The altar Yang Meng was making his way towards, was the one standing in front of the door at the centre of the ruins.
"Both of you can go a sit on the praying mat at one of the altars, I will take this one."
Pointing towards the altar in front of him, Yang Meng slowly started going up the half-broken steps of the altar before him.
Sofie looked at the altar on the left side of Yang Meng for a while before she decided to follow what Yang Meng said and went up the altar.
Looking around from the top of the altar, Sofie found out that the praying mat on top of it was relatively intact compared to the rest of the altar. Almost like nothing had happened to it or whatever happened to the altar, didn't affect the praying mat.
Sitting down on the praying mat, Sofie felt herself calm down and could even feel the speed which her permanent qi vessel condensed at had increase by a terrifying speed and that was without her cultivating.
"Don't worry about it! Just sit down and cultivate, the trail should start then."
Maybe thinking that both Yue Wan and Sofie would be confused upon seeing their cultivation speed suddenly increase, Yang Meng called out to both of them before sitting down and closing his eyes in deep. Entering a state optimal for cultivation.
"Well then… Good luck Sofie~"
A somewhat nervous voice sounded out from the altar Yue Wan was sitting on, before she started cultivating as well.
Sofie saw that both of them had started cultivating already and decided to do so as well, but the moment she started cultivating according to the [Fire Lord Qi] cultivation manual, something strange happened.
And almost like she suddenly awakened from a dream, Sofie found herself in the middle of a cave.
If this was just it, Sofie would most likely be scared to death as dark places were not her strong point… Luckily, a river of lava was flowing right in front of her, leading further into the cave.
"Wha- w-where am I?"
Asking no one specific, Sofie nervously looked around the dark cave. The light from the lava river was nice, but it only lit up a small part of the cave.
Looking around inspecting what she could see, Sofie managed to see a hole in the ceiling where the lava came flowing out from. Sadly, she could not see any other path out of the cave than the one leading further into the cave.
B-but what is this place…? A-and why am I here? W-w-where is Yang Meng… and Yue Wan?
Thinking over the situation, Sofie tried to remember everything that happened before she ended up in some random underground cave with a lava river flowing besides her.
I sat down on the praying mat on top of one of the half-broken altars, then I started cultivating… But how did this have anything to do with me suddenly ending up underground!? Maybe this is the trail Yang Meng talked about? But how did I end up here!? I was clearly on top of a mountain before this!
Not really understanding how she ended up inside of an underground cave, Sofie ended up thinking of it as part of the trail Yang Meng talked about. All she had to do to get back, was complete the trail before her.
With this simple logic in mind, Sofie cast on last look at the lava flowing down from the ceiling above the cave before she headed further into the underground cave she had suddenly found herself in.
…
Time passed and Sofie continued following the lava river further and further into the cave.
One of the things that Sofie discovered after walking beside the lava river for an undetermined amount of time, was that she felt no heat from it.
This was weird as she had clearly felt the heat from the lava when she was inside the fire hall and that place even had a giant formation in place meant to supress the heat to a bearable degree.
*BOOOOOM*
Sofie, who was thinking about why she didn't feel any heat from the lava and was currently hovering a hand just above the surface of it, suddenly heard an extremely loud explosion sound and with that came an enormous earthquake.
Not getting any time to prepare for the sudden explosion and following earthquake. Fear all over her face, she fell directly into the lava river in front of her.
As the lava slowly consumed her, Sofie finally managed to feel the heat she was searching for beforehand. The only difference this time, was that the heat didn't feel hot at all and was not burning her.
Slowly losing her consciousness, Sofie felt the lava submerge her completely in what felt like a gentle embrace.
…
Opening her eyes after what felt like forever, Sofie opened her mouth completely while starring wide eyed at the giant door in front of her.
I-I'm back again! B-but how…? Didn't I fall into a lava river? Shouldn't I be dead by now?
Wondering about what happened, Sofie quickly turned around to see if Yang Meng and Yue Wan was still there.
Yue Wan was still seated cross legged with closed eyes. Clearly still concentrated on cultivating.
Yang Meng had a slightly surprised look as he returned her look.
"Y-you passed the trail already… and only a few seconds after me…"
Saying the first part in a slightly surprised voice, Yang Meng proceeded to mumble something quietly to himself.
"T-trail?"
Extremely surprised at what Yang Meng was saying, Sofie looked weirdly at him, before remembering him talking about the trail starting when they started cultivating on the praying mat…
Did this mean the underground cave with the lava river was part of the trail? B-but I fell into the lava river and I completed the trail… Does this mean the trail wanted me to jump into a river of lava!?
Thinking about the 'trail', Sofie felt that there was something wrong with the people who made the trail…
Wanting others to jump into a river of lava, just what kind of sane person would do such a thing willingly. Normal people would just continue to follow the lava river further into the cave or give up… Wait a second… I-I fell into the lava river!
Trying to defend herself inside her mind and justifying her earlier actions, Sofie suddenly remembered herself leaning over the lava river with her hand hovering just above the surface of the lava.
"Hm? Is anything wrong?"
A worried look appeared on Yang Meng's face as he suddenly saw Sofie's entire head flush completely red all of a sudden.
Did anything happen? Maybe the trail had gone wrong after all the years and damaged her mind or something… The altars were after all quite old by now.
"I-I'm fine"
Forcing herself to smile a little, Sofie wanted nothing more than to burry herself in a hole in the ground and hide away at the moment.
Luckily, Yang Meng was on top of the altar a few meters away from her, so after turning her head away from him, he couldn't see the embarrassed look on her face anymore.