Not long after that, the naive Nine-tailed Fox, braving countless dangers, located the Mechanic Sect that was situated on the West Slope of Jade Spring Mountain!

She held Qin Zhen's Identity Token and relied on her innate Charm Magic to smoothly infiltrate the sect.

However, her cunning tricks couldn't fool the Golden Core Realm cultivators in the Mechanic Sect. The Nine-tailed Fox was quickly found out!

Having ascertained that the cultivator "Qin Zhen" hadn't been harmed by the Nine-tailed Fox, the Mechanic Sect's Golden Core cultivators initially wanted to drive her out of the sect. After all, the Nine-tailed White Fox is a creature of fortune. It's inauspicious to kill it. She didn't exhibit the brutal nature of ordinary demons, so there was no need to kill her over a small mistake.

However, the fox's determination to cultivate was very firm. Under her earnest begging, she finally got the chance to cultivate at the Mechanic Sect as a protector.

Afterwards, she began to display her extraordinary talent for cultivation, as well as her incredible ability in puppetry!

Noticing this, the then Law Master of the Mechanic Sect overruled objections and allowed her to travel inside and outside the sect under the identity of "Qin Zhen." All her benefits were no different from those of the real disciples. A few years later, she was officially accepted as a Direct Disciple by the then Law Master, who personally guided her cultivation, teaching her the methods of refining and manipulating puppets!

The Nine-tailed Fox didn't disappoint her Law Master's hopes for her. In just thirty years, she had reached Class IV and had successfully cultivated a human form.

Once she had her human form, the difference between the Nine-tailed Fox and ordinary cultivators became very narrow. She began to shift her cultivation to the Mechanic Sect's fundamental cultivation method. With willpower beyond that of ordinary people, she shattered her Demon Core and recondensed a Golden Core!

Demonic beasts have a certain chance to condense a Demon Core before reaching Class IV.

The Nine-tailed Fox had formed a Demon Core thanks to her exceptional bloodline talent when she was a Class II Fox Demon. However, a Demon Core is different from a Golden Core and instead interferes with the cultivation of fundamental techniques used by Human Cultivators.

Yet her Demonic Aura still couldn't be completely refined away.

Considering that the Mechanic Sect had always been a mainstream immortal sect of the Human Race since its establishment, the Nine-tailed Fox, Qin Zhen, hardly revealed her real body. Before she acquired a spatial treasure, she would hide inside hollow puppets, dress in magic robes, and use talismans to isolate her own aura!

About four hundred years ago, the Mechanic Sect encountered a crisis that threatened its existence. With her cultivation at the Golden Core Realm (Class IV), she perfectly controlled a Class V puppet passed down by a sect Senior. She consequently helped the sect turn danger into safety.

Having achieved significant merit, the Nine-tailed Fox, Qin Zhen, took over the position of Law Master from her Master.

However, after that, she hid her real body even more intensely!

Four hundred years passed. The Nine-tailed Fox, Qin Zhen, took advantage of her Class V puppet to continuously enter various dangerous areas and secret places. She had cultivated to reach the Divine Bridge Realm as early as two hundred years ago.

The older generation of Golden Core cultivators in the Mechanic Sect had mostly passed away due to old age, and her Master also didn't have much time left. She accepted the Silver-haired Child's invitation to visit the Immortal Mansion Dungeon. On one hand, she wanted to find Immortal Pills and spiritual medicine to extend her Master's life; on the other hand, she also wanted to collect top-grade resources to refine a Class VI puppet!

No matter which of these purposes, trying to successfully accomplish them was extremely tough.

"..."

Shen Mo was momentarily at a loss for words after listening to Qin Zhen's story. He wasn't sure how to comment.

Her experiences were too extraordinary, and the details were vague, but upon careful consideration, he couldn't find any flaws. And there wasn't any significant discrepancy with the feedback from the panel!

"Indeed, Fellow Daoist Qin is... extraordinarily fortunate!"

After a long silence, Shen Mo let out a deep sigh.

However, from her words and deeds, Shen Mo could feel that this fox woman was a person who highly valued friendship and was grateful. She had willingly hidden her real body for the sake of the Mechanic Sect's image for hundreds of years and was prepared to take great risks exploring the True Immortal's Cave Mansion to prolong her Master's lifespan.

Even though she was not of Human Race origin, after entering the Immortal Mansion Dungeon, she was far more trustworthy than the Silver-haired Child.

Of course, this was on the premise that she didn't conceal critical information to mislead Shen Mo's impression of her. With the feedback from Destiny [Examine], and the shrewd Silver-haired Child providing a second layer of scrutiny, this possibility was rather small!

"Fellow Daoist Qingyun overpraises. I see that Fellow Daoist also has profound Immortal Fate..."

After Qin Zhen finished speaking about her life history, she still seemed to have more to say and started again, from asking Shen Mo about his past experiences to talking about the demon cultivators of the Red Flame Sect. Her mouth barely had a moment's rest!

When she controlled Puppet Yama to speak, she had seemed silent and uncommunicative, but now that her real body was exposed and she no longer needed to pretend, she had turned into a chatterbox.

This contrast was even more surprising to Shen Mo than learning her true identity as a Nine-tailed Fox Demon!

Unfortunately, Shen Mo had brought this trouble upon himself. He could only patiently endure Qin Zhen's chatter until the Evil-eating Centipede successfully flew into the Wind Flame Mountain Sky Pit.

...

The demonic fire wind in the Sky Pit was much fiercer than in the Outer Realm!

The Evil-eating Centipede followed the somewhat dim escaping light of the Silver-haired Child and Kang Haoxiu, falling all the way down.

After falling millions of miles, Shen Mo finally saw a spatial rift tens of thousands of miles long and ten thousand miles wide, but it still seemed trivial in the vast Sky Pit. The Silver-haired Child and Kang Haoxiu stopped not far from the rift!

"Fellow Daoists, once we enter this spatial rift, we will find the True Immortal's Cave Mansion. I will go in first!" The Silver-haired Child sent a psychic message to Shen Mo and the others through his sense, and as soon as he finished speaking, he turned into a stream of light and flew into the pitch-black rift.

Immediately after, Longyuan Immortal Master Kang Haoxiu also flew into it.

Seeing this, Shen Mo didn't hesitate any longer, directing the Evil-eating Centipede, carrying him and Qin Zhen, to plunge headfirst into the rift.

The moment he crossed the spatial barrier, Shen Mo felt the omnipresent demonic fire wind instantly disappear. What followed, however, was an exceptionally terrifying pressure, hundreds or even thousands of times stronger than the burden of diving ten thousand miles under the sea without using a water-repelling method!

In an instant, the Evil-eating Centipede let out a mournful cry, and its huge body rapidly fell.

Even though it had already advanced to a Class V big demon, under such terrifying pressure, it still could not carry Puppet Yama, which possessed a colossal weight!

Having somewhat recovered, Qin Zhen quickly controlled the puppet, unfolded the iron wings on its back, and with a powerful flap downwards, flew off the Evil-eating Centipede's back. But even this puppet found flying far more strenuous than in the Outer Realm.

After the Evil-eating Centipede stabilized itself, Shen Mo finally had a moment to observe their surroundings.

This Immortal Mansion Dungeon's overall terrain and landscape didn't differ much from normal Fairylands and Dungeons. However, the scenes that met Shen Mo's eyes were incredibly decaying, somewhat similar to those worlds approaching extinction and about to be swallowed by the Death Ghost Realm, just without the aura of that realm!

The nature's spiritual energy was more than ten times denser than in the Outer Realm, but likewise, a decaying and declining scent permeated the Spiritual Qi.