Wait a minute, where is my master?

Jin Xu felt as though he had been humiliated.

"What the hell, you treat a jade slip with such care only to have it contain recipes? Do you think you're Yu Yaoer or something?"

At the very least, record some information about yourself or the Age Chicken Clan's territories!

Trying his patience, he read the ink jade slip in his hand from start to finish once again, attempting to find some useful information.

Other than "For coconut chicken, it is best to use an Age Chicken that is twenty-four years and eight months old, and its food must be exclusively green coconuts from the land" nothing useful was added.

"Hiss, it seems the owner of this place was quite the gourmand," he remarked without expression, and then, not giving up, began to probe every inch of the cursed land with his Spiritual Sense.

A stick of incense later,

Jin Xu had found nothing useful, instead, in two inconspicuous places, he saw two paper-recorded recipe books, one titled "How to Make the Best Three-Cup Chicken"

and the other "108 Ways to Eat Age Chicken."

"..."

This pair of "major" discoveries led the Taoist to completely abandon any hope of finding information related to Little Hong Clan's origins here.

He turned his head to look around and, like a shot, dashed back toward the entrance of the passageway he had come through.

It's worth mentioning that, adhering to the principle of saving when you should and spending when you must, Jin Xu purposely picked up the halved High-Grade Spirit Stone on his way out.

Then, when he reached the Light Gate again, he looked at all sorts of items inside the "Cursed Land." With his left hand, he conjured up a ball of fire out of thin air.

As his left hand stretched out sharply,

The fireball burst forth like shooting stars in all directions, completely igniting the fully automated Age Chicken slaughterhouse, which had existed for who knows how long.

Two breaths later,

The Taoist sensed that all items that could prove the original identity of this place had been utterly consumed by the fire, and he clenched his left hand again.

The raging fire obediently gathered back into midair and finally, as Jin Xu clenched lightly, the fire returned to being fire attribute Spiritual Energy and dissipated into the air.

If a cultivator specializing in the Tao of Fire Attribute happened to be here now, he would likely cling to this place and not leave, intent on cultivating for a thousand or eight hundred years before considering leaving.

Having completed all of this,

Jin Xu looked over the thick layer of ash on the ground and the now-disappeared entrance to the Light Gate.

He turned and walked out of the cave.

...

...

At the border between the Mountain and Sea Realm and the Colorful Secret Realm,

The Elders of Kunlun Immortal Palace, trapped in a ring of fire, now appeared rather bedraggled.

Grandma Yu and the skinny elder seemed relatively okay; the former just showed a somewhat paler complexion due to the excessive consumption of Spiritual Power.

The latter looked a bit darker than usual, and his breath was also a bit weak.

But Elder Chi and the Old Dean looked much worse.

The once proud and snow-white beard of the elder from Kunlun Immortal Palace was now reduced by half.

The Old Dean had suffered even more; not only were there huge holes in his robe, but his eyebrows and beard had been completely singed off, and he even lost some of his hair.

At the moment, the four sat facing each other, their gazes intently fixed on the middle of...

A half-strip of crispy pork belly.

Time had passed for quite a while.

"Elder Chi, are you sure that once we've completely understood the secret within this thing, we can successfully remove the fire columns set up by Jin Xu?"

The one who spoke was a gaunt old man.

"We both have witnessed the power of these six fire columns. Even with our full strength, we couldn't touch them in the slightest. Merely the residual waves from the fire columns have left us in such a wretched state.

"Such a terrifying object must have been left behind by Jin Taoist with great effort and intention.

"Therefore, this half strip of crispy pork belly must not have been carelessly discarded here. It surely contains some secret mystery."

While Elder Chi was speaking, his gaze kept examining the crispy pork belly, and he even used his Spiritual Sense to meticulously scan it inch by inch.

Yet, he still hadn't found anything.

Upon hearing the other's words, the gaunt old man instinctively wanted to object.

But the vivid memory of their recent utter failure to break through the encircling fire columns, despite exerting all their strength, was still fresh in his mind.

The analysis of the ancestor from the Kunlun Immortal Palace was indeed not without foundation; leaving behind such formidable fire columns, there was certainly no way the half strip of crispy pork belly would be thrown here without reason.

However, the gaunt old man always felt there might be something fishy about it, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly what that was.

So, after hesitating for a moment, he turned his head and spoke to Grandma Yu.

"Jin Taoist, why don't you contact your granddaughter again, and ask her to come pick us up, a few old folks?"

"Haven't I already said that I cannot reach her? Otherwise, I would have long since had her come and retrieve me. Why would I still suffer in this place?"

Being from the Shui Clan, Grandma Yu especially disliked high temperatures, feeling now as if she was about to turn into dried fish herself.

But at present, the four of them couldn't leave the encirclement of fire columns, and because each of them had varying degrees of Spiritual Power depletion, they couldn't form the Four Symbols Formation, which would ensure their safe passage through the spatial crack back into the Colorful Secret Realm.

Therefore, despite her dislike for the surrounding sweltering heat, Grandma Yu had no choice but to persevere.

Fortunately, she had plenty of pills on her, so for the time being, she wouldn't encounter any serious trouble.

The gaunt old man, not annoyed by the rebuff he received from the Shui Clan Elder, glanced down at the crispy pork belly on the dry grassland, then turned his head to look at the hairless face of the old dean from Qingmu Academy.

He spoke again.

"Old scholar, don't you have the Communication Jade Token from Jin Xu? Why not try contacting him again?"

Yan Chu, who looked disheveled, glanced at him and said nothing but tossed the jade token to the gaunt old man.

The gesture was clear: If you want to make contact, do it yourself. Just like Jin Taoist, I can't get a hold of him either.

Seeing this, the gaunt old man took the jade token, fiddled with it for a few breaths, and, observing no response, he sighed silently to himself.

At this moment, Grandma Yu suggested to Elder Chi, who was still fixated on the crispy pork belly.

"Elder Chi, idly waiting here isn't going to solve anything. The environment is harsh, and even if you wish to comprehend the secret of the crispy pork belly, we can take our time back in the Colorful Secret Realm.

"So, how about we focus on recovering from our recent injuries and depletion quickly, and then return to the Secret Realm to make further plans?"

With that, she took out two more bottles of pills that resisted fire poison and restored Spiritual Power, planning to distribute them among everyone.

Hearing her words, the Immortal Palace ancestor looked at the pork belly and then at the Shui Clan Elder.

Knowing her true form loathed high-temperature environments, he nodded gently, accepting her suggestion.

With Elder Chi agreeing, the gaunt old man and the Old Dean naturally had no reason to object.

The group took the pills distributed by Grandma Yu, closed their eyes to rest, and began to regulate their breath.

However, before much time had passed, a crisp and slightly petulant voice suddenly came from the other side of the spatial crack.

"So there you all are!"