A wave of swelteringly hot wind blew in Wu Jian’s face seconds before he emerged from the hallway. He blinked several times as sweat formed on his brow. Wiping the sweat, he glanced around.

Heat waves distorted the air everywhere he looked, and the entire space was cast in a reddish glow. That was because of the magma lake in front of him. He couldn’t figure out how big it was, but he could see the other side, though he had no idea how to reach it.

Several people were already present. Most of them were sitting cross-legged on the ground as they meditated, but quite a few were just standing around with their arms crossed. He spotted Shā Ying Yue and the vice commander of her mercenary group. Huǒ Pànguó was also there, though he was meditating like so many others.

Wu Jian didn’t see his comrades anywhere, so he went up to one of the people just standing around and decided to get some intel.

“Excuse me, what is this place?” he asked a man with spiky black hair.

The man looked disgruntled. “You really don’t know what this place is? It’s common knowledge.”

Wu Jian shrugged. “I’m not too familiar with the White Tiger Sect Ruins.”

The man sighed. “Well… I guess it won’t hurt to tell you. Not like everyone doesn’t already know anyway. Listen up because I’m only saying this once. We’re on the second level of the White Tiger Sect Ruins. This floor is called magma valley. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you why. It has a very dense Yang Chi, so it’s good for practitioners with yang cultivation methods to meditate here. It’s even better for cultivations with a fire cultivation method. Anyway, we’re all waiting for the floor to rise. It does so once every two days. Once the floor rises, you can cross over to the other side.”

“Thank you.”

Wu Jian gave the man a handful of spirit stones, which seemed to brighten his day. He cheerfully waved at Wu Jian as he walked off.

Since his companions weren’t here, Wu Jian sat down and decided to wait. He didn’t meditate. His cultivation method was not suited for this environment, so he instead contemplated the mysteries of space while he waited.

“Jian Wu!”

Wu Jian didn’t know how long he sat there, but someone eventually called his name, and he turned his head to find Hou Jingshu waving as she walked over to him. He smiled.

“Hey. I see you completed your trial. How was it?”

“Not too bad. It was hard at first, but once I realized what the purpose was, it became easier.” Hou Jingshu sat down beside him. “How long have you been waiting?”

“Not sure, but it couldn’t have been more than a few hours.” He gestured toward everyone else with his chin. “These people have been waiting here for about a day, and the floor rises every two.”

“Right. This is the magma valley. It’s pretty famous.” Hou Jingshu looked at the bubbling lake of red hot lava. “We’ll need to be very careful when crossing. There are magical beasts swimming inside that lake. They’ll attack us when we try to move across. We’ll also need to watch out for other cultivators.”

Wu Jian agreed. “I don’t doubt that some of them will attempt to knock us into the lava.”

Being a cultivator meant fighting tooth and nail for resources, and while not everyone was horrendous enough to use such cheap methods of disposal, there were certainly cultivators who’d gladly push you into a lake of lava to lessen the competition.

“What comes after this lake?” asked Wu Jian.

“After magma valley is the Inscrutable Labyrinth,” said Hou Jingshu. “It’s a maze filled with all kinds of traps, but there are also many treasures. Unlike the trial we just faced, there should be plenty of treasures that haven’t been taken since much of the labyrinth remains unexplored. I once heard a rumor that the labyrinth changes every year, though no one has confirmed it.”

“So this magma lake, and then a labyrinth… I have to wonder what the White Tiger Sect was thinking when they built this place. It doesn’t seem very sect-like, does it?” Wu Jian said.

Hou Jingshu giggled. “You’re not wrong, but I don’t think the White Tiger Sect made all of this. Don’t forget how long it’s been since they were destroyed. Many places are the result of their seal arrays failing. Take Magma Valley, for instance. This place was originally a cultivation room meant for people who used fire cultivation methods. If you look at the ceiling, you can see the remains of a great sealing array. When it lost power, the magma being used to provide cultivation assistance broke through the floor and created this lake.”

Wu Jian glanced at the ceiling to find several large symbols from the ancient language carved into the surface. Some of the array was still glowing, but several parts had stopped, and there were some areas where the ceiling had collapsed.

“Doesn’t that mean at some point, every part of this array will stop working and Magma Valley will become impassable?” he asked.

“It does.”

“Interesting.” Wu Jian paused for a moment, then shifted gears. “By the way, you mentioned you’re here to find a cure for your sick father. What do you need to cure him?”

“We haven’t been able to figure out what exactly is wrong with him,” Hou Jingshu confessed. “According to Doctor Huang—he’s our family physician—there should be nothing physically wrong with Father… but his body continues to weaken, and we have no idea why.”

“That doesn’t sound like a disease,” Wu Jian murmured.

“Doctor Huang said it’s possibly just the result of old age, but Father is at the Human Limit Realm. He should live for at least five hundred years. He’s only 237 years old.”

“So it’s definitely not age.”

“Right.”

Wu Jian looked at Hou Jingshu, who stared into his masked face with an inscrutable look. He could already tell they were both thinking the same thing.

“So, what you want to find is a Nirvana Soothing Pill?”

“Either that, or the ingredients to refine one using alchemy.”

The Nirvana Soothing Pill was a powerful cure-all pill that Zhou Lihua had once told him about during one of their many talks. While it was only a fifth-tier pill, a pill in the middle of the alchemic path, it was the most powerful cure-all pill in existence. What made it so sublime was the fact that it could cure almost any poison known to man. Only a few poisons that were particularly potent could not be cured by it.

“What ingredients are needed to refine it?”

“Yang Fire Godoma Fruit, Ten Thousand Year Spirit Spring Water, the monster core of a Human Limit Realm magical beast, and bone shavings of a Flood Dragon,” Hou Jingshu listed off the ingredients on her fingers. “There are also over a dozen auxiliary ingredients, but we’ve already found many of those thanks to Zhou Lihua’s help—oh! She’s a good friend of mine and a very talented alchemist.”

Wu Jian wasn’t sure what to say. He already knew Zhou Lihua, but it wasn’t like he could tell her that.

“So you only need the four main ingredients?” he asked.

Hou Jingshu nodded. “I’m hoping to find them here in these ruins.”

The next member of their group to appear was Huǒ Shuchang, who grinned when he saw them.

“Don’t you two look comfortable. I’m not interrupting, am I?”

“You are, actually. Beat it.”

“Don’t be mean, Wu! How can you say that to me?! Aren’t we best buds?!”

Wu Yong and Zheng Yawen appeared not long after Huǒ Shuchang did. The last to arrive was Yin Wuhan, who was sporting several bruises and what looked like a broken arm.

“Are you okay?” asked a concerned Hou Jingshu.

“I am fine,” Yin Wuhan grunted. “I merely let my guard down during the trial. This will heal in no time.”

“Hold on. Zhou Lihua made me some Bone-Mending Pills. Please take one.”

“My thanks, Your Highness.”

The ground began shaking roughly several hours after Yin Wuhan appeared. Wu Jian bent his knees and looked at the lava lake to find several platforms rising from the surface. One platform in the very center caught his attention. Situated on it was a tree, but it didn’t look like any tree he had ever seen. It was bright red, for one thing, and there were veins along its surface that looked like flowing lava. Each vein was connected to a fruit that was about the size of his fist. One of them near the top was even larger.

“That’s a Yang Fire Bonsai!” Hou Jingshu exclaimed.

“Then those fruits are the Yang Fire Gadoma Fruits?” asked Wu Jian.

“Yes!”

Wu Yong rubbed his chin. “I can’t believe we found one of the items we’re looking for already… but I don’t know if we’ll be able to get it.”

Their group wasn’t the only one eying the tree. Literally everyone else salivated at the sight. Yang Fire Bansai trees were rare enough that most cultivators could go their whole lives without ever seeing one. A single fruit from that tree would fetch an astronomical price if sold at an auction.

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Wu Jian stated confidently. “I’ll get one for you.”

“You will?!” Hou Jingshu’s eyes brightened but dimmed just as quickly. She eyed the many people present. “But…”

“You don’t need to worry about them. I’ll grab the fruit in such a way that no one will know who did it,” Wu Jian said. “We just need to get close enough for me to use my technique.”

Hou Jingshu bit her lower lip, then nodded. “Okay. I’ll thank you for getting that fruit in advance.”

“Can you even do it?” asked Yin Wuhan with his arms crossed. “Don’t make a declaration like that if you can’t even back it up.”

“Wuhan!” Hou Jingshu snapped.

“What? All I’m saying is that he shouldn’t say he’ll get it for you if he can’t. I don’t want him to get your hopes up,” Yin Wuhan said.

“You’ll just have to watch and see what I’m capable of,” Wu Jian stated. He was confident in his ability to grab one of those fruits undetected.

While Yin Wuhan glared at him, Zheng Yawen said, “You’ll want to be careful when handling one of those fruits. They contain a very potent Yang Chi, and they’re hot. You can get fire poisoning if you let it seep into your body.”

“I’ll be careful,” Wu Jian stated.

Conversation became untenable soon. Several platforms had appeared within the lake. Some of them were large enough for several people, but quite a few were only big enough for one.

Their group moved to the edge alongside all the others, though they stayed further away to avoid the upcoming battle. Wu Jian didn’t need to be close to the tree to get one of its fruits. His teleportation limit was about one hundred chih. So long as he could get within that distance of the tree, he could get one of its fruit.

At last, platforms near their side of the lake emerged. Everyone waited for the lava to cool, but then it was a fight to get on the platforms. Several people died almost immediately. They tried to leap to a platform and were blasted off by their fellow cultivators. Wu Jian tried to ignore their screams of agony as he and the others hopped from one platform to another, keeping a wary eye out for potential attackers.

They needn’t have worried, however, as everyone else was going straight for the tree. Shā Ying Yue and the Crimson Sands vice commander were in the lead. Several people tried to overtake them, but they were all beaten back by the young woman at the peak of the Asura Realm.

That didn’t stop everyone. The moment those two landed on a platform that was big enough for several people, a large group surrounded them from all sides. It looked like they had decided to team up to prevent the two from reaching that tree.

“You people must be stupid or suicidal to block my path,” the vice commander said. Wu Jian still didn’t know his name. “I’ll give you once chance to remove yourselves from my sight. I’ll kill you if you’re not gone by the count of three.”

“One.”

“We’re not afraid of you,” a young woman shouted.

“Yeah. You might be strong, but there’s no way the two of you can defeat all of us!” said another.

“Two.”

“Let’s stop talking and just attack him,” suggested one man.

The group agreed and leapt in to attack him. Chi flared wildly as a variety of techniques were launched, but the man they were aimed at did nothing as the attacks landed. Shā Ying Yue had already stepped away and thus avoided the barrage. Smoke and fire filled the air.

“Did we get him?” asked one of them.

His question was answered, not by one of his companions, but by a voice from within the smoke.

The smoke blew away to reveal the Crimson Sand’s vice commander. He was unharmed. Wu Jian couldn’t see a scratch on him. Everyone who attacked looked stunned.

“Three,” the man said.

Black chi erupted from the man the very moment that word left his lips. A vile sensation swept over everyone, even Wu Jian, who shivered at the intense feelings of darkness welling up inside of him. What looked like black chains flew from the man’s body and latched onto the cultivators who had attacked him. The people didn’t even have a chance to try and break free as the chains glowed with malevolent light.

Less than a second later, their bodies turned into shriveled husks.

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