Senior sister, stop working and go home for dinner.

Chapter 90 Night in the Stone Chamber

"Don't waste your energy."

Feng Xiaolu shone her flashlight on the patterns on the stone door. "This restriction is older than those bones outside. Forcing it won't work."

As she spoke, she began to carefully examine the small space.

This is the entrance to a downward passageway, with roughly carved stone steps beneath your feet that extend into deeper darkness.

"It seems there's only one way to go." Feng Xiaolu shone her flashlight down the steps, eager to try.

Chen Anran sighed. He concentrated his mind and tried to contact the guardian spirit outside through his mind, but found that the connection had become extremely weak and he could not directly use the [Soul Nourishing Shrine] to retrieve it.

"Let's go, senior sister, stay close to me." Chen Anran had no choice but to cheer up, walk in front of Feng Xiaolu, protect her behind her, and carefully walk down the stone steps.

The stone steps weren't long; after walking about twenty or thirty steps, you reached the bottom.

Before us was a stone chamber that wasn't very large, but had a peculiar layout.

The stone chamber was circular, with several luminous pearls, long since lost their luster, embedded in its dome. Most striking of all was a circular stone platform in the center of the chamber, covered with incredibly complex runes.

In the very center of the stone platform sat an old man dressed in black ancient brocade robes.

The old man's eyes were closed, his face was lifelike, and his skin even retained its elasticity and luster, as if he had simply fallen into a deep sleep.

"Wow!" Feng Xiaolu exclaimed, sweeping her flashlight across the old man's face. "Is this senior practicing martial arts here?"

Chen Anran grabbed her hand, which was itching to poke her.

"Senior sister, be careful! You should know that many ancient monsters chose to go into slumber when the end of Dharma came."

Chen Anran's words made Feng Xiaolu freeze, and she awkwardly withdrew her hand, but she still refused to admit defeat: "Slumber? Isn't that even better? Maybe if we wake him up, he'll see that we have extraordinary talent and, in a moment of pleasure, pass on hundreds of years of internal energy to us, or even give us some divine artifacts!"

"...read less novels every day." Chen Anran sighed, realizing that she could never keep up with her third senior sister's train of thought.

Ignoring Feng Xiaolu, he stepped forward and used his finger to check the old man's breathing, finding that, as he had thought, the old man was in a deep sleep.

Alarm bells rang in Chen Anran's mind, because the living are more terrifying than the dead, let alone ancient cultivators who have been asleep for who knows how many years.

Chen Anran couldn't help but recall Shi Haisheng's words before his death, feeling that his words had become a demon in his heart.

Unconsciously, Chen Anran summoned the [Angry Arhat Statue] in the museum.

The Arhat statue allows one to leapfrog a major level in a short period of time; it's uncertain whether the Foundation Establishment stage's power is sufficient to kill this "old monster" before me.

Feng Xiaolu saw the murderous intent in Chen Anran's expression and felt it was completely unfamiliar.

"Junior brother?"

Chen Anran was startled and turned around to meet Feng Xiaolu's uneasy eyes.

That gaze was like a bucket of ice water, instantly extinguishing the violent killing intent that had been burning in his heart due to fear and pressure.

"...Junior Brother?" Feng Xiaolu called out again, cautiously taking a step forward, her gaze shifting back and forth between him and the old man sleeping on the stone platform. "What...what do you want to do?"

Chen Anran took a deep breath, and the pounding of his heart gradually calmed down. He then returned the Arhat statue to the museum.

"It's nothing," Chen Anran shook her head. "I just remembered some unpleasant things."

"Really?" Feng Xiaolu walked up to Chen Anran, stood on tiptoe, and touched Chen Anran's forehead.

As Chen Anran felt the touch of fingertips on his forehead, the anger in his heart gradually dissipated.

"I'm really fine."

Feng Xiaolu stared at Chen Anran for a long time before finally letting out a sigh of relief.

"Does he look like a bad guy to you?" Feng Xiaolu leaned closer, tilting her head to examine him. "He seems... quite peaceful. And look at the stone platform he's sitting on, all those runes, it looks like they're gathering spiritual energy to nourish him."

After being reminded by her, Chen Anran also focused his attention and began to perceive.

Sure enough, the complex runes on the stone platform were slowly absorbing the sparse spiritual energy of the place, wisps of it flowing into the old man's body, maintaining his slumbering state between life and death.

"Perhaps you are right." Chen Anran relaxed his guard slightly. "This senior may have sealed himself with this method before the end of the Dharma era, waiting for the spiritual energy to recover."

"So what do we do now?" Feng Xiaolu blinked. "Wake him up? Or... see if there are any treasures?" Her gaze began to wander around the stone chamber again. Apart from the stone platform and the old man, the four walls were empty, with only the dim luminous pearls on the dome.

"We mustn't disturb them rashly." Chen Anran shook his head. "If we disturb our senior, the consequences could be dire. Let's find a way out first."

The two began to carefully explore the circular stone chamber.

The walls were smooth and perfectly sealed, seemingly without any hidden mechanisms or compartments. They then checked the stone steps leading down to the entrance; the stone door remained tightly closed, the restrictions firmly in place.

"Oh no, oh no, am I really going to have to stay here with this old man forever?" Feng Xiaolu sat down on the stone steps, somewhat dejected. "I'm still young, I haven't even tasted all the delicacies in the world yet..."

Chen Anran sat down next to Feng Xiaolu and took out a few whistle candies from his pocket.

Feng Xiaolu's eyes lit up, and she took two from Chen Anran's palm. "Where did you get these?"

"I picked it up at the front desk when I paid for the hot pot yesterday."

The sweetness of the whistle candy melted on the tip of her tongue, and Feng Xiaolu puffed out her cheeks and blew out a few off-key whistles.

"Do you think Senior Brother He and the others outside are going crazy with worry?" Feng Xiaolu asked, her mouth full of candy, her words muffled.

"They're definitely trying to find a way." Chen Anran leaned against the cold stone wall, savoring the sweet taste in her mouth. "Senior Brother He is steady, and Daoist Mo Han is meticulous. They will try various methods and also comfort Mengmeng. What we need to do now is conserve our strength and calmly search for a way out."

"The way out..." Feng Xiaolu shone her flashlight beam again at the old man and the stone platform in the center of the stone chamber. "I think the key is definitely with him, or with this platform."

She stood up, dusted herself off, and walked back to the stone platform. This time, she didn't rashly touch the old man, but instead carefully studied the complex and profound runes on the platform. Although she was impulsive, Su Wan had forced her to learn various miscellaneous subjects in the sect.

Although I am not an expert in talisman formations, I do have some basic knowledge.

"Junior brother, come and see," Feng Xiaolu pointed to the subtle spiritual light flowing through the runes, "These patterns... seem to be more than just gathering spiritual energy; they're more like a combination of... circulation and sealing. The spiritual energy is nourishing him, but at the same time, it's also binding him, keeping him in this dormant state, unable to awaken on his own, and unable to be easily disturbed by external forces."

Upon hearing this, Chen Anran also moved closer to observe. Sure enough, the spiritual light circuits formed by those runes did not flow into the old man's body in one direction, but instead formed an extremely thin, almost imperceptible transparent light film around him, like an exquisite cocoon.

Chen Anran breathed a sigh of relief, as long as he wouldn't wake up.

"Senior sister, did you notice anything?"

Feng Xiaolu shook her head, overturning her previous guess, "The door opening mechanism isn't on this platform."

A brief silence fell over the stone chamber, broken only by the soft breathing of the two people.

The beam of the flashlight swept futilely between the empty walls and the central stone platform, as if mocking their predicament.

"Are we really going to wait here until Senior Brother He and the others find a solution from outside?" Feng Xiaolu kicked the ground with her toe, somewhat unwilling. "Or wait for this old man to wake up on his own? That would take forever!"

Chen Anran teased, "Who insisted on coming in to explore just now?"

Feng Xiaolu was taken aback by Chen Anran's question, and after a long while, she finally managed to say, "Who would have thought this was a secret room, with no treasures, just an old man."

After saying that, Feng Xiaolu scratched her hair in frustration, then stood up and went to look for a way out elsewhere.

Seeing this, Chen Anran looked around the empty stone chamber, which contained nothing but the stone platform and the old man. He swept the flashlight beam across the dome, walls, and floor again, carefully examining every inch, but still found nothing.

After searching for a long time without success, the two finally leaned against the stone wall and sat down on the ground.

"What time is it?"

Chen Anran glanced at his watch. "It's one in the morning. An hour has passed."

"Time flies so fast?" Feng Xiaolu licked her slightly dry lips, touched her small cloth bag that she always carried, took out two bottles of mineral water, and handed one to Chen Anran.

Chen Anran unscrewed the bottle cap and took a sip, then leaned against the stone wall and closed his eyes for a short rest.

Feng Xiaolu followed his example and closed her eyes, but her patience was limited. She opened them again after a few minutes and listlessly shone her flashlight on the old man's face on the stone platform.

"Senior, Grandpa? Can you hear me? Wake up, time to eat!" She lowered her voice and even took out her copper coin sword to gently poke him, calling out like she was teasing a kitten.

Chen Anran opened her eyes helplessly: "Senior sister..."

"Oh dear, maybe he needs an alarm clock!" Feng Xiaolu said confidently, but then she sighed, "Where's the mechanism? Isn't there any way out?"

"What else can we do? This place is only so big, and we've almost explored every crevice in the rocks."

Feng Xiaolu was unusually dejected. "I knew I shouldn't have dragged you in..."

"What's the point of saying this now?" Chen Anran didn't mean to blame him. He smiled and said, "Just consider it as going into seclusion."

"Who goes into seclusion in a godforsaken place like this..."

Feng Xiaolu muttered to herself, holding the flashlight between the two of them, the beam pointing upwards and casting a dim, yellowish halo around the dome. She turned her head to look at Chen Anran's profile, half-lit and half-shadowed in the light, "Junior Brother, you're really not mad at me?"

Chen Anran shook her head, "When we were little, we would sneak down the mountain to catch fish in the river. The time you fell into the water, I pulled you out, and I didn't blame you, did I?"

Feng Xiaolu paused for a moment, then remembered something, her face flushed slightly, and she playfully punched Chen Anran, a little embarrassed: "That's an old almanac from so many years ago!"

After saying that, Feng Xiaolu naturally leaned on Chen Anran's shoulder. "Actually, the reason I'm so eager is that I want our Yunyin Sect to get more good things."

Just as Chen Anran was about to speak, Feng Xiaolu continued, "I know that Junior Brother possesses the 'Nurturing' secret technique, and with 30% of the spirit stones and treasures, it's already quite a lot. But everyone is greedy, who would complain about having too much?"

Chen Anran felt the weight on his shoulder and listened to Feng Xiaolu's honest words. He gently hummed in agreement, saying nothing more, and simply let her lean on him quietly.

Soon, Chen Anran heard a steady breathing sound. Looking down, he saw Feng Xiaolu's long, curled eyelashes casting two soft, fan-shaped shadows under her eyelids, fluttering gently with her even breathing, like resting butterfly wings. Her usually bright and lively eyes were completely relaxed, less playful, and more serene.

Perhaps it was a bit cold, for she unconsciously curled up slightly, her soft cheeks pressed against the fabric of Chen Anran's shoulder, a few unruly strands of hair slipping down and sticking to her slightly parted lips. Her lips were a natural rosy red, appearing exceptionally soft in the dim light, and she would occasionally smack them very lightly, as if she were still savoring something delicious in her dream.

Chen Anran tilted his head slightly and carefully adjusted his posture to make her more comfortable.

Time passed by, and after an unknown amount of time, Chen Anran felt a wave of weariness wash over her, and her eyelids grew heavy.

Chen Anran was suddenly awakened by a slight noise and a shaking on his shoulder. He didn't know how much time had passed.

He suddenly opened his eyes and realized that he had fallen asleep at some point. Feng Xiaolu, who was leaning on his shoulder, was pushing him hard, her voice filled with barely suppressed excitement and disbelief: "Junior brother, look! The door... the door is open!"

Chen Anran instantly snapped out of it and looked in the direction Feng Xiaolu was pointing—

The stone door, which had been as heavy as a mountain and had been so securely sealed that it had trapped them here, had now silently slid up halfway, revealing the treasure cave outside.

The stone chamber remained silent. The old man on the central stone platform remained in a slumbering posture, and the thin film of faint light around him was still there, as if nothing had happened.

"What... what happened?" Chen Anran was stunned. He immediately looked at his watch, which showed that it was around four in the morning. They had slept for less than three hours.

"I don't know! I found it on as soon as I woke up!" Feng Xiaolu's face was full of surprise and confusion. "Could this mechanism be timed? Does it automatically activate at the appointed time? Or... did Senior Brother He and the others outside find a way to break the restriction?"

Chen Anran stood up, stretched his stiff body, and gestured for Feng Xiaolu to calm down. He carefully walked to the stone door and peeked out first.

The scene of the treasure cave outside came into view, but it was empty. He Qingyun, Mo Han, and Zhao Mengmeng were not nearby.

"There's no one outside. The things are gone too," Chen Anran said in a low voice.

"Who cares! Let's get out of here first!" Feng Xiaolu didn't think much of it. Seeing a way out right in front of her, she grabbed Chen Anran's hand and eagerly rushed out. "Hurry, hurry! What if it closes again later!"

Chen Anran was led by her and stepped out of the stone gate. As soon as they stepped out, the stone gate closed automatically.

Returning to the relatively open treasure cave, both of them felt as if they had seen the light of day again, even though it was still underground.