After walking for a while, they discovered that the path ahead was completely blocked by rocks. The group had reached the end of the cave.

“This cave is a dead end? Should we turn back?”

Huang Yan spoke while enduring his discomfort. The air in the cave was becoming increasingly scarce. With only a weak airflow, everyone was struggling to breathe, and their bodies were on the verge of collapse.

Mu Yunjin lifted her eyelids to look ahead, and indeed, the path forward was surrounded by rocks—truly a dead end.

“Chu Li, put away the jade pendant first,” Mu Yunjin said softly.

Hearing this, Chu Li lowered his gaze to look at her, then put the jade pendant away.

The cave, which had been illuminated with white light as bright as daylight, instantly plunged back into complete darkness. Through the darkness, everyone looked around the entire cave.

“Look, there seems to be light coming in from there!” After scanning the area, Cloud Frost Cold excitedly pointed to a spot on the lower left side.

Hearing Cloud Frost Cold’s voice, everyone looked in the direction she was pointing. Through a crack in the rocks on the lower left side, a faint beam of light shone in from outside. The light was dim; if not carefully observed, it would be almost unnoticeable.

“Let’s try to break this open. I can’t take it much longer!” Qiqi took two steps forward, her footsteps unsteady due to the lack of oxygen.

Mu Yunjin’s small face was deathly pale. The feeling of possibly passing out at any moment was unbearably uncomfortable. But seeing so many people around her struggling in this oxygen-deprived environment for her sake, Mu Yunjin silently admonished herself to hang on no matter what!

“Does anyone have ginseng?” Mu Yunjin thought for a moment and asked tentatively.

Everyone paused.

Nearby, Xu Heyu spoke softly, “I have some ginseng slices.”

Because of the deadly poison in his body, Qingmeng had always prepared some ginseng slices for him, which could help alleviate his symptoms when the poison acted up.

After speaking, Xu Heyu took out a cloth bag.

“That’s great. Everyone take one slice and keep it in your mouth,” Mu Yunjin suddenly realized these people were truly extraordinary—someone carried ginseng with them!

She had previously been on missions in the primeval forest and had encountered altitude sickness in remote areas of western Sichuan. At those times, the air was thin just like now, with oxygen deficiency and chest tightness.

Back then, they would keep ginseng slices in their mouths. Though it couldn’t eliminate the physical discomfort, the medicinal value and effects of ginseng could at least alleviate some of the symptoms.

With the ginseng slices in their mouths, though everyone still had difficulty breathing, they felt their physical burden lighten. They all gathered at the crack in the rock wall.

Mu Yunjin also felt much more comfortable. The second heart meridian generated by the Heaven God Command gradually ceased its pulsing, and the convulsions in her body simultaneously disappeared.

Mu Yunjin felt somewhat relieved that this extra heart meridian only acted up occasionally and would always subside on its own.

Otherwise, she truly felt she wouldn’t survive the night.

Earlier, when both heart meridians were pulsing simultaneously, Mu Yunjin had been in a constant state of suppression. Now, despite still lacking oxygen, she felt twice as comfortable as before.

In this dim cave, she appeared more energetic than anyone else.

“Chu Li, I’ll go check it out. Don’t move,” Mu Yunjin freed herself from Chu Li’s embrace and looked at his vacant, sightless eyes.

This night blindness was truly troublesome.

Chu Li’s brows unconsciously furrowed, his eyebrows cold and distant. “I will go with you.”

Having stood in place for so long, and having observed the surroundings earlier with the jade pendant, although he was now in the dark and couldn’t see, he could still accurately sense everyone’s positions.

Mu Yunjin walked to the edge of the crack and looked at the ray of light. The light was dim, but its color was warm yellow, not the moonlight from outside.

Thinking this, Mu Yunjin also reached out to touch the rock in front of her. A viscous sensation came to her fingertips. She leaned closer and sniffed gently, suddenly tightening her brows.

“How disgusting…” Mu Yunjin quickly took out a handkerchief to wipe the strange, rotting plant smell from her hand.

“Let’s blast this open! Since light can penetrate, the rock shouldn’t be too solid!” Huang Yan suggested. If they waited any longer, even the ginseng slices wouldn’t help.

Hearing this, Chu Li spoke slowly, “Ding Xian, bring out your wooden torch.”

Ding Xian understood and took out the lit wooden torch. Before handing it to Chu Li, he specifically opened the torch’s cover, and a small flame leaped out again.

Chu Li took the torch and walked close to the rock, illuminating what was on it. At the spot Mu Yunjin had touched and called disgusting, numerous plants exuding a viscous white fluid clung to the rock.

Below, on the side, many more wild flowers and grasses lay twisted and lifeless.

This was a death cave.

Seeing this, Chu Li bent down and used the wooden torch to ignite one of the vibrant small flowers that had not yet withered.

After being ignited by the flame, the small flower quickly set the withered branches and leaves beside it on fire as well…

In the cave, those lifeless flowers and grasses were ignited, and firelight brightened the entire cave. The white fluid on the rocks, upon encountering the flames, was completely ignited in large patches.

The fire burned on the stone walls, but without producing any thick smoke or dust, only illuminating the entire cave with a blood-red glow.

Before long, the white fluid on the stone walls and the flowers and grasses on the ground were all burned clean. The firelight gradually weakened and eventually extinguished in the cave…

Darkness returned.

At the same time, everyone could feel that the suffocating sensation had disappeared, and flowing air came in from all directions.

The group, having been starved for air, took several deep breaths before turning their attention to Chu Li.

“How did you know that burning the plants would bring back the air?” Even Daoist Feng Xuan, who had lived for most of his life, was encountering this situation for the first time.

“I tested it earlier. These plants were given life by witchcraft and were desperately competing for air in this space. Only that most vibrantly blooming flower had successfully robbed other plants of oxygen. The rest of the losers had rotted due to oxygen deficiency and gradually evolved into the white fluid on the stone walls.”

Chu Li spoke calmly. If Mu Yunjin hadn’t touched the stone wall earlier, he might not have discovered this trick.

Now that the enchanted plants had been burned clean, with nothing left to compete for air, naturally, the air in the cave had returned to normal circulation.

“This old black-robed ghost is quite something, layer upon layer of traps—doesn’t he get tired of setting them up?” Mu Yunjin was truly impressed by how many tricks the black-robed figure had up his sleeve.

Calling Ghost Valley Cave the “Ghost Gate” was truly fitting.

After the entire rock wall that blocked the path had been burned once, Chu Li gently waved his hand, sending out a sharp palm energy.

“Bang—”

With a loud noise, the entire rock wall collapsed with a boom, raising thick dust.

“So cool…” Mu Yunjin’s eyes brightened, turning to look at her husband with eyes full of admiration.

Chu Li glanced at Mu Yunjin, his eyes gentle and warm, a faint smile rising on his lips as he took her hand and walked out of the cave.

The night breeze blew gently. Since entering Ghost Valley Cave at the midnight hour, they had been circling until now, almost five watches into the night.

The moonlight had become increasingly faint, and on the other side, the glow of sunrise was already appearing on the horizon.

Dawn was approaching.

After exiting the cave, Mu Yunjin finally saw the stone door she and Chu Li had visited earlier!

“Deep Dark Lake is right through here,” Mu Yunjin spoke slowly, pressing her lips together, her eyes fixed on the stone door, revealing a layer of concern.

Those two ancient temple spirit crocodiles would be difficult to deal with.

Stepping through the stone door would undoubtedly be the final challenge for everyone.

At present, the place inside was quiet and spacious, with a simple and clear structure, showing no signs of anything amiss. The group, having just endured oxygen deprivation in the cave, now proposed to rest in place for a moment.

After all, Deep Dark Lake was just inside the secret chamber—it wasn’t going anywhere!

“Fortunately, I didn’t come here alone, otherwise I wouldn’t even know how I died,” Qiqi thought about everything from entering the mansion gate initially until now—nearly every stage had been life-threatening.

Luckily, they had many capable and extraordinary people among them who had solved those difficult challenges one by one.

“I wonder if the black-robed figures will appear later. Wasn’t it said that even the black-robed figure couldn’t get close to these two ancient temple spirit crocodiles?” Cloud Frost Cold sat with his knees drawn up, looking up at everyone.

“They’ll probably appear after we get the Crocodile Pearl. These despicable people only know how to reap where they haven’t sown,” Huang Yan said, his eyes full of disdain when mentioning these people.

Daoist Feng Xuan sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, his back straight, ignoring the conversation.

Mu Yunjin sat leaning against a pillar, her thoughts wandering, also with her eyes closed, trying to calm herself down. But her mind kept flashing with scenes from the Mysterious Spirit True Scripture.

Chu Li looked at her from the side. Suddenly, as he caught a glimpse of a red light flashing quickly across Mu Yunjin’s brow, deep meaning swept across his eyes, and he gently placed his hand on her brow.

Mu Yunjin opened her eyes and looked at Chu Li in front of her, puzzled. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” Chu Li said as the black mist in his eyes gradually receded. He thought perhaps his eyes had been playing tricks on him earlier.

Mu Yunjin nodded, still leaning against the pillar with her face lowered, feeling that her head was somewhat heavy and that an unknown fire in her body was gradually spreading to various parts of her body.

“Let’s go in!” Daoist Feng Xuan, who had been meditating, suddenly opened his eyes, looked in Mu Yunjin’s direction, and then stood up.

Everyone else also stood up and followed Daoist Feng Xuan’s footsteps.

After standing up, the fire in Mu Yunjin’s body still hadn’t dissipated and seemed about to burst out from her body.

Arriving at the stone door outside Deep Dark Lake, Daoist Feng Xuan placed his hand on the door handle and turned it gently several times.

Suddenly, everyone felt the ground beneath their feet tremble, followed by a rumbling sound as the two stone doors slowly opened…

As the stone doors opened, the first thing they saw was a large patch of silver-blue light shining from above the center of the doorway.

Everyone slowly stepped inside.

“So this is Deep Dark Lake?”

Mu Yunjin walked forward a few steps, then stood still, looking at a huge and deep circular lake. The surface of the lake was completely frozen over. The lake water was a light blue color, which in its frozen state, emitted a silver-blue light that enveloped the lake’s surface.

The blue light they had seen upon first entering came from this circular lake.