Chapter 636: Hidden Grotto Opened

Relative to the Ask-the-Dao Tree, he was now due north, specifically in the Kan position of the Later Heaven Bagua.

The weather was fine today, with not a cloud in the sky. Distant peaks shimmered, and if he looked closely, he could even discern mountains further away.

He could see the snow-capped Tian Shu Peak and the unnamed smaller peak beside it.

That was where the Gui Hua Pagoda stood.

From He Lingchuan's perspective, the Gui Hua Pagoda was slightly southeast!

He murmured, "Li?"

South, wasn't that the Li position in the Later Heaven Bagua?

The Gui Hua Pagoda, the Ask-the-Dao Tree, and the giant rock he stood upon now, basically formed a straight line from south to north.

It seemed the direction he was searching in was correct.

He Lingchuan turned and continued north, following the extension of this straight line.

There was no path ahead; the mountain slope was steep, descending all the way to the valley floor.

Then, he spotted a pool of water.

It was, in fact, a cavern hollowed out of the mountain base, fissured and eroded by centuries of flowing water. Xu Mountain had withstood countless seasons of wind, frost, rain, and snow; there were hundreds, if not thousands, of such pits and depressions.

However, the pool's water was remarkably clear, though its depths were unfathomable. The surface wasn't frozen, and a faint mist of steam rose from it.

Jagged rocks surrounded it like a screen, creating a hidden mountain sanctuary known to few. The surroundings were quiet, save for the occasional cry of an ape.

What surprised him most, however, was that there were people by the pool!

A man and a woman.

The man, in his forties, was of medium build, dressed in fine clothes, and had a neatly trimmed beard.

The woman, in her early twenties, had an oval face, peach-blossom eyes, and wore a woman's bun.

The man had wrapped her in a silver sable cloak, and they were embracing, passionately kissing.

He Lingchuan patiently waited for them to finish.

The woman pushed her companion away, her hair slightly disheveled, and whispered, "My sister-in-law came with me; she's resting at Tian Xuan Peak ahead. I can't stay too long!"

The man, unwilling to release her, pulled her closer towards the pool's edge, saying, "Don't worry. When I get back, I'll have your husband transferred so he won't be a nuisance..."

The pool cave was much warmer than elsewhere; were these illicit lovers planning to take a hot spring bath? He Lingchuan casually picked up a pebble and flicked it out. It struck the ground by their feet with a distinct clatter.

Both jumped in surprise.

The man looked up and was startled to see He Lingchuan. "Who are you?!" he exclaimed.

With an outsider suddenly present, the woman quickly broke free and tidied her appearance.

He Lingchuan looked from the man to the woman, blinked, and then suddenly grinned. "It must be quite difficult," he remarked, "to have to come all the way to such a remote and desolate mountain just to seduce another man's wife."

"What business is it of yours?!" the man retorted angrily. "Get lost!"

He Lingchuan jumped down from the large rock and slowly sauntered over.

The woman's face flushed crimson, and she suddenly turned and fled.

Only then did He Lingchuan notice a small path leading up the mountain near the pool.

It appeared these two hadn't come by jumping across the rocky ridge.

"A Qian!" the man called back to her. Seeing she didn't even turn her head, he snarled, "You brat, don't let me see you again!" With that, he turned to leave.

He Lingchuan folded his arms. "If you want to die, just follow her," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"As she jumped onto the path, an arm reached out from the hollow in the mountain, giving her a steadying hand." He Lingchuan gestured with his chin toward the direction the woman had vanished. "It was a man's arm, but she didn't scream, and she even exchanged words with him."

The woman hadn't screamed in alarm; instead, she'd whispered intimately with the person, clearly indicating they knew each other. It was thanks to his acute hearing that he'd caught her words: "Someone else is here... hurry and leave..."

The man asked suspiciously, "What exactly are you trying to say?"

"Someone is ambushing here, waiting for you to go down. Perhaps more than one." The wind had just blown in their direction, and He Lingchuan had already heard two heavy breaths. "This trap, I don't know if it's for money or life."

Of course, with him, an outsider, intervening, the individuals behind the hollow had already decided to retreat.

The man was startled. "You're talking nonsense!" he exclaimed.

"Didn't she invite you up here today?"

The man immediately fell silent, his gaze shifting uncertainly.

Indeed, it was his subordinate's wife who had first suggested they come up the mountain to enjoy the scenery, and she had also found this small peak. This place was deserted; if someone were to fall into the valley and die, it would be ages before they were discovered.

Was that dark-hearted woman planning to kill him with her husband?

The man swallowed hard, then suddenly came to his senses and began climbing back onto the large rock.

Regardless of whether there was an ambush on the path down, wouldn't he be safe if he took the rocky ridge to Tian Ji Peak?

Suddenly, the young man who had been standing by the pool only moments before, now appeared on the large rock directly in front of him.

His sudden appearance was ghost-like. The man's hand trembled with fright, and he almost slipped. "W-what do you want?" he stammered.

He Lingchuan squatted down and grinned at him. "Since you're already here," he said, "why not help me with something?"

"N-no..."

He Lingchuan walked behind the hollow and saw that everyone had already fled.

Good, that saved him some trouble.

He reached a hand into the pool, discovering the water was warm, even slightly hot to the touch.

Of course, this location was lower than the Ask-the-Dao Tree's grotto, and thus closer to geothermal heat.

He casually cut a branch about seven or eight feet long and probed the water with it, but still couldn't reach the bottom.

Though this irregular pool was less than twenty-two feet in diameter, it had been eroded deeper and deeper by the flowing water.

More importantly, He Lingchuan noticed roots beneath the water.

Thick, sinuous tree roots, like snakes.

He murmured, "East Li enters Kan Water."

The "Kan Water" in the Wood Spirit Venerable's oracle must refer to this pool situated directly north of the Ask-the-Dao Tree, right?

He took a turtle talisman from his pocket and hung it on a fishing line.

This was the token left by True Man Dong Li, who had attained transcendence by the Immortal Spirit Lake. He had entrusted it to a fated person to return to the Gui Hua Pagoda on Shou An Mountain (Xu Mountain), promising a reward.

However, when He Lingchuan had attempted to return it as instructed last time, the stone pagoda had simply rejected it.

He Lingchuan had been pondering if there was another reason for this rejection.

Not until he heard the Wood Spirit Venerable's third oracle did he begin to understand:

"East Li enters Kan Water."

The "East Li" here likely refers to the turtle shell talisman True Man Dong Li left for him, which had symbols carved on it.

And from a directional perspective, it could also refer to the turtle talisman rejected by the Gui Hua Pagoda, which is in the south (Li position).

Therefore, the "Kan Water" mentioned in the oracle, the water in the north (Kan position), was most likely this very pool.

With that, He Lingchuan dropped the turtle talisman into the pool and watched it slowly sink.

Then, something strange occurred:

As the talisman sank, large clusters of bubbles gurgled up from the pool, and the water level rapidly plummeted.

In a mere ten breaths' time, the pool was completely drained.

Revealed before He Lingchuan was a vast, bottomless chasm!

The Ask-the-Dao Peak cave dwelling, which countless people had sought for hundreds of years without success, actually had its entrance hidden right here, not on the peak itself!

He Lingchuan noticed a few copper coins by the water, indicating that people occasionally climbed here and used the pool as a wishing well. Yet, none had discovered its true secret.

He Lingchuan retrieved the turtle talisman by its fishing line, and the pool's water did not rise again.

It seemed the Wood Spirit Venerable had long since altered the rules for accessing the dwelling, making True Man Dong Li's turtle talisman the key to its grand entrance.

He Lingchuan tossed a few stones into the chasm.

They clattered as they rolled down along the rock fissures.

It appeared the interior was neither very deep nor very steep.

He Lingchuan patted the man behind him. "Your turn," he said.

He had originally intended to trick a guard from Tian Ji Peak into performing this task. But now, he had a perfect candidate right in front of him.

The man remained behind him, unmoving and expressionless, like a wooden puppet.

He Lingchuan handed him a hemp sack, and the man walked into the chasm.

As the pool water receded, stone steps were revealed beneath, though they were somewhat slippery.

But twenty-two feet further down, the surrounding air became noticeably dry and hot. And the deeper they descended, the brighter the light became.

This man had already been controlled by He Lingchuan, transformed into his living puppet, his every word and action for a short time completely subject to He Lingchuan's will.

This technique was the "Heart-Shadow Transmission," taught by Xi Yunhe, and it was He Lingchuan's first time using it.

He himself walked straight back, climbing higher and leaping over the rocky ridge to return to Tian Ji Peak.

To the southwest of Tian Ji Peak was a small hill with a pavilion built for visitors to rest. It was now late autumn, and the stone seats would send a chill up one's spine, so visitors rarely lingered.

He Lingchuan, meanwhile, leaned against the railing, feigning a distant gaze, but in reality, he was observing the newly opened dwelling through his puppet.

He was now only several hundred feet in straight-line distance from the puppet, still within the effective range of the "Heart-Shadow Transmission."

This spiritual ability was quite draining on true energy, but fortunately, he had ample reserves. Had it been six months ago, his true energy would likely have lasted only for a few dozen breaths.

Not all cave dwellings were self-contained worlds; this one, at least, was not. It was simply a space opened up underground. The path beneath the puppet's feet grew progressively wider until, in the next moment, the space opened up before them into a world bathed in light.

Thirty-three feet directly ahead was a golden-red ocean of magma!

But the magma here was unusually calm, showing no signs of long-term flow, unlike the boisterous activity beneath the Star-Plucking Tower. It only occasionally emitted a bubble.

Logically, this was a world of high temperature and toxic fumes; a living person would have suffocated long ago by being so close.

However, the human puppet merely felt a little warm; its breathing remained smooth, and it experienced no discomfort.

This was likely due to the runes on the surrounding rock walls and the ubiquitous tree roots.

Indeed, the Ask-the-Dao Tree's roots extended directly into the ground; He Lingchuan even saw some of them reaching directly into the magma pool.

Was this tree truly impervious to high temperatures?

Considering the Ask-the-Dao Tree was over four thousand years old—the Treasure Tree King's age would need to be multiplied fivefold just to match it—and that this spiritual wood had survived a world-shattering catastrophe, enduring countless attacks from gods and demons.

A mere bit of geothermal heat beneath Tian Ji Peak should be well within its capacity to withstand.

Only by witnessing all this firsthand did He Lingchuan truly understand that the Ask-the-Dao Tree and Tian Ji Peak had completely merged into an inseparable entity. It was no wonder the Heavenly Palace had left it untouched; otherwise, if the Ask-the-Dao Tree were to die, Tian Ji Peak itself would likely collapse.

This underground space had originally been carved out by overflowing magma. However, the Grand Rejuvenation Sect had installed a talisman array here, powered by geothermal energy, which had functioned perfectly for two millennia. The magma was scalding, but the stone chamber remained relatively cool, creating a consistent updraft of wind that rushed towards the ceiling.

This indicated that there were still openings above, leading directly to the surface.