There was a path leading to the inactive volcano, Xi Shen and the others were running along its road while the moon above cast shadows on the forest trees to their left and right.
They were fast to reach the bass of the active volcano and from where they were they could see that it hadn’t stopped releasing a pillar of smoke in the sky. This resulted in the black ash starting to fall from the sky, dirtying their once clean clothes.
With a worried expression, Bai Xiaofung said as he stared at the now very clearly active volcano and said, “Is it going to erupt?”
Fang Chen with an equally worried expression answered, “Frighteningly, that looks to be the case.”
“But what about brother Su’s village?!” Bai Xiaofung said shocked.
Yang Su’s face suddenly turned pale, when he thought of what would happen if his village didn’t evacuate immediately.
Fei Yin turned to Xi Shen and said, “Young master, I think we should evacuate the villagers. As disciples of the Celestial Academy, one of our duties is to protect the mortals within our territory. That, as well as the fact that this is brother Su’s home and his family is here.”
Xi Shen didn’t think for long before saying, “Fei Yin and Fang Chen, you guys announce yourselves as Celestial Academy disciples to the villagers so they would cooperate with you having them leave the village. Yang Su, you and I are going up that volcano. I have a theory that its sudden eruption has something to do with you, maybe we can stop it.”
Hearing that he might be the cause of the volcano erupting, Yang Su's eyes went wide from surprise, but he didn’t doubt that his elder brother must have a reason to think it was him. This made Yang Su regretful and very dishearten.
Seeing this, Xi Shen immediately tried to lessen the effect of his words by saying, “It’s not your fault, and plus it's only a speculation, I’m not a hundred percent accurate.”
Despite Xi Shen saying that he was somewhat seventy to eighty percent sure it had something to do with Yang Su.
The eruption only started immediately after he reveal his hair, and given the story his father had told them, as well as how strange the Fire Laws were acting, Xi Shen would be a fool not to draw such an obvious connection.
But he didn’t know why exactly Yang Su simply reveal his hair would cause such massive results, as this volcano erupted.
“Alright, let’s split up now.”
Fei Yin and Fang Chen nodded at Xi Shen’s words, and turn around to rush towards the village, but Fang Chen’s senses suddenly pick up on a faint bloodlust that caused him to immediately do a 180 degrees turn and leap towards Yang Su.
But Fang Chen was surprised to see that Xi Shen had already pulled Yang Su out of the way of a dagger that just materialized from the shadows around them.
A loud clang echoed out in the night as Fang Chen drew his sword a deflect the knife, while Yang Su stumbled back from Xi Shen's pull.
When the knife was deflected away the image of a shadowy figure was revealed to be the one holding the knife, but that figure’s entire body melded back into the shadows and disappeared.
Seeing this, Fei Yin was stunned that he hadn’t sensed this person's presence, even as they attacked he felt like he was just looking at a mere shadow.
“Assassination Arts. This person is from the Demonic Cult, I’ve run into this type of ambush all the time, and this one was no different from those.” Fang Chen said in a distasteful tone of voice.
Hearing that someone from the Demonic Cult was targeting them, Xi Shen frowned. Even he hadn’t sensed this person's presence before they released a bit of their bloodlust right before attacking. But he wasn't exactly searching.
'That person is targeting Yang Su as well, were they trying to take out the weakest one first?' Xi Shen didn’t think so, if that was the case it would have been better if they attacked him or Bai Xiaofung. Was it because of what he said to Yang Su? If it was, that was a slip up on his end, he should have kept quiet.
Fang Chen suddenly dash towards a certain direction where the tree’s shadows were abundant and slashed his sword. A loud clang rang out sending sparks flying in the shadows. The sound of someone grunting could be heard soon after and the appearance of a female disciple in red robes was revealed.
Seeing the symbolic red robes of the Demonic Cult Faction, Fang Chen’s eyes spurt fire and he yelled, “I knew it!! All of you Demonic Disciples should just be gotten rid of entirely!!”
A strong amount of bloodlust erupted from Fang Chen’s body and he moved to attack once more, but he suddenly twisted to the side to avoid being stabbed by a short sword.
Fang Chen retreated and another male demonic disciple made an appearance next to the female disciple.
Feeling the aura of a 2nd stage Foundation Realm from the both of them, Fang Chen’s expression didn’t change, instead, he stood upright and face off against them. His aura and cultivation, despite it being at the Sea Expansion Realm, when it was combined with his Bloodlust which surrounded his body, it was no weaker than the two demonic disciples' own.
“You-You're Fang Chen!”
Looking at this person’s face under the moonlight more clearly, and feeling his signature Bloodlust, they both realized his identity.
A loud laugh suddenly echoed from another direction in the forest, and the figure of another male demonic disciple appeared.
Turning to Fang Chen, his expression was one of greed as he said, “I never thought I would be the one to collect that enormous bounty on your head. This must be my lucky day!”
That disciple let his 7th Stage Foundation Realm cultivation burst from his body.
Fang Chen wasn't feeling nervous at the moment but still frowned at the current situation they were in all of a sudden.
Bai Xiaofung's expression was one of terror, but Xi Shen was frowning while he wondered why these demonic disciples were here.
“You two handle that Fang Chen. I’ll deal with this Late Stage Foundation Realm cultivator and the two weaker ones.”
Saying that the youth that just appeared wasted no time moving towards Fei Yin and slashing his saber at his throat.
Fei Yin didn’t retreat and met the attack head-on. The clash caused sparks to fly, and the demonic disciple was pushed back by Fei Yin.
Seeing this, the demonic disciple’s expression turned serious as he realize this person’s power was not what he had expected.
Over on Fang Chen’s side, he was battling the female and male disciples on his own but he didn’t seem to be at a disadvantage. In fact, it seemed he was the one putting pressure on them both.
The female would attack from his blind spots, while the male demonic disciple would confront him head-on. Their teamwork was impeccable, but Fang Chen showed why he got the reputation he has by easily defending the female’s sneak attacks and pushing back the male disciple.
Seeing that he didn’t need to step in, Xi Shen turned his sights on the volcano.
“Bai Xiaofung, head to the village to evacuate the villagers and Yang Su's family.”
Bai Xiaofung had just reached the Bone Reconstruction Realm, he wouldn’t be a help in battling those demonic disciples.
Bai Xiaofung nodded his head at Xi Shen’s words, and he was more than happy to leave the battle to Fei Yin and Fang Chen. His expertise was in concocting medicine, his martial arts skills were nonexistent as he had spent all his time researching alchemy instead.
After sending Bai Xiaofung off, Xi Shen urged Yang Su to follow him to the volcano.
The demonic disciple fighting Fei Yin sneered in his heart when he saw Xi Shen and Yang Su heading for the volcano.
‘Those fools, they’re walking to their deaths. Senior brother Gu is within the volcano gathering as much of the Divine Fire Spirit Stones before the volcano erupts. But that youth, he’s supposed to be the cause of the volcano erupting. Lihua had missed the chance to kill him before, but since he’s delivering himself to senior brother Gu, I’ll send him a message to have him kill them. Maybe the volcano will pause its eruption, and we’ll have time to excavate all of the Divine Fire Spirit Stones.’
With that, the demonic disciple parried Fei Yin’s attack before he quickly pulled out a jade slip, and after conveying the conversation he heard between Xi Shen and Yang Su previously, he crushed the jade slip and sent the message to Gu Mo.
Seeing that he took out a jade slip and crushed it, Fei Yin frowned and threateningly asked, “Who did you just send that message to?”
The demonic disciple smiled a devilish smile before he said, “Those two that left will die horrible deaths by going up that volcano. But don’t worry, you won’t be far off from joining them.”
After saying that the demonic disciple let out a maniacal chuckle, but soon saw that Fei Yin’s expression was calm, unlike how he thought he would react. The demonic disciple even saw a look of mockery in Fei Yin’s eyes. This caused him to have doubts in his mind, but he soon buried them and channeled his Demonic Qi from his dantian to his blade, before slashing toward Fei Yin, sending out a powerful Blade Qi through the air.
On the volcano, Xi Shen found a crevice that led to deeper parts of the volcano and chose to enter. As he and Yang Su went further in, Xi Shen could sense his Heavenly Physique going crazy with excitement. Not only that, Xi Shen turned to see Yang Su’s hair gaining a tinge of red, but he seemed not to realize its change in color.
Soon Xi Shen reached the end, and he could see a bright red glow. Curious, he stepped forward and popped his head in to see what was giving off this pure bright red glow.
However, what he saw caused his eyes to go wide like saucers, and his mouth to immediately start watering uncontrollably.
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Word Count: 1680
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦