The Demon King is back, leading adorable kids on an adventure around the world!

When Niannian stepped into the crevice for the third time, she no longer needed to scout ahead.

She had memorized every turn in the passageway, the distribution of the murals in the main hall, and the width of the side passages, so she didn't need to stop to find her way.

She walked through the rotunda, down the side passage, past the stone chamber where the empty box was, and continued forward to the protruding rock from yesterday.

She reached out and pressed the surface of the darker-colored rock, feeling a slight looseness under her palm.

She pushed hard, and the rock caved in, revealing a downward-sloping staircase.

The stairs were narrow, just wide enough for one person to pass through, and there were very shallow grooves in the walls on both sides, as if lighting had once been placed there.

Niannian walked in front, with Xiaoxiao following two steps behind her.

The stairs were longer than she had expected, with two turns, and then a stone gate appeared at the third turn.

The door wasn't completely closed; it left a two-finger-wide crack through which light shone, just like the light from the previous spirit fireball.

Niannian squeezed through the crack in the door.

The space behind the door was not large, about three zhang square.

The walls on all four sides showed signs of polishing, and the floor was paved with smooth stone slabs.

A circular tray is embedded in the center of the ground. The surface of the tray is engraved with a ring of patterns. It is not a storage ring, but more like a positioning mark.

The area above the tray was empty, covered only by a thin layer of dust.

But on the stone platform in the corner of the room, she saw what she was looking for.

Two rolls of animal hide were placed side by side on the edge of the stone platform. One roll was darker in color and had severely worn edges, as if it had been read many times.

The other roll was lighter in color, and the edges were rolled up more neatly, as if it had just been rolled up recently.

Niannian walked over, picked up the light-colored roll, unfolded it, and glanced at it. There were several winding lines drawn on it, with markings at the ends of the lines, and the strokes were clear.

She picked up the dark roll again, unfolded it, and compared it with the light roll.

The lines and markings are basically the same, but the artist on this animal hide is more restrained in his brushwork.

There are no superfluous descriptions; every transition is crisp and clean.

She folded the two rolls of animal hide together and tucked them into her bosom.

There were other things on the stone platform.

A flat metal box, without a latch, with a slightly bulging top, as if something had pushed it from the inside.

She opened the lid, and inside lay two pale blue minerals, their surfaces smooth, with extremely fine veins flowing slowly within.

The light glides slowly across the surface of the ore, as if enveloped by a layer of transparent liquid.

She didn't recognize what it was, but judging from its texture and the fluctuations in spiritual energy, it should be some kind of spiritual ore.

She closed the lid and put the entire metal box into her storage ring.

At the very edge of the stone platform, there is a jade slip, which is bluish in color and has a layer of fine cracks on its surface, as if it has been stored for too long and the moisture inside is slowly being lost.

She picked it up and probed it with her spiritual sense. It was a short message, concise in tone, without any beginning or end.

It looked like a notebook casually left by a monk, containing only a few sentences:

"This passage leads southeast for a hundred miles, where the earth's veins intersect and there are remnants of an ancient formation."

I explored half of it, but my strength gave out and I couldn't finish. If anyone else is willing, they can continue the work.

There was no signature or date.

She carefully put away the jade slip and turned to leave.

She got out faster than she got in; she had already walked through the passageway leading up the stairs twice.

Upon returning to the ground, the blue light at the entrance of the rift dimmed further, as if the light source was also being consumed, albeit at a faster rate than before.

She stood at the edge of the crevice, unfolded the two rolls of animal hide again to compare them, confirmed their orientation, put them away, and turned to walk towards the Fang family's residence.

It was just past noon when we got back to the Fang family home.

Luo Tian sat in the shade of the courtyard, holding a bowl of tea in his hand. The tea was pale in color and had already cooled down.

Niannian spread the two animal hides, the iron box, and the jade slip on the stone table and recounted how she discovered them.

After listening, Luo Tian didn't say anything, but picked up the two rolls of animal hide and compared them for a while.

After putting it down, he picked up the jade slip again, probed its spiritual energy, and then placed it on the table:

"Go and take a look at the location mentioned on the jade slip."

"At the confluence of the earth's veins, a hundred miles to the southeast," Niannian said.

"This road isn't far, but I don't know which formation's remnants it is. If only a few foundations are left, then the trip will have been in vain."

Luo Tian didn't respond to that, and pushed the jade slip back in front of Nian Nian: "Whether it's worth the trip or not, we'll only know when we get there."

Niannian put the items back into her storage ring and picked up the two rolls of animal hides, spreading them out one by one.

He closed it again and put it in his pocket, the movements fluid and natural, as if he were used to carrying these things with him whenever he might need them.

She glanced outside the courtyard; the valley appeared lighter in color under the afternoon sun.

The contrast between the sand and the short grass was more pronounced than in the early morning, and the shadows on the distant hillside were slowly moving.

She looked away and said nothing more.

The next morning, Niannian set off with her people.

Head southeast, walk up a gentle slope on the outside of the valley, and then turn into an open area covered with gravel.

The ground was uneven, making it more strenuous to walk than I had imagined, and the gravel under my feet was always slippery.

After walking for nearly two hours, an irregular depression appeared in the terrain in front of them.

It looked as if a section of the ground had collapsed, with the collapsed edge being a fractured rock layer, lighter in color than the surrounding stone walls, as if it had only recently been exposed.

At the bottom of the depression are several raised stone piers, arranged in a way that does not appear to be naturally formed.

However, there are too many gaps, and the complete layout is no longer visible. Only a few incomplete ring-shaped foundations are scattered at the bottom of the pit.

Niannian stood at the edge of the depression and looked down for a while, then she began to walk along the edge of the depression.

He walked slowly, pausing every few steps, his gaze shifting back and forth between the stone pillars below.

She circled around and returned to the starting point. She took out the two rolls of animal hide from her pocket, glanced at them, and then put them back in her pocket, as if she had compared the locations and confirmed the route.

"Those stone pillars below should be the base of the formation."

She crouched down and cleared away a loose pebble at her feet, revealing the edge of a half-buried stone slab underneath. The slab had a smooth surface with obvious cutting marks.

She removed a few more pebbles, revealing a more complete surface with an arc carved into it, the direction of which matched the curvature of a mark on her animal hide.

She used her hand to brush away some of the loose soil at the edge, revealing the direction the curved end pointed.

Then, following the direction of that arc for a short distance, they found a shallow pit on the dry ground that had been dug out and then filled in.

The pit surface was not compacted, and the soil particles at the edges were loose, as if it had been recently turned over and then roughly covered with a layer of topsoil.

She crouched down and used her hands to brush away the layer of loose soil covering the pit, revealing a polished round stone slab at the bottom.

There was a groove in the center of the stone slab, shaped exactly like the base of the iron box she had put away last night.

She squatted by the pit for a while and didn't put the metal box in immediately.

She first closed the animal hide, dusted off her hands, stood up, and said to the person behind her:

"Go back first. Come back next time with everything you need."

She turned and walked back slowly, as if she was already planning who to take with her next trip and which route to take.

The people behind them gathered their belongings and followed them back.

The wind blew in from the open area, scattering the fine dust from the edges of the freshly cleared pebbles.

It gradually blends into the surrounding ground, and before long, the arc will be covered again, as if no one had ever been there.