Upper Yang Grotto-Heaven.
Jiang Ning climbed to the summit. Thick smoke billowed ahead.
Even in this bitterly cold land, the heat was terrifying. He felt as though he stood in a fire.
The rolling smoke blocked his view.
"Finally here!" Standing on a patch barely three inches wide, he drew a breath. The pungent smell of sulfurous smoke struck his nose and made him cough.
The smell gave him some idea of what lay below.
The next moment, he half closed his eyes, then opened them.
Flames bathed his pupils, and he instantly saw through the rolling smoke to the scene below.
Beneath the enormous crater, golden lava churned.
As it rolled, thick smoke rose to blot out the sky and sun.
"That's..." His pupils suddenly contracted. A golden stone surfaced amid the churning lava, then sank beneath it again.
Heavenly Yang!
That single glimpse was enough for him to make up his mind.
It was not just its shape. Through his Fire Eye, it appeared as a dazzling mass of energy, brilliant as the great sun.
Only highly concentrated energy could produce such a sight.
He clenched his fist, suppressing his excitement.
The next moment.
He jumped straight down.
He descended nimbly along the sheer cliff.
A hundred zhang separated the summit from the surging lava in the crater below.
As he rapidly descended, the air grew increasingly scorching and the temperature climbed.
Suddenly.
A small flame sprang up on his body.
He gripped the cliff with one hand and slapped out the flame with the other. Golden light immediately enveloped him.
"That was close. My clothes were almost burned clean off! If I ended up stark naked, I'd never live it down!"
Jiang Ning breathed a silent sigh of relief.
The Mustard-Seed Leaf could not be activated here.