A moment later, he suddenly stopped in his tracks and fixed his gaze on the outline of a long ancient dragon etched on the wall of the pool.
There was nothing wrong with that divine dragon. It was life-like and its claws, scales, horns, and whiskers were realistic. However, one of its eyes was missing!
Was it an error in the etching?
Or could it have been washed away by time after thousands of years?
Aiden shook his head.
The possibility of both guesses were extremely low!
'Dot the eyes when you're drawing a dragon'
Those words came to Aiden's mind as he murmured, "Dot the eyes, dot the eyes…"
Heading forward, he reached out and pressed gently on the spot where the dragon's eye was missing.
That push caused the walls of the pool to sink in slightly.
Sensing the motion beneath him, Aiden soared into the air hurriedly.
The two stone slabs that he was standing on slid to both sides rapidly and revealed stone steps leading underground.
Aiden praised internally.
The structure could be considered as a piece of godly work. Even after 10,000 years, the mechanisms did not age and functioned as per normal.
Taking a whiff at the entrance, a cold glint shone in Aiden's eyes.
He could sense a vague hint of dark, sinister energy in the warm air current that was surging out!
In that case, the ferocious beast guarding this place should be hiding in the depths of this place!
With the possibility of a spiritual fire existing beneath, Aiden would not give up despite knowing the possible dangers lurking.
Entering the tunnel slowly, he gradually disappeared into the darkness.
The two stone slabs above his head closed silently, leaving no gaps.
As Aiden ventured deeper along the descending stone steps, the surrounding temperature increased.
A long time later, he came to the end of the stone steps and was clearly at the bottom of the place. Before him, there was a dark tunnel that had an unknown destination.
Not daring to be careless, Aiden withdrew Rygintarth from his storage bag and headed into the depths of the tunnel with narrowed eyes.
The temperature was getting higher!
His green robes were already so dry that a single spark could ignite them.
If not for the fact that he possessed tsunami blood and a shocking physique, no ordinary Martial Master would be able to endure this scorching heat!
If I'm not wrong, a spiritual fire must definitely be hidden in the depths of this place!
Aiden was increasingly convinced.
The strange spirit fire was more important to him than the ancient thousand year old Holy Vermilion Fruit!
With the spirit fire, which seemed to carry some draconic origins, he could fuse it into his current power causing his current strength to skyrocket and would increase significantly.
Furthermore, he could attempt to repair his Mystic Gold Silk Armor and the Black Gold Arrows he found on the ancient battlefield.
If he could repair the Mystic Gold Silk Armor, it would mean that he would be in possession of a top-grade defensive artifact weapon. Coupled with his physique, the power of ordinary Martial Masters wouldn't be able to hurt him!
He might even be able to withstand the attack of an ordinary Martial Grandmaster!
As Aiden contemplated, a series of red lights flashed vaguely from the darkness ahead.
The deeper he ventured, the brighter and clearer they became!
Before long, his vision cleared up.
This was a gigantic underground cave and everywhere in sight was a fiery red. The fog evaporated as the heat wave spread over.
Steaming lava flowed within the cave like a scarlet gooey river. From time to time, a bubble would pop up from the surface, causing sparks to fly.
If one were to focus their attention, they could see that there were translucent flames flowing on the surface of the lava, fluid with an extremely high temperature.
Top-Grade Spiritual Fire!
Licking his chapped lips, Aiden gulped.
He expected top-grade spiritual fire underground but he did not expect so much of it!
Furthermore, the sight before him was simply way too shocking!
Burning red lava was everywhere with no end in sight and there was little ground for anyone to actually step on. There were only a few protruding rocks which were also scarlet from the heat.
This was a sea of lava and a world of flames!
It was too hot.
Even Aiden's body felt a bit of burden given the heat and a layer of thin sweat appeared on his forehead.
He crushed a protection talisman.
A spirit light appeared around him, forming a faint light barrier that repelled the heatwave of the lava.
Now that he had cooled down slightly, Aiden meandered around the borders of the lava and headed in, sticking close to the walls.
There should be a demon beast hidden within!
He had to get rid of that latent danger or his weapon refinement would fail if he was interrupted by the demon beast during the process.
In fact, his life might be in danger!
It was hard to predict the strength of a demonic beast that could survive in such circumstances. There was a high chance that it could even be stronger than him!
Up ahead was a turn.
After the turn was still a large ocean of lava.
However, there was a sizable piece of land in the middle of the lava, resembling a lone island in an ocean.
A demon beast that was the size of a small mountain sprawled on the land with its eyes closed. Its body was filled with scarlet fur that had no luster and it had a big, furry tail.
It was a Scarlet Flame Fox!
In the fox race, once they cultivate to become spirits, they can take on humanoid-like, bipedal form and all of them were beauties. They could be considered as seductresses and were charming.
In the strange tales that were spread in the mortal realm, they were described as fox spirits that mostly seduced scholars and had an extremely bad reputation.
However, after entering the cultivation world, Aiden knew that the fox race was considered as a friendlier race among the demon races.
Despite that, he did not dare to be careless.
He glared at the scarlet flame fox for a moment.
It did not budge nor did it open its eyes.
In fact, Aiden could not even sense any bit of life from the fox!
It was already dead.
The fur on its body did not fall off and its flesh did not rot – it should have died less than a hundred years ago.
However, immediately after, Aiden had another doubt.
By the looks of it, that fox was clearly not at the end of its lifespan. If so, how did it die?
He could not see any bit of injury on the fox at all. What caused its death?
Since the fox was already dead, its demonic powers should have dissipated and disappeared a long time ago. Yet, where did the trace of demonic energy that he sensed when the entrance was opened up came from?
There's other demon beasts hiding here!
The moment that thought struck him, he felt the sensation of being peeped at.
Shifting his gaze, Aiden caught sight of a black basket beside the fox's corpse.
The black basket looked like a pot that was flipped on the ground with mysterious patterns etched on it, revealing a couple of holes.
The other holes shone with light.
However, a pair of them were pitch-black, seemingly blocked by two black balls.
"Hmm?"
Aiden muttered softly.
Right then, the black ball in the metal basket twitched with an unusual movement!
Those were no black balls – they were a pair of large eyes!
A living being was hiding under that iron basket and peering at Aiden through the holes on it!
The next moment, the iron basket was raised slowly and a little red thing popped its head out warily, revealing its true appearance.
Its flaming red long fur had a warm luster, like a blanket that one could not resist touching.
The little thing was dark red from head to toe except for its chest which had white fur. The combination of red and white caused it to look even more beautiful and charming.
Its ears stood and twitched gently while its large eyes blinked as it tilted its head slightly, looking at Aiden curiously.
This little thing should be the descendant of the dead flame fox and looked to be an adorable cub.
The eyes of the little fox shifted rapidly, filled with curiosity and doubt, similar to a child. Standing on its hind legs, it reached out with a pair of tiny paws and raised the big black pot…
When he saw that, Aiden broke out into laughter.
In part, he was laughing at himself for being overly cautious.
The little fox that was still a cub posed no threat to him at all.
At the same time, the posture of the little thing was simply way too cute.
When it saw Aiden's smile, the little fox lowered its head embarrassedly and shyly smiled under her paws!
However, immediately after, as if it recalled something, the little fox raised its head and cried out anxiously.