At the bottom of the passage, Lin Yu climbed from the bubbling, boiling pool of water onto a protruding rock and wiped his face.
“Aren't pools like this in Wuxia novels usually freezing cold? How did this become a hot spring?”
Lin Yu said somewhat helplessly.
To call it a “hot spring” is almost an understatement; it's basically a boiling cauldron.
When he first fell into the water and felt the surging currents, Lin Yu thought it was an underground spring or something—until the talisman above his head rapidly depleted, he realized something was wrong.
There was no spring here at all; the water was surging because the temperature was too high and it was boiling.
Most likely, there was some magma vein running underneath this place.
This Fire Hell isn't just scorching with three suns in the sky, but it's also fiery hot underground!
So, the airflow from the cracks in the stone slabs wasn't circulating air, but mostly boiling steam...
No wonder this room had worse insulation than the other rooms—in the sweltering heat, they even had a heater running in the room.
Chen Yongde's nephew is also a ruthless character, sleeping on a heated bed for so many years in Fire Hell—Lin Yu couldn't help but speculate that this might be why he hasn't returned for years.
“This Hell Mountain Realm is truly full of surprises!”
Lin Yu used the [Water Prayer Necklace] to drain the water from his clothes and skin, and sighed.
This pool of boiling water wasn't enough to hurt Lin Yu; with the [Water Prayer Necklace] and wearing Li Nian's soft armor, Lin Yu was almost unscathed.
But being scalded like that still made Lin Yu feel a little unpleasant.
Moreover...
With a pool of boiling water here, those three镖师 definitely couldn't come down.
With their skills, they would probably be severely burned the moment they jumped down.
Of course, it's the same with or without them.
Lin Yu quickly adjusted his mindset, then stood up and lit up the surroundings with the torch.
The space below was unexpectedly large—in the pool, there were stones protruding from the surface at intervals, seemingly deliberately left as stepping stones.
But Lin Yu didn't follow the trajectory of these stones; he jumped back into the pool directly.
This time, however, using the [Water Prayer Necklace]'s ability, Lin Yu stood directly on the surface of the water—he could manipulate the water under his feet to compress its density and lift it upward, generating enough force and strength to support him.
Lin Yu could do this before, but using the [Water Prayer Necklace]'s “water control” ability consumed mental energy.
Before Lin Yu's mental strength was trained during this period, he didn't have the strength and precision to support him continuously.
Now he was walking on the water as if walking on flat ground.
And the reason Lin Yu did this wasn't because he had a whim, just wanted to imitate crossing the river on a reed or gathering chakra on the soles of his feet on the surface of boiling water.
It was because...
Lin Yu could sense that in the darkness ahead, there was a powerful yet weak presence silently watching him.
This should be the trace of fluctuation that Old Zheng had captured before.
But now that he was close enough, Lin Yu could feel the other party's presence himself.
So... Lin Yu's water walking was part of a preemptive performance.
He walked quickly on the water, and soon felt the water temperature under his feet gradually decrease, and the boiling also lessened a lot.
Before he walked far, the white light of the torch illuminated the “shore.”
Lin Yu jumped lightly from the pool onto the shore.
This was a naturally formed underground cave; the stone walls of the shore were similar to the mountain cave he had seen before, with giant rocks embedded with sand, gravel, and soil in the cracks, but located by the underground pool, it was more humid here.
And there, leaning against the stone wall, sat a strong middle-aged man wearing broken armor.
The middle-aged man was burly, hugging a black iron spear, disheveled, with a scruffy beard, looking like an injured beast.
He opened his eyes, looked at Lin Yu who had walked not far in front of him, and said in a deep voice.
“I was right, you are indeed a master... Even my subtle and weak aura perception can be locked on by you, and you can deduce my location.”
Lin Yu shook the torch: “So you deliberately let me find you... Who are you, and why are you doing this?”
The scruffy middle-aged man tried to prop himself up with the spear, and then said: “I am Chen Yuanjie, the 'Gate-Breaking Spear' of the Mingzhen Martial Hall, a disciple of Bai Shiying, the grand elder of the Mingzhen Martial Hall who 'picked eight towns with a spear and governed three mountains with a fist', and also a native of this Chenjiabao.”
“A year ago, I was ordered by my sect to investigate a demon that was wreaking havoc in the surrounding villages. Because the location of the investigation was very close to Chenjiabao, I simply went home to rest.”
“But unexpectedly, after returning to my hometown, I discovered a strange thing... I found that many houses in the fort were inexplicably empty, and a caravan with few people and many horses came, with only six people.”
“This matter was a bit abnormal, so I began to investigate. When the temperature was not high at night, I went to other villages to inquire about news... Only after inquiring did I know that our Chenjiabao had repeatedly spread rumors of 'disappearances'.”
“I chased after the caravan with only six people left, and after investigating, the people in the caravan belatedly realized that many people were missing from their team!”
“This shocked me very much, so I sent a letter to the nearest Taoist temple, which is also one of the largest Taoist temples in Fire Hell, 'Deqing Temple', wanting to know what was going on.”
“But the answer from the Taoist priests of 'Deqing Temple' made me feel even more strange... They said that Deqing Temple had repeatedly investigated Chenjiabao many times and found nothing unusual!”
“Those missing people were actually dragged away and killed by some demons in the middle of the night every time—they had cleaned up the demons behind the scenes several times.”
“Deqing Temple's view is... Although it sounds like there is some conspiracy, it really seems to be just a coincidence of several events.”
“As for rumors, it's just the ignorance of the villagers, spreading rumors.”
“But I don't accept this, so I bid farewell to Deqing Temple and decided to investigate it myself—when I find the evidence and hand it back to my sect, call my senior brothers or even my master and uncle to help, and then use the name of the Mingzhen Martial Hall to let Deqing Temple assist, I can naturally solve the haze of Chenjiabao.”
“But...”
A bitter smile appeared on Chen Yuanjie's face.
Although he didn't continue, Lin Yu could understand just by looking at the guy's appearance of lingering by the underground pool.
“It seems that you failed miserably, Brother Chen.”
