Bao Gu didn’t answer the little Celestial Fox and climbed up the chain.
Although she couldn’t channel her energy, her years of training in combat techniques and cultivation had greatly enhanced her physical strength, agility, and reflexes.
The height of a few zhang was no challenge for her, but her soaked clothes and dripping skirt were a bit of a hindrance.
Several times, her skirt got tangled around her feet, almost causing her to slip.
In front of these two demons, Bao Gu was too embarrassed to take off her wet clothes and climb up bare-chested, so she had to slow down and climb carefully.
Halfway up, she caught a glimpse of the little Celestial Fox lying weakly on the ground, looking very uncomfortable.
She turned her head to look at the little Celestial Fox, who glanced at her before retreating back into the Blood Oath Token.
Bao Gu quickly asked the little Celestial Fox hiding in the Blood Oath Token, “Are you okay?”
The little Celestial Fox replied, “It’s nothing serious, just that the talismans here are suppressing me heavily, and my spiritual energy is depleting quickly…”
After saying this, it closed its eyes and fell asleep.
Bao Gu felt that the little Celestial Fox was just a bit weak and not in serious trouble.
She woke it up, threw it two spirit fruits to eat and rest, and then continued climbing up.
Finally, Bao Gu reached the coffin.
She found that this coffin was slightly larger than usual, almost of an imperial scale.
The talisman patterns carved on the coffin were very intricate, each one seemed alive, and her hand felt hot when she touched them.
She knocked on the coffin forcefully and asked, “Senior of the demon clan, can you hear me? If you can, knock on the coffin.”
She lay on the coffin listening for a long time, her ears almost burning from the hot talisman patterns, but there was no response.
Bao Gu sat up, rubbed her ears, and asked again, “Are you still alive?”
She felt that the one inside the coffin must still be alive, otherwise, why would they keep staring at her?
She didn’t believe it was her imagination; after all, she was a Foundation Establishment stage expert now, and her spiritual sense was quite sharp.
Bao Gu sat on the coffin until her wet clothes were dried by the heat of the talisman power, but still heard no response.
She called out angrily, “Do you want to get out or not? Staring at me without making a sound, what do you mean?”
She pressed her ear to the coffin again to listen, but there was still no sound.
Bao Gu sighed and said, “Are you too weak to speak? Wait a moment!”
She climbed back down the chain to the bottom of the tower, took a deep breath, held it, and jumped into the blood pool with a splash, using her oversized storage bag to collect the talisman water from the pool.
As she sank, the water level in the pool dropped accordingly.
When she reached the bottom of the three to four zhang deep pit, the blood pool was empty.
Bao Gu stood at the bottom of the pit, dumbfounded.
She never expected the blood pool to be so deep!
Before, she had a flying sword and could fly, so height didn’t matter.
But here, without a flying sword and unable to channel her true energy, how could she climb out of such a deep pit?
Should she carve out footholds in the pit wall to climb up?
She took out the long-unused Golden Core stage axe given to her by her senior sister and struck the pit wall with all her might.
With a loud clang, the pit wall remained unscathed, but her axe chipped, and her hands went numb from the shock, almost dropping the axe.
Bao Gu then remembered that this pit was actually the Demon Locking Tower, a high-level magical artifact.
How could she cut it with a Golden Core stage axe?
She silently put away the axe and searched her oversized storage bag for anything useful.
To her delight, she found the pile of useless debris they had dug out when trapped in the dragon’s belly.
Bao Gu began to fill the pit with the debris from her oversized storage bag, stepping on the rising pile as she went up.
When the pit was filled, she climbed out.
Bao Gu looked up at the coffin and saw that the red talisman patterns on the bottom were gone.
She climbed back up the chain to the coffin and knocked on it forcefully, saying, “Can you hear me? If you can, knock on the coffin.”
There was still no sound from the coffin.
Bao Gu was puzzled, thinking, “Is the restriction not fully lifted?”
She looked up at the top of the tower, considering removing the restriction there as well, but didn’t dare act rashly without knowing its energy source.
If she could cut a few chains and move the coffin away from the strongest part of the restriction, the power of the restriction might weaken, and the great demon inside the tower might be able to move.
However, the tower was of such a high level that she couldn’t possibly shake it.
Bao Gu was at a loss.
She was trapped here and couldn’t get out.
The barrier at the tower door prevented her senior sister and the others from coming in.
To get out alive, she had to solve the problem in front of her.
Bao Gu looked up at the coffin and said, “Senior, don’t just stare at me. I’m trying to save you. Give me some advice so I can help you.”
The coffin remained silent.
Bao Gu scratched her head, her gaze unintentionally falling on the blood pool filled with debris.
An idea flashed in her mind.
If she could fill the pool, why not fill the tower to lift the coffin?
If the coffin was lifted, the tight chains would loosen, and she could easily remove them from the coffin, right?
Her oversized storage bag contained a large amount of debris, as well as many rocks and soil from ancient ruins and several hundred-year-old trees collected during her and her senior sister’s training.
If a Golden Core stage sword couldn’t cut the tower, it could at least cut a few ancient trees, right?
Bao Gu decided to act immediately.
She took out an ancient tree, four to five zhang tall and as thick as four people could hug, from her oversized storage bag and threw it under the coffin.
The ancient tree was slightly taller than the suspended coffin.
The tree top pressed against the bottom of the coffin, but instead of lifting it, the coffin crushed many branches of the tree crown.
Bao Gu, undeterred, put the tree back and took out a larger one, but the result was the same: the tree broke, and the coffin remained unmoved.
Seeing that ordinary ancient trees wouldn’t work, she switched to the exceptionally sturdy dragon ironwood, but it also ended in broken trees.
Bao Gu, unwilling to give up, piled rocks to the same height as the coffin, hoping to lift it with the rocks, but the rocks kept breaking under the coffin’s weight.
Frustrated, Bao Gu gritted her teeth and said, “You forced me to do this!”
She set up a barrier to isolate external prying, took out a simple water basin made from wolf skins she had prepared for winter hunting on Lingyun Peak, and used it as a chamber pot.
Holding her nose with one hand and covering her face with the other, she shouted at the staring gaze, “Don’t look, or I won’t save you.”
She felt the gaze disappear and was overjoyed, thinking, “The great demon inside is still alive!”
She said, “Don’t look, or I won’t save you even if I die here!”
After carefully checking with her spiritual sense and confirming that the one inside the coffin wasn’t staring at her, she held her nose and squatted in the barrier to relieve herself.
With her increasing strength, her eating, drinking, and sleeping habits had slowed down, and it was normal for her not to relieve herself for a week.
Bao Gu couldn’t remember how long she had held it in.
Although she ate a lot of Zhu Ming fruits and had a clean constitution, she couldn’t hold in the yellow water for long, especially after absorbing so much corpse energy and poison in the dragon’s belly.
She had taken several detoxification pills, and the half-basin of yellow water was almost as bad as corpse water.
Holding her nose, her face flushed red, Bao Gu carried the half-basin of yellow water to the coffin and said, “Senior, please forgive me. This is a last resort to save you.”
She closed her eyes and poured the stinky yellow water onto the coffin.
With a sizzling sound, like water meeting fire, a particularly foul smell spread.
Bao Gu almost vomited from the stench, waving her hands and retreating.
The coffin was shrouded in green smoke, and the once vibrant talisman patterns dissipated in the black smoke.
Even the talisman power on the iron chains binding the coffin disappeared, revealing the true form of the red-gold black iron.
Bao Gu thought, “Ha, I broke it! Without the talisman power, I can slowly cut through these chains with a Golden Core stage sword!”
She saw the spiritual light from the top of the tower dissipate when it touched the filth on the coffin, and the whole tower became foggy.
Bao Gu didn’t know what other changes the half-basin of yellow water would cause, so she didn’t dare stay long.
She rushed to the coffin and shouted, “Senior, can you hear me? Can you move? If you can, knock on the coffin.”
A faint knocking sound came from the coffin, quieter than a butterfly’s wings.
Fortunately, Bao Gu had cultivated for a long time and had sharp senses, so she didn’t miss the sound.
She thought, “Good, still alive.”
In this place, with no spiritual energy to absorb and trapped for who knows how many years, even a god would be more dead than alive.
She wasn’t surprised by the weak sound and felt a bit relieved.
After all, if a vigorous great demon jumped out, she would have to worry about her own safety.
Bao Gu took out her Golden Core stage sword and started hacking at the red-gold black iron chains.
She broke three Golden Core stage swords before cutting through the chains wrapped around the coffin, preventing her from opening the lid.
She didn’t bother with the chains supporting the coffin.
Exhausted and out of breath, her hands blistered from the effort, Bao Gu thought, “What pure red-gold black iron! I wonder if I can still use these chains to make magical artifacts after cleaning them.”
But the priority was the great demon inside the coffin!
Bao Gu pushed her thoughts of the red-gold black iron aside and mustered all her strength to push the coffin lid open.
As soon as the lid cracked open, she retreated cautiously, watching the coffin for a long time but seeing no movement.
This was different from what she expected.
After so many years, even a clean god would have a smell, let alone a great demon?
To prevent any tricks, Bao Gu took out a bunch of Golden Core stage talismans and stuck them on herself, especially on her forehead, to guard against possession.
Only then did she cautiously approach the coffin, gently moving the talismans blocking her view to look inside.
She heard a faint voice, “Do you have any food?”
Bao Gu instinctively thought, “Senior, you just got peed on and you’re asking for food? Can you eat?”
She had experienced hunger and knew the feeling of an empty stomach.
After a moment, her heart softened.
She gathered her strength and pushed the coffin lid open.
The heavy coffin lid flipped out, smashing into the pile of rocks and embedding itself, like throwing iron into tofu.
Bao Gu didn’t care about the coffin lid.
Her eyes fell on the coffin’s contents, seeing a small, emaciated, bald humanoid creature lying inside.
Having seen many people starve during the Qing Shan County Three-Year Drought, Bao Gu felt a pang of sorrow and tears welled up in her eyes.
The figure in the coffin trembled and asked again, “Child, do you have any food?”
Bao Gu quickly nodded, took out a gourd of fifth-grade monkey wine, and carefully poured it into his mouth.
Although he was pitiful, Bao Gu remained cautious, not daring to remove the talismans on her forehead, even while feeding him the monkey wine.
