114: Chapter 114 Stealing Fragments from the Fire Chamber

This plan sounded crazy, but the other two people present, Liu Yuan and Qin Ruowei, did not voice any opposition.

They were all people who lived by licking blood from the edge of a blade, and they knew deeply that in such a desperate situation of being passively hunted, the most foolish decision was to wait in place.

"I will create the chaos." Liu Yuan spoke first. He took out a thick stack of Talismans of various colors from his Storage Pouch, and a professional smile curled at the corner of his mouth. "Three hundred steps east of the main entrance of Tianji Academy is their Materials warehouse. I only need to detonate two 'Thunder Blast Talismans', combined with a few 'God-Confusing Illusion Smoke Talismans', which is enough to concentrate all the outer sect guard forces there. I can buy you the time of one incense stick."

"That is enough." Lin Chen nodded and turned his gaze to Qin Ruowei. "Ruowei, you stay at the safe house to meet us. If we haven't returned in an hour..."

"I will destroy all traces here and then leave." Qin Ruowei interrupted him, her tone calm, but her eyes exceptionally firm.

She handed over the roll of ice silkworm silk. "Take it with you; it might be able to insulate against the heat of the Geothermal Chamber."

The plan was set, and the three of them immediately acted separately.

One incense stick later, to the due east of Tianji Academy, accompanied by two muffled, thunderous roars, a large amount of gray, thick smoke shot into the sky.

The smoke was mixed with piercing shrieks, as if countless evil ghosts were roaring, instantly breaking the silence of the deep night.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

"It's the direction of the Materials warehouse! Quick! All patrol teams, immediately gather at the east gate!"

The urgent sound of alarm bells resounded through the sky, and countless streams of light flew up from various pavilions and courtyards, like a disturbed swarm of bees, rushing towards the source of the chaos.

The originally tight defensive network had a short and fatal gap at this moment.

Meanwhile, at an inconspicuous drain at the back of Tianji Academy, the iron grate covering it was pushed open silently.

Lin Chen's figure slid out from the shadows like a ghost.

He took a deep breath and wrapped the ice silkworm silk given by Qin Ruowei around his body, layer by layer, from head to toe, leaving only his eyes exposed.

After doing all this, he did not hesitate to lower his body and crawl into the drainage pipe that emitted a damp, fishy stench.

The pipe was narrow, dark, and covered with slippery moss, and the air was mixed with water vapor and a faint smell of sulfur.

Like a snake, he crawled forward silently within it.

The extreme cold Qi of the ice silkworm silk insulated his own heat and aura, allowing him to blend in with the cold stone walls around him.

The deeper he went, the stronger the sulfur smell became, and the air also became increasingly scorching.

This was the residual heat of Geothermal energy seeping out from the depths of the earth.

When he crawled past an area with particularly high temperatures, the ice silkworm silk wrapped around his body suddenly changed.

The silk threads closely pressed against his right arm, the moment they touched the residual geothermal heat, unexpectedly revealed a faint, iridescent layer of runic patterns on their surface.

Although the patterns flashed and vanished, Lin Chen's pupils shrank suddenly.

The structure of these runes was actually seventy to eighty percent similar to the protective runes on that mysterious metal fragment!

His heart stirred, and he immediately understood.

This ice silkworm silk was by no means an ordinary item; it contained some kind of high-level defensive Formation, just hidden and inactive on normal days.

Only now, triggered by the geothermal energy, did it reveal a trace of its true nature.

No wonder it could wrap around the scorching stone ring and neutralize Grey Shadow's virulent poison.

This discovery made him feel a little more at ease.

With this layer of protection, his confidence in sneaking into the Geothermal Chamber increased by a few points.

At the same time, deep within the Geothermal Chamber.

This was not the scene of raging flames as Lin Chen had imagined, but a circular secret room built of pitch-black giant stones.

The stone floor was carved with complex Formation patterns, and in the center was a bronze furnace half a person high, with the furnace mouth facing a hole in the depths of the earth that was churning with crimson magma.

The terrifying high temperature caused the air to distort.

Senior Sister Mo Xuan stood in front of this furnace, her face as pale as paper, but her eyes were exceptionally focused.

In front of her, the metal fragment that had gone through so many twists and turns was floating quietly.

She did not immediately throw it into the furnace, but bit her fingertip and quickly outlined something on the furnace wall with her own essence blood.

That was an extremely complex reverse analysis Formation, an exclusive secret technique of Tianji Academy.

It would not destroy the Magic Treasure itself, but could forcibly strip away the internal Formation structure under high temperature and imprint it bit by bit.

This was the only way she could think of to figure out the secret of this fragment without alerting anyone.

When the last stroke fell, the blood-colored Formation patterns on the entire furnace wall suddenly lit up, echoing with the Formation on the ground.

Senior Sister Mo Xuan took a deep breath, used her last bit of spiritual energy, and pushed the metal fragment into the furnace.

"Hum —"

The furnace started, and the magma hole at the bottom of the furnace spewed out a stream of pure earth-core fire, instantly enveloping the fragment.

The blood-colored Formation patterns on the furnace wall began to circulate rapidly, and streams of information were stripped from the fragment, flickering as light and shadow above the furnace mouth.

The fragment began to turn slightly red under the high temperature, and it was about to enter the softening stage.

Just at this moment, Senior Sister Mo Xuan's body shook violently, as if she had been hit in the chest by an invisible heavy hammer.

"Puff!"

A mouthful of fresh blood sprayed out without warning, spilling onto the scorching ground, instantly evaporating into a cloud of blood mist.

She looked down at the furnace in disbelief, only to see that at some point, a layer of grayish-white powder had appeared at the bottom of the furnace.

Under the scorching of the geothermal fire, those powders were releasing an invisible but extremely overbearing interference fluctuation, violently crushing the reverse analysis Formation she had carefully laid out.

Formation backlash!

"It is... interference crystal powder..." Her vision went black, and she almost fell to the ground. "Who... who touched my furnace?"

The furnace in the Geothermal Chamber had its ash cleaned by a specialist every three days; clearly, someone had used this gap to mix in this forbidden item specifically designed to destroy precision Formations!

On the other side, Lin Chen had followed the faint guidance of the stone ring on his thumb and arrived at an abandoned passage on the periphery of the Geothermal Chamber.

The temperature of the stone ring became the most moderate here, as if telling him that the destination was nearby.

He pressed against the wall, carefully checking every inch of the stone bricks.

Finally, under a seemingly ordinary corner stone slab, he felt a very unnatural seam.

He mobilized his spiritual energy and poured it into it according to a specific rhythm.

With a "click", the stone slab slowly slid to one side, revealing a vertical well shaft that could only allow one person to pass through.

A smell mixed with water, fishy, and sulfur rushed towards him.

Lin Chen poked his head and looked down; the well shaft was bottomless and pitch black.

But borrowing the faint light seeping in from above, he could clearly see that the well wall was covered with wet water marks, and these water marks were very fresh, clearly someone had passed through here not long ago.

Just as he was preparing to slide down the well wall using the ice silkworm silk, a faint fluctuation of spiritual energy drifted from the depths of the well.

This fluctuation was cold, viscous, and carried a nauseating smell of blood.

Lin Chen's movements stopped instantly.

This feeling... he had also felt it on those Black Sha Alliance Cultivators he encountered in Black Wind Valley!

Could it be that Grey Shadow's people had already arrived first?

Just at the moment his mind was vigilant, a feeling of extreme danger pierced into the back of his neck like an ice needle!

The hairs all over his body stood up with a "swish"!

He didn't even think; his body's instinct was faster than his brain's thinking, and he abruptly shifted half a foot to the left!

"Swoosh!"

A black iron hook flashing with gloomy light flew past his ear, carrying a sharp whistle that tore through the air, and nailed heavily into the well wall beside him!

The hard profound iron rock was easily pierced through like tofu under the hook blade, and gravel splashed everywhere.

A grey figure, as if seeping out from the shadows of the wall, appeared silently three steps behind him.

Those eyes hidden under the hood, like two cold stars in the abyss, were locked tightly onto him.

"Lin family boy, your reaction is not slow." Grey Shadow's voice was hoarse and cold, as if two pieces of metal were rubbing against each other. "Hand over the things on you that do not belong to you."

Lin Chen turned around slowly, his right hand subconsciously pressing on the sword hilt at his waist, but his eyes were staring fixedly at the black hook blade in the other's hand.

That hook blade was coated with a thick layer of powder, as if ground from black crystals.

In the dim light, these coatings were emitting an aura of the same source as that evil fluctuation at the bottom of the well.

"You lost something, how would I know?" Lin Chen responded coldly, his brain running rapidly, thinking of a plan to escape.

Grey Shadow let out a cold laugh without any emotion: "Playing dumb. The aura of that thing has already merged with you. Are you going to take it out yourself, or should I... take apart your bones and take it myself?"

Before the words fell, Grey Shadow's figure became blurry, leaving only a residual image in place.

The next moment, he had already appeared in front of Lin Chen, and the black hook blade drew a strange arc, aiming directly at Lin Chen's right arm!

His goal was very clear — that hand wearing the stone ring!

Lin Chen's pupils shrank, and he drew his sword to block in a hurry.

"Clang!"

The sound of metal clashing exploded in the narrow passage, shaking his eardrums with pain.

A huge force came from the sword, shaking his tiger's mouth numb, and his whole person uncontrollably slid back several feet.

Just at this moment, the stone ring on his thumb suddenly became hot!

An overbearing suction force suddenly erupted from the ring face, and the target was not Grey Shadow himself, but the crystal coating on his black hook!

I saw that the crystal light flashing on the black hook, unexpectedly like iron filings attracted by a magnet, separated from the hook body one after another, turned into streams of fine black light, and rushed towards Lin Chen's stone ring one after another!

The cold smile on Grey Shadow's face froze instantly, replaced by a touch of astonishment.

He could feel that the "Black Abyss Crystal Sha" attached to his hook blade was losing at a terrifying speed!

"What kind of monster is this?!"

He roared, trying to take back the iron hook, but the suction of the stone ring was like a greedy vortex, locking those black streams of light tightly and swallowing them all.

In just two or three breaths, that thick layer of black crystal coating was sucked clean by the stone ring!

After devouring these black crystals, the temperature of the stone ring did not drop but rose, and on the ring face, a new line of small words composed of light points appeared and was directly branded into Lin Chen's mind:

[Detected high-purity 'Abyss Crystal', energy analyzing... Analysis complete.]

[Source: Zangtian Abyss polluted earth vein core. Purity: 127% (relative baseline value).]

[Function unlocked: Abyss Energy Marking (can track energy of the same source).]

Zangtian Abyss!

Zangtian Abyss again!

And this purity... it was actually higher than the one at the polluted earth vein core!

Just at the moment when Lin Chen was shaken by this sudden information, a violent explosion suddenly came from the direction of the Geothermal Chamber!

"Boom —!"

The terrifying air wave, like a bursting dam, surged from the other end of the passage, shaking the walls of the entire passage into cobweb-like cracks.

Grey Shadow chased Lin Chen to the wellhead, just about to make a move again, but was knocked off balance by this sudden explosion.

He looked back suspiciously, only to see that the crimson firelight had swallowed the entire entrance of the Geothermal Chamber.

"Madman!" Grey Shadow understood instantly; it was that female Disciple of Tianji Academy who had activated the self-destruction Formation of the Geothermal Chamber!

The self-destruction of the Geothermal Chamber triggered the earth-core fire that had accumulated for a thousand years!

The shadow of death shrouded everyone.

Senior Sister Mo Xuan, at the last moment of pressing the self-destruction Formation hub, used all her strength to hug the scorching bronze furnace fragment.

This was the only thing she could take away, and it was also the root of all chaos.

The air wave of the explosion lifted her petite body like a leaf, and smashed it fiercely towards the direction of the well shaft.

The violent impact made her eyes go black, and in the moment of falling, she seemed to see Lin Chen, and also saw the Grey Shadow that was chasing relentlessly.

She hugged the fragment in her arms tightly, but completely failed to notice that from a tiny, invisible crack on the fragment, a trace of energy connected to her Bloodline was seeping out, and in the chaotic torrent, it produced a weak resonance, almost impossible to detect, with the bleeding wound on Lin Chen's right arm not far away.