Chapter 633: The Hidden Cave Abode
Relative to the Dao-Seeking Tree, he now stood due north.
In the Later Heaven Eight Trigrams[1], that was the Kan position[2].
The weather today was fine, with a boundless, clear sky. The peaks stretched into the distance, misty and indistinct. If he looked far enough, he could even see the mountains farther away.
There was the snow-covered Tianshu Peak, and beside it, an unnamed lesser peak.
That was where the Guihua Pagoda stood.
From He Lingchuan’s current angle, Guihua Pagoda lay slightly east of due south.
He murmured, “Li?”
South is the Li position in the Later Heaven Eight Trigrams, isn’t it?
The Guihua Pagoda, the Dao-Seeking Tree, and the enormous rock on which he now stood formed an almost perfect line from south to north.
It seemed he had chosen the right direction.
He Lingchuan turned and continued northward, following the extension of that line.
There was no path ahead. The mountain was steep, descending all the way into the valley floor.
Then he saw a pool.
Strictly speaking, it was a hollow in the mountain’s base, formed where the rock had split inward, then been scoured year after year by running water. Mount Xu had endured countless seasons of wind, frost, rain, and snow. Hollows and depressions like this numbered in the hundreds, if not thousands.
However, this pool was unusually clear, yet its bottom could not be seen. The water had not frozen over, and faint white vapor rose from its surface.
Sharp rocks hemmed it in on all sides like a natural screen, turning it into a hidden mountain sanctuary unknown to most people. The surroundings were quiet, broken only by the occasional cry of an ape.
What surprised him most, however, was that there were actually people by the pool.
A man and a woman.
The man was over forty, of average build, dressed in fine fabric, with a neatly trimmed beard.
The woman was in her early twenties, with an oval face and peach-blossom eyes. Her hair was done in a married woman’s style.
The man had wrapped her in a cloak. The two were holding each other and kissing noisily.
He Lingchuan patiently waited for them to stop.
The woman pushed her companion away, her cloudlike hair in disarray, and whispered, “My sister-in-law came with me. She’s resting up ahead at Tianxuan Peak. I can’t stay long!”
The man, however, was unwilling to let go. He held her and tried to guide her toward the pool. “Don’t panic. Once I go back this time, I’ll have your husband transferred away so he stops getting in the way...”
Is this pair of wild mandarin ducks planning to soak in the hot spring? He Lingchuan casually picked up a pebble and flicked it out. It struck the ground by their feet with a sharp clack.
Both of them jumped in fright.
The man looked up and suddenly saw He Lingchuan. He was shocked. “Who are you?”
With an outsider suddenly appearing here, the woman hurriedly broke free and tidied her hair and clothes.
He Lingchuan looked at him, then at her. He blinked, then suddenly grinned. “You’re seducing another man’s wife, and you even had to come all the way into the wilderness to do it. Must be hard work.”
“What business is it of yours?” the man snapped angrily. “Get lost!”
He Lingchuan jumped down from the boulder and slowly made his way toward him.
The woman flushed crimson and suddenly turned to flee.
Only then did He Lingchuan notice that there was actually a small trail leading up the mountain beside the pool.
It seemed these two had not crossed over the stone ridge.
“A’Qian!” the man called after her. Seeing that she did not even turn back, he shouted furiously, “Brat, don’t let me see you again!” Then he turned to leave as well.
He Lingchuan folded his arms. “If you want to die, go ahead and follow her.”
“What do you mean?”
“When she jumped down to the path, an arm reached out from the mountain col and helped her.” He Lingchuan tilted his chin toward the direction where the woman had disappeared. “It was a man’s arm, but she didn’t scream. She even spoke to him.”
The woman had not cried out in alarm and had instead murmured something to the other person. Clearly, they knew each other. Fortunately, He Lingchuan’s hearing was sharp. He had heard her say, “Someone else came... hurry and go...”
The man frowned suspiciously. “What exactly are you trying to say?”
“Someone is lying in ambush here, waiting for you to go down. Maybe more than one person.” The wind had happened to blow toward He Lingchuan earlier, and he had already heard two sets of heavy breathing. “I wonder whether this honey trap is after your money or your life.”
Of course, now that He Lingchuan had barged in as an outsider, the fellows hiding behind the mountain col had already decided to retreat.
The man was startled. “Nonsense!”
“Wasn’t she the one who asked you to come up here today?”
The man immediately shut his mouth, his gaze drifting uneasily.
It was indeed his subordinate’s wife who had first invited him up the mountain for an outing, and she had also chosen this little peak. The place was deserted. If someone fell into the valley and died here, who knew how many years it would take before anyone found the body?
Did that black-hearted woman intend to kill me with her husband?
The man gulped in realization. He lifted his leg and began climbing up the boulder.
Whether or not there was an ambush on the downhill path, could he not just cross the stone ridge to Tianji Peak? Then he would be safe.
But his vision blurred, and the young man who had just been standing by the pool suddenly appeared on the boulder in front of him.
The movement was ghostly, frightening the man so much that his hand slipped and he nearly slid down. “Wh-what do you want?”
He Lingchuan crouched and grinned at him. “Since you’re already here, why not do me a favor?”
“No, no...”
* * *
He Lingchuan went behind the mountain col to take a look. The people who had been there had already run off.
Good, that saves me some trouble.
He reached into the pool and found the water warm, even slightly hot to the touch.
Right, this place is lower than the Dao-Seeking Tree. It’s not all that weird for more of the geothermal heat to reach here.
He casually cut a branch two to three meters long and probed the water, but still could not reach the bottom.
Although the irregular pool was less than seven meters across at its widest point, years of flowing water had carved it deeper and deeper.
More importantly, He Lingchuan could see roots beneath the water. These were thick roots that wound like snakes.
He murmured, “Dongli enters Kan water.”
The “Kan water” from Venerable Muling’s prophecy must refer to this pool north of the Dao-Seeking Tree, right?
He took a turtle-shaped talisman from his robes and tied it to a fishing line.
This was the token left behind by Perfected Dongli, who had passed away beside Immortal Spirit Lake. Dongli had asked the one fated to find it to return the token to Guihua Pagoda at Mount Shou’an—now Mount Xu—and had promised a reward.
But when He Lingchuan had delivered it as instructed last time, the stone pagoda had flatly rejected it.
He Lingchuan had been wondering ever since whether there was another reason behind it.
He then realized it after hearing the third line of Venerable Muling’s prophecy: “Dongli enters Kan water.”
The “Dongli” in that line must have actually been referring to this turtle shell command talisman that Perfected Dongli left me instead. There were talismanic runes carved on it.
And from the perspective of direction, since the turtle-shaped talisman had been rejected by the Guihua Pagoda in the south, which was in the Li position, then the “Kan water” in the prophecy was most likely referring to here.
So He Lingchuan lowered the talisman into the pool and watched it slowly sink.
Then something strange happened.
As soon as the talisman sank, huge bubbles began gurgling up from the pool. Immediately afterward, the water level dropped sharply.
In only a dozen breaths, the pool was drained dry.
What lay exposed before He Lingchuan was a deep, bottomless hole.
The Dao-Seeking Peak cave abode that countless people had searched for over hundreds of years had been hidden here all along. Its entrance was not actually on Dao-Seeking Peak, but concealed in this place.
He Lingchuan saw a few copper coins by the water’s edge. Clearly, people had occasionally climbed here and treated the pool as a wishing pool, tossing coins into it, but none had ever discovered anything unusual.
He Lingchuan reeled in the fishing line and retrieved the turtle-shaped talisman. The pool water did not rise again.
It seemed that Venerable Muling had long ago modified the opening rules of the cave abode and made Perfected Dongli’s turtle-shaped talisman the key to the door.
He Lingchuan threw several stones into the hole.
They rolled down along the cracks in the stone with a series of clattering sounds.
It seemed the interior was neither too deep nor too steep.
He Lingchuan patted the man behind him on the shoulder. “Your turn.”
He had originally planned to ambush one of Tianji Peak’s guards to handle this matter, but it just so happened that a volunteer was available right there.
The man’s expression was blank. He had stood behind He Lingchuan the whole time without speaking or moving, like a wooden puppet.
He Lingchuan handed him a sack, and he walked into the hole.
With the pool drained away, stone steps were exposed beneath, though they were somewhat slick and wet.
But after descending about seven meters, the surrounding air became noticeably dry and hot. The deeper he went underground, the brighter the light became.
This man was already under He Lingchuan’s control, turned into a living puppet whose words and actions were temporarily governed by him.
This was Xi Yunhe’s “Mental Override,” and it was He Lingchuan’s first time using it.
He himself headed straight back, climbing all the way up and leaping over the stone ridge to return to Tianji Peak.
There was a small hill southwest of Tianji Peak, with a pavilion built on it for tourists to rest. Now that late autumn had arrived, anyone sitting on the stone benches would feel cold seeping up from beneath their backside, so guests came and went without staying long.
He Lingchuan leaned against the railing, pretending to gaze into the distance. In reality, he was using the puppet’s eyes to observe the newly opened cave abode.
The straight-line distance between him and the puppet was only a few dozen meters, still within the effective range of Mental Override.
This divine technique consumed quite a bit of true energy, but fortunately, his reserves were abundant. If this had been half a year earlier, his pitiful amount of true energy would probably have lasted only a few dozen breaths.
Not every cave abode was an independent miniature world. At least this one was not. It was merely an underground space. The path beneath the puppet’s feet grew wider the farther he walked. In the next moment, the view ahead opened up, and he found himself in a bright world.
Ten meters directly ahead lay a golden-red sea of magma!
But the magma here was unusually quiet. It barely flowed at all, unlike the roaring turbulence beneath Star-Plucking Tower. Only now and then did a bubble rise.
Logically, this should have been a world of high heat and poisonous fumes. A living person standing this close should have suffocated long ago.
Yet the human puppet merely felt a little hot. His breathing was still smooth, and he felt no particular discomfort.
This probably had something to do with the runes on the surrounding rock walls, as well as the tree roots that seemed to be everywhere.
Yes, the Dao-Seeking Tree’s roots reached straight into the earth. He Lingchuan even saw several of them plunging directly into the magma pool.
The tree isn’t afraid of high temperatures?
Then again, the Dao-Seeking Tree was already more than four thousand years old. Baoshu King would need to multiply his age by five just to catch up to it. And this spirit tree had endured the apocalyptic catastrophe, withstanding who knew how many attacks from gods and demons.
A bit of geothermal heat beneath Tianji Peak was probably nothing to it.
Only after seeing all this with his own eyes did He Lingchuan truly understand that the Dao-Seeking Tree and Tianji Peak had already fused into one whole. They were inseparable. It was no wonder the Heavenly Palace had left it standing instead of cutting it down. If the Dao-Seeking Tree died, Tianji Peak itself might collapse.
This underground space had originally been opened up by overflowing magma, but the Grand Return Sect had installed a talismanic array here, powered by geothermal heat. It had continued running smoothly for two thousand years. The magma was boiling hot, but the stone chamber was relatively cool, creating a flowing current of air that blew upward with a steady whoosh.
Clearly, there were gaps above that led all the way to the surface.
1. See thoughts/notes section for more information. ☜
2. This basically just means North, though it does also carry implications of cold, water, hidden depth, and/or danger. ☜
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