The Legendary F Rank

Chapter 194: Underwater Caves.

The sounds of splashing water as Haru got out of the lake was almost as if a sea monster had just risen with his constant yelling and complaining about what happened. 

"You did that on purpose didn't you!? You knew that I would fall if you distracted me" Haru accused Li Jun as he sat at the edge of the Lake and watched Haru crawl out with water pouring down from his hair and his clothes sticking to his body.

"Oh lighten up a little bit. You have become too serious recently. I feel like you will face a great challenge soon." Li Jun smiled as he warned Haru.

"A great challenge? Yeah right And how did you come to that conclusion?" Haru asked, still mad at him for making him take a dip in the water.

"Oh, no reason. It's just a feeling." He said with a smile and watched as Haru frowned before using the heat from the phoenix flame to dry out his clothes by boiling just the water and keeping the fabric intact.

"Sure whatever you say. Let's get back to the main reason why we are here. About this dragon body? It's in the volcano right?" Haru asked.

"Yeah, it should be. All you need to do is climb to the top and then descend into it." Li Jun replied before floating up into the air like a ghost in the night. 

"About that volcanoes tend to seal themselves after erupting. The rock cools around the top and solidifies." Haru explained to Li Jun like he was lecturing a child. It wouldn't be as simple as climbing down from the top. If that was the case the last people to come and study the volcanic activity would have found the dragon.

Or even a tourist that is brave enough to climb to the peak. There is no way it would have been kept a secret until now if it didn't seal back up. 

"Hmm? Sealed? There has to be a way inside though." Li Jun said with an inkling that he would be able to find an entrance.

Li Jun closed his eyes for a moment before smiling and then opening them again. 

"I found your way inside the volcano. But I don't think you will like it" He said ominously.

"That fast? Wait what do you mean I won't like it?" Haru asked after seeing the sinister grin form on his teachers face. 

"The only way to get inside is to enter through the underwater cave system. So you had better put on your swimming trunks." He smiled with a slight giggle as he saw the frustration come back to Haru's face. It was true. Haru was becoming more and more easily irritated.

It was a sign of growth but Li Jun couldn't yet tell if it was good or bad. He had a little bit of suspicion that the change in his behaviour was a foreboding of something terrible yet to happen. All living beings were connected with strings of fate that were all intertwined with each other but Li Jun felt there had been a shift in Haru recently. It might have been a sign that his fate had changed.

But he couldn't be sure. To read one's fate he would have to let them connect their hearts together. But Li Jun was lacking a heart in his current form. He was just the fragment of a distant memory and a shattered soul. He wished he could be of more help but he knew that he would have to let his student grow on his own.

"I get it But how do I find these caves? You're going to need to guide me." Haru said before stepping back into the water and walking out until the surface was at his chin. He was determined to get the body back for Lao and Li Jun had no choice but to guide him. 

"Of course I will. Do you think I will just let you go in there on your own? I want to see what it is like too." Li Jun replied and then vanished from the shore and appeared next to Haru.

"Follow me." He said before swiftly disappearing into the water below them both.

"If you surround your body with Qi you could keep yourself dry you know" Li Jun let Haru know.

"Not happening. If I did that I would end up flying into a boulder and rupturing the volcano knowing my luck. I don't want this thing to erupt anytime soon." Haru covered just his head with Qi so he could breathe and talk and see perfectly fine. 

The rest of his body stayed out in the open so he wouldn't accidentally lose control of how much power he was putting into his limbs as he swam through the water. He wanted to make sure that he remained in one piece before they got the body for Lao. 

Li Jun chuckled and then led Haru down into the darkness of the lake before coming across the entrance of what seemed to be one of the caves. By the entrance, there was a huge bolder and what seemed to be an old turtle sat next to it. 

Until they got close enough to the rock to realise what the turtle was. It was about eight feet In length and looked like it had been sculpted out of stone although it was incredibly detailed. Almost too detailed to be a sculpture. 

"Wow. This turtle must have lived for at least a thousand years to grow this big. My guess is that it was living down here and absorbing the Qi coming from the inside of that cave to survive. I wonder how it became covered in stone?" Li Jun said as they approached it. 

"Nevermind the turtle. Can we find the dragon already? I hate this water, it's filthy." Haru said now that they had gotten to the lake bed which was covered in plants and mud that would occasionally float past Haru's face. 

"Fine follow me." Li Jun sighed and then led Haru down into the dark underwater caves. 

Everywhere he looked it was pitch black and he occasionally raised the stone outer wall as he tried to swim. It was difficult to know where he was heading but Li Jun seemed to know exactly where he was heading. He didn't so much as make a wrong turn as they navigated the tunnels. 

The swam for what seemed like hours in the darkness before the water temperature started to rise. That was certainly the right sign that they were heading in the right direction but it was still pitch black. Until they swam for a few more minutes and Haru spotted a faint orange glow hundreds of metres in front of him. 

It was only then that he realised that he was, in fact, swimming up toward the surface. The water was beginning to cool again but it still retained more than enough heat to boil anything that entered it to death. 

It was lucky that Haru was a cultivator or not only would he have drowned during the swim through the tunnels but he also would have been turned into a stew. 

As they broke through the surface the orange light became more vibrant as the reflection of hot magma bounced off from the walls and scattered the light like a lamp.

Haru took a minute to dry his clothes once again before Li Jun looked around. He picked up a little rock from the inside of the cave and then threw it into the lava pool that was flowing next to the surface of the water that they had just come out from. 

The rock hit the surface before combusting into flames and then slowly glowing orange as it was liquified and joined the molten rock that was there before it. 

"We are lucky that we decided to come when we did. If we waited for a few more days then even this entrance would have sealed up. It seems like it is building up to another eruption in the next couple hundred years." Li Jun analysed the situation for a few minutes as Haru turned to see what he was talking about. 

"When did you become an expert on volcanoes? You didn't even know that the peak would have sealed itself back up." Haru laughed at his analysis. But from what he could tell it was the correct assumption to make. It did look like the lava would have flowed over into the pool they had just come from.

If that happened then the pressure would begin to build up within the rocks. If it was left unnoticed then it would eventually erupt.

"Ha, Just a guess. Although we come from different worlds I know about the teachings of your sciences. My homeworld was rather similar to yours." Li Jun opened up for a few moments about his origin but then quickly changed the subject.

"Now how about we find that dragon?" He turned and said with a smile.

Haru nodded his head in agreement. Although he couldn't feel the heat the suffocating scent of sulphur burned the insides of his nose. He would do whatever he could to get out of this place as soon as he could.