Chapter 400: Chapter 315: Alchemy
Duan Rong and Pan Yong walked through the dense forest.
The corner of Duan Rong’s eye kept a watchful glance on Pan Yong beside him, feeling that this person exuded a dangerous aura.
Pan Yong stopped in front of a stone wall entwined with vines. Suddenly, he lifted a section of the densely intertwined vines to reveal a pitch-black entrance.
Pan Yong swiftly slipped inside, and with a flicker in his gaze, Duan Rong followed.
As Duan Rong entered, Pan Yong was already at the entrance. Lighting the flint, he glanced at Duan Rong, saying, "You should get a torch too. The path inside the cave is not easy to navigate."
Pan Yong retrieved a torch from the stone wall and ignited it with the flint.
Duan Rong also grabbed a torch and lit it using Pan Yong’s flame.
Pan Yong looked ahead into the dark tunnel and said, "Let’s go. We’re heading to the innermost cave."
Duan Rong didn’t speak, just followed behind Pan Yong.
Pan Yong seemed reasonably satisfied with Duan Rong’s behavior.
He loathed newcomers who knew nothing and kept asking questions.
He would naturally inform them of what they needed to know.
Back then, when he guided Yin Cong, he wished he could rip that guy’s mouth apart.
Duan Rong grasped a torch in one hand and clutched a sack full of deadly insects in the other, looking around the stone walls with astonishment.
The stone walls were covered with sharp protrusions, and even the path beneath their feet required careful steps to find a foothold.
Just as a question arose in Duan Rong’s mind, Pan Yong spoke softly, "This used to be a dead volcano. It hasn’t erupted in decades. These crisscross passages were originally channels for the lava to flow..."
"Volcano?!" Duan Rong’s gaze darted around, his heart shook.
This was the first time he walked inside a volcano, even though it was dormant.
The two arrived at a bend at the cave’s mouth, and as Duan Rong touched the stone wall beside him, he found it cold and lifeless.
Duan Rong suddenly noticed that this cave had no moss or ferns, not even poisonous insects.
Pan Yong, seemingly guessing Duan Rong’s thoughts, glanced back at him standing dumbfounded against the wall and said, "After the lava flows, the stone walls retain a lot of sulfur... neither insects nor moss can survive..."
The two passed through a stone tunnel and entered a narrow winding passageway.
"This part is the hardest. Once we get through here, it’ll be better. If not for this, it would be a far detour," Pan Yong mentioned.
Duan Rong squeezed through a narrow gap between two stone walls, so close that a sharp stone tip brushed his nose.
When Duan Rong passed through, Pan Yong was already waiting on the other side, holding his torch.
They walked a bit further and suddenly stopped before a cave entrance. A massive heavy iron door blocked the way, equipped with a copper lock as large as a fist.
Duan Rong’s eyes flickered. Here, deep within the volcano’s belly, they still used a massive iron door to seal something.
What could possibly be inside?
With a rumble, Pan Yong turned the key, unlocking the copper lock and pushing open the heavy iron door.
Pan Yong stepped inside first. Duan Rong, holding his torch, was about to follow but halted slightly at the entrance.
Upon reaching the cave mouth, a humid, rancid odor assaulted Duan Rong’s face.
Duan Rong’s eyebrows twitched into a frown as he cautiously entered.
Once inside, Duan Rong carefully scanned the area, noticing the cave was deep and expansive. Under the torchlight, its dome-shaped ceiling bristled with sharp stalactites.
Pan Yong was already a ways ahead, holding his torch. Duan Rong followed at a slow pace.
Although this cave was vast and filled with a humid, decaying, and bloody scent, it seemed empty along the way.
Suddenly, Pan Yong stopped, and Duan Rong immediately halted not far from him.
Duan Rong’s gaze sharpened as he noticed the rock beneath Pan Yong’s feet had turned damp and black as though a layer of black moss covered it.
But Pan Yong said that moss couldn’t survive here.
In a deep voice, Pan Yong said, "Duan Rong, remember! Once you reach the discolored rock, don’t go any further. If you do, you’ll be attacked!"
"Attack?" Duan Rong furrowed his brows, warily scanning his surroundings. "What kind of attack?"
He hadn’t noticed anything unusual on the way here.
"The attack of the Black Blood Vine."
"Black Blood Vine!?" Duan Rong cautiously moved to Pan Yong’s side. Under the light of their torches, he saw deeper inside the cavern two gnarled trees entwined with vines.
If they could still be called trees at all.
Centered around those two trees, the ground seemed ink-black for nearly a fathom’s distance.
The trees themselves were pitch black.
Sparse leaves adorned the trees, with each tree having only a dozen or so leaves.
Each leaf was about the size of a human palm, but eerily enough, they were bright red like blood, vivid and dripping.
With pitch-black trunks, twisted vines, and blood-red leaves,
The two trees present an indescribable, eerie horror...
Duan Rong, eyes wide with shock, thought such trees belonged in Hell.
Perhaps, at this moment, he stood at Hell’s entrance.
On the top of each tree hung two fist-sized green fruits, glowing with a gentle, bluish light.
However, what Duan Rong couldn’t see was that beside those two trees were tiny spring-like holes in the ground, from which a rich Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi gushed forth, filling the cave...
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