Chapter 640: Hidden Cave Mansion Opened

The Kan position in the Later Heaven Bagua.

The weather today is good, cloudless, the peaks are misty, if you look far into the distance, you can actually see more distant mountain peaks.

The snow-capped Tianchu Peak, and the nameless small peak on its side.

That is the location of the Guihua Tower.

Looking from He Lingchuan's angle, the Guihua Tower is a little bit south by east!

He muttered: "Li?"

South, isn't it the Li position in the Later Heaven Bagua?

Guihua Tower, Questioning Tree, and the giant rock he is standing on now, are basically in a straight line from south to north.

Looking at it this way, the direction he is looking for should be correct.

He Lingchuan turned and continued to move north, that is, walking along the extension of this straight line.

There is no road ahead, the mountain is very steep, going all the way down to the valley floor.

And then, he saw a pool of water.

Actually, this is a wall cave formed by the cracking and inward depression of the mountain root,

However, the pool water here was exceptionally clear, yet one could not see the bottom; the surface was not frozen, and faint white steam was rising from it.

Jagged rocks on all four sides acted like a screen, enclosing it in the middle and forming a mountain paradise known to few. The surroundings were quiet, with the occasional cry of an ape.

But what surprised him most was that there were actually people by the pool! A man and a woman.

The man was over forty, of medium build, wearing high-quality clothing, with his beard neatly trimmed.

The woman was in her early twenties, with an oval face, peach-blossom eyes, and her hair styled in a married woman's bun.

The man had wrapped her in a silver-fox cloak, and the two were huddled together, kissing with smacking sounds.

He Lingchuan waited patiently for them to stop.

The woman pushed her companion away, her hair disheveled, and whispered, "My sister-in-law accompanied me here; she is resting at the Heavenly Pivot Peak ahead, so I cannot stay too long!"

The man would not let go, hugging her and pulling her toward the pool's edge: "Don't panic. Once I go back this time, I will have your husband transferred away so he won't get in the way..."

The pool cave was much warmer than other places; were these two wild mandarin ducks planning to take a hot spring bath? He Lingchuan casually grabbed a pebble and flicked it out, hitting the ground at their feet with a 'clack'.

The two were startled.

The man looked up and caught sight of He Lingchuan unexpectedly, and could not help but be shocked, "Who are you!"

With a stranger appearing here, the woman hurriedly broke free and tidied her hair and face.

He Lingchuan looked at him, then at her, blinked, and suddenly grinned: "Seducing someone else's wife and having to come to such a remote, desolate mountain—that's quite an effort."

"What business is it of yours!" the man said angrily, "Get lost!"

He Lingchuan jumped off the large rock and slowly paced over.

The woman's face turned beet red, and she suddenly turned and fled.

Only then did He Lingchuan discover there was a small path up the mountain by the pool.

It seemed these two had not jumped over via the stone ridge.

"Qian!" the man called out to her, but seeing her not even look back, he said angrily, "You brat, don't let me see you again!" With that, he turned to leave.

He Lingchuan crossed his arms and said, "If you want to die, go ahead and follow her."

"What do you mean?"

"When she jumped onto the small path, an arm reached out from the mountain hollow and gave her a hand." He Lingchuan gestured toward the direction the woman had disappeared, "That was a man's arm, yet she didn't scream and even spoke to him."

The woman had not let out a startled cry and had even spoken intimately with the other party; clearly, the two sides knew each other. It was fortunate his hearing was good, as he heard the woman say: "Someone else has come up... leave quickly..."

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

"Someone is lying in ambush here, waiting for you to go down, and there might be more than one." The wind had been blowing this way just now, and He Lingchuan had long since heard two heavy breathing sounds, "I don't know if this honey trap is after your money or your life."

Of course, now that he, an outsider, had intervened, the guys behind the mountain hollow had already backed off.

The man was shocked: "You're talking nonsense!"

"Wasn't it her who invited you up here today?"

The man immediately shut his mouth, his gaze shifting uncertainly.

It was indeed the subordinate's wife who had spoken first, inviting him up the mountain to play, and she had chosen this small peak as well. It was desolate and uninhabited here; if someone were to fall into the valley and die, who knew how many years it would take to be discovered.

Was that black-hearted woman planning to kill him along with her husband? The man swallowed hard, suddenly realized what was happening, and lifted his leg to climb onto the large rock.

Regardless of whether there was an ambush on the path down the mountain, if he walked across the stone ridge to the Heavenly Jade Peak, wouldn't he be safe?

Suddenly, his vision blurred, and the youth who had been standing by the pool just a moment ago appeared on the large rock in front of him.

This movement was like a ghost; the man's hand shook in fear, and he almost slipped off: "W-what are you doing?"

He Lingchuan squatted down and grinned at him: "Since you're already here, why not do me a favor?"

"No, no..."

He Lingchuan walked behind the mountain hollow to take a look; the people had all run away.

Well, that saved him the trouble.

He reached into the pool and found the water warm, even a little scalding.

That was it; the terrain here was lower than the Questioning Tree cave and closer to the geothermal heat.

He casually cut a seven or eight-foot-long branch and probed into the water, but still could not reach the bottom.

Do not be fooled by the fact that the diameter of this irregular pool was less than two zhang; in reality, it had been eroded deeper and deeper by the flowing water.

More importantly, He Lingchuan saw roots under the water.

Thick, snake-like winding tree roots.

He muttered: "East Li enters the Kan water."

The "Kan water" in the Wood Spirit Venerable's prophecy must refer to this pool directly north of the Questioning Tree, right? He took a turtle talisman from his bosom and hung it with fishing line.

This was the keepsake left by True Person Dong Li, who had passed away by the Immortal Spirit Lake. He had entrusted a fated person to return it to the Returning Transformation Tower on First Shore Mountain (Xushan), with a reward promised.

But last time He Lingchuan sent it back as instructed, that stone tower had flatly refused to accept it.

He Lingchuan had been pondering whether there were other reasons for this.

Until he heard the Wood Spirit Venerable's third prophecy: "East Li enters the Kan water."

The "East Li" here actually referred to the turtle shell True Person Dong Li left for him, which had talisman characters carved on it.

And from the perspective of orientation, it could also be said to be the turtle talisman rejected by the Returning Transformation Tower in the south (Li position).

Then the "Kan water" in the prophecy, the water in the north (Kan position), was very likely this place.

So He Lingchuan dropped the turtle talisman into the pool and watched it slowly sink.

A strange thing happened: as the turtle talisman sank, large clusters of bubbles gurgled up in the pool, and the water level immediately dropped sharply.

In about ten breaths of time, the pool was empty.

Exposed before He Lingchuan was a bottomless hole!

The Questioning Peak cave dwelling that everyone had searched for in vain for hundreds of years—it turned out the entrance was not on Questioning Peak, but hidden here! He Lingchuan saw a few copper coins by the water's edge, showing that occasionally people climbed up here and treated this pool as a wishing well to toss coins into, but they had discovered nothing unusual.

He Lingchuan grabbed the fishing line and retrieved the turtle talisman, and the pool water did not rise again.

It seemed the Wood Spirit Venerable had long ago modified the rules for opening the cave dwelling, using True Person Dong Li's turtle talisman as the key to the main gate.

He Lingchuan threw a few stones into the hole.

They rolled down along the stone crevices with a clattering sound.

It seemed it was neither deep nor steep inside.

He Lingchuan patted the man behind him: "It's up to you."

He had originally intended to ambush a guard from Heavenly Jade Peak to do this. But wasn't there one ready-made right here? It would be him.

This man had a blank expression, standing behind him without speaking or moving, like a wooden puppet.

He Lingchuan handed a sack to him, and he walked into the hole.

The pool water had receded, revealing stone steps underneath, though they were a bit slippery.

But after going down another two zhang, the surrounding air became noticeably hot and dry, and the further they went underground, the brighter the light became.

This man had already been controlled by He Lingchuan, turned into his living puppet, and his words and actions were under his command for the time being.

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

He himself walked directly back, climbing high all the way, jumping over the stone ridge and returning to Heavenly Jade Peak.

There was a small hill to the southwest of Heavenly Jade Peak, where a pavilion had been built for tourists to rest. Now that it was late autumn, once a person sat on the stone chair, the cold would rise from beneath their buttocks, so the guests here came and went and would not stay too long.

He Lingchuan leaned against the railing, appearing to be gazing into the distance, but in reality, he was observing the newly opened cave dwelling through the puppet.

Now he was only a few dozen zhang away from the puppet in a straight line, not yet out of the effective range of the "Heart-Shadow Transmission."

This divine ability was quite draining on true qi, but fortunately, he had abundant reserves. If it were half a year ago, his meager true qi would probably only have lasted a few dozen breaths.

Not all cave dwellings were self-contained small worlds, at least this one was not. It was just a space opened up underground; the path under the puppet's feet grew wider and wider, and in the next second, the view opened up, and he actually arrived in a world of light.

Three zhang directly ahead was a golden-red ocean of magma! But the magma here was unusually quiet, having not flowed for a long time, unlike the bustling activity under the Star-Plucking Tower; it only bubbled occasionally.

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

However, the human puppet's sensation was just that it was a bit hot, his breathing remained smooth, and there was no discomfort.

This probably had to do with the runes on the surrounding rock walls and the omnipresent tree roots.

Yes, the roots of the Questioning Tree extended straight into the underground, and He Lingchuan even saw a few of them actually probing directly into the magma pool.

Was this tree actually not afraid of high temperatures?

Thinking again that the Questioning Tree was already over four thousand years old—the Treasure Tree King's age would have to be multiplied by five to catch up to it. And this spirit wood had also experienced a world-shaking catastrophe, bearing the attacks of how many gods and demons.

A little geothermal heat under Heavenly Jade Peak should be something it could withstand.

Only by witnessing all this did He Lingchuan understand that the Questioning Tree and Heavenly Jade Peak had completely merged into a single entity, inseparable. No wonder the Heavenly Palace kept it and did not cut it down; otherwise, if the Questioning Tree died, Heavenly Jade Peak would likely collapse as well.

This underground space was originally opened up by magma overflowing everywhere, but the Great Return Sect had set up a talisman array here, relying on geothermal energy for power, and it had been operating well for two thousand years. The magma was scalding, but the stone chamber was relatively cool, so a flowing wind formed here, blowing up toward the top with a 'whoosh'.

It was evident there were still gaps above, leading straight to the surface.

(End of chapter)