Chapter 4: The Mysterious Magic Bead

  All that can be seen is a short distance away from him, on a rocky wall, there is a black hole, which looks like a small cave, about one meter above the ground.

  Whether this small cave can help him escape, Xiao Hong doesn't know, but with a glance at the distance of less than 20 meters from the lava flow, continuing to run will be swallowed by the lava in a few seconds, and he will definitely die! Entering the small cave, there might still be a thread of life.

  Without hesitation, Xiao Hong quickly stepped forward a few steps and then took a lifetime leap, like a light and agile big lynx cat, with one jump, he drilled into the cave.

  Then he clasped his head in both hands, closed his eyes tightly and curled up in a small cave, waiting for death.

  A few seconds later, Xiao Hong slightly opened his eyes and subconsciously touched his body, he wasn't dead.

  He stretched out his hand, and swept away the small flames still burning on his shoulder. Xiao Hong carefully turned his head, only to see the scorching lava flowing past the edge of the cave entrance, which was more than a meter high.

  Are you safe?

  Xiao Hong still didn't dare to be certain, because now as long as the lava river rose a little higher, it would ruthlessly flow into the cave and Xiao Hong would also lose his life.

  "Huh?"

  At this moment, Xiao Hong's expression changed, and he suddenly felt that something was not right. The scorching lava outside was flowing continuously, less than two meters away from him, but the small cave where he was located was cold and chilly.

  "What's going on?" Xiao Hong couldn't help but exclaim, and slightly adjusted the light magic pattern on his forehead. With the light, he took a glance around, finding himself in a small cave of about six square meters. The dark walls were dotted with tiny ice particles that sparkled transparently.

  "Here, how can there possibly be ice?" Xiao Hong couldn't help but exclaim, considering the outside temperature was already approaching a thousand degrees, it was impossible for ice to form in such an environment, this defied common sense.

  "Huh, what's this?" Xiao Hong suddenly noticed that on the ground of the small cave, two unremarkable beads were scattered about. One was dark blue and the other was dark green, roughly the size of a winter jujube. Reflecting the light, one could still see the extremely fine patterns on each bead.

  He picked up the two beads and Xiao Hong examined them carefully, confirming that they were indeed carved with mysterious patterns. However, based on his current knowledge of magic patterns, he couldn't decipher their meaning, only sensing that they were extremely profound and sinister. As for the material used to make the beads themselves, it was a kind of opaque crystal.

  Even if he had read a wide range of books and had a thorough understanding of the loadstone, Xiao Hong still couldn't identify it, which sparked his great interest.

  Just as Xiao Hong was carefully studying the two magic beads in his hand, a sudden flash of vigilance crossed Xiao Hong's face. Looking again at the scorching lava river, it suddenly rose slightly higher, and a rolling hot lava flow overflowed into the small cave.

  Before Xiao Hong could react, the scorching lava and shattered ice merged together. With a hissing sound, billows of white smoke burst out. After the smoke cleared, the lava that had poured into the cave had solidified into black rocks, once again raising the entrance to form a natural dam.

  "This......" Xiao Hong was stunned for a moment, just a few small pieces of fragmented ice, could actually cool down a large cluster of scorching hot magma, this was too unbelievable.

  He naturally put two magic beads into his pocket, and then Xiao Hong scraped off a pea-sized ice block from the wall. He held it tightly in his hand, feeling cool, and found that the ice block didn't melt quickly, only melting a little bit.

  Xiao Hong's fingers moved suddenly, and he threw the pea-sized ice cube directly into the magma.

  Boom!

  After a dull, muffled sound, a two-meter-diameter black rock suddenly solidified in the rolling lava river and flowed downstream before starting to melt again.

  Witnessing this scene, Xiao Hong was already full of doubt. He thought he had read all kinds of books and wasn't a scholar, but at the very least, he should be someone who understood common sense things like the back of his hand.

  However, everything at present is beyond his explanation, and it can even be said that it does not conform to scientific common sense.

  Logically speaking, to achieve this effect, only the legendary thousand-year-old ancient ice should be able to do it. However, assuming that what's here is indeed thousand-year-old ancient ice, just one second of its chill would be enough to turn oneself into an ice sculpture. Yet, the cave I'm currently in is merely slightly chilly.

  Such a phenomenon made Xiao Hong puzzled again, and he took out two mysterious magic beads once more. Xiao Hong examined them for a moment.

  "Could it be that this strange ice and these two pearls are related?" Xiao Hong muttered to himself, his mind full of question marks.

  What's going on? Xiao Hong's mind kept repeating this sound.

  Xiao Hong had also been studying for three hours in the cave and got nothing.

  At this time, the height of the lava river has dropped a lot, and only strips of lava streams are flowing in the tunnels.

  After glancing at the time, Xiao Hong knew he had to leave as soon as possible. If the fourth layer of heat burst out, he wouldn't be able to escape today. Although this place seemed safe, who knows what would happen next? He had to leave quickly, but the ground was still scorching hot. Cautiously, he threw a small piece of cloth into the mine shaft, and it instantly caught fire.

  If this person stands up, he will be roasted directly.

  "We have to think of a way to leave here as soon as possible, otherwise it will be too late." Xiao Hong muttered to himself, his brain spinning wildly.

  Suddenly, a bright light flashed across Xiao Hong's stern eyes, and he quickly turned around to look at the shattered ice on the wall, his pupils rapidly rotating in their sockets.

  Then, carefully put the two mysterious magic beads into his pocket, then took off the cloth bag from his waist, poured out the white ash, and started collecting the broken ice on the wall into the cloth bag.

  After a brief ten or so minutes, the burlap sack was filled with a mixture of crushed ice and mud.

  Standing at the entrance of the cave, Xiao Hong took out a small handful of crushed ice and threw it directly onto the mine road.

  Rustle.

  A cold voice faded away, and a wisp of steam rose from somewhere nearby. A piece of cloth was thrown on top again, but it didn't catch fire.

  "It seems to be feasible." Xiao Hong muttered to himself, picked up his things, and jumped accurately to the position of the cloth strip. His feet felt scorching hot, but it was bearable.

  Like this, Xiao Hong walked and scattered ice all the way. After more than ten minutes of walking, when the crushed ice in the cloth bag was about to run out, Xiao Hong finally arrived at the exit of the mine.

  A heat-resistant rope has been burned halfway through and the other half is still hanging in mid-air.

  With a light leap, Yu Liang grabbed one end of the rope, and with the other hand still holding the pickaxe, he continued to dig into the rock. Then, with a familiar flip of his body, Xiao Hong flipped out from the fifth floor.

  "Hiss..." He habitually fell to the ground, let out a long sigh, and in the next moment, Xiao Hong flipped over and got up, because this was the fourth floor, it was still not safe, so Xiao Hong wasn't stupid enough to stay here any longer.

  The journey was relatively smooth, and when they arrived at the exit on the fourth floor, Xiao Hong still used his habitual action to climb up directly from the hole.

  "Huh? Xiao Hong, you're out so early today, I haven't even started placing bets yet." Li Le said, seeing Xiao Hong's disheveled appearance as he crawled out of the exit, blinking his eyes and speaking in a low voice.

  "Hmm." Xiao Hong responded casually, wiped his soot-stained face and walked towards the exit.

  Xu Qing, in the office building, lowered his head to look at the time tattoo and respectfully said to Sang Hongyun: "Sir, three and a half hours have passed, it seems that the kid can't come out, I'm afraid he's dead inside."

  Xu Qing's words were spoken very lightly, without any sign of sympathy or pity, let alone sadness.

  Xiang Hongyun didn't respond, his expression showed no frustration or disappointment. At this moment, he had slowly put on a pair of plain-colored leather gloves, preparing to leave. In his eyes, failure was nothing big deal, just an experiment. As for Sakurai Ishi, it wasn't a big deal either, buying one at a high price would be fine, it's just very troublesome.

  "Huh?"

  Just as Sang Hongyun was about to leave, Xu Qing, who was standing by the window, suddenly let out a surprised cry. Looking out of the window, he saw that from the waist of the mountain, in the mining cave, a figure with disheveled hair and soot all over his body, slowly crawled out of the mine shaft, although looking quite bedraggled, but seemingly without major injuries.

  "It... actually... came out." Looking at Xiao Hong, who was in a sorry state, walking slowly towards this side, Xu Qing pointed to the window and said in surprise, with an expression of incredulity on his face.

  Xiang Yun, who had already given up on Xiao Hong and was preparing to leave, looked at Xiao Hong walking towards her step by step. Her calm expression, like still water, moved slightly.

  Although he had thought that Xiao Hong could succeed before, in Sang Hongyun's eyes, it was a completely desperate situation. Seeing Xiao Hong walking quickly towards this side, it was clear that he had already succeeded, otherwise his footsteps wouldn't have looked so urgent.

  Xiao Hong is now naturally impatient, with only a day and a half left of his three-day life. Along the way, he can already feel the pain again, and his throat is also sore and salty. He no longer has time to waste.

  Entering the office building, he quickly went up to the third floor. Xiao Hongke didn't have time for any pleasantries and directly pushed open the door, walking in.

  At this moment, Sang Hongyun sat upright in front of the office desk, with a pair of white leather gloves placed aside. Compared to his previous icy expression, there was now a hint of warmth that seemed almost imperceptible.

  "Did you succeed?" Sang Hongyun slightly sized up Xiao Hong's disheveled appearance and said softly.

  Xiao Hong didn't hesitate, and directly pulled out the original stone of Sakurai Ishi from the tattered pocket of his outer garment. The piece in the center was damaged, but it was still emitting a pale green glow.

  "One hand holds the stone, one hand holds the pattern." Xiao Hong said, stretching out the hand holding the cherry blossom stone in front of Sang Hongyun.

  Sang Hongyun's expression remained calm and peaceful, he didn't pay much attention to Xiao Hong's slightly rough behavior. For people who were about to die in order to survive, they all looked like this, he had seen too many of them, whether it was a high-ranking official or a beggar on the side of the road.

  Slowly getting up, he took over the Sakuraishi stone, his slender hand lightly stroking it, a flash of splendor flashed by, this was to distinguish the authenticity of the Sakuraishi stone through the strong driving force in his body.

  A moment later, a faint and subtle smile flashed across Sang Hongyun's face: "The color is pretty good, well done."

  After that, Sang Hongyun kept his promise and slowly took out the stop Tong medicine magic pattern from his sleeve pocket and put it in Xiao Hong's hand. Then he said softly: "Enjoy a good year of beautiful time, I guess at this time next year, we won't be able to see each other again."

  As he spoke, Sang Hongyun handed the Sakura stone to his assistant, then put on a pair of white leather gloves and walked slowly towards the door.

  "That's not necessarily true." Xiao Hong suddenly said to Sang Hongyun.

  "There is a kind of person in this world who never dares to face reality, and that might just be you." With that, Sang Hongyun turned around and walked away slowly.

  These words were a blow to him, but also ignited Xiao Hong's strong desire to survive!