True Solution of the Sword Dao
Chapter 381 - 357: Change 2

Chapter 381: Chapter 357: Change 2

"Then, we move out now and begin preparations to enter the Earth Dragon Den. Make sure to protect the anti-detection devices," Lin Fei ordered directly.

Instantly, in the entire white camp, all the ordinary combat personnel carrying firearms automatically expanded their realm’s range, and some started mounting mobile devices on the anti-interference antennas.

With the white personnel as the periphery and the bat members as the core, Lin Fei and others, surrounded by the team, quickly began moving toward the highest point of the island.

Volcanic Lake itself was located on the Second Phosphate Island, which was the place occupied by Annie and Ban. Naturally, this involved the ulterior motives of the other two major forces who wanted them to act as cannon fodder to clear the way first.

Walking amidst the crowd, Lin Fei suddenly remembered the projection ability he had acquired in the Extinction Holy Hall.

"If I could capture some samples inside to create projections..." his heart was slightly stirred.

Inside the Earth Dragon Den, various strange monsters emerged endlessly, most of which were mutated creatures with strong abilities, some even possessing innate powers. If he could control them and mass-produce them, the help it would provide to him would be unimaginably immense. Although his high-end strength was not very weak now, he was severely lacking in mid and low-tier strength. The projection ability could just solve this problem quickly.

"It’s just that I don’t know how much True Force Energy is needed to create a projection. This needs to be specifically determined."

Lin Fei had a thought in his mind.

**************

Phosphate Island was very small, and it only took a few minutes on foot to reach Volcanic Lake.

The entire lake was very small, equivalent to a large fish pond. Its length and width were only about twenty meters. The greenish water rippled in the sunlight from time to time, creating layers of ripples. Then, it quickly returned to the smooth surface of the lake, looking quite picturesque.

Lin Fei noticed that the surface of the lake faintly bore a thin layer of vapor rising up.

He walked past a line of people, came to the lakeside, squatted down, and gently dipped his hand into the water. A warm, scalding sensation immediately traveled from his hand.

"This is Volcanic Lake; despite being an extinct volcano, the water is still hot. It seems entirely affected by the Earth Dragon Den."

He noticed that the soil by the lake faintly showed a pale yellow color, and there was almost no sign of green vegetation. There were no aquatic plants like waterweeds in the water either.

The yellow color, as if powder had been sprinkled around the lakeside, was particularly conspicuous.

Lin Fei gently touched some with his hand and sniffed at it. A scent of sulfur invaded his nostrils.

"It’s sulfur."

"The diving gear we specifically prepared," Annie whispered.

"We don’t need it," the golden bat, Gabi, refused.

"Neither do I."

Since Lin Fei was only a projection and didn’t have any respiratory or physical tissues, he didn’t need it either.

Only Ban seemed to require it due to his ability’s limitation; he had to put on the white diving suit and carry an oxygen tank like the other personnel.

"Let’s go," Lin Fei took the lead and walked into the lake.

One after another, personnel continuously entered the water behind him.

One person was always monitoring the temperature gauge on their wrist.

"The surface water temperature is 29 degrees Celsius," he called out loudly.

A group of nearly thirty people soon submerged completely into the water, leaving behind ripples on the surface as the only indication that a group of people had been there.

Lin Fei had never truly entered underwater before.

The surrounding water was very murky, completely yellow. He could hardly see anything one meter away. He had to disperse True Force to cover everyone in his sensing range, using voice transmission at any time to correct some people’s directions.

With each person equipped with a waterproof positioning device, the whole formation maintained quite well.

"Two unidentified energy reactions have appeared behind us."

Annie’s voice came through.

"It’s the Holy See and the heretics, Benjamin and Juan; their reaction is quite prompt," Ban sneered. "Shall we leave them a souvenir?"

"There’s no need; our current task is to quickly secure the treasure. Any other action that consumes strength is pointless," Lin Fei said calmly.

Ban frowned and stopped talking. He couldn’t comprehend Lin Fei’s decision. The two groups behind them clearly were waiting for them to deal with the Earth Dragon Den before attempting to snatch the fruits of victory and possibly kick them while they were down by joining forces against them. Yet Lin Fei seemed completely unconcerned.

Lin Fei also naturally sensed the two energy forces behind him. His new True Force Sensing ability was unrivaled, which naturally wouldn’t be overlooked.

"With my speed, I can snatch the treasure before anyone else even realizes what’s happening. And the most important point is..."

In Lin Fei’s vision, as they approached the lakebed, a faint glow of green light covered the entire bottom of the lake, a light only he could sense, which was undeniably the energy of pseudo True Force.

As the group got closer to the lakebed, the surrounding water temperature increased.

"The water temperature is 37 degrees Celsius now," the person responsible for reporting the temperature shouted into the radio.

Lin Fei stepped gently on the silt at the bottom of the lake. Instead of feeling softness under his feet, he felt an extremely hard sensation. He looked down carefully, and saw that the silt he was stepping on had already been dispersed by the water pressure, revealing the flat, black surface below that resembled wall bricks.

"This is the periphery of the Earth Dragon Den," Annie, the technician, spoke up. "To enter the Earth Dragon Den, we need to go further into an entrance, which is a submerged passage that leads directly to the entire den. It has a structure similar to a connecting well."

"Where is the entrance?"

"Just about twenty meters ahead." The area beneath Volcanic Lake turned out to be unexpectedly vast, far exceeding the area of the lake surface.

"Continue forward," Lin Fei nodded. In the water, the group swiftly swam toward the front.

"The water temperature is 49 degrees Celsius."

Everyone’s nerves began to tighten. This was the first real test.

"According to the data from the last entry, the temperature shouldn’t be this high," Annie said gravely. "Last time when Lady Monica and others entered, such temperatures were only reached at the very bottom of the passage."

"Continue," Lin Fei remained unopinionated and kept moving forward.

Soon, within the murky yellow waters ahead, a dark opening appeared before the crowd.

Lin Fei paused and observed the entrance. The presence of Pseudo-True Force grew increasingly intense. Surprisingly, there were some plants with pale green leaves tinged with red floating gently with the flow of the water. Similarly, threads of Pseudo-True Force exuded from these plants. It was unclear whether the plants were affected by the Pseudo-True Force here or if it was them that were creating it.

Lin Fei’s vigilance heightened instantly. Although every encounter with Pseudo-True Force had been beneficial to him, as a substance capable of contending with the mysterious powers of the Sword Canon True Force, Pseudo-True Force naturally had its potent aspects. There might be unknown dangers.

His purpose for this venture was threefold: to obtain treasures and relics, to explore the relationship with Pseudo-True Force here, and to collect samples created by the projection of the Extinction Holy Hall. Although he wasn’t here in person, merely using a True Force seed to project onto a Spatial Ability user, a failure would only result in some loss of energy and vitality, recoverable within few years, but the resources of the Earth Dragon Den would be unobtainable.

Near the pitch-black entrance, a large expanse of plants with red-tinged green leaves were floating slowly, resembling extending tentacles flickering everywhere. They stood in stark contrast to the barren lakebed around and seemed even more eerie.

Lin Fei was the first to enter the cave.

Inside the cavern, it was too dark to see anything, except for the undulating plants on the ground.

These green plants with red tinges faintly glowed with a soft green luminescence in the darkness, acting as a makeshift guide for everyone.

After advancing about ten meters, all the plants with a soft glow naturally extended into a downward passage ahead.

Lin Fei stopped before the passage, looking down. A chain of luminescent plants stretched from the opening to a corner dozens of meters inside, beyond which nothing was visible.

"This is the place," Annie spoke into the walkie-talkie. "Entering this opening will take us directly to the First Layer of the Earth Dragon Den, the den of the Earth Fire Ants. Everyone, be prepared to fight at any moment."

"The water temperature has dropped, it’s now 40 degrees Celsius," reported one of the team loudly.

Instantly, everyone let out inward sighs of relief. In such an environment, which was already somewhat oppressive, any abnormal phenomenon would make anyone nervous.

Lin Fei quietly watched the profound entrance below. After a moment, he lightly leapt, naturally free-falling into the passage.

Suddenly, a sensation like never before permeated his heart.

Above the profound entrance.

Lin Fei slowly drifted downwards. An invisible green glow softly radiated from him.

**************

Hua Nation, Ping City

Swordsmanship Club

Crack!

The teacup in Lin Fei’s hand split instantly.

A faint luminescence gradually surfaced on his body, green light transforming into countless floating specks around him, resembling myriad fireflies.

He clenched his eyes shut, a novel and intense pain spreading through his body in an instant.

"What is this...?!!" he lowered his head.

"Warning!! Warning!! An unknown powerful force is invading the Sword Canon Space, the Sword Canon’s automatic counterattack mechanism has been activated."

"Counterattack ineffective. Initiating backup contingency plan."

"Plan data corrupted, corrupted....." The mechanical voice of the Sword Canon stopped abruptly.

A strange aura began to spread slowly. Sharp, eerie laughter appeared and disappeared intermittently.

Over the skies of Ping City.

Clouds of darkness slowly enveloped the sky.

Boom!

A flash of lightning streaked by, followed by a slowly spreading sound of dull, oppressive thunder.

The entire city was completely submerged in the countless shadows.

**************

Taoyuan Road

A woman dressed in black suddenly looked up at the sky, her dark pupils contracting in an instant.

"This is...!!"

The sky was covered with dense clouds through which tendrils of blue lightning occasionally crackled. A tremendous and terrifying aura was slowly rising beneath Ping City.

Within the myriad of clouds, a colossal face suddenly emerged.

An extreme terror descended instantaneously.

Bang!!

The woman in black violently dropped to her knees, her whole body convulsing.

"This power...!!" She desperately tried to stand again, her skin breaking out in fine Blood Points, yet it was all in vain. The bizarre laughter continued to echo around her ears.

**************

On the outskirts of the city

A black-haired, blue-eyed woman stood rigidly in place, her complexion deathly pale, her whole body tensely taut.

She was under immense pressure, the creaking of her bones audible.

The entire sky seemed to swirl like a vortex, akin to the end of the world, as a colossal face made of clouds quietly hovered in between. It was a sight only perceivable by those of a certain level of strength and above.

"...An A-grade...!!" The woman struggled to lift her head, watching the sky, displaying the eerie spectacle. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please consider casting your recommendation votes and Monthly Tickets at Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)