Chapter 2375: Chapter 2376: Soaking in Hot Springs
Hanging an exquisitely crafted dark-gold Amulet around the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound’s neck, Feng Yuan clapped his hands, satisfied, and said,
"Looks pretty good, huh～"
The Fluffy Fire Wolfhound shook itself proudly and shot Xiao Ji a provocative look, then turned its head away in disdain. Xiao Ji wasn’t about to fall for it. That thing was only useful when going into the water anyway, and it, Xiao Ji, didn’t need that kind of thing to get into the water! Probably...
"All done. Next up is just enjoying ourselves～"
Turning back to glance at the commercial street behind them, Feng Yuan said that besides practical goods, there were also lots of souvenirs for sale. But he wasn’t in a hurry to buy any yet. Since they planned to stay here for several days, they could always buy some before they left.
Dong, dong, dong—deep and solemn chimes rang out. Feng Yuan looked up at the sky. A dark cloud now hung over Hot Springs Town, and in no time, tiny tufts of Fluffy Snow drifted down from it. Spreading his palm and watching the Fluffy Snow melt in his hand, Feng Yuan said,
"This really is an interesting thing. They must’ve spent ages researching how to make this special kind of snow."
These Fluffy Snowflakes were almost weightless. When they landed on you, they would slowly dissipate instead of melting into water like normal snow. And although Fluffy Snow was a variant of snow, it didn’t feel cold at all.
Fluffy Snow was considered one of Hot Springs Town’s specialties. Feng Yuan had no idea how long they’d spent figuring out how to make it, but he guessed it couldn’t have been easy. Even with Spirit Beasts helping, it wouldn’t be something you could pull off casually.
Otherwise Fluffy Snow wouldn’t have become Hot Springs Town’s exclusive timekeeping "clock."
That’s right—this drifting Fluffy Snow was Hot Springs Town’s hourly chime. At every full hour, when the chimes rang, Fluffy Snow would fall from the sky with the help of the town’s Spirit Beasts.
Each hourly Fluffy Snowfall lasted for five minutes. Feng Yuan noticed quite a few people around them taking out their phones and cameras to film. Although in essence Hot Springs Town’s Fluffy Snow served as a timekeeping device, because it was artificially generated and controlled, it was actually much prettier than natural snowfall.
For that reason, tourists who came to Hot Springs Town—whether or not they were staying overnight—would specially wait for the top-of-the-hour Fluffy Snow.
The Fluffy Fire Wolfhound shook itself, clearly displeased by the falling Fluffy Snow. After all, that stuff was condensed water-type Energy, and for a pure Fire Attribute Fluffy Fire Wolfhound, it wasn’t exactly lovable.
"You guys aren’t taking pictures?"
Seeing that Qi Chen and the others were only quietly enjoying the view, Feng Yuan turned and asked curiously. Qi Chen looked at him, puzzled, and said,
"Why would we take pictures? We’re not leaving right away. If we’re going to take pictures, wouldn’t it be better to wait till we’re ready?"
This time they hadn’t planned on shooting any snow scenery, so they hadn’t prepared anything for it. Even though they were wearing bathrobes, just taking pictures like this...
"Hehe, I thought you’d want to take some photos as a keepsake. Well, since that’s the case, let’s go～"
Scratching his head, Feng Yuan smiled and dropped the subject. He’d thought Qi Chen and the others would be like before—whip out their phones and snap away whenever they saw a nice view.
Aside from Feng Yuan’s group, quite a few people didn’t react much to the timekeeping snow. Most of those were regular visitors and staff, already tired of the hourly snowfall.
The Flowing Water Pool lay at the foot of a small hill on the edge of Hot Springs Town. The hill was mostly made of rock, with only a thin layer of soil in a few spots where wild grass could grow.
The rocky hill wasn’t very tall, and it clearly bore traces of man-made piling. That didn’t surprise Feng Yuan; Hot Springs Town was full of artificial scenery.
Doing things this way might strip the landscape of some of its natural spirit, but in terms of overall aesthetics, it ensured everything stayed coordinated and pleasing to the eye.
Like this rocky hill: besides the wild grass, the trees that just so happened to grow in the cracks were an important part of its decoration. Without those trees and weeds, the hill would’ve looked incredibly ugly.
This hot spring pool was called the Flowing Water Pool because there was a waterfall of hot spring water on the hill. It cascaded down along the rock face into the Flowing Water Pool below.
The entire Flowing Water Pool had been deliberately built to resemble a lake with a river channel. At the end of the channel, the hot spring water disappeared from sight through a series of scattered outlets, as if it had flowed into an underground river.
The water in the Flowing Water Pool was constantly moving. For looks, the pool bed was heavily paved with pebbles. Though it felt a bit uneven underfoot, the selected pebbles formed a relatively smooth surface overall, so walking on the pebble bottom didn’t give you that "unstable footing" feeling.
Walking in the Flowing Water Pool, ignoring the slight unevenness from the pebbles, Feng Yuan felt it wasn’t much different from stepping on gently sloping flagstones.
The deepest part of the Flowing Water Pool only just reached Feng Yuan’s neck. Along both sides of the pseudo-river channel, he saw many people lying along the sloped banks, letting the hot spring water wash slowly over their bodies as it flowed past.
The Fluffy Fire Wolfhound, Amulet on, leapt into the middle of the pool, splashing up a huge spray. The Amulet activated, and a thin film enveloped the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound. The warm water of the hot spring could only give it a pleasant warmth; it couldn’t soak its fur.
Seeing this, the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound swam around proudly in the water.
For it, the last time it’d had this much fun in the water was back at the Red Tribe.
There was no helping it. Aside from the hot springs at the Red Tribe, water elsewhere only made the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound uncomfortable. Especially after it got its fur wet—then it felt downright miserable.
Now that the Amulet was protecting it, it could finally play in the water to its heart’s content.
Unlike the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound, Xiao Ji seemed a bit cautious. Seeing Xiao Ji struggling, Feng Yuan picked it up with an amused look.
The main issue was that Xiao Ji couldn’t swim. Although the depth of the Flowing Water Pool wasn’t dangerous for Feng Yuan and the others, Xiao Ji’s height was what it was; in the deeper parts, it couldn’t stand at all.
Suddenly being scooped up by Feng Yuan, Xiao Ji froze for a moment, then relaxed again. Its tail feathers stirred the hot spring water as it wriggled free from Feng Yuan’s hands and tried to float on the surface.
It couldn’t compare to the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound dog-paddling out toward the center of the pool, but after getting used to it a bit, Xiao Ji was also able to float on the surface.
Unlike water birds, most of Xiao Ji’s body was actually submerged. It was only able to float because it was forcibly supporting itself with its own Energy.
Seeing that, Feng Yuan, both amused and helpless, went over to teach Xiao Ji how to swim.
Qi Chen and Dou Yanlan sat in a spot not far from the shore, the hot spring water covering most of their bodies. The gently falling snow didn’t bring much chill; instead, it added a touch of winter scenery to the Flowing Water Pool.
The two of them watched the snow while chatting softly. Nearby, Feng Yuan was busy teaching Xiao Ji how to swim. Perhaps because it’d been provoked by the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound, Xiao Ji was determined to learn how to swim this time.
The nearby tourists cast curious glances at Feng Yuan teaching Xiao Ji to swim. Many avian Spirit Beasts weren’t afraid of water, but teaching them to swim... they thought that young man was pretty creative.
If it weren’t for the temperature of the hot spring and the Energy it contained, Feng Yuan could almost have mistaken this for playing in an ordinary river. Of course, even though Hot Springs Town tried hard to replicate nature, the artificial traces were still too strong, so the scenery lacked that truly natural, wild charm.
But to Feng Yuan, that didn’t really matter. Artificial and natural—he thought both were fine; each had its own pros and cons.
Just as they were reveling in this tranquil moment, a flash of red streaked over the waterfall. The lower part of the waterfall suddenly exploded into a gigantic splash, and everyone turned to look toward it.
Feng Yuan frowned. Could it be that someone was causing trouble again?
Before he could think it through, that red blur shot past him. A huge wave drenched the tourists on both banks of the river channel. The Fluffy Fire Wolfhound was knocked aside by the thing and then swallowed up by the wave. It scrambled ashore in a panic, and only after confirming that its fur wasn’t wet did it finally let out a small sigh of relief.
"Just now, what was that?"
Watching the red figure disappear at the end of the channel, Feng Yuan was totally baffled. What had just happened?
As for whether it was some kind of show put on by Hot Springs Town?
Yeah right. Feng Yuan didn’t believe Hot Springs Town would arrange a performance with no prior notice that could easily ruin the visitors’ experience.
If nothing else, plenty of tourists who’d been leisurely enjoying their afternoon had already climbed out of the water. They kept glancing toward the waterfall, clearly worried that red figure would pop out again.
"Maybe it’s related to you?"
Veronia shot Feng Yuan a look and teased him.
