Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3333: Finding The Old Mine

Lin Mu took the lead, activating the Longgui Bulwark Armor. Molten cracks appeared along the rock-like plates that formed on his skin, glowing with flowing magma patterns. His footsteps sank slightly into the super-heated ground, but he moved unhindered.

He checked every promising crack or crevice Little Shrubby pointed out.

Some openings were filled entirely with lava and led nowhere.

Others contained pockets of empty space but collapsed immediately or were too narrow for anyone to enter.

And some were simply the result of strange lava flows.

But Lin Mu continued to check them one by one. He walked into lava as if it were warm water. His armor hissed and glowed brighter, but it remained firm. Occasionally he would disappear entirely beneath the molten surface before resurfacing moments later and shaking off fiery droplets like they were harmless raindrops.

"Every time I see him do that," Meng Bai muttered, "I question the world."

Cattaleya nodded. "I question many things, but that one is consistent."

Daoist Chu raised a brow. "Consistency does not make it less absurd."

Lin Mu ignored them and kept examining the cracks.

Hours passed.

The deeper they went, the stronger the Flame Qi became.

Lava falls grew thicker.

The heat became dense enough to distort vision and dull sound. At one point the ground trembled so violently that large chunks of volcanic stone broke off the ravine walls and tumbled into a churning lava pool below.

Meng Bai nearly jumped. "This mountain wants to kill us!"

Lin Mu glanced up. "This is mild."

"That is the problem," Meng Bai said. "You say that is mild."

Almost three hours passed before Lin Mu paused at a particularly massive lava fall.

It was easily one hundred meters wide and ten meters thick. Lava cascaded down in furious waves, shielding whatever lay behind it completely.

Little Shrubby sniffed the air. "It is hollow beyond this one. Very hollow. Deeper than anything we have seen so far."

Elyon nodded. "The old records said the main mining tunnels went downward. If the surface entrance collapsed, the inner chambers might still connect to the ravine."

Lin Mu stepped closer and placed his hand against the falling lava. Even with his protection the temperature was enough to evaporate moisture instantly.

"There is something behind it," Lin Mu confirmed.

Without hesitating, he jumped straight through the lava curtain.

The others waited, tense and ready.

A few seconds later Lin Mu’s voice echoed from behind the molten wall. "I found something. A tunnel. And mining rails."

Meng Bai blinked. "Mining rails? That means this is the old entrance."

"Correct," Lin Mu said. "There is a deep passageway extending downward. It is intact."

Daoist Chu let out a sigh of relief. "Then we finally found it."

Little Shrubby expanded his flames to form a protective shell around the others. The shield warped the falling lava aside, creating a small, safe corridor just large enough for them to pass through.

One by one, they stepped through the molten waterfall.

The heat vanished instantly.

They stood inside a wide tunnel, carved from ancient basalt stone, reinforced by rusted metal beams. Old mining tracks extended into the darkness like the spine of a metal serpent. Faint traces of Metal, and Earth Qi lingered in the stone mixed with Fire energy, suggesting the mine was once full of valuable ores.

Elyon took in the sight with a deep breath. "This is it. We are inside the abandoned mine."

Cattaleya cracked her knuckles. "Good. If dwarves are here, we will find them."

Lin Mu took the lead again, raising his palm as a small orb of Fire qi illuminated the dark corridor.

"Then let us go," he said.

"The Rune Dwarves are somewhere inside this volcano."

"And they are not going to hide forever."

The group began walking into the depths of the ancient mine.

A new adventure awaited them in the volcanic heart of the Granite Crown Kingdom.

They continued deeper into the ancient mine without hesitation. The old mining rails that snaked across the tunnel floor made navigating the winding paths significantly easier. Even in places where the metal had rusted or where the rails had warped from the volcanic heat, they still served as a clear indicator of the mine’s original layout.

Meng Bai jogged ahead a little and crouched near a section of the rail that caught his attention. The group slowed down as he leaned closer, squinting at the faint glow etched into the metal.

"These rails have runes on them," Meng Bai said. His voice held both curiosity and surprise. "Some parts still have formations active. This one is a Qi channeling formation. And that one is a Momentum formation. There are even Braking formations and Acceleration segments."

Daoist Chu approached and narrowed his eyes, his expression growing serious. "These are parts of a full automated transport system. Very old, but very well made. This type of array is used in mines where manual labor is inefficient or dangerous. A handful of cultivators would have been enough to handle the whole mine using these."

"That makes sense," Elyon said while examining another rail piece. "Even if cultivators can store tons of material in spatial tools, there are always risks. Lava, toxic fumes, unstable tunnels. Using arrays instead of sending workers deeper is far safer."

Lin Mu nodded. "But the dwarfs obviously do not use these tracks. If they did, these arrays would still show active cycling patterns. They look dormant or damaged."

Meng Bai thumped the rail lightly. "Looks like they have not used these for centuries if not longer."

Elyon shrugged. "That might be because they do not collect anything from the mine anymore. It is not an active mine. Perhaps they only come here to use the deeper chambers for forging or rune crafting."

"That would explain why so many of these rails have dust and corrosion," Cattaleya added.

With that thought in mind, they continued moving deeper.

The mine’s structure shifted dramatically as they progressed. What began as straight tunnels soon grew into complex networks of branching paths.