Long Aotian hurried back to the fire cave. Having spent so much time, he was incredibly worried that the fire spirit might escape. He used his movement technique to the point of exhaustion, and once he stepped into the fire cave, he immediately jumped on his flying sword and came next to the fire spirit. Fortunately, what he was worried the most about didn't happen—the fire spirit was shaking violently in the air, but it couldn't escape the invisible binds.

"Phew! There's still time," Long Aotian let out a breath. "Third time's the charm." He crossed his fingers and set out to work.

In the air, Long Aotian faced the fire spirit and wrapped it with his divine sense. He made a few hand seals and began to pinch in the air. Soon the fire spirit stopped moving.

Time flew by.

Under Long Aotian's urging, the fire spirit had shrunk to a quarter of its original size. He had reached the critical step. Now he just had to force the spirit into a container, seal it and he would be done.

The spirit had shrunk to pea size. Long Aotian was elated and he took out a spiritual jade and a few paper talismans.

"Come on…come on!" Long Aotian urged and the fire spirit floated towards the spirit stone in his hand. Success was in sight.

Long Aotian was so immersed in his act, that he didn't notice when a giant figure stood beside him. The giant figure raised its hand with a machete and threw it hard.

Shoo!

The machete flew at breakneck speed and hit the spiritual jade.

Boom!

The spiritual jade exploded, knocking Long Aotian away.

"What the—" Long Aotian was startled as he almost fell into a pool of lava. If not for the presence of the blue light that isolated the scalding heat, he would have been burned. He looked in the direction of the fire spirit, only to see it escape into one of the lava streams.

"No! Cough!" Long Aotian spit blood as he struggled to stand up. The explosion just now shocked his internal organs. He was dizzy and felt pain all over his body. He struggled to stand up, but the real horror had yet to arrive.

An Zhi picked up a broken spear and walked towards Long Aotian. He had grown almost twice his size, his every footstep made the ground tremble. The red mist around him was several times thicker than before. It shrunk and expanded with his breath as if it had a life of its own, making him look like a monster that had arrived from the depths of hell.

"Y-you are alive?" Long Aotian was shocked to see An Zhi walk toward him. "But I destroyed your heart!"

An Zhi looked at Long Aotian and rubbed the spot where he had stabbed him. The wound had already closed and only a faint scar could be seen.

"I have two hearts," An Zhi said without much emotion.

"T-two hearts?" Long Aotian gawked and for a moment, he even forgot his pain and the dire situation he was in. He looked at An Zhi and cursed. Was he born unlucky? Why did he have to meet such a freak?

"I should have just chopped off your head," Long Aotian groaned.

"Unfortunately, you no longer have this opportunity," An Zhi said.

Long Aotian's face turned ugly. An Zhi was no longer berserk as before, but very calm. But it was this calm An Zhi that made it even more difficult for him to deal with.

An Zhi lifted the broken spear. It looked like an oversized toothpick in his hand. Under any other circumstances, Long Aotian would've found it ridiculous, but at this time he couldn't laugh it off.

"Who said I have to fight you?" Long Aotian snorted and took out a jade talisman. The plan failed, the fire spirit had escaped. He was already exhausted as it was. Even if he fought An Zhi, there was nothing to gain. Although Long Aotian was heartbroken, he hadn't lost his sanity.

"Farewell!" Long Aotian gave An Zhi one final look and crushed the talisman. A violent gust of black wind surrounded him. Long Aotian turned into a small black tornado that zipped towards the exit.

An Zhi saw Long Aotin escape and snorted. He threw the spear in his hand in the direction of the exit. The spear was covered in red mist and hit the black tornado. The red mist on the spear exploded and became entangled with the black wind.

Pop!

Like a bubble that had burst open, the black wind dispelled and Long Aotian fell out of it with a groan.

With a leap, An Zhi crossed a distance of a dozen meters and stood between Long Aotian and the exit. "You can't escape."

An Zhi grabbed Long Aotian and threw him backhanded. Long Aotian flew like a broken kite and landed in the same position he had been in before.

"Aaah! Hot hot hot…" Long Aotian jumped onto his feet despite his aching body. He felt like he had been thrown into a hot pan. An Zhi's spear interrupted not just his escape spell but also destroyed the light blue barrier that isolated the heat.

Before Long Aotian had time to grasp the current situation, An Zhi arrived next to him with the broken spear. Using the spear like a stick, An Zhi slammed it against Long Aotian's leg.

Click!

There was a distinct sound of a bone breaking.

"Aargh!" Long Aotian howled in pain and stumbled sideways, almost falling into a lava stream face forward. The tips of his hair singed with an acrid smell. Feeling the burning sensation on his face, Long Aotian couldn't care about his broken leg and did his best to distance himself from the lava.

"What the hell do you want?" Long Aotian yelled as he limped on his good leg. He felt depressed. He spent days planning, invested so much time to trick the barbarians against each other, betrayed two of his companions, and even paid a heavy ransom. In the end, he still couldn't get the fire spirit. Instead, he was being tossed around like a ragdoll.

"My brothers' death can't be in vain," An Zhi said.

"Big words," Long Aotian sneered and a golden halo appeared on his body once again. It was just the second month in the realm, and he had already lost two of his life-saving treasures. Even though it pained him, Long Aotian decided to use it.

Under the protection of golden light, Long Aotian took a few pills and glared at An Zhi with provocation.

"Today you must die, no number of treasures can save you," An Zhi crossed his arms and said in a flat tone. He couldn't break through the golden light's protection so he simply watched Long Aotian.

Long Aotian saw An Zhi so stubborn and a ruthless glint flashed in his eyes. Who was he? When had he been so aggrieved? But now, a barbarian whom he didn't even put in his eyes, had pushed him into such a desperate situation.

"Since you won't let me out," Long Aotian took out another talisman and his remaining spiritual qi into it. The talisman began to glow with an earthy brown light. "I will bury you here!" he roared and slammed the talisman into the ground. Brilliant light covered the cave and seeped into the ground.

The ground heaved up and down. The cracks widened as the lava churned and sprayed. Chunks of rocks fell as the ceiling began to crumble. The exit tunnel which was already damaged couldn't tolerate the shocks and caved in, blocking the only route of escape.

The entire mountain was rumbling.

"You—what did you do?" An Zhi frowned, no longer calm as before.

Long Aotian didn't answer, instead, he took out another jade talisman and crushed it. The space around him twisted and his figure became hazy.

An Zhi saw Long Aotian escaping and attacked with his spear, but nothing happened.

"This is a teleportation talisman—you can't stop it," Long Aotian mocked. "Having pushed me to this state, you can be proud… and die in peace." Although he looked like he was standing in front of An Zhi, his voice seemed to come from a distant place. The space around him continued to twist and his figure vanished.

"Aargh!" An Zhi howled in fury and the red mist covered the entire cave. But there was no sign of Long Aotian, he was truly gone this time.

Outside, Mu Chen who had been lying low sensed the vibrations of the mountain and jumped on his feet.

"What did those two do?" Mu Chen frowned and looked in the direction of the entrance. "Did they destroy the cave or what?" Unfortunately, he had no way to know. Long Aotian had sealed the cave, even his sword sense couldn't penetrate.

When the vibrations didn't stop and instead became more intense, an ominous premonition struck Mu Chen. "Could it be?"

Mu Chen's heart began to beat like a war drum. He couldn't care about the fight between Long Aotian and An Zhi, even the thought of fire spirit was thrown into one corner of his mind as he began to sprint down the mountain.

How terrifying was a volcanic eruption? Mu Chen was about to experience it firsthand.

Boom!

An earth-shattering explosion shocked the entire mountain and a pillar of fire shot into the air. In the night sky, it was dazzling as if a sun had been born.

The explosion blew open the mountaintop and a hail of burning stones covered the sky along with volcanic ash and other gases. The gas mixed with the hot ash and raced down the mountain with molten lava in tow.

Mu Chen ran for his dear life as he did his best to dodge the burning stones and lava rain. But no matter how hard he tried, it was impossible to avoid them all―the sound of explosion made him disoriented. Especially the current of hot gas and volcanic matter caught up with him in a matter of seconds.

Fortunately, he had already reached the base of the mountain and there was a river in sight. Without wasting any time, Mu Chen dived into it.

The hot air galloped over the surface of the river, giving rise to steam.

Mu Chen stayed underwater for a couple of minutes before coming up.

"Cough!" Mu Chen gasped. He had burn marks all over his body and his skin had turned dry and red. The hot air had burned his lungs making it difficult to breathe. If he was not worried Xiao Xue would drown, he would have liked to stay underwater a bit longer.

Mu Chen swallowed a few healing pills and drank plenty of water. As he healed, he watched the volcano spew out lava from the belly of the earth. The eruption continued for several minutes before it stopped.

"No wonder volcanic eruptions are in the top five natural disasters," Mu Chen sighed and looked around. The forest surrounding the mountain extending for several miles had been razed by the lava rain. Only the river was still preserved, but the lava flowing down the mountain had found it and it looked like the river would dry up soon.

Mu Chen looked at the top of the mountain. Before, it seemed to penetrate the sky, but now it had been broken short. He could see the red glow that was the lava, covering one side of the mountain like a cape.

"What happened to the fire spirit?" Mu Chen somewhat regretted it. If he knew things would end up like this, maybe he would've done things differently. Now he wasn't sure what happened to the fire spirit. "Only one way to make sure."

The fire spirit was born out of the fire and it didn't have a body. No matter how strong the eruption, it shouldn't hurt the spirit.

The volcano had calmed down and his wounds healed, Mu Chen decided to climb the mountain once more. The eruption just now was likely to attract other cultivators in the region, so he had to act quickly.

Due to the lava, the temperature was hot, but it was still bearable. Mu Chen soon came to the original location of the entrance. The top of the mountain had disappeared, leaving behind a gigantic crater, whose bottom had filled with bubbling hot lava. When he first came here, there was snow everywhere and the temperature was so low it made the teeth chatter. But now it was so hot, it made the soles of his feet burn.

Mu Chen frowned and circled, trying to locate the original location of the fire cave. He spread his sword sense far and wide, unfortunately, the landscape had changed beyond recognition. Forget the fire spirit, he didn't even find any trace of An Zhi or Long Aotian.

"What's this?" Mu Chen's eyes fell on several bright red stones. At first, he thought it was just magma, but the stones gave off a spiritual aura.

"Fire crystals!" Mu Chen exclaimed and picked it up. Unlike normal spirit stones, some spirit stones had attributes. As long as your element aligned, cultivating with them was twice the effect for half the work. Mu Chen looked around once more and found not just fire crystals, but other minerals and precious ores.

The fire spirit couldn't be found, Mu Chen had to be content with the crystals and ores.

Mu Chen began to tread around the magma and pick up the crystals. After collecting the last one, he was about to leave when a mound of lava that had cooled burst open and a figure crawled out of it.

"H-help…" a weak voice said.

Mu Chen looked around and saw a beaten but burly figure. "How are you still alive?" he blurted out.

That burly figure was none other than An Zhi, but he had been changed beyond recognition. He was burnt to crisp. Flakes of skin that had almost turned to ash kept falling off him, like layers of burnt wood. One of his arms was missing and his eyes had been hallowed. If not for his size, Mu Chen wouldn't have recognized him.

"H-help me," An Zhi gasped, his breathing ragged. "If I die here… my tribe…"

"Help you?" Mu Chen sneered. "You robbed and tried to kill me, remember? Consider yourself lucky I haven't stabbed you to death." Although he pitied An Zhi, Mu Chen didn't see any reason to help.

An Zhi fell silent.

Seeing there were no more fire crystals, Mu Chen turned to leave.

"W-wait," An Zhi said. "If you help, I can… give you my barbarian clan's unique… training method."