"Exploring?"

"Yup. Interested? You keep hearing me tell you stories all day long but nothing beats experiencing an adventure yourself. You want to come?"

Luo An knew that he had caught Ning Er's full and undivided attention the moment he said that. Mature for her age she may be, she is still a twelve year old girl that is curious about the world.

He vaguely remembered an ancient city ruin located north of Glory City in canon. He had a very good guess as to where that exact location may be thanks to the numerous rumours he had heard during his travels. The Ancient Orchid City Ruins was what he suspected Nie Li to have once visited in canon and if it was a place that even the protagonist visited, then it's certain that the ruin would hold treasures of immeasurable value.

Convincing Ye Zong to approve of his absence from Glory City was easy after he absentmindedly tossed a few more Legend rank inscriptions his way that he selected at random. He wasted no time thereafter in bringing Ning Er out of Glory City with him. He could tell that Ziyun wanted to come along but he's never that close to her, teaching her was out of obligation rather than his own willingness. Nie Li was also out of the question for obvious reasons. Besides, he's not confident enough to say that he can fully trust Ziyun. That does not apply to Ning Er because she is the last person to do anything to betray him.

So, he will bring only Ning Er along.

"Don't falter. You faltered the last time because you lack experience in live combat. Yes, I know that there are a lot of them, but these beasts are only bronze and silver ranks at best. They are the perfect target practice for you."

The five to six days journey to the Ancient Orchid City Ruins was relaxing and fun. He taught her basic survival skills in the wilderness and how to forage for food and herbs along the way. He taught her how to find and build shelter. Anything he felt that she needed to know to survive the harshness of the Divine Continent, he taught her. Teaching her had always been a very enjoyable process.

And when they finally found and reached their destination, he wasn't surprised to see that the place was guarded by groups of demon beasts. Nothing too hard to handle since they are mostly bronze and silver ranks, but enough to give Ning Er a good challenge and for her to gain some live combat experience.

She heeded his words and quickly dove right into combat. She was doing well all things considered although it definitely could be better. He felt a sense of pride swelling within him when she finally finished off the last of them without suffering a scratch on her body.

"Good job," he praised her and patted her on the head, making her beam up at him in delight.

They continued their exploration, picking up anything that caught their eye. Luo An kept his eye sharp for clues that might lead him to the underground palace where he vaguely remembered Nie Li explored in canon. His memories about that particular detail were rather foggy but he did remember that he had to find and read off some lines of text written in the Sacred Empire's language.

So, the first order of business would be to read every single thing he could find that was written in that ancient language, a skill that he had also picked up along in his travels.

Although when he finally found and entered the underground palace he really wished he remembered about the part where the entrance was just right below the ruined statue. He didn't really fancy being suddenly dropped down underground just like that.

That interlude aside, what lies underneath was a gigantic maze of an unimaginable scale. Luo An had visited many places on the Divine Continent before, but this underground maze was the largest and also the most complex maze that he had ever come across. It's almost impossible to tell day from night while travelling underground, so they made regular stops to rest and take turns to catch some shut-eye while exploring the maze. The maze was riddled with all sorts of traps but it was nothing that Luo An couldn't handle. He had faced worse.

"See the cracks on the walls and how the floor tiles in this area are arranged a little differently from the other? That means that most likely, there is a trap over–"

He picked up and tossed a small pebble forward and true enough, the trap ahead was activated prematurely.

" –there."

Teaching Ning Er about the traps this underground maze had to offer was surprisingly fun. She was a bright and eager student and she soaked up knowledge like a sponge.

"I will keep the first watch. You catch some sleep."

"I can–"

"Catch some sleep, Ning Er. I promise I will wake you up later and catch some sleep myself then."

Luo An cannot help but let out an amused huff when she knocked herself out the moment she closed her eyes. She's obviously tired but her strong headed nature doesn't allow her to show it.

He sat with his back against the wall, absentmindedly watching the fire he had started and let his mind wander for a bit. Is he interfering too much with the plot? Maybe, probably, but he didn't regret it because Ning Er didn't deserve to suffer two years of pain from the Arctic Disease until Nie Li showed up. She is a nice and kind girl.

His attention returned to the present when he felt something resting on his right shoulder. Ning Er, who had been resting beside him now had her head resting on his shoulder, mumbling something inaudible in her sleep. Luo An carefully covered her with a cloak, not wanting her to catch a cold or wake her up with his movements. He looked at her sleeping face and gently brushed aside a few stray strands of hair away from it using his fingers.

Looking at her, he felt like everything he did was worth it, that it was the right thing to do. She's not in pain now, she's free from her shackles now, she's not suffering now, so it must be the right thing to do even if it had screwed the plot beyond recognition.

He smiled as he continued to keep a silent watch.

Maybe visiting Glory City may not be that bad of a choice after all.

The pair continued to travel in this manner for several days. They eventually found themselves in what seemed like a great hall at the end of the maze. The hall was filled with bones of what they presumed were the refugees that had hidden themselves here when the city was destroyed. It was obvious that they never made it out.

There were many valuables among the remains that they both looted, which made them grave robbers by definition. However, Luo An was past caring about such things. He didn't manage to survive this far by being a goody-two-shoes. In the Divine Continent it's always every man for himself.

At the very end of the hall, positioned right in the centre, was a stone coffin that held a great amount of soul force. Even from where he was currently standing Luo An could see that the coffin was covered with numerous layers of inscription patterns that even he had never seen before and it definitely predated the Sacred Empire era which he suspected the destroyed city to be built in.

In any case, it would not be wise to carelessly approach the coffin without taking any precautions. This was clearly not normal.

"Ning Er, stay here. Something's not quite right with the coffin."

Ning Er looked at the coffin then back at him in concern. She could instinctively feel the danger emanated from that coffin but her trust in Luo An won over in the end.

"Be careful."

Luo An took out several scrolls with protective inscriptions inscribed in it as he walked closer to the stone coffin, ready to activate the inscriptions at a moment's notice if needed. He felt a powerful restriction force trying to push him away but Luo An pressed on. They had come too far to back out.

Furthermore, he had never encountered an inscription that he cannot decipher. He always loved a good challenge when it came to inscriptions and the inscriptions surrounding the stone coffin were no doubt mysterious and powerful, but he had confidence that he could decipher it given time. He always did.

It was then he felt it, the rush of soul force threatening to engulf him whole. The sheer quantity of it was no joke, almost as if a huge tsunami was about to swallow him entirely. He immediately activated his defences.

"LUO AN!"

"Stay there! Don't come near!" He shouted without having the time to turn and look back, too busy trying to protect himself. His defences were forcefully shattered in the next second.

You gotta be kidding me

The lingering soul force hit him with the subtlety of a gigantic hammer and it was taking everything he can to protect his soul realm. That is, until he realised that he was actually able to absorb this soul force into his soul realm.

In that case, why not?

He did not know how long had passed, but when he finally finished the process it left him extremely thirsty. He turned back to check on Ning Er, only to receive a scare when he found her unconscious and slumped across the floor.

"Ning Er!"

He quickly ran up to her, his experienced eyes quickly picking up that she had suffered some injuries, probably inflicted when she was trying to run up to help him when he was hit by that sudden outburst of soul force earlier.

He heaved a sigh of relief when he was certain that the injuries were not life-threatening and quickly took out elixirs and potions that could help accelerate her healing. He rested her head on his lap and gently pried her mouth open, allowing her to swallow the medicine.

The force of the explosion of soul force earlier had also left her coat and shirt in tatters, exposing her bare shoulders for all to see. Even when he had seen her shirtless countless times already when he was treating her Arctic Disease previously, for a girl to expose her skin below her neck was considered an indecent state of dress by this world's culture. So, he took off his own coat and covered her with it before gently laying her on the floor to rest.

Satisfied that she was now safe and sound, he turned back towards the coffin. Surprisingly, there wasn't any corpse inside. Rather, he found a page and a necklace with an abstruse gemstone embedded with it, much to his surprise and delight. The abstruse gemstone is a very rare treasure. Ning Er will have a good use for it because this gem allows one to enhance their cultivation speed by at least three times.

He took a closer look at a page that was seemingly torn out from a book, only to receive another shock.

He might be wrong but… no matter how he looked at it wasn't this a remnant page from the Temporal Demon Spirit Book?

He stared at the page in his hand, trying very hard to remember if there was such an event in canon because while he still retained memories of quite a number of details in relation to the plot, he had also forgotten an equally large number of things. The only thing he remembered about this ruin was that Nie Li once visited this place and that it held some sort of treasure that helped advance his plans, which was the reason why he decided to come here in the first place. Was there supposed to be a page from the Temporal Demon Spirit Book?

He truly cannot remember.

Deciding to not question his good luck, he simply stored the remnant page away before going back to looking for more treasures that might be hidden elsewhere. There's no point thinking about things when he had long since forgotten all about it.

For a moment, she forgot where she was when she first woke up.

She blinked her eyes a few times before trying to sit up. It was then that she noticed that her head was lying on something soft and that someone had covered her with a huge coat. She recognised this coat. It belonged to Luo An.

Her hand subconsciously went up to the side of her head as she tried to remember what happened before she ended up like this. Why was she unconscious again? Ah, that's right, they were exploring an underground maze… what happened next? They found a coffin and…

Luo An!

She sat up with a jolt, frantically trying to look for him.

"Oh, you're awake."

She whipped her head towards the sound of his voice. She spotted him seated just a few metres away. He had already started a small fire and was barbecuing some meat that they had brought along for this journey.

"I figured you would wake up around this time and you might be hungry. Want some?"

"Are you okay?" She asked in concern. He simply laughed it off.

"More than okay. On a side note, you might want to put a shirt on."

She looked down, seeing that the only thing covering the upper half of her body was the cloth binding wrapped around her chest. She failed to quash the growing heat forming on her face as she quickly turned around and took out a shirt from her interspatial ring to cover herself. It's not the first time he had seen her shirtless, but she still found it embarrassing to have him look at her while she's in such an indecent state of dress.

Surprisingly, she didn't find herself having any thoughts about whether he had done anything indecent to her while she was unconscious and defenceless. She trusts him wholeheartedly. She is who she is today because of him. All of her achievements, all of her strength and knowledge that she now possessed was made possible because of him. Her life, body, and soul, they now belong to him. Even if he decided to…

She blushed at the thought of it. She wouldn't mind even if he decided to claim her right now. In fact, she felt a little giddy at the thought of it. Is this normal?

She was putting on a new shirt when she realised a necklace was worn around her neck that wasn't there before. Where did it come from?

As if reading her mind, he spoke.

"I found it in the coffin. It's called the abstruse gemstone, something that can speed up your cultivation three fold. Keep it, I have no use for such a thing anyway."

Her mouth opened and closed without a sound, not knowing what to say. In the end, she could only accept his gift with a grateful smile on her face.

"Thank you."

She owed him too much. She owed everything to him. She didn't know what she could do to ever repay him but she does know something.

She will be his biggest supporter. She will stand by him through thick and thin no matter what. She will always be there for him, to lend him her aid if he ever needs it.

Always.

This is the first ever ruin he came across.

It's riddled with traps after traps and even he was wondering how an amateur like him managed to survive everything thus far. He was of the belief that most of it was attributable to sheer dumb luck.

He evaded potholes with protruding spikes underneath, volleys of arrows, sprays of acids, revolving doors with blades for handles and numerous other kinds of overly creative traps that he had no wish to recount. He overcame them one after the other with careful planning and his skills over alchemy and inscriptions. His current cultivation rank was still too low to be of any real help here beyond providing a slight boost in physical capabilities.

After what seemed like forever, he finally reached what was undoubtedly a treasure room. It was there he found his first real treasure among the gold and numerous items hidden in there. This finding was a treasure because if everything goes south and he really needed to escape the pursuit of the Dark Guild, he's now in possession of the knowledge of how he could make an emergency escape.

He had found a hidden entrance to the Draconic Ruins Realm.

AN: As usual, I had once again forgotten that this story existed. This author humbly begs for your forgiveness.