This assassin is upright

Chapter 467 Beneath the Magma
hot…

It's hot…

Upon entering the space beneath the spring, Yu Zhun felt as if he had entered a cauldron of soup with no end in sight, as if he were about to be boiled alive.

If the spring water gushing from the spring is roughly 60 or 70 degrees Celsius, then the water temperature in the space below the spring, which is filled with groundwater, is almost 100 degrees Celsius.

He felt his epidermal cells dying at an extremely high rate due to the high temperature, but the powerful qualities brought by the evolved being accelerated the division of his dermal cells, allowing the wound to heal quickly. The life and death of cells formed a tug-of-war.

In this tug-of-war, the scales are quietly tipping to one side.

In the process of death and rebirth, something subtly changes inside the cell.

As a result, the new cells gradually became able to survive for longer periods of time in this terrible temperature, until they were no longer killed by the water temperature.

Under the influence of the mutation inducer, Yu Zhun acquired its own heat resistance at an unimaginable speed, and this heat resistance is rapidly increasing.

"almost."

He felt the change within himself as he remained motionless in the water. He slowly opened his eyes underwater. All around him was darkness, the murky water swallowing all light. But deeper beneath his feet, there was a glimmer of light that even the murky water could not swallow.

And that's also the direction from which the heat is coming from.

Magma...

Yu Zhun murmured to himself, then controlled his body to slowly descend.

The temperature of the groundwater continues to rise.

Normally, water reaches its boiling point at 100 degrees Celsius, but in the current ultra-high-pressure underground environment, the boiling point of water will be further increased.

When he felt that his body could no longer withstand the pressure, Yu Zhun would cautiously stop his descent, giving himself some time to evolve and mutate.

Once he feels he can continue, he will dive again.

During these intermittent dives, Yu Zhun got closer and closer to the light.

Finally, he saw the source of the light.

It was a magma formation located underwater. Where the water and magma came into contact, the water boiled at an astonishing speed, while the magma hardened due to rapid cooling.

Over the years, an endless lava field, like a sponge with countless tiny cavities, formed at the boundary between the two, becoming a transitional zone in terms of temperature, where black and red colors intertwine repeatedly.

Those lights shone through the countless holes in the lava. Yu Zhun could imagine what kind of purgatory lay behind this lava that isolated water and fire.

Taking a deep breath, Yu Zhun slowly touched the lava closest to him. Before he even got close, he felt a terrifying wave of heat surge into his palm. When he actually touched the hard lava, a piercing pain made him instantly withdraw his outstretched hand.

Looking at his palm, there were obvious burn marks on the skin.

It's at least 300 degrees.

After roughly estimating the temperature of the lava, Yu Zhun felt a chill run down his spine.

This is still the lava part that has come into contact with water, which is probably the coldest part of the lava region, yet it already has such a high temperature.

Even so, he had to continue.

He had a vague intuition that the secret hidden in the ruins of the Roland mining area lay in the lava fields ahead, seemingly within reach yet impossibly far away.

and so…

Taking a deep breath, Yu Zhun once again extended his healed hand toward the lava.

Mutation inducer, let me see your limits!
-
As Black Hawk finished speaking, the dark ruins fell silent.

After a moment, the mouse couldn't help but ask, "Boss, who are you talking about?"

"Could it be that the excavation team that was following us has come in?"

“I’m not sure of their identity either.” Black Hawk frowned, using his eyesight to remotely sense the situation at the entrance to the ruins.

They had now entered a deeper part of the ruins, quite a distance from the entrance. Even with Black Hawk's third-tier abilities, he could only vaguely sense some clues and could not see them clearly.

But at least one thing Black Hawk is certain of.

That was the person who came in, not the one who had been tracking them.

Because the leader is very strong!
That power was like a rising sun, which Black Hawk could clearly "see" even from a great distance; it was a power far beyond his imagination.

Level 4?

Or perhaps, it's the fifth order after the fourth?

Just as Black Hawk was spying with all his might, Fred, the leader of the Dark Dragon team who had just easily defeated the excavation team that was tracking Black Hawk's squad and was preparing to enter the ruins of the Roland mining area, seemed to have noticed something and squinted as he glanced into the depths of the ruins.

"They detected my presence so quickly?"

"It seems the team that entered here is somewhat interesting."

"Sir, we've caught him." A voice rang out, and a man in the uniform of the Nether Dragon Squad walked over, pressing down a skinny, monkey-like man.

"This is the person who first discovered the members of Higgins' team."

"Oh?" Fred looked at Morrie, who was trembling under his pressure, with interest. "What's your name?"

“Replying to Lord Fred, my name is Mori.”

Morrie's voice was filled with terror.

died…

All dead!
Several excavation teams arrived together, but apart from himself, not a single one survived.

Is this the power of the Nether Dragon Team, one of the seven major excavation teams?
Maurice, a nobody in District 37, was already terrified by what he had just experienced, and didn't even have the courage to look up at Fred.

“Tell me, besides the teams here, who else knows that the Higgins squad members have returned?” Fred said quietly. “This is your only chance to live, so make the most of it.”

“Yes…yes!” Mori nodded quickly, and after thinking for a moment, he said tremblingly, “Lord Fred, there shouldn’t be any more.”

"Our excavation teams were all thinking of keeping that treasure for ourselves, so..."

"Oh?" Fred's eyes lit up. "You know what that is?"

"I don't know." Mori honestly shook his head. "The boss told me that it might be priceless, and even you value it highly."

"But as for what it is, they don't know."

"Heh." Fred scoffed. "You don't even know what it is, yet you dare to get involved in this kind of thing?"

“Since no one else knows, then you have no value in living.” With that, Fred snapped his fingers.

A perfectly smooth hole appeared between Morrie's eyebrows. After a moment, blood mixed with white cerebrospinal fluid slowly gushed out. A vibrant life had silently turned into a corpse.

The people nearby skillfully stepped forward and carried Morrie's body to a distance to dump it.

Fred's gaze, however, returned to the entrance to the ruins.

"Come on, let's go in and take a look."

"I hope the members of Higgins' team can give me a surprise."
-
"呲-"

With a sound like roasting meat, Yu Zhun withdrew his outstretched hand as if he had been electrocuted.

"Or not."

Watching the burn marks on his palm heal at a visible speed, Yu Zhun shook his head, a helpless expression on his face.

Behind him was a temporary passage carved out of the lava, now nearly a hundred meters deep.

Over the past period, Yu Zhun gradually enhanced his body's heat resistance with the help of the mutation inducer, allowing him to penetrate deeper into the lava layer. At this moment, the surrounding temperature had reached over three hundred degrees Celsius.

The good news is that, so far, Yu Zhun has not seen the limit of the mutation, and his heat resistance can still be improved.

The bad news is that Yu Zhun's energy is running low.

During the mutation, all the cells in his body were dying and regenerating rapidly. This process required a lot of energy, and reaching the current level was almost his limit. Yu Zhun could feel a strong weakness surging through his body.

Yu Zhun took out a piece of mutated beast meat and put it in his mouth with the scalding hot and murky groundwater, but he still felt weak.

He needs energy, more energy.

"Or... should we go back and replenish our energy before continuing?" Yu Zhun thought to himself, and a hint of retreat began to creep into his mind.

But at that moment, his expression suddenly froze.

He suddenly felt that the temperature around him seemed to have dropped a bit, and in return, his feeling of weakness was somewhat relieved.

Although it was only a very subtle difference, it still couldn't escape his keen senses.

He stopped in his tracks just as he was about to retreat, and after a moment his expression became excited.

His weakness was dissipating, and at an increasingly rapid pace, while the surrounding temperature was dropping, only to be lifted up again by the higher temperatures from further away.

It's not an illusion!

His body is absorbing heat to replenish its own energy!
In this land of magma, thermal energy is virtually inexhaustible. By developing a special physique that can absorb thermal energy, he can penetrate it infinitely!
"As expected of a mutation inducer." Yu Zhun couldn't help but exclaim, and then without further hesitation, he once again touched the nearby lava.

The scorching temperature causes the cells in the palm to die rapidly, but the enormous energy gained from absorbing the heat allows the cells to regenerate at an extremely fast rate.

The changes accelerated, and before long Yu Zhun drew his dagger, dug through the lava in front of him, and continued to extend the passage he had created, heading deeper into the lava.

One hundred meters...two hundred meters...three hundred meters!

Yu Zhun's body was getting closer and closer to the flowing magma beneath the lava layer, and the bright light in the darkness was getting closer and closer to him.

Ultimately, the passage opened by Yu Zhun traversed the entire lava layer.

The high-pressure magma instantly engulfed his body. The terrifying temperature made Yu Zhun unable to help but let out a painful roar. The power of the mutation erupted completely at this moment. While his body was suffering terrible burns, it was also transforming at an extremely fast speed.

Yu Zhun didn't know how much time had passed, until the magma covering his body had solidified into lava, before he felt the pain gradually subside.

"Click——"

"Click——"

A cracking sound came from the lava. In the flowing magma, the lava finally broke apart, and Yu Zhun, having completed his transformation, once again faced the magma.

This time, however, the temperature of the magma was tolerable for him.

Fourth tier!

Under extreme mutation, the combined effect of the mutation inducer and the special gene drug reached its limit, allowing Yu Zhun's body to evolve further.

Before he could even feel his newfound power, Yu Zhun closed his eyes and struggled to swim through the lava, while simultaneously pushing his other senses to their limits.

He was going to find something hidden in the ruins within the lava!

Soon, Yu Zhun's expression changed slightly.

Amidst the complex fluctuations in the magma, he sensed a very unusual fluctuation, which prompted him to swim faster in that direction.

Close, closer!

When he was only a step away from the fluctuation, Yu Zhun suddenly flicked his hand and grabbed it. Feeling the feedback from his palm, his expression froze slightly.

A...

key?

Is this the secret hidden in the ruins of the Roland mining area?

He had some doubts, but the unusual fluctuations on the key couldn't be faked.

This should be it.

With a firm resolve, Yu Zhun put the key away and returned in the direction he had come from.

However, halfway there, Yu Zhun suddenly felt as if he had been hit hard in the waist by an iron hammer, and his whole body instantly lost control in the lava.

what is that? !

Yu Zhun's heart sank, and as he struggled to regain his balance, he drew his dagger.

Inside the magma, he couldn't open his eyes to see anything and could only rely on his other senses to perceive his surroundings. The attack just now had left him completely unaware.

"hiss--"

A deep hiss came from the magma, and then a huge creature appeared in Yu Zhun's perception.

It was a monster that looked somewhat like a fish, with a body length of four or five meters, swimming calmly in the lava as if it were swimming in water.

The other party was now approaching him directly.

Without a doubt, this monster, which has most likely lived here since its birth, can not only move freely in the lava, but also pinpoint its location.

Trouble!
Yu Zhun's heart grew increasingly heavy.

He had never considered the possibility of mutated beasts existing in the magma.

The aura emanating from the opponent had already reached the fourth level.

This is a fourth-tier mutated beast whose age is unknown.

He had just reached the fourth level by sheer chance.

The strength of the two sides is not proportional.

But since the other party had already regarded him as prey, there was no room for maneuver.

In the magma, the two sides faced off for a moment. Suddenly, the strange fish swung its tail and its entire body shot towards Yu Zhun like a cannonball.

coming!

Yu Zhun gritted his teeth and gripped the dagger tightly in his hand.

Forged from fifth-tier alloy, this dagger, capable of effectively killing even fifth-tier mutated beasts, is his greatest reliance at this moment.

As the two drew near, Yu Zhun, relying on his instincts, thrust his sword fiercely towards what appeared to be the opponent's eye.

As the dagger pierced the other's body, Yu Zhun was also violently struck by the other's massive body. He felt as if he had been hit head-on by a large truck. His chest ached, and several of his ribs broke instantly. He was sent flying dozens of meters through the lava like a kite with a broken string before he finally came to his senses.

The new ability to absorb heat energy took effect immediately, and a massive amount of energy surged into Yu Zhun's body, rapidly repairing his injuries.

Yu Zhun slowly lowered his hand from his chest and focused all his attention on sensing the direction of the strange fish.

The strange fish was now acting like a madman, swimming wildly in the lava, stirring up terrifying waves, and occasionally letting out furious hisses.

As Yu Zhun sensed the past, the strange fish once again locked onto his location and charged towards him at an even faster speed than before.

Did that attack miss its vital point...?

Yu Zhun secretly regretted it, while gripping his dagger tightly.

Then go ahead!

(End of this chapter)