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Chapter 126 - Mysterious Passage

“Brat, let me see how long you can keep running!” The old man, seething with rage, unleashed a palm strike that cut through a pillar behind Liu Wuxie, causing a significant part of the hall to crumble. The gust generated by his strike tore Liu Wuxie’s garments, nearly ending his life.

Cold sweat dripped from Liu Wuxie’s forehead as he realized that he had underestimated the strength of the Imperial Academy’s elder. The old man was on a whole new level compared to Yun Lan.

“Have a taste of my blade!” As Liu Wuxie raised his blade to the sky, a powerful blade aura swept out, releasing a suffocating blade intent that stunned the old man.

“You comprehended the blade intent in the Xiantian Realm?!” The old man’s eyes were filled with disbelief. He stabbed his smoking pipe at Liu Wuxie’s heart. He couldn’t allow such a genius like Liu Wuxie to live when he had offended the latter so thoroughly today. Liu Wuxie would become his worst nightmare if he lived.

The blade intent locked onto the old man’s body, slowing his movements down significantly. Through Ghost Eye, Liu Wuxie could capture every single movement of the old man. Liu Wuxie swayed to dodge the old man’s smoking pipe before appearing on the old man’s right. The blade in his hand radiated a potent heatwave that filled the entire hall.

Damn it! The old man cursed inwardly as Liu Wuxie’s blade aura had locked onto him with no path of retreat. He couldn’t believe that someone in the fifth-level Xiantian Realm forced him to this point. He didn’t hesitate to strike at Liu Wuxie’s lower body, opting for a do-or-die approach. If Liu Wuxie persisted with his attack, the old man’s counterattack would land, forcing Liu Wuxie to retreat.

When Liu Wuxie and the old man were about to collide, the blade intent suddenly disappeared as though it never existed. Liu Wuxie vanished before the old man, as his attack earlier was a feint. His true intention was to force the old man to expose a flaw earlier so that he could take this opportunity to enter the Flame Sun Cave.

In the blink of an eye, it was too late for the old man to react as Liu Wuxie entered the Flame Sun Cave. He roared, “Damn it! Fuck! That brat fooled me!”

Who would’ve thought that Liu Wuxie’s attack was merely a diversion and his true objective was to force him to retreat?

Then again, killing the old man would bring no benefit to Liu Wuxie, and this was a trap set up by the Xue Clan. He could always deal with them one by one once he returned after cultivating.

Liu Wuxie traversed the passage without pausing, with intense heat radiating from the ground. He walked for approximately fifteen minutes before decelerating as the old man couldn’t keep up with him.

The interior of the Flame Sun Cave was a natural underground cave with multiple branches. Through the Imperial Academy’s excavation for the past few hundred years, the interior was much bigger than he had imagined. A main path led to the depths, with many side branches leading to unknown locations.

Logically speaking, the main path should be the right way. After all, the Imperial Academy must’ve thoroughly explored the underground cave system for the past few hundred years, and wandering around randomly might get him lost.

Lamps were mounted on both sides of the wall, providing minimal illumination for the path. There was still a considerable distance to the depths, and the intense heat caused Liu Wuxie to sweat heavily.

What dense energy! Liu Wuxie thought to himself. He activated the Desolate Devouring Art and devoured the surrounding fire-attribute spiritual energy. This made Liu Wuxie’s bottleneck shake, but he suppressed it down forcibly as he wanted to find somewhere safe before making a breakthrough.

Suddenly, Liu Wuxie stopped and no longer delved deeper. He looked to the right, where there was a passage.

“What’s going on? Why does the mysterious sapling in my dantian want me to go in this direction?” Liu Wuxie’s consciousness entered his dantian, and he saw the mysterious tree shaking as the leaves pointed to the right passage, beckoning Liu Wuxie to go that way.

The passage was blocked with chains with a sign beside it, writing, “Danger, do not enter! Trespassers will be killed!”

The sign indicated clear danger in this direction. Yet, Liu Wuxie found himself torn. On one hand, the tunnel seemed a safe choice for uninterrupted cultivation over ten days, promising a breakthrough. On the other hand, the reminder from the enigmatic sapling made him wonder if there was a hidden secret down this tunnel.

He proceeded along the rocky path, a passage so narrow it could barely accommodate one person. A cold breeze swept through the passage, colliding with the intense heat before dissipating.

“This is peculiar. This is the Flame Sun Cave, so why is there a cold breeze?” Liu Wuxie mused. He reached out and grasped the chain. He noticed that the chain was forged from ten-thousand-year-old cold iron, impervious to ordinary weapons. Even a spiritual weapon would struggle to leave a mark on it. The contrasting hot and cold winds were like yin and yang, two opposites merging.

Rumor says that extreme yin can be found in places of extreme yang and vice-versa! Liu Wuxie thought to himself. For instance, in areas inhabited by venomous snakes, antidotes could often be found nearby. This was the natural law of the world.

Since this place was of extreme yang, there was a high chance extreme yin could be found here. Liu Wuxie reached out to grab the chain blocking the passage, producing a rattling sound.

Suddenly, an eerie sound echoed from the depths of the passage. It sounded like a cry, further piquing Liu Wuxie’s curiosity. He couldn’t sever the chain with his current strength; the only option was to unlock it.

The lock was forged by a powerful blacksmith with spiritual runes engraved on it. Liu Wuxie only had one attempt to unlock this particular lock. If he failed, the lock would be destroyed, sealing it for eternity. The value of this lock was even higher than ordinary spiritual artifacts, igniting Liu Wuxie’s interest even more.

The spiritual runes on the lock also bore traces of spiritual arrays. It was beyond the comprehension of ordinary people to understand the lock and attempt to unlock it. To Liu Wuxie, the spiritual runes appeared like crude brush strokes on the lock.

Armed with a carving knife, Liu Wuxie began to etch new spiritual runes onto the lock, resembling a layer of flowing mercury on the lock. He easily cracked the first lock core. There were ten lock cores in total, and Liu Wuxie managed to crack them all in no time.

Once the lock was cracked, Liu Wuxie removed the chains, entered the passage, and repositioned the lock as if nothing had transpired. The surroundings were pitch black upon entry, and he had to rely on Ghost Eye to barely discern the layout of the passage.

Two people appeared in the hall: Xue Pinzhi and another youth.

“Elder Gu, where is he?” Xue Pinzhi asked, noticing traces of a fierce battle in the hall.

“He went in!” Elder Gu exclaimed, his face clouded with disappointment. Despite being an elder in the Marrow Cleansing Realm, his failure to halt a Xiantian Realm practitioner was a source of embarrassment.

“He went in?” Xue Pinzhi exchanged a gaze with the youth beside him. A hint of displeasure flashed in his eyes as the Xue Clan had invested heavily in Elder Gu.

“Elder Gu, you can’t even handle such a trivial matter?” Xue Pinzhi retorted sharply. Despite being in the Spirit Cleansing Realm, he dared to address an elder of the Marrow Cleansing Realm in such a way. If outsiders were present, they would likely be astounded.

They had already devised a backup plan following the failure of yesterday’s strategy, which was to intercept Liu Wuxie outside and incapacitate him.

Upon hearing that Liu Wuxie had entered the Flame Sun Cave, the eyes of the youth beside Xue Pinzhi flashed with murderous intent. A terrifying aura swept from him, enveloping the entire hall and forcing Elder Gu to take a few steps back.

When Elder Gu looked at this youth, a hint of fear appeared on his face. This youth was only in the Spirit Cleansing Realm, but Elder Gu could sense danger coming from this person.

“I didn’t expect that brat to be so cunning, charging into the Flame Sun Cave relying on a strange movement technique when I wasn’t noticing,” Elder Gu said with a bitter expression. He didn’t find an excuse for himself as that was the truth.

“Garbage!” The youth beside Xue Pinzhi snorted disdainfully. He couldn’t be bothered to argue with Elder Gu and boldly walked towards the Flame Sun Cave. It was against the rules to enter the Flame Sun Cave without the academy’s arrangement, and he violated them.

“Young Master Xue Rui, please don’t make things difficult for me. Only those with a unique medal from the academy can enter the Flame Sun Cave to cultivate.” Elder Gu stopped the two of them. The medal that Liu Wuxie took out was handed to him by the academy, which Elder Gu had kept. Every student entering Flame Sun Cave had to be registered, and the register had to be submitted to the academy for inspection every five days.

“You dare stop me?” Xue Rui’s gaze was like a venomous viper landing on Elder Gu, making the latter tremble and quickly making way for him.

“Young Master Xue Rui, you can go in, but not him. Furthermore, one hour is the max, and you have to come out within an hour,” Elder Gu sighed. Xue Rui could enter, but Xue Pinzhi could only wait outside.

“An hour is more than enough for me to kill him!” Xue Rui said and entered the Flame Sun Cave, leaving Xue Pinzhi outside. With a sudden burst of speed, he moved as fast as lightning, appearing in areas where Liu Wuxie had been. He knew this place well and didn’t need to aimlessly wander like Liu Wuxie.

He passed through the passages without hesitation, and it didn’t take long for him to reach the cave\'s depth. After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, his vision cleared, revealing a cultivation ground before him. This was the cultivating ground of the Flame Sun Cave, and a few people were cultivating there.

When they noticed Xue Rui’s arrival, they stopped their cultivation and raised their heads to look at him.

“Xue Rui, why are you here?” a youth asked, recognizing Xue Rui.

“Where’s the brat who just came in earlier?” Xue Rui nodded as a form of acknowledgment. He scanned the area but couldn’t spot Liu Wuxie anywhere.