Immortality Cultivation: Fellow Daoists, please live for two more episodes!

The Falling Star Crater is located on the western slope of the back mountain; you can reach it by crossing a ridge.

Fan Xiao walked at the front, holding half of the array plate in his hand to guide the way. His companions followed behind with iron swords on their backs, while five servants dragged at the back of the group, wearing restriction rings.

Upon reaching the pit's edge, Fan Xiao looked down.

The pit wasn't very big, about a hundred feet in diameter, and the walls were charred black, as if something had punched it from the sky.

"Last time I turned back after reaching the third level. The formations inside get more and more dangerous as you go down. Just follow the path I marked last time."

After saying that, he pointed to the male handyman, who was about forty years old and at the very front of the line:

"You go down and scout ahead."

The unique feature of Shuiyue is that it uses miscellaneous scout stones. Perhaps they exist in other places as well, but it is rare to see one as open and aboveboard as the one used by Shuiyue.

Driven by spiritual power, the restriction ring hummed, and although the middle-aged man looked slightly unwilling, he still had no choice but to step out.

A narrow path, about half a person's width, spirals down the pit wall. The further down you go, the dimmer it gets, and the air smells of burning.

After walking for about half an incense stick's time, the man stopped and shouted upwards, "There are scorch marks on the ground!"

"If you see it, walk around it, don't step on it, go to the left."

The male servant cautiously took a step to the left.

A thick column of fire shot out from a crack in the stone wall and pierced straight through his waist.

He glanced down at the smoking hole in his waist and then fell forward.

Fan Xiao took out a spirit stone pen from his waist, skillfully compared it with his map, and drew an X next to the gap from which the pillar of fire spewed out:

"Looks like we can't go to the left from this position. Next one."

The second one was the skinny guy. When he got to the second section, a small hole appeared in the ground, and a cloud of green mist rose from it.

He immediately went limp and lay on the ground, unable to move.

Fan Xiao went up and probed:

"The poisonous mist hasn't killed him, but he's crippled. Leaving him here and then retrieving him later will be troublesome. Fellow Daoist, why don't you give him a quick death?"

The man with the sword didn't say much. He made a hand gesture, and the iron sword on his back flew out naturally, flashing in an arc of light.

Draw a circle and mark the position: "Next".

The third person chosen was a lame old man, or perhaps a veteran handyman who had been drained of his energy for a long time; he seemed to have experienced a lot.

He walked very slowly, tiptoeing with each step before daring to land.

When they reached the thirtieth step, both sides of the pit lit up simultaneously, and the point of convergence exploded into a ball of white light.

When the white light dissipated, only a scorched patch remained on the ground.

Fan Xiao marked it with an X: "Cross-shaped killing formation. We have to run to get through this section; we can't stop."

Three servants, three sections of road, three ways to die, marked with more than a dozen signs.

But progress was not fast.

The disciple who was with him watched from behind, his expression not very good, but he didn't say anything.

In the Shuiyue branch, this is how menial servants are used.

There were two servants left in the group: Yunniang and another female servant.

Fan Xiao glanced at the two women, hesitated for a long time, and finally chose the female servant: "You, go!"

The female servant's face turned deathly pale, but the restraint ring tightened, and although her legs trembled with weakness, she still had no choice but to go out.

She was lucky; the path that the three people ahead of her had risked their lives to clear was marked, so she only needed to follow the markings.

Avoid the cross marks in the section with the fire pillars, bypass the poisonous fog, and run past the section with the crisscrossing killing formation.

She walked extremely slowly, stopping to catch her breath at each marker, her whole body trembling like a leaf.

But we still made it through step by step.

After walking another twenty steps or so, a stone gate appeared in front of them.

The stone door was half-open, and a sliver of dim light shone through the crack.

"arrive."

Fan Xiao's voice came from behind, his tone much more relaxed:

"I heard from other fellow Daoists who have been here that the door to this place is usually closed, and it will only open when enough people have died in front of it."

He waved to his fellow Daoist beside him:

"Let's go inside."

Behind the stone gate is a cave chamber about ten zhang square.

The cave walls were embedded with countless firestones, their bodies glowing with a dark red light. Their quality was more than one level higher than that of the outer areas, and the spiritual energy was so dense that the air itself was hot.

The disciple's eyes lit up instantly: "This batch is at least mid-level, this trip probably has more than 400 points."

"More than that."

Fan Xiao squatted down, picked up a piece, and weighed it in his hand:

"This one piece alone is worth fifty, and there are at least dozens of pieces on this wall. If we take them all, we won't have to worry about our mortgage payments for the next two months."

The two men each occupied one side of the wall and began to pry it open.

Only the clanging sounds remained in the cave.

Yunniang and the female servant squatted in the corner by the door, neither of them speaking.

After about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, the disciple who was traveling with him had filled most of his bag. He straightened up and stretched his shoulders.

"That's enough, Junior Brother Fan, it's time to head back."

Before he could finish speaking, he silently flew away with his iron sword on his back.

He had been disguising himself very well, as if he really needed to perform a hand seal before drawing his iron sword.

With this acting skill, he tricked countless fellow disciples.

The iron sword drew a cold light in the air, heading straight for Fan Xiao. Its speed gradually decreased, then slowed down, and finally stopped a few feet in front of Fan Xiao.

It fell to the ground with a thud.

It wasn't that Fan Xiao used some kind of protective magic weapon, but rather that the owner of the iron sword himself had a problem.

A talisman was stuck to his back at some point.

His limbs were stiff, and the flow of his spiritual energy was locked; he couldn't even move his fingers.

His eyes could still move, and when he turned them, he saw Fan Xiao's smiling face.

It's still that round face, and those white teeth.

"Don't mind it, senior brother."

Fan Xiao took the bag from his waist and weighed it in his hand:

"In this place, everyone's like this. You want to eat me, and I want to eat you. It's just a matter of who's more capable. If you're lucky, you'll run into someone easier to fool next time, and you can do the same thing."

The disciple, who was paired with Fan Xiao, desperately channeled his inner energy, his face turning bright red. His cultivation level was similar to Fan Xiao's, so the talisman wouldn't lock him in for long.

Fan Xiao knew this, but he was fearless.

The ground beneath the disciples' feet suddenly lit up, and a ring of spiritual patterns emerged from the cracks in the stone slabs. The patterns were intricate and were not the original formation of the Falling Star Pit.

Someone had it engraved in advance.

The moment the spirit runes lit up, the wisp of true energy that the partner disciple had just managed to break free of was suppressed back down, even more thoroughly than a talisman, leaving him no room to resist.

"alright."

The voice came from behind.

The disciple who was paired with him turned his eyes to look over.

The female handyman who had been trembling ever since they entered the pit and had always huddled at the back of the group was now standing behind him.

He had felt something was off just now. He had been keeping a close eye on Fan Xiao for a while, so when did that spirit-locking talisman get stuck on his back? It turned out to be her...

Fan Xiao grinned at her: "Thank you for your hard work."

"The same to you."

The two began to search the disciple's belongings, turning his iron sword, pills, and spirit stones upside down, taking all the valuables.

Having seized countless opportunities, Fan Xiao also tested his newly acquired sword. With a flick of his wrist, a flash of light appeared, and a head fell to the ground.

Great, this new gadget works really well. Now there's only one last thing to do.

He glanced at the figure in the corner by the door.

Yunniang curled up into a ball, burying her head between her knees. Fan Xiao walked over and squatted down in front of her.

"Girl."

Yunniang did not look up.

Fan Xiao sighed and glanced back at the female servant:

"What should we do with this girl?"

The female servant was tying the cloth bags filled with flint and steel that her fellow apprentices had been using to tie onto her back, without even looking up: "What do you think?"

"Too."

Fan Xiao made another pinching motion, and the iron sword trembled as it was about to be drawn.

"Don't blame me."

A thin, black nail, about an inch long, flew silently from the darkness outside the stone gate and pierced the wrist of the hand that was holding the talisman.

Fan Xiao's smile froze.

The entire right hand, from the wrist down, lost sensation, and the talisman fluttered to the ground.

He instinctively tried to make a hand seal with his left hand, but the second black nail had already arrived, piercing his lower back. He arched his body like a shrimp and knelt on the ground with a thud.

The female servant reacted faster than him.

As she threw down the spirit ore bag, a burst of spiritual light shot out from her sleeve, and a pale yellow light screen slowly unfolded—it was a protective talisman.

But the third black nail was faster than her.

The moment the nail pierced the back of her neck, her inspiration vanished, and she fell straight forward.

The cave became quiet.

It was so quiet that you could hear the sound of flint fragments falling from the wall.

Yunniang remained cowering in fear, when she heard a male voice come from the darkness:

"Lie down and don't move. Go back by yourself after half an incense stick has burned."

……

After about half an incense stick's time, Yunniang shakily raised her head. The passageway was empty; Fan Xiao, the Iron Sword disciple, the female servant—nothing was there.

All that remained was a tattered cloth bag in front of him. When he opened it, he found 10 neatly stacked spirit stones, about a hundred gold beans, and a small porcelain bottle.

The porcelain vase is inscribed with the two characters "Nian Qing".

Yunniang tried to open it, and a delicate fragrance of dew wafted out, the unique scent from her favorite old woman, Granny Lin.