Chapter 61: The Mysterious Cave

Rod certainly wouldn’t give up on the body of the Flaming Lion. He already deeply regretted abandoning the body of the previous magical beast, the Black Rock Leopard. Back in Iron Bar Town, watching piles of magical beast corpses be discarded filled him with reluctance and distress! Especially those beasts he had killed himself—rumor had it that the bodies of the dragons were even taken by the Black Tooth Legion, leaving Rod depressed for days. After all, the value of a single dragon’s body could instantly make Rod a millionaire. Though he wasn’t short of money, now that he had left Iron Bar Town and had a group of brothers, with many things still to do, a large amount of money was still essential for Rod! Money, the root of all evil—he still needed to deal with it.

The Flaming Lion, after all, was the corpse of a quasi-saint-level magical beast. Its fur, bones, and internal organs were all valuable. With skilled hands, Rod quickly collected everything. Patting his magic belt, he finally smiled in satisfaction—this haul was worth at least 50,000 gold coins! That amount could enable him to do many things.

Last night, Rod, along with Furnace Sky, focused their attention once again on that bottomless, pitch-dark cave. This strange cave exuded a eerie atmosphere—at least that’s what Rod thought. Even standing at the entrance, he could feel the cold winds blowing! A strong musty smell hit him, forcing him to cover his nose.

The closer he got to the cave, the more he sensed its strangeness. The feeling grew stronger, and the howling winds made Rod frown. Such an atmosphere was unsettling.

After hesitating for a moment, Rod decided to enter this mysterious place. Somehow, a set of armor appeared in his hands—the same mysterious armor he had obtained before. Having not used it in a long time, it reappeared, and Rod put it on. Although its defensive capabilities weren’t great, it was better than nothing. Entering such a dangerous place meant everything was unpredictable; extra protection meant extra safety.

Taking a deep breath and getting ready, Rod stepped into the cave. Furnace Sky, closely following him, let out uneasy growls but eventually followed after seeing Rod’s actions.

As soon as he entered the cave, Rodrick felt a cold wind blowing towards him, carrying a hint of icy chill. The wind swept across his cheeks, causing a sharp pain. The howling wind in such a cave gave an eerie sensation, as if countless magical beasts were roaring there—full of formidable power. Everything around was pitch black; under normal circumstances, anyone in such an environment would be unable to see or move at all. But Rodrick was different—he was a warrior, and a strong one at that, with the strength of a late imperial-level fighter. Such an environment posed little trouble to him. He focused his combat energy on his eyes while spreading his mental power throughout the surroundings. In an instant, the entire dark cave appeared before his mind like a map! He was now in a passage that was wide enough for seven or eight people to walk side by side, extending downward. Due to the lack of light over the years, it was cold and damp. The chilly atmosphere made him uncomfortable. He quietly mobilized his entire combat energy and tensed his muscles, ready to counterattack or strike at any moment. In such a mysterious place, one had to be cautious—after all, after countless years of accumulation in such a cold place, who knew what dangers might lurk there? It could even be the den of a powerful magical beast, so there was no room for carelessness. With each step, Rodrick was extremely careful. Navigating such a narrow space posed real difficulties in case of danger, as there was very little room to dodge. Fen Tian seemed to sense Rodrick’s unease and became restless. After all, as a fire-type beast soul, it certainly wouldn’t feel comfortable or happy in such a cold and damp place. After observing the cave and following the path that led downward, Rodrick resolved to go to the end. Since he had already entered, there was no way he could give up. More importantly, he felt as if some energy in the cave was constantly drawing him in, especially after entering. The sensation grew stronger as he delved deeper. To his surprise, he felt the strange armor on his body becoming restless and uneasy for the first time, sensing deep-seated vibrations and tremors.

He remembered that it had taken him immense effort to obtain this set of armor. The seller at the time had also sensed something unusual about it. From initial excitement to disappointment and then to anticipation, his emotions regarding this armor had gone through extreme fluctuations. It held too many emotional attachments for him, carrying too many hopes and expectations. Thus, Rod’s heart suddenly tightened as he faintly sensed that this might be related to his armor.

Especially the pulsing sensation of the armor made Rod even more convinced of this. It was the first time he had felt such a pulse since the armor had been with him for so long. More importantly, Xuanyuan had once said that although this set of armor was top-notch, it was soulless—meaning it lacked its own soul. Something without a soul, no matter how good, was just dead matter, and dead matter couldn’t possess such a pulse! Since this phenomenon was occurring now, there were only two possibilities: first, the armor had a soul that hadn’t awakened or been discovered for some reason; second, there might be something in this place that could resonate with the armor!

Either way, it justified Rod taking a risk—and one he would regretless undertake.

After firming up his resolve, Rod quickened his pace, staying alert to his surroundings as he ventured deeper.

The further he went, the more furrowed Rod’s brows became. It was a labyrinth-like place; even after walking for so long, he still hadn’t reached the real entrance—still circling around the perimeter! At that moment, Rod felt as if he were in a giant underground palace, winding endlessly underground with no end in sight!

Alarmed, he realized that after walking for so long, it was clear this place wasn’t natural. Along the way, he had found many signs of human activity and engineering—evidence of it having been constructed. Such a massive underground complex—who or what organization could have built it? The deeper he went, the more puzzled he became.

After an unknown amount of time, Rod felt exhausted. Fen Tian had already returned to his body to recover due to fatigue. As for him, he had reached a critical point and needed to restore his mental strength quickly. Under such stressful conditions, the drain on mental energy was terrifying.

After glancing around to ensure there was no danger, Rod sat cross-legged and began rapidly summoning the fire elements in the surrounding environment to flow toward him. However, in less than a moment, his expression turned terrifyingly grim, shifting several times in an instant. “Damn it!” he muttered under his breath. This damned underground world, this damned cave—perhaps due to the humidity or some other reason—had abysmally few fire elements. Even with his high level of elemental affinity, it was difficult to gather more elements around him. If in the outside world the five elements were evenly distributed, then here it was clearly a world dominated by water elements—over four-fifths of the elements here were water, with the remaining one-fifth divided among the other elements. Fire elements made up an even smaller fraction, less than one-fiftieth of what they were in the outside world. In other words, what Rod could accomplish in one hour outside might take two days here. It was this realization that caused his expression to change drastically and led him to curse! Such an imbalance of elements completely defied the natural order of the world. To put it plainly, such a ratio couldn’t exist in this world; if it did, it would cause elemental chaos, spatial distortion, and the collapse of the world—consequences too terrible to imagine. Yet here Rod found himself in such an impossible situation! Grumbling inwardly, he realized that it would take at least thirty days to restore his full strength—many times longer than the less than a day it used to take. This place was a paradise for water-element cultivators but a true disaster for fire-element cultivators like him! Feeling the cold winds, Rod gradually calmed down. He had no time to ponder further reasons or worry about why such a situation existed. His internal fighting energy was still fine, having been used up by less than one-tenth. His mental strength, however, wasn’t affected by this environment, so he hurriedly began restoring it, putting everything else aside. Only after his mental strength was restored could he address the other issues.