We woke up the next morning without suffering any incidents during the night. Yawning, I put on my glasses and stretched myself as I rose from my sleeping bag. Lifting the flap of the tent entrance, I looked outside and spied on the dawning sun.
Time to work. Well, before that, we should have breakfast. After a light meal, we kept the tents and I erased the formations so that nobody would be able to use them against me. It was never a good idea to leave formations lying around. While avoiding having them stolen and used by other people was a major reason, I also didn't want amateurs to blow themselves up while trying to use my formations. As much as I didn't want blood on my hands, I figured that if other people were going to destroy my arrays, I might as well erase them with my own hands.
With that grim task done, the both of us proceeded toward the place with the Mystic Fire Fruits. We didn't get very far when I spotted them. Growing upon a bunch of small shrubs, the fruits hung from thin branches, glowing fiercely.
"We found them!" I said, delighted. Fu Xi nodded beside me.
"The completion of our task is near at hand!"
"…uh, okay?" I raised an eyebrow. That was quite the archaic – not to mention cheesy – manner of speaking, but then again, Fu Xi was homeschooled and hardly ever left his master's home. So he probably didn't speak like a regular person.
That wasn't important, though. We hurried toward the Mystic Fire Fruits. On the way, the usual collection of spirit beasts attacked, though they didn't come in as great numbers as yesterday. A few stray salamanders or a couple of lava lizards, which were easily dispatched. A single scalding snake and a small number of fire drakes swooped down on us, but we dealt with them easily enough. Most of the other fire drakes kept their distance, having seen how the both of us massacred their brethren yesterday.
The spirit beasts might be hostile toward us, but they certainly weren't stupid. And they definitely weren't suicidal.
"Kan style." Intoning under his breath, Fu Xi unleashed a series of water blades to cut apart the fire drakes. Meanwhile I activated my enhanced sixth sense briefly and stabbed the origin point of the scalding snake. The creature shrieked as it fell back, and I traced my blade along the weakest qi lines I could perceive, cutting it apart fairly easily.
Fu Xi took care of the last fire drake before glancing at me. He cocked his head as he studied the carcass of the scalding snake. "That's an impressive technique you have there."
"Not as amazing as yours." I winced, thanking the heavens that I didn't need to keep my enhanced sixth sense active for too long. The overload would have fried my brain. "Your Eight Trigrams Swordsmanship is invincible."
"Nah, it's not. There's no such thing as the strongest swordsmanship or invincible sword techniques. Every sword technique has its strength and weaknesses." He paused and shrugged. "That's what Master taught me, anyway. And I believe him."
"Your master is right. I think." I felt envy. My master only taught me summoning techniques, which were useless here. I doubted my magic carp could do anything to the spirit beasts here, not until he evolved or something. I wished Master taught me sword techniques instead. I had been too hasty, having pledged my loyalty to a summoning sect instead of a sword technique. I wondered if it was too late for me to quit and enter a sect like the Frozen Cloud Sword Palace instead.
Nah, best not to join there. It would get awkward seeing Xia Xing Yue, and her senior, the chief disciple Yun Che, would try to kill me. I honestly didn't get it. For some reason, in both ancient and urban cultivation stories, every male character was out to kill the protagonist just because the woman he desired was in love with him instead. I could understand jealousy, but to resort to murder over such a petty matter? That made no fucking sense.
Fortunately, I had Yin Yang Swordsmanship, which I had yet to use here. The problem was that Yin Yang Amalgamation Strike required a lot of qi, and if I were to use it, I would exhaust myself like I did against Pang Bai Shan. Not only that, during that fight, I had borrowed tremendous amounts of qi from Pang Bai Shan's White Mountain Strike and used it against him. It would be more difficult to borrow qi from the salamanders, lava lizards or fire drakes.
Additionally, Yin Yang Amalgamation Strike was a huge attack that was slow and time consuming. It was undeniably powerful – I had no doubt it would obliterate the scalding snake in one blow (though it would expend a lot of my qi) – but the lava lizards and fire drakes would easily dodge it. As for the salamanders, I certainly could hit them with it, but I would only hit a few of them. If the enemies were too spread out (like the salamanders), I would expend a good chunk of qi just to take out a fraction of them. That was incredibly inefficient and it would leave me exhausted and vulnerable to the many survivors who remained in the aftermath.
I decided to save that move for a slower, single target. Like the fire dragon, if it decided to show up. I was sure that it would appear. All that foreshadowing…not only that, I was tempting fate just by wishing it wouldn't show up. So if I simply assumed it would appear, maybe it wouldn't. But I doubted that. The fire dragon would inevitably appear when we reached the Mystic Fire Fruits. I was sure of that.
"Okay, let's go."
That said, the fire dragon hadn't shown up for now, so we might as well make the best use of the time we had now. We hurried toward the patch of Mystic Fire Plants, all the while keeping an eye out for aggressive and territorial spirit beasts. None of them attacked us, not after witnessing the slaughter of their brethren, and so we reached the plants without difficulty.
As we neared, I took note of the numerous hot springs that surrounded the thicket of Mystic Fire plants. It was obvious that the plants had been nourished by the nutrients and fiery yang qi that saturated the boiling hot springs. The fruits were bulging, looking healthy and juicy, which could only be a good sign. I could feel the rich, nutritional qi coursing through them, courtesy of Heavenly Flow and Earthly Paths.
If we could just get to them…
I glanced around, frowning. The spirit beasts were keeping their distance. I found that strange, but then again, it made sense. The fruits were nutritional to the spirit beasts, but it wasn't as if they were some kind of priceless treasure. They were abundant and neither Fu Xi nor I intended to take too many of them. We would take a couple, maybe five at most.
Yet there were hundreds of the Mystic Fire Fruits around.
The reason why we had no intention of taking so many was simple. Mystic Fire Fruits weren't that useful for humans. They were hardly edible, and those who did eat them wouldn't benefit much. They weren't even that delicious, having an incredibly spicy taste (what did you expect from a fire-based fruit?), so no one would consider them delicacies. Also, those who ate them wouldn't improve much in their fire-based techniques. The rich, fiery qi might benefit them a little, but the excessive quantity was more likely to cause internal combustion and fry your meridians from the inside out than help your cultivation. It was basically like devouring a bomb and hoping that you could breathe fire after that.
On the other hand, that excessive fiery yang qi was exactly what would help Xia Xing Yue counteract the excessive amount of frosty yin qi in her body and clear the frozen, clogged blockages in her meridians.
We might grab a few more in case a few disciples in Frozen Cloud Sword Palace might need them, but that was unlikely. The request only asked for one, and given Xia Xing Yue's status in Frozen Cloud Sword Palace, she would know if any of her other disciples suffered from a similar condition and put in a request for more.
"What do you think?" I asked Fu Xi, after sharing some of my thoughts with him on our way to the plants. He smiled.
"You are right. We should not be too greedy. About five is enough, as you say." He nodded toward the spirit beasts. "We should leave enough for them. Taking less Mystic Fire Fruits will also increase the chances that they will not attack us."
"Agreed."
We stopped right in front of the plants. Using my Heavenly Flow and Earthly Paths, I picked out the fruits with the most robust fiery qi and plucked them. Immediately, I put them into the storage dimension installed inside my backpack. Fu Xi also took a few, and we split up the six among ourselves. Three with me, and three with him.
That made strategic sense. If anything happened to either of us, the other one who survived would be able to make it back with the prize. Of course, I hoped that nothing would happen, but it was best to take precautions.
"All right, I think that should do it. Let's go."
"Yeah." Fu Xi nodded, glancing at the spirit beasts, who were keeping their distance. "Good, they don't seem to mind."
The two of us moved swiftly after hefting up our backpacks. We then jogged toward the direction of the slope leading down. Inwardly, I was glad that we found the Mystic Fire Fruit so soon, on the first volcano we climbed. That would save us a lot of time. I couldn't imagine how much time we would waste if the Mystic Fire Fruit wasn't here. We would have to climb a few other volcanoes while fervently praying the damned thing was growing on one of them.
We hadn't gotten very far when a massive shadow was cast upon us. I groaned as I skidded to a stop and looked upward.
"I fucking knew it." I sighed heavily and shook my head. "The damned fire dragon is here."
"Oh…" Fu Xi sounded weary. "I was hoping we wouldn't run into it."
Pushing my glasses up my nose, I watched the fire dragon descend upon us. Drawing my sword at the same time as Fu Xi, we prepared for combat. We didn't have to wait long. The fire dragon unleashed a torrent of flames upon our position, baking the ground and scorching our surroundings.
Fortunately, the both of us were able to dodge – me with my footwork techniques and Fu Xi jumping to the side. He rolled up and pointed his sword upward, the eight trigrams appearing beneath his feet. The Xun symbol was already lit up as he hurled wind blades at the fire dragon, who was already circling back for a second bombing run.
The wind blades had little effect on the fire dragon, practically bouncing off its scarlet armored scales without causing any damage. Clicking his tongue, Fu Xi immediately switched to Zhen symbol, calling down several massive thunderbolts.
These appeared to have much more of an effect, the fire dragon bellowing furiously as it was brought down, its ruby scales scorched slightly black. It crashed onto the ground, doing its best to protect itself from the lightning with its wings. At the same time, it swiped at Fu Xi.
The swordsman immediately responded, switching to the Kun symbol. A wall of earth rose, but was shattered instantly by the sheer force of the fire dragon's claws. He grunted as he was sent flying back, but most of the impact was absorbed by the earth wall and he managed to retreat to a safe distance with little more than shallow scratches.
"Tough…!" he muttered.
The dragon lunged at him, only to be encased in ice. I had used my spirit talismans to freeze the damned creature in place, knowing that they wouldn't hold it for long. Five ice talismans at once, but they wouldn't be able to stop a commander-ranked spirit beast for more than ten seconds.
"I'll delay the fire dragon as best as I can!" I shouted. "Set up your Eight Trigrams formation and use that ultimate Eight Trigrams sword technique! The eight in one!"
A bead of perspiration dripped down Fu Xi's face as he smiled sheepishly.
"Uh, you might have misunderstood something, my friend," he said. I felt a chill at his words, but nonetheless, I forced myself to listen. "The Eight in One is certainly powerful, but it's designed to fight human opponents. My Eight Trigrams Swordsmanship is revered for its flexibility, its ability to adapt to almost any opponent and overwhelm them with a near limitless number of different sword styles. But it is not some super-powerful technique that can bring down a commander-ranked spirit beast in a single strike."
"…oh."
I gulped when I heard that. For a moment, my mind went blank, and then I asked the only question that popped up.
"So what do we do now?"