Looking down, Hu Xiaotian saw magma surging at the bottom of the Scarlet Flame Cave, flames rolling in waves, and scorching blasts of air growing stronger by the moment. The sight made his skin crawl. If he fell from here, he would probably burn until not even ashes remained. Fortunately, Granny Shadow had laid out a web to catch them beforehand; otherwise, he and Xi Yan would already have been reduced to ash.
Hu Xiaotian raised Xi Yan's hairpin and pointed its lone bead ahead. The magma's glow washed the bead red, but nothing changed on the opposite side. He sighed inwardly. This thing almost certainly wasn't a Purple Lightning Pearl. Knowing how to escape was useless without it; he couldn't even locate the entrance. Just as he was about to put the hairpin away, something else occurred to him. Gripping the pin, he applied a little force and snapped the bead off its end. He had run out of options, which was why he damaged the hairpin. Once he removed the peanut-sized bead, he discovered violet light streaming from the end-not from the bead, but from the tip of the hairpin itself. It looked like a tiny flashlight.
Delighted, Hu Xiaotian hurriedly raised the hairpin and aimed its beam at the opposite rock wall. The beam widened, casting violet light across the stone, where a bright yellow pattern appeared. Though he could see only part of it, he could already tell that it was a dragon's head. Following Granny Shadow's earlier directions, he located the dragon's left ear. Not daring to delay, he put Xi Yan on his back again and used the Golden Spider Eight Steps to climb to that spot. The rock wall appeared perfectly solid, without any crack or entrance, but Hu Xiaotian firmly believed Granny