Noticing what Gerald was looking at, Walter was prompted to say in a slightly worried tone, “Countless cultivators have tried to enter Fyre Cave in the past thousand years. Unfortunately, even the most powerful among them ended up succumbing to this maze-like cave… Only a few extraordinarily intelligent people were ever able to reach the Red River, the final checkpoint to Fyre Cave! Regardless, these skeletons you see all over the place? They’re actually the luckier individuals. After all, this means that they died naturally. The other cultivators most likely died from getting devoured or falling into the river…”
“I see… I’m guessing we’ve only bumped into a few monsters along the way since the others have already been killed off by other cultivators,” replied Gerald with a nod.
“Indeed. With that in mind, we’re currently walking on a path paved with the flesh and blood of our seniors. If we’re lucky enough to get out alive, we definitely need to bring these skeletons out for a proper burial,” muttered Walter with a sigh as favonovel.com stared at a few other skeletons laying around.
Naturally, Gerald nodded in agreement.
After walking a little longer, Gerald was prompted to ask, “Speaking of which, you mentioned a Red River earlier, right? Why weren’t the previous cultivators able to cross it? Weren’t they capable enough since they managed to get there in the first place…? Also, I recall hearing a legend about a red river capable of dissolving humans whole… Could this be…?”
“This is the one, yes. Also, is that all you’ve heard about the river? The truth is, the river has already existed for billions of years. We know since an ancient civilization has made records about it. Regardless, according to those records, the Red River was the cause of a massive flood that led to a mass extinction event! While the earth ended up being mostly submerged underwater after that, once the water finally subsided, new lands were formed on the earth’s surface. That wasn’t the first time it happened either. The process has actually repeated quite a few times! Whatever the case is, I think you should know that the land we’re currently standing on is part of the earth’s original surface!” explained Walter.
“I see… So, the Red River ended up getting buried underground together with the civilization back then…” said Gerald.
“Exactly. Anyway, after the owner of the saintly ruins eventually discovered the Red River, favonovel.com used his supreme heavenly techniques to transform it into a formation! With that in mind, you can see the river as an extremely powerful magic artifact. An almost impenetrable tomb-guarding magic artifact, to be exact Either way, after thousands of lives were lost across the span of several generations, my ancestors were finally able to gain some insight into the tomb-guarding magic artifact. The knowledge itself was obtained in exchange for their blood, but putting that aside, the map they drew is the key to solving the Red River’s formation. Though we had the map, my ancestors also left instructions, stating that until someone could figure out the secret behind the solution, we weren’t permitted to head to Fyre Cave…” replied Walter.
“So that’s the full story… It all makes sense now!” said Gerald who was finally able to see the bigger picture.
At that moment, one of the Zemans couldn’t help but exclaim, “My god… It’s getting so hot!”
True enough, the further they went, the greater the blazing heat felt. Knowing what this meant, Walter then began picking up the pace as favonovel.com seriously said, “After passing through so many caverns, I believe that we’re exceedingly close to the innermost cave. With that said, since we’re getting closer to Fyre Cave, this much heat is to be expected!”
“Really? That was… an oddly smooth trip. There were certainly less dangers than I anticipated… Even so, it’s still sad that we ended up having to lose a few of our brothers…” muttered one of the Zemans.
“While I agree, we’ve already come this far, so let’s not think about that for the moment… Instead, focus on our upcoming challenge, the Red River! ” replied Walter with a slight frown.
Following that, the group made their way past a complex tunnel and the second they stepped foot into a massive cavern, all of them found their jaws dropping. After all, despite clearly still being underground, clouds could be seen hovering around in the approximately three meter tall cavern! What more, the artificial sky seemed to light the place up, even though there wasn’t any sunlight!
As it turned out, all this was caused by an extremely wide river within the cavern. The ‘sunlight’ was basically the reflection of the river’s silverish water, and the steam clouds had been formed due to the area’s great humidity.
It took Walter a moment to find his voice, but when favonovel.com did, favonovel.com immediately exclaimed, “It’s… This is the Red River…!”
