The cheat system is useless, but I have the strongest living dad.

The dark stone steps were silent and empty, offering no sense of security. Shen Yao urged him, "Aren't you coming?"

Jiang Ming took a deep breath and walked down the stone steps in the darkness. The spirit lamps on both sides turned on with his steps. The stone-shaped spirit lamps emitted a dim yellow light, just enough to see the scene inside.

What comes into view is a long stone path with many stone doors on the walls on both sides.

These stone gates look the same as those in the Thunderous Realm.

But this place cannot be the Thunder Realm.

Jiang Ming carried Shen Yao forward. He walked very slowly. Shen Yao saw stone doors on both sides, some closed and some open. Inside the open stone doors, there were more or less the corpses of strange beasts.

She had never seen any of these strange beasts before, but she noticed that some of them had fish tails and gill fins, making them look like aquatic creatures.

Half an hour later, Jiang Ming stopped in front of a stone door. He pressed the mechanism on the door, and the stone door slowly opened.

Thinking there might be a live beast inside, Shen Yao tightened her grip on Jiang Ming's neck and involuntarily shrank back.

She's now a useless person with no spiritual power, and she doesn't want to die here.

Jiang Ming's voice came from above: "Are you scared?"

Shen Yao lowered her voice: "I'm useless now, so naturally I'm afraid. Does Hall Master Jiang have a penchant for killing alien beasts with useless people?"

Jiang Ming's voice was surprisingly gentle: "Don't be afraid, there are no strange beasts inside."

He carried Shen Yao through the stone gate: "Look, does this place look familiar?"

Shen Yao looked around and saw a stone chamber inside. The chamber was neither too big nor too small, and it was square. The walls were made of large, bluish-gray stone bricks. The walls were very clean and looked like they had just been built.

The stone chamber was very empty, except for a stone table and a stone bed against the left wall.

The stone bed was covered with soft cushions, and the top layer was a pale yellow animal hair blanket.

Shen Yao felt that seeing such a stone bed in the current situation was more terrifying than seeing an unknown beast.

She was tense, breathing rapidly, and her body was somewhat stiff.

Seeing her reaction, Jiang Ming asked her expectantly, "Have you remembered anything?"

Shen Yao turned to look at him, her peach blossom eyes widening into bulges: "What do I need to remember? Jiang Ming, my father just went to help your sister fight the war, he's not not coming back."

Jiang Ming's eyes darkened; it seemed she hadn't remembered anything.

He closed the stone door, set up a barrier at the entrance, and placed Shen Yao on the stone bed: "Don't even think about running away. I'll stay here with you until you remember."

Shen Yao: "Aren't you afraid my father will come back and kill you?"

Jiang Ming scoffed: "Perhaps when your father comes back, you won't be able to bear killing me anymore."

"Pah!" Shen Yao took out a dagger from her storage ring and held it to her neck: "If you dare touch me, I'll die."

Jiang Ming laughed: "So you know what I care about."

I thought you didn't understand my feelings for you at all.

The knife tip pierced the skin of her neck, and blood seeped out.

Jiang Ming's smile vanished, and he snatched the dagger from her hand, healing her wound.

He turned the dagger into dust and said sternly to Shen Yao, "I won't touch you until you remember. Don't threaten me with your life."

Shen Yao: "What exactly do you want me to think about?"

Jiang Ming: "Think about everything that happened between us in the Thunder Secret Realm, the stone corridor outside, the strange beasts, how you were injured by the beasts, how I saved you and brought you to this stone chamber. You need to remember everything that happened after that."

Shen Yao was incredibly annoyed. How could she possibly think something that hadn't even happened? "I've said it hundreds of times, I didn't spend any time with you in the Thunder Secret Realm. You were under the influence of an illusion and took it as real."

"Impossible!" Jiang Ming's tone intensified, his expression almost maniacal: "If it were an illusion, there wouldn't be any contract seals or stone treasures."

She really couldn't explain the contract seal and the stone treasure; they remained an unsolved mystery.

Realizing he had been too harsh, Jiang Ming softened his tone: "Feng Yu has been locked up. If you cooperate and think it over carefully, I will release him once you remember."

As for whether it will be dead or crippled when it is released, he cannot guarantee that.

There was nothing unusual about the mark between her collarbones. Shen Yao thought that her husband should be safe now. As long as Yunhe was safe, she could cooperate with the patient with severe delusions and pretend to think about it.

The communication token at his waist was snatched away by the madman: "He really is obsessed with giving you unlucky things."

Shen Yao: "Give it back to me!"

Jiang Ming ignored her and casually set a restriction on her storage ring, making it impossible for her to retrieve her items.

He flipped the communication token over and saw that this one, with the sun and moon shining together, had two more lines of small characters than the previous one: "The Immortal Lord travels through the Misty Mountains, where the Misty Mountains are filled with cloud-covered rivers. My heart is yours, and I pledge myself to you; we will travel together on the cloud-covered river in our wild goose boat."

Clouds and rivers accompany wild geese on boats? Ah, well, that depends on whether he's destined to be with them.

With a forceful squeeze of his palm, the communication signal turned into dust, scattering like quicksand on the ground.

The moment the communication token shattered, Feng Yu sensed Shen Yao's location. This move was inspired by crushing Jiang Ming's communication token in the Thunder River.

After that, he used this tracking technique on many of the magical artifacts he made for Shen Yao, to prevent them from getting separated again and being unable to find each other's location.

After he improved the tracking technique, only he could sense it; other cultivators could not detect it.

Beneath the outer hall of the alchemy room, Feng Yu was searching for the mechanism to a hidden chamber. A star-shaped spirit lamp hung beside her, filling the chamber with warm light.

The dark room is protected by arrays or barriers; the walls and ceiling cannot be forcibly broken, and teleportation talismans cannot be used to escape.

On the upside-down darkroom wall, there are many squares of the same size, most of which are brownish-brown, with a few of different colors.

The ground was covered with overturned tables, chairs, and cabinets; he had already checked them and there was nothing unusual about them.

The mechanism is probably one of the squares.

Feng Yu observed carefully. The squares of different colors were all very bright, as if they were enticing him to investigate. He had a feeling that they were dangerous and should not be touched lightly.

The brown squares are arranged haphazardly and without any pattern.

He picked one and pulled it open; three words floated out from the compartment: 'Stupid thing.'

It was like a prank, not like Jiang Ming's style.

Open another one, and four words floated out from the grid: 'Second row, third from the left.'

The third one from the left in the second row on the wall is a bright red square, which doesn't look good at all.

He continued opening the brown checkered boxes, pulling one open, and three words floated out: 'Coward.'

I opened several in a row, and they all contained the words "coward".

It seems they're forcing him to open the third red square on the left in the second row.

Using his spirit sword, he pried open the red grid, from which flew a round mirror. In the mirror was a man without a mask, shirtless.

He turned his back in the mirror, revealing the crisscrossing scars on his back.

Feng Yu scoffed, and Jiang Ming would only use his scars to provoke him. He suppressed the urge to smash the round mirror and continued to open other squares.

Opening a brown square revealed the words: "Ugly monster."

Feng Yu frowned, somewhat doubting Jiang Ming's abilities. He seemed so naive that she didn't really want to be his opponent.

He switched to another wall and continued to open the squares on the other wall.

The words "ugly monster" drifted away, and a "crack" sound came from the dark room. He turned around and saw that the round mirror had fallen to the ground and shattered with a "crack".

A surge of spiritual energy rose from the shattered mirror, and in the reflection, 'Feng Yu,' with pitch-black eyes, stood before him, a spiritual sword gathering behind her, charging towards him...