"This should be the place."
Huo Tian raised a hand and gazed toward the nearby Flame Mountain Range. After searching for so long, he had finally arrived.
Huo Tian hoped the Nirvana Divine Bird was still here and had not flown away because of his arrival, like this strange Flame Island.
Huo Yutong leaped off Huo Tian's back, her curious gaze constantly surveying the unfamiliar surroundings.
Huo Yutong discovered that the Soul Beasts here all had only one attribute. Finding Soul Beasts of other attributes here was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
Holding Huo Yutong's hand, Huo Tian strode toward the low Flame Mountain Range. The farther they went, the fewer fire-type Soul Beasts they saw.
The two circled around the foot of the mountain range without finding an entrance. They could only climb up.
Because the only way in was through the volcanic crater, two pairs of Soul Tool climbing boots appeared out of thin air in Huo Tian's hands. He pressed their buttons, and the boots immediately adjusted to the right sizes.
Huo Tian helped Huo Yutong put hers on before putting on his own. The two climbed along the steep, scorching slope.
Huo Tian led the way up the slope, blocking the volcanic rocks that could fall anywhere, while Huo Yutong followed silently behind. With Huo Tian ahead of her, her climb went very smoothly.
After climbing for ten quarter-hours, they finally reached the mountainside. Just then, an enormous volcanic rock fell from the sky, hurtling toward them.
With a casual wave of his hand, Huo Tian sent an Evil Fire Explosive Bomb blasting the volcanic rock to pieces in an instant. The small fragments tumbled down the steep slope.
The two continued up the slope. Roughly fifteen quarter-hours later, they finally reached the summit of the Flame Mountain Range.
At the summit of the Flame Mountain Range lay a gigantic pit filled with scalding magma. The heat it radiated struck fear into the heart.
"It's so hot!"
Huo Yutong lowered her head to look at the magma inside the pit, raising a hand to keep fanning away the heat washing over her face.
The magma inside the Flame Mountain Range's pit continued to bubble. A rock that accidentally fell in was instantly burned to ash.
Huo Tian sensed that the power of the magma's fire element rivaled the evil fire inside Ma Xiaotao. Compared with the evil fire inside him, however, the magma's power still fell far short.
"Have a drink."
Two bottles of ice water appeared out of thin air, and Huo Tian handed them to Huo Yutong. Once they finished drinking, they would head down.
Huo Yutong was startled. She could not understand how Huo Tian could pull out every conceivable thing. Was his Soul Tool Ring like a bag of endless treasures?
"Master, how do you have absolutely everything?"
A smile on her cheeks, Huo Yutong gulped down the ice water as she looked at Huo Tian. He awkwardly rubbed the back of his head.
The reason Huo Tian's Soul Tool Ring contained so many miscellaneous things was entirely because he...
"It's nothing. You have to be prepared for whatever you do, right?"
Huo Tian answered vaguely. Seeing this, Huo Yutong did not ask any further. Her own Soul Tool Ring held only Gold Soul Coins, Soul Bones, some pills, and clothing-essentially nothing else.
"Here we go!"
Huo Tian immediately released his Martial Soul. Vermilion Bird Fire Wings spread from his back as he wrapped both arms around Huo Yutong's slender waist, and the two leaped down into the pit.
The closer they came to the magma, the stronger the fire element rushing toward them became. Most of it, however, was devoured completely by the evil fire inside Huo Tian.
Above the magma, Huo Tian surveyed their surroundings and finally found a foothold. The two headed toward it.
The foothold connected to a cave. They landed there safely, and Huo Tian strode inside with Huo Yutong close behind.
Huo Tian began releasing his soul power to explore the terrain throughout the interior of the Flame Mountain Range. He discovered that the terrain inside was a tangled mess.
If a Soul Master with low cultivation accidentally ventured inside, only death awaited them. The entire interior of the Flame Mountain Range was like a maze.
Huo Tian tried to use his soul power to locate the source of the purest fire element inside the Flame Mountain Range. The purest fire-element aura was usually what the Nirvana Divine Bird emitted.
"Finally found it."
Huo Tian's eyes lit up. After searching for so long, he had finally caught his target. He and Huo Yutong arrived at a fork.
The fork had three passages. Based on the Nirvana Divine Bird's location, Huo Tian ultimately chose the last one.
"This way."
Huo Tian raised a finger toward the third passage. Looking into the pitch-black passage, Huo Yutong immediately released her Martial Soul and shared it with Huo Tian.
Under the effects of Huo Yutong's Martial Soul, everything inside the cave became clearly visible. The two headed down the third passage.
They continued deeper along the passage. After walking for a while, they suddenly heard a piercing cry ahead. The cry carried a mental attack that sought to bewitch their minds.
"Fuck, a haunting in broad daylight?"
Evil fire erupted all around Huo Tian, directly burning through the entire mental field. The evil fire burned along the mental field all the way to the source of the sound.
An agonized scream rang through the passage, and a female ghost in a red bridal gown appeared before them.
"Please, be magnanimous, my lord. I was wrong!"
With evil fire blazing all over her, the Bridal Gown Female Ghost fell to her knees. She kowtowed humbly to Huo Tian, feeling that she had truly reached the end of her life.
"It really is a female ghost!"
Huo Tian stared at the Bridal Gown Female Ghost in astonishment. He could sense that she possessed cultivation too, with a cultivation age of roughly seventy thousand years.
"Master, why is there a ghost in broad daylight?"
Huo Yutong's face turned white with fear. She hid entirely behind Huo Tian, peeking out at the sinister Bridal Gown Female Ghost before them.
"Brother Huo, this is a Soul Beast. She'd be very suitable as Huo Yutong's fifth or Sixth Soul Ring."
"The Bridal Gown Female Ghost contains the purest mental attribute. If I were at the same cultivation level as her, even my mental power would fall short of hers."
Sister Tian Meng's voice suddenly rang out. She had just sensed a powerful mental attribute outside, immediately waking her.
Hearing the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's words, Huo Tian snapped his fingers, and the evil fire on the Bridal Gown Female Ghost instantly vanished.
"Do you want to die or live?"
"Live... live."
The Bridal Gown Female Ghost struggled to speak. Why would she die if she could live?
"Once my disciple's cultivation reaches Soul King, you'll become his Soul Spirit."
"I'll do whatever you say."
Huo Tian pressed a finger between the Bridal Gown Female Ghost's brows. If any evil intentions arose in her heart, this fire mark would immediately burn her to nothing.
"All right, then. Tell me why you're here."
Huo Tian truly found it a little hard to believe that even a ghost could possess cultivation. In all his years of life, he had never actually seen a ghost with cultivation.
Perhaps ghosts with cultivation existed somewhere on the Douluo Continent, and Huo Tian simply did not know about them.
"I don't belong to this world. I belong to Blue Star..."
The Bridal Gown Female Ghost's voice was hoarse as she lowered her head and looked at the ground.