Behind gigantic boulders was a huge passageway in the dark.

Chen Jingzhai waved his sleeve and sent out a fireball. It floated in the space before him.

The fireball lit up the surrounding space, revealing the smooth rock walls on both sides of the passageway.

His feet levitated off the ground as he followed the passageway down toward the lowest level.

His divine mind also expanded as he kept advancing nonstop, seeking the actual entrance of the cave residence.

This was not difficult, and he did not waste much time on this.

He soon arrived at a stone door deep within the passageway.

The stone door appeared ancient. It was covered in moss and vines, and a pair of crane statues stood before the entrance.

Chen Jingzhai’s divine mind could sense that there were no traps around the stone door.

The original Restrictions had completely failed due to the passage of time.

This might have been the reason why the shadow mouse managed to escape.

Chen Jingzhai shook his head when he saw the punch-size holes in the stone door.

His anticipation gradually waned. He no longer had high hopes for the rewards he could obtain behind it.

Without the protection of a Restriction, even if there were good items inside, they would have essentially decayed over time.

The value of anything that remained would be significantly reduced.

Even so, Chen Jingzhai still pushed the door open and entered inside.

A cloud of gray dust flew into his face. He swept it away just as it was about to hit him.

This was a standard cave residence.

It was equipped with a study, a training room, a medicine garden, and many other facilities.

It was as Chen Jingzhai had expected. Many things had decayed over time due to the Restriction ceasing to function.

The spiritual stones in the training room had become ordinary rocks.

The various bamboo slips and parchments on the bookshelves turned to dust at the slightest touch.

Cauldrons, item cauldrons, and magic items had all become ordinary items.

Chen Jingzhai searched around carefully. Eventually, he managed to find something.

He found the seeds of dozens of spiritual herbs in the medicine garden.

Among these seeds were seeds of seven Grade 2 spiritual herbs and four Grade 3 spiritual herbs.

He could not identify what kind of seeds the remaining two were.

These seeds were alive because the soil still contained essence power.

If the essence power in the soil had decayed further, the seeds would have perished.

Chen Jingzhai even discovered traces of bite marks on the seeds from the shadow mouse. This made him frown.

Based on the seeds, he deduced that there were some high-grade spiritual herbs in this medicine garden.

A portion of the medicinal herbs had not completely perished. As a result, the shadow mouse had struck a gold mine.

Fortunately, the shadow mouse was uninterested in the seeds. Otherwise, Chen Jingzhai would have left empty-handed.

Aside from these seeds, Chen Jingzhai also found some writings on the stone wall of the training room.

They were writings of someone’s insights. Among them were contents about formations as well as beast rearing methodology.

There were some differences between the characters in this writing and modern-day characters.

From these differences, he could deduce that the cultivators of this cave residence lived more than 10,000 years ago.

Chen Jingzhai studied the contents of the stone wall. Finally, he discovered the truth behind the survival of the shadow mouse.

The cultivators who lived in this cave residence had captured many shadow mice to practice removing the ferocity of demonic beasts.

Unbeknownst to why, the cultivators had left halfway.

If the formation and Restriction had not failed, these shadow mice would not have been able to leave the formation. Instead, they would have continued slumbering.

As time passed, the formation would have changed these mice while they slept.

Unfortunately, something happened to the cave residence, causing the formation to malfunction and the Restriction to fail.

Most of the shadow mice perished.

Only a small number of them survived and reproduced.

Shadow mice of Grade 1 and above had powerful reproductive abilities.

As long as there was food, it could rapidly multiply into swarms.

Sadly, this cave residence was buried deep underground. As time passed, most of it was destroyed.

Chen Jingzhai had encountered the final surviving shadow mouse.

Due to the cave residence’s Restriction failing, it managed to dig itself out and escape.

In the end, it encountered Chen Jingzhai on the prairie and was eventually destroyed.

Chen Jingzhai recorded the contents written on the stone wall before he waved his hand and erased everything.

After he did a thorough search of the cave residence and ensured that he had not missed out on anything, he left the place.

He came to the passageway entrance and sat cross-legged in the middle of the hallucination formation.

He put a few stones in place and reconfigured the formation easily, ensuring that he would not be disturbed.

Then, he closed his eyes and entered into a state of meditation as he recalled the contents of the stone wall.

After he consolidated his learning, he concluded that the contents of the stone wall could be divided into three parts.

One part touched on formations. There were a total of three hallucination formations recorded, one of which was the formation at the entrance.

The three formations were the Mountain Duplication Formation, the Twin Cranes Duplication Formation, and the Golden Kraken Silhouette Formation.

The formation at the entrance was the Mountain Duplication Formation.

This was a formation that Chen Jingzhai had not encountered before. It was only a Grade 2 formation.

However, it possessed a powerful hallucinating effect on whoever stepped into it. It worked exceptionally well amidst the mountains and boulders.

Among the remaining two formations, one of them was the Twin Cranes Duplication Formation. It was also a Grade 2 formation that he was not familiar with.

He had read about the third formation, the Golden Kraken Silhouette Formation, before in a recording on Daoxuan Peak. It was a Grade 3 formation.

The second part talked about beast rearing methodology.

More precisely, it was knowledge related to cultivating beasts. The documentation was systematic and comprehensive.

Beast rearing methodology was mainly divided into two subcategories: basic methods to tame the beasts and techniques to remove the ferocity of the beasts.

Chen Jingzhai comprehended the beast taming methods with ease.

However, the techniques to remove the ferocity of the beasts were profound. For now, he could only memorize them without understanding anything.

Unfortunately, there were very few details recorded about the formation used to remove the ferocity of the beasts.

The recording only touched on the miraculous effects of the formation and some reflection on using it.

The third part talked about spells.

Unlike ordinary spells, most of the spells carved on the stone wall integrated the use of beasts.

The three spells documented were the White Crane Flying Spell, the Golden Kraken Driving Spell, and the Rhinoceros Mountain Moving Spell.

The three spells were incredibly miraculous and needed to be unleashed in collaboration with beasts.

They could not be unleashed alone. For ordinary cultivators, they were useless.

Chen Jingzhai meditated on the hallucination formation for half a day.

In the secret zone, there were no sun, moon, or stars. Therefore, there was no night and day.

After half a day, he could set up a Mountain Duplication Formation at will. Only then did he leave.

In Feiliu Valley, seven days had passed since the three poor disciples were thrown out of the secret zone by Chen Jingzhai.

For the following seven days, no disciples came out.

Today was the eighth day. As the morning mist coalesced, a disciple of Elixir Peak was transported out of the secret zone.

He was covered in injuries and appeared pathetic.

Luckily, after escaping the secret zone, he still had some strength left, so he had not fallen into the lake.

“What happened?” asked the Golden Core Sage of Elixir Peak with a frown.

“I encountered a guardian beast,” said the disciple bitterly. He stood on the giant boulder and said, “It was a Grade 3 fishy gadfly. It was guarding a medicine garden. I got caught off guard and was thrown out.”

“A Grade 3 fishy gadfly has already coalesced into a demonic core. It is one step away from being able to change its shape,” said the Golden Core Sage of Elixir Peak with a glint in his eye. “Did you catch a glimpse of the condition of the medicine garden?”

“I managed to look around before I was caught off guard,” said the disciple bitterly. “The lowest grade medicinal herbs in the medicine garden are Grade 2. I even saw Heavenly Essence Fruit.”

“Are you sure that there is Heavenly Essence Fruit in the garden?” asked the Golden Core Sage as his face reddened in excitement.

“I’m sure of it.” The disciple nodded and said, “They look like Heavenly Spirit Fruit. The fruit has red dots on it. Each stem is thorny and has either seven or nine leaves. The base of the plant has a unique pattern, and it spirals upward. Everything looks exactly like how it is described in the book.”

“Very good!” exclaimed the Golden Core Sage of Elixir Peak as he nodded his head with a smile. He patted the disciple on the shoulder and continued, “It is good enough that you have made this discovery. Don’t be discouraged! Bring out your storage bag, and let’s take a look.”

“Yes!” answered the disciple of Elixir Peak as he offered up his storage bag.

The Golden Core Sage immediately opened it up and took out the items inside.

After estimating the value of the disciple’s findings, he paid the latter with spiritual stones on the spot.

Each peak would purchase the rewards obtained from the secret zone at a standard price. The disciples would receive 30 percent of the total value.

If a spiritual herb or magic item caught the disciple’s eye, they could offset the value in spiritual stones or pay with spiritual stones directly. These were the rules for sects exploring the secret zone. Everyone agreed with them.