Chapter 141: The Aura of the Heaven Stage

As Yu Yan's voice faded, the Golden Spirit Vine trembled slightly, swiftly slipped away from Yun Duo'er's wrist, and scurried toward the depths of the cave.

"Little master, you just follow slowly behind! How could a trivial task like scouting the path possibly require you?"

The Golden Spirit was shivering all over.

It could tell that the little master's mother was not joking with it. For a brief moment just now, she had truly harbored the intent to kill!

The Golden Spirit could be said to be the one among Yu Yan and her daughter's spirit beasts and mounts that had stayed with them the longest. It had acknowledged Yun Duo'er as its master during the dungeon adaptation period, and thus, all along the way, it had witnessed the entire process of Yu Yan slaughtering her way through everything.

From the very beginning, when entering every high-level dungeon required Yu Yan to tread carefully and plot meticulously, to later on when her speed grew increasingly faster—Earth-rank grade seven, grade eight, and even grade nine dungeon monsters—countless had died at Yu Yan's hands.

Although the vast majority of them had been schemed to death, it was more than enough to demonstrate Yu Yan's terrifying strength!

When she genuinely intended to trap a certain dungeon monster, even one as powerful as an Earth-rank grade nine could hardly escape death. Right now, it was merely a Mysterious-rank grade five spirit vine; back then, Yu Yan had chopped down countless blood-thirsty vines just like it in the B-rank dungeon "Blood-thirsty Vine Forest."

How could it dare to offend such a malevolent star!

Come to think of it, it had simply grown a bit too arrogant lately because the little master was too good to it.

Moreover, with Yu Yan around, how could the little master possibly be in any danger? Therefore, it often wanted to slack off.

For instance, it had just absorbed quite a bit of blood from low-rank dungeon monsters. Although those were only grade one to grade three bloodlines, absorbing too much still left it somewhat bloated. It had just wanted to coil around the little master's wrist to rest for a bit, intending to scout the path for the little master only after refining the blood within its body.

Who would have thought that Yu Yan would catch it in the act and nearly develop the intent to kill?

The Golden Spirit felt a lingering fear in its heart. It seemed that for the next period of time, it would have to work much harder, lest Yu Yan get displeased and truly hack it to death.

While the little master was formidable against others, preserving its life under the female fiend's hands was a doubtful prospect. Besides, given the relationship between the little master and the female fiend, if the female fiend really wanted to deal with it, it was hard to say whether the little master would step in to stop her.

The most likely outcome would be the little master grieving for a while and then completely forgetting about it.

At the thought of this possibility, for some unknown reason, the Golden Spirit—despite merely being a spirit vine—suddenly grasped a uniquely human emotion known as "sorrow."

As a result, its spiritual consciousness advanced by a minor rank, ascending from grade five early stage to grade five middle stage.

The Golden Spirit: "!!!"

Can it even work like this?

For a moment, it didn't know whether it should continue feeling sad or rejoice according to its heart's desire.

The deep, winding cave stretched on endlessly.

The Golden Spirit scurried ahead through the cave alone. As a spirit vine, it had virtually no natural predators. After all, no moderately normal dungeon monster would ever think a vine had anything edible about it.

Even if some clueless dungeon monster did want to eat it...

The thinned vine body was only as thick as a little finger, and biting it was no easy task anyway.

Therefore, as a scouting spirit vine, the Golden Spirit still felt quite secure inside.

However, very soon, it stopped thinking that way.

The earth... No, this aura, it felt like the scent of the Heaven-rank!

The Golden Spirit was terrified that it might be sensing it incorrectly.

After all, although information related to the Heaven-rank had always existed deep within the consciousness of every dungeon monster and spirit beast, even while following a fiend like Yu Yan throughout its life, it had seen very few Heaven-rank dungeon monsters.

Besides, wasn't this a D-rank dungeon?

How could Heaven-rank entities possibly appear here? This made no sense at all.

The Golden Spirit tentatively crawled forward for a short distance further, and that fear originating from the depths of its soul grew increasingly distinct.

Damn it!

It really was a Heaven-rank aura.

The Golden Spirit froze entirely in place, every single vine fiber stiffened.

As a blood-thirsty vine, all its knowledge regarding the dungeon world had been imparted to it by Yu Yan and her daughter. Concepts like "only Mysterious-rank monsters up to grade five at most can appear in D-rank dungeons"—before sensing this Heaven-rank aura, the Golden Spirit had been more than willing to believe it.

But now, it trusted its own instinctive warning even more!

"Mom, Little Jin says it sensed a Heaven-rank aura."

"Heaven-rank?"

Yu Yan frowned slightly. Impossible.

Even in the S-rank dungeon, the Firefly Soul-Devouring Sea, only one or two half-step Heaven-rank dungeon monsters would ever appear.

What right did a mere tiny D-rank dungeon have?

This was restricted by the rules of the dungeons, and it was also a law summarized by countless human predecessors in her past life through wave after wave of sacrifice. If Heaven-rank monsters could appear inside a D-rank dungeon, the humans of her past life would have long since gone extinct. It would have been impossible to establish hundreds of human bases three years after the dungeon world descended!

"I reckon the Golden Spirit is just slacking off and intentionally making up excuses to fool us."

"Mom, Little Jin says it didn't."

Yun Duo'er hesitated for a moment. In her perception, the Golden Spirit's soul body was trembling slightly.

Clearly, it was terrified to the extreme by whatever lay ahead in the cave. She decided to trust the Golden Spirit this once.

Yun Duo'er stepped forward, blocking the space between Yu Yan and the Golden Spirit.

"Little Jin wouldn't lie to me. If it says there's a Heaven-rank aura ahead, then there definitely is a Heaven-rank aura."

"There cannot be Heaven-rank living creatures inside a D-rank dungeon. What if it's a Heaven-rank non-living entity? For instance, spiritual materials, minerals, or something else entirely?"

Yu Yan's eyes flashed with a faint light. That was actually possible.

However, Heaven-rank spiritual materials and minerals were usually guarded by Earth-rank grade seven or higher dungeon monsters.

Is it possible for Heaven-rank spiritual materials to appear in a place where monsters of only grade five at most are supposed to spawn? Yu Yan still found it hard to believe, but seeing her daughter defend the Golden Spirit so fiercely, she was unwilling to break her daughter's heart either.

Whether it's a mule or a horse, just pull it out for a walk and you'll find out.

Yu Yan bypassed Yun Duo'er, reached out, and grabbed the Golden Spirit, whose vine body was rigid and clinging to the cave wall.

Seeing that its terror did not seem feigned, her doubts grew even heavier.

Throwing the Golden Spirit to Yun Duo'er, Yu Yan took the lead and walked inward. Just in case, wind-type energy circulated beneath her feet, and she was already prepared to turn around and flee at any moment. From behind came Lou Yuhui's slightly trembling voice, "Lord Yan, why don't you let me go first?"

"With that bit of strength of yours..."

Yu Yan paused for a moment. "Better not. If there are any powerful creatures inside, you wouldn't even be enough for a single bite."

Lou Yuhui: "..."

He felt somewhat insulted.

Yet compared to Yu Yan, her daughter, the blood-thirsty vine Golden Spirit, and Xiao Qing, he truly was the weakest one among them!

How suffocating; he didn't even qualify to scout the path.

"Shh—"

Yu Yan's expression turned stern, the hair on her entire body standing on end.

The planted spirit imprint between her eyebrows grew slightly warm; this was a phenomenon that only occurred whenever she was about to encounter Heaven-rank dungeon monsters. Could it be that the Golden Spirit's sensation hadn't been wrong, and there really was a dungeon monster of grade ten Heaven-rank or above here?

Yu Yan found it hard to believe, yet she had no choice but to believe it.

Standing in place and hesitating slightly, she still decided to go inside and investigate.

At worst, she would just sacrifice another batch of grade seven or even grade eight and nine fire-rhino horns. As long as they didn't run into a grade eleven or higher dungeon monster, Yu Yan believed she had the ability to preserve her life and retreat from the cave. It was just that the people behind her would become a burden by then.

They would restrict the range within which she could throw the fire-rhino horns.

And if any one of them were lost while fleeing, Yu Yan would not be happy.

"You all withdraw from the cave first and wait for me outside."

Thinking of this, Yu Yan started urging them away without the slightest hesitation.

Yun Duo'er was unwilling. "Mom, I want to stay with you."

"My lightning-type superpower is already at grade four, and I'm also a grade four bloodline awakener. I can already help you."

Although Lou Yuhui was terrified, he also spoke with conviction beside them, "Lord Yan, since I have already acknowledged you as my master, it makes no sense for me to enjoy the comforts during peaceful times while leaving my master to shoulder the dangers alone when trouble strikes..."