My best friend asked me if I was still doing system tasks.

The Stone Crystal Cave is a huge cave that extends downwards, inhabited by Stone Crystal Beasts that can be seen everywhere.

The Stone Crystal Beast eats the water and soil in the caves, and its excrement is made of stone crystal ore. When added to the crafting of magical artifacts, it can enhance defense. When used in medicine, it can be combined with other common spiritual herbs to make Qi-regulating pills such as Peiyuan Pill, Shuluo Pill, and Huayu Pill.

Stone Crystal Beasts have excellent defense but average attack power. They are gentle, timid, and easily frightened, so the group faces almost no threat from monsters.

Sheng Meixu took out a magic artifact shaped like a compass, while Lu Xizhou pulled out a detailed map of the inside of the crystal cave.

Sheng Meixu walked around the inner wall of the cave, probing up and down as if searching for a cell phone signal.

He continuously released spiritual energy to activate the magical artifact, but the spoon on the artifact always drifted erratically, failing to point to a precise location.

Sheng Meixu shook her head and put away the magic weapon: "No demonic energy was detected."

Lu Xizhou asked Ruan Chayan and Luo Hanying if they had a map, then took out two maps and handed them to the two who were looking at them expectantly, saying, "In that case, we'll have to carefully investigate each place one by one."

"The Stone Crystal Cave is unfathomably deep. The map marks the locations that cultivators have visited most frequently over the past hundred years. People who come here will naturally head towards the places with the most Stone Crystal mines."

Lu Xizhou looked at the map and said, "How about we go check out the fork in the road on the left first?"

Everyone agreed, so they entered the left fork in the road and continued inwards. The journey was calm, and the group changed lanes several times, heading towards the fork marked on the map as having the most crystal mines.

The cave is pitted and uneven due to water erosion, and there are traces of stone crystal beasts gnawing in some places. Stone crystal mines are everywhere.

Luo Hanying and Ruan Chayan looked at the ice-blue stone that emitted a fluorescent glow, feeling a complex mix of emotions: they wanted to touch it but also felt disgusted.

The group's consciousness was constantly being projected outwards, and they had to wade across the underground river and bend over to walk through low-lying areas from time to time.

"Xiange, can you give me a straight answer? Is this place related to our main quest?"

Luo Hanying examined the low-grade stone crystal ore in the dark tunnel and asked in her mind.

Ruan Chayan and Luo Hanying hadn't seen Xiange for quite some time, and they didn't know where she had gone. They just asked her in their minds if they had any questions.

String Song stammered as if someone had covered its mouth: "I can't say for sure."

Well, I'll just give you a heads-up, this is the only time, okay? You're not allowed to ask me these kinds of questions again. We have rules that we can't reveal too much to the host.

This place is related to your mission.

Ruan Chayan asked, puzzled: "As the system, shouldn't you tell us everything?"

Shouldn't we have your assistance when doing tasks? Shouldn't we discuss and solve problems together? Otherwise, what's the point of having a system?

String Song said helplessly, "That's how most systems work, but I can't. I know too much; if I say everything, the world will collapse."

It was practically a demigod, and its words might have unpredictable consequences for the mission world, so it had to be cautious.

Don't let it become a simple task for the two of them, but because of a few words from it, a butterfly effect occurs, increasing the difficulty of the task. At that time, it and those two idiots will have nowhere to cry.

Luo Hanying always felt that Xiange was joking: [“You just said something and the world collapses? What would happen if the world collapsed? It would explode?”]

Xian Ge said nonchalantly, "If you don't believe me, then don't believe me. But if either of you asks me about things I can't say again, I'll have to disable my abilities. That way, it'll be better for everyone."

I don't know, so there's no need to say.

Luo Hanying: [“You’ve really done all sorts of ‘good’ things. I can’t understand why there’s a system like you that can’t say anything.”]

Ruan Chayan sighed: "If it won't tell us, it won't tell us. At least we both know this place is related to the main quest."

String Song decided to give the two hosts a heads-up: "Since we've already gotten this far, I'll tell you both in advance."

After completing the main questline for this phase, I will be away for a while, but don't worry, it won't be long, at most half a month.

I used my offspring data to bring several new hosts to other timelines, so I need to check on their mission progress.

Luo Hanying exclaimed dramatically: "No way?! We two aren't your only two hosts?"

Why are you seeing other people outside?

Can a system as fickle as yours properly guide its host?

String Song chose to ignore Luo Hanying's statement: "At that time, I will leave you a data release task for the offspring, so that you can check the task details."

When the time comes, you can ask it anything, and it will answer all your questions without reservation.

Of course, if anything unexpected happens to you two during the mission and you feel you can't handle it yourself, then have my offspring contact me, and I'll do my best to rush back and save your lives.

Ruan Chayan & Luo Hanying: Shuan Q, it must be hard to think of something this thorough, right?

"This won't do, it's too inefficient." Ruan Chayan stopped at the fork in the road. "If we all go down the same road to check, the Stone Crystal Cave is so big, how long will it take?"

"Does Junior Sister Yan mean she wants us to break up?"

Lu Xizhou shook his head disapprovingly, "None of us have been to the Crystal Cave before, and we don't know what might happen here."

"We've come this far, it's best not to part ways."

Luo Hanying sighed: "If we hadn't split up, the map didn't say how big the Stone Crystal Cave was, or what unmarked areas were. We wouldn't have finished exploring the entire cave before the secret realm closed, would we?"

Sheng Meixu said gently, "If we split up at every fork in the road, no matter how many of us there are, it won't be enough."

There shouldn't be any problem heading towards the area with the most crystal ore. The disciple who came to the Crystal Cave was a weapon refiner in his previous life, and he would only go to the area with the most crystal ore when he came here.

The secret realm's opening time is limited; why would he waste time exploring unexplored areas?

"What if he sees a high-level stone crystal beast?"

Luo Hanying looked at Lin Zhuzui and Ruan Chayan, "You two have high cultivation levels, so you saw it too, right? A shadow with a purple stone on its forehead flashed past three times at that intersection over there."

There aren't any at those two intersections.

Things shouldn't happen more than three times, and Luo Hanying felt there was a problem.

No one took it seriously. There were just too many stone crystal beasts that had flashed by along the way. That particular stone crystal beast was at the Great Perfection of the Golden Core stage, which was higher than Luo Hanying's cultivation level, so she didn't know its exact level.

Hearing Luo Hanying say this, they simply thought she was being overly suspicious.

Ruan Chayan was also clueless, but she unconditionally supported her sisters: "The Stone Crystal Beast knows the Stone Crystal Cave best, why don't we just follow the Stone Crystal Beast that ran away and see what happens?"

Luo Hanying said shamelessly, "We're going somewhere anyway, so why don't we just go and take a look? It won't hurt to see it."

As they were talking, a group of people came out from the middle intersection, and everyone was surprised when they saw each other.

"Is it you?!"

"It's the two of you?!"