Chapter 372: Vicious Array

A cool and peculiar energy flow surged through his entire body, covering his skin, making him and his breath, temperature, and even the most minute life vibrations seem to merge with the surrounding light, shadow, and air, vanishing completely.

Holding his breath and focusing his spirit, he moved like an intangible breeze, hugging the ground and skillfully dodging the guards at clever angles.

When the invisible ripples from the warning prohibitions at the cave entrance passed over his position, they merely rippled slightly.

Seizing the moment when a ground-altar Divine Bridge–level guard captain instinctively ducked and looked upward due to a violent explosion overhead, Chen Mu flashed forward and vanished into the deep, heat-churning cave entrance.

The tunnel inside was far wider than the entrance, sloping downward.

The rock walls were likewise dark red, hot to the touch, and the air reeked of sulfur and the unique scent of geothermal fire burning rock, the temperature more than a notch higher than outside.

The sounds of battle and explosions from outside entered the cave, weakened by the winding passages into muffled, distant echoes, adding further oppression.

The cave was not empty; occasionally, scattered Mo Sect personnel fled in panic toward the exit or rushed inward with messages.

The faint air currents stirred by Chen Mu's hidden movement were negligible against the chaotic energy fluctuations outside.

Even if a few highly perceptive individuals vaguely sensed something amiss, when they focused their senses to investigate, they found nothing—only dismissing it as ordinary air disturbances caused by the massive battle outside, too preoccupied to delve deeper.

Leveraging his invisibility and perfect concealment of his energy signature, Chen Mu advanced swiftly without obstruction.

The interior of Flame Long Dong was complex, with many branching paths, but along the main corridors, rough stone chambers had been carved out and sealed with thick, dark red metal bars the thickness of a child's arm, forming individual cages.

The deeper he went, the more cages there were, and the more prisoners they held.

Chen Mu's gaze flashed like lightning, swiftly scanning each cage.

The prisoners inside were indeed figures captured recently by the Sun-Moon Mo Sect.

There were middle-aged warriors whose tattered clothes could not hide their rugged vigor, young female heroes with haggard faces but stubborn eyes, elderly men covered in wounds and with withered energy, and even several teenagers, boys and girls no more than fifteen, each with fear and despair in their eyes.

They had clearly heard the commotion outside; many clung to the bars, straining to listen, their eyes reigniting with hope.

But Chen Mu's heart sank gradually.

He swiftly traversed the scorching corridor, searching two similar prison levels, his gaze sweeping over familiar and unfamiliar faces, yet never spotting Long Tuti.

"Could the intelligence be wrong? Or is he being held somewhere more hidden?"

Chen Mu frowned, turning toward the staircase leading deeper into the third level.

The temperature on the third level was even higher; the rock walls glowed faintly red, and the air burned so fiercely that inhaling it stung the lungs.

The cages here were larger, and the prisoners seemed of higher status, but as Chen Mu examined each one, he still found no trace of Long Tuti.

Strange.

Chen Mu stopped, and just then, the duration of his invisibility card expired; his form slowly materialized in the scorching air.

But he did not rush to leave or re-hide; his mind raced with thought.

"Brother, could you help? Open this cage, please!"

At that moment, from a nearby cage, a young man around twenty, the first to spot Chen Mu's sudden appearance, lunged to the bars and whispered urgently.

That cry instantly shattered the deathly silence of the prison area.

The other prisoners noticed Chen Mu and immediately grew agitated.

"Young hero! Save us!"

"Great hero, free us! We'll repay you handsomely!"

"..."

Shouts and pleas erupted in a chorus, echoing through the enclosed, scorching space.

The guards in this section had clearly been terrified by the massive battle outside—whether they'd rushed to reinforce or fled on their own, no Mo Sect personnel were present now.

The sudden wave of noise pulled Chen Mu back to reality. He glanced at the young man who had cried out first, then swept his gaze over the pair of eyes around him, all brimming with hope, and said nothing.

He extended two fingers like a sword, releasing sword qi; with a "hiss," it stabbed toward the nearest dark red metal bar of a cage.

"Clang!"

"Hum~~~"

A strange metallic vibration rang out; sparks flew where the sword qi struck the bar.

Yet, the expected scene of the bar breaking did not occur.

The seemingly ordinary metal bar merely trembled slightly, leaving not even a single white scratch.

Instead, Chen Mu felt his sword qi, upon impact, vanish like a cow sinking into mud—dispersed, absorbed, and nullified by an invisible, resilient force.

Moreover, across the entire cage, and even the adjacent ones, a faint, water-like crimson glow flickered momentarily along the bars before vanishing.

Chen Mu's pupils contracted slightly; he was startled.

That strike, though not his full strength, should have threatened the protective aura of an ordinary ground-altar Divine Bridge cultivator—how could it fail to damage this seemingly ordinary iron bar?

"Young friend, don't waste your effort."

A slightly aged but still steady voice came from a cage diagonally opposite.

Chen Mu turned and saw an elderly man with half-gray hair and a lean face; though his clothes were torn and stained with blood, his eyes were clear and bright, radiating wisdom and experience.

Seeing Chen Mu look over, he sighed and explained, "The prison here in Flame Long Dong was constructed by the Sun-Moon Mo Sect, using the natural geothermal veins of this location combined with a vicious array called the Nine Locks Connected Heart Array."

"All the cage doors appear independent, but are in fact linked through the underground geothermal veins and the array's core, forming a unified energy network."

"Unless you can destroy the entire array and part of the geothermal vein in a single strike, breaking one door will cause the attack's force to be distributed across all cages, leaving not a single one damaged. And…"

The old man paused, his expression solemn, "This array is extremely vicious. If subjected to external force exceeding its limit, it immediately triggers its self-destruct mechanism—the geothermal vein erupts, instantly incinerating everything within this cave, including all of us."

"It is said that even ordinary Celestial Palace cultivators, without special array-breaking methods or the corresponding array key, dare not attempt a direct assault."

Upon hearing this, Chen Mu frowned.

He hadn't expected the Mo Sect's prison to have such complexity.

"Who holds the key?"

"The one in charge of this prison is a Mo Sect hall master skilled in arrays and interrogation; the key should be on him," the old man replied. "With the battle outside so fierce, he may have joined the fight—or…"

The old man did not finish, but his meaning was clear: perhaps he had already perished in the chaos, and the key was lost.

Chen Mu fell silent.

The others fell silent.