Qin Ruqing, who initially planned to cultivate for three days and nights, suddenly opened her eyes.

Wait, she hadn’t sent any messages in the group since entering this place.

After three days of silence, Little Tang would definitely be worried sick.

She needed to send a message.

Qin Ruqing broke out of her meditative state and started swimming back with a heavy breath.

Since she had already overcome the previous temperatures, re-entering the Yellow Sea felt like nothing.

She reached the shore, picked up her pouch, and took out the jade communication stone. It was flashing, so she quickly glanced at the unread messages and sighed:

“Good thing I checked back; otherwise, Little Tang would have been worried sick. Kidnapped? That’s quite an imagination.”

She began replying:

Miracle Qingqing (South Ridge Village’s Top Female Immortal): Dear ones, I’m in the process of harvesting resources. The duration is uncertain, but my life is not in danger, so don’t worry.

Remembering Tang Zifeng’s tendency to be overly worried and verbose, she added:

Miracle Qingqing: I wasn’t kidnapped. Don’t worry.

However, this bell seemed to have some connection with Fifth Lingyu… but there was no need to mention this detail to Little Tang.

She didn’t want him to worry that Fifth Lingyu might come out of the bell at night to put her in a sack.

For some reason, Tang Zifeng imagined Fifth Lingyu as a big bad villain who would always be detrimental to her.

Fifth Lingyu was a bit flamboyant and troublesome, and he probably had as many schemes as she did, thinking about how to use her value efficiently.

But this also created a sort of balance. Fifth Lingyu certainly wouldn’t kill her, otherwise, how would he use her?

She didn’t know why Tang Zifeng was so nervous.

After putting away the jade, Qin Ruqing dived back into the Yellow Sea, but this time she didn’t rush forward. Instead, she began diving deeper.

“There’s a manhole-like array in the Orange Sea, with an energy crystal core that can be absorbed. The Yellow Sea might have something similar? It’s perfect to start from the beginning and harvest all the way to the Fifth Sea.”

This time, Qin Ruqing was familiar with the route and indeed found a similar array in the Yellow Sea.

After opening it, she sat next to the yellow crystal core and began meditating and cultivating.

This time, her focus was completely immersed, with no other concerns.

At the top of the cliff in the Hell Path, Fifth Lingyu had not left at all.

He even observed Qin Ruqing returning and rummaging through her storage bag.

Unlike Qin Ruqing, his vision and spiritual sense were not blocked by the twilight barrier of the Hell Path.

Since he had cleared this area, all obstacles were naturally unobstructed.

Fifth Lingyu watched Qin Ruqing with great interest, as if enjoying a play or a story, and occasionally heard her scolding him.

Each time, Fifth Lingyu’s smile grew even wider.

He was genuinely surprised that someone dared to scold him.

“Flamboyant? Heartless rotten carrot?” He listened to her colorful language with amusement, which matched Qin Ruqing’s vibrant personality.

Fifth Lingyu listened with great interest until he saw Qin Ruqing dive underwater, seeming to discover the mysteries of the Five-Colored Sea.

His expression became more serious.

Suddenly, the heavy bronze door of the Hell Path opened automatically, and a person walked in.

He had a towering presence, with a thick black beard and feet like large boats.

It was the Director of the Southern Region, the Eleventh Elder of the Fifth Celestial Family.

Fifth Daju walked up to Fifth Lingyu, but Fifth Lingyu did not react.

He glanced towards the bottom of the cliff and said, “She just arrived at the Sacred Mountain, and you let her enter the Fourth Prison?”

“She wanted to go in herself; how could I stop her?” Fifth Lingyu replied indifferently without turning around.

Head Director Fifth Daju fell silent.

How could she know about the Fourth Prison if it wasn’t mentioned?

“I’m back to report on my duties and will leave tomorrow. How is she doing?” The Director was usually very busy managing the Southern Region’s Celestial Bureau and was rarely at Penglai.

Fifth Lingyu replied, “She’s gone underwater, discovered a formation, activated it, and is now absorbing the energy of the ancient mystic crystals one by one.”

The Head Director’s mouth twitched.

There were too many issues with this statement, involving both Qin Ruqing and Fifth Lingyu.

“She’s already activated the formation and is absorbing the ancient mystic crystals. Aren’t you worried?”

“Why should I be? Mystic crystals are meant to be absorbed. Even Fifth Family and I have absorbed them,” Fifth Lingyu said casually, shifting his legs comfortably.

“But absorbing them once will greatly reduce the power of the Five-Colored Sea, and it will take at least three months to recover. The Clan Leader and Fifth Family will have more reasons to criticize you now.”

“So what? Haven’t they criticized me enough already?”

The Director fell silent.

He couldn’t see the situation below, but Fifth Lingyu could.

This was the unique aspect of the Fourth Prison.

Because Fifth Lingyu had absorbed the sea crystals, the prison’s restrictions were lifted for him, allowing his spiritual sense to move freely in the Five-Colored Sea domain.

“How is she now?”

“She has finished absorbing the Yellow Sea mystic crystals and is about to head to the Orange Sea.”

The Director was surprised at the girl’s appetite. “Does she intend to absorb all the mystic crystals from the Five Seas?”

At this moment, Fifth Lingyu turned his head, his eyes showing a peculiar smile, and confirmed, “It’s not an intention; it’s a certainty.”

…

Qin Ruqing burped happily as she headed towards the Orange Sea. “Practicing here feels like making rapid progress.”

“It’s fantastic. Just thinking that there are four more of these wonderful things makes me very happy.”

The red crystals felt familiar and comforting to Qin Ruqing.

Qin Ruqing really wanted to drain the energy completely, but when she had absorbed a certain amount, the “manhole cover” seemed to automatically close, stopping her from absorbing any more.

She could clearly sense that this wasn’t being controlled by someone; it seemed to be an automatic mechanism of the array: a single person could only absorb so much energy.

Qin Ruqing nodded to herself. It made sense; the temperature in the Yellow Sea had obviously decreased significantly, and it needed time to recover.

If she continued to absorb, the Yellow Sea might not survive.

Returning to the orange crystal in the Orange Sea that she had already opened, Qin Ruqing closed her eyes again.

When the red-orange crystal dimmed, the same situation occurred: the cover automatically closed, which made Qin Ruqing more certain of her previous guess.

“Indeed, my earlier approach was correct…”

After absorbing the crystals from two locations, her body’s fire attribute energy reached an extremely abundant level.

She should be able to withstand the more intense Golden Sea without dying now.

Arriving at the Golden Sea, Qin Ruqing’s expression momentarily twisted as she spent a quarter of an hour adapting to the temperature here.

Floating in the fire pool, she neither rushed forward nor dove to absorb crystals but sat there in deep thought:

The crystals seemed to do more than just enhance fire attribute energy and increase her cultivation level.

There seemed to be something more…

For instance, she clearly felt that the power of the Golden Sea wasn’t reflected in its temperature. The temperature was similar to the Orange Sea, but the power was vastly different, which completely overturned her previous understanding of flames.

Moreover, she couldn’t have perceived such subtle differences before; now, she could clearly sense them.

This indicated something—her understanding of flames had deepened!

It was like a miraculous, natural, and profound comprehension, touching upon the realm of the attribute’s path!

Summarizing, Qin Ruqing sighed, “The crystal is truly a wonderful thing.”

It was a pity that she couldn’t pry it off, and being in the domain of a celestial item, she couldn’t act as recklessly as before. It was truly regrettable.

Qin Ruqing began diving, opening the manhole cover of the Golden Sea and starting to absorb.

During this process, she had a different feeling. For some reason, when absorbing the energy of the golden crystal, her innate fire became particularly restless and excited.

Moreover, the energy from the golden crystal wasn’t directed to her cultivation center; it was entirely absorbed by her flames.

When the crystal dimmed and the cover closed again, Qin Ruqing seemed to clearly hear her innate fire let out a satisfied sigh.

Qin Ruqing deliberately summoned her flames to observe and found that they didn’t seem to have changed much.

They still automatically gathered into a lotus shape, resembling smoke or mist.

She furrowed her brows momentarily but soon let it go.

Qin Ruqing didn’t dwell on it and continued forward.

Ahead was the Blue Sea. As soon as Qin Ruqing entered, she shivered.

Everything around her was a mysterious, deep blue, with a faint aura of extreme cold.

Had she switched from fire to ice?

Qin Ruqing shivered, “Well, after being scorched, now I’m frozen. Truly, the Celestial Family always manages to exceed expectations.”

She wrapped herself in her innate fire, feeling a bit better and able to think clearly.

She faced two options: continue forward or dive down to absorb the ice attribute crystals?

Qin Ruqing was very conflicted.

Fire attributes were very beneficial for her, but absorbing ice attributes could be akin to suicide.

“It might be wise not to absorb them, but just letting them go feels wrong… I’ll go down and check first; maybe there are no crystals in the Blue Sea.”

After diving down, Qin Ruqing successfully opened the cover.

Examining the blue crystals, she found herself in unprecedented confusion.

“Why not try absorbing a little? It’s painful, but dying is not that easy.”

Her Dao Physique, from before to after evolution, had always been incredibly resilient.

Especially hard to kill. If she evolved to the third stage of her Dao Body, gaining the ability to reincarnate by dripping blood, she’d be even harder to kill.

Determined to push her limits, she started absorbing the cold energy with a gold flame.