Divine Transcendence

"It really is a high-grade spiritual material."

Yuan Ming’s eyes lit up, and he became even more fond of the fiery red unicorn. He carefully put it away and planned to study what it was after returning to the sect.

To think that such a horn was contained within the volcanic magma in this tower, it seems that this volcano is not simple.

However, he currently doesn’t have the ability to explore this mountain. He turned around and called the fire ferret, continuing to walk towards a distant place, quickly leaving the area covered by volcanic magma.

Yuan Ming stood on a slope, looking at the scarred earth.

With such a large-scale volcanic eruption, the fire jade near the volcano had already been completely submerged by magma. He didn’t have a way to search for fire jade in the magma, so it seems that this mission can only end here.

He was unsure of how to proceed next, whether to search for others or return to the sect on his own.

After a brief consideration, Yuan Ming decided to go look for others and headed in a direction with the fire ferret.

Leaving alone like this seemed heartless, and he only vaguely remembered the location of the Birodong Sect. It would be troublesome to go back alone.

Just at this moment, a faint sound came from behind, as if footsteps.

Yuan Ming quickly turned around and saw a person appearing on the mountain path not far away. It was Legong.

"Junior Brother Yuan, you’re still alive, and the fire ferret is safe too. Thank goodness!" Legong saw Yuan Ming and the fire ferret beside him, and ran over excitedly.

Legong looked very disheveled at the moment, with many of his clothes burned, and his skin scorched in a few places, but fortunately, they were not in vital areas.

After glancing at Legong, the fire ferret moved its gaze away and ignored him, seeming to dislike this person.

"Senior Brother Legong, are you alright?" Yuan Ming also felt happy.

Encountering familiar people at this time was always a joyful thing.

"I’m fine, just some superficial injuries, nothing worth mentioning. By the way, Junior Brother Yuan, have you seen Senior Sister Lan Ke and the others? Of course, including Mu Li." Legong waved his hand and asked.

"The situation was critical just now, and I only cared about saving myself, so I didn’t notice how the others were doing." Yuan Ming shook his head.

"Ah, I wonder how she’s doing." Legong scratched the back of his head, showing a worried expression.

Yuan Ming’s eyes flickered. Legong, Mu Li, Chishu, and A Gula were all people he had just met, so naturally he was worried about Lan Ke. He didn’t know what their relationship was.

"Let’s search around a bit. With Senior Sister Lan Ke’s strength, she should be fine." Without probing further, he suggested.

Legong nodded, and the two of them went in a direction to search.

The fire ferret jumped onto Yuan Ming’s shoulder and half-laid down, closing its eyes to rest.

"It seems like the fire ferret really likes Junior Brother Yuan. After you return to the sect, you might as well take on this task." Legong saw the docile appearance of the fire ferret and half-envied, half-sighed as he made the suggestion.

Yuan Ming did have this idea and asked, "Senior Brother Legong, can you tell me more about this task from the Third Elder?"

"Junior Brother Yuan is really interested? Actually, the task itself is not difficult. The Third Elder’s requirements are very simple: take good care of the fire ferret, feed it a few pieces of Flame Crystal every day, and make sure it doesn’t get hurt." Legong quickly said.

"It sounds like it’s not difficult." Yuan Ming said.

"It sounds simple, but it’s not simple at all. Junior Brother Yuan, you don’t know how mischievous this fire ferret is." Legong sighed and said.

Just at this moment, the fire ferret, who had been squinting its eyes, suddenly opened them and started making a humming sound.

Seeing this, Legong quickly took out a piece of fiery red crystal and handed it to the fire ferret’s mouth. It seemed to be what the Third Elder had fed the fire ferret before.

The fire ferret saw the crystal and immediately raised its head, biting onto it and chewing it up.

"How is the reward for this task?" Yuan Ming rubbed the fire ferret’s head and asked the most concerned question.

"The reward is naturally generous. As long as you can take care of the fire ferret according to her requirements, you can receive a reward of thirty contribution points every month. And you can also learn a spell from her for free, of course, it must be within the Qi Refining stage." Legong said.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Ming became even more tempted.

Thirty contribution points can definitely be considered a generous reward. Working in the Fire Pavilion, the monthly contribution points are only ten, not to mention being able to learn a spell for free.

He continued to play with the fire ferret’s head, secretly making up his mind.

"Junior Brother Yuan is not a disciple of the Beast Taming Hall. If you want to take on this task, you should start from the Execution Hall. The stewards there are also aware of the Third Elder’s task." After thinking for a moment, Legong added.

"Thank you for the advice." Yuan Ming thanked him.

The two continued to search forward, but after a long time, they didn’t find any clues.

Yuan Ming was fine, but Legong became more and more anxious.

"It’s not a solution to continue searching blindly like this. Why don’t we try a different approach?" Yuan Ming suggested.

"Oh, Junior Brother Yuan, do you have any ideas?" Legong’s eyes lit up and asked.

"Since we can’t find Senior Sister Lan Ke and the others, why not let them find us instead?" Yuan Ming said.

Legong was puzzled by this.

"Set the wood on fire to create smoke." Yuan Ming pointed to a small forest not far away.

"This method is not bad." Legong rubbed his hands together and said happily.

The two of them worked together to cut down all the trees in the forest and lit a bonfire.

Thick black smoke quickly rose and floated towards the sky, forming a column of smoke.

The volcanic lava had already calmed down, and not much smoke rose from it, making the black smoke column quite conspicuous.

After a while, a clear and crisp crane cry came from the other side, and two white cranes appeared in the distant sky, flying quickly towards them.

On the backs of the white cranes were Mu Li and Chishu.

"Both of you are safe, that’s great." Yuan Ming waved his hand to greet them.

Legong felt disappointed in his heart, but reluctantly squeezed out a smile and asked the two about Lan Ke’s whereabouts.

A piercing cry that pierced through the sky came from the other side, and a gray figure quickly approached. It was the golden-eyed eagle, with Lan Ke and A Gula on its back.

"Senior Sister Lan Ke, you’re also safe, thank goodness." Legong was overjoyed and waved his hand.

Yuan Ming also showed a happy expression, feeling a bit emotional.

Encountering such a natural disaster, all six of them in the group actually survived. It had to be said that their luck was really good.The Golden-eyed Eagle landed on the ground, and Lan Ke leaped down, but A Gula did not move.

His right leg below the knee was charred, with nearly half of the skin and flesh burned off, clearly the result of the lava. There were also multiple burns elsewhere on his body, making for a pitiful sight.

Upon seeing this, the expressions of Mu Li and the others changed slightly, and Yuan Ming also furrowed his brows.

"Brother A Gula, how did you get injured like this?" Mu Li, who had completed several missions with A Gula and had a relatively close relationship with him, asked with concern.

A Gula gave a bitter smile but did not speak.

With his right leg injured like this, the meridians in his leg were likely damaged as well. It was uncertain whether they could be healed.

Lan Ke sighed and explained how A Gula had been injured.

When the lava attacked, he released a white crane in an attempt to fly away, but the crane, terrified of the volcanic disaster, abandoned A Gula and fled on its own.

In his shock and anger, A Gula had no choice but to escape on his own. However, he was attacked by a fire rock snake halfway through, his right leg was bitten, and then he was caught up by the rolling lava, his right leg was burned. He was about to be buried here.

At the critical moment, Lan Ke happened to pass by and saved A Gula’s life.

"Regardless, we are all still alive, which is a blessing in disguise. Although Brother A Gula’s injuries are severe, there are ways to heal them, but we’ll have to return to the sect first," Lan Ke said.

Mu Li, a disciple of the Refining Furnace Hall and skilled in several medical techniques, immediately applied ointment to A Gula’s wound and bandaged it.

"Thank you, Brother Mu Li," A Gula thanked him.

Everyone was quite exhausted from their hasty escape, so they rested briefly around the fire.

"It’s strange, why would there suddenly be a volcanic eruption of this scale?" Mu Li looked towards the volcanic peak.

"Such a disaster is beyond our mortal comprehension," Lan Ke shook her head.

"Maybe the Flame Demon under the tower is turning over, haha..." Seeing that Lan Ke was safe and sound, Le Gong regained his previous liveliness and laughed.

"The Flame Demon of the tower?" Yuan Ming looked over.

"This is a legend of the Tower Volcano. This area used to be a lush green mountain range, and that peak was just an ordinary mountain. Later, an immortal suppressed a Flame Demon under the peak. The Flame Demon burned the rocks with its flames, turning this place into a volcanic area," Le Gong said with a flourish, occasionally glancing at Lan Ke.

Yuan Ming remained silent, thinking of the fiery red horn he had just obtained. Could it be the horn of that Flame Demon?

He immediately shook his head and laughed, scolding himself for being naive. How could such a myth be true?

"By the way, the rumor also says that the Flame Demon turns over every five hundred years, causing a massive volcanic eruption. I’ve seen records of the Tower Volcano in the sect, and it seems that a few hundred years ago, there was also a large-scale volcanic eruption here. Maybe that legend is true," Le Gong said enthusiastically as everyone looked over.

"Enough, these are just folk tales. It’s surprising that you, a cultivator, would believe such absurd stories," Lan Ke frowned and scolded.

Le Gong chuckled a few times and obediently shut his mouth.

However, Le Gong’s nonsense did lighten the atmosphere quite a bit.

After a brief rest, everyone had more or less recovered.

"What are your plans now?" Lan Ke asked.

"After such an incident, it’s impossible to continue searching for the Fire Jade. We should return to the sect first. We need to get someone to look at Brother A Gula’s injury as soon as possible," Mu Li said.

The others had no objections, and the group immediately headed towards the sect.

...

Execution Hall.

The others who had returned from the mission with Yuan Ming handed in their Fire Jades in exchange for rewards, but all of Yuan Ming’s Fire Jades had been eaten by the Fire Mink, so he couldn’t get any rewards.

However, Yuan Ming didn’t mind. He had already decided to take on the task of taking care of "Fire Glutton", so he went directly to find the managing deacon.

After registering the task at the deacon’s place, Yuan Ming was told that non-Beast Taming Hall disciples who took on spirit beast rearing related tasks needed to go to the Beast Taming Hall to learn relevant knowledge and gain approval.

After all, it involved the beloved pet of the Third Cave Master. If anything happened, no one could bear the responsibility.