(Pictures of Zhu Zhuqing)
Lin Jiang pointed at Ah Yin, then at Zhu Zhuqing.
"This is Zhu Zhuqing, the girl I rescued last night. She'll be traveling with us."
Ah Yin nodded slightly, her smile gentle. "All right, Master."
Lin Jiang turned to Zhu Zhuqing. "This is Ah Yin. From now on, we're partners."
Zhu Zhuqing nodded, her gaze lingering on Ah Yin for a moment. Naturally, she took her for Lin Jiang's personal servant.
She was quite pretty, and had a lovely bearing, too. It seemed a shame for her to be a servant.
But Zhu Zhuqing didn't dwell on it. She followed Lin Jiang.
The three of them set off.
More than ten days later, the outline of the Disaster Mountain Range finally appeared on the horizon.
The ridgeline resembled the spine of a giant dragon sprawled across the earth, stretching endlessly from east to west. Its highest peaks pierced the clouds, shrouded year-round in gray volcanic ash.
Sparse patches of low shrubs and drought-resistant thorn bushes dotted the foothills.
Now and then, one or two rogue Soul Masters hunting low-ranked Soul Beasts could be seen poking around the outskirts.
But once they entered the mountains, things changed.
The farther in they went, the sparser the vegetation became. The ground changed from grassland to gravel, then from gravel to charred volcanic rock.
There were fewer and fewer traces of Soul Beasts, until even the lizards had disappeared.
A faint smell of sulfur hung in the air, as though someone were burning a pile of rotten eggs somewhere out of sight.
Lin Jiang had a clear destination: the Cataclysm Volcano deep within the Disaster Mountain Range.
The hundred-thousand-year-old Explosive Flame Shatter Dragon was there, waiting for him to claim its Soul Ring.
The closer they got to the volcano,