Ascending from the mortal realm to become an immortal begins with taking charge of a grotto-heaven.

About a day later, at the place they had agreed to meet.

Lu Ran, who had been paying close attention to Mu Yunze's movements, suddenly had a change in expression.

As the black-clad boat broke through the miasma and slowly descended, Lu Ran's heart, which had been hanging in suspense for so long, finally calmed down a little.

Lu Ran stepped forward and carefully examined Zhang Li. Seeing that his breathing was steady, the weight in her heart was finally lifted.

"I'm finally relieved to see that you're alright, junior brother."

Zhang Li leaped off the Black Shadow Boat, smiled, and said, "My luck was alright; I've already taken care of that person."

Lu Ran's pupils contracted slightly, his face full of surprise: "The gray-robed cultivator was at the peak of Qi Refining, and he also possessed a powerful talisman. How could Junior Brother have killed him?"

"It was just luck. The gray-robed cultivator saw that I was too exhausted and had no talisman treasures left after catching up with me, so I took the opportunity to kill him with the Thunder Explosion Pearl."

At this point, Zhang Li looked like he still had some lingering fear: "Fortunately, I didn't hesitate to spend the spirit stones and bought a few more Thunder Explosion Pearls at once, otherwise this time I would have been in real danger."

Lu Ran nodded slightly upon hearing this, her eyes still filled with admiration: "Even so, it is enough to show that Junior Brother is quick-witted and resourceful. Otherwise, even with a treasure like the Thunderclap Pearl, he might not have been able to achieve victory in one strike."

After successfully meeting up, the two exchanged a few brief pleasantries and quickly got back to the main topic.

Their sole purpose in entering Muyunze was to find the cave where the hermit Mo Yi had passed away.

After a short rest, the two returned to Muyunze and continued towards the cave.

……

About two days later.

"This is it. Master Moyi's cave dwelling is located beneath this silt."

Lu Ran pointed to the thick, dark mud under her feet. This place was already very close to the heart of Muyun Marsh, and the miasma was particularly dense. The newly changed miasma-avoiding talisman could only last for a quarter of an hour at most.

Zhang Li nodded, scanning the swamp beneath his feet, but couldn't discern the slightest clue.

But thinking about it, it makes sense. If it were that easy to figure out, that group of rogue cultivators wouldn't have searched for so long in Muyun Marsh.

"Every cave dwelling is protected by an array. Does Senior Sister have the means to break such arrays?"

"I have indeed made some preparations, but for now, let's ignore the outer concealment formation. It'll help to cover up the noise we make when we break through the inner formation later."

Lu Ran nodded, then she made a hand seal, and a stream of blue light struck the swamp, quickly creating a hole that went deeper into the swamp.

After taking precautions, the two entered the cave together and went down.

After passing through a set of bluestone steps, the two arrived at a huge cavity. The air inside the cave was dry and refreshing, and the surrounding rock walls were inlaid with bright white crystals that emitted a soft glow.

"The entrance to the cave is inside the stone wall in front of us, but it's hidden by an array," Lu Ran said to Zhang Li, pointing to the stone wall in front of them.

"There is indeed a faint fluctuation of spiritual energy, and the source is coming from inside this stone wall in front of us," Zhang Li said after carefully sensing the direction Lu Ran was pointing.

Lu Ran raised her hand and launched a fireball, triggering the array restrictions surrounding the cave.

The next moment, huge blue stones rose from the ground, and yellowish-brown light connected the stones, surrounding the entrance of the cave.

"This is the array formation outside the cave. After I went back and inquired around, I learned that this array is called the Earth Green Stone Array, a mid-grade second-tier spiritual array. Once set up, it will form three layers of green stone phantoms, and the protection of the green stones becomes stronger the further in you go."

"Therefore, it is almost impossible for the two of us to break through by brute force alone. The only feasible way is to find the weak point of the formation and break through it from there."

"However, there is one thing to note: although this formation is unattended, it is blessed by spiritual veins. If it cannot be broken in one go, it will suffer a backlash."

Lu Ran reminded him solemnly.

"What should we do?" Zhang Li asked in a deep voice.

"From now on, junior brother just needs to follow my instructions."

As she spoke, Lu Ran took out a golden compass, made a hand seal, and a faint yellow light appeared on the compass and in her eyes at the same time. She stared at the blue stone phantom in front of her, and then released several streams of magic power to trigger the array restrictions.

The patterns of wind, rain, thunder, lightning, mountains, rivers, and vegetation on the compass lit up simultaneously, and the golden light collided with the earthen-yellow light screen outside the array. Then, dense golden streams of light appeared on the compass, wandering around the surface of the plate in a chaotic manner.

"A geomancer's compass! I never expected that Lu Ran would actually possess a geomancer's inheritance."

The moment Lu Ran took out the compass, he recognized the origin of the magical artifact and was secretly shocked.

It should be understood that the geomancer's lineage is not something that small families can possess. In the entire desolate continent, almost 99% of the geomancer's lineages are in the hands of sects.

Outside the sect, most of the cultivators who claim to be geomancers only have a superficial understanding of geomancy and are just swindling people. Only a very few have managed to obtain incomplete inheritances, let alone possess authentic inherited magical artifacts like the Geomancer's Plate.

The so-called geomancer is a cultivator who is proficient in the feng shui of heaven and earth, the flow of spiritual veins, and the formations and restrictions. He can survey mountains and rivers and spiritual veins to find blessed lands and caves, and he can set up killing formations to trap enemies and break through their predicaments. He is an extremely rare existence in the cultivation world.

However, the formations described by geomancers are not entirely the same as those described by spiritual formation masters. Geomancers rely more on feng shui patterns and the terrain to set up formations, while spiritual formation masters rely on formation flags, formation plates, and other methods to set up formations.

There is no inherent superiority of one over the other, but the latter is superior in terms of convenience and efficiency, because the available feng shui patterns and mountain and river formations are generally already owned and occupied by major sects and families.

Zhang Li didn't delve into why Lu Ran possessed the Earth Master's inheritance; everyone has their secrets.

Besides, Lu Ran didn't try to hide it, and Zhang Li isn't a blabbermouth.

"There!"

Lu Ran suddenly pointed.

Zhang Li immediately urged the Burning Cloud Sword to strike with all his might in the direction she pointed.

The two worked together seamlessly; wherever Lu Ran pointed, Zhang Li attacked. Soon, the outermost layer of the blue stone phantom began to tremble violently under his continuous attacks.

"The last spot, give it your all!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Li brought down the Burning Cloud Sword with a fierce strike.

"boom!"

After the loud noise, the outermost layer of blue stone phantom shattered instantly, turning into specks of spiritual light and disappearing without a trace; one of the three layers of blue stone was gone.

The two persevered and continued to break through the formation.

As the attack continued, the second layer of bluestone also disappeared in the form of specks of light thanks to everyone's efforts. Now, only the last layer of bluestone, which was also the strongest layer of protection, remained in front of the two.

As expected, the pressure on both of them suddenly increased. The outer layer of restrictions that they had broken earlier could automatically recover. Zhang Li had to keep attacking the third layer of restrictions while also having to suppress the recovery of the first two layers.

Lu Ran's situation became increasingly difficult. The golden light on the geomancer's plate became more and more chaotic, making it several times more difficult than before to accurately calculate the weak points of the restriction.

But neither of them intended to stop, because stopping would mean all their previous efforts would be wasted.

Finally, just as the two were nearing their limit, the last layer of bluestone barrier gave way and shattered, revealing the passage leading to the depths of the cave.