"You… you're a personal disciple?!"
His tone was filled with disbelief.
Xiao Feng glanced at him but did not say much.
"It's nothing special."
The young man looked at him as if he were looking at a monster.
"…Nothing special?"
He let out a bitter laugh.
But Xiao Feng did not continue the topic. Instead, he simply nodded slightly.
"Thanks for guiding me."
The young man paused, then smiled wryly. "Ah… it was nothing."
Xiao Feng gave a final glance before turning and walking deeper into the cave.
His figure soon disappeared into the winding passages.
—
Only after he left did the young man snap out of his thoughts.
"Wait…"
His expression changed slightly. "Ten lines… ten days…"
He hurried back to the counter and called out to the elder.
"Elder!"
The old man slowly opened one eye, clearly annoyed.
"What now?"
The young man hesitated for a moment before speaking carefully.
"Elder… personal disciples should only receive five days, right?"
The old man looked at him like he was an idiot.
"Normally, yes."
"Then why—"
Halfway through his question, the young man suddenly froze.
A thought flashed through his mind, causing his expression to gradually turn stiff.
"…Could it be…"
His voice lowered unconsciously.
"That he…?"
The elder gave a faint snort.
"Finally figured it out?"
The young man swallowed hard. "Supreme Elder's disciple…?"
The elder nodded lightly.
"Only disciples of that level receive ten days of training time for free."
The young man stood there in silence. His gaze slowly shifted back to Xiao Feng's departing figure.
A moment later, a bitter smile appeared on his face.
"So that's why…"
Supreme Elder.
That kind of existence was something ordinary disciples like him would never even have the chance to meet.
No wonder…
No wonder the other party carried himself so calmly.
He recalled how he had casually spoken to Xiao Feng earlier, even joking around.
A trace of cold sweat formed on his back.
"…And I was calling him little brother like that…"
The elder snorted lightly. "If he cared, you wouldn't be standing here right now."
The young man let out a dry laugh.
Then he shook his head with a faint smile. "Still… he doesn't seem like the type to rely on status."
Then he turned and left, still processing everything that had just happened.
Behind him, the elder had already closed his eyes once more, as if nothing had happened.
Xiao Feng stepped into the first-layer corridor, his footsteps echoing faintly against the stone walls.
The passage stretched long and slightly curved, lined with tightly shut cultivation rooms on both sides. Heat lingered in the air, like a quiet reminder of the earth flame veins running beneath the cave.
Occasionally, a few disciples passed by, their expressions focused, most heading toward the inner sections.
Xiao Feng did not stop.
His gaze swept across the rooms near the entrance, but he only gave them a brief glance and didn't enter.
Instead, he lifted his feet and walked directly toward the advanced cultivation cave area.
Although that young man had given him a warning earlier that good cultivation rooms were reserved for powerful personal disciples.
Ordinary disciples weren't supposed to occupy them.
But wasn't he also one of them—if not better?
The deeper he went, the more the temperature subtly increased. The air grew heavier, and even the faint traces of flame energy became more noticeable.
After a while, he reached the deepest section of the first layer.
However, he was immediately met with gazes containing faint hostility from all directions.
A few figures stood near certain doors, their auras restrained but not concealed. Their gazes swept over him without politeness—sharp, measuring and faintly hostile.
One of them even let out a soft snort, clearly displeased that someone unfamiliar had entered this area.
But he completely ignored these gazes and, with an equally indifferent look, slowly swept his eyes around.
To him, these gazes held no weight.
If they wanted the room, they could try and take it.
Compared to the outer areas, cultivation rooms were greatly fewer in number.
Xiao Feng counted a total of forty-eight rooms. These cultivation rooms varied greatly—some accommodating five people for simultaneous cultivation, while others were only for a single person.
His gaze lingered briefly on a few occupied rooms.
Some emitted stronger heat fluctuations than others. The difference was subtle, but not insignificant.
Clearly, even among these rooms, there were tiers.
The closer to the core of the flame vein, the denser the energy.
Xiao Feng's eyes narrowed slightly.
'If this is only the first layer… then what about the deeper ones?'
No wonder there was such competition for advanced cultivation rooms.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he scanned the surroundings.
Then, he finally spotted one room with no faint light flickering on the gate.
He quietly let out a sigh of relief, then quickly approached.
Arriving at the entrance of the better cultivation room, Xiao Feng lightly touched the door panel, but his brows raised slightly.
This door, which looked like ordinary stone from a distance, actually emitted a faint chill. When he gently tapped it with his finger, a crisp, unusual sound echoed—not like wood, but more like metal.
"It seems the sect's higher-ups were worried that people cultivating inside might be suddenly disturbed by someone kicking open the door, leading to a mishap in their cultivation."
Hearing the low sound and feeling the hardness of the door, Xiao Feng breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.
Gently pushing open the door, he slowly entered, then securely bolted it shut.
At the moment he closed the door, Xiao Feng, with his back to it, naturally did not notice the surprise and amusement in the eyes of some nearby disciples when they saw the cultivation room he had chosen.
Upon entering this cultivation room, he tightly closed the door, then began to survey his surroundings.
This room was clearly designed for single-person cultivation. In the center of the room, there was a black stone platform just large enough for two people to sit cross-legged.
Xiao Feng's gaze moved once around the room before settling.
On one side of the wall, there was a narrow slit, clearly meant for inserting the cave token.
He walked over without hesitation and inserted his token into the slot.
Click.
A faint mechanical sound echoed.
The next moment, a low hum vibrated through the walls. From beneath the stone floor, some kind of formation seemed to start. Faint patterns lit up across the floor—barely visible, like veins beneath stone.
The entire room seemed to sink slightly, as if locking itself into place.
Only then did the flame energy begin to rise.
A thin strand of heat rose… then another… then countless more.
In an instant, the entire room was filled with dense, surging flame energy.
The temperature spiked sharply.
Xiao Feng's eyes twitched slightly.
So fast…
The flame energy here was far richer than outside—almost to the point of being aggressive.
Without wasting time, he walked toward the black stone platform and finally sat down cross-legged on it.
However, he didn't immediately start cultivating. Instead, he opened his Origin Dao Pupil.
His vision changed instantly, turning colorless.
Everything lost its original hue, replaced by a pale, desaturated perception.
And within that, something new appeared.
A faint, pale-yellow fog lingered in the air. It drifted slowly, like a thin mist, yet carried a subtle, almost imperceptible fluctuation.
Xiao Feng froze for a moment.
Back when he was with that young man, he had casually observed his surroundings with the pupil.
At that time, there was nothing special in this place.
But now, this fog-like thing which filled the room was reacting differently to his Origin Dao Pupil.
His gaze sharpened as he focused deeper.
The faint yellow mist seemed to originate from below the stone platform, rising in threads, spreading outward before dissipating.
"This is earth flame energy."
Understanding flashed in his eyes as he realized what this pale yellow fog was.
This wasn't ordinary spiritual energy.
It was the essence of the flame veins beneath the cave.
He quickly pieced it together.
His Origin Dao Pupil had treated it similarly to how it detected heavenly aura—only much, much fainter.
Which meant it recognized this as a kind of natural treasure.
Xiao Feng's thoughts moved rapidly.
The reason he hadn't noticed it before was simple. He hadn't been deep enough.
Only here, near the better rooms of the first layer, did the earth flame energy become dense enough to be perceived.
Xiao Feng did not withdraw his gaze immediately.
Instead, he focused deeper.
The pale-yellow fog was not uniform. Some strands were denser, others thinner, flowing in different directions like currents beneath the surface.
It was chaotic… yet carried a hidden pattern.
As if following the structure of the underground flame veins.
A thought surfaced in his mind—
'If I can trace this flow… I might be able to locate stronger nodes of flame energy.'
Then, without lingering further, Xiao Feng closed the pupil and began cultivating.