CHAPTER 1080: CHAPTER 1077: THE SOURCE

"Lin Tian, do you feel something’s off here? The Black Water King Snake didn’t chase us," Ning Luoxi suddenly asked.

Lin Tian was brushing off the sand from his body, not paying attention to the surroundings. Upon hearing her, he looked around and indeed noticed something different; the waterfall was gone. No, it wasn’t gone; they had somehow reached the upstream of the waterfall.

The two of them had been swatted by the Black Water King Snake and ended up landing at the top of the waterfall, crashing just at the shore. Lin Tian clicked his tongue in amazement; in this sense, they ought to thank the Black Water King Snake for the lift.

"Roar..."

As they surveyed their environment, the roar of the Black Water King Snake erupted from beneath the waterfall. Lin Tian and Ning Luoxi exchanged glances and quickly ran to the edge of the waterfall to look down.

They happened to see the enormous head of the Black Water King Snake rising high above the water, its huge mouth opening wide as it roared skyward. Upon noticing Lin Tian and Ning Luoxi, the Black Water King Snake seemed to sense them and turned its head toward Lin Tian immediately.

Although the Black Water King Snake’s eyes had regressed, presenting an eerie white color, Lin Tian could still feel its focus on him.

Strangely enough, the Black Water King Snake didn’t rush out of the deep pool or attack Lin Tian, the intruder.

The two of them and the snake stared at each other for several minutes. Then, the Black Water King Snake slowly submerged, gradually sinking into the depths of the pool until even its shadow was no longer visible.

Lin Tian glanced at Ning Luoxi and said with surprise, "Luoxi, you know the Black Water King Snake. What’s going on here? Why did it spare us two intruders?"

Ning Luoxi frowned in thought for a moment before shaking her head and saying, "I’m not really sure. It seems like it’s restricted within the deep pool, but what kind of power is restraining it?"

"It’s baffling. This cavern has existed for hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of years; who knows what has happened here. Luckily, it can’t leave this deep pool, or else you guys would’ve been done for last time," Lin Tian said, thinking that among the Thunder Wolf Team, perhaps only Thunder Wolf and Ning Luoxi could have escaped the Black Water King Snake’s strangling death.

Ning Luoxi also realized this, her face turning a bit solemn. She turned back toward the riverbank, saying, "Forget about it. Since it’s not chasing us, let’s keep moving forward."

"You should change your clothes first. They’re soaking wet, and it’s too cold here; you don’t want to catch a cold." Lin Tian also turned back toward the riverbank, saying.

Ning Luoxi turned on the light, pointed at a waterproof backpack on the riverbank, and said, "I dropped my backpack while dodging earlier, so there’s only yours left."

"I see..." Lin Tian picked up the backpack, opened it, and checked inside, finding only a new set of men’s clothes.

After some thought, Lin Tian took out the clothes and handed them to Ning Luoxi, saying, "You can put these on. Although they are a bit large for you, at least they’re dry."

Ning Luoxi took them, hesitating to say something, but Lin Tian had already turned around. She watched his back for a while, a peculiar look flashing in her eyes, and without saying anything further, she walked a bit away to start changing out of her wet clothes.

Lin Tian turned his back to Ning Luoxi, but the sound of her changing clothes clearly reached his ears. Thinking about Ning Luoxi’s stunning figure, Lin Tian couldn’t help but swallow his saliva, a voice in his mind tempting him that he only needed to turn around lightly to see.

Damn, for a lecher like me, this is pure torture—able to hear but not see, Lin Tian thought very frustratedly.

"I’m done changing." Ning Luoxi’s voice suddenly rang out, releasing Lin Tian from his torment.

Lin Tian turned around and, upon seeing Ning Luoxi dressed, his eyes widened. She was wearing a men’s T-shirt, but even the loose garment couldn’t hide her impressive bust, which pushed the shirt up noticeably—remarkably large indeed.

Ning Luoxi naturally noticed Lin Tian’s gaze. Ordinarily, if a man dared to look at her so brazenly, she would have sent him straight to the hospital by now.

But this time, she did not do anything, instead shouldering her backpack and turning to say, "Let’s go. We’ve already delayed too much time just now."

Lin Tian rubbed his nose, suppressed his miscellaneous thoughts, and then followed Ning Luoxi.

Resuming their journey, the two of them walked for several hours again, the length of the cavern exceeding their expectations. By the end, Lin Tian could feel the chill emanating from the river even without getting close.

Fortunately, neither of them was ordinary; otherwise, the cold here would have been enough to make them shiver and unable to proceed.

"Luoxi, I feel we are close to the source of the cold," Lin Tian said as he strained his eyes to look far ahead.

He noted that the depths of the cavern ended abruptly in darkness. Ning Luoxi, who lacked night vision capabilities, couldn’t see this.

Ning Luoxi glanced back at Lin Tian, then quickened her pace. Running at full speed, they were faster than horses, and within minutes they arrived at the cavern’s end.

At the end was a huge pool, larger than the previous one. The light shone on the water’s surface, revealing wisps of chill rising from it.

The pool appeared calm, but Lin Tian knew that underneath, the current must be swift; otherwise, from where did the underground river gather such a substantial flow? It was also a mystery where this endless flow of water originated.

Ning Luoxi walked halfway around the pool’s edge before returning, frowning, "Surrounded by rock walls and crevices from which water flows, but no cave has been found, let alone an ice-sealed cave like you mentioned."

In truth, Lin Tian didn’t need Ning Luoxi to point that out; his own eyes had already scanned the entire surroundings. There was indeed no cave, and the crevices were too small for a person to enter, so they didn’t qualify as caves.

"If the water source comes from the water flowing through those cracks, then where does the source of the low temperature come from?" Lin Tian looked at the pool and then at Ning Luoxi, asking.

Ning Luoxi’s eyes lit up, looking toward the pool—not just a pool, but rather a cold pool. To verify her hypothesis, she measured the water temperature coming from the crevices with a thermometer, as well as the water in the pool, obtaining two different temperatures.

"How are things looking?" Lin Tian asked, watching the busy Ning Luoxi.

"You guessed right; water from the cracks flows at a normal temperature, coming out at fifteen degrees, but the pool water is only two degrees. This means there’s something in the pool affecting the temperature," Ning Luoxi said jubilantly.

As for what was affecting the water temperature, it was hard to say. Maybe it was something peculiar, like the Purple Flame Sword from Fanyin Temple, which could emit high temperatures of the Purple Flame; thus, something emitting extremely low temperatures was possible.

It’s also possible that it was some kind of mystical creature. In this vast world, there is no species too strange to exist. There are fish that glow, and perhaps creatures that emit cold. The mysterious Black Water King Snake is proof enough; in this subterranean cave, who could say what unknown creatures exist?

Of course, it’s also possible that at the bottom of the deep pool, there exists an ice-sealed cave.