The Long Journey to Immortality

"Wait here for a moment, I'll be right there."

Mao Ningyu cupped her hands in greeting and waited quietly beside the flying car.

Although she could use her beast eyes to stimulate her divine sense and directly probe the situation behind the waterfall from a distance of more than fifty meters, Han Lu did not "show off." Instead, she honestly controlled her flying sword, used her swordsmanship, and applied her limited understanding of the "Splitting Word Technique" to temporarily split the waterfall and use her eyes to see if there was another cave behind it.

The spirit sword shot out a beam of light, easily cutting off the rushing waterfall.

It seemed like he had only swung a sword and released a beam of light, but the waterfall water was as if it was being held up by an invisible hand, accumulating in the air and unable to fall further.

When the waterfall stops flowing, the true face of the rock face behind it is naturally revealed.

There are no caves on the rock face, only a mural left there by some bored person many years ago.

The subject matter of the paintings is a common religious theme in southern Xinjiang, and there is nothing particularly special about it.

"No?" Han Lu's expression remained unchanged, and she carefully used her beast eyes to confirm again.

Seeing is believing, but Han Lu was also afraid that Xiaoyaozi had used some kind of trick to deceive people in the cave.

After discovering that there was indeed no trace of magic or restriction in this place, he dispersed the sword light, allowing the waterfall to continue flowing down from top to bottom, and then gracefully returned to the flying carriage on his spirit sword.

"Not here, let's go to the next place."

Han Lu only said one sentence, and Mao Ningyu quickly climbed into the flying carriage, afraid of delaying Han Lu's time.

It took Han Lu about an hour and a half to get to the second waterfall.

Because Mao Ningyu was a Qi Refining cultivator, Han Lu generously treated her to a meal along the way and gave her some Central Plains specialties from her storage bag so that Mao Ningyu, a cultivator from the Southern Frontier, could "open her eyes."

Mao Ningyu had indeed been to the Central Plains a few times, but due to her limited cultivation level, she had not tasted the dishes that Han Lu had sent.

Although the food had lost some of its flavor after sitting in the storage bag for nearly a month, Mao Ningyu still enjoyed it immensely.

Realizing that "Senior Han" was easy to get along with, Mao Ningyu became more talkative while sitting in the Pegasus carriage.

But chatting aside, we're still talking about serious business.

During the conversation, Han Lu learned a lot about the geography of southern Xinjiang, as well as the names of the waterfalls they were going to visit, and their historical stories and legends.

When they arrived at the second "Tiger Roaring Waterfall", Han Lu actually followed Mao Ningyu's advice and listened patiently to the sound of the waterfall for a while, and she really found a trace of the tiger's roar.

The Tiger Roar Waterfall is forty meters high, and Mao Ningyu included it in her trip because there was indeed a cave behind the waterfall.

Therefore, Han Lu did not use the same magical method to separate the waterfall as before, but instead cast a protective spell and entered the waterfall.

After passing through the waterfall, the cave known locally as "Tiger Cave" came into view.

Its appearance is about 70% similar to the cave in Xiaoyaozi's remnant soul's memory.

Han Lu had a bad feeling, but after thinking about it carefully, the bad feeling disappeared.

"If even ordinary villagers can plunder Xiaoyaozi's cave, then Xiaoyaozi, as a Nascent Soul cultivator, has failed miserably."

Regardless of whether this place is a treasure trove set up by Xiaoyaozi in the southern border region, Han Lu is certain that Xiaoyaozi's cave dwelling is not simply covered by a waterfall.

Sure enough, after a thorough search, it turned out to be just an ordinary cave dwelling with no trace of any restrictions.

Han Lu explored with her divine sense but found no hidden mechanisms.

“This isn’t the place either,” Han Lu said, getting back into the Pegasus carriage. “Let’s go to the next place.”

We traveled at a leisurely pace, stopping frequently, and it took about a day.

Han Lu finally found a clue at the last "Nanshan Waterfall" that Mao Ningyu had booked.

Nanshan Waterfall is located at the southernmost tip of southern Xinjiang. Further south, there is also a vast sea.

In the local dialect of southern Xinjiang, that place is called the South China Sea.

In the minds of people in the Central Plains, this sea area also symbolizes the cultivation region of the East Sea.

The waterfall wasn't large, but Han Lu still used her sword energy to separate it.

To the naked eye, the area behind the waterfall was simply covered in moss, with nothing unusual about it.

However, after careful observation and exploration with her divine sense, Han Lu still discovered something unusual.

Riding her flying sword, Han Lu moved a little closer and stroked the rock wall with her hand. "Strange, there isn't a single speck of moss growing in this area. Could there be something there?"

Unable to detect anything strange about the place with her divine sense, Han Lu subconsciously used her pupil technique to examine the strange rock wall with her eyes once again.

This time, she finally saw a trace of human sabotage, but this inconspicuous trace was covered by a sophisticated restriction, making it impossible to detect directly with divine sense or the naked eye.

Han Lu was overjoyed to see this.

"This should be it."

However, looking at the stone wall in front of her, Han Lu was somewhat troubled.

How do we get in?

After a moment of contemplation, Han Lu made a decision.

"There must be some mechanism or activation array here..." Han Lu pondered, scratching her head and complaining inwardly, "Why didn't I memorize all the memories in Xiaoyaozi's remnant soul?"

"However, in order to avoid attracting attention, it is obviously not advisable to set up a very strong protective barrier here."

“So…” Han Lu opened her arms, looked at the stone wall, and whispered, “Let’s try this move first.”

Chapter 440 First to Take the Lead?

Since Xiaoyaozi wouldn't use too strong a defensive barrier on the stone wall to hide his cave and avoid attracting attention, Han Lu naturally wanted to try using brute force to break through from the front and break through this illusionary barrier set up by the Nascent Soul cultivator, thus opening the cave's doors.

To break through the restrictions, one must naturally choose the sharpest magical artifacts and techniques.

Han Lu knew that the sharpest weapon she could wield right now was the silver-gray spirit sword in her storage bag.

In this desolate and remote place, with no other cultivators around, Han Lu was able to openly and generously take out this top-tier spiritual treasure from the mortal realm, allowing it to assist him in this matter solely through its sharpness and sturdiness, under the control of his clumsy artifact manipulation skills.

In the blink of an eye, Han Lu had taken the silver-gray spirit sword out of her storage bag. At the same time, she used hand seals to activate the weapon control technique, controlling this magical weapon, which she could not yet wield with her current level of cultivation, in a way similar to that of an ordinary swordsman holding a magical weapon.

Mao Ningyu stood at a distance, watching Han Lu and witnessing everything she did.

She didn't immediately realize what Han Lu, who was searching for the mysterious cave behind the waterfall, wanted to do on this bare rock wall.

"What level of magic weapon is this silver-gray spirit sword? It doesn't look very powerful," Mao Ningyu muttered to herself.

Although she was knowledgeable about the geography of southern Xinjiang, Mao Ningyu had absolutely no ability to appraise magical artifacts.

However, the silver-gray spirit sword could not be activated by Han Lu to emit light like a typical magic weapon, so it was naturally looked down upon by Mao Ningyu, an outsider.

Han Lu took out her silver-gray spirit sword, but the preparations for where she was sitting were not yet complete.

He concentrated his spiritual power into his eyes and recited a few incantations. His pupils, which had only turned golden, began to emit golden light outwards.

The thick rock wall became semi-transparent in front of Han Lu, and she could clearly see the true appearance of the cave behind the restrictions on the surface of the cave.

Seeing the cave carved out of the rock wall, Han Lu murmured, "It really is here."

Seeing is believing, and only now can Han Lu truly confirm that she has not gone to the wrong place.

By pushing her pupil technique to its limit, Han Lu easily discovered countless weaknesses in the illusionary restrictions.

This gave her the confidence to break through the restrictions and enter the cave in such a brutal way.

With numerous weaknesses, Han Lu didn't aim specifically, but instead thrust her spirit sword at the area with the densest concentration of red dots in her line of sight.

Compared to the "point" technique she was more proficient in, it was more appropriate to use the sharper "thrust" technique with the spirit sword at this moment.

The powerful, silver-gray spirit sword, without being infused with spiritual power, pierced straight towards the smooth "rock wall" like an ordinary piece of iron.

The technique only lasted for a moment; Han Lu's naked eye could only catch a fleeting glimpse of it before the illusionary barrier surrounding the cave was destroyed by the silver-gray spirit sword.

When the dust rose up as the restrictions were broken, the cave dwelling that Xiaoyaozi had set up hundreds of years ago finally revealed its true form to Han Lu.

As soon as Han Lu stepped into the cave, the sword light that had been blocking the flow of water dissipated.

The waterfall, cascading down once more, formed a barrier, blocking the view of Mao Ningyu, the only spectator.

From a distance, Mao Ningyu looked surprised and wondered to herself.

"Could it be that this Senior Han is a Golden Core cultivator? That's how he was able to extend his divine sense and discover the restrictions on the rock wall?"

Mao Ningyu ultimately preferred geography to cultivation and was unaware that the beast eyes Han Lu used could help open up one's divine sense.

Upon entering the cave, Han Lu was startled by the environment inside.

Compared to Xiaoyaozi's cave dwelling outside Moyu City, this place was not only simple but also somewhat chaotic.

"Looking at it, it's as if it's been ransacked," Han Lu said, her expression unchanged as she looked at the cave that looked like it had been dug up three feet deep. "It seems that a highly skilled cultivator who was proficient in formations discovered this cave before I knew it, and used methods far superior to mine to silently pass through the illusionary restrictions blocking the cave and enter, looting everything that Xiaoyaozi had placed in the outer chamber of the cave."

The analysis was comprehensive and roughly correct, but the term "outer room" revealed the fundamental reason for Han Lu's composure.

Yes, the stone chamber where Han Lu is now is just the outer chamber of this cave dwelling, which was specially set up to conceal its true nature.

The real treasure is hidden in the inner chamber, protected by an even more ingenious barrier.

All of this information comes from the memories of Xiaoyaozi's remnant soul.

Although Xiaoyaozi's remnant soul did not directly hand the key to open the cave to Han Lu, it still told Han Lu a lot of information about this place.

Through the memories left in Xiaoyaozi's remnant soul, Han Lu not only knew about the inner chamber, the true treasure trove, but also that the restriction between the inner and outer chambers could only be broken through by brute force by a Nascent Soul level expert.

Of course, the remnant soul also explained how to break the barrier between the inner and outer chambers.

Therefore, Han Lu was not worried at all that the thief who had entered the place many steps ahead of her was capable of stealing the real treasure in the inner room.

"Although this thief is quite skilled, he probably won't be able to break through the last barrier between the inner and outer rooms."

“If the other party is truly a Nascent Soul level expert, they could also silently take away the numerous magical treasures, pills, and cultivation techniques from the inner chamber…” Han Lu swallowed, looking at a stone wall in the stone chamber with some rough edges scraped off and the statue of Xiaoyaozi in front of it, whose body had been hollowed out by external objects. “Then I have nothing to say. I can only obediently switch to cultivating the Seven Kill Sword Technique as my main cultivation method.”

For a long time, there have only been a maximum of four local Nascent Soul cultivators in the Southern Xinjiang region.

If a small number of Nascent Soul cultivators happen to come here, discover the treasure left by Xiaoyaozi, and steal it, then Han Lu can only explain that she has no chance of getting this treasure.

"I suppose... my luck can't be that bad." These past few years have been smooth sailing, and even when she encountered the strange event of being stranded in the Great Yu Dynasty, she was still able to safely return to the Central Plains.

After experiencing a series of events, Han Lu became increasingly confident in her luck.

Before setting up the cave dwelling, Xiaoyaozi had already decided to let the remnant soul cultivate the "Great Zhou Heavenly Water Condensation Technique" after possessing the body. Naturally, the restriction between the inner and outer chambers was also related to this technique.

Following the remnant soul's memories, Han Lu found a rock wall in the cave that was slightly different from the other rock walls, and gently placed her hand on it.

Upon touching the rock face, nothing unusual happened; it was as if it were just an ordinary rock.

However, Han Lu still followed the method recorded in the remnant soul's memory and silently began to circulate the "Great Zhou Tian Condensing Water Technique" within her body, trying to use this technique as a key to open the restriction carefully set up by the Nascent Soul expert.