Inside the Fire Realm, one could see a hot gooey lava river moving in zig zags. If one wasn't careful and greedy, they would mistake the lava river for a river of gold. Through the bubbling lava river, a boat was slowly moving. A girl who had a three-headed pet on her lap sat on the opposite side of the young man who was rowing the boat. Obviously, it was Gaya, Vedora, and Noah on the boat as no one else would be crazy enough to choose this route instead of a safer and longer road.
"Are you absolutely sure there are no fishes in the river?" Ayag asked, giving Gaya a puppy look.
She instead just rolled her eyes,
"You just ate the last of my cookies"
Rather than minding Gaya and the hydra's quarrel which was going on for days, Noah focused on the surroundings. There was nothing else except for desolate land as far as he could see. Few boulders here and there and that's it. The sky was as usual red while the air was filled with ash particles. The red and gray combination gave off an eerie feeling to the fire realm.
"Fuck how long it has been since we came here?" Ayag asked,
"94 days to be exact" A glimmer of sadness emerged in Gaya's eyes. She looked at the distant horizon thinking about Ghost and Nightmare. She missed the two of them like crazy.
Noah could see the sadness in her eyes. In fact, he felt happy for Ghost to find a girl who loves him like Gaya. Although she killed innocents and committed many crimes, Noah didn't want the two of them to be separated because of him. He believed in second chances. This was Gaya's second chance.
They had been in the river for five days. Unlike Gaya believed, there were indeed fishes in the river along with dangerous beasts. If it wasn't for the solution Noah applied on the boat, they would have been inside some beast's belly.
The solution was provided to him by the Alpha guardian of Hunter Guardians herself. After rowing for another five continuous days, Noah's hands started to ache. Fortunately, Noah turned back to see a couple of burned trees appear in his sight.
"Hey" Noah called out to Gaya to bring her back to reality.
"That's the entrance" Gaya followed his gaze to see two lone trees that had no leaves whatsoever. Even the lightning-struck trees wouldn't look as black and lifeless as those two trees.
"We can beach the boat there," Gaya pointed at the ash shore. Noah nodded before rowing the boat towards the shore. After beaching the copper boat, Gaya placed Vedora inside her satchel safely. They didn't rush but cautiously walked towards the lone trees.
"That's the spot," Noah said.
Vedora craned their necks out to look at the spot Noah pointed at. However, they could only see two ordinary trees, and they didn't find anything unusual.
"What the hell are you talking about? There's nothing but burned trees there" Ayag said,
"Weird" Cain mumbled. He was suspicious of the two lone trees, they seemed out of place.
"Try to sense the energy fluctuations brat. There's a natural formation between the trees " Gaya flicked the head of Ayag,.
"What? What the heck is a natural formation?"
"It's kind of an illusion array but very different from those made by humans. A natural formation is formed by nature after gathering condensed Arch energy for thousands of years. It's a miraculous process, and many know very little about it. Anyone can easily be trapped by it if they don't pay enough attention" Noah explained.
His explanation made Ayag frown deeper,
"If it's a fucking illusion array, why are you two crazy heads heading towards it instead of running away from it?"
"I said it's a kind of Illusion array. Natural formations also act as a portal to travel around the Fire realm"
"Oh, then we are gonna finally get the fuck out of this place. Let's go"
Ayag changed her opinion lightning quick. She now looked excited to go between the two trees unlike a few seconds ago.
Noah too couldn't help but sigh in relief, as if he had just seen a light carrying hope. There were many invisible natural defense mechanisms and formations existing within the depths of Fire Realm, and they came to this lava river because of a natural formation. If they could find another natural formation, they would have a chance at the river. After all, the solution couldnt fend off the beast forever. When or if they came out of the river, they were good as dead.
"Let's go!"
Swoosh!
Both Gaya and Noah immediately dashed towards the space between the two trees.
The aura of the natural defense mechanism in this valley was pretty obvious, even Ayag could sense it as they approached. Its aura was much more powerful compared to the formations they happened to stumble upon.
When the three of them went through the space between the trees, they disappeared from the desolate valley. The scene in front of them changed dramatically once again. It was a plain gray world in front of them. The eerie and chilly energies within were so much stronger compared to the desolate value they just came from.
A stinking smell filled up the air within the place, extremely unpleasant and pungent. Besides this, black whirlwinds appeared all over the place, and the air blowing across the place was cutting them to the marrow. It also carried a strong corrosive characteristic.
"Congratulations, we escaped from the frying pan into the fire" Ayag couldn't help but curse.
"Be careful, there is poisonous vapor all over the place. A deadly toxic gas merged with the freezing vapor, causing this poisonous vapor to be formed. It's a deadly thing that can kill any cultivator." Noah reminded.
"Is that so?" Gaya snickered as she walked towards one of the black whirlwinds.
"Bitch stop, are you trying to kill us?!" Ayag screamed trying to stop Gaya from walking towards the poison whirlwinds.
Gay reached out to touch the whirlwind. Noah was stunned to see nothing really happened to her. Although Naga's were resistant to most poisons, they were not immune to the poison whirlwinds of Fire Realm. However, nothing happened to Gaya when she touched the poison whirlwind. It should have entered through the finger to her brain and killed her in a few seconds. Since that never happened, there was only one explanation for this. That was Ghost made her immune to the poisons using some Legendary potions. Noah heard about potions that could be brewed by 5-star Alchemists to make someone completely resistant to the poisons known to man.
"Huh?" Ayag opened her eyes to see nothing had happened to her like she was expecting. As Gaya was looking smug and feeling proud of Ghost for making them both poison resistant, Noah walked towards them with a calm smile.
When he came closer to the black whirlwind, Noah unleashed a blue barrier of flame, covering his entire body. The layer of blue flame covered his body as though it was a blanket.
It was a barrier formed by One of the two primordial Flames; heaven's flame, which repelled all poison known to mankind. Gaya was stunned by the blue flame. She had never seen such a majestic flame ever before in her life. She heard Ghost talk about primordial flames and she could guess that the blue flame on Noah's body was definitely one of the two primordial flames. However, she did not let what was in her mind show on her face. Although she could tell Noah wouldn't easily tell her where he got the flame, if she could find out, it would get Ghost one step closer to reaching 6-star Alchemist status.
"This place should be an isolated space, and it doesn't look big. We just need to find the path to the five-headed serpent's lair"
Noah said. He could feel that they were getting closer to the five-headed serpent. This place was fully filled with toxic vapor and could be considered a natural land of death. It would be really bad luck if anyone ordinary accidentally came to this space.
He was covered by a fire barrier, while Gaya just walked next to him like it was nothing. The duo began slowly walking forward. Since the toxicity in the air was too strong, there were no beasts or bandits anywhere nearby.
The entire space was extremely quiet, and nothing could be heard except for the tornadoes' swishing sounds. It gave the space an eerie feeling, as if they had actually come to the real hell.
Crack!
Suddenly, a cracking sound could be heard from underneath Gaya's foot. It sounded really loud when in this quiet environment.
"Fuck! what was that?" Ayag cursed as she was spooked by the sound
They lowered their heads, looking at the ground. Then, they saw an entire skeleton lying where Gaya had just stepped. Her foot caused a hole to appear on the skeleton's chest.
"This is a skeleton of a Soul Strengthening stage warrior, he must have been dead for a long time. Look, all the bone has become porous, you've shattered it."
Noah had eagle eyes. Although the skeleton was badly corroded by the poisonous air and had turned completely black, he still found that this was a Core Strengthening stage warrior's skeleton.
"This place sucks"
A Core Strengthening stage warrior could still survive for quite some time in this space without any poison resistance using Arch energy to shield his or her body. The only explanation for his death would be that he depleted all his arch energy in order to resist the poisonous air. He was killed by the poisonous air once he couldn't repel the deadly poison any longer.
"Why did he come here anyway?"
Gaya wondered why the cultivator came to the Fire Realm. Noah and she were here to hunt down the five-headed serpent so Noah could save Xanali's stepfather while she was here to absorb the blood and start her metamorphosis. If it wasn't for the five-headed serpent, Gaya would have never even thought of coming here.
"What next?" Sarba asked after looking around the place.
"Move forward until we find the five header serpent's trail"
Noah smiled. With a determined look in his eyes, he said, "Just keep moving forward, until we find the five header serpent's trail"
The following journey was completely eventless. They kept bumping into new skeletons along their way, and all these skeletons were once Core Strengthening stage warriors. Gaya really wondered why this many Core Strengthening stage warriors ventured into the Fire Realm. She even stumbled upon a skeleton of a Soul Refining Stage warrior. This meant they were looking for something here.
The duo had walked for nearly an hour, and they kept bumping into more and more skeletons. The place seemed really desolate. After spending almost two hours of walking, they suddenly saw a light blinking in the distance.
"Look, there is light blinking in front!" Ayag informed them. She almost shouted.
"Let's go check it out!"
Noah saw the light as well. Although the rainbow color light seemed faded, it couldn't escape their eyes. The duo immediately dashed forward, and soon, they arrived at the source of the light.
"A human"
Ayag's eyes lit up as she saw a man with disheveled hair was sitting with both legs crossed, not moving at all, which made him look like a stone statue. But, the weak aura emitting from his body showed that this old man was still alive.
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