111: Chapter 111 The Underground River Beneath the Earth Fire

The piercing sound of alarm bells instantly rang throughout the sky. Countless streams of light shot up from every corner of Tianji Academy, carrying sharp whistling sounds as they tore through the air, rushing frantically toward the source of the chaos.

Almost at the same time all the guards were drawn away, beneath a remote cliff at the back of Tianji Academy, an inconspicuous drainage grate was silently pried open by a pair of slender, powerful hands.

Lin Chen's movements were as nimble as a civet cat.

He pressed his ear against the slippery stone wall and listened carefully.

Apart from the increasingly noisy shouts and the roaring of alarm bells in the distance, nearby there was only the "rustling" of mountain wind blowing through the treetops, and his own heartbeat, which he had suppressed to the extreme.

Without the slightest hesitation, he lowered his body and, like a boneless snake, instantly slid into the drainage pipe that was only large enough for one person to curl through, which exuded a mixture of rust and moss.

The inner walls of the pipe were rough and slippery, with sticky moss clinging to every inch of the stone, and the icy sensation seeped through his thin clothes into his skin.

The Ice Silkworm Silk he took out from his Storage Pouch was not used to wrap the stone ring, but to quickly wrap himself tightly from head to toe, leaving only a tiny slit for his mouth and nose.

This attire made him look like prey captured in a spiderweb, and his movements became somewhat stiff.

But he had to do this.

The extreme cold property of the Ice Silkworm Silk could not only isolate most spiritual energy probes but was also the best barrier to deal with the residual heat of the earth fire.

He pressed against the inner wall of the pipe and crawled forward.

This was not his first time here.

Back when he was at the Qingmu Sect, in order to sneak down the mountain to exchange for a few Spirit Stones, he had explored every single ditch in the Sect that might lead to the outside world.

This familiar darkness, filled with humiliation and hope, made his mood incredibly calm at this moment.

As he went deeper, the chill in the air was gradually replaced by a dry warmth.

This was a sign of heat conduction from the outskirts of the Earth Fire Room.

"Sizz..." An extremely faint sound came from his knee.

He looked down and saw that the Ice Silkworm Silk wrapped around his knee joint, upon touching a slightly warmer patch of the pipe floor, had automatically manifested a layer of faint flowing light on its surface.

Under the flowing light, the outline of an extremely complex yet incredibly familiar rune flashed and disappeared.

Lin Chen's pupils contracted suddenly.

It was it!

It was the rune that the stone ring had branded into his mind, the one that would cause him to bleed from his seven orifices if he tried to force himself to memorize it!

He had never imagined that this mysterious rune from the stone ring would have such a wondrous connection with Qin Ruowei's Ice Silkworm Silk.

It seemed to be a passive defensive Formation that would automatically trigger when it sensed external energy intrusion.

This discovery put Lin Chen's mind slightly at ease, and he quickened his pace.

Meanwhile, inside the Earth Fire Room.

Scarlet earth fire was drawn from underground, passing through layers of complex Formation patterns, converging beneath the three-zhang-tall bronze smelting furnace in the center, illuminating the entire stone room in a dark red glow.

The air was scorched and distorted, and even breathing carried a dry heat of sulfur.

Senior Sister Mo Xuan stood before this furnace.

Her iconic moon-white Daoist robe of Tianji Academy was already soaked with sweat, clinging tightly to her body, outlining her slender and upright figure.

She did not care about this; her bright eyes were now fixed intently on the irregular metal fragment inside the furnace.

On the walls of the furnace, countless runes smaller than rice grains were densely carved, and these runes formed a massive and precise reverse-analysis Formation.

As the earth fire continued to burn, the runes on the furnace wall were lit one by one, and streaks of spiritual light, like a fine spiderweb, wrapped around the fragment.

Under the high temperature, the edges of the fragment had begun to turn red, showing signs of softening.

Senior Sister Mo Xuan unconsciously held her breath, her fingertips turning slightly white from nervousness.

As long as she could analyze the core Formation patterns of this fragment, she could follow the clues and find the whereabouts of the other half of the Formation map stolen from Tianji Academy.

That was her only hope to clear her own name and root out the mole.

"Hum—" Just as the fragment was about to completely soften, the spiritual light inside the furnace suddenly dimmed, and the previously stable reverse-analysis Formation seemed to be strangled by an invisible hand, instantly falling into chaos!

"Pfft!" The Formation backfired. Senior Sister Mo Xuan felt a violent surge of spiritual energy backflow along the connection between her Divine Sense and the Formation. Her throat felt sweet, and a mouthful of blood sprayed out, splattering on the cold bluestone floor.

She didn't bother to wipe the blood from the corner of her mouth; her beautiful eyes were filled with shock, anger, and disbelief.

She rushed to the side of the furnace and, ignoring the terrifying high temperature, forced her Divine Sense inside.

She saw that at the bottom of the furnace, a thin, inconspicuous layer of gray crystal powder had appeared at some unknown time.

It was these crystal powders that, like ink dropping into clear water, contaminated the spiritual energy purity of the entire Formation!

"...Someone is plotting against me!"

Senior Sister Mo Xuan's teeth were almost shattered, and a chill rushed from the soles of her feet straight to her crown.

To be able to tamper with the furnace in the Forbidden Ground of Tianji Academy, right under her nose, without anyone noticing, made her shudder at the identity and methods of the opponent.

On the other side, Lin Chen had reached the outer wall of the Earth Fire Room.

He did not try to sneak in through the main entrance; that would be equivalent to walking into a trap.

The stone ring on his thumb was now emitting a constant and steady warmth, like a precise navigator, guiding his direction.

He bypassed the area where the main furnace was located and arrived at an inconspicuous place where miscellaneous items were piled up.

Some discarded Formation Plates and burnt-out components of Magical Artifacts were piled here, covered in thick dust.

Lin Chen crouched down and, following the guidance of the stone ring, placed his palm on a blue brick in the corner that looked no different from the others.

He circulated the faint trace of Geng Metal spiritual energy in his body and injected it into the blue brick.

"Click." With a soft sound, the blue brick slowly recessed inward, and immediately after, the entire wall silently slid to one side, revealing a pitch-black hidden compartment.

Deep inside the hidden compartment was a vertical shaft only wide enough for one person to pass through, and the walls were covered with slippery moss and clear water marks.

Lin Chen leaned close to the mouth of the shaft, and a cold, damp aura mixed with water vapor and soil rushed toward his face.

The water marks were fresh; clearly, someone had passed through here not long ago.

He attached a wisp of spiritual energy to his nose and sniffed lightly.

Deep within that cold aura, there was a trace of an extremely faint, yet incredibly familiar, fishy smell.

It was the unique smell in the spiritual energy of a Black Sha Alliance Cultivator!

Was this Old Monster Wu's backup plan? Or was this place originally a stronghold of the Black Sha Alliance?

Thoughts raced through Lin Chen's mind. Just as he was preparing to turn and enter the shaft, at that very instant, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up!

A deadly sense of crisis, as if being watched by a Vicious Beast, poured over his entire body like ice water!

Relying almost entirely on the instincts honed through countless life-and-death battles, he didn't even think; his whole body suddenly shifted half an inch to the left!

"Shhh—" A sharp sound of breaking air rang out, grazing his earlobe.

A jet-black hook, flashing with cold metallic light, almost brushed his cheek and, with the force of a thunderbolt, slammed fiercely into the wall of the shaft beside him!

"Clang!" The hook collided with the hard rock, sending up a string of dazzling sparks.

The terrifying force made the entire shaft buzz.

A drop of cold sweat seeped from Lin Chen's temple; if he had been even a tenth of a breath slower, his head would have been like a smashed watermelon.

He turned back suddenly and saw that in the shadows three steps behind him, a figure shrouded in a gray cloak stood silently like a ghost.

The person seemed to have merged with the darkness; if not for the Killing Intent-filled black hook revealing his whereabouts, Lin Chen would never have been able to detect his presence.

"Lin family brat, good reaction." A hoarse, low voice came from the gray shadow, like two rusted iron plates rubbing together. "Hand over the things of ours that you have on you."

Gray shadow?

Lin Chen's gaze fell on that black hook; its style was almost exactly the same as the outline Liu Yuan had discovered in the rubbing of the image-recording jade talisman!

"I don't know what you are talking about." Lin Chen slowly straightened his body, his muscles tense, and all the spiritual energy in his body was mobilized, ready to deal with the next fatal blow.

"You don't know?" The gray shadow sneered. He seemed to have a lot of patience. "During the Zangtian Abyss earth vein riot, the three wisps of Geng Metal spiritual essence you absorbed, and that ring... that eats our probes. Hand them over, and I will leave your corpse intact."

Lin Chen's heart shook violently.

This person actually knew everything that happened underground at that time!

He was not from the Black Sha Alliance; he was that even more terrifying third party who had been watching from the shadows!

Before the words fell, the gray shadow moved!

His figure left a faint afterimage in place, and his real body had appeared in front of Lin Chen like a teleportation.

That black hook brought with it an arc of death, aiming straight for Lin Chen's throat!

Too fast!

Lin Chen's pupils constricted, and he could only force himself to dodge to the side, while his right fist, wrapped in Geng Metal spiritual energy, smashed fiercely into the side of the black hook.

Fist and hook met, emitting a deafening sound of metal clashing.

Lin Chen only felt an irresistible, enormous force coming from the fist, his entire right arm instantly going numb, and the web between his thumb and index finger was shaken until it was dripping with blood.

He himself was sent flying backward by this enormous force, crashing heavily into the stone wall on the other side of the shaft.

However, at the very moment of impact, the stone ring on Lin Chen's thumb suddenly erupted with a greedy suction force!

That suction force was not aimed at the gray shadow, but was precisely locked onto the blade of that black hook!

He saw a layer of black crystals on the surface coating of the black hook, as if they were iron filings attracted by a magnet, instantly pulled into a fine black line, all of which submerged into the stone ring!

"Hmm?!" The gray shadow let out a sound of surprise; he could feel that his weapon had undergone some subtle change in an instant.

After the stone ring devoured that layer of black crystal coating, the ring surface became slightly hot, and a brand new stream of information instantly flooded into Lin Chen's mind:

[Detected high-purity earth vein pollution source crystal... same origin as the Zangtian Abyss earth vein, purity 137 times higher. Can be used for: strengthening the Ring Spirit space wall, refining filthy-type Magic Treasures, marking pollution source coordinates...]

Lin Chen endured the excruciating pain in his arm and the surging information in his mind, his heart churning with stormy waves.

A hundred times higher?!

Just at this moment, from the direction of the Earth Fire Room, a woman's sharp shout suddenly came!

"Explode!" It was Senior Sister Mo Xuan's voice!

The gray shadow's expression changed; he seemed not to have expected that someone would choose to burn both jade and stone together.

The next second, a destructive force erupted from the center of the Earth Fire Room!

"Rumble—" The terrifying blast wave, like a violent tsunami, instantly smashed the walls, overturned the furnace, and swept up Lin Chen, the gray shadow, and Senior Sister Mo Xuan—who had just been blown out of the furnace and was clutching that scorching fragment tightly—all together, smashing them into that bottomless vertical shaft!

A sense of weightlessness arrived; the three of them, like rolling stones, were carried by the violent airflow, falling toward the unknown depths of darkness.

In the chaos, Senior Sister Mo Xuan subconsciously hugged the fragment that was more important than her own life.

She did not notice that after the fragment collided violently with the energy of the explosion, the layer of protective halo that appeared on its surface was producing a faint, wondrous resonance, crossing space, with the wound on Lin Chen's right arm not far away that had just been cracked open and was bleeding.