"Hm? You know me?" Lin Chuan asked, puzzled. Of the three before him, one was a rather tall youth. The moment he saw Lin Chuan, surprise flashed across his face.
"Not really! But I saw you before entering the Hunting Grounds. Your white hair and white eyes were so striking that it was impossible not to notice you!" the youth said with a smile.
"Oh!" Lin Chuan nodded lightly and smiled. He could sense that the youth meant him no harm.
"Why are you alone? Where are your companions? Want to come with us?" The youth seemed quite curious about Lin Chuan and even invited him directly.
Before Lin Chuan could answer, one of the people beside the youth spoke first. He wasn't talking to Lin Chuan, but to the youth, and he kept his voice low. "Zhang Leyang, how many times have I told you not to trust strangers? Why are you always so chummy with everyone? You could bring along those people who were only at the second or third level of the Qi Refining Stage, but this kid is at the fifth level. What if he's a bad person? Even if the three of us can beat him, we'll still have to pay a price."
"I wasn't thinking that far ahead..." said the thin, tall youth named Zhang Leyang. He smiled awkwardly.
His companion shook his head helplessly. Zhang Leyang was great in every way, and the strongest of the three, but he was simply too kind. As they liked to say, a kid like him wasn't cut out for the cultivation world.
Lin Chuan silently watched them talk. He had been about to refuse outright, but suddenly found himself interested in the youth before him. Zhang Leyang reminded him of his classmates from school in his previous life: no scheming, no deceit, just the simplest bonds between classmates.
This was the first person Lin Chuan had met like that since entering the cultivation world.
"Sure. Something happened to my companion, so she's resting outside," Lin Chuan said with an easy smile.
"Great! Then come with us!" Zhang Leyang said with a grin, revealing a small canine tooth.
His two companions rolled their eyes in unison. Well, so much for everything they'd just said. They might as well have been talking to a brick wall.
Since Zhang Leyang had already agreed, his companions didn't object. Still, after Lin Chuan joined them, they remained wary and didn't completely trust this stranger who had suddenly appeared alone.
"By the way, I remember there was a girl in your group, right?" The four walked along, chatting, and Zhang Leyang asked casually.
"Yeah, that's right. You've got a good memory!" Lin Chuan nodded.
"Of course! There aren't many girls among the newcomers!" Zhang Leyang said with a smile.
"Excuse me?" Lin Chuan was instantly speechless. Was this guy being so friendly because he had his eye on Bu Lianshi? Why did this feel like the way college classmates talked about which girl was prettier? What the heck?
"What happened to you earlier? Why are you the only one who came to the underground Lava Cave? This place is dangerous. We nearly got caught in a huge fight earlier, but luckily we were strong enough to escape!" Zhang Leyang said enthusiastically. The corners of his two companions' mouths twitched.
"We were being chased, so we ran here," one of them muttered under his breath. Lin Chuan's Byakugan caught every word.
Lin Chuan silently wondered if he'd just gotten himself aboard a pirate ship.
But as he got to know the three better, he found that aside from their endless chatter, they were all right—much better, at least, than the people outside who knew nothing but fighting and killing. In his previous life, they would have been model young men, raised on the right path.
What a shame they'd been born in the wrong place.
Before they knew it, they had traveled two or three kilometers underground. Lin Chuan estimated they were about ten kilometers beneath the Central Lake in Hunting Grounds No. 44, already quite deep. Almost no one had ever set foot in this area.
Zhang Leyang and his companions had stumbled into this passage while fleeing from their pursuers. Thinking of the chaos above, they had decided to explore underground. Their route happened to align with Lin Chuan's, so they continued together.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Lin Chuan said with a frown. The deeper they went, the more oppressive the atmosphere became. The four stopped chatting and watched their surroundings warily.
Lin Chuan hadn't forgotten the bodies they'd found in the underground cave, torn apart by bites. If his guess was right, some vicious Spirit Beast had to be lurking here.
Because using his Byakugan consumed chakra, he couldn't keep it activated all the time. But he made sure to check his surroundings at regular intervals, and since arriving here, he had been shortening the time between checks.
Zhang Leyang and the others had grown accustomed to the veins bulging around Lin Chuan's eyes every so often. They assumed there was something wrong with his eyes and that he had to strain to see what was around him.
"There doesn't seem to be anything special here. We haven't even seen a trace of the Crimson Flame Lotus. Maybe we should head back," one of them suggested. The oppressive feeling of going so deep underground was unbearable.
Besides, they hadn't come here to explore. They were looking for the Crimson Flame Lotus. They had thought there would be more of them the deeper they went, but that didn't seem to be the case.
On the way, Lin Chuan had found a few places where Crimson Flame Lotuses grew, but he hadn't mentioned them. He had simply memorized their locations. There was no way to explain how he'd found them to Zhang Leyang and the others. He could always gather a few and give them some.
"Let's keep going a little farther and take a look. I think we're close to the bottom of this cave," Lin Chuan said softly.
Zhang Leyang hesitated, but decided to keep going with Lin Chuan. They were already here; a few more steps wouldn't make a difference.
The three continued downward for about another kilometer. By then, Lin Chuan felt the danger growing stronger and stronger. The hairs on his back stood on end, but no matter how closely he looked with his Byakugan, he couldn't spot anything wrong. It was as if some terrifying presence lay dormant beneath his feet, waiting for a chance to strike.
"Let's go back!" Zhang Leyang had sensed something was wrong too and didn't dare continue.
Lin Chuan frowned, then nodded after a long pause. But the instant Zhang Leyang and the others turned around, the Byakugan in Lin Chuan's eyes flashed sky blue, beginning to transform into the Tenseigan.
In the next instant, the sight revealed by the Tenseigan left Lin Chuan too terrified to speak. His mind went completely blank, as though he had just witnessed the most horrifying thing imaginable. Sweat drenched his clothes in an instant.
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