Though the encirclement of Demonic Wolves around Xiao Hu had dispersed, its former majesty was gone. Its mottled yellow-green fur was scorched black, as if it had just emerged from a chimney, making it resemble a giant loach in the water.
Chen Feng casually tucked the Sky Dragon Yang Fruit into the leaves wrapped around his waist, swam to Xiao Hu, and grabbed it, only to see dozens of demonic beasts swimming toward them from behind.
"Hurry!" Chen Feng transmitted the message to Xiao Hu, pushed off with his feet, and dove down into the water!
The Warm Pool was not large to begin with, and it seemed even smaller after Chen Feng’s last commotion. Swimming toward the opposite side would only result in being caught; the only escape route was the bottomless depth of the pool. Chen Feng vaguely recalled seeing a glimmer of light when he fell from the cliff.
Furthermore, the Azure Demonic Wolf was a fire-attribute demonic beast; submerged in water, it would be helpless targets!
After the brief communication, Xiao Hu knew Chen Feng had obtained the Sky Dragon Yang Fruit and no longer hesitated, following him down.
Swimming to a depth of about fifteen meters, the water below was pitch black. The immense pressure made Chen Feng’s chest ache, and the strong buoyancy made it difficult to continue. At this moment, the qi in his Dantian began to circulate, enveloping his body in a thin whirl of energy that propelled him further down.
After swimming about ten more meters, a glimmer of light finally appeared ahead. Chen Feng accelerated in the direction of the light and swam toward it.
His body, modified by the circulative force, felt no discomfort despite the great pressure beneath the pool and the long duration of breath-holding.
The light was far away. After swimming parallel for thirty or forty meters, Chen Feng saw the source: a narrow cave.
How could there be a luminous cave down here? Chen Feng muttered inwardly. Without pausing his movements, he twisted his body and slipped inside.
The cave ceiling was covered with magic crystals. The pale yellow light illuminated the entire passage, making it appear even longer and deeper.
These magic crystals were usually triggered—meaning they only lit up when someone entered the opening, making them even more convenient than motion sensors.
Xiao Hu followed him in and transmitted, "Boss, don't go further yet! Deal with the guys behind us first!"
Chen Feng knew it referred to the Azure Demonic Wolves and the dozens of other demonic beasts. He remained silent. Although he had the advantage in the water, among so many beasts, a few were likely water-dwelling. If he failed to eliminate the enemies, he might end up being the one eliminated! It wasn't worth the risk!
"Forget them for now, let's go!" Chen Feng said, then swam rapidly deeper into the cave.
Not long after swimming in, he heard Xiao Hu's excited voice from behind: "Boss, look! They're all gone!"
"Who's gone?"
"Those beasts chasing us! They turned around ten meters from the cave entrance and left!" Xiao Hu transmitted.
"Really?" Chen Feng found it strange. He swam back, peered out of the cave mouth, and sure enough, the dozens of demonic beasts were swimming desperately toward the surface like lost dogs, as if someone in the cave was about to eat them.
Could there be something strange in the cave? Chen Feng wondered, though this only piqued his curiosity further. What could frighten this group of beasts into fleeing without even seeing it?
Shaking his head, Chen Feng considered for a moment and continued swimming deeper into the cave.
The cave grew taller the further in they went, gradually showing a tendency to surface. After swimming over 100 meters, he reached the end. Chen Feng broke the surface, revealing another small pool, only a few meters in diameter—even smaller than before. Chen Feng wiped the water from his face and scrambled ashore in two steps. Looking up, his face froze in shock.
"This is... the Great Hall of the People?"
The vast, empty cavern was immense. Directly ahead, illuminated by the magic crystals, stood a grand hall. Hundreds of white marble pillars, each requiring seven or eight people holding hands to encircle, were exactly like the Great Hall of the People from his previous life!
It was scaled down, yet its height surpassed the actual hall by several times.
The Great Hall of the People stood 33 meters tall, but this structure was over a hundred meters!
Xiao Hu scrambled ashore behind him and was too astonished to speak upon seeing the colossal building!
"What a massive house!" Xiao Hu exclaimed.
Judging by the scale and appearance of the cave, the entire mountain peak must have been hollowed out. Who possessed such grand means to excavate this space within a mountain and construct such a large edifice?
Climbing the densely packed steps upward, they hadn't gone far before seeing a huge plaque hanging directly in front of the main hall from a distance. It was perhaps several tens of meters long and seven or eight meters wide, inscribed with four shining, golden characters in a square font: "Nine-Story Pagoda"!
"This..." Chen Feng was too shocked to speak coherently. The four characters, "Nine-Story Pagoda," were written in the Chinese script from his previous life!
The writing and language of this world were completely different from the Han ethnicity of Earth; even the phonetic structures were distinct. Chen Feng had arrived via soul transmigration, so the written and spoken language posed no problem. Suddenly seeing familiar characters in a palace beneath a deep pool evoked an indescribable shock and excitement in his heart. "This... this is another world! How could someone write in Chinese!"
A flash of insight struck his mind: "Could it be a previous Transmigrator?"
This thought intensified his excitement and anticipation. He quickened his pace upward, reaching the front of the Nine-Story Pagoda only to find his path blocked by a massive, heavy door.
After cultivating the Circulative Force, Chen Feng's strength had doubled. Ordinary rock shattered under a mere slap of his hand. Seeing the pitch-black door, he felt no tension. The qi cyclone in his Dantian accelerated its rotation, and with a loud roar, he slammed a punch into the door.
This punch was fiercely powerful; even half a foot of solid steel plate would have been easily crushed. Yet, after striking, Chen Feng felt a searing pain in his fist, but the door remained completely unchanged, not even rattling!
"What an incredibly hard material," Chen Feng gasped, drawing in a sharp breath.
He turned to look at Xiao Hu, who appeared utterly bewildered, gently stroking the black door with a tiger paw, his whole body trembling!
As Chen Feng wondered, Xiao Hu suddenly bolted backward, running dozens of meters down the stairs before turning, accelerating, and charging forward again!
As a high-level demonic beast, Xiao Hu's physical durability was incomparable to a human's. This charge used his Tiger Claw, the strongest of his physical attacks. Chen Feng had once compared this move to his own Arid Bite and had been deeply disheartened by the result: even if Arid Bite were ten times stronger, it wouldn't match Xiao Hu's attack.
Of course, this didn't mean Arid Bite was an inferior skill, but rather that Chen Feng's cultivation was two tiers below Xiao Hu’s, and the gulf in physical condition between demonic beasts and humans was an insurmountable chasm.
"Boom!"
A deafening roar echoed, nearly rupturing Chen Feng's eardrums. Shaking his head, he looked up to see blood trickling from Xiao Hu's tiger claw, yet the pitch-black door remained utterly unchanged!
"This..." Chen Feng found it unbelievable. He knew the power of Xiao Hu's blow; in the terms of his previous life, that strike could pierce two feet of steel plate. Even if the steel were ten times harder, it shouldn't show no mark!
What material was this dark door made of?
Just as Chen Feng felt Xiao Hu's mental fluctuations becoming extremely violent, fearing something had happened to him, he quickly asked.
He heard Xiao Hu's young voice laced with endless excitement: "Boss... I know! My inheritance memory contains the memory of this iron door! This door is forged entirely from Black Gold Iron!"
Chen Feng turned to him: "What is Black Gold Iron?"
Xiao Hu's voice trembled with agitation, not minding Chen Feng's ignorance. He explained, "Black Gold Iron is perhaps the most precious iron in this world! Its density is forty times that of ordinary iron, making it the best choice for forging weapons! Adding just a few grams to common iron creates a blade called a treasure; you can imagine how rare it is!"
It seemed Black Gold Iron was similar to the Profound Iron in Jin Yong's novels—an absolute rarity! Chen Feng looked up at the dark door, over twenty meters high and wide, his eyes instantly brightening.
According to Xiao Hu, Black Gold Iron was so precious, yet the owner of the Nine-Story Pagoda used it to cast a door! The sheer extravagance was appalling!
But who possessed such great means? And who could write the Chinese characters from his previous life?
Chen Feng, full of doubts, asked, "Your inheritance memory has information about this door? Tell me in detail."
Xiao Hu pondered for a moment: "I don't know exactly. Upon seeing this door, I felt a summons, as if I had always existed only to guard this gate!"
A summons? Chen Feng's doubts deepened. Xiao Hu lived on the peak above the valley. Was this coincidence, or was there some special reason?
"Since there is a summons, let's figure out a way to get inside and see what's what?" Unable to fathom a solution, Chen Feng said.
"There's no way. My inheritance memory holds all the information about this door!" Xiao Hu sighed. "Alas, no matter what we do, we cannot enter this gate!"
"Why?"
Xiao Hu replied, "This door is forged entirely of Black Gold Iron. There are likely no weapons in this world capable of piercing it! Moreover, the tower is surrounded by seals; it's impossible to tunnel in from above!"
Chen Feng was surprised: "Then... why build a door if you don't want anyone to enter? If there is a door, there must be a way to open it!"
Xiao Hu stated with absolute certainty, "There is indeed a method to open it, but absolutely no one can activate it!"
Xiao Hu's tone was decisive and left no room for doubt. Chen Feng had never heard him speak like this and couldn't help but ask curiously, "What method?"
Xiao Hu didn't answer. He circled the large black door once, raised a front paw, and pointed to one side of the door: "Look at that!"
Chen Feng followed the direction Xiao Hu indicated. Along the side of the pitch-black door, he saw a row of square holes. Counting carefully, there were five in total. Not far in front of the door, countless iron blocks of the same size lay scattered on the ground, each one perfectly sized to fit one of the holes on the door.
On the side of the square holes, a line of text was written in the common continental language.
"Align the corresponding issues from the other side, and the great door will open. Only one attempt every ten years. Exceeding this will cause the cave to collapse!"
Chen Feng looked at the numerous identical square blocks on the ground and suddenly understood. Selecting five pieces from these identically shaped objects and inserting them into the five holes on the door was indeed a difficult task! Furthermore, allowing only one attempt per decade added significant complexity.
If one didn't know the answer, the probability of randomly selecting the correct five in the correct order would be less than one in a billion!
But how to distinguish the special five blocks when the ground was covered in thousands of seemingly identical iron pieces?
Chen Feng’s curiosity flared, and he crouched down, intending to examine the subtle differences between the blocks, when he heard Xiao Hu say, "It's useless! There are over three thousand blocks in this pile. Selecting the correct five, and arranging them in the right sequence, is utterly impossible!"
"True, but I want to see what's special about this..." Chen Feng hadn't finished speaking when his face contorted in disbelief: "This... these are all Chinese characters..."
Every square block on the ground was engraved with a single Chinese character, resembling a set of movable type blocks.
Chen Feng stood up and rushed to the other side of the door. After just one glance, his mouth twitched several times, followed by a wry, bitter smile!
He then walked to the pile of character blocks, rummaged through them for a long time, pulled out five pieces consecutively, and held them in his hands.
Xiao Hu anxiously called out, "Boss, you're not thinking of trying, are you! Absolutely not! We only get one chance every ten years; I think we should study it thoroughly before deciding! Such rashness will only lead to more trouble..."
Chen Feng ignored Xiao Hu's cries, turned to the holes on the great door, and swiftly inserted the five blocks he held into them!
P.S.: I was at the construction site before 8 AM and only just got back—exhausted! I'll be rushing the manuscript tonight and likely won't sleep until past 2 AM. Brothers, please send your recommendation votes!