Misty Rain of the Old Times

As Chen Xuan quietly observed, the Crimson Flame Tiger, which was eating, paused and suddenly looked up to scan its surroundings. Its huge eyes resembled two crimson fireballs, and there was still uneaten meat in its terrifying mouth. It let out a low growl, and the air seemed to hum and tremble.

At the same time, fiery red flames rose from its body, scorching and distorting the air in a large area, causing the temperature to rise sharply, the humid environment to dry rapidly, and the fire that had been gradually extinguished to burn fiercely again, threatening to spread like wildfire.

Temperatures in this area are rising rapidly, causing air currents to surge, fog to billow, and strong winds to howl.

As the king of beasts, it is feared by all living beings, let alone this Crimson Flame Tiger, a beast comparable to a top-tier innate expert. Its terrifying aura rose without reservation, making the creatures in the originally quiet fog in a large area uneasy. Birds flew away in fright, and beasts ran away.

'Such keen intuition! I've tried my best to conceal my presence, and although it didn't detect me, it still instinctively sensed being watched. No wonder it's a beast living deep within the Misty Swamp; if it didn't even have this much vigilance, it probably wouldn't have survived this long.'

Seeing the Crimson Flame Tiger's wary posture, Chen Xuan was speechless and remained unmoved.

As he expected, the Crimson Flame Tiger scanned its surroundings for a moment but found nothing unusual, and its restless aura subsided slightly.

But it didn't continue eating. Instead, it picked up the half-eaten gorilla carcass and quickly left the area. Its massive body, along with the gorilla carcass, moved without making much noise. It truly lived up to its reputation as a feline, a natural hunter.

'They're so vigilant! Even without noticing anything unusual, they still chose to leave without hesitation. I should learn from that behavior,' Chen Xuan thought with admiration, feeling that nature had taught him a good lesson.

Without hesitation, he quietly followed. No matter how sharp the Crimson Flame Tiger's movements were, Chen Xuan wouldn't lose sight of such a large target even with his eyes closed.

Following closely behind, where it appeared, creatures retreated. Chen Xuan didn't forget to remember the direction, as he still needed to reach the core area.

After more than ten minutes, Chen Xuan followed it through the thick fog for hundreds of miles until they arrived at the depths of a lush island, where there was a natural cave about ten feet high at the foot of a mountain.

This must be the lair of the Crimson Flame Tiger. It clearly frequents this place often, as the edges of the rocky cave have been worn smooth, and there are countless animal remains around, some of which were recently discarded.

Logically, such an environment should have teeming with maggots, but there were none at all. After a little thought, Chen Xuan understood that the aura occasionally emitted by the Crimson Flame Tiger's lair was terrifyingly hot, and how could tiny maggots possibly survive in such an environment?

After carrying the gorilla's carcass into the cave, the Crimson Tiger did not come out again, continuing to bury itself in its food. Chen Xuan vaguely sensed that it had not let its guard down.

Observing it from the shadows, its lair was hundreds of feet deep, spacious inside, and without any side passages.

However, to Chen Xuan's disappointment, there was no trace of fire copper around. Even when he probed his true essence hundreds of feet underground, he could not feel any changes in the high temperature caused by the presence of fire copper.

'Could I be wrong? That shouldn't be the case; Crimson Flame Tigers wouldn't live in dark, damp environments at all.'

While Chen Xuan hesitated, the gorilla's corpse was almost entirely swallowed by the Crimson Flame Tiger. Only a small portion, such as teeth and skull, was discarded. Despite eating such a large gorilla, its size did not change much. As a strange beast, it probably digested part of it while eating.

The Crimson Tiger, seemingly having eaten its fill, lay down in the cave and began to doze off lazily.

'I can't sense the presence of fire copper around me. Could this Crimson Flame Tiger be an exception?'

With a flicker of thoughts, Chen Xuan still had his own purpose. Since he didn't have any Fire Copper, he was considering whether to leave quietly or to "discuss" with the Crimson Flame Tiger to use it as a temporary mount for a ride.

He quickly noticed something amiss. The Crimson Flame Tiger, seemingly relaxed, had its ears perked up and constantly adjusting their direction. Upon noticing this, Chen Xuan knew perfectly well that the creature was faking it. It hadn't let its guard down at all. Its paranoia was quite severe, but to be honest, its intuition was truly terrifying.

'A creature's habits are ingrained in its genes and don't change so easily, so this is probably not the Crimson Flame Tiger's true lair. It seems to have multiple burrows. Although it didn't detect my presence, its instincts sensed something was wrong, and it won't relax completely so easily.'

Thinking of this, Chen Xuan stopped secretly watching it and chose to quietly retreat. He realized that this was not the true lair of the Crimson Flame Tiger, and Chen Xuan would not give up the large amount of fire copper. Now it was up to their patience.

More than ten miles away from the area where the Crimson Flame Tiger was entrenched, Chen Xuan lay in wait, not paying attention to that area, but silently observing the changes in the airflow from the side.

With Chen Xuan's great patience, nearly three hours passed. He had followed the Crimson Flame Tiger in the morning, and now it was afternoon. At a certain moment, he had a sudden thought and sensed the change in the airflow caused by the Crimson Flame Tiger's departure. He realized that he had guessed correctly.

After a while, once the changes in the air currents in the distance had subsided, he quietly returned to the previous lair. Sure enough, the Crimson Flame Tiger was no longer there.

'I didn't even have lunch because of this. If I don't get anything out of this, it won't be petting a cat. You'll get a few big wads of cash.' Hmph to himself, Chen Xuan stopped focusing on the Crimson Flame Tiger itself and instead followed the trail it had taken.

Pay attention to the Crimson Flame Tiger. It will be on alert instinctively, but it is too big. No matter how light its movements are, it will leave traces wherever it goes. Chen Xuan followed the traces and traveled around for hundreds of miles. Then his eyes lit up and he thought to himself that his efforts had not been in vain.

The surrounding area was still shrouded in thick fog, even thicker than in other places. Chen Xuan could clearly feel the temperature change; the further he went, the higher the temperature became.

In areas where temperatures have just started to rise, despite the fact that it is autumn and everything is withering, the vegetation is unusually lush and even in full bloom.

As they continued to move forward, the temperature continued to rise, and the vegetation gradually became sparse until the dry ground was barren and even became scorching hot.

Stopping in his tracks, Chen Xuan looked ahead. In the thick fog, he could vaguely see a large mountain. Although there were no flames rising, it was extremely hot. The high temperature caused air currents to surge and strong winds to blow, and the scalding fog rolled endlessly.

If an ordinary person came here, let alone survive two breaths in the high temperature, they would not be able to stand steadily even in the rapidly flowing air.

In such an environment, let alone humans, 99% of the world's creatures could not survive.

In the mountains, Chen Xuan sensed the aura of the Crimson Flame Tiger from before, realizing that this was its true lair.

With such drastic temperature changes, there is no doubt that there is copper ore underground. Chen Xuan, who has personally come into contact with copper, is absolutely certain of this, and this is even a very large copper ore vein!

Given the value of copper ore, it's unimaginable how much this vein could be worth. If we were to calculate it at market price, it would probably be more than enough to buy an entire country. Of course, that's not how it works. Even the most precious things only have value when they're in the right hands; otherwise, they're not as practical as a piece of bread.

What surprised Chen Xuan even more was that, in addition to the Crimson Flame Tiger from before, he also sensed three other similar auras. One of them was slightly weaker than the previous Crimson Flame Tiger, while the other two were negligible in comparison.

'This is its real lair, and it's home to a family of four.'

Chen Xuan quickly understood why the Crimson Flame Tiger had been so cautious. It didn't want to return here just because it instinctively felt something was wrong. Instead, it ran to another place to make sure everything was alright before going home. It was definitely worried about bringing danger to its cubs.

Protecting one's offspring is an innate instinct of all living things, and the mythical beast Crimson Flame Tiger is no exception.

Now that he was here, Chen Xuan saw no need to hide anymore. Although he had confirmed that there was a sizable copper mine here, he still wanted to see it for himself.

Fire copper has many uses, not just for forging array flags and alchemy furnaces. It is a rare energy source in itself. Coal still needs to be burned, but it emits amazing heat all the time. With this fire copper mine, Chen Xuan can squander it for a period of time.

The reason it's only for a period of time is because as one's cultivation level increases, and if one were to further advance to the Tribulation Transcending Realm, such things would become less useful.

After taking a quick look around, Chen Xuan gazed at the raging, scorching, and fog-shrouded mountains ahead. With a flick of his sleeve, as if an invisible hand had swept across the land for more than ten miles, the rolling fog spread outwards like a tide. Soon, the world was cleared, and the sunlight shone down, allowing the sun to shine through once more.

Back in Jinxia County, he could push away the clouds over dozens of miles of sky, let alone the fog here.

When the fog cleared, a dark mountain hundreds of meters high appeared in front of him. There was no firelight, but the air around the mountain was distorted by the high temperature. There were no plants or animals, not even a hair. Only scalding dust was scattered by the hot air currents.

At the foot of the mountain was a cave seven or eight zhang high, with a faint red light flickering inside. Chen Xuan looked into the depths of the cave, where cracks occasionally appeared on the smooth, black rock walls, which were covered in a crimson color, like flowing lava. That was unmined and unrefined copper ore.

'If I had known that the Misty Swamp contained not only White Cloud Wood but also Fire Copper Ore, why would I have bothered with all that trouble? Wouldn't it have been better to just come here? And most likely no one would have spoken up for the Wu family anyway.'

In a flash of thought, Chen Xuan's gaze met eight eyes inside the cave: two crimson tigers, each about ten feet long, and two 'little tigers', each about ten feet long.

The difference was that when the two larger ones noticed Chen Xuan, flames erupted from their bodies, and they charged out with fierce and ferocious roars, while the two smaller ones watched curiously with their tiger-like heads, making cute but fierce sounds in their throats.

Perhaps it was the inviolable majesty of the king of beasts, or perhaps it was to protect the cubs, but the male tiger that 'brought' Chen Xuan here launched an attack directly, while the female tiger guarded the entrance, her tail blocking the two tiger cubs behind her.

...(End of chapter)