Chapter 179: Passage!

"This hammer…"

Li Yuan yawned, slightly sleep-deprived, but his blood qi circulation was complete, and his energy recovered quickly.

By the time he reached the entrance of the Chi Rong Tunnel, his spirit had fully recovered.

"The hammer is vibrating violently—something must have happened. The Xieshen Sect? Or someone else?"

At the tunnel entrance, Li Yuan stretched his muscles and bones, guessing that some event must have occurred to make this power-hungry hammer so agitated.

But there was nowhere to inquire right now; after thinking it over, he activated all five pieces of Chi Long Fish Skin Armor.

He had originally planned to explore the Chi Rong Tunnel after waking up.

Once the five pieces of Chi Long Fish Skin Armor were activated, the effect was outstanding—his body temperature instantly returned to normal, the surrounding heat waves rolling violently, yet seemingly kept at bay.

"I don't feel any heat at all."

Li Yuan took two deep breaths—the enhancement from the fifth-grade Chi Long Fish Armor was equivalent to three fourth-grade inner armors.

The rolling heat at the tunnel entrance no longer affected him.

"If I could get a few more pieces, I'd be completely immune to fire and water—I could bathe in lava!"

He still had one third-grade Chi Long Fish Skin Inner Armor and several pairs of gloves.

But he kept the Chen Shan Zhong Hammer—removing this fifth-grade heavy hammer would make him lose all sense of the Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing's location.

After thinking it over, he put on the unactivated Chi Long Fish Skin Armor and gloves, then swallowed two Hu Zang Dan and several Zeng Xue Dan.

Only then did he take a deep breath, shed his outer robe, and step into the Chi Rong Tunnel.

As soon as he entered the tunnel, Li Yuan sensed a difference—the first hundred meters, he didn't even feel the dry heat.

He quickened his pace and walked all the way to the corner where he'd previously picked up the "Ten Thousand Blades Spirit Dragon Root Diagram," only then feeling the surrounding dry heat.

"There's hope!"

Li Yuan didn't delay; he hurried forward, and soon felt the temperature rising ever higher—even the ground and walls were covered in gold-white crystals.

"This place is at least fifteen hundred degrees!"

Li Yuan knew these crystals weren't naturally gold-white—they were refractions of the earth vein's firelight, the maximum temperature of the forging furnaces outside the Chi Rong Cave.

Hss!

Sweat formed on Li Yuan's forehead but evaporated before it could even trickle down.

After a few more steps, the cave walls turned pure white, and blue glows began flickering not far ahead.

"Who could possibly endure this?"

Li Yuan's mouth and throat were parched—without the Chi Long Fish Skin Armor, he'd be reduced to ash in an instant!

Could he even reach the end?

Feeling the dark glow—seemingly right before him, yet impossibly distant—Li Yuan's sweat grew heavier.

He realized he'd underestimated the Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing; even fifth-grade Chi Long Fish Skin Armor wasn't enough to carry him to the end.

"There've been plenty of dead here."

Looking at the blackened marks on the ground, Li Yuan felt a chill—he knew that without a rare artifact, even a fully cultivated Meridian Master couldn't die here.

Even experts who had refined their inner qi into true organ mastery couldn't pass through…

"Is this a dead end?"

Li Yuan was startled, yet felt it unlikely—such extreme heat, to carve out a tunnel like this, must have cost an unimaginable price.

Just to mislead others?

After a few more steps, Li Yuan found a gold coin in the corner—it hadn't melted even in this heat.

"Pure gold!"

Li Yuan picked up the scorching pure gold and reached the fourth corner—here, he could go no further.

The temperature here had reached an unimaginable level; the cave walls shimmered like molten crimson gold, the air was extremely thin, and fifty meters ahead lay a blackened skeleton.

"This is definitely a dead end!"

Li Yuan's heart turned cold—he couldn't believe a master who could leave behind an unburned skeleton in such a furnace existed.

Yet even such a master died here…

Hum!

As Li Yuan sighed inwardly and prepared to leave, the dark glow before him flared violently again—the faint summons surged once more.

"Just come to me yourself!"

Li Yuan felt that if he stayed any longer, he'd be roasted into a mummy—he cursed inwardly but dared not linger, turning around and exiting the tunnel.

"No mortal body can withstand this heat!"

Soaked in the cold spring, a large tub of ice water boiled over as Li Yuan circulated his blood qi and inner strength to expel the fire poison from his body, his brow tightly furrowed.

Over the past half-year, he hadn't stopped trying to find another path—he'd attempted diving into the cold spring, even considered digging his own tunnel.

But hundreds of meters underground, everything was solid blue stone, and even if he dug through, it might just lead to another Chi Rong Tunnel.

The earth fire lay directly beneath the cold spring—he couldn't avoid it no matter how he turned.

"No wonder even many in Divine Weapon Valley think the Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing is just a legend—it's not something a human can possibly obtain!"

Rubbing his temples, Li Yuan rested for a long while before regaining his energy.

In his vision, the dark glow still flickered—but the Chi Rong Tunnel blocked his path, leaving him with nothing but a sigh.

"If I can't get it, no one else probably can either?"

Having exhausted every possible method and still failed to approach it, Li Yuan's heart still held a trace of regret, yet he'd calmed considerably.

It's a great treasure, sure—but if you can't get it, you can't let it drive you to death, right?

"When dawn comes, I'll go ask around—if anything major happens, I'll need to notify Liu Zheng, Wang Wang Peiyao, and Senior Yue…"

Thinking this, Li Yuan returned to his cave to catch up on sleep—no sooner had he stepped inside than he heard a "squeak-squeak" sound.

"Still know how to come back?"

Li Yuan glanced and noticed the rat in the corner wasn't his own—it was larger, with messy, filthy fur.

Li Yuan didn't care much; the Forge Valley had kept rats for over a thousand years, and there were countless underground ones—he'd long grown used to them.

"Squeak~"

The rat startled, squealing wildly.

"Where did so many rats come from?"

Li Yuan had just taken off his shoes when he froze—during the brief moment he turned his head, the cave's interior and exterior were now swarming with a dense mass of black rats.

"Squeak!"

At that moment, a familiar squeak came— a tiny, soft-furred field mouse, clearly different from all the others, darted over.

It walked upright on two legs, and as it passed, large swarms of black rats parted for it, like a rat king on patrol.

"Not bad, little thing. Just a month or two, and you've become a boss. Hmm, the pills weren't wasted."

Li Yuan's mood improved slightly, but he was too lazy to play with it—he yawned and prepared to catch some sleep.

He merely waved his hand, telling it to take all the rats away.

"Squeak-squeak!"

The little mouse saw him lie down and immediately grew frantic, leaping onto the bed and nearly bouncing onto Li Yuan's face.

"What are you doing?"

Li Yuan grabbed the little creature, noticing its tiny green eyes darting sideways—he followed its gaze,

and saw that after the rats scattered, the ground was littered with tiny, small stones, yellow with a reddish tinge.

"These crystals?"

Li Yuan's remaining drowsiness vanished—he nearly crushed the little mouse. He'd seen these crystals before, deep in the Red Melt Tunnel!

That place was scorching hot—he couldn't even get close…

"Where did you get these? Take me there!"

Li Yuan's heart raced. He let go of the squeaking creature and pulled out a handful of pills: "Take me there, and all these pills are yours!"

"Squeak-squeak!"

The little mouse chirped a few times, lifting its chin with a haughty air, yet nodding with unmistakable intelligence.

It turned and dashed out of the cave. Li Yuan, still barefoot, hurried after it.

Centered on the forge yard, the Forge Valley had hundreds, even thousands of tunnels,

and caves were everywhere—even Lei Lei Jingchuan's own map hadn't fully marked them.

"Squeak-squeak!"

The little mouse moved fast, constantly squeaking, and vast hordes of rats poured out from tunnels all around.

A mighty, surging tide of rodents.

"Could this little thing really be a Treasure-Seeking Rat?"

Li Yuan suddenly realized he'd paid too little attention to it; after learning how hard it was to domesticate spirit beasts, he'd basically just let it roam free.

Rodent spirit beasts all had burrowing abilities, slipping through underground tunnels and easily digging into tombs—hence people believed rats could find treasure.

But true Treasure-Seeking Rats were exceedingly rare.

If a Spirit Rat was the finest rodent lineage, a Treasure-Seeking Rat must at least possess the Nine-Form Dragon Bone structure,

a born rat king!

"Does the Dao Master have this much luck? Of course—after all those incense burners of mine, some good fortune must've gathered."

Li Yuan followed at a leisurely pace, mainly because the surrounding rats kept multiplying.

Had this little thing unified the underground rat kingdom?!

"Squeak!"

After weaving through tunnel after tunnel, the little mouse suddenly stopped, standing on tiptoe, its tiny paws waving frantically.

Following its direction, Li Yuan spotted, from the shadows, a rat hole?

"..."

Li Yuan cleared his throat, pointed at the rat hole, then at himself.

"Squeak?"

The little mouse crawled out of the hole, seeming to understand—it bit its own tail and spun around several times.

Then, the rat tide pouring from every tunnel erupted into a frenzy, squeaks nearly shaking the cave apart.

The rat hole began to expand.

"... Dig it now? Can you even dig this out?"

Dust billowed. Li Yuan coughed a few times, drew out the Autumn Water Sword, and joined the digging.

Crack~

As soon as he struck, he sensed something wrong—the soil here was far more fragile than elsewhere; with one tug, he pulled away a large chunk.

He took a torch from his Armory Space, lit it, and examined the wall—sure enough, the soil here was utterly different from the surrounding layers, as if recently backfilled.

"This… is the real path?!"

Li Yuan was stunned and delighted, nearly wanting to snatch the little creature and kiss it hard:

"This is 'When the mountain path ends and water runs out, suddenly another village appears in the willows and flowers!'"

Li Yuan's spirits soared, and he dug with renewed vigor: "Little ones, dig faster! Whoever breaks through gets a great reward!"

…

…

Crack!

Around dawn, the night sky remained deep, with the sound of thunder unceasing.

In the darkness, the crisscrossing bloodlight had mostly dissipated, leaving only two beams of bloodlight plunging straight into the Divine Weapon Valley.

Wan Chuan tossed his disciple into the city, his feet generating wind, and quickly arrived at Divine Weapon Mountain.

There, the red light hung like a curtain on the cliffside of the Cold Pool, amidst the sound of tearing through the air that even the heavy rain could not suppress,

figures of people one after another lunged toward where the red light was.