Although Li Ban could easily shield Cat Girl with a Protection Spell, he still needed to ensure she had the means to walk safely through Youlin on her own.
Seeing Cat Girl holding the storm lantern just as she did, Valley Master Tan nodded and turned to lead the way.
"Please follow me, you two."
The moment they stepped into Youlin, the ambient temperature plummeted by seven or eight degrees.
It felt as though they had gone from late spring straight into early autumn.
They walked along a narrow path through the trees.
The deeper they went, the colder it grew.
By the time they reached a walled courtyard, the temperature had dropped close to freezing.
White frost clung to the bamboo leaves poking over the wall.
"An array combined with illusions?" Li Ban remarked. "It seems the miasma here isn't so simple either."
Turning back, he watched Valley Master Tan step up to manipulate something on the wall.
Before long, a seam abruptly appeared in the wall. It slowly parted, opening into a round archway.
Although Cat Girl had been staying in Mist Valley for half a year, this was her first time entering the Ten-Li Youlin, let alone seeing this mysterious wall.
She looked around, examining everything with curiosity.
"This wall—"
As he passed through the archway, Li Ban reached out and brushed his hand against the wall. It felt slightly springy to the touch, and not nearly as cold as he had expected.
"Are these mushrooms?" Li Ban guessed.
"Good eye, Priest Ban. This wall is indeed made of mushrooms."
Once they were both through the archway, Tan Qiyue turned back and stroked the milky-white wall. The opening slowly closed and vanished.
"So mushrooms can take on this shape too." Cat Girl stepped forward and touched the wall as well.
She spent a lot of time roaming the wilderness. Aside from meat, she ate mushrooms the most.
But she had never seen mushrooms that could grow into a wall.
"This is actually an element cultivated by Mist Valley," Tan Qiyue explained. "However, it is considered one of our less successful attempts. It works well enough as a wall, but leaves much to be desired in other aspects. Ultimately, it failed to elementalize."
Unlike animals, which could elementalize at unpredictable times, plants generally elementalized the moment before they reached full maturity.
If they failed to elementalize upon reaching full maturity, they would never have another chance to do so, unlike animals.
But many plant-type elements—especially high-grade ones—became incredibly difficult to fuse with once fully mature.
One careless mistake, and they might consume the fuser as nutrients instead.
That was why no one had ever tried to fuse with the immensely powerful Cyan Silk Algae at the bottom of the River of Forgetfulness.
Instead, people mostly focused on cultivating its seeds, hoping to fuse with them when they first elementalized and were still weak.
The group continued deeper into the courtyard.
Inside the mushroom walls, several oddly shaped houses were scattered across the corners of the small courtyard.
Some looked like honeycombs, others resembled childlike treehouses, and a few were built half above ground and half underground.
Tan Qiyue led the two past the bizarre houses until they reached the very back of the mushroom courtyard.
There were no houses here, only a passageway leading underground.
'That high-grade elemental vine in the Hundred Flowers Pavilion was kept underground too.'
Li Ban mentally compared the similarities between the two vines.
Perhaps because he had fused with three of Xiao Suo's Wizard Embryo Fragments, Li Ban was now highly sensitive to anything that might be related to Xiao Suo.
Tan Qiyue turned around at the tunnel entrance. "Censor Cat, please extinguish the storm lantern."
Cat Girl opened the mesh cover and blew hard. The dim yellow candle flame went out, releasing a wisp of blue-green smoke.
She reached out and caught a thread of the smoke, rubbing it between her fingertips.
The blue-green smoke left a white powder on her fingertips.
Her nose twitched as she caught the scent of herbal medicine.
When she looked up again, Tan Qiyue had already blown out her own lantern and was waiting for her.
Cat Girl pursed her lips. "Done."
Li Ban stood off to the side with his hands behind his back, appearing entirely uninvolved, but he had already quietly extended his Protection Spell to cover Little Cat as well.
He took Cat Girl's hand, and the two of them followed her down the narrow passage.
The passage wasn't overly dark, as luminous stones dotted the surrounding walls.
These cheap little stones were commonly used in places where open flames were forbidden.
For a moment, Li Ban felt as though he had returned to the Yu Province Death Prison.
But the dripping of underground water soon pulled him from his memories.
After descending another dozen meters, an underground river appeared before them.
Given Mist Valley's proximity to the River of Helplessness, this subterranean current was likely far less safe than ordinary groundwater.
Sure enough, Tan Qiyue warned them both.
"This is a hidden branch of the River of Helplessness," she said. "Although the Mist Realm Priest has treated it, the water still possesses the power to beguile the soul. Censor Cat, try not to look directly at the river. Priest Ban, you must be careful as well—do not go beneath the surface."
Along one side of the river ran a path barely half a meter wide, bordered by uneven rock and dirt.
The path was only wide enough for one person to pass at a time. An ordinary person could easily fall in if they weren't careful.
Li Ban held Cat Girl back, waiting for Valley Master Tan to go first.
At the end of the path stood a man-made stone house built underground. Its door was made of iron, secured with a massive copper padlock.
While they waited, Li Ban looked down at the river.
Valley Master Tan hadn't said he couldn't look directly at the water, after all.
Li Ban had never observed the waters of the River of Helplessness this closely before.
His action was driven less by curiosity and more by precaution.
The Ten-Li Youlin was obviously a forbidden zone within Mist Valley.
And this place was a forbidden zone within a forbidden zone.
For such an important place to be deliberately built at an underground branch of the River of Helplessness—he refused to believe the two were entirely unrelated.
Standing right at the edge, Li Ban peered down at the water.
The surface flowed continuously through the dark cave, offering no real reflection.
Yet, upon the rippling water, Li Ban still saw his own reflection.
Only this reflection kept fracturing and shifting; in a momentary trance, it seemed to warp into another person entirely.
In the gloom, his White Robe inexplicably turned black.
The reflection of the head shattered and reformed, and upon the lower half of that reassembled face, an eerie smile actually surfaced.
Li Ban raised a hand to touch the corner of his mouth, confirming that he hadn't smiled at all.
When he looked up, Tan Qiyue had already reached the end of the path and was looking back, waiting for them in front of the stone house.
Li Ban gripped Cat Girl's hand. The two of them vanished simultaneously, instantly reappearing at Tan Qiyue's side.
Valley Master Tan smiled and sighed. "Lord Priest's methods are truly formidable."
All their various methods of guarding against thieves were completely meaningless in the face of a Priest.
This was exactly why every spirit practitioner, regardless of their Tier, desperately yearned to become a Priest.
She turned back and gently stroked the copper padlock on the door three times with her fingers.
The copper padlock opened automatically.
"So this lock doesn't take a key either," Cat Girl said, leaning in for a look. She let out a light laugh. "Don't tell me this is a mushroom too?"
"No," Tan Qiyue replied with a smile. "It's—a civet cat."
Cat Girl froze. She never would have guessed that the massive copper padlock right in front of her was actually an animal.
She had stayed in Mist Valley for quite a while now, yet she was only just realizing that everything she knew was merely the tip of the iceberg.