Chapter 440: The Terrifying Big Red Face

The long night stretched endlessly, filled with unbearable loneliness.

Everyone was idle and decided to stay at the hotel, eating, drinking, chatting, and laughing joyfully.

Several more groups arrived at the hotel. One group consisted of thirteen Tibetans, each carrying a Tibetan knife at their waist, their expressions fierce and menacing. They sat at the round table repaired by the old man, drinking and feasting. With his spiritual sense, Shui Miao detected that half of them were wearing red-robed monk garments beneath their Tibetan attire.

In other words, they were actually red-robed monks disguised as ordinary Tibetans.

There were also two groups of European guests. Shui Miao couldn’t understand their language and had no idea which countries they were from.

The old man was a shrewd businessman. Soon, the hotel was packed with people again. The lobby manager, whom he had sent to the Public Security Bureau to assist with the previous fight case, had returned. The foreigners had paid compensation, and the female waitress was left behind by the foreigner involved, causing a big scene. She and the group of troublemakers who had fought over the money were detained. In fact, the old man had quite an extensive network of connections—at the very least, the police at the bureau were on his side. However, he didn’t want any trouble, so he tried to accommodate Shui Miao as much as possible.

※※※

The next morning, seven o’clock. The sky was a deep blue, as if freshly washed with clear water, and there wasn’t a breath of wind. Today was destined to be an excellent day for a mountain expedition.

From the small town, cars couldn’t move forward even a single step, so everyone had to walk.

Many people carried backpacks and climbing gear, but Shui Miao had nothing at all in his hands.

“Brother, you didn’t bring any survival supplies? You can’t do that. The mountains are unpredictable and full of dangers. At the very least, you should bring some clothes, a tent, and food,” said Li Guo, nicknamed “the Fat Guy,” who was carrying a large backpack and holding two big bags. Seeing that Shui Miao had nothing, he hurried over to warn him kindly.

Shui Miao smiled faintly, “Thank you for your reminder, but I don’t need those things.”

“Tch!”

Zhang Yuan, standing not far away, shook his head with a cold laugh and loudly said to Yao Jian, “Brother Yao, I only brought the essentials for two days—I don’t have any extras to share with anyone!” Zhang Yuan was convinced that Shui Miao just wanted to slack off and live off others, so he made his position clear in advance to avoid future disputes.

Yao Jian, equipped with essentials and holding a rope, approached Shui Miao, “Little Brother, are you really going to bring nothing at all?”

“I don’t need those things. Let’s not talk about it anymore. You don’t need to worry about me—I’ll go ahead first. If needed, I will come to help you.”

Seeing many groups already setting off, Shui Miao didn’t want to waste any more time lingering.

He turned and ran, moving very quickly.

“What kind of person is he anyway?” Yao Jian became increasingly puzzled by Shui Miao. “Hey, did you hear that? He said he’s going to help us. Did my ears deceive me? What exactly does he think he’s doing?”

“Hmph! I think he’s just showing off. Someone like him will surely freeze to death on the mountain tonight. Brother Yao, you’d better call your friend Su Xue right away and tell her this guy is crazy. If anything happens, it won’t be our fault,” Zhang Yuan was only thinking of distancing himself and avoiding trouble.

However, Li Guo, the fat guy, said, “Brother Yao, maybe I should carry some extra food, just in case?”

“Yeah, try to bring some. I’ll call Su Xue right now.”

Yao Jian dialed Su Xue’s number and told her the situation.

Su Xue was shocked and immediately informed Yao Jian that Shui Miao had terminal cancer and that he had gone up the mountain to die. She urged Yao Jian to stop him immediately. But by then, Shui Miao had already run out of sight.

Both Su Xue and Yao Jian tried calling Shui Miao, but his phone was out of power—it had shut down automatically the previous night.

Yao Jian then told everyone that Shui Miao had cancer. Upon hearing this, Zhang Yuan immediately shouted, “Oh man! I knew something was off about him! This is exactly why! No way—we must call the police immediately, or he might get us involved too!”

“I think we should chase after him and bring him back!” Li Guo said anxiously.

Zhang Yuan immediately waved his hands, “No, no! He has multiple cancers and even AIDS! If we get infected, we’re done for!”

“We have no choice—we have to call the police.”

Yao Jian sighed. He never expected such a bizarre situation to arise so early in the morning. It was truly unexpected and unbelievable.

※※※

Shui Miao activated his Wind-Control Technique, moving at an incredible speed, dashing forward rapidly.

Although he couldn’t walk on snow without leaving footprints, each step he took on the snow was about half as heavy as a normal person’s.

Late last night, Shui Miao had visited the old man from the restaurant again, using his spiritual sense to learn the entrance to the cave. Therefore, he couldn’t wait any longer. Lingering around with the group might delay finding the cave indefinitely. Of course, Shui Miao had his reasons for being in such a hurry. He had absorbed yin energy from the earth veins the previous night, and his body was now icy cold. He wanted to enter the cave, find other types of earth-vein spiritual energy, absorb and cultivate it. Perhaps he could even refine immortal energy, open the immortal gate in his spiritual realm, and explore the immortal realm.

Previously, Shui Miao had cultivated immortal energy using only ordinary spiritual energy.

Now, he was using earth-vein spiritual energy, even purer than sacred spiritual energy. Once he refined it into immortal energy, its power would be unimaginable.

Only with strength could one have confidence.

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

Moving like the wind, Shui Miao quickly overtook everyone. After almost an hour of continuous running, he finally reached the halfway point of Mount Everest. According to the old man’s memory, the cave entrance was located in a vast snowy area. However, now everything was covered in snow, a pure white expanse, without a hint of any other color.

This didn’t stop Shui Miao. He spread his spiritual sense and easily located the cave entrance beneath the snow.

However, the cave was located on a steep cliff, requiring climbing to access.

Just as Shui Miao was preparing to climb barehanded, he suddenly heard an explosion!

What was going on?

He quickly tried to sense the source, but detected nothing. From the sound, it seemed to come from the south and was quite far away. The southern side of the mountain had thinner snow cover and was within Nepal. Perhaps someone was climbing from the Nepalese side, and the explosion was from man-made blasting equipment. Maybe the Nepalese were trying to build a transit station on the mountain?

Shui Miao had no time to deal with such matters. He immediately activated his spiritual energy and began climbing.

Under the effect of spiritual energy, Shui Miao was as light as a swallow and as agile as a monkey, easily climbing into the cave entrance.

To prevent others from discovering it, Shui Miao intentionally used spiritual energy to form an ice gate at the cave entrance, making it not only hard to find but also extremely sturdy. The rock crevices inside the mountain were long and winding, sometimes narrow, sometimes steep, sometimes vertically downward. Shui Miao saw through the darkness as if it were daylight, continuing forward along the crevices.

About two hours later, the air became increasingly thin, and the cold yin energy grew stronger. Shui Miao stopped for the first time to rest.

“Could I have taken the wrong path?”

He couldn’t help feeling uncertain, because he had encountered several crossroads on his way down. The thinning air didn’t seem right. If this were the correct route, how could the old man and others breathe normally?

To avoid unnecessary detours, Shui Miao sat down on the spot and spread his spiritual sense to explore.

Suddenly, he detected a patch of white stones, about ten square meters in size, exposed in the crevice a hundred meters or so below his current position. He guessed there must be a large amount of cold yin energy inside.

Without hesitation, Shui Miao hurried downward.

However, upon seeing the white stones, he hesitated again. His body already had plenty of water and yin elemental spiritual energy. Absorbing more of these two types into his dantian would be tantamount to suicide. Moreover, the stones were huge—impossible to handle directly. If he could find some smaller pieces, he could store them in his Sacred Yuan Ring first.

Shui Miao spread his spiritual sense again, this time intentionally trying to determine the actual size of the white stones. As he sensed through the stones, he was shocked to discover that this white stone was as massive as a mountain, and it became even larger the deeper he sensed!

So much—using his Spirit Devouring Power to refine it, it would take a thousand years to finish!

Unfortunately, all he could find here were stones of this type.

Since he had come this far, he decided to keep searching—he might still find stones of other attributes.

Shui Miao wasn’t discouraged and planned to go back and explore other passages.

Before leaving, however, he wanted to chip off a piece of white stone to store in his Sacred Yuan Ring.

He took out his horned curved knife to pry off a piece, but to his surprise, the stone was harder than steel and impossible to cut.

Recalling that even the old man couldn’t break it with a hammer, he scolded himself for being a fool for trying with a knife. He then used his Spirit Devouring Power to enter the stone, attempting to extract some spiritual energy. However, as soon as his power touched the stone, its surface turned gray, and all the spiritual energy within it seemed to flee on its own!

“What the hell? Are the spiritual energies inside these stones alive?”

Shui Miao felt his scalp tingling, unsure of what to do.

According to the old man’s memory, he had picked up a broken piece, but here there were no broken pieces—only super-sized ones.

With no choice, Shui Miao left.

After nearly two more hours, Shui Miao explored another branch passage and discovered another stone. This time it was different. The stone he found was golden yellow, exactly the same color as gold. However, with his spiritual sense, he detected that it wasn’t gold but a massive stone containing metal-element spiritual energy. There were many such golden yellow stones in this area. It didn’t take him long to find a stone of moderate size and directly place it into his Sacred Yuan Ring.

Shui Miao firmly believed that there must be stones of other attributes deep within the mountain, so he continued searching.

After another two hours, climbing upward through a crevice, Shui Miao finally discovered numerous stones as red as blood. These stones were extremely hot; even without using his spiritual sense, he could feel the intense fire-element spiritual energy radiating from them. Carefully searching, he finally found a red stone about the size of a table.

It was large, but his Spirit Devouring Power could barely envelop it.

There were no smaller pieces available.

Thus, Shui Miao sat down, activated his Spirit Devouring Power, and directly surrounded the red rock.

“Crack!”

“Crack…”

But immediately afterward, strange sounds began to arise. This cracking sound was like the stone breaking apart. It also sounded like the clashing of a giant’s teeth.

Even stranger, the place was getting hotter and hotter. Each breath felt like inhaling fire.

Shui Miao divided his focus, continuing to control his Spirit Devouring Power to refine the fire-element energy within the stone while looking around cautiously. As he looked, he suddenly noticed a terrifying, snarling face appearing on a large red stone… Yes, it was a face—a giant red face of a monster, bright red and horrifying!