Chapter 663: Chapter 263: Who Could See a Dao Crystal and Not Be Tempted?

This unnamed fellow cultivator arrived quickly, but he was clearly not strong enough.

Even his Spiritual Artifacts became nutrients for the Blood Vines.

Hm?

Hm!

Xiao Chen suddenly stopped in his tracks as an idea flashed through his mind. ’Spiritual Artifacts!’

After all, even a used, second-hand Spiritual Artifact was worth no less than 50,000 Spirit Stones as long as it was still functional.

If its origins were clean and it was in good condition, selling it for sixty or seventy thousand Spirit Stones wouldn’t be difficult.

Anyway, that unnamed fellow cultivator was already gone. He certainly had no more use for them.

So, Xiao Chen might as well recover the Spiritual Artifacts. After all, it was practically finding free money.

Of course, there was an even more important point: every Golden Core Cultivator basically carried a Storage Ring!

’If it’s just lying around, it’s a waste.’

’And if someone else is going to pick it up, it might as well be me.’

With this in mind, Xiao Chen turned back, only to find that the deep-red vines from before had vanished.

Only an irregular hole remained in the ground, where light-red vines were squirming, seemingly trying to bury it.

Even the jade belt that had been exposed earlier was gone without a trace.

It seemed everything had been dragged underground.

Xiao Chen immediately began to dig into the hole, which had not yet fully closed.

At first, everything was quiet except for the sound of digging.

But soon, a large number of vines surged from underground, trying to stop him from digging deeper.

"Hmph! Take my Condensed Fire Palm!"

Xiao Chen raised his hand and struck with his palm, and raging flames immediately poured into the ground.

Normally, this wouldn’t have been a problem.

However, a multitude of vines were now crisscrossing beneath his feet, turning the once-solid earth into a hollow structure.

When his palm strike landed, there was a deafening BOOM.

A large section of the ground instantly collapsed, sending Xiao Chen and the surrounding bushes plunging down.

"Fuck!"

Xiao Chen subconsciously activated his True Essence, but he was immediately suppressed by the Secret Realm’s No-Fly Restriction.

He plummeted straight into an underground cavern a full thirty zhang deep.

A thick, rotten-earth smell immediately assaulted his nostrils.

When the swirling dust settled, Xiao Chen could finally see clearly. This wasn’t a cavern at all; it was a nest woven from vines.

Dense, grayish-brown old vines were stacked in layers, intertwined to form a supporting framework like an ant’s nest.

Tunnels of varying sizes were left in between.

Fresh vines slithered like snakes through the tunnels. The thinnest were no thicker than chopsticks, while the thickest were as large as buckets.

The friction from their writhing created a droning hum, a naturally hypnotic sound.

If an ordinary cultivator were to fall in here, they would likely be entranced by the sound and lose all reason.

Then, just like the bushes beside him, they would be cut apart by the light-brown earthen vines, carried away, and cleaned up.

But Xiao Chen, naturally, was not afraid of this demonic sound. Instead, he curiously surveyed his surroundings.

’Oho, this is interesting. There’s another world down here?’

He hadn’t seen any description of this in that little booklet he’d read before.

Not even in legends or rumors.

In other words, the existence of an underground world in the Cangran Secret Realm had likely gone undiscovered for thousands, or even tens of thousands, of years.

Or, even if someone had discovered it, they were unable to get the information out.

Thus, it had remained unknown to the outside world.

’So many tunnels... How am I supposed to find the Spiritual Artifacts?’

Despite this major mishap, Xiao Chen was still focused on his goal.

He carefully tried to get his bearings, casually pushed aside a light-brown earthen vine that approached him, and chose a relatively wide tunnel to enter.

’Since I’m already here, I might as well go inside and see what’s going on.’

’And hopefully, I can pick up the Spiritual Artifacts along the way.’

He walked along the winding, bizarre tunnels, which rose and fell, for about three shichen.

Even for Xiao Chen, who usually had a good sense of direction, he was now feeling rather dizzy and disoriented.

If he had to find his way back, it would probably be impossible.

But it didn’t matter. He had a plan from the start.

When he wanted to leave, he would just use the Condensed Fire Palm to forcibly blast a big hole and climb out.

The only reason he wasn’t traveling like that now was because it would not only consume too much True Essence, but it wouldn’t necessarily be any faster than simply following the existing tunnels.

’Strange, why do I feel like I’m going deeper and deeper?’

After randomly entering another new tunnel, Xiao Chen frowned slightly as he watched the terrain slope further downward.

He felt that although this place was a labyrinth with its ups and downs, the overall path seemed to be constantly descending.

But the very next moment, after turning a corner, he suddenly saw a beam of light.

To be clear, for the past nearly three shichen, Xiao Chen had been relying on his Eye of Truth to travel in an environment as dark as night.

While it couldn’t be described as pitch-black, it was gloomy at the very least.

And yet now, he was actually seeing light!

Xiao Chen hurried over in just a few strides and quickly discovered that the beam of light was coming from a small hole about a zhang away.

Perhaps something had gone wrong when the vines were initially piled up.

The grayish-brown old vines hadn’t completely sealed this spot, leaving a gap about the size of a fist.

’Hm, that’s not right!’

The five senses of a Golden Core Cultivator were enhanced, so Xiao Chen effortlessly smelled a faint scent of blood coming from the small hole.

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