The Boss had been inside the magma for over an hour now. By all rights, he should have emerged long ago.

Why was there still no sign? Could something have gone wrong!

"Ptooey, ptooey..." He spat twice, muttering a curse at himself: "What nonsense am I thinking? The Boss's cultivation is so high, how could there be a problem?

He must just be delayed by something..." Just then, the ground gave a violent shudder, as if an earthquake had struck, and the magma in the "Crater" immediately began to churn violently. "A volcanic eruption?" The word flashed through White's mind, his scalp prickling with dread.

He didn't dare hesitate any longer, soaring outward along the path he had taken. Rumble, rumble...

Stones from the lava cave kept falling, crashing onto the path, but White was a Level Six Underworld Venerable; these rocks couldn't halt his speed. In less than three minutes, he burst out of the cave.

As soon as he emerged, he saw the entire mountain peak before him visibly shrinking amid a deafening roar, as if a void had opened beneath the peak and it was collapsing inward. "The peak collapsed..." The violent tremor stunned everyone present, watching the nearby mountain segment after segment sink downwards.

"The Boss... the Boss is still in the cave!" Seeing the peak collapse, White suddenly let out a loud shout, about to charge forward.

At some unknown moment, Kaim had appeared behind him, grabbing him firmly: "Don't rush. The Boss has extraordinary cultivation; he must be fine.

If you go in now, not only will you fail to save him, you'll likely be trapped inside yourself!" White stared at the collapsing peak, anxiety warring with a dawning doubt in his heart. Could the Boss truly escape from within?

................................................. Within the magma layer, Chen Feng gazed in surprise at the Chinese characters inscribed on the stone wall, letting out an involuntary sigh.

After sighing, he swam forward in the direction indicated by the stone statue’s spear. The jets at the bottom of the magma had already ceased.

With the immediate danger gone, he quickly swam to the opposite side. The tip of the spear pointed directly at a rock protrusion.

Glowing a fiery red from the intense heat of the magma, it looked identical to every other part of the wall. Without the preceding text, even if one reached this spot, nothing about it would seem unusual.

These stone walls were no ordinary rock; otherwise, they would have dissolved into magma under the sixty-thousand-degree heat. Chen Feng couldn't identify what kind of stone it was.

"There’s a cave below this," Chen Feng muttered, staring at the protrusion. He enveloped it with his domain, clenched his fist, and struck the protruding stone wall with all his might!

"Crack!" A crisp sound echoed within the domain, and the stone wall instantly shattered, revealing a vast cavern. However, his domain guarded the entrance, preventing even a trace of magma from seeping in.

Twisting his body, he slipped into the cave like a swimming fish and sealed the entrance with a massive boulder from the inside. A ball of flame sprouted from his fingertips, illuminating the cave.

Far ahead, he could see layers upon layers, silent and profound. "The entire outside is magma, yet there’s water in this place?" Chen Feng felt the ground beneath him was somewhat damp and couldn't help his surprise.

The cave was slick with moisture and quite humid, yet the air was surprisingly fresh. If he hadn't entered from the magma, he would never have imagined such a hidden sanctuary existed within.

Walking on the stone floor, Chen Feng dared not relax his guard in the slightest; his footsteps echoed in the silent cavern, carrying far into the distance. The cave spiraled downward, resembling a spiral staircase.

After walking perhaps seven or eight hundred meters, he had descended a vertical distance of three hundred meters. Just then, a brilliant white light suddenly appeared ahead.

Chen Feng instinctively dodged to the side just as several sharp ting, ting, ting sounds rang out, and dozens of feather arrows of varying sizes were instantly lodged into the stone wall behind him. "To be able to enter this cave, one’s cultivation must be at least that of a Ninth Level Fighting Venerable.

Using mere feather arrows to defend against intruders—isn't that a bit trivial?" Chen Feng looked perplexedly at the arrows behind him. A single glance, however, made him realize something was terribly wrong, and cold sweat immediately trickled down his neck.

These arrows possessed a structure similar to the Thunder-Hearing Arrows. The only difference was that they didn't explode instantly; they were time-limited!

In essence, they were all time bombs. Whoever reached this point would trip the detonators, and the timers would start automatically...

The power of the Thunder-Hearing Arrows could injure or even kill someone with the strength of an Underworld Saint. With dozens set up behind him, even fleeing backward now would likely result in injury!

Furthermore, if they exploded, the entire cave would collapse—how could he escape then? Despite the perilous situation, Chen Feng’s heart grew calm.

Since Elder Yan Long had designed this, there must be a solution. He unleashed his mental power without restraint, his eyes suddenly lighting up as he walked toward one side of the cavern.

It turned out the interior of this cave was protected by a magical seal. To proceed, one needed the method to break it.

This seal was much like the one he’d broken in the Nine-Story Pagoda; it involved arranging Chinese characters. To dismantle the seal, one had to arrange these characters according to a specific pattern.

For anyone else, this would be impossible to solve, but for Chen Feng, it was no different than a game. He moved swiftly, his hands rapidly arranging the characters into a sequence!

Looking at the arranged characters in his hands, Chen Feng’s brow furrowed once more. "The long night is endless, and I have no will to sleep.

I thought I was the only one awake!" This line was spoken by the Supreme Treasure in A Chinese Odyssey. The full line is: "The long night is endless, and I have no will to sleep.

I thought I was the only one awake, but I didn't expect Miss Jingjing was also awake!" Only the first half was present, without the latter part. Was this intentional, or written casually?

Although the phrase seemed nonsensical, upon deeper thought, it evoked a feeling of meeting a kindred spirit. Does "long night" represent darkness, or something else?

"I thought I was the only one" implied that he was not alone after all—did it signify finding an ally? Chen Feng shook his head, dismissing the meaning of the words, and positioned the final character correctly.

Instantly, the entire seal flared with a brilliant light and immediately vanished. The "timed Thunder-Hearing Arrows" behind him also disappeared simultaneously from the cave under the illumination of the light.

Passing through the seal, Chen Feng looked up and was stunned again by the sight before him. It was a massive underground void.

Magical elemental fluctuations were intense around the perimeter—it was an enormous magic array! The crystal foundations used to construct this array were all comprised of Yellow Jade Magic Crystals!

Each crystal was taller than a man, and there were a staggering 128 of them in this formation! Moreover, the quality of these Yellow Jade Magic Crystals was identical to those he had used to create his cultivation platforms—they were clearly high-grade Yellow Jade Magic Crystals!

What an extravagant display of wealth! "I'm rich..." The first thought in Chen Feng's mind was these three words.

His heart pounded violently, and he sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes faintly reddening. Even if these Yellow Jade Magic Crystals weren't of much use to him personally, if arranged into an energy convergence array, they would absolutely increase the cultivation speed of his subordinates by more than tenfold!

Calming the excitement in his heart, Chen Feng walked further into the cave, where he saw a colossal purple stone standing in the center, measuring four to five meters in length, width, and height. "What is this thing?" Chen Feng stared at the massive purple stone.

"It looks like a Purple Fire Crystal, but the energy contained within it is far more potent than a regular Purple Fire Crystal. Absorbing the energy here for cultivation could increase my own cultivation speed by...

a full 50 times!" At that moment, the surrounding Yellow Jade Magic Crystals abruptly began to glow. Bathed in the light, the Purple Fire Crystal Mother before him emitted crisp ka, ka sounds as hundreds of Purple Fire Crystals rapidly broke away and shot toward the ceiling!

Where the crystals had detached, the magic array swiftly channeled fire energy, and in moments, the surface regenerated completely. Witnessing this phenomenon, Chen Feng’s eyes widened into circles, and a single term popped into his mind: "Purple Fire Crystal Mother?" "It seems these outer Purple Fire Crystals were all cleaved from this massive Purple Fire Crystal Mother.

The array constructed by the Yellow Jade Magic Crystals must be designed to cooperate with this Mother Crystal!" "Perhaps Elder Yan Long didn't have this many Purple Fire Crystals when he discovered the Mother Crystal; he must have set up this array to help the Mother Crystal split more rapidly!" "Purple Fire Crystals contain immense amounts of fire element. Because the crystals released so much heat, they burned out a layer of magma in the mountain range...

We always thought magma nurtured the Purple Fire Crystals, but it seems the causality was reversed!" "The higher the Purple Fire Crystal flies, the more heat it releases, and thus the less energy it retains, leading to a slower cultivation rate... This explains why the deeper we go into the magma layer, the more energy the Purple Fire Crystals contain!" Chen Feng’s mind raced, grasping the entire sequence of events in an instant.

"What should I do with these things? Should I take them, or leave them here?" Chen Feng hesitated for a moment.

"Who cares! Since I'm leaving anyway, I might as well take everything!" He had always been bold, and seeing the Purple Fire Crystal Mother and this abundance of Yellow Jade Magic Crystals, leaving empty-handed now would be an insult to himself.

With this thought, he hardened his resolve. He approached the Purple Fire Crystal Mother, enveloped it with his spiritual sense, and roared, "Collect!" He instantly drew it into his canteen.

The space inside the canteen spanned several hundred square meters, so storing this object took up very little room. After securing the Purple Fire Crystal Mother, Chen Feng swiftly circled the area and collected all the surrounding Yellow Jade Magic Crystals into the canteen as well.

"Rumble, rumble..." As soon as he took these items, a series of deep roars echoed through the cave. The magic array had been destroyed, and the magma above naturally could no longer be sustained, collapsing downward.

"Damn it, I forgot about that..." Chen Feng cried out, darting deeper into the cave. But before he could fully retreat, the magma from above crashed down upon him!

(To be continued. For the next part of the story, please visit www**com for more chapters, to support the author, and for legitimate reading!) First Release