The source of the voice was a muscular man. The man was topless as he revealed his muscles. Additionally, his aura was released and it was at the fifth orifice of the Xiantian Realm.
The man was rather far from the crater. Generally speaking, those who could stay closer to the crater were stronger. For example, the old man could disregard everyone present because he was in the seventh orifice of the Xiantian Realm.
With his strength, he could easily snatch the Lava Core from everyone.
Although the man was far from the crater, which meant that he would lose an advantage when the Lava Core appeared, it didn’t matter much to Lin Yun. He was new here, and he wanted to get familiar around.
“Thank you.” Lin Yun cupped his hands together.
“Heh, heh! There’s no need for such courtesy. My name is Zhang Yue; how can I address you?” The man smiled when he saw Lin Yun walking over.
“Lin Yun.”
“You’re not someone from the Azure Sun County?” asked Zhang Yue. When he saw Lin Yun nod his head, he carried on with a smile, “Figured so. I also don’t belong to the Azure Sun County.”
In just a moment, the two of them had gotten acquainted with each other. Zhang Yue was from Aqua Condensing County, he was twenty-five years old, and he came here to try his luck since his cultivation technique had reached a bottleneck.
For Xiantian Realm cultivators, the Lava Core was a treasure that could help them refine their spiritual energy. It could allow them to make a breakthrough in their cultivation technique.
“How long have you been here, Big Brother Zhang?” Lin Yun addressed Zhang Yue intimately after they got familiar with each other. After all, it sounded rude if he were to address Zhang Yue by his name without any honorific.
“I’ve been here for roughly four months now. However, my luck hasn’t been good; I only managed to get one Lava Core.” replied Zhang Yue as he retrieved a crimson gem from his interspatial pouch.
The gem contained a great fire elemental spiritual energy. At the same time, the flames seemed odd, as if they were alive.
Swish!
Many greedy gazes shot over when he took out the Lava Core. Zhang Yue chuckled, he quickly put away the Lava Core and said, “That’s the Lava Core. But the quality of mine isn’t high since only one layer of spiritual flames envelopes it. Still, it’s enough for the time being because of its size.”
“How is the Lava Core graded?”
“Heh, heh! There’s a lot to learn about this.” Zhang Yue then began to explain the grades to Lin Yun.
Lava Cores were divided into eight different grades, going by ascending order. There were even ungraded Lava Cores. However, the Lava Cores produced by the Heavenly Flame Peak were all graded, which was why everyone took a risk to come here.
Next, the layers of spiritual flames would represent their grades. Zhang Yue’s Lava Core only had one layer, which meant it was a First Grade Lava Core.
“Above the eight grades, there’s the Perfect Lava Core, but it can only be found at the bottom of the lava. It is born through the refinement of purgatory flames. Aside from transcendent existences, it’s impossible to go down to the bottom.”
Zhang Yue continued with his explanation, “But only one in a million Yang Origin Stone can endure the purgatory flames’ refinement without melting. If you want to find one gushing out from the volcano, you can only hope for a miracle.
“This has happened for over thousands of years and only three Perfect Lava Cores have been found. So, it would be incredible if you could obtain one above the third grade.”
Zhang Yue’s explanation was an eye-opening experience for Lin Yun. After all, Lin Yun never expected that there would be so much knowledge about the Lava Core. He recalled the Thunderblitz Battle Physique mentioning that he could create the perfect Fiery Demon Battle Physique with a Perfect Lava Core.
But when he heard Zhang Yue’s explanation, he was no longer optimistic about it.
“Big Brother Zhang, were there also this many people in the past?”
There were at least two to three hundred people on their side and the opposite side would probably not be any lesser. With so many Xiantian Realm cultivators around, Lin Yun wasn’t optimistic about getting a high-quality Lava Core.
Shaking his head, Zhang Yue replied, “Nah. They only started to gather a month or two ago. They probably wanted to try their luck here with the Azure Sun Realm opening soon. It would be an opportunity of a lifetime if they could get some treasure from the Azure Sun Realm.”
Lin Yun smiled when he heard that. It looks like many people here shared the same idea as him.
The days on the summit were dull. When the volcano did not erupt, there was nothing they could do except cultivate. Lin Yun chatted with Zhang Yue for a long time and he was somewhat exhausted so he closed his eyes to cultivate.
Even without the Lava Core, cultivating here was beneficial to those who had practiced fire elemental cultivation techniques. Before Lin Yun closed his eyes, he gauged the distance and saw that he was at least two thousand meters from the crater.
He now knew why Zhang Yue could only obtain one Lava Core over the past four months. There weren’t many Lava Cores, and the competition was intense. With how far they were, it would be hard for them to compete.
However, Lin Yun decided to calm down for now while he made his plans. With that, Lin Yun closed his eyes and began cultivating on the summit.
The density of fire elemental spiritual energy here was terrifying and anyone who dared to cultivate here could be considered ruthless.
But even if they were ruthless, they did not dare to cultivate at full force. Even Lin Yun had slowed down the absorption of his Xiantian Pure Yang Art.
With that, the dull days slowly passed.
Rumble!
Seven days later, the peak suddenly started to tremble.
Swish!
Everyone’s eyes flickered with excitement as they opened their eyes due to the tremors that they sensed. They looked at the crater that gushed out with sparks that looked like fireflies. A gorgeous scene was created when the sparks spread out into the surroundings.
They could even hear cracking explosions that rang out incessantly. It was the sound of the lava surging!
Along with it, the surrounding temperature also soared, making everyone feel significantly pressured. They even increased the amount of spiritual energy used to defend themselves against the high temperature.
“It’s finally in the active state.” Zhang Yue spoke out in excitement.
“Active state?” questioned Lin Yun.
“It’s a sign that the volcano is about to erupt. The longer the active state lasts, the greater the lava rain will be. Generally speaking, the volcano will erupt five to seven days from now.” Zhang Yue explained.
It’s finally here! Lin Yun was also excited. Looking at the crater from away, he was deeply shocked. At the same time, he was wondering how it would look inside the crater.
“Brother Lin, you have to be cautious at that time. You can’t predict what people will do here. If there’s a high-quality Lava Core, a dogfight will definitely take place. People rarely die from the lava rain, they mainly die because” Zhang Yue lowered his voice and faced Lin Yun with a ‘you-know-what’ gaze.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll be careful.” Lin Yun replied with a dazzling and harmless smile. But he was sneering in his heart.
Everyone here needed the energy to resist the temperature at all times, especially now with the rising temperature. But Lin Yun could activate his Fiery Demon Physique instead, so he didn’t have to be distracted like everyone else.
In this place, the temperature was harmless to his Fiery Demon Physique. Most importantly, he still had his trump card — the ancient sword box!
With all his trump cards, Lin Yun was confident in making someone in the sixth orifice of the Xiantian Realm pay dearly if they were careless here.
In the blink of an eye, six days had passed. The temperature in the summit rose and everyone felt pressure. They had to defend against the lava rain, those around them, and the high temperature.
“Is it not erupting yet?” Zhang Yue wore a grave expression. He could sense that there was something unusual with this eruption.
“Big Brother Zhang, what’s the matter?” Lin Yun curiously asked.
“It has been six days, but the Heavenly Flame Peak shows no signs of reaching the limit. I’m guessing that the active state will last at least ten days this time.” Zhang Yue solemnly replied.
Even Lin Yun’s facial expression had turned solemn upon hearing that. The logic behind the active state was just like how cultivators built up their power. The eruption of the volcano after ten days in active state would be terrifying.
Lin Yun felt somewhat nervous to encounter an eruption of this scale for his first time.
In the end, it was just as Zhang Yue had guessed. The Heavenly Flame Peak was still in the active state after ten days, with no signs of reaching the limit.
“The active state is a little too terrifyingly long.”
“I’m guessing that it will last for at least five more days.”
“I’m afraid that people will die in this lava rain.”
The atmosphere was grave while everyone shared their opinions.
“Senior Wang retreated!” The old man that had been a hundred meters from the crater moved a hundred meters back with a grave expression.
The old man had been confident of his cultivation in the seventh orifice of the Xiantian Realm as he occupied the best position. However, the active state lasted a little too long this time, making someone like him fearful.
At the same time, many people were terrified by the old man’s retreat.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
It was like a dangerous signal when everyone retreated. Even Zhang Yue and Lin Yun did not dare to take it lightly. The two of them were already towards the rear, and with this retreat, the two were practically standing by the border.
But five days later, the active state still showed no signs of reaching the limit and had lasted for half a month now!