Qin spent nearly half a day studying the several-inch-long purple jade slip, cautiously probing to discover how to open it and unlock the information contained within.

After repeated attempts, he finally realized his spiritual sense was insufficient. The purple jade slip was like a vast labyrinth, requiring spiritual sense to permeate and explore. His current spiritual sense could, at best, only penetrate the outer perimeter of the maze, making it impossible to probe the core areas.

He roughly estimated that at least ten times his current spiritual sense would be required to investigate the labyrinth’s heart. Only cultivators in the Foundation Establishment stage would possess such potent spiritual awareness to examine the ancient slip completely.

This discovery left Ye Qin deeply frustrated; it seemed he wouldn't learn the contents of the purple jade slip anytime soon. He decided to tuck the slip into his storage pouch for now, waiting until he reached Foundation Establishment.

Ye Qin thoroughly plundered the belongings of the few Ancient Artifact Sect disciples' corpses, then launched fireballs to reduce the bodies to ash. He glanced back at the veiled maiden; she was still unconscious, and he estimated it would take at least a full day for her to recover from such massive depletion.

He couldn't simply wait around. He might as well dig for spirit stones in the cavern; one could never have too many. Using his flying sword consumed spiritual power rapidly; he had to dig for a while, then take a small sip of spirit wine to keep pace with the drain.

With the aid of the spirit wine, Ye Qin's pace of mining spirit stones became incredibly fast.

A full day passed before the veiled maiden lying on the ground finally opened her eyes. She used a delicate hand to push herself up from her weakened posture, looking around in astonishment. Seeing her ice sword beside her and finding no harm to her body, she finally felt a measure of relief.

She took in the surroundings of the cavern chamber, her clear eyes peering through the thin veil, fixing upon the blue-robed cultivator digging for spirit stones within the cave.

"Which peak's disciple are you from the Azure Elixir Sect?"

The maiden's voice was somewhat tender, though very light, yet it carried an indescribable sense of authority. Perhaps it was due to her long tenure as the Senior Sister; every movement and every word unconsciously inspired reverence.

Ye Qin picked up a few low-grade spirit stones he had just mined from the ground. Seeing that she had awakened, he retracted his Dharma sword, gave the veiled maiden a slight bow, and said softly, "Azure Spring Peak, Ye Qin. Greetings, Senior Sister!"

Though he was the one who rescued her, he would not neglect the proper etiquette. The Azure Elixir Sect had a strict hierarchy; status among fellow disciples was clearly delineated.

The veiled maiden nodded habitually.

Then, silence settled over the cavern. For a time, neither knew what to say. Ye Qin felt cautious and reserved around this Senior Sister, unwilling to speak much, yet also finding it inappropriate to ask why she had risked coming to this underground cavern. He remained silent.

"My surname is Huangfu. Just call me Senior Sister Huangfu. Oh, and do you have any more spirit wine?"

The veiled maiden blinked, her gaze fixed on the wine gourd in Ye Qin's hand, and then she suddenly spoke.

Ye Qin was slightly taken aback. He glanced at the gourd in his hand and replied, "There is some left, but this is a fire-element spirit wine. Can you drink it?"

The veiled maiden nodded.

Ye Qin immediately presented the wine gourd to her.

The veiled woman accepted the gourd, offered a brief thank you, and then opened it. Her delicate nose twitched as she sampled the aroma at the mouth of the flask.

A rich, potent fire spiritual energy washed over her. "Good wine. It seems to carry the scent of Thorn Berries. Pure fire-element spirit wine is quite rare."

Joy immediately lit up her face. She lifted the veil halfway, and sipped a small mouthful of the wine from the gourd. She then sat cross-legged, using the spirit wine’s energy to quickly restore her spiritual power. Every short while, she would take another small sip. Half an hour later, she shook the now-empty gourd, realizing the wine was gone. Yet, her spiritual power had only recovered halfway.

"Oh dear, it's gone!"

She exclaimed, shaking the gourd, her eyes darting towards Ye Qin, hesitant to directly ask for more. She could only use the surprised exclamation to draw Ye Qin's attention, hoping to solicit a bit more spirit wine. Since she had already received one gourd, she figured what was one more?

Ye Qin chuckled. It seemed this Senior Sister Huangfu was still quite inexperienced in asking for things. "It's fine, I have another gourd of spirit wine here. You should fully restore your spiritual power first."

"Then give me a little more. All the spirit wine I brought was used up entering the cavern. I will repay you double when we return to the Azure Elixir Sect," the veiled maiden said with a smile, knowing her little trick had been seen through, causing a faint blush to rise on her cheeks.

Ye Qin retrieved a medium-sized gourd from his storage pouch and gave it to her. However, this gourd contained Frost Spirit Wine.

For Ye Qin, this type of spirit wine was practically inexhaustible. As long as he had spirit stones, he could cultivate entire patches of Fire Berries and Frost Berries within his Purple Mansion. Piling these berries and allowing them to ferment for a period would yield spirit wine.

Currently, within his Purple Mansion, he could brew three distinct fruit wines using the Thorn Berries: Wood Fruit Wine (wood element), Fire Fruit Wine (fire element), and the other, Frost Fruit Wine (ice element).

However, not every cultivator could drink these spirit wines freely.

Ye Qin usually only drank the Fire Fruit Wine, rarely touching the Frost Fruit Wine.

Fire Fruit Wine, brewed from fire-element berries, could only be withstood by cultivators with Fire Spiritual Roots. Likewise, Frost Fruit Wine, brewed from ice-element berries, was only dared to be consumed heavily by cultivators with Ice Spiritual Roots.

If cultivators with other spiritual roots drank a large mouthful, they risked being instantly frozen stiff.

Of course, taking a small sip occasionally, as a tasting novelty, wouldn't cause significant harm. A small amount of cold energy wasn't lethal.

Besides these single-element wines, there were also mixed spirit wines.

Chen Sang Spirit Wine was the most common mixed spirit wine, brewed from various multi-element spiritual herbs and grasses, drinkable by cultivators of all spiritual roots, and extremely popular.

Ye Qin had already roughly ascertained the spiritual root attribute of this Senior Sister of the Azure Elixir Sect. Since she could wield an ice sword and drink fruit wine, she likely possessed both Ice and Fire Spiritual Roots.

The veiled woman discovered that this medium gourd was filled entirely with ice-element fruit wine, and her expression instantly shifted to one of pleasant surprise. Pure ice-element fruit wine was extremely rare, and its yield within the Azure Elixir Sect was very low. She meditated to recover her spiritual power, and a half-hour later, she had completely restored it.

However, after restoring her power, she didn't rush to move on. Instead, she took a spiritual pill from her storage pouch, swallowed it, and continued to sit in meditation, cultivating an unknown technique to conserve her energy and restore her severely depleted spiritual sense. While cultivating, her sixteen small Ice Soul Swords automatically spun, shimmering with cold light, forming a circle several feet around her for defense. Even a mosquito would likely be unable to approach her.

Ye Qin stood by helplessly, watching. The veiled maiden could cultivate, but he dared not. After reaching the ninth layer of the Qi Refining stage, even if he didn't practice, the Sitting in Oblivion Sutra would automatically quiet down, and his cultivation would slowly, day by day, increase automatically.

He even worried that if he closed his eyes, he might never wake up, thus never daring to continue his cultivation.

The veiled maiden was in no hurry to leave the cavern. Ye Qin, however, was growing anxious. They had already wasted more than a day in this stone chamber; trial disciples from various sects would likely be approaching this area. If large groups of cultivators from other sects swarmed in, another fierce battle might be inevitable.

He repeatedly opened his map scroll to check if any disciples carrying scrolls from other sects were approaching their location.

Fortunately, the veiled maiden did not delay too long; it took only two hours for her to finish her practice. Her spirit was radiant, clearly much improved from her previous weakness. Although not fully recovered, at least more than half of her spiritual sense had been restored.

"Junior Brother Ye, it is too dangerous for you to be alone in the cavern. Come with me!"

Senior Sister Huangfu usually walked alone within the sect and wasn't very adept at socializing with her peers. When she said this, she was merely speaking habitually, adopting the tone of a mature, senior figure, and felt no impropriety in her words.

Her reason for asking Ye Qin to accompany her was certainly based on her own calculations. She surmised that this fellow disciple appeared here likely because he was separated from his group members and was wandering aimlessly through the mining tunnels.

Walking alone in these tunnels was extremely hazardous. Even with her formidable strength, she had nearly been captured when ambushed by a large group of Ancient Artifact Sect disciples. This applied even more so to a lone blue-robed cultivator.

This fellow disciple had unexpectedly stumbled here and saved her life. She naturally could not stand by and watch him venture into the cavern tunnels alone. As for Ye Qin's background or why he possessed several Dharma artifacts, she didn't care.

Due to her special status within the Azure Elixir Sect, she was long accustomed to cultivating and operating independently. Throughout the entire sect, she knew very few Qi Refining disciples. Even core disciples from high-ranking families, she only knew a sparse dozen or so, and was not familiar with them.

Ye Qin touched his nose upon hearing this, unsure whether to laugh or cry.

He was perfectly fine alone in the cavern; how was it too dangerous? However, having the protection of an overwhelmingly powerful Senior Sister would certainly reduce much of the pressure on him within the tunnels.

After all, there was still a considerable gap between his strength and that of this Senior Sister of the Azure Elixir Sect. He certainly couldn't withstand the attacks of one or two dozen cultivators from the Ancient Artifact Sect by himself.

The veiled maiden left the cavern chamber and sped deeper into the mining tunnel. She was heading not just anywhere, but towards the deepest part of the earth, the most hidden place in the entire Myriad Withered Ridge.

Naturally, this was also the area Ye Qin wished to explore. He followed closely behind.

Because of the delay of more than a day, they could now see disciples from other sects in the mining tunnel they were currently in. When they occasionally encountered small teams from other sects, the veiled maiden’s flying swords were enough to frighten them away.

The veiled maiden merely frowned slightly at this, making no effort to pursue.

Three or four days later.

The two finally arrived at the deepest part of the second level of the cavern, where they discovered a large breach in the tunnel floor that seemed to have collapsed downwards. A rush of scorching gale-force wind was roaring from this collapsed opening, pouring into the spirit stone tunnels of the second level.

The veiled maiden fully activated her protective shield to ward off the gale, held her ice sword, and cautiously stepped forward into the collapsed chasm.

Ye Qin swept his gaze across the bottomless great hole and thought to himself that if nothing unexpected happened, this large collapse was likely created when miners accidentally dug through thousands of years ago. This passage probably led to the lairs of subterranean demonic beasts.

He followed calmly behind, his Soul Seizing Bell and Profound Yin Sword flying before him to the left and right, ready for defense should anything occur. Simultaneously, one hand rested on his storage pouch. He wasn't overly worried about the potential danger here. In the worst-case scenario, he could rely on his Winged Spirit Artifact to escape without losing his life here.

Recommending a friend's book, Baili: 《Special Forces Instructor》 Wu Tian only wanted to enjoy his youth properly in university—charming girls, making a few good friends. However, what Wu Tian never expected was that his parents, who usually paid no mind to his affairs, suddenly arranged a fiancée for him, and this fiancée happened to be his new class advisor. How will Wu Tian court girls under the watchful eyes of his fiancée-slash-advisor? Stay tuned for 《Special Forces Instructor》. This book is lighthearted and humorous; we hope it brings a smile to your face after reading. Book ID: 1371639 Link: http: ook/1371639aspx) First published