Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

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The party crossed the Drifting Sand River safely, and was welcomed by a barren land which felt like it had been scorched by flames.

This was the North Burning Valley, a unique place with lots of mysteries, yet to be fully explored by humans.

The Hunters were spread across many places in the country, and had repeatedly explored most of the relatively famous demon beasts' territories, thus it was quite difficult to find any resources or treasures there.

In comparison, the North Burning Valley was split up into a corner by the giant Drifting Sand River, so not many Magicians managed to arrive in one piece. It was considered a fertile land, with many resources that the Magicians were willing to risk their lives to secure.

The surface area of the North Burning Valley was unknown for now. According to the information Mo Fan had gathered after spending nine million RMB, the Flame Belle was residing in the north area of the North Burning Valley.

The North Burning Valley had the shape of a basin. The land looked flat in the distance, but someone had already inspected the place before. It turned out that the elevation kept on decreasing when heading toward the middle of the North Burning Valley. The whole place was like a fire pit, the soil around the party was brown-red, and according to the rumors, the area in the center was a burning land.

Flames were sprouting out from the surface, looking like red stalks of grass scattered across the place in lumps. Those without any fire resistance would not be able to travel on it.

The North Burning Valley was also known as the Brazier of China, as there was a high-quality Fire Seed hidden somewhere under the valley.

Even if the area was not produced by the Tiandi Fire Seed as the rumors mentioned, such a place with an abnormal level of Elemental energy would have nurtured lots of Soul Seeds, even those of Soul-grade.

Mo Fan knew that the Tiandi-grade Soul Seed was not something to be found easily. Many powerful Magicians had explored the place, yet none of them had found the legendary Tiandi-grade Soul Seed. How could an Intermediate Magician like him possibly find it?

{TL Note: Tiandi here means Heaven and Earth}

It was wiser to focus on searching for the Flame Belle. Being able to get himself a Flame Belle would be a huge win!

Now that the party had arrived at the North Burning Valley, it was all up to Lingling to decide what everyone would be doing. She flipped through some information in her notebook and did some strange calculations.

"Hey runners, bury these things in the ground," Lingling took out four cone-shaped devices from her bag.

The devices looked like spinning tops, yet their surfaces were coated in some kind of metal, giving them an advanced look.

"Aren't these Element Sensors? Are we trying to figure out the Elemental densities in this area?" Zhang Xiaohou quickly identified the device with his army experience.

"I've learned the behavior of creatures like Flame Belle from the books. They prefer to stay in places where the density of Fire Element is five times higher than the normal level. However, when they are producing offspring, in order to let the new child experience a strong Fire Awakening, the mother of the Flame Belle will live close to a Fire Element Soul Seed. Therefore, if we can find the Soul Seed, we won't be far away from the Flame Belle," said Lingling.

Mo Fan nodded in agreement. The huge sum of money he had spent was not in vain. It actually helped them to target specific locations, as the Flame Belle had fairly consistent living habits. They did not like to move their lairs for no reason.

A Soul Seed was somewhat unique too, as each area could only have one at a time. Therefore, if they managed to locate the Fire Element Soul Seed in the area, they would most likely find the Flame Belle, too. It was the simplest, yet most effective way.

The Element Sensors were the perfect tools to locate Soul Seed or Soul Seed Pieces, as they were able to determine if a Soul Seed were nearby by analyzing the Elemental Densities in the area.

At Lingling's request, everyone placed the Element Sensors at certain locations.

These Element Sensors were quite handy, but it was risky to use them, too. Similar to analyzing the density of demon beasts in Jinlin City, the devices would serve as GPS transmitters when buried under the ground, exposing their locations to the demon beasts nearby. The signal would easily attract the demon beasts that were dying of boredom in the area.

As such, every time they used the Element Sensors, it would be a battle of defending Athena, lasting for as much time the devices needed. Many Hunters ended up being wiped out by the demon beasts, as they did not control their time well, or estimate the difficulty of fighting the local demon beasts accurately.

Luckily, the devices for analyzing the densities of Elements did not need a huge amount of time. The party could easily withdraw before the demon beasts swarmed at them like a nest of bees, so they would not find themselves in danger.

The inspection they were conducting was just to probe the reaction of the demon beasts. However, if they were planning to locate the Soul Seed accurately, a 'Device Defense' battle was inevitable.

After all, the longer the devices were buried in the ground, the wider the area they could analyze, which would help them to locate the Soul Seed that was hidden under the ground. Without using the devices, it would be the same as finding a needle in a haystack.

"We'll go this way; hurry up, some of the demon beasts have already been attracted here!" exclaimed Lingling.

The party retrieved the devices and set out immediately. When Mo Fan saw Chen Yi packing up the Element Sensor at a rather slow pace, he could not help but feel confused.

Chen Yi was Zhao Manyan's cousin. The fact that Zhao Manyan had brought her along was enough to prove that she was reliable and trustworthy. However, there was one thing that Mo Fan did not understand. Lingling, Xinxia, Zhang Xiaohou, and Zhao Manyan were close to him, and they were willing to risk their lives and come along just to help him secure a Flame Belle, even if they would most likely end up empty-handed themselves.

On the other hand, this Chen Yi had agreed to tag along without asking for anything in return. No one would waste their time on something strenuous and unrewarding, and since she was a student of the Imperial College, the competition was surely intense there. It was unconvincing that she would want to waste her precious time on an adventure that would not bring any good to her in return.

However, Mo Fan did not ask about the details, as he assumed that she would not tell him the truth. He had no choice but to wait and see if she were up to something else, or maybe she did have her target here, but she found it difficult to share with the others.

"Look, something is burning ahead, and the fire is extremely high!" said Zhang Xiaohou, who was pointing ahead of them.

The crew followed his gaze and did see the tall fire that he was mentioning...

The problem was, why did it feel like the fire was spreading continuously. When they first saw it, they assumed it to be a fire very far away, but it was undulating like mountains, and suddenly grew bigger!

"Does...does anyone feel like it has grown bigger again? It feels like it's burning all the way into the sky..." said someone in the party.

Mo Fan took a closer look, and as the rolling flames grew bigger, his face was filled with an astounded look as he suddenly realized something!

"It's not growing bigger, it's moving in our direction! Run!" screamed Mo Fan.

The fire was absolutely terrifying. It started on the horizon in the distance, and seemed like a flickering glow at first. However, as it consumed the horizon and spread toward the party at a crazy pace, everyone finally realized how shocking the fire was!