However, before any action could be taken, the Cat Lady Emperor received a throat lock.

Village coiled its tail around the neck of the Cat Lady Emperor and tossed her down from the top of the cave.

Fortunately, the tough kid was resilient; falling from a height of a hundred feet only made the hem of her clothes a bit dirty.

"What are you doing? It's not like she's your wife, touching her won't make her pregnant." The Cat Lady Emperor looked at her new companion she picked up this morning with grievance.

Disguised as a little snake, Village did not respond, yawned, and climbed back onto the Cat Lady Emperor's head, pointing with its tail tip to indicate she should enter the cave.

Coincidentally, Li Yueqi's voice also rang out from within the cave.

"Come here, see what I've discovered?"

"Oh, coming!" The Cat Lady got up and chased toward the direction of the voice.

...

As they delved deeper, the vegetation decreased, revealing the rock walls beneath, resembling skeletal and muscular patterns, as if truly walking within the belly of a whale.

Before long, the Cat Lady Emperor saw the thing Li Yueqi mentioned.

"Look at this." Li Yueqi made the light ball in her hand a bit brighter, illuminating the entire cavern.

It was large swathes of rock paintings.

The rock paintings were all crafted with red pigments, meticulous in technique, simple in expression, depicting scenes of ancient folks living in the wild forest.

Yet the scenes depicted were too dense, occasionally piling atop each other, seemingly intertwining several generations of lives together.

Watching for too long would induce dizziness and even a sense of nausea.

But nausea aside, the Cat Lady Emperor was quite pleased.

Though she was the gatekeeper saying welcome, being an old employee of Fried Shide, she hadn't eaten pork but had watched pigs run every day.

With a mere glance, she knew these rock paintings must be valuable.

Package them as ancient secrets, written by Great Power, the more nauseating they appeared, the higher they could sell for.

If you don't understand it, that's right; it must be genuine if it's incomprehensible. At that point, they would only question themselves, not others.

Simply knocking off a slab or making rubbings, and then taking out a small loan to earn a quick fifty, would be an easy feat.

The Cat Lady Emperor rubbed her hands like a fly, ready to fetch her crime tools, only to receive another throat lock.

"Master, save me, save me, I need to wash this off!" the Cat Lady Emperor pleaded as she was dragged to the ground.

Li Yueqi didn't even glance her way, too lazy to bother.

It wasn't until the Emperor yielded that Village loosened its tail.

Rising from the ground, the angry Cat Lady Emperor aimed to grab the 'little snake' atop her head, but it slipped away, evading her grasp several times.

"Hmph, truly a cat lady and snake, kindly bringing you to play, and you strangle me. I'll replace you when we get back; no life spirit beast contract with you." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Village was indifferent, coiling again atop the Cat Lady Emperor's head, adopting an attitude of don't care, do as you please.

After grumbling a bit more, the Cat Lady Emperor pouted as she followed behind Li Yueqi further into the cave.

As they continued deeper, the figures in the rock paintings began to change; the clothing regressed towards a more primitive state, and scenes of sacrifice and warfare started appearing.

"Speaking of, Master, did that brother who explored here before mention rock paintings?" the Cat Lady Emperor asked, somewhat afraid, tugging at Li Yueqi's clothes whisperingly.

Li Yueqi, "No… However, many Secret Realms only reveal their true form on certain days and times; maybe we just got lucky today."

Cat Lady Emperor, "But I'm scared."

"What's to fear when I'm here."

"What use are you, can't even beat that guy Zhang Ze."

"Shut up, say one more word and I'll make you the rear defense."

The two mumbled as they continued deeper into the cave, with the moist sea air wafting, strange plants and animals reappearing.

If this Cat Ear Cave were the inside of a giant whale, then by now they had reached where the whale's stomach would be.

As the previous cultivator who came here described, there were many wondrous creatures about. The two grabbed a few completing their task for the day, yet the rock paintings hadn't vanished; they grew even denser.

Driven by curiosity, the two pressed on.

The walls not covered by fungi, rocks in the water, and roots of land-based corals were all densely painted with rock paintings. As rock paintings grew more numerous, in the end, it was impossible to discern what was depicted, only large swathes of red.

The red was so vivid, it seemed as if the 'whale' had come back to life.

Unknowingly, they had reached the cave's end.

A cave lake connected to the Outer Sea appeared before them, much larger than the entrance.

In the middle of the lake, Li Yueqi saw the author of the rock paintings.

A girl towering dozens of yards tall.

Her black hair reached her waist, a green robe woven of vines draped into the water, concealing part of her snake-like lower body.

As her fingers moved, red fungi emerged from the rocks, only to perish immediately, fixing the color in place.

Dreamlike shapes layered upon one another, finally forming a stroke of pure red.

"Whoa, damn, capturing such a huge lady, how many task points would that count for?"

The never cultured Cat Lady Emperor couldn't help but exclaim in her life's learned words.

"Points? What's that…"

The enormous girl wasn't deaf; she turned, looking at the noise-making silly Cat Lady.

Upon seeing her, her gaze was first confused, then excited.

Excited, her snake body moved, the lake surged, waves splashing.

"You've truly come!"

The giant girl smiled, lunging toward Li Yueqi and the Cat Lady Emperor.

Li Yueqi, "..."

As a mature cultivator, she swiftly made what she believed to be the most correct decision.

She grabbed the Cat Lady Emperor and ran.

Running so fast, her shadow was left behind.

This time, Hei Qu reacted quickly, just as Li Yueqi left, poking its head out, only to see the towering beautiful face of the girl.

Hei Qu exclaimed with cultured surprise, "What on earth is that?"

...

Thousand Mechanism Pavilion.

The Junior Sister sat in Zhang Ze's arms, browsing the intelligence collected by Lord Fuji.

All those were recently taken by Fuji while wandering around Chang State, capturing unidentified creatures on tasks with the cultivators there.

"Could this be the Mother Tree?" Junior Sister pointed at a video recording.

Due to interference, the scene in the Spirit Shadow Stone was quite blurry, just like a door lock recording.

In a lake within some non-wasteland area, a blurred figure was running across the water.

Judging by the shape, it was the size of a normal person, upper body of a girl, and the lower body… a spring.

Junior Sister wasn't sure what it was, maybe a snake body, maybe a worm, anyway, it coiled into the shape of a spring.

The girl performed water skipping in a bounce-like manner, incredibly fast, disappearing from view shortly.

"Probably." Zhang Ze held Junior Sister, appearing somewhat distracted, as if pondering something else.