the black vortex with her bare hands and forcibly tore open a massive rift. In that moment, all Rules shattered into pieces, utterly powerless to restrain her. Lu Yang: "..." Meng Jingzhou: "..." Logically speaking, shouldn't this have been their moment to shine? Why was this so different from what they had imagined? Were they completely superfluous here? Then why had Eldest Senior Sister brought them along in the first place? Lu Yang voiced his question. Yun Zhi tilted her head, thought for a moment, and said, "Didn't you two just climb aboard on your own when leaving Prison Peak? I never asked you to come along." Fine then, they truly were completely superfluous. In the spiritual space, the Immortal Fairy was doubled over with laughter. The three stepped into the relic grotto-heaven. As far as the eye could see stretched an open savanna. On the grassland, an elephant was leisurely chewing on leaves, while a lion chased an antelope and snapped its neck in a single bite. On the far side of the savanna lay a lush rainforest, where gargantuan beasts could be vaguely glimpsed moving between the trees. Lu Yang clearly felt his cultivation suppressed. Right now, he could only muster the power of the late Qi Refinement stage. Just then, clouds coalesced into prominent characters that hovered before the three of them: [DANGER AHEAD. LEAVE IMMEDIATELY.] [DANGER AHEAD. LEAVE IMMEDIATELY.] [DANGER AHEAD. LEAVE IMMEDIATELY.] [IF YOU INSIST ON ENTERING, PLEASE COMMIT THE RULES OF SANLI GROTTO-HEAVEN TO HEART. THEY MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE.] [RULE 1: EVERYONE'S CULTIVATION WILL BE SUPPRESSED TO THE NINTH LEVEL OF QI REFINEMENT.] [RULE 2: CONTACT WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD IS IMPOSSIBLE.] [RULE 3: SANLI GROTTO-HEAVEN CONTAINS ONLY A SAVANNA, NO RAINFOREST. IF YOU SEE A RAINFOREST, DO NOT ENTER.] [RULE 4: LIONS ARE BENEVOLENT. IF A LION CHASES YOU, DO NOT RUN. IT ONLY WANTS TO PLAY WITH YOU.] [RULE 5: ANTELOPES ARE DEMON BEASTS THAT WALK UPRIGHT ON TWO LEGS, WITH SPIRALING HORNS ON THEIR HEADS. IT IS NORMAL FOR AN ANTELOPE TO LAUGH; DO NOT BE AFRAID.] [RULE 6: THERE ARE NO ELEPHANTS ON THE SAVANNA. IF YOU SEE AN ELEPHANT, YOU MUST SEEK PROTECTION FROM A LION. THE LION WILL PROTECT YOU.] [RULE 7: IF YOU WANDER INTO THE RAINFOREST BY MISTAKE, DO NOT PANIC. REMAINING CALM IS AN ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENT FOR SURVIVING IN THE RAINFOREST.] [RULE 8: THE GORILLAS IN THE RAINFOREST ARE HUMANS IN DISGUISE, SO IT IS NORMAL FOR THEM TO TALK, BUT THEY WILL NOT INITIATE CONVERSATION WITH YOU.] [RULE 9: THE WATER IN THE RAINFOREST IS UNDRINKABLE.] [RULE 10: IF YOU ENCOUNTER A FOUNDATION ESTABLISHMENT DEMON BEAST, IMITATE THE CRY OF A GORILLA. THE DEMON BEAST WILL LEAVE ON ITS OWN ACCORD.] [RULE 11: ALL THE ABOVE RULES ARE TRUE.] Lu Yang then noticed several lines written in blood beneath their feet. The bloody characters were scrawled hastily, as though left in a frantic rush: [RUN! DANGER HERE!] [AN ANOMALY HAS OCCURRED HERE!] [ATTENTION! WHAT I AM WRITING ARE THE TRUE RULES OF SANLI GROTTO-HEAVEN!] [SANLI GROTTO-HEAVEN CONTAINS BOTH A SAVANNA AND A RAINFOREST. THE RAINFOREST IS SAFER THAN THE SAVANNA!] [LIONS POSSESS GOLDEN CORE CULTIVATION AND DEVOUR HUMANS ON SIGHT!] [ANTELOPES CANNOT WALK UPRIGHT. IF YOU HEAR AN ANTELOPE LAUGHING, LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!] [THE ELEPHANT WILL PROTECT YOU!] [REMAIN CALM IN THE RAINFOREST!] [DO NOT INITIATE CONVERSATION WITH GORILLAS, OR YOU WILL TURN INTO ONE!] [IF YOU FEEL SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR BODY, HURRY AND DRINK THE RAINFOREST WATER TO SAVE YOUR LIFE!] [DO NOT IMITATE A GORILLA'S CRY; IT WILL ATTRACT GOLDEN CORE DEMON BEASTS!] [THE RULES OF SANLI GROTTO-HEAVEN ARE ALL LI...] Seeing the bloodstains, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou felt a chill run down their spines. The message was left unfinished. The final stroke had trailed into a long smear of blood, as if someone had crawled toward the exit with all their might, only to be seized by some unknown, terrifying entity and dragged back inside, leaving a stark trail of blood in their wake. The two felt their scalps tingle. What on earth was inside this grotto-heaven? "There's a huge problem with these rules—they contradict each other at every turn. Which set is real, the first or the second?" "Based on our experience in Buyi Town, the first set looks more formal. Is that the genuine one?" "Not necessarily. Nothing says a more formal rule is the correct one. The second set looks hastily written, but couldn't that just be another format of rules?" The two found it impossible to decide. Right now they were limited to the ninth level of Qi Refinement, while the realm was full of Foundation Establishment and Golden Core demon beasts. They couldn't rely on brute force, only their wits. Yet faced with two sets of rules, unable to tell truth from falsehood, picking the wrong one meant certain death! "Don't panic, there has to be a solution. One says lions are benevolent, the other says lions eat people. One says elephants kill, the other says elephants protect. We could lure a lion and an elephant together and see which one actually protects us. That way, we can figure out which rules are real..." "Could both sets be half-true and half-false, written solely to trap people?" "This is tricky." Just as the two racked their brains trying to find a path to survival, Yun Zhi raised her arm, baring her pale wrist, and casually thrust out a palm. This was obviously no Qi Refinement strike. The gale from her palm carried terrifying might as it swept across the land, so frightening that the lion, antelope, elephant, and gorillas all fled for their lives. Whether they ate humans or protected humans made no difference before this palm strike—fleeing was their only option. The strike tore clean through both savanna and rainforest, carving a direct path straight to the destination. How could the rules here ever hope to restrain Yun Zhi?