The bold idea I had was to take this current opportunity and look inside the alchemical furnace to see what was actually contained within. This peculiar furnace had caused me no end of trouble so far; it surely wouldn't be simple inside, and I absolutely had to see clearly now.

With that thought, I disregarded any potential danger, jumped up, grabbed one of the furnace's 'ears,' braced my legs against the outer wall, and began to climb with all my might. Having been through so much and sustaining injuries, my agility wasn't what it used to be.

It took immense effort, beads of sweat lining my forehead, before my foot finally reached the rim of the furnace's opening. Then, leveraging myself, I pulled myself up over the edge.

The rim of the furnace opening wasn't wide, but it was just enough to accommodate the width of a single foot. I crouched upon it, feeling no fear of falling.

So, once I had steadied my posture, I craned my neck to peer inside. However, seeing clearly what was within proved more difficult than I had imagined.

This was because the mysterious white light in the distance wasn't shining directly from above. Thus, even though that distant luminescence allowed me to see everything around me clearly, it couldn't illuminate the scene inside the furnace.

After fumbling around for a while, I found my lighter in my pocket, sparked it to life, and tried hard to look within. It was then I saw the flame from my lighter instantly reflected by whatever was inside the furnace.

It appeared to be half a vat of pitch-black water. On the water's surface, there were some floating objects—perhaps decaying weeds or bits of cloth—but whatever they were, they looked distinctly unsettling.

I peered down at the sight with disappointment, feeling that all the effort I expended climbing up had amounted to nothing. By my usual temperament, I would have immediately jumped into the water to investigate.

But now, for some reason, I felt hesitant and cautious. Perhaps it was because the water looked incredibly murky and indistinct, its condition impossible to gauge.

Moreover, while it was called an alchemical furnace, it was essentially an ancient apparatus for chemical experimentation. Many refining materials contained strong acids or bases; if mixed with water, this could easily have become a vat of aqua fortis, capable of dissolving me down to nothing.

After watching for a moment, I frowned, preparing to jump down from the top of the furnace. But just at that moment, I heard a few gurgling sounds from the water inside the furnace, and several large bubbles surfaced.

I expected something was about to rise, but after waiting a long time, there was no further reaction. I became puzzled.

Logically, a stagnant pool shouldn't bubble without reason. This place received no sunlight, so aquatic plants growing inside was impossible.

Fish were a possibility, as the scientific community had discovered many species capable of living in total darkness. But if fish did inhabit this furnace, what sustained them?

I had no answer, but after a moment's thought, I concluded it didn't matter much. It could simply be gas released from a piece of rock that had fallen from the cavern ceiling upon hitting the water—nothing unusual.

With that thought, I stopped peering in, turned, and jumped down from the furnace top. Upon landing, I glanced back at that furnace and then continued moving forward.

Ahead of me stood numerous identical alchemical furnaces, each resembling a bloated, armored sentinel, standing rigid and utterly still, projecting an eerie atmosphere. Gazing at these bronze furnaces, I couldn't help but wonder who had built so many of them deep underground, and what their purpose was.

And since their size and decorative patterns were so similar, clearly molded from the same design, the labor and resources required must have been enormous. Carrying these questions, I kept walking forward, hoping to find other clues past this formation of furnaces.

But suddenly, a strange 'clang-clang' sound echoed in my ears. I initially assumed the environment had numbed my nerves, causing auditory hallucinations.

However, when I stopped and listened intently, I realized it wasn't a hallucination; the sound was definitely coming from not too far away. Clearly, this was the sound produced when something struck the bronze vessel.

Evidently, some form of life existed here. I dared not believe it was the work of a human.

It was more likely some creature native to the underground. Given the thickness of the bronze furnace walls, it would have to be a fairly large animal to make such a noise.

Truthfully, I wasn't overly concerned about what kind of animal was here—be it a giant python or a large mole—as long as it didn't block my path, I had no need to interfere. But I was already intensely curious about these bronze furnaces.

If one truly housed a living thing, I felt I needed to look. Furthermore, if Boss Wu hadn't died and was somehow imprisoned in a bronze furnace by a monster, signaling for help by striking it, I would certainly have to rescue him.

With that thought, I began to track the sound, trying to locate which specific bronze furnace was ringing. I heard the noise coming from my front left, and without hesitation, I moved in that direction.

The farther I walked forward, the closer the sound indeed became. Although there were seven or eight furnaces relatively close to me in the immediate vicinity, and many more farther out, I was now certain the source was among those seven or eight.

So I slowed my pace, listening carefully while examining the nearest few furnaces one by one. To my surprise, however, once I entered that specific area, the clanging sound vanished, never to sound again.

I suspected that whatever was making the noise sensed my presence and stopped. To coax the sound back, I halted completely, slowed my breathing, and tried to remain perfectly still.

After a moment, the clanging noise did resume. What struck me as odd, though, was that this time, the sound seemed to originate from the direction I had just come from.

Had I inadvertently walked past it? Suspicious, I listened closely, resolving not to move rashly for the time being.

This cautious approach proved effective. In addition to the tapping coming from my previous direction, identical clanging sounds began to erupt from several other locations around me.

Although the strikes were chaotic and irregular, I had a strange feeling that this might be some form of coded communication. This implied that many of these furnaces contained living creatures, communicating in this peculiar manner.

But this didn't add up. The creatures I had considered earlier—snakes and moles—were both burrowers, capable of finding sustenance in the soil or emerging from tunnels to hunt on the surface.

If creatures were confined within bronze furnaces, one or two might be manageable, but such large numbers would require vast amounts of food, which was utterly implausible in the food-scarce underground. Unless these entities were all zongzi—corpses that required no sustenance.

I hadn't actually researched whether zongzi needed to eat, but assuming they were a type of reanimation phenomenon caused by corpse electrical reactions, they surely had to adhere to scientific principles. Science dictates that anything that expends energy must absorb energy; therefore, for a zongzi to maintain activity long-term, it must ingest energy.

This made me even more bewildered: what exactly was inside these bronze furnaces? Listening to the continuous commotion around me, I finally resolved to keep moving.

I took a step toward the nearest bronze furnace that had been making noise, and the strange sound immediately ceased. Without overthinking, I repeated my previous action, gripping the furnace's ear and climbing up.

This time, looking down, I saw there was no water in this furnace; it was utterly black inside, and my lighter could only illuminate a general outline. However, I vaguely perceived a body shaped like a human.

I was greatly startled, realizing this place was indeed strange. At that moment, fear became secondary.

I lowered the lighter further, and saw the human-like form huddled motionless at the bottom of the bronze furnace, as if dead. Curled around this humanoid shape was a crooked stick, its purpose unclear.

I reasoned that if that previous noise had originated from this entity, it must be alive. Its current stillness likely meant it was feigning death upon hearing my approach.