Chapter 3 — Fire Beneath the World
The cave seemed to have no end.
Hao Tian had lost count of how long he had been walking.
Time underground was a strange thing. There was no sun, no wind, no change in light to mark the passing of hours. Only the slow, steady rhythm of his own breathing and the faint echo of his footsteps against stone accompanied him as he moved deeper into the earth.
The skeleton chamber was long behind him now.
He had taken the manual, the empty pill bottle, and the Nine Transformations Origin Flame with him, wrapping the flame carefully within a layered cloth pouch and keeping it close to his chest. The flame was still weak, still quiet, but he could faintly feel its presence, like a small, warm ember that refused to go out.
His body… was in a state he could only describe as delicately stable.
The Origin Reconstruction had rebuilt everything, but that did not mean he was suddenly strong.
Every step still made his muscles ache. Every sudden movement sent a dull, lingering pain through his joints and bones. It felt as if his body were a newly repaired house—standing, but not yet ready for storms.
He walked slowly, cautiously, his pickaxe in hand.
The tunnel he followed was not a straight one. It twisted and branched, sometimes narrowing until he had to turn sideways to squeeze through, sometimes opening into small caverns filled with jagged rock formations that looked like the fangs of some buried monster.
The air gradually grew warmer.
At first, it was subtle—just a faint heaviness in his breath, a slight warmth clinging to his skin.
Then it became unmistakable.
Sweat began to form on his forehead. His clothes, already half-dry from earlier exertions, began to cling to his back again. The stone under his boots changed color, shifting from dull gray to dark red and black, threaded with faintly glowing veins that pulsed like the slow heartbeat of the earth.
Hao Tian stopped and placed a hand against the cave wall.
It was warm.
Not dangerously hot.
But warm enough that he could feel the heat through his palm.
"…A fire vein zone," he murmured.
He had never seen one before, but he had heard miners talk about such places in hushed tones. Areas where underground fire Qi gathered, often close to magma flows or deep geothermal layers. Dangerous, unstable… but also sometimes home to rare resources.
And sometimes…
He listened carefully.
At first, he thought it was just his imagination.
Then he heard it again.
A faint, irregular sound.
Not the rumble of the earth.
Not the whisper of steam.
Something else.
"…Water?"
He followed the sound.
The tunnel sloped gently downward and then opened into a wider cavern. The heat here was stronger, and thin wisps of steam drifted through the air, making the light from the glowing stone veins blur and waver.
And there, nestled between two massive black rock formations, was a hot spring.
It wasn't large. Perhaps only a few meters across. Its surface was constantly rippling, and steam rose from it in soft, swirling clouds. The water shimmered faintly under the red-orange light, giving it an almost unreal appearance.
Hao Tian stared at it for a long moment.
Then his throat tightened.
He hadn't realized how tired he was.
Not truly.
The constant tension. The slow, careful walking. The heat. The lingering weakness in his body.
They had all piled up silently.
He approached the spring and crouched, dipping his fingers into the water.
Hot.
But not scalding.
The kind of heat that soaked into your bones rather than burning your skin.
He let out a slow breath.
"…Heaven hasn't completely abandoned me after all."
He looked around carefully before doing anything else.
The cavern was quiet.
Too quiet.
But he had already learned, in a very short time, that quiet underground did not mean safe.
Still, his body needed this.
He removed his outer clothes and set them on a warm, flat rock near the spring, then carefully lowered himself into the water.
The heat enveloped him.
He couldn't stop a low groan from escaping his throat.
His muscles loosened almost immediately. The deep, persistent soreness in his back and shoulders faded to a dull, manageable ache. Even the constant tightness in his chest seemed to ease.
He leaned back against the edge of the pool and closed his eyes.
For a while, he simply existed.
Breathing.
Listening.
Letting his body recover.
The steam curled around him, and the world felt strangely distant, as if the cave itself were holding its breath.
He did not know how long he stayed like that.
Minutes, Hours?
Or perhaps longer.
Eventually, a faint sense of unease crept into his mind.
The kind that came not from thought, but from instinct.
He opened his eyes.
The cavern looked the same.
But he felt it.
A subtle change.
He slowly stood up, water dripping from his body, and reached for the pickaxe.
Then he heard it.
A scraping sound.
From somewhere beyond the edge of the cavern.
He held his breath and listened.
The sound came again.
Closer.
He stepped out of the spring and moved quietly, keeping close to the rocks, his senses stretched to their limit.
And then he saw it.
A Fire Lurker Lizard.
It crawled out from behind a cluster of jagged stones, its body low to the ground. It was about the size of a large dog, its dark red scales faintly glowing as if heated from within.
Thin wisps of heat shimmered around it, distorting the air.
Its eyes were like burning embers.
It had not noticed him yet.
Hao Tian's heart began to beat faster.
He had heard of such beasts.
Low-grade.
But still beasts.
Still far stronger than ordinary animals.
It would usually take 2 to 3 early stage body refining warrior's to safely deal with one...
But he…
He was still a man who could barely be called a cultivator.
He slowly backed away, trying to increase the distance between them without making noise.
A small stone shifted under his foot.
Click.
The lizard's head snapped up.
Its gaze locked onto him.
It hissed.
A thin line of smoke escaped its mouth.
Hao Tian's grip on the pickaxe tightened.
"…Of course," he muttered under his breath.
The beast did not hesitate.
It lunged.
Fast.
Far faster than he had expected.
Hao Tian barely had time to react. He twisted his body and stumbled to the side, feeling a wave of heat rush past his leg as the lizard slammed into the spot where he had been standing.
The stone cracked.
He didn't stop.
He swung the pickaxe with both hands.
Clang!
The iron head struck the beast's side, sending sparks flying—but the impact jarred his arms so badly that his fingers almost went numb.
The lizard screeched and whipped its tail.
Hao Tian jumped back, but the tip of the tail still caught his thigh. Blood slowly leaked from the injury; luckily because of his timely reaction, it wasn't enough to be called a threatening wound.
Even still, pain exploded through his leg, and he nearly fell.
He gritted his teeth and forced himself to stay upright.
"…Too tough," he realized.
Its scales weren't something he could simply break through with brute force.
And his body wouldn't last long in a prolonged fight.
He retreated, step by step, keeping the beast in front of him.
His eyes flicked around the cavern.
The steam.
The cracked ground.
The hot spring.
The glowing stone veins.
An idea formed.
The lizard lunged again.
He turned and ran.
Not away.
But toward one of the larger steam vents near the cavern wall.
The beast followed, hissing, relentless.
At the last moment, Hao Tian suddenly sidestepped and swung the pickaxe down with everything he had.
Crack!
The already-fractured stone beside the vent shattered.
A burst of scalding steam erupted into the air.
The lizard was caught directly in it.
It shrieked, its body twisting and rolling on the ground as the steam blasted against its scales.
Hao Tian did not waste the chance.
He rushed forward, ignoring the pain in his leg, and drove the pickaxe toward the beast's head.
The first strike glanced off.
The second chipped a scale.
The third—
The iron head plunged into its eye.
The lizard convulsed violently, its tail thrashing against the ground.
Then, slowly, it went still.
Hao Tian stumbled back and leaned against the cave wall, panting heavily.
His arms were shaking.
His leg throbbed.
His chest felt like it was on fire.
He slid down and sat on the ground.
"…That was… far too close."
He stared at the corpse for a long moment.
Then he laughed.
A short, tired, breathless laugh.
Finally, when he was sure the beast was dead and no longer a threat, he approached it carefully.
He nudged it with the pickaxe.
No response
He did not have proper tools, so he used the pickaxe and a sharp stone to carefully break into the creature's chest.
Inside, near where its core should have been, he found a small, irregular crystal fragment.
It was warm.
Not burning, but noticeably hot.
A fire-attribute beast core fragment.
Not a true core.
But still valuable.
He wrapped it in cloth and put it away.
Then he noticed something else.
The beast's dark blood had flowed into a crack in the ground near the wall.
And in that crack…
Something was growing.
A small plant, its leaves thin and shaped like frozen flames, glowing faintly red.
Hao Tian's heart skipped a beat.
He knelt and looked closer.
"…Fire-vein Grass?"
He was not sure.
He had only seen drawings.
He took out the Nine Yang Pill Refinement Manual and flipped through the materials section, carefully comparing shapes and descriptions.
It took time.
He had to read slowly, cross-checking several pages.
Finally, he nodded.
Low-grade Fire-vein Grass. About ten years old.
Not precious.
But useful.
He carefully dug it out, making sure not to damage the roots.
He held it for a moment, then let out a quiet breath.
This place…
It was dangerous.
But it was also full of things the outside world would never leave lying around.
"…So this is the kind of place I fell into."
Then he looked deeper into the cave.
Beyond the fire vein zone.
And he felt it.
A subtle pull.
From the Nine Transformations Origin Flame.
As if it were… reacting.
Calling.
Hao Tian slowly stood.
"…Looks like this place isn't just a death trap."
He tightened his grip on the pickaxe.
And walked deeper.
Into the heat.
Into the unknown.
Into the fire beneath the world...