“Haha, I knew that we would have made it, we are back, Senior Brother! … Senior Brother?”

“Huo Qiang, where is Dong’er, wasn’t he in front of you?”

“Well…He turned around to diffuse some of the fire energy and tossed me into the teleportation array, then I think he was grabbed by some of those squiggly things…”

A confused Huo Qiang was rubbing his head while looking at the group of cultivators in the volcanic region. The spot they arrived at was actually the exact same one they entered the trap. It wouldn’t be strange for their allies to appear somewhere now but without the man that they were supposed to rescue here, they couldn’t really return.

“We must go back, what if he can’t find his way back here without us?”

Huo Qiang shouted out while turning towards the spot he arrived from. However even if he attempted to bulldoze his way back to the location he came from, there was no way of going back.

“Qiang, that’s not how teleportation arrays work, you can’t just go back. It was a one-way tunnel and the trap that sent us there is already out of energy.”

Zhang Jin was a bit calmer than the hot-headed Huo Qiang that was punching at the air. No one from this group actually knew how their Patriarch was able to create the array. In theory, they should be able to reverse engineer his method and use the ambient energy from the previous zone to create a similar array. This was easier said than done as they had no way of knowing how he was able to analyze the faint traces of Qi tied to the other location.

“Does this mean that he is trapped there?”

“Perhaps, Liena won’t like this…”

Just as all seemed to be lost, both nascent soul elders felt something. There was a ripple in the space and it started expanding.

“Wait, something is happening, prepare yourselves!”

Everyone pulled out their weapons and fists to stare at the spot in front of them. Suddenly a torrent of black goop shot out from thin air to coat everyone in a strange-smelling substance. This wasn’t all as screams of their favorite Patriarch followed soon after.”

“AAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”

His form which was usually white as a snow flower tumbled through while being black as obsidian. He was spinning around like a helicopter propeller and collided with the first person that was standing there, Huo Qiang. The collision caused the volcanic rock under them to shatter and sent many jagged rocks flying everywhere. Everyone was quick to disperse to get away from the liquid and mass of tentacles along with it.

…

“Uh… I made it?”

Zhang Dong gathered himself to his feet as he arrived at the other side of the teleportation array. He had been forced to save his junior brother from tumbling to the wrong side of their escape route. If he didn’t act then he would have been stuck there with the flying tentacle monster and its goons. Yet after shifting his position a bit he had been caught by a vast quantity of tendrils. They were quite slimy and not something that he liked touching his body.

A struggle with the Queen Octopus thing quickly ensued as his escape route was closing up. It wouldn’t last more than a few seconds but now that all of the people from his faction were on the other side, he just needed to join them. His Qi skyrocketed to the zenith as he incinerated the mass of tendrils that were constantly increasing. The regenerative capabilities of this monster were truly tremendous.

However, it was still a beast that had to abide by the rules of this world and setting. Like any other beast in this world, it had a core that was supporting all of its cultivation. It was the size of a golf ball and squiggled around through the water-based monster like an eel. Perhaps if he wasn’t working against time, there would be a better way to go around this but instead of a pinpoint precision attack he just decided to make everything explode. With everyone safely going through the teleportation array he didn’t need to worry about any collateral damage.

Soon a massive amount of swirling energy was gathering on his fingertips and expanding into a sphere of energy. It was time to make everything explode with this tiny star attack of his. The monster squid wasn’t having any of it as it attempted to engulf his entire form with the energy ball forming. For a moment everything went silent and it actually looked as if he had gotten devoured. Yet suddenly, the monster’s body started glowing like a Christmas tree. The light was shooting through those suction cups and various pores in its ugly body.

*BLAM*

Everything was covered in a black ink-like substance, Zhang Dong included. He didn’t even remember how he got out of there but without getting this liquid off he bolted for the teleportation array exit. The rest was history, in the nick of time he made it through and collided with Huo Qiang on the other hand.

“Senior Brother, what’s that smell?”

“It’s the Smell of victory…”

He wanted to give Qiang a smack on the head for making him go through this experience. Being surrounded by that squid's body was truly traumatizing. Even though he was able to encase himself in a shield made of Qi, he could see all of those ugly tentacles trying to get him. It was like he had been put into a horror movie with fleshy monster walls closing down on him. Then there was all this smell that had seeped right into his clothes.

“Why would victory stink like that…”

“Come over here and I’ll give you some of that victory.”

“I think I’ll pass, Senior Brother.”

Zhang Dong shook his fist at Huo Qiang while looking around. Finally, he realized that they were around a pool of lava that was constantly popping bubbles. It didn’t seem that there was any nearby water supply where he could clean all this gunk out. During the explosion, he needed to push through all of the monster’s guts to get to the teleportation array. Even for someone of his power, this wasn’t that easy and in a moment of weakness, he was drenched in all the stuff.

“Hoho, I’m glad that you made it out Dong’er, now my life is safe!”

“What are you babbling about?”

Zhang Jin laughed at the state that his grandson was in before moving over. Now that the Patriarch was here, the Matriarch wouldn’t be mad. When he was leaving for the mission she made it clear that if he didn’t return with Zhang Dong, then something would happen to his nether region.

“The fire elements are strong here but it shouldn’t be that hard.”

Zhang Dong on the other hand needed to get cleaned out. Luckily he knew some water techniques and conjuring up some of it even in this volcanic environment was still possible. It was something that he used to do when short on time. Developing a quick cleaning technique that left him clean and dry wasn’t that hard. The other sect members also loved it as it allowed them to train more and not worry about their smelly clothes.

Soon he was surrounded by a sphere of water through which no one could see his body. Within it, his clothes, body, and hair were being cleaned out of the strange black liquid. Luckily it didn’t seem that the monster was alive as it wasn’t reforming from some of the tentacles here. He was not sure if he had managed to get the beast’s core but as long as it wasn’t on this side, the monster couldn’t retake its previous shape.

“Senior Brother, could you…”

“Yeah sure…”

He was now clean but Huo Qiang had been covered in the sticky stuff as well. The cleaning technique allowed the clothes to be cleaned as well. Within a few minutes, the two best combatants were back to their old looks and the black sludge was evaporating due to the heat.

“Now that we are back here, we should find the Golden Palace and rendezvous with the others, lead the way, gramps.”

“Sure thing, just follow this old man.”

The description of this place that he was given didn’t give it justice. The place was just a wasteland composed of lava and volcanoes. All the air here was filled with strange vapors that were of various colors, most of them black or filled with yellow sulfur. This was not a place a regular human would be able to survive, without the enhanced cultivator bodies that everyone here had it would be impossible to breathe.

“Be careful Senior Brother, the volcanic beasts here are quite ferocious.”

“Are they?”

It was surprising to hear this quote from the battle maniac that was his junior brother. Normally he would be ecstatic to engage in battle with new creatures. If they were giving Huo Qiang trouble then even he needed to watch his back. After scanning the area with his spiritual sense he sensed some of these monsters nearby.

‘Hm, are they body refiners? Don’t feel that much Qi coming from them.’

When glancing toward one of the pools he felt a living organism. It wasn’t alone nor was it moving, like a predator waiting for a victim to get closer. When performing a more thorough search he could detect many similar lifeforms everywhere. It was like they were also underwater creatures like all the others, just instead of water they were using lava.

“Wait…”

“What is it Dong’er? If we hurry up we should be able to arrive at the palace within a day’s time.”

“We might have to move a bit faster then…”

“How so?”

Zhang Jin’s cultivation wasn’t as advanced so he couldn’t feel it. The environment was also working against them as the monsters that were gathered here blended in with the lava and Dao of Fire quite well. There weren’t just a few beasts looking at them, it was closer to hundreds or perhaps thousands.

“I think that our arrival here had woken up the natives.”

“Are we being watched?”

Everyone started looking around as they couldn’t see anyone within the flaming environment. Their leader knew though that perhaps the teleportation array or his cleaning method had roused some of the beasts here from their slumber.

“Yes and I’m not sure if they will let us just pass without a fight, get ready.”