“You’re just lucky. If it hadn’t been for that red light…”
Su Yao’s words trailed off.
She frowned and looked at Bai Maomao.
“Are you feeling unwell anywhere?”
“No,”
Bai Maomao shook his head, stretched his arms, and kicked his legs.
“I feel perfectly fine.”
“Then what’s with that red light on your body?”
“Red light?”
Bai Maomao was confused.
“When you were forming your foundation, a minor heavenly tribulation descended—thirty-six bolts of lightning. It was a red light that protected you,”
Lang Junxian interjected.
Bai Maomao unconsciously reached up to touch his forehead.
His forehead?
He froze, then smiled,
“Maybe this red mole helped me. When I was meditating, my brow felt hot.”
He lightly touched the red mole on his forehead.
It did seem a bit warmer than usual.
Bai Maomao tried focusing his spiritual power on the mole—and suddenly felt a surge of heat.
The scene before him shifted completely.
The two people who watched Bai Maomao suddenly disappear: …?!
Before him was an endless sea of fog.
There was no wind, no sound of birds or insects—everything was eerily silent.
Bai Maomao tried walking forward through the fog.
Suddenly, the view cleared.
A refined bamboo hut stood quietly in the center, surrounded by neatly arranged land plots.
“Is anyone there?”
He pushed the door open and curiously looked inside.
The hut was empty—so quiet not even an echo remained.
Cautiously stepping in, he saw simple furnishings: a low couch by the window, a small table atop it with a teacup.
If the tea weren’t cold, it would seem the owner had just left.
The hut’s back door led straight to a hot spring.
The warm water emitted heavy steam, and Bai Maomao squinted—this spring’s spiritual energy was so dense, it bordered on the surreal.
He crouched and cupped a handful of water.
The clear liquid, rich in spiritual essence, flowed through his palm into his limbs and bones.
This place’s spiritual energy was extraordinarily strong.
Circling the spring, he noticed a nearby phoenix tree.
Its lush green leaves gleamed like top-grade jade.
“This place is so strange,”
Bai Maomao muttered.
“If only I could go back…”
Back where they stood, Su Yao and Lang Junxian waited anxiously for over an hour.
Just when their worry peaked, Bai Maomao—who had vanished—suddenly reappeared.
Su Yao & Lang Junxian: …
Before Bai Maomao could finish speaking, he realized he had switched locations again.
“Eh?”
Bai Maomao’s eyes lit up as he thought,
‘Enter’, and—
Just as quickly, he disappeared again.
Su Yao: ……
Lang Junxian: ………
When Bai Maomao reappeared again, he was met with Su Yao’s frosty, wintry stare.
Bai Maomao shrank back and edged closer to Lang Junxian, whispering,
“What’s wrong with Ah-Mu? She’s suddenly scary…”
“It’s nothing,”
Lang Junxian chuckled, ruffling his hair.
“She’s just a little angry.”
Under Su Yao’s icy gaze, Bai Maomao smiled sheepishly.
Only then did he realize his sudden disappearances must’ve frightened her.
He quickly grabbed her arm and shook it, acting spoiled: “Ah-Mu, I know I was wrong.”
Su Yao remained unmoved, her expression frosty.
That didn’t work…
Bai Maomao instantly reverted to his original form, rubbed himself against Su Yao’s leg, begging for a hug.
Finally, Su Yao couldn’t hold her stern expression and laughed.
She picked him up and knocked his forehead: “So little backbone.”
Bai Maomao flapped his wings and squawked, rubbing his long neck affectionately against her cheek.
Su Yao set him down and said: “Alright, explain—what was all that about?”
Bai Maomao turned back into human form, took Su Yao’s hand, then grabbed Lang Junxian’s hand.
“I’ll take you to see it—then you’ll understand.”
With just a thought, the two of them watched in shock as the scene before them suddenly shifted—they were transported to a completely unfamiliar place.
Bai Maomao led the two of them toward the bamboo house.
“So this is where you disappeared to?”
Su Yao asked.
“Mm.”
Bai Maomao nodded and shared his speculation.
“It seems this red mole on my forehead created another space.”
Su Yao looked grave, her brows furrowed as she glanced around.
“The spiritual energy here is far too dense. Only in ancient times would you find such levels.”
Bai Maomao pouted, clearly pleased.
“Well, now it belongs to us!”
Su Yao gave him a sidelong glance.
“No one else must know about this place. Not a fourth person.”
“Yes,”
Lang Junxian agreed.
“With spiritual energy this rich, if word got out, the consequences would be unimaginable.”
Though Bai Maomao was carefree by nature, he wasn’t stupid.
Seeing the serious expressions on both their faces, he solemnly nodded in agreement.
The three thoroughly examined the space.
They discovered that not only was the spring water extraordinary, but even the field in front of the bamboo house was no ordinary field.
The soil in the field was mixed with Xirang—a mythical earth that drastically shortens the growth cycle of plants.
It was perfect for cultivating rare spiritual herbs.
Then there was the dense mist surrounding the bamboo house.
The three of them explored in different directions, but no matter which way they went, they always ended up back where they started.
After sharing their findings, they suspected there was something hidden beyond the fog, but since it wouldn’t clear, there was no way to verify their theory.
Once they had investigated everything they could, Bai Maomao took them back out of the space.
Back home, Su Yao suddenly remembered the thing that had been troubling her for days.
Lang Junxian clearly recalled it too.
He had come out of seclusion earlier than Bai Maomao, and as soon as he returned, Su Yao had told him.
The mood in the room turned heavy.
“What’s wrong?”
Bai Maomao asked, puzzled.
Su Yao hesitated for a moment before saying,
“The barrier around Yuze Mountain has shattered.”
“What…?”
Bai Maomao’s eyes widened in shock.
The barrier around Yuze Mountain had been left behind by the sect leader, and was said to be formed from his final discarded shell—transformed from the shell of a ten-thousand-year-old Xuan Turtle.
How could such a powerful barrier just…break?
Su Yao let out a heavy sigh.
“What’s worse, the spiritual energy of Yuze Mountain has been rapidly depleting these past days.”
After Bai Maomao and Lang Junxian entered seclusion, Su Yao also went into closed cultivation.
But halfway through her meditation, she suddenly felt a disturbance in her spirit—an ominous sign.
When she came out, she discovered the barrier had already shattered.
She searched long and hard but couldn’t find the cause.
In less than half a month, the once spiritually abundant Yuze Mountain had become like a drained vessel, growing more desolate by the day.
A once sacred mountain, now on its way to becoming just another barren hill.
Su Yao was extremely anxious, but with no clue where the problem lay, all she could do was watch helplessly as the spiritual energy dissipated, leaving behind only an ordinary mountain.
In the past few days, many spirit-aware demon cultivators had already begun to leave.
Even the unintelligent beasts had started migrating by instinct.
The atmosphere in the house was heavy when a familiar voice suddenly called from outside the door: “Anyone home? Meow~”
Bai Maomao went to the door and saw the tabby cat crouching outside, craning his neck to peer inside.
“Why are you here today?”
Bai Maomao opened the door.
The tabby cat licked its paw and replied in a low voice: “I’m moving away. Came to say goodbye. Meow~”
“Moving? So suddenly—”
Bai Maomao started to speak, then suddenly remembered the state Yuze Mountain was in now, and quietly stopped himself.
He crouched down and gently patted the tabby cat on the head.
“Take care on your journey.”
The tabby cat nodded, waved a paw at him, and slowly walked down the mountain.
Bai Maomao stood quietly at the door, gazing at the orange-red setting sun, his face clouded with sorrow.
“We might have to leave too…”
Before they left the mountain, Su Yao rummaged through the storage room and finally managed to gather three Reverse Transformation Pills.
These pills, passed down from ancient times, were specifically designed for demon cultivators to disguise themselves as humans and conceal their spiritual aura.
There weren’t many left in the storage, and after a thorough search, she found only three.
But if nothing went wrong, one per person should be enough.
Now that they were heading down the mountain—into a world unfriendly to demon cultivators—these pills would be perfect for avoiding trouble by blending in as humans.