Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3040: Eastern Ash Pits

"Do you think they went willingly?" Lin Mu asked.

"I don’t know," Elyon admitted. "There were no signs of struggle at the rim. No other scents—just theirs. They either went in on their own... or whatever took them left no trace."

Meng Bai looked at the pits and scratched his head. "Can’t we just... fly over and go in when we see something?"

"Won’t work," Elyon said. "The Earth Flame rises in waves even when the pits drain. One wrong move and even immortals get incinerated."

Lin Mu studied the shifting, seething flow of the pits. His Omnicore Ascendancy Technique made him unusually attuned to elemental energies, and he could already tell this wasn’t ordinary fire or earth energy. This was elemental chaos—a concentrated essence of primal Earth and Flame, churned by centuries of geological instability.

Daoist Chu looked thoughtful. "And you weren’t able to enter last time?"

"No. I got close, but the tide turned before I could descend. I barely made it out before the pit rose again."

Lin Mu nodded slowly. "Then we wait. And once it lowers, we move fast."

Elyon crouched by a rock outcrop, pulling out a thin shard of bone with etched lines upon it—a tribal timekeeping device. "By my estimate," he said, "we’ll have less than an hour once it drops. Maybe even less, depending on the volatility this time."

"Then let’s prepare everything in advance," Daoist Chu said. "The moment we get access, we must strike hard and fast. Whatever lies beneath may not be welcoming."

The group set up camp not far from the ridge. While they waited, Lin Mu took time to examine the flow of elemental energy more closely. He stood atop the ledge, letting the heat roll over his body, drawing on the ambient Earth Flame energy. Even with his domineering physique and elemental cores, it felt wild—barely stable.

’Whatever lies beneath, he thought, the elders risked everything to investigate it.’

And now, they would follow.

As Lin Mu stared down into the swirling sea of molten ash that filled the Eastern Ash Pits, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe.

The vast basin stretched for several kilometers in every direction, a vast expanse of churning, viscous gray and crimson sludge, glowing with flickers of orange and red as Earth Flame energy surged beneath its surface.

It was like standing at the edge of a lake made of lava and soot—a volatile, living entity constantly shifting, boiling, and stirring in chaotic tides.

To most cultivators, this place would be a death sentence. The heat radiating from the pits was so intense that even standing near the edge would char mortal flesh and severely injure most Immortals without sufficient protection or affinity.

The Earth Flame wasn’t mere lava—it was a pure, refined essence of elemental energy, a volatile blend of Earth and Fire Dao that could easily disintegrate someone who lacked both resistance and comprehension.

It wasn’t merely physical destruction but a corrosive elemental force that devoured spiritual protection and life force alike.

But to Lin Mu, it felt... warm.

He narrowed his eyes slightly, stepping closer to the edge while Daoist Chu, Meng Bai, and Elyon stood behind him, watching with varying degrees of concern and curiosity.

Lin Mu could feel the pulsing waves of Earth Flame energy battering against his body like ocean waves—but they didn’t burn him. They invigorated him. It was as if he were stepping into a hot spring tuned to his very soul.

Lin Mu could already tell that the Earth Flame here was even more refined than the version channeled and diluted in the Ember Hollow Hall. It was purer, richer in elemental density, and filled with hints of chaotic Metal energy drawn up from deep beneath the Verdant Ash Basin. And unlike most other cultivators, Lin Mu had something special—a trump card.

The Omnicore Ascendancy technique.

His three relevant cores: Earth in his spleen, Fire in his heart, and Metal in his lungs—thrived on the kind of energy found here. But ever since his last cultivation bout at the Ember Hollow Hall, Lin Mu had realized a limitation: it wasn’t his body or comprehension holding him back. It was the environment.

The energy output from the Ember Hollow Hall had been suppressed and regulated by the formation arrays, too weak to satisfy the greedy appetite of the earth and fire cores. It didn’t have the metal essence in there either as that came from the raw ash mixed here.

But here, there were no arrays holding the energy back. No regulators, no limiters. The pit seethed with raw, untamed elemental might. And Lin Mu had an idea—perhaps even a bold gamble.

"I might be able to speed things up," Lin Mu said aloud, breaking the silence.

Elyon blinked, frowning. "What do you mean?"

Lin Mu didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he calmly flicked his arm. removing his illusory outer robes, revealing the tough, rune-etched golden skin that shimmered from the heat. "Just a test," he said simply. "To see if the tide can be made to lower sooner."

"Test?" Elyon echoed, his voice tinged with disbelief. "You don’t mean to—?"

Before he could finish the sentence, Lin Mu had already turned around and jumped directly into the pit.

"WHAT?!" Elyon exclaimed, his ears standing upright in shock.

Meng Bai’s eyes widened. "Master!"

Daoist Chu merely crossed his arms and shook his head, smiling faintly. "He’ll be fine."

"But that pit could melt through thousand-forged Immortal Vein steel! Even most cultivators wouldn’t dare go near it!" Elyon protested.

Daoist Chu gave him a calm glance. "Lin Mu’s not most cultivators."

Meanwhile, Lin Mu landed with a soft thoom onto the molten ash—though calling it "landing" might be the wrong word. The ash was so dense, its surface tension so high due to the myriad minerals and compacted essence, that he didn’t sink immediately. He floated atop it, half-submerged, as waves of glowing sludge lapped against his body.

Closing his eyes, Lin Mu activated the Omnicore Ascendancy.

His three cores reacted instantly.