The invisibility talisman immediately concealed the puppet’s presence.

He then controlled it to fly in the direction indicated by the needle,l and constantly adjusting based on its slight movements.

After a while, he flew out of the Endless Grief Mountain area.

When he reached a small mountain about half the size of Snowy Cave Mountain, the needle suddenly stood upright.

Xiao Shou immediately understood.

He had arrived.

He put away the wooden crane and landed lightly.

The moment his feet touched the ground, the upright needle dropped and pointed behind him.

The place with the densest spiritual energy was behind him.

Xiao Shou quickly turned around and used lightness techniques to move in that direction, adjusting his path based on the needle’s guidance as he advanced.

At this moment, the somewhat slow witted Xiao Shou had not yet realized something.

The direction given by the Spirit Chaser Plate pointed toward the area with the densest spiritual energy in the spiritual vein.

But the place with the densest spiritual energy was usually the core of the spiritual vein, where top-grade spirit stones were located.

That place was not necessarily where the Fate Devouring Array was.

Meanwhile, inside the ancient cultivator’s cave residence, within a prison modified by a Golden Core cultivator, five children huddled together.

They leaned against each other in silence.

After a while, the youngest looking girl clutched the arm of the boy beside her and said in a trembling voice, "Brother... tomorrow... the moon... will be full again... I... I’m a little... scared..."

"Don’t be afraid, Yueyue," the boy said while patting her head gently. "If he chooses you tomorrow, I’ll tell him to take me first. You won’t die."

The girl shook her head repeatedly when she heard that. "I’m not scared anymore... not at all... don’t... don’t let brother go..."

"Yingjun, Yueyue, don’t worry!" the chubby boy said optimistically. "Maybe someone will come save us soon! Didn’t the books say that at the final moment when villains are doing evil, a hero will always appear to stop them and uphold justice?"

Beside the chubby boy is a tall, thin, gloomy girl, she pressed her lips together and said coldly, "But after Douding, Xiaomei, Shuazi, and Zhuangzhuang were taken away, none of them ever came back. Young Master, please stop holding onto such naive thoughts."

"Cao Mudan, you are my personal maid. How can you discourage me like this? You should be saying ’Young Master, you are right,’" Cao Jinyang complained, though there was no real anger on his face.

The tall and thin girl who is called Cao Mudan looked even gloomier upon hearing that. "Can you stop calling me Cao Mudan? It’s such an embarrassing name. I don’t want to go to the underworld still carrying such a shameful name."

"What’s wrong with it? Mudan is such a nice name! It’s mean peonies and I like peonies the most. Why do you hate it so much?" Cao Jinyang asked in confusion

Cao Mudan turned her head away and ignored him. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

At that moment, the delicate looking boy on the far left spoke in a low voice, "Waiting for someone to save us is unreliable. Maybe we should think of a way to escape."

"Escape? How can we escape? This is an immortal cultivator’s prison. We can’t even get close to that door. Ye Ying, do you have a way?" Hua Yingjun asked hopefully.

Ye Ying shook his head and pointed to the stone wall beside him. "I don’t, but you all know my hearing is good. Recently, starting from the cell next to ours, more than a dozen adults have been locked up one after another. They are also cultivators who know immortal techniques, and they don’t even know why they were captured. If we can contact them and tell them the truth, maybe we can come up with a solution."

"When that person comes tomorrow to select someone, no matter who is chosen, we must find a way to pass the message to them," Cao Mudan said immediately, her voice filled with hatred. "At least one of us must survive and spread the truth about that villain, then find someone to avenge everyone."

"Mm. But speaking will be noticed by him. We should write a letter," Ye Ying said as he tore a piece of white cloth from his inner garment and handed it to Cao Jinyang. "None of us can write, so we’ll have to rely on you."

"Is it really that simple?" Cao Jinyang said, but he immediately took the piece of cloth and pulled out an ink stick from inside his shoe.

...

While the children were busy trying to save themselves, Xiao Shou followed the guidance of the Spirit Chaser Plate and stopped at a certain spot.

He looked around at the surroundings in confusion.

A dense forest.

This place was far too ordinary.

Where was the entrance to the ancient cultivator’s cave residence?

Xiao Shou searched carefully in all directions but could not find anything unusual.

In the end, he glanced at the upright needle, then at the ground beneath his feet.

For some reason, inspiration struck him.

He recalled how he had excavated a spiritual vein in Snowy Cave Mountain before.

His expression immediately steadied.

He took out a newly purchased excavation artifact from his storage belt, one specially designed for cutting through stone to build stone halls, originally intended for his puppets.

After channeling spiritual energy into it, the tool sliced into the ground as easily as cutting tofu.

In an instant, soil, grass, wood, and stone were all collected into a spare storage bag.

When it came to digging spiritual veins, Xiao Shou was already an expert.

With the addition of this professional high-grade tool, his efficiency was astonishing.

Following the winding path of the spiritual vein, he ignored the minor branches and focused on the main vein, digging straight toward its core.

Large amounts of low-grade, mid-grade, and high-grade spirit stones were collected into his storage belt.