Inside the molten cavern, Su Ming proceeded cautiously, slowly making his way deeper. He stayed on high alert, usually waiting until he had surveyed the path ahead before moving. As he walked, he held the Bone Horn in his hand, his eyes gleaming. The power of his blood and qi surged through his body, keeping him ready to unleash the strength of his eleven blood lines at any moment.
Whenever he had gone some distance, Su Ming would instinctively look for a nearby place where he could conceal himself, so that he could hide if danger arose—or find somewhere to evade the Moon Wings if they suddenly returned.
Though Su Ming was curious about the unknown, his caution kept that curiosity largely in check. The danger lurking here only made him more wary.
As he continued onward, the cold within the molten cavern grew more pronounced. There were few branching paths, so Su Ming gradually picked up his pace.
The surroundings were dim. Cracks of various sizes ran through the walls, apparently formed by years of baking heat. Yet Su Ming also spotted several cracks that looked fresh, their inner walls a slightly different color.
"Strange. These cracks must have appeared just now... What kind of force could make the walls split open like this?" Su Ming's eyes flickered as a suspicion took shape in his mind.
"Could extreme heat followed by a sudden chill unleash an unimaginable force?" Su Ming scratched his head and set the thought aside, committing the phenomenon to memory.
He had no idea how far he had gone. It felt as if a long time had passed when Su Ming suddenly stopped. The cavern ahead had grown considerably wider, and it continued to expand the farther in he went.
"Could I have reached the depths?" Su Ming carefully surveyed his surroundings and walked forward. Before long, the cavern grew larger still. At last, Su Ming drew a deep breath and stared at what lay before him, lost in thought.
Ahead of him was a cavern as large as his tribe. Dozens of small caves, packed close together, dotted its sides. The cave he had emerged from was one of them.
After a moment's thought, Su Ming stepped forward, his eyes gleaming as he examined each small cave. Then his gaze sharpened. He leaped up, pausing outside each cave to sniff.
After checking them all, Su Ming fixed his eyes on one and darted inside without hesitation. Of all the small caves, this was the only one where he could smell a faint trace of blood.
Clearly, this was where the Moon Wings had flown out from.
Su Ming raced onward, occasionally stopping to think. He used the Bone Horn to chip a large stone from the wall, roughly the same size as the passage.
It was quite difficult to cut out, but Su Ming remained determined. As he went, he chipped away several more stones like it.
After removing each one, he set it aside at a particular angle.
Gradually, Su Ming's pace quickened, even as he remained cautious. He could tell that he was heading down toward the base of the mountain; that was why the cavern kept growing larger. He ran deeper into the small cave until he felt he had traveled a great distance. Then, gradually, he saw a flash of red ahead.
The red light was like fire. At a glance, it was almost impossible to make out clearly.
The moment he saw it, Su Ming slowed. His heart pounded. He had a vague feeling that this had to be the end of the passage, but as he drew closer, he began to feel as if the blood in his body were about to catch fire. The sensation was familiar...
The hard stone walls around him were covered in countless scratches, and some even bore marks like teeth had sunk into them. The eerie atmosphere made Su Ming tense, but he did not stop. He continued toward the place where the fiery light shone.
This was indeed the end of the passage. There was no way forward, only a much larger cavern. Su Ming stood on guard and looked down.
At the sight, he froze as if struck by lightning. He stumbled back several steps and sucked in a sharp breath.
It was a huge basin, filled with countless mountain-shaped spikes jutting up like sharp thorns. The spikes were gray, yet they continuously released a chill that shrouded the surroundings, making the cavern bitterly cold.
If that had been all, Su Ming would not have been so shaken. Beyond those countless icy spikes, the basin held something else!
A tribe!!!
There were many stone houses, fences, and even watchtowers built from piled stones. In many places in the tribe, Su Ming could even see stone pots for cooking.
Outside every house stood a totem, one that looked like a mass of blazing flames!
Each stone house was enormous and built with striking order. At a glance, they even seemed more luxurious than those in Su Ming's Wu Mountain Tribe.
Su Ming also saw roads paved with stones winding through the tribe. The paths were dotted with many protruding pebbles, and he studied them for a long while without being able to figure out their purpose.
This was no ordinary tribe, nor was it an intact one!
Su Ming's gaze fell on several houses at the tribe's edge. They looked as though some strange force had split them in two, leaving only one half in the basin.
The other half was nowhere to be found...
What was more, apart from the pebble-paved paths, the ground where the tribe stood looked like soil, clearly unlike the surrounding rock.
Su Ming's breathing quickened as he stared at the scene before him. The legends of the Fire Barbarians that he had heard from Grandpa echoed in his mind... Gradually, an image surfaced: a gigantic tribe on the earth, occupying a vast expanse, stretching so far that it seemed to have no end.
Every house in the tribe was made of stone, and each bore the flame totem. That totem stood for the name of the tribe!
But one day, a cataclysm struck the tribe. Some unknown force split it into many pieces, scattering them as if the tribe had collapsed. Then a strange power swept away the shattered tribe and its people, along with the land beneath them, as though transporting them elsewhere.
A small piece of that tribe and its land had been transported into Wu Mountain...
"So it wasn't a legend..." Su Ming murmured, staring at the unbelievable sight before him, unable to believe his eyes.
His gaze swept over the tribe before finally settling on its center. His pupils contracted.
There was something even stranger there!
A tree! Or rather, it looked like a tree! Its entire body was crimson, radiating a light like fire. The glow Su Ming had seen in the passage came from this very tree.
The trunk was so thick that more than ten people could have joined hands around it. Its roots pierced the ground and seemed to bore through Black Flame Peak, reaching deep into the earth and spreading who knew how far.
The tree had only a trunk. At its crown, it pierced through the cavern's rock, as if what showed here were merely a portion of its trunk.
"A tree growing inside Black Flame Peak..." Su Ming stared fixedly at the trunk. There, some familiar little red flowers bloomed with an eerie beauty.
Looking at the little red flowers, Su Ming remembered the strange muddy swamp in the forest...
In silence, Su Ming drew his gaze away and looked at the tribal ruins buried beneath the long passage of time. A wave of sorrow welled up within him. With a soft sigh, he leaped down and landed in the tribe, in the Fire Barbarian Tribe from ten thousand years ago—one of the eight great Barbarian Tribes, which had dared to fight the Barbarian God.
"Then those Moon Wings must have come from the Fire Barbarians who survived Grandpa Fire Barbarian Lord's Barbarian Art, just as the legends say... But... this is almost impossible to believe. Such a Barbarian Art actually exists... Just how powerful was the Fire Barbarian Lord of the Fire Barbarian Tribe? The hide scroll said that after Blood Condensation came Dust Opening, and after Dust Opening came Bone Sacrificing. As for the realm after Bone Sacrificing, it said nothing. It only used the title Barbarian Master." Su Ming looked at the ancient tribe and slowly walked through it in silence.
The tribe was utterly empty. Apart from the houses and scattered odds and ends, Su Ming could not see a single bone. The stillness all around made the place feel suffocating.
As he pondered, he stepped onto one of the paths paved with raised stones. They dug into his soles a little. Su Ming lowered his head and looked, unable to work out what the path was for, then continued walking slowly. But as he went, he suddenly stopped. Something caught the corner of his eye, and he whipped his head up toward the edge of the divided tribe. A skeleton lay beside the rock wall!
Some houses had blocked it from view, so Su Ming had been unable to see it before. From where he stood now, however, it was clearly visible.
The moment Su Ming saw the skeleton, his pupils contracted sharply. It was the only skeleton he had found here. He hurried over and examined it closely. Then his body suddenly trembled.
The skeleton was strange. Its upper body looked human, but had shriveled as if it had withered. The bones of its lower body were stranger still, seeming to have melted and transformed; they were unlike those of an ordinary person. Two bony wings even protruded from its back, as if they were about to take shape. The bones looked remarkably like those of a Moon Wing!
It was as if, before dying, this person had been undergoing a change in his bones, enduring the agony of transforming from a human into a Moon Wing. Yet the skeleton's expression showed no trace of pain. Instead, it seemed to hold a hint of mockery and pride!
It was unclear who he had been mocking...
His right index finger pressed into the rock wall beside him, sunk deep within it. Su Ming followed the finger upward and saw a line of clear writing on the wall!
It was written in the language of the Barbarian Tribes!
The instant Su Ming's gaze fell on the writing, the passage at the entrance suddenly echoed with the sound of beating wings. Terrifying shrieks rang out with it, along with several faint cries of despair!
The Moon Wings had returned!!
Su Ming's expression changed at once!
Before you continue