After the passengers alighted from the bus, we all went our separate ways. The mercenaries disappeared somewhere, and I wasn't going to bother tracking down where they went. Being professionals, they would notice me, and it just wasn't worth the trouble. Not to mention, I didn't want to draw their attention toward me.
As for the teenage hikers, the moment they set foot on the ground, they excitedly ran off, no longer paying any attention to me. Like most youngsters, they had short attention spans and they were more interested in heading straight for the mountains or forests that they planned to hike in. Heavens knew how many mystical forests and mountains or hills there were in this continent. Too many for me to keep count.
The swordsman, on the other hand, was a complete mystery. I didn't see him disembark, yet when I stepped off the shuttle bus, I saw that he was gone. I didn't see him leave at all. That was weird.
But it was also none of my business. I had my own affairs to tend to, so I couldn't afford to be distracted by other people. I wasn't a paranoid person either, and unless these guys were demonic cultivators from the future, they surely had no reason to kill me or pursue me.
It wasn't as if I was the protagonist of some stupid cultivation story, where every single character was out to kill me for no reason other than because I breathed oxygen. I could practically imagine an old robber from some powerful sect showing up before me and demanding that I hand over all my treasures, kowtow until my forehead bleeds, and he might consider just sparing my life.
No, seriously. Apparently, it wasn't enough to rob me. He needed to humiliate me as well. Why were they obsessed with kowtowing? It made no sense. How exactly did my kowtowing benefit them? At best it would massage their massive egos, but other than that it was meaningless.
Whatever. If they did show up, I would deal with it when it came. For now, I had to focus on the mission. I had deemed it unlikely that anyone would show up and randomly try to kill me for no reason. The demonic cultivators from the future who were after my life, they most likely were in Hua Xia or Xing Hao Island, futilely looking for me. Nobody knew I was on this mission to the mystical continent. Not unless the demonic cultivators learned to hack into the university systems and saw that I had applied for this mission, but given how secure the academy networks were, I doubted that.
Then again, Han Sha managed to sneak into Seven Stars Academy and influenced an entire gang to cause chaos and target me, so I had best not underestimate the enemy…
After the shuttle bus, I had to take another bus toward the town closest to the mystical volcano chain. Getting off there, I saw that the town had been built in such a way that the residents could safely evacuate whenever there was an eruption.
Why did they bother to stay here if they were worried about the volcanic eruptions? Well, from the agricultural facilities and farms that stretched over the border of the towns, I could see that the residents planned to make full use of the rich, nutritional soil to generate profits. The land became very fertile after volcanic eruptions, after all – which didn't occur too frequently anyway. Maybe once every few years, and with current cultivation technology, the people here were able to predict the eruptions very accurately.
As I walked through the newly paved road, I caught sight of ranches, barns and farmhouses. Not only that, there was a ton of equipment and vehicles dedicated to farming – harvesters, tractors and the like. The town's economy primarily relied on agriculture.
There was an inn at the edge of the town, though it was usually frequented by cultivator geologists and adventurers seeking to profit off the rich minerals and rock deposits found near volcanoes. I had read somewhere that diamonds were found near volcanoes, but apparently the same went for spirit stones. Crystals rich in extremely pure fiery yang qi were often dug up from these volcanoes and used as resources for cultivation. It would benefit fire-type cultivators or at least cultivators specializing in yang-element techniques if they could absorb the rich, pure yang qi embedded within these crystals and rocks that had been immersed in the superheated lava for countless years.
That was probably what led to the growth of the Mystic Fire Fruit. The plant that bore such fruits had absorbed nutrients from the lava-rich soil and yang qi saturated crystals.
I considered staying in the inn for the night – the journey had taken a while and it was nearing evening. While the shuttle bus took about an hour from Xing Hao Island to the mystical continent, the more conventional bus that took me from the landing pad to this town required a longer travel time. I suspected it had something to do with the availability of budgets and resources allocated to the different transport companies. Kind of like how airline companies required more investment than bus companies.
"Oh, well…no point moving at night. I might as well wait until tomorrow morning."
Even though I rued wasting an entire day on traveling in public transports alone, there was nothing I could do about it. Even if I chose to press on, I wasn't going to get very far until it got super dark and near impossible for me to move around in the forest. Eventually I was going to have to set up camp and stop for the night anyway, so I might as well choose the more comfortable option.
"A room for one night, please." I smiled pleasantly at the receptionist, who nodded politely as she typed through the computer. Good thing I had a bunch of credits from the Na Lan and Xia clans, or I wouldn't have been able to afford a room.
"Room 404." The receptionist gave me a card key. "Breakfast and dinner are included, so if you wish to eat, you can head to the restaurant in the lobby."
"Understood. Thanks." I bowed my head, then grabbed my luggage and hurried to my room. Feeling somewhat famished, I then headed to the restaurant for dinner.
The restaurant served a buffet dinner, providing a variety of food across long tables with covered trays and the like. I scooped whatever I thought looked appetizing, which included fried rice, curry chicken, stir-fried noodles, tofu, seafood and a few appetizers. And some vegetables too. Bringing my overloaded plate to an empty table, I began to dig in.
While I ate, I couldn't help but listen to a conversation taking place in the table behind me. Two middle-aged men were conversing about the geological formations of the mystical volcanoes.
"Seems like region Alpha 2XB is covered in metamorphic rocks, particularly metavolcanic rocks. In addition to the ruby fire crystals, we also have incendiary cyan crystals."
"Ah, you mean the ones formed under extreme temperatures and pressure? The ones with the hottest fiery yang qi inside them?"
"Yeah. Apparently a single kilogram of them can sell for up to millions of credits. They are pretty rare, though."
"Who knows? Maybe we'll dig some more of those up in this expedition. Didn't we already uncover half a kilo of them last week? We might get lucky."
"Luck…" the first guy sighed and shook his head. "Speaking of luck, we might be in for a disaster. Hadn't you heard? There's a whole bunch of fire drakes sightings near our dig sites. The workers are spooked. They won't work until those fire drakes are driven off."
"Damn it…and this had to happen after we lost a team in sector Beta to a swarm of lava lizards!" the second guy groaned. "It's like something is stirring up those spirit beasts!"
"I'm thinking of hiring a team of high-level cultivators to help us get rid of those spirit beasts. Warriors at the Blackened Skies realm, at least."
"They don't come cheap, you know? And there aren't that many of them."
"There's a lot more of them than Silver Moon or Astral Stars realm cultivators, at least. And we can't afford those…"
"That's a pity…because there's reports of a fire dragon flying about. I don't think it will get near the dig sites, but…you never know."
"A fire dragon? That's commander-ranked, isn't it? Even a Blackened Skies realm cultivator will have trouble fighting something of that level. We'll need a team of Blackened Skies realm cultivator to deal with a fire dragon."
"Yeah…but it might just be a false alarm. We should wait and see."
"But we can't delay our digging operations any further…we need those spirit stones and crystals!"
"Don't worry, our parent company plans to change the currency from spirit stones to coins. Apparently they want to make our company more accessible to the international market."
"What?! Are they kidding?! That would be a marketing disaster! It'll make our company lose our identity! We have always been selling spirit stones to cultivators. That's what we are known for!"
"Then we have no choice but to keep digging, despite the dangers. Or we can move to the Cauldron of Fury. They have sapphire ice crystals and azure frost crystals, which are worth just as much."
"That's assuming that monster in the middle of the lake hasn't woken up yet…"
"Come on, that beast has been dormant for…what, two centuries now? Nothing will happen."
While I listened to the two men bickering and complaining, I couldn't help but feel a chill. My timing couldn't be any worse. The spirit beasts had chosen to become a lot more active right after I arrived in the mystical volcano chain. I wondered if this was a coincidence.
Well, of course it was. What else could it be? The gods deciding to deliberately make my life difficult because I was the protagonist of some silly cultivation story? Hah!
Poking at my food with my spoon and chopsticks, I sighed heavily. I was so not looking forward to the trip to the mystical volcano chain the next day.
However, the next day inevitably came. After breakfast at the same restaurant – which was bacon, toast and scrambled eggs – I checked out of the inn and proceeded toward the volcanoes.
The foot of the volcanoes were clustered with trees forming a thick forest. The moment I stepped into the wilderness, I sensed danger. There were fierce creatures inhabiting the place, fenced off from the town and its many farms, and they didn't take too kindly to humans trespassing upon their territory.
Well, too bad. They had to deal with it. I had no intention of backing off. I had come this far and I needed to obtain that Mystic Fire Fruit for Xia Xing Yue. I wanted to alleviate her suffering, even by a little, and I wished to see her progress smoothly into the next stage of her mastery of the Frozen Cloud Sword Palace skills.
Honestly, there was no reason for me to go this far for her, but now that I had stepped into the forest, I realized why I had done so.
More than Xia Xing Yue, I had done this for myself.
"Come and get me, if you dare," I said, voicing a challenge to the denizens of the forest. Minion-ranked lava wolves stalked out from between the trees, their black fur streaked with red and their fangs resembling stone. I cocked my head to the side and beckoned for them to attack.
The first lava wolf lunged at me without hesitation. Using Heavenly Flow and Earthly Paths to predict the trajectory of its charge, I drew my dragon sword and neatly cleaved it in half. Even though the fur of the lava wolves was said to be as hard as granite rock, my Heavenly Flow and Earthly Paths allowed me to perceive the weakest spot in my enemies' defenses.
As its two halves toppled wetly on the ground, the rest of its brethren retreated a step nervously. But only a step.
Then they pounced.
Pivoting on my foot, I whirled around and weaved through the pack of lava wolves, cutting a bloody swathe through them. Moving my head, I dodged the jaws of a lava wolf that had gotten close enough and then beheaded it in a single stroke. Flipping myself up, I avoided a lava wolf going for my throat, and then I sank my blade into its spine, severing its spinal cord. Stepping on its back, I then propelled myself upward and chopped a flying lava wolf into two pieces before it could rake its claws across my chest.
Landing on the ground gracefully, I ducked under a lunging lava wolf and brought my sword up, eviscerating it in a thin, vertical line. The poor thing hit the ground a few seconds later, its guts spilling out of its horrendous wound. Spinning about, I then sliced through another lava wolf that pounced on me while simultaneously evading its snapping jaws and outstretched claws. Its paw and part of its maw flopped helplessly on the ground and it fell with a gurgled whine.
Twirling my sword, I eyed the remaining lava wolves, which continued to circle me cautiously, and then I advanced with my footwork techniques.
Time to finish this.