LAVW – Chapter 27 Meeting Again in the Stone Chamber

A familiar female voice seemed to echo in Shi Qian’s ears—

“You have reached the final stop. Thank you for riding with us…”

There won’t be a next time.

This secret realm exploration was completely unsatisfying.

More importantly, he and Long Ye had been forcibly separated. Right now, Long Ye had no idea where he was—he was probably worried again.

Thankfully, Shi Qian was smart and had shouted before they were split up.

As for how to reunite with Long Ye, Shi Qian thought for a moment and decided that staying in the stone chamber and waiting was the best choice—accurate and convenient.

With his next course of action decided, Shi Qian turned his attention to the stone platform.

Aside from one empty stone platform, the remaining seven held four weapons, a piece of smooth, glowing white jade, and two spirit herbs.

He didn’t recognize them, but he wanted them all.

When he tried to approach, he quickly realized that only the empty platform was accessible—the other seven were completely off-limits.

Shi Qian took out the token and knocked it against the platforms, tried searching for patterns, and even foolishly repeated the words spoken before he was pulled into the stone chamber…

Nothing worked.

As for tapping the half-open eye on the token again?

Forget it, forget it. If it sent him somewhere else, how would he find Long Ye?

Annoyed, Shi Qian stomped on the token twice before putting it away.

Not only were the treasures on the stone platforms untouchable, but Shi Qian also discovered that he couldn’t leave the stone chamber.

His escape techniques worked only within the chamber, and the stone walls were unnaturally sturdy, seemingly made from some special material.

After exhausting all options, Shi Qian decided to simply lie down and wait for Long Ye to come get him while nursing his poor, sore backside.

As for everything else? Long Ye could deal with it.

He had tried his best.

However, Shi Qian had clearly overlooked one small problem.

Since he had been able to reach the final stone chamber and claim a treasure, it meant that others—like Wang Xingzhi—could also reach this place. And since there were eight stone platforms, it suggested that more people might arrive.

So, a few days later, when Shi Qian suddenly heard the sound of the stone door opening, he was stunned for a moment.

Because of his equal partner contract with Long Ye, he could sense when Long Ye was nearby. The approaching person was clearly not Long Ye.

What now?

He glanced around—there was nowhere to hide in the chamber.

With no other choice, Shi Qian jumped onto the empty stone platform and crouched there, pretending to be weak and exhausted.

That was something he was good at. Because he really was weak, so faking it was easy.

Clank, clank—

The stone door was heavy, and the person pushing it let out a strained “ugh” as they exerted force. The voice sounded like a female cultivator.

But she didn’t step inside immediately. Instead, she cautiously sent a few puppets in first.

The humanoid puppets clanked as they moved through the chamber, but they didn’t trigger any attacks. Only then did the female cultivator carefully enter.

The moment Shi Qian caught a glimpse of her, he quickly shut his eyes again, keeping up the act of weakness.

An empty stone chamber filled only with treasures—it was naturally reassuring.

After a brief inspection, the female cultivator let out a breathless murmur:

“Finally… the last stage.”

Then came the sound of approaching footsteps.

Shi Qian tensed up.

He was obviously different from the other treasures on the stone platforms. Unlike them, he wasn’t protected by an outer barrier, nor was he floating.

The contrast was too obvious.

Sure enough, he immediately felt her gaze land on him.

Letting out a weak whimper, he slowly opened his eyes and met the female cultivator’s scrutinizing gaze.

Then came a single, blunt remark—

“Too weak.”

Followed by a sudden thunderous strike.

Shi Qian’s fur stood on end, his whole body trembling from the shock.

The female cultivator shook her head and said, “I do need a spirit beast, but you woke up too early—your cultivation has fallen to the early Foundation Establishment stage. You’re useless to me.”

As she finished speaking, she reached for the white jade stone.

Her slender hand extended forward, and as soon as a spiritual light from her body touched the stone platform’s protective barrier, she was able to retrieve the jade with ease. It seemed similar to the multicolored glow on the high platform—some kind of identity recognition mechanism.

Shi Qian didn’t have that kind of recognition, which was why he couldn’t take any of the treasures from the stone platform.

Once the jade was taken, a hexagonal teleportation array appeared on the ground near the stone tablet.

The female cultivator walked over, saw Wang Xingzhi’s name inscribed on the stone tablet, and raised her hand, using her finger as a sword to carve her own name into the tablet. Then, she stepped into the teleportation array and disappeared from the stone chamber.

Seeing her leave, Shi Qian let out a deep sigh of relief.

He had sensed a false bravado in her—the kind of person who acted strong but was actually weak inside.

But even if she was just pretending to be powerful, even if she had been reduced from an expert to a novice after the trials in the Inheritance Shrine, Shi Qian still didn’t want to fight her.

After all, there was still a good chance she was stronger than him.

And that sneaky teleportation array… If he hadn’t stomped on his token twice with no response, he might have suspected the token was deliberately keeping him trapped here.

“Squeak, squeak.”

Damn it, when is Long Ye coming to save me?

Shi Qian sprawled across the stone platform with a sigh.

After dealing with a stranger, he could no longer rest easy. This female cultivator hadn’t been greedy—she had taken her treasure and left decisively. But what if the next person who arrived was more ambitious?

Of course, his anxiety quickly transformed into a peaceful resignation.

After all, worrying was useless. He might as well snack on some pine nuts.

One pile, then another, then another… until he had stacked up half a stone platform’s worth of empty pine nut shells.

That was when the stone chamber was disturbed again.

Shi Qian hurriedly swept away the shells and resumed his act.

But this time, the incoming cultivator was bolder—before even stepping inside, they called out:

“Brother Qian?”

Hearing Wang Lianzhi’s voice, Shi Qian was momentarily convinced he was imagining things. He lifted his head and saw her standing at the entrance—her face and body covered in injuries, but with a bright, beaming smile.

The beautiful senior sister grinned and said, “Haha! I knew it was you! Brother Qian, I smelled your pine nuts. You like that salty, fragrant kind.”

Shi Qian jumped up and threw himself into her arms.

“Squeak squeak!”

Lianzhi-jie, it’s me!

Wang Lianzhi hugged the little ball of fur, which seemed… just a tiny bit rounder than before, and asked, “Why are you here alone? Where’s Long Ye? Where is he?”

Shi Qian shook his head.

“You don’t know where Long Ye is?”

Shi Qian pointed toward the direction Wang Lianzhi had come from.

Wang Lianzhi thought for a moment. “So he also entered the Inheritance Shrine, but you don’t know exactly where he is.”

“Squeak squeak.” Shi Qian nodded, confirming that she was exactly right.

“What’s his problem?” Wang Lianzhi sounded displeased. “He’s always so fierce. I thought he was reliable, but he actually lost you?”

Shi Qian shook his head again. “Squeak.”

It wasn’t his fault.

Even Shi Qian hadn’t expected that one instinctive reaction would have such a massive impact.

As for Long Ye occasionally being fierce toward Wang Lianzhi…

Well, Shi Qian thought, that was probably his fault too.

He played with Wang Lianzhi, and Long Ye got jealous.

After all, Long Ye was a runaway teenager, and Shi Qian was his only companion. Naturally, he valued him greatly. Long Ye also had a sensitive personality—prone to overthinking—and was currently going through a low point, lagging behind others. Shi Qian had noticed all of this.

After acting like a social butterfly for a while, Brother Qian had gotten much better at sweet-talking.

Wang Lianzhi watched as he kept defending Long Ye, refusing to engage with her words. So, she grabbed Shi Qian’s little face and gave it a firm rub.

“You just don’t want to follow me, is that it?”

“Squeak squeak.” Shi Qian, knowing Wang Lianzhi couldn’t understand him, chirped randomly to make it seem like he had answered.

After brushing off the topic, Shi Qian pointed at the stone tablet, signaling Wang Lianzhi to take a look.

Wang Xingzhi’s name was inscribed on it—she would probably be happy to see it.

Sure enough, Wang Lianzhi carved her own name next to Wang Xingzhi’s. She even laughed, saying she recognized another name there—it belonged to a powerful female alchemist.

But what she cared about most was her brother. Smiling, she said, “My brother moves fast. You probably didn’t see him, right? I’m guessing you came in after him, or he would’ve taken you with him.”

Shi Qian nodded, then pointed in the direction Wang Lianzhi had come from.

This time, Wang Lianzhi made several guesses before finally realizing that Shi Qian had seen Wang Xingzhi when he entered.

With more gestures from Shi Qian, she also understood that in order to leave the stone chamber, one had to take a treasure from the stone platform.

After confirming with Shi Qian that only two people had entered this chamber so far, and that the other one—like her—seemed weak and exhausted, Wang Lianzhi said, “Then I’ll stay with you and wait for Long Ye. I could use some rest anyway.”

She had exhausted herself making it this far, nearly pushing herself to the limit. The wounds on her body also needed time to heal through meditation.

In this secret realm, aside from Wang Xingzhi, there weren’t many people stronger than Wang Lianzhi. Seeing how drained the previous female cultivator had been, she felt that resting in this stone chamber was relatively safe. After all, everyone who entered had already been weakened—none of them would have the upper hand over her.

Without hesitation, Wang Lianzhi took a pill and focused on absorbing its medicinal effects.

While she meditated, Shi Qian carefully arranged a circle of spirit stones around her, then obediently sat nearby, snacking and drinking.

To keep an eye on her, he decided not to sleep.

Wang Lianzhi meditated for two full days. Worried she might get hungry, Shi Qian took out a bottle of fasting pills and placed them beside her.

When she finally opened her eyes, she was met with a floor covered in spirit stones and a bottle of fasting pills.

She popped one into her mouth, then turned to look at Shi Qian, who was sprawled on the stone platform, nearly dozing off from boredom. “Thanks, Brother Qian.”

Shi Qian yawned, shook off his drowsiness, and hopped down from the platform.

What was there to thank him for? It was just a small effort.

Wang Lianzhi remained seated on the ground, looking a little sluggish after her long meditation. “I’ve recovered about seventy percent. The rest will take time—it’s not something that can be rushed.”

She then asked, “Brother Qian, I’m about to leave. Are you still going to wait for Long Ye?”

Shi Qian hesitated.

Following Wang Lianzhi would definitely be safer than staying in the stone chamber.

But if he left, Long Ye would have to search the entire secret realm to find him.

Wang Lianzhi assumed he was unwilling to go with her and asked again, “Long Ye is only in the Qi Refining stage, even if he’s at the ninth level, he’s still just in Qi Refining. How can you be so sure he’ll make it here? So far, only three people have made it into this stone chamber. My brother doesn’t count, and the other person and I are both at the late Foundation Establishment stage, nearly reaching perfection.”

Shi Qian responded confidently, “Squeak squeak.”

I know the plot!

Wang Lianzhi, however, mistook his chirping as unwavering faith in Long Ye. While feeling envious of Long Ye, she continued persuading him, “You should come with me. What if someone with a real killing intent comes in next? Everyone I saw was already fighting like mad.”

Shi Qian didn’t think too much and nodded.

Staying alive was the priority.

As the saying goes, fated people will meet even from a thousand miles away. Long Ye could just take his time searching for him later.

Seeing that he agreed, Wang Lianzhi got up to retrieve the long halberd she had her eyes on.

But before she could break through the protective layer around the stone platform, the sound of the stone door creaking open interrupted her.

Shi Qian let out a delighted squeak, “Squeak Squeak!”

Long Ye!

It was Long Ye—he could feel it!

His call reached outside, and the stone door was suddenly pushed open. It swung wide with a loud boom, revealing a tall figure standing in the doorway.

The person was half a head taller than Shi Qian remembered, with broader shoulders and a sturdier build. Against the backlight, he looked incredibly reliable.

As the figure stepped forward, Shi Qian saw his face clearly—it was Long Ye.

But he looked far more miserable than Wang Lianzhi. His entire face was covered in soot, as if he had rolled through a coal pit. If Shi Qian wasn’t so familiar with him, he might not have recognized him at all. Wang Lianzhi, in contrast, was completely stunned.

Even from a distance, the thick stench of blood clung to Long Ye, as if he had crawled through a blood pool. He was filthy beyond words.

But that didn’t matter—Brother Qian didn’t mind.

Overjoyed, Shi Qian darted toward Long Ye, leaping high with his now-healed backside, launching himself straight at him.

Long Ye reached out just in time, catching Shi Qian in his broad palm.

Shi Qian was ecstatic. “Squeak squeak!”

Finally, you’re here!

Long Ye’s expression stiffened slightly. He stared at Shi Qian for a moment before blinking.

He didn’t say a word—just reached out with his other hand, intending to give Shi Qian a little pat.

Shi Qian tilted his head and noticed that Long Ye’s hand was also smeared with blood, with what appeared to be a small dried piece of flesh caught under his fingernail.

This… this was too much to handle.

Right before Long Ye’s eyes, Shi Qian pushed up his sleeve, lifted his tiny feet, and shifted his position from Long Ye’s palm to his cleaner wrist. Then he looked up at Long Ye with big, expectant eyes.

A silent but obvious message: How about you wash your hands before petting me?

Long Ye felt his heart skip a beat before an exasperated amusement surged through him.

He let out a short laugh, glancing at Shi Qian before weighing him slightly in his hand. Then he asked, “Brother Qian, did you get fatter again?”

Shi Qian froze. “Squeak squeak.”

Impossible!