"But will they fight you?" Phantom Cat asked without hope.
Chu Lingwei sat on a soft chair, surveying the surroundings. Each cell was equipped with a spirit-gathering array, designed to aid cultivation.
"This spirit-gathering array is perfectly fine," Phantom Cat said, having inspected all the formations since entering and finding nothing unusual.
Why would that person do this?
Chu Lingwei leaned back in the soft chair and closed her eyes, resting.
"Daoist Friend Chu, Daoist Friend Chu," Murong Zhen sat opposite her. Seeing that Chu Lingwei wasn't cultivating, he couldn't help but speak.
"Is there something else?" Chu Lingwei opened her eyes, her body still.
Murong Zhen, "..."
Everyone who entered here, upon seeing the dense spiritual energy, couldn't resist beginning to cultivate. Even if they didn't accept being imprisoned, they wouldn't be as calm as Chu Lingwei.
"Daoist Friend Chu, aren't you cultivating?" Murong Zhen sat down. With a newcomer, his desire to leave began to stir.
"Why should I cultivate?" Chu Lingwei retorted.
"There's no way to get out of here," Murong Zhen sighed. He thought of leaving every day, but his cultivation wasn't improving enough to escape. "I wonder what age I'll be when I finally leave this place?"
"Has anyone ever gotten out of here?" Chu Lingwei looked around. Some of the people trapped here were already powerful cultivators of the Three-Day Realm.
Hearing this question, Murong Zhen excitedly stood up. "Of course, there have been. Someone defeated that big fish and was released."
"Are you sure they were released, and not eaten?" That big fish wasn't easy to deal with, and besides, Chu Lingwei still couldn't determine if the old man was good or bad.
Murong Zhen found himself speechless.
They only knew that some people had left, but whether they had truly escaped or were eaten, they really didn't know.
"If they wanted to eat us, they wouldn't have bothered setting up spirit-gathering arrays for us, would they?" Murong Zhen's voice weakened. Even he felt his argument lacked conviction.
Chu Lingwei remained silent, closing her eyes again. She needed to sort through everything that had happened since she entered the Stone Mountain, trying not to miss any important details.
Seeing that Chu Lingwei didn't want to talk to him, Murong Zhen closed his eyes and began to meditate, trying to calm his emotions.
The location marked by his master was here, so his father must have come here. Judging by the old man's attitude, he must have met his father.
Then, where did his father go afterward? This was something he had to figure out.
"Weiwei, if we rely only on ourselves, there's no way to leave here," Phantom Cat transmitted to Chu Lingwei's side.
"Don't be afraid. If we want to leave, we can leave," Chu Lingwei had so many artifacts in her spatial dimension that even blowing this place up wouldn't be difficult for her.
Murong Zhen opened his eyes and found Chu Lingwei fast asleep. He couldn't help but frown. Her composure was truly extraordinary.
The next day.
Chu Lingwei opened her eyes and felt a commotion outside, followed by sounds.
"Where are you taking us?" A woman's voice trembled with fear, her spiritual energy unstable, as if she wanted to activate her abilities.
"If you say another word, we'll throw you to the fish," the maid's cold shout successfully silenced the woman.
Chu Lingwei walked to the dungeon entrance and saw the two maids who had brought her in yesterday escorting three people. She recognized these three; they were the ones she had saved yesterday.
They were so badly injured, yet they didn't leave the Stone Mountain. Instead, they entered here. Truly fearless.
"It's you." Bai Shiyu's eyes flashed with surprise as he saw Chu Lingwei in the dungeon.
Chu Lingwei looked at them expressionlessly. Meeting here was nothing to be happy about.
Chen Yingfang turned to look at Chu Lingwei. She remembered this person, the female cultivator who had saved them yesterday. To think that she, too, was imprisoned here.
"Hurry in," the maids led them to the cell next to Chu Lingwei's, pushing Chen Yingfang inside and locking the other two male cultivators in a deeper cell.
"Wait a moment."
Chu Lingwei spoke as the maids passed her cell.
The maids didn't stop but gave her a look.
"I want to see your master and challenge him," Chu Lingwei stated her purpose. She wasn't cultivating here, so there was no need to stay indefinitely.
The maids stopped upon hearing Chu Lingwei's words and looked at her. "Your cultivation is not enough."
"Then I'll fight his spiritual pet. At worst, let his big fish eat me," these were the old man's exact words to her.
The maids' expressions remained unchanged, their eyelids lowered.
"Go tell him I want to challenge him."
The maids did not reply, not even giving Chu Lingwei another glance, and gracefully left.
"Daoist Friend Chu, do you really intend to fight that mighty expert?" Murong Zhen dared not even imagine it. That mighty expert could crush him with a single glance.
"Didn't you say that to get out, one must defeat him?"
Chu Lingwei sat on the soft chair. She had to prepare for both possibilities. If he refused to see her, then she would have to find other ways to make him see her.
Murong Zhen's face twitched. He had said that, yes, but did she not consider her own strength? Wasn't this tantamount to suicide?
"Daoist Friend Chu, do you remember us?" Bai Shiyu recognized Chu Lingwei and, from her conversation with Murong Zhen, learned her surname.
"How did you end up here?" Chu Lingwei responded. She couldn't understand why the people she had saved didn't just leave and instead ran into the most dangerous place.
"We encountered a more powerful Hundred Stone Beast that we couldn't handle, so we had to find a place to hide," Bai Shiyu said with some helplessness. Their biggest mistake was entering the mountain range. Now, every step was fraught with danger, and escaping was incredibly difficult.
Their decision to venture into the inner regions of the mountain range had been a fatal error.
"Daoist Friend Chu, is it very dangerous here?"
Seeing that Daoist Friend Chu, who could deal with such a formidable stone beast, was imprisoned here, caused Bai Shiyu and the others' hearts to sink. They felt they had no hope of leaving.
"It's not dangerous, you just can't get out," Murong Zhen answered for Chu Lingwei, looking at Bai Shiyu and the others. They were all cultivators of the Spiritual Wheel Realm, a level that only allowed entry, not exit.
"If we can't get out, will we be imprisoned here forever?" Chen Yingfang's expression changed. She didn't want to be locked up here.
Murong Zhen shrugged, closed his eyes, and began to cultivate.
Chu Lingwei did the same, closing her eyes and drawing the spiritual energy into her body. There was nothing unusual about it.
A day passed, and the two maids who had left did not reappear.