It was a rust-red rift valley, with iron-rich red-soil plateaus stretching along both sides. Rivers of molten iron, hot enough to sear the ground, formed rivers of lava across the surface. The air was thick with scorching ash and heat. From time to time, the ground split open, and seas of liquid iron erupted, eventually cooling into mountains of alloy steel. The atmosphere quickly rusted and corroded them, forming new layers of red-soil ironstone.
In the air, perhaps because of the currents or the unusual terrain, there was always a strange sound. It seemed as if the wind carried a rhythm, but when you listened closely, you couldn't make it out.
Li Fan pinched the Metal-Avoidance Incantation with his left hand, condensed Divine Hardness beneath his feet, and climbed vertically up the rift wall. When he reached the top of the valley and looked around, all he saw was more red soil, broken only now and then by iron water that spurted like magma from the mantle.
He looked left, then right.
"What the hell is this place? And the system—are you broken?"
Such unusual terrain certainly wasn't anywhere the Real Persons had mentioned in their Yuan Shi. And the system was acting strangely, too. Li Fan heard the little boy's voice, the voice of the two fish, say right beside his ear:
'Li Fan's mood increased by 1 point' 'Li Fan's mood increased by 1 point'
What the hell? Wasn't this the Tai Su Realm? Why was his mood going up every second? Sure, he'd used the Metal-Avoidance Incantation in advance, but it couldn't be this effective, could it? His mood had gone from falling to rising!
"System, are you sure you haven't got it wrong? What's my mood at?"
``` 'Li Fan, mood, 400/400.'
'Li Fan's