Chapter 139 - 105: The True Backup Plan and the Purple Trait

Chapter 139: Chapter 105: The True Backup Plan and the Purple Trait

After learning that the group wanted to head to the Volcano Crown to cleanse the Divine Sword of its corruption, he slowly spoke up, "You’re going to the Volcano Crown? That is an active volcano. The crater is over ten kilometers in diameter, and at its center is a churning lava lake.

"The temperature there can indeed burn away the Wind Element impurities in the sword, but the Red Flame Realm’s Heart of Fire slumbers there."

"The Heart of Fire? Could you elaborate on that?" Chen Shang asked.

"In our legends, the Heart of Fire is a miracle born of the heavens... However, your Wizard research reports explicitly state that it is an Elemental Core formed after the fall of an ancient High Tier Elemental Spirit, possessing a semi-autonomous consciousness.

"It devours the Fire Element Affinity of anyone who approaches. Once it is devoured, the person will instantly collapse."

He paused for a moment before continuing, "That is why it is an absolute forbidden zone for us Iliets and Fire Elemental Spirits. Our talents are primarily based on the Fire Element, unlike you Wizards, who are balanced in all aspects and are not afraid of this kind of devouring."

Chen Shang stored the sword in his Space Book. "So the only danger there is the environment?"

The old man nodded and continued, "If you encounter danger, you can activate the Flame Heart Talisman I gave you. It can isolate the erosion of the Heart of Fire for a short time.

"But the duration is only half an hourglass, so you had best act quickly."

***

After bidding farewell to the Sunshine Race, Chen Shang looked up detailed information on the Volcano Crown. Finding no discrepancies with what Old Iliet had told them, the four of them unanimously decided to give it a try.

The Volcano Crown stood at the northernmost end of the Red Flame Realm. Setting out from the Molten Lava Lake, it took the four of them nearly a day to arrive.

The closer they got to the crater, the higher the temperature climbed. The thermal insulation layer of Chen Shang’s Frost Mage Robe burned from silvery-white to light red, its power operating at an overloaded capacity.

Surtr walked at the very front. The cracks all over his body opened to their maximum, with flames spewing out from within like a moving volcano. The Golden Crow perched on Surtr’s shoulder, unusually quiet.

The four of them stopped at the edge of the crater.

The crater was ten kilometers in diameter, and at its center was a massive lava lake. Tangerine-red lava churned on the lake’s surface, looking like a boiling pot of liquid copper. Heat waves rose from the lake, baking the air into layers of distorted ripples. Within this area, there were no living creatures.

Chen Shang activated the Eye of True Sight. Just under a thousand meters beneath the exact center of the lava lake, there was a void containing a suspended Obsidian Platform. The platform was less than ten meters in diameter, its surface as smooth as a mirror. At its center floated a two-meter-wide fireball.

The fireball’s color was a nearly transparent blazing white. Inside its blazing white core, a cyan vein slowly swam about, like a snake locked in amber.

This was the Heart of Fire.

"I see it. That place can absolutely cleanse the impurities from the Divine Sword, and there is no other interference. It’s worth a trip."

Chen Shang explained the detailed situation inside to the group, and the four of them began making their way down the crater’s slope toward the center.

The rock walls of the crater were made of grayish-white volcanic rock, its surface covered in a layer of sulfur crystals that CRUNCHED underfoot. The further in they went, the higher the temperature climbed, and the smell of sulfur in the air became thick enough to choke on.

"Wait!" Less than a third of the way there, Chen Shang suddenly stopped in his tracks. His perception had unexpectedly caught a surge of energy fluctuation welling up from deep within the crater.

It wasn’t a tide of the Fire Element, but a different kind of impact carrying spiritual corruption, striking them like a tsunami. The shockwave exploded from the bottom of the crater, expanding in all directions while carrying high temperatures and countless shattered fragments of ancient memories.

Ella’s Spiritual Force Field vibrated violently under the impact. Her face instantly turned pale, and her body swayed as if something had struck deep into her consciousness.

"I... I saw flames burning everything." Her voice trembled as she tried her best to maintain her composure.

This shockwave did not carry physical damage, but spiritual corruption. It caused hallucinations of self-immolation, making one believe on a conscious level that they were burning, which would eventually lead to their physical body truly catching fire. Since Ella had the highest Spiritual Power and the sharpest perception, she was ironically the most susceptible to its influence.

Chen Shang crouched down, placed a hand on Ella’s shoulder, and activated the entry [Spiritual Resonance]. His Spiritual Power probed into her Sea of Consciousness, tracking down the burning hallucinations. These chaotic memory fragments came from the High Tier Elemental Spirits who had fallen in the crater during ancient times. Their dying emotions had been absorbed by the Heart of Fire, only to be released during every flame storm.

"Ella, use Nightmare Witchcraft! Turn these memory fragments into dreams, and we’ll swallow them!" Chen Shang quickly came up with a plan.

Ella took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Her Spiritual Force Field shifted from defense to assimilation, drawing the crashing memory fragments into her Sea of Consciousness piece by piece. Then, she used Nightmare Witchcraft to weave them into controllable dreams.

Immediately after, Chen Shang’s Spiritual Resonance distributed the "weight" of those dreams across all four of their Seas of Consciousness.

Evelyn gritted her teeth, the veins bulging on her forehead. Twilight’s Black Fog surged violently, its dark red mist now interspersed with specks of silvery-white light.

The flame storm lasted for nearly a quarter of an hourglass. When the storm finally passed, Ella opened her eyes. A silvery-white halo now lingered deep within her pupils.

"It really worked. My Spiritual Power has risen to 180!"

Evelyn flexed her fingers, the flames dancing on her fingertips burning brighter than before. "Mine went up by about ten points, too."

Twilight’s Black Fog retracted slightly, its color deepening from dark red to dark purple. "About the same for me."

Chen Shang nodded. His Spiritual Power had also jumped from 109 to 119.

Although the crater’s flame storm was dangerous, the ancient memory fragments—once converted by Spiritual Resonance—had actually become nourishment for their Spiritual Power. All four of their Spiritual Powers had grown by a substantial margin.

But Ella soon noticed something was amiss. "This suddenly expanded Spiritual Power contains impurities. It cannot be crystallized directly. We’ll have to find a way to purify it afterward."