The lava lake of Red Flame Volcano had been boiling for seven years. Lin Tian sat cross-legged on the obsidian at the crater's edge, letting the scorching sulfurous steam brush across his cheeks. His eyes were tightly shut, yet his consciousness spread through every inch of the volcano's interior like a spiderweb. Over the past seven years, he had lost count of how many times he had witnessed lava eruptions and felt the earth tremble. That violent power, carrying both destruction and rebirth, had long since been etched into the depths of his soul.
"Boom—"
The ground beneath his feet suddenly shook violently. A hundred-meter-high pillar of magma surged from the center of the lava lake, crimson lava exploding like fireworks as scorching fragments of rock and sparks scattered everywhere. An ordinary Saint Domain expert would have fled long ago, but Lin Tian remained seated without moving. The golden-red flames around him automatically formed a shield, grinding the flying rocks into dust. His consciousness climbed along the magma pillar, sensing the power erupting from the earth's core—the dull buildup of force as the rock layers compressed it, the instant burst as it broke through the crust, and finally the violent spread of unleashed energy.
"Is this the essence of 'explosion'?" Lin Tian murmured. Seven years ago, when he had first arrived here, he had thought the Explosion Mystery was merely the fierce detonation of flames. But after seven years, he had gradually come to understand that true "explosion" lay in the transition between buildup and release, in that instant when energy shifted from compression to eruption.
He tried to mobilize his divine power, imitating the rhythm of a volcanic eruption. A walnut-sized flame condensed in his palm. At first, the flame contracted inward, its surface glow gradually dimming as though it were being compressed by an invisible force. Just as the flame was about to extinguish, Lin Tian abruptly released his restraint on the energy. With a soft "hiss," the flame did not explode as expected, but instead turned into a wisp of green smoke and dispersed.
"Still a little short." Lin Tian shook his head with a bitter smile. Over the past seven years, he had failed like this more than ten thousand times. Sometimes the flames exploded too diffusely, their power no greater than sparks. At other times, he compressed them too much, causing the energy to annihilate itself. He knew the problem lay in grasping the "critical point"—just like before a volcanic eruption, the pressure accumulated by magma underground had to break through the crust at exactly the right moment. Too much, and it erupted too soon; too little, and it lacked the strength to burst forth.
Another volcanic eruption arrived. This time, Lin Tian did not sit still and observe. Instead, he leaped into the air above the lava lake. Scorching droplets of magma splashed against his flame shield, producing sizzling sounds. Facing the towering magma pillar, he immersed his consciousness completely within it, carefully capturing every detail of that power's shift from suppression to eruption: the crisp cracking of the rock strata, the violent collision of magma particles, the rippling spread of energy waves...
"This is the moment!"
When the magma pillar reached its peak and was about to fall, Lin Tian suddenly raised his hand, condensing flames in his palm once more. This time, he did not deliberately compress the energy. Instead, he allowed the flames to circulate naturally according to the rhythm of the magma eruption. The flames first churned and surged like magma, as though gathering power. Then, an invisible "tension" formed within them, like the crust's restraint upon magma. Finally, when that tension reached its limit, Lin Tian gave a low shout. "Explode!"
"Boom!"
A basketball-sized fireball suddenly exploded. A golden shockwave spread outward in a ring, pulverizing the splashing magma in its path. More remarkably, the explosive energy did not scatter wastefully in every direction. Instead, like a volcanic eruption, it surged in a single concentrated direction and blasted a massive crater into a distant rock wall.
Lin Tian hovered in the air, staring at the crater as wild delight flashed through his eyes. "It worked!" He had finally comprehended the essence of the Explosion Mystery—it was not about the amount of energy, but about control over the rhythm of "buildup—eruption—direction," just as a volcano could precisely blast the earth core's power into the sky instead of exploding aimlessly.
Over the next three years, Lin Tian began to skillfully wield the Explosion Mystery. He could condense flames to a point on his fingertip and make them explode upon contact, their power rivaling a full-force strike from a peak Saint Domain expert. He could also make flames cling to his body like magma, suddenly exploding when an enemy approached to form a defensive shockwave. Yet he was not satisfied. Leo I's words continued to echo in his ears: "The true meaning of Mysteries lies in fusion. No matter how powerful a single Mystery is, it is hard to match the wondrous effects of fusion."
He began attempting to fuse the Explosion Mystery with the Fire Element Mystery.
The Fire Element Mystery emphasized exquisite control over flames, allowing one to wield them as easily as one's own limbs. The Explosion Mystery, meanwhile, pursued instantaneous explosive force and emphasized destruction and impact. One was supple while the other was fierce, one ingenious while the other violent, as incompatible as fire and water. His initial fusion attempts were miserable. Sometimes, the flames exploded before they had even fully formed because he could not control the Explosion Mystery, leaving Lin Tian covered in ash and dust. At other times, he suppressed the Explosion Mystery too heavily, causing the flames to lose their explosive edge and become soft and powerless.
"Perhaps I've been looking in the wrong direction for fusion." Lin Tian sat at the crater's edge, gazing thoughtfully at the churning lava lake below. He recalled what he had observed seven years ago: underground, magma could flow like water—the agility of an element—while also accumulating enough power to blast open the earth's crust—the buildup of explosion. Was that not precisely a state where the two Mysteries coexisted?
He immersed himself in his consciousness again, sensing the flow of energy within the volcano. Sure enough, deep within the earth's core, magma retained the fluidity of an element while containing the potential for eruption. The two were not opposed, but interdependent—precisely because magma could flow and gather like an element could it accumulate sufficient pressure within a confined space. And precisely because it possessed eruptive potential, magma's flow carried an unstoppable sharpness.
"So that's it!" Lin Tian suddenly understood. He had always wanted the two Mysteries to "forcefully cooperate," yet he had overlooked that, like magma, they could naturally conceal eruption within flow and carry agility within eruption.
Just then, Red Flame Volcano experienced an eruption not seen in a hundred years. The entire mountain trembled violently, as though it might tear itself from the earth. The lava lake boiled completely over, becoming a crimson sea. Several magma pillars shot into the heavens, dyeing the sky red and gold. This time, Lin Tian did not evade it. Instead, he completely merged his body into the magma, allowing the scorching energy to wash over him.
He attempted to operate both Mysteries at once: allowing flames to flow over his body like magma—the Fire Element Mystery—while making every flame particle contain the potential to erupt—the Explosion Mystery. At first, the two powers still clashed, and the flames were sometimes rigid as stone and sometimes scattered as water. But as the volcanic eruption intensified, Lin Tian's consciousness grew increasingly synchronized with the volcano's rhythm. Gradually, he found the point where the two Mysteries fit together—just as magma flowing through cracks in the rock retained flexibility of form while constantly building explosive force through compression. Flow was the prelude to eruption, and eruption was the destination of flow.
"Fuse!"
Lin Tian gave a low shout, and the flames covering his body suddenly underwent a wondrous transformation. The golden flames were no longer simply flowing or exploding, but entered a state of "life." They could coil around incoming rocks like water, then suddenly explode at the instant of contact and grind them into powder. They could also condense into chains to trap a target, with every link concealing explosive power that could be detonated in succession with a single thought.
When the volcanic eruption reached its peak, Lin Tian shot into the sky, the flames around him transforming into a golden Fire Dragon. The Fire Dragon's scales gleamed with a metallic luster as they flowed—the condensation of the Fire Element Mystery—while a destructive orb of light brewed within its gaping mouth—the buildup of the Explosion Mystery. He spat the orb toward an uninhabited mountain in the distance. It did not explode immediately, but burrowed into the mountain like a living thing. Then, with a thunderous "boom," the entire mountain collapsed from within. Amid the billowing smoke and dust, only an enormous deep crater remained.
"The Fire Element Mystery and the Explosion Mystery have finally begun to fuse." Lin Tian landed on the ground, feeling the new power circulating within him as a smile appeared on his lips. This fusion was not a simple addition, but the birth of an entirely new ability—he could conceal explosive power within the flow of elements, catching his enemies off guard and leaving them impossible to defend against.
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