The news Gai Ze'er brought temporarily shifted Hao Ren and the others' attention away from the planet's bizarre history and back to the missing wizard. Hao Ren still remembered the original purpose of leading everyone to this world—to find Baptiste and ask the wizard about the secrets of Evil Spirit Vivian and the Summoning Ritual. It was only after seeing the astonishing truth of Purgatory Planet that he had become distracted for a while.
The "witch" Gai Ze'er mentioned struck a nerve with Hao Ren. The time when the "witch" fell from the Pillar of Eternity basically coincided with when Baptiste began operating on Earth and launched a series of purgatory experiments. The reason Baptiste had gone to such lengths to reach the second level of purgatory was probably connected to that witch as well. Vivian asked about the witch's final resting place and learned that she had ultimately been buried in the territory of the Fire Tribe.
Hao Ren could hardly wait to uncover the truth. "How far is the Fire Tribe from here?"
"On the other side of the grassland, where the leyline spirits converge," Gai Ze'er answered in the distinctive rhetorical style of the tribespeople. "The spirits of the mountains and the spirits of the wind gather there. A magnificent Pillar of Eternity supports the sky, and the Fire Tribe has kept some of its people there to guard the place from generation to generation."
He then raised a hand and pointed in a certain direction. "Go that way. Riding at a leisurely pace, it takes sixty-six days and nights. You'll know you're there when the hot wind reaches you."
"We don't have time to make the trip slowly." Hao Ren frowned. "Gai Ze'er, do you know who can negotiate with the Fire Tribe?"
"You're going there?"