Discovery

Adonis woke up and saw the green earthen roof of the cavern he was trapped in. It took him a few seconds to remember what had happened. Luckily, he didn't suffer too many injuries during the fight.

"Ow...my back is still killing me..."

Adonis felt pain across his body since it had been slammed hard into the cavern wall.

"Uhh...you think I'd be used to pain at this point..."

Adonis forced himself up on his feet and looked around the cavern.

He saw the fissures covering the ground, the damage to the walls, and the corpses of his assailants. He also noticed one more thing.

"I'm naked..."

Adonis was immune to any of his fire, but his clothes weren't. He looked at the robes of the corpses and decided he would take them, after all, it was not like their gonna use them.

Adonis looted the two corpses that were still mostly intact and looked at the new entrance on the other end of the cavern.

"This entrance must've opened and that was not only the sound we heard, but also where those guys came from."

Adonis entered the new entrance and it was a long path. Despite that, Adonis moved slowly and was using his senses to the max to make sure he doesn't get ambushed for the third time.

He eventually reached the other end, and the first thing he saw was the mana-filled lake that was meant to be a rest point.

Adonis was surprised by this but also decided to go in it. Even though Adonis didn't have mana, the water was still very clean and relaxing. Adonis jumped into the lake and still had his senses on.

"Ahhh, this is amazing...!!"

Adonis was again surprised when due to his senses, he found something weird.

Adonis's senses were far sharper than most Refinement Stage cultivators due to his Anima. He had sensed multiple holes in the lake. He felt most of the holes bring in more water from the outside, filling the lake. But one hole, seemed out of the ordinary, as it was draining water somewhere deeper. Adonis was naturally curious, so he wanted to figure this out.

"Hmm...maybe if I send a little jolt of lightning down there, I could find out where it's going."

During his training, Adonis had not only learned to control his fire more but also his lightning, so he can do small stuff like this.

Adonis dived deeper into the lake and found the hole. He sent a jolt of electricity through it and used his senses to follow its energy. Adonis expanded his senses to follow it. Although his sharp senses would lose detail, he only needed to follow the lightning energy.

The lightning eventually fell fast and dissipated when it hit the ground. Adonis's senses had found a new path that was never discovered under the lake. Adonis didn't know how to react as his team searched everywhere but found nothing of this path.

He wondered how to get down to it and decided to follow the path to its entrance. Adonis walked slowly with his senses on high as he didn't want to lose the path. However, when Adonis was following the path, he reached the rubble blocking the way. Adonis didn't know how long the path went on and if he had enough Anima to continuously break the rubble till he got to the entrance.

He decided to go with plan B, which was to destroy the ground until he eventually got to it. Adonis returned to the lake, used his ki to jump to the roof, launch off it, and used 'Flame Pillar' to destroy the ground once he got near it. He continuously did that many times over.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

Each explosion got closer to the path until the ceiling of the path got blown apart and a human fell into it.

Adonis was breathing heavily due to using too much Anima.

Adonis leaned against the wall and focused on going to his soul domain.

.

.

.

After an hour,

Adonis returned to the real world and felt refreshed, "Ok, now time to see what this new path has got."

Adonis looked to the left and saw the path being covered in a bronze coating, and to the right is the ground littered with broken animal bones.

"To the left it is!"

Adonis walked to the left till he reached a dead end and the wall of covered in complete bronze with no cracks or weak points.

Adonis tried to break through, but couldn't even make a scratch in the bronze.

"Who was able to make a wall this sturdy?! And for what reason?"

Adonis remembered back to the path filled with bones and knew that it must be such a terrifying beast that the person who did this felt it was needed.

"Welp...no choice but the right then..."

Adonis walked back and traveled the right path and as he walked further more bones appeared. Needless to say, Adonis felt a bit of fear as he got closer.

When he reached the end, he saw a giant cavern with huge piles of bones scattered across the ground. Adonis carefully avoided walking on the bones and looked past the pile of bones in front of him.

A lion with a void black mane, light gray fur, and blood-red eyes was seen curling around a bright white flower that has yet to bloom. The lion looked malnourished but didn't seem bothered by it, as if the flower is all it needs.

Adonis was shocked to see this especially since the lion was also huge. Not only that but when he saw the bud, he guessed that that was the 'Horizon Flower' because he sensed mana constantly gathering around the flower.

Adonis was amazed but knew that getting the flower from the lion would be more difficult than the ambushes he encountered before.

Adonis decided to go back and find another way back, but the lion took a deep breath in and smelled the ash on Adonis's robes.

The lion immediately stood on its legs and sent a dark energy blast from its mouth to the wall above the entrance. Adonis didn't expect this and when the dark ball crashed into the walls it caused a lot of rubble to fall and block the entrance.

Adonis was gonna use his ki and 'Flame Pillar' to break through, but the roar of the lion was so strong the piles of bones that he was near him blew into him, causing a few sharp pieces to stab into him.

"ERGH!"

Adonis used his ki to increase his durability and tank the rest of the bones. Adonis looked straight at the lion and the lion was staring at Adonis with its furious blood-red eyes. There was only one thing Adonis could think of at the moment.

'NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN!!!'