He immediately began advancing toward the main crater, adjusting his route to climb directly upward instead of circling the mountain.

The path became even more dangerous.

Stronger beasts began appearing with increasing frequency. Some possessed extremely violent energies, clearly superior to the creatures from the Intermediate Area.

Kyrian could feel them before he saw them, masses of fire Qi so dense they felt like miniature suns hidden behind the rocks.

After nearly an hour of climbing, Kyrian encountered the first one.

A colossal serpent emerged from a fissure in the ground.

It was not an ordinary serpent. Its body seemed partially made of liquid magma, red and black scales flowed as though melting, yet still maintained their shape. Drops of lava fell from its body, burning the ground wherever they touched.

Its eyes glowed red as it stared at Kyrian, evaluating him.

Peak Core Formation.

Kyrian sensed it clearly. The beast was on the same level as the Five-Horned Lava Lizard, perhaps slightly weaker in terms of bloodline, but still terrifying.

The serpent’s body stretched over twenty meters long.

The heat radiating from it distorted the surrounding air, creating visible waves that trembled like mirages.

The serpent attacked instantly.

There was no warning. No threatening posture. One moment it was motionless, observing, the next, its mouth opened and a wave of magma erupted from its throat like an explosion.

Kyrian calmly moved to the side.

The movement was minimal, half a step to the left, but it was enough. The lava brushed past him so closely that Kyrian felt the heat burn the edges of his robe.

The magma struck a nearby mountain. The rock melted instantly, turning into glowing liquid that flowed down the slope.

Kyrian’s eyes glowed.

Several streams of ice emerged around the serpent-like living chains, rising from the ground at calculated angles. They wrapped around the beast’s colossal body, around its neck, torso, and tail, tightening with enough force to crack bones.

The serpent’s partially frozen body hissed violently.

The beast roared, a guttural and distorted sound, while trying to shatter the ice. Its strength was immense. Cracks spread through the ice chains almost instantly.

But Kyrian had already moved.

His hand swept in a swift arc, and an ice sword instantly condensed in his palm, not an ordinary sword, but a thin, elongated blade, perfect for piercing.

The serpent was still occupied trying to free itself from the chains.

Kyrian advanced.

The ice blade pierced through the serpent’s eye, the most vulnerable point on its scale-covered head, and stabbed directly into its brain.

Ice spread instantly through the wound, freezing the neural tissue before the beast could even fully feel the pain.

The creature’s roar abruptly ceased, turning into a weak, agonized groan.

Its colossal body crashed heavily onto the volcanic rocks, trembling for several seconds before becoming completely still.

Kyrian slowly exhaled.

The fight had lasted only a few minutes.

But even so, he realized something important.

The Qi consumption in that environment was enormous.

Far greater than he had expected.

Every spear of ice, every chain, and every sword required more Qi than in the Intermediate Area.

Especially because he constantly had to use ice to protect himself from the heat while fighting. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Kyrian did not stay there to rest. He continued advancing.

Fortunately, he did not encounter any Spiritual Awakening Realm beasts during the climb.

If he did, even he would have problems. A beast of that level, combined with the hostile environment, would be a challenge Kyrian was not certain he could overcome.

Time passed slowly.

One hour.

Two.

Three.

The heat increased with every meter of altitude. Kyrian could no longer distinguish where the volcano’s heat ended and the heat of his own body began.

At times, he needed to stop briefly, just to breathe, to focus, to reinforce his Qi barrier. Fatigue was beginning to accumulate.

Five entire hours passed.

The sun had already moved across the sky, though its exact position was difficult to determine through the thick smoke.

Finally, Kyrian reached the summit.

The gigantic mouth of the Great Volcano appeared before him.

Kyrian stopped.

The hot wind blasted violently against his partially burned clothes, making them snap like flags in a storm.

His vision, through the smoke and distorted heat, reached the opposite edge of the crater, so distant that the details vanished into the red environment.

Then...

A distant explosion echoed from the other side of the volcano.

It was not the sound of lava, Kyrian already knew that sound well. It was sharper, like the collision of spiritual techniques.

Then another explosion.

And another.

Kyrian slightly turned his face in that direction, his blue eyes piercing through the streams of smoke.

’The leaders.’ He thought immediately.

It seemed they were fighting some powerful beast. The explosions were violent and irregular, a real battle.

And he was correct.

On the other side of the Great Volcano, in an equally hostile region, the four leaders of Red Smoke City were facing two Spiritual Awakening Realm beasts.

One of them was a Thousand-Year Fire Eagle, a colossal bird with wings of flame and claws capable of tearing through steel. The other was a Living Magma Golem, a creature without a defined form, made entirely of lava and molten stone.

But Kyrian did not care.

That had nothing to do with him.

He turned his gaze forward again.

Toward the gigantic crater.

Kyrian slowly approached the edge.

The ground beneath his feet was hot, so hot that the soles of his boots were beginning to melt. He ignored it.

What he saw below resembled hell.

An ocean of lava moved violently within the depths of the volcano, so vast that Kyrian could not see the opposite edges. Gigantic waves crashed against the inner walls of the crater, occasionally launching magma high into the air like a furious tide.

The heat was so intense that even space itself seemed distorted. The air trembled. The light bent.

Kyrian was careful not to get too close.

If he were directly struck by that lava, not merely splashed, but hit by a true impact, he would probably die. Even with his ice. Even with his barriers.

His eyes began carefully analyzing the entire region.

The inner walls of the crater, carved by centuries of magma flow, formed irregular patterns of black and red stone. Kyrian searched for caves, fissures, anything that appeared artificial.

Natural caverns formed by gas bubbles in solidified lava.

Cracks, some wide enough for a body to pass through.

Every detail.

Even the slightest suspicious sign.

But at first...

He found nothing.

It was merely a volcano.

Gigantic.

Deadly.

But apparently ordinary.

Kyrian frowned slightly.

’There’s nothing?’

It was possible the tomb was not there. Perhaps it was somewhere else in the Inner Area, hidden inside a side cavern, within some forgotten fissure.

But Kyrian felt otherwise.

Instinctively, he knew he was in the right place.

Then, at that exact moment...

The lava below slightly receded during a wave.

It was not a major retreat, perhaps only a few meters, but it was enough.

And Kyrian’s eyes caught something.

A red barrier.

Hidden beneath the surface of the magma.

The barrier was subtle, nearly transparent, blending with the surrounding glow of the lava. Kyrian would hardly have noticed it if he had not been specifically searching.

Behind it...

A small opening.

A cave.

Carved not by nature, but by intelligent hands.

Kyrian’s eyes immediately narrowed.

If not for his eyes, he never would have noticed it. No other cultivator there, not even the four Spiritual Awakening leaders, would have detected that barrier hidden beneath the lava.

The barrier remained visible for less than a second.

Only enough time for Kyrian to register its position, its shape, and its color.

Then the lava rose again, completely covering it.

But that was enough.

’I found it.’

His expression changed slightly, a gleam appearing in his eyes, a faint curve forming at the corners of his lips.

Ming Hai’s tomb.

It existed.

And Kyrian had found it.