168: Chapter 127 The Search
Three days. He had sat in the quiet room for three days, repeatedly familiarizing himself with the City Wall Earth Metal Essence that had just been incorporated into his Dantian. It did not resist, nor did it draw close; it simply floated quietly in the center of his Purple Mansion, like a newly planted seed waiting for its roots to pierce the soil.
He withdrew his gaze, took out a blank Jade Slip from his Storage Pouch, inscribed a line of text with his Divine Sense, and then held it, feeling the faint, elusive hint of Earth-element aura contained within. He reached his hand out the window, sensing the direction of the wind blowing from the depths of the Ten Thousand Demon Mountain Range.
Before divining, he needed to do one thing first. He took out the Dragon inner core, cradled it in his palm, closed his eyes, and guided the City Wall Earth Metal Essence to extract a wisp of pure Earth-element Spiritual Qi from it. The inner core's glow dimmed slightly, but it did not shatter. He sealed the remaining Spiritual Qi back into the inner core, put it away, and only then took out the heavenly book golden decree.
Golden tadpole characters appeared.
γ Today's Fortune: Moderate Auspiciousness. γ
γ Today's Heavenly Secret: Breaking Army. γ
γ Today's Destiny: Cultivate Self. γ
γ Moderate Auspiciousness: A remnant of the City Wall Earth imagery exists on the outskirts of the Ancient Battlefield ruins, three hundred miles northeast of the Ten Thousand Demon Mountain Range, and can be retrieved within three days. If retrieved, the total number of City Wall Earth imageries can reach eight, increasing the chance of fishing for the Metal Essence by ten percent. γ
γ Moderate Neutrality: There is a natural cave on the cliff wall on the east side of the Nanming Volcano magma lake, containing a Heavenly Fire imagery. It requires using the Fire Evasion Technique to dive into the surface layer of the magma to retrieve it. There is still half a month before the Fire Phoenix True Spirit enters hibernation, so it is feasible. γ
γ Minor Inauspiciousness: If you head directly to the White Lotus Sect's main altar to investigate the movements of Immortal Master Kumu, your whereabouts will be exposed, and your opponent will intercept you while you are fishing for the Heavenly Fire. γ
γ Major Inauspiciousness: If you attempt to forcibly clash with the Fire Phoenix True Spirit using the City Wall Earth Metal Essence, the Metal Essence will be devoured by the True Spirit. γ
After reading, Chen Xuan chose the Jade Slip for Moderate Auspiciousness. A scene unfolded in his Divine Sense. An abandoned ancient city ruin; on a ridge shallower than the Dragon lair, on the hillside, there was a collapsed temple foundation. Beneath the foundation was pressed a brick, and from the cracks in the brick, an extremely faint, dim yellow light seeped out, like a luster that had been pressed under stone slabs for too long.
He crushed the Jade Slip and noted the location.
Then, he chose the Jade Slip for Moderate Neutrality. This time, the image was clearer. On the cliff on the east side of the Nanming Volcano, twenty zhang above the magma lake, there was a natural fissure. Deep within the fissure, a golden flame was slowly flickering. A floating ball of golden fire, like a sleeping little sun curled up in a recess in the rock wall. A new Heavenly Fire imagery.
Chen Xuan noted the location and put away the heavenly book golden decree. Then he looked down at his palm, his gaze calm. Three days. Retrieve that City Wall Earth imagery within three days, then go to the Southern Border to retrieve that Heavenly Fire imagery before the Fire Phoenix True Spirit wakes up. He had to be fast.
Chen Xuan did not hesitate any longer, stood up, and walked out of the Immortal Cave. Early in the morning, Wanyao Immortal City had not yet fully awakened. He boarded a small flying boat from the air harbor and flew toward the northeast. Three hours later, the flying boat landed on the grayish-brown ridge on the outskirts of the Ancient Battlefield ruins. He jumped off the flying boat, walked two miles west along the ridge, and a half-collapsed temple foundation appeared under his feet.
The foundation was built with grayish-white stone slabs; most of it had already collapsed, and the scattered stones had piled up into a small hill. He crouched down, flipping through the rubble piece by piece, his fingertips pushing aside the sand and soil. When he reached the bottom of the foundation, he touched a brick that felt different from the other stones. The surface of that brick had a thin layer of dim yellow light, like a mineral vein seeping from inside the rock.
He pried open the brick, and the light surged out from the crackβwarm, heavy, and carrying a hint of dry, dusty air. He guided that City Wall Earth imagery into his Dantian, and the imagery merged into the City Wall Earth Metal Essence without any resistance. The Metal Essence trembled slightly and then returned to calm. The total number of City Wall Earth imageries had gone from seven to eight, and the Metal Essence became more solid and stable, as if a brick in a city wall had been reinforced, making the entire city wall stand taller and heavier.
He put away the brick fragments, turned, boarded the flying boat, and flew toward the south. By evening, the flying boat entered the airspace of the Nanming Volcano. The grayish-black volcanic ash clouds were thicker than last time, and the dark red magma light leaked through the gaps in the clouds, dyeing the scorched earth below a sickly warm color. He landed the flying boat on a cliff on the east side of the volcano, jumped off the ship's rail, walked to the edge of the cliff, and looked down.
The magma lake churned thirty zhang below, the dark red liquid surface flowing slowly, and the churning bubbles releasing incandescent light when they burst. Heat waves rose from below, scorching his eye sockets until they felt tight. He climbed down the cliff for several zhang and saw the fissure at a place about ten zhang from the surface of the magma lake. The fissure was no more than a foot wide, hidden in the shadows of the rock wall; if one did not look carefully, it would be impossible to find. He turned sideways and squeezed into the fissure, climbing upward for about two zhang, where at the end there was a narrow cave. The cave walls were smooth as a mirror, as if they had been polished by something for a long time.
That ball of golden flame floated in the very center of the cave. It was only the size of a thumb, but its light was extremely bright, illuminating the entire cave as bright as day. He reached out, and the moment his fingertips touched that ball of flame, the City Wall Earth Metal Essence in his Dantian jolted violently. Fine, dense patterns appeared on the surface of the golden-yellow city wall, like cracks left behind after being scorched by high heat.
He did not withdraw his hand. The flame followed his fingertips, drilled into his Meridians, sank all the way down, and flowed into his Dantian.
Heavenly Fire imagery, the seventh one. Added to the few he had collected before at Nanming Port, the total number of Heavenly Fire imageries in his hands finally reached six. Six imageries already satisfied the minimum conditions required for fishing for the complete Heavenly Fire Metal Essence.
He withdrew his hand and stood in the cave, eyes closed, feeling it for a moment. That ball of golden flame in his Dantian floated quietly beside the City Wall Earth Metal Essence, unhurried and calm, its light restrained deep within its core, like a small beast that had just woken up, curled up in a safe place.
He stood in the cave for a while longer, confirming there was nothing unusual around. Then he turned sideways and squeezed out of the fissure, climbed back to the cliff top along the rock wall, and boarded the flying boat. Behind him, the heat waves of the magma lake were still churning, bubbles bursting on the lake surface, making dull sounds like sighs from the deep underground. The dark red light reflected on the robe on his back, leaving fragmented light spots. He turned his back to that light without looking back, passed through the grayish-black clouds, and flew toward the direction of Wanyao Immortal City.
Chen Xuan stopped his steps and stood at the entrance of the air harbor. The wind blew from the north, carrying the scent of vegetation from the depths of the Ten Thousand Demon Mountain Range. He stood there for a moment, pinching the center of his eyebrows, and reorganized the scattered clues in his mind. Nanming Volcano was in the south of the Southern Domain, and the Ten Thousand Demon Mountain Range was in the north.
Fishing for the Heavenly Fire Metal Essence required being close to a place rich in Fire-element Spiritual Qi; the best location was near the magma lake deep within the Nanming Volcano, not this Spiritual Vein spring under Wanyao Immortal City. The City Wall Earth Metal Essence was suitable for fishing in the heavy northern mountain ranges, while the Heavenly Fire Metal Essence must be fished in the south, in that scorched earth covered by magma for many years. If he tried to fish for the Heavenly Fire at the Spiritual Vein spring under Wanyao Immortal City, the direction would have been wrong from the very beginning.
He stood by the pillars of the air harbor for a while, then turned and walked back, passing through the Central Avenue, and walked into the headquarters of the Qingyuan Chamber of Commerce in Wanyao Immortal City. President Liu Yishou was fiddling with an abacus behind the counter; seeing him enter, he put down what was in his hands.
"I want a detailed record of the terrain trends of the Nanming Volcano," Chen Xuan said. "The more detailed, the better; it would be best if it has been surveyed by specialists."
President Liu Yishou took out a grayish-white Jade Slip from a hidden compartment under the counter and handed it to him: "This is the record surveyed by the Chamber of Commerce's mining team three years ago on the outskirts of the Nanming Volcano. The terrain trends from the volcanic crater to the surroundings of the magma lake are all marked very clearly." He paused, then added another sentence: "I also dug up an old notebook from the depths of the warehouse, which records abnormal spiritual light under the Nanming Volcano a hundred years ago."
Chen Xuan took the old notebook and the grayish-white Jade Slip, not rushing to look at them, and put them in the top layer of his Storage Pouch. Then he turned and walked out of the headquarters, walking along the Central Avenue toward the air harbor. This time he did not hesitate, boarded the flying boat, changed direction, and flew toward the south.
The flying boat passed through the clouds, and the terrain on the ground changed from grayish-brown hills to scorched black volcanic ash plains, and from plains to broken rock ridges. The smell of sulfur became stronger and stronger, and even through the flying boat's protective array, it could be faintly smelled. He stood by the ship's rail, looking at the land below that had been repeatedly covered by magma, his gaze sweeping over every fissure and every depression.
By evening, the flying boat landed on a relatively flat cliff terrace on the east side of the Nanming Volcano, not far from the fissure where he had previously taken the Heavenly Fire imagery. Chen Xuan jumped off the flying boat, stood on the cliff terrace, and looked down at the churning magma lake below. The dark red liquid surface flowed slowly, and bubbles churned up from the depths from time to time, spraying a wisp of incandescent heat wave when they burst.
He did not rush to approach the magma lake. He sat cross-legged on the cliff terrace, took out the old notebook, and opened it on his lap. The paper of the notebook had turned yellow and brittle, the edges curled, and a few pages had even shattered into crumbs, so it had to be turned extremely carefully. He read page by page; the first half of the book recorded some mining daily routines and spiritual material transaction records, until the last page, where a line of handwriting was completely different from the previous ones.
The handwriting was scrawled and crooked, as if written by the author in a hurry; the strokes were of uneven depth, and every stroke carried hesitation and haste. "There is abnormal light at nine zhang and nine chi underground in the Nanming Volcano. Not fire, not metal, like the rust color seeping out after an old object has been buried for too long."
The notebook ended there; the following pages were blank. Chen Xuan read this page three times repeatedly, then closed the notebook. Nine zhang and nine chi. This number was so precise that it did not seem like a casual record. The rust color seeping out after an old object had been buried for too longβthe description did not sound like a naturally formed terrain anomaly, but more like the aura leaking from a Seal after something artificially buried had passed through long years.
He stood up, put away the notebook, and cast his gaze toward the deeper part of the magma lake; the place where the Fire Phoenix True Spirit slept was in the depths of that unmeasurable dark red light. But the mark was not in the core area where the True Spirit was, but at nine zhang and nine chi underground, a shallower position closer to the surface. He needed to find that position first.
Chen Xuan turned and climbed down the cliff for several zhang, finding a protruding rock platform at a place three zhang from the surface of the magma lake. The platform was not large, enough for only one person to stand on, but the stone surface was flat and dry, without traces of magma splashing. He sat cross-legged on the platform, closed his eyes, and probed downward with his Divine Sense. The Divine Sense passed through the rock layers, passed through the dried-up riverbed of an underground river, and stopped at a junction of rock layers. There was indeed an extremely faint aura, like the smell of rusted iron seeping out of the soil layer after being buried for too long.
He took out the grayish-white Jade Slip, the record of terrain trends surveyed by the Qingyuan Chamber of Commerce's mining team, injected his Divine Sense into it, compared it with the position he perceived, and found the corresponding coordinates on the map marked in the Jade Slip. That position was marked with a line of small text: "Suspected terrain anomaly, not deeply investigated."
Chen Xuan put away the Jade Slip, opened his eyes, and looked down at the rock layer under his feet. That aura was less than ten zhang below, and it had existed for at least a hundred years. The mana fluctuation of the person who placed the mark was exactly the same as the mark left by Ancient Golden Core Cultivator Zhao Wuji, as if it were left by the same person.
The recording time of that old notebook flashed in his mind: twenty-three years before the Buddhist Sect entered the Southern Domain. This time point was very subtle; at that time, the White Lotus Sect had not yet publicly operated in the Southern Border, and the influence of the Buddhist Sect had not yet spread to the Nanming Volcano area. So who would sneak into the depths of the Nanming Volcano at this time point and bury a mark in the Spiritual Vein under the magma lake?
Ancient Golden Core Cultivator Zhao Wuji from ten thousand years ago would not choose this time. A Golden Core Cultivator who fell ten thousand years ago could not cross ten thousand years of time to return to the Nanming Volcano a hundred years ago to place a mark. The person who placed the mark was someone else, just deliberately imitating the aura of Ancient Golden Core Cultivator Zhao Wuji.
Someone had been watching him in the dark all along. Chen Xuan withdrew his gaze, took out that cyan Jade Slip of Ancient Golden Core Cultivator Zhao Wuji from his Storage Pouch, and held it in his palm. His Divine Sense probed in again, reading the full text of the diary from beginning to end, focusing on the part where Ancient Golden Core Cultivator Zhao Wuji described the location of the Heavenly Fire Metal Essence and the fishing method. Ancient Golden Core Cultivator Zhao Wuji wrote: The Heavenly Fire Metal Essence is in the deepest part of the Nanming Volcano; one must use six imageries as bait, use the Fire Evasion Technique to dive one hundred zhang into the bottom of the magma lake, and the imageries will spread out into a net, and the Metal Essence will naturally condense. The method itself had no problems, but a key step was missing in the middle: before the imageries spread out, one must first clear the foreign mark in the Spiritual Vein.
Ancient Golden Core Cultivator Zhao Wuji did not write this step. Chen Xuan opened his eyes and looked down at the cyan Jade Slip in his palm. The handwriting on it was clear and neat, completely different from the style of the scrawled handwriting at the end of that old notebook. He could not yet determine who wrote the record at the end of the old notebook, but that record indeed helped him find the buried position of the mark.
He took out the heavenly book golden decree from his Storage Pouch.
Golden tadpole characters appeared.
γ Today's Fortune: Moderate Auspiciousness. γ
γ Today's Heavenly Secret: Heavenly Beam. γ
γ Today's Destiny: Seek Solution. γ
γ Moderate Auspiciousness: The mark is buried at nine zhang and nine chi underground on the east side of the Nanming Volcano. With Earth-element mana, it can be stripped away without alerting the person who placed it. After stripping the mark, the Heavenly Fire Metal Essence can be safely fished. γ
γ Minor Inauspiciousness: If you forcibly refine the mark with Fire-element mana, the person who placed it will instantly notice and descend, following the aura. γ
γ Neutral: Temporarily do not handle the mark, turn to collect the Long-Flowing Water Metal Essence fragments, and return to the Nanming Volcano after being fully prepared; the person who placed it will not be able to track you. γ
This is very strange.
Chen Xuan's eyes flickered, and for a moment, he could not make up his mind.
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