Chapter 13: Cold Jade Spiders

The snake den became silent for a while before a rustling noise filled the cave once again. Miao Yun sat quietly on the stone bed, still completely naked.

She wanted to recover her spiritual power, but the Qi Restricting Seal wasn’t something she could easily break. Even Chen Jingzhai needed a few hours and a third of his original power to break the seal when he knew what the flaw of the seal was.

Since the Yellow Sands King would not give Miao Yun any chance to break the seal, whatever she tried to do would be a waste of her energy. Furthermore, the sticky substance from She Ya on her body was making her feel uncomfortable.

It didn’t take long for her body to start itching. It was so intense that she could even feel it in her bones. She laid down on the bed as she started to wiggle her body in discomfort.

Chen Jingzhai coldly watched as that happened, but he did not make a move.

He could tell that the sticky liquid on the female cultivator was some sort of drug, and it was making her suffer. Yet there was nothing he could do. The snake den was still filled with psychedelic sand vipers.

Although they still had yet to gain sentience, they were still sensitive to their surroundings, and they could remember the aura of every individual cultivator.

Chen Jingzhai did not have the confidence to save Miao Yun, even when he had activated the Presence Concealment Technique.

After glancing at the lady on the stone bed again, he quietly left the snake den.

From what he could recall, the psychedelic sand vipers had a few natural enemies. One of them could be found in the Yellow Sands Cavern—spiders.

The spiders that resided in the cavern weren’t the average spiders that could be found anywhere. They were cold jade spiders, unique to the desert.

These spiders could produce webs that consisted of ice power, and the webs were strong enough to trap any prey that stumbled into one of them.

The leader of the cold jade spiders was the Cold Jade Demon. She was one of the 10 generals too.

After gaining the ability to morph, she had the head of a gorgeous lady but retained the lower body of a spider.

Chen Jingzhai had already spotted the carcasses of a few psychedelic sand vipers in the spider den where the Cold Jade Demon resided when he roamed around the exterior part of the cavern.

Seeing that the spiders and snakes had already been fighting each other, Chen Jingzhai realized that he might have a chance to save the female cultivator.

Unlike the sensitive psychedelic sand vipers, the cold jade spiders loved to rest. He saw a number of spiders, each as big as a human’s head, in every corner of the Cold Jade Den when he arrived there.

With his Presence Concealment Technique still activated, he quietly moved toward a corner and grabbed one of the spiders.

Since Chen Jingzhai had his hand protected with spiritual power, he wasn’t hurt by the ice power that the spider was exerting.

However, that did not stop him from shivering because of the cold air. It also affected his Burrowing Technique.

He had no choice but to slow down. It took him an hour to bring two cold jade spiders to the snake hole.

The moment the two spiders were dropped into the cave where the snakes resided, the temperature fell immediately, which irritated the psychedelic sand vipers. The snakes were creatures that preferred to reside on hot sands or under cool rocks.

The cold air from the spiders alerted the snakes that their mortal enemies were in their home. This immediately made the snakes go berserk, and they started to charge toward the spiders. They surrounded the spiders and started to cover their enemies in their sticky substance.

Miao Yun was surprised to see what was happening from the stone bed. She could not understand why two spiders would suddenly appear in the cave, nor why the snakes would suddenly go crazy.

The spiders began to wake up, and the temperature in the snake’s cave dropped even further. A layer of white cold fog was released from the spiders’ bodies, and they started to spread throughout the cave as a layer of frost began to form on the ground.

The psychedelic sand vipers were instantly frozen by the cold air, but the cold air was quickly moving toward the stone bed.

Sensing the danger, Miao Yun struggled to get up and escape. Before she could leave the bed, her vision suddenly turned dark. The next thing she knew, she was being hugged by someone, and her body sank into the bed.

It only took her a second to realize that it was the Burrowing Technique.

“W-who are you?” she asked after they had settled down.

“My name is Chen Jingzhai. I’m from the Aspirant Cultivators Academy!” Chen Jingzhai introduced himself as he covered Miao Yun’s beautiful body with his robe.

“The Aspirant Cultivators Academy?” Miao Yun exclaimed and glanced at the man before looking at the robe. “This is indeed the robe they wear. Wait! Don’t tell me you have mastered the Burrowing Technique? Are you using some sort of technique to hide your presence too? That would explain why you can move freely in this cavern.”

“I was just lucky to have those techniques.” Chen Jingzhai smiled bitterly. “Even the Burrowing Technique isn’t enough to help me leave this Blessed Land.”

“Blessed Land?” Miao Yun’s eyes flew wide open. “Are you saying this cavern is a Blessed Land?”

“Yes, I heard the demonic soldiers talking about it.” Chen Jingzhai nodded. “The pathways in the cavern might look random, but one can get to anywhere they want to. What’s more, the deeper part is protected by a formation.”

“I see… Were you the one who distracted the snakes back there?”

“Yes,” Chen Jingzhai admitted. “I’m also the one who broke the bed.”

He wasn’t planning to keep that secret from Miao Yun. Because they were in a dire situation, the only way to gain her trust was to tell her the truth.

“Well done.” Miao Yun tried to nod calmly, but her ears instantly turned red.

“This cave is currently abandoned. No one will be able to find us here,” Chen Jingzhai then explained. “Do you perhaps know how to break formations? I intend to go deeper into the cave where the actual Blessed Land is located.”

“Oh, right! Just call me Miao Yun,” the female cultivator introduced herself. “I only know a little about formation. Let’s go and take a look at it first.”

“Sure thing! Ummm… Sorry about this.” Miao Yun was carried off the floor by Chen Jingzhai. Once he had activated the Burrowing Technique once again, they started to sink into the ground.

With her arms wrapped around the man’s shoulders, Miao Yun was surprised to see the yellowish aura surrounding their bodies.

The Burrowing Technique wasn’t a special spell in the cultivating world.

Cultivators in the Advanced Meditation Plane could float in the air, and they would be able to travel on their spiritual items once they reached the Foundation Plane.

Spells with a high risk and high-power consumption, like that Burrowing Technique, weren’t favored by most cultivators.

Even then, Miao Yun was able to notice the uniqueness of Chen Jingzhai’s Burrowing Technique.

Unfortunately for her, her spiritual power was sealed, and she could not estimate his power.

The only thing she was sure of was that a young cultivator like him should still be in the Meditation Plane, and it was rare for a Meditation Plane cultivator to completely master the Burrowing Technique.

The thing that made him even more interesting was the fact that he was traveling through the ground while carrying another person. He even used the same spell to bring the cold jade spiders to the snake hole.

“We are here,” Chen Jingzhai said suddenly, interrupting Miao Yun’s thoughts.

She looked around the dark cave and didn’t spot any difference.

“Are you sure this is the Blessed Land?” she asked with a frown.

“I can feel an unusual essence power here.” Chen Jingzhai nodded.

After a moment of silence, Miao Yun suddenly asked, “What level are you at now?”

“I’ve reached Level 9 of the Meditation Plane,” Chen Jingzhai answered after a moment of hesitation.

Miao Yun took a deep breath. “Judging from your face, you must be younger than 16, right?”

“Yes, I’m 14 this year.”

“How did you reach such a high level only eight years into your training?” Miao Yun gasped. “Do you perhaps possess the heaven spirit root?”

“No.” Chen Jingzhai shook his head with a bitter smile. “I only have the three-element spirit root.”

“Are you sure?” Miao Yun frowned. “Then, how is your spiritual power so pure?”

“This? Because I have trained in the Rock Technique.”

“The Rock Technique? And you managed to master it?”

Since Miao Yun had been a young cultivator once, she knew the benefits and struggles of practicing the Rock Technique. Not even one of the cultivators of the Soaring Clouds Clan could master it. Even learning the basics was a hard task. Learning the Rock technique would take a lot of time and hard work. Normally, it would take a young cultivator with a three-element spiritual root six years to induct Qi into their bodies. None of them would be able to reach the Meditation Plane in that short amount of time.

“That’s why you are so sensitive to the essence power. And that explains your Burrowing Technique as well,” Miao Yun mumbled. “It looks like your earth spirit root is pretty unique.”

“Do you recognize this formation?” Chen Jingzhai asked, trying to change the topic.

The more they dwelled on it, the more Miao Yun would realize his real talent in the future.

“I’ve never seen this formation before, but I know how to get past it.” Miao Yun smiled.