Alone and Infinite

"There are no clues."

He left the stone house, looking at the Stone Heart in his hand that still stubbornly pointed into the distance.

After a moment's thought, Li Xia continued flying in the direction that Stone Heart had pointed, leading Aowu and Black Charcoal.

"Why does this stone figure seem so eerie?"

Awoo nestled on Li Xia's shoulder and whispered, "Black Charcoal is great in every way, but the Monster Hunter world has no monster legends."

The kitten and Aowu watched quite a few horror movies and read some novels in the space, ostensibly to catch up on anime.

At this moment, the Valley of Heavenly Wall was deserted, yet strangely so. Black Charcoal's hair stood on end, and he had no idea how many scenes he had seen before were playing in his mind.

"It's strange, but that's because of the stone golem's special properties. If this were the mysterious land of the Griggans, I might have to explore it carefully, step by step."

Li Xia felt it was alright; although the place was strange, it shouldn't be dangerous.

Because the Stone People really didn't want to be a race that would leave behind something harmful and destructive in their ancestral land.

This left Mimi speechless, unable to utter a single word of explanation.

It's because the stone man is too honest; so honest and simple that even his enemies can't say anything to slander him.

As they were talking, the scenery before them finally began to change, with large stretches of stone houses appearing one after another.

The wide stone-paved road stretches across the ground alongside the stone houses.

All around are traces of the stone people's lives, but looking at this area of ​​buildings, it's hard to say whether it's a town or a city.

One can immediately picture the scene of the stone people living here back then; it must have been extremely lively.

Li Xia remained silent, simply continuing to fly forward.

Before long, a huge square appeared before them, and in the center of the square stood a giant statue.

The statue is not refined; in fact, it can be described as rough. Its only redeeming quality is its size!

And it has the lifelike quality unique to stone statues.

A person, a dragon, and a cat stood on the stone slab, looking up at the statue that was dozens of meters tall.

The statue looks like a person, yet it carries an inhuman feel to it.

The stone statues that Li Xia saw in Tianbi City didn't look like people, but you could still feel that they were lifelike representations of a person.

so.

A very bold idea suddenly popped into Li Xia's mind.

Did the stone statue intentionally create this effect when it was carved by the stone man?

It looks like a person, but it's not actually a person?

If it's not human, then what is it?

However, the fact that the stone man solemnly erected a statue of him in the square indicates that he was a very important person to the stone man.

It even implies a sense of reverence and worship.

Li Xia examined the indistinct statue again for a while, but couldn't find any more clues.

They could only focus their attention on the Heart of Stone in their hands again and went to the location of the stone statue.

Besides being tall and conspicuous enough, the most important point is that the light emitted by the Heart of Stone ultimately points to this statue.

Li Xia took two steps forward, getting closer to the statue.

He felt a burning heat in his palm, and the Heart of Stone shone brightly, its light becoming dazzling.

The light shone directly onto the statue's forehead.

To their astonishment, the enormous statue suddenly came to life.

The massive base rumbled backward, revealing a dark, bottomless entrance.

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1. Monthly pass 2. Recommendation vote

Chapter 324 Mountain within a Mountain

"What do you mean?" Awoo peeked out and asked in confusion, "Do we have to crawl through a hole?"

The cave entrance was extremely deep, like a black hole that could absorb all light. Even the bright sunshine on a clear day could only barely illuminate a small area at the entrance.

Li Xia looked down at the Heart of Stone in his hand; the stone had now dimmed its light.

Some doubts inevitably arose in his mind. Bedrock died too decisively, his heart was ripped out without a word.

All that remains is the somewhat cryptic phrase, "The heart of stone will guide you."

There was no more detailed information available, but it's also possible that the bedrock didn't know anything about it, since these stone golems were always happy beasts before they encountered a race like the Griggan.

Just be happy and that's it. My material desires are shockingly low. After all, I can truly 'live on stones'.

Even the most precious stones taste the same to them.

Now it seems we might really have to go through some caves.

"Meow?"

Black Charcoal raised its claws, tilted its head, and shouted.

"Danger. Judging from the nature of the stone man, it's unlikely that he would leave traps or monsters in the cave."

Aowu rested his chin on his hand and said slowly.

"But in terms of difficulty, it's really not worthy of such a high reward and difficulty if there is no danger. The problems I encountered when climbing Tianbi Mountain before are at most a B-level task."

Li Xia didn't speak, but he agreed with Aowu's opinion: What is an S+ level mission?

If an S-class mission is considered a first-class merit, then for a normal Apostle, it's a matter of life and death.

The S+ level is equivalent to a special merit, which would mean certain death for a normal apostle.

Even for a lone wolf like Li Xia, who is extremely powerful among his peers, it takes a desperate struggle to earn a chance of survival.

After pondering for a while, he let out a long breath and gripped the Heart of Stone tightly in his hand.

"Let's go!"

"I think it would be better if you left me outside."

Mimi spoke softly.

He was initially very desperate about the fact that he would be trapped in Tianbi Mountain forever.

But once they actually entered the tunnel, Mimi suddenly realized that being inside the mountains wasn't so bad after all.

At least it's safe.

It's not that they encountered any danger in the tunnel; rather, they didn't encounter any danger at all.

The pent-up anxiety and pressure from the unknown grew stronger and stronger.

Li Xia was alright, after all, his years of cultivating the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts in the Time Chamber were not an illusion.

So many years of sitting in meditation and fighting life and death have long since tempered my character.

Mimi, on the other hand, was simply terrified of death; he was terrified to death.

The light emitted by the lamp at the waist was of little use in this cave that stretched downwards.

When all you can see is darkness, whether you're coming from it or going to it, that little bit of light can actually make you feel a little uneasy.

"Boss, the temperature has risen quite a bit again."

Aowu glanced at the thermometer in his hand:

"It's about ten degrees warmer than when we first came in."

Li Xia nodded. Not only that, but the stuffy air was also filled with a pungent smell, with a burning sensation.

He used the light from his waistband to survey the surrounding passageway.

Compared to my size, the passageway was still quite spacious, more like a narrow alley.

The rock walls were exceptionally smooth, and even the ground was made up of neat, orderly steps.

Only a race like the Stone People, who are born with an extraordinary ability to manipulate stone, could accomplish such a project.

"We've been walking for almost an hour, haven't we?"

"Got it, just a few more minutes!"

Li Xia looked at the steps under her feet. Each step was half a meter long and about 30 centimeters high.

The steps are much larger than real ones, which is because the stone figure is quite large.

He would bend one of his left fingers every 100 steps, and then bend one of his right fingers after 1000 steps.

After walking for an hour, his right hand had already shrunk to more than four fingers.

That adds up to about 22,000 steps.

This was only because he was on high alert and slowed down. Even so, he still walked down 10,000 meters just by following the steps.

But the passageway still didn't end.

How long is this passage?

And why did the stone figure build such a long passage?

"Boss, is there something wrong?"

Awoo asked cautiously, while the water glass, which had been refilled with fresh water outside, began to ripple.

"It's too long and too hot."

Li Xia shook his head. These things ultimately couldn't explain anything; he could only continue on his journey.

After walking for another half hour, the temperature in the tunnel became increasingly high, and Aowu preferred water to heat.

He simply channeled the water inside the dragon egg, letting himself take a bath while only sticking the dragon's head out.

A faint dark red hue gradually emerged from the distant surging movement, growing larger and clearer as the distance increased.

As the temperature continued to rise, an idea couldn't help but pop into Li Xia's mind.

"Boss, could that be a lava pool ahead?"

"possible."

Li Xia nodded. His thoughts were similar to Ao Wu's. If it really was a lava pool, it wouldn't be a big problem.

In terms of fire resistance, he is definitely one of the best among the third-tier apostles.

Lava is a challenge for most third-tier apostles, but not for him.

After turning a corner, the dark red color suddenly brightened considerably, and a wave of heat rushed towards us.

Li Xia quickly followed the dark red color and crossed the last section of the road.

Suddenly, everything became clear before him, and he froze in place, staring in utter astonishment at what had suddenly appeared before him.

Mimi, who was wearing a belt around her waist, almost popped her eyes out of their sockets, her bright green eyes bulging out in surprise.

Seeing their leader like this, Aowu and Heitan quickened their pace.

It had barely peeked out from beside Li Xia when it couldn't help but let out a howl:

"My grass!"

What appeared before them was a vast and frighteningly large space.

It can't even be called space; the words "heaven and earth" are more appropriate.

With just a glance, Li Xia discovered that the enormous void before him was only slightly smaller than the inner valley of Tianbi Mountain above.

With a longitudinal width exceeding 100 kilometers, the existence of such a large cavity within Tianbi Mountain is truly terrifying.

But that wasn't the only thing that surprised them.

Instead, they saw another mountain inside the huge cavity in the mountain's belly!

A magnificent volcano, billowing thick smoke and spewing out scorching lava from its holes!