Read Novel Full Chapter 350: Great Volcano (2)
Chapter 350: Great Volcano (2)
Kyrian ran beside Pan Zheng, maintaining a steady pace as the group advanced toward the volcano. The hot wind carried particles of ash that clung to skin and clothing, but his ice Qi created a subtle barrier that kept his body cool and clean.
The landscape around them had already changed completely. The gentle hills and twisted vegetation on the outskirts of the city had given way to an arid and hostile terrain, where only the most resilient lifeforms could survive. Kyrian observed everything with his snowflake eyes.
"You seem to respect and know Ming Hai’s history well." Kyrian commented, without taking his eyes off the horizon where the Great Volcano loomed like a wall of stone and fire.
"Was he really that powerful and important?"
Pan Zheng nodded, breathing steadily as he ran. Despite the physical effort, his voice did not waver.
"The sect’s ancient records say that Ming Hai wasn’t just strong. He was a monster in his time. He had no opponents of his age in the entire volcanic mountain region. They say he spent more than four hundred years inside the volcanoes of this range, meditating directly over magma."
Kyrian absorbed the information in silence. Four hundred years. That was longer than many entire forces lasted. Longer than most ordinary cultivators lived.
"He didn’t cultivate by absorbing Qi like we do." Pan Zheng continued, his eyes shining with admiration as he spoke.
"He devoured fire. It is believed that he possessed a special physique and an ancient, unknown technique, something no one has managed to replicate since."
"Some of the older elders swear that he managed to form a bond with a fire spirit born within one of the volcanoes."
Kyrian raised his eyebrows slightly.
Spirits. He had read about them in the Blood Library. They were beings born naturally in places with extremely high concentrations of Qi after thousands of years of condensation and spontaneous evolution.
They were not created by humans, nor could they be forced into existence.
According to the records, spirits were intelligent, conscious, and had extremely temperamental personalities.
Some were benevolent, others indifferent, and others outright hostile. But all shared one trait, they considered themselves superior to humans.
After all, while humans needed thousands of years of cultivation to reach higher realms, a spirit was born with immense power.
It was extremely rare for a human to establish a friendly relationship with a spirit. Even rarer were those cases where a spirit accepted following a human or sharing its power.
’Interesting.’ Kyrian thought.
’If there is a spirit here, I hope I can at least see it once.’
He had no expectations of forming a bond with something that saw itself as superior. But seeing a spirit with his own eyes, something many cultivators spent their entire lives without ever achieving, would already be worth it.
Pan Zheng continued speaking, unaware of Kyrian’s thoughts.
"And why would the tomb be in the Great Volcano specifically?" Kyrian asked, returning to the main topic.
"In fact, it was the four great forces of the City of Red Smoke that found an ancient testament of Ming Hai many years ago." Pan Zheng replied.
"The testament said that his inheritance would wait for the destined one and that it would be located somewhere within the volcanic mountain range."
"And so the hunt began. For years, the forces explored every inch of the range, every smaller volcano, every cave, every fissure. Many secondary treasures were found, which only strengthened the belief that the main inheritance truly existed. But nothing of Ming Hai’s tomb was discovered."
He paused briefly to breathe.
"After several years, only one place remained unexplored. The last volcano. The largest. The oldest. The most dangerous in the entire range. The Great Volcano."
The young man pointed toward the imposing silhouette dominating the horizon.
"In my view, it makes perfect sense for the tomb to be there. The other volcanoes are like its children, smaller, younger, and less powerful. Ming Hai would have chosen the strongest one for his eternal rest. At least, that’s what I believe."
Kyrian did not respond immediately. The logic made sense. A cultivator of Ming Hai’s level would not bury himself in an ordinary place. He would choose a location worthy of his power.
The conversation continued for some time as they ran. Pan Zheng spoke about ancient legends, about how Ming Hai supposedly created techniques that allowed him to control lava as if it were flowing water, and about battles against legendary beasts that lived deep within the volcanoes. Kyrian listened attentively, mentally separating exaggerations from accounts that seemed grounded in truth.
The terrain grew increasingly hostile.
The gentle hills gave way to black rocky slopes, cracked by centuries, perhaps millennia, of volcanic activity.
The ground beneath their feet was no longer soil but a mixture of compacted ash and stone that crumbled under their boots with a dry crunch.
The air smelled of sulfur and burnt rock. The odor was so strong that Kyrian felt his tongue go numb.
Finally, after nearly four hours of intense running without significant breaks, the group reached the outskirts of the Great Volcano.
They were still at the base of the immense mountain, at the lowest parts of its foothills. The actual ascent had not even begun. Even so, the heat was already extreme, far greater than what they had felt in the City of Red Smoke.
The air visibly shimmered, distorting everyone’s vision as if they were looking through boiling water.
Some of the weaker members of the group had already activated full Qi barriers to protect their bodies. Sweat streamed down their faces in steady lines, and their breathing was heavy, as if every breath required effort.
Kyrian, on the other hand, was perfectly fine.
His ice eyes remained active, glowing with a pale blue that contrasted sharply with the orange and red environment around them. The cold Qi emanating from his body created a small area of coolness, no more than a meter around him.