Translator: Cucumber Strips Editor: Jacky

  When Han was passing through the Black forest, his mind seemed to be preoccupied with something.

  The Path of Demon technique was still not complete. Han felt like he was heartless enough, but for some reason he still has not became a demon. It started nagging at him from the back of his mind.

  They were lucky on their way. The monsters hidden deep in the black pine forest did not appear. They were wary of Han and his army of genetic beasts, choosing to avoid a head-on confliction with Han.

  Han, together with the two old warriors, were walking at the front of the team while the Big River and Big Mountain brothers followed quietly behind. They kept silent, seeming like they had decided to completely follow Han’s orders.

  “Look! We have finally reached the volcano.” The tall guy Lipton said while pointing towards the front.

  There was a huge black mountain, with a red glow flickering at the summit. That was the destination of the Wind Forest Volcano quest.

  “Well, we should have our quest completed once we get there?” Han asked curiously.

  Old man Dini replied. “The Wind Forest Volcano quest was the quest that was most likely to be assigned among all quests for Star Lord City to promote a Star Lord, so it has been researched into detail by numerous predecessors. In a nutshell, the quest is to pass through the sandstorm, across the forest, climb the huge mountain, go in to the sea of fire, and slay the fire drake.

  “So it is still far from completion, we are only seeing the final battlefield.”


  Han was confused. “What kind of thing is that fire drake?”


  “A godly-beast.” Lipton said in a deep voice. “Dragons are, through eternity, the strongest of the universe. In the universe we live in, the strongest being is not any humanoid race, but instead the dragons. As for drakes, it is a species inferior to dragon, but still it shares some characteristics with them since they are consanguinities.”


  “Even though the fire drake is one of the weaker ones among all drakes, after all it is still a drake. Strong and hard to deal with.”


  Dini nodded, “But once we enter into the mountain, whether to proceed or to abort is up to us. If we find the fire drake too strong to be slain, we can go straight back to Star Lord City.”


  Han frowned, “Would we lose our chance to be promoted to a Star Lord once we go back?”


  Lipton shook his head, “Not necessarily. Go down the mountain and we shall see a magical world of fire due to the special climate and energy conditions of this place. There lives many strange species. It is said that if we could collect certain strange species or slay some weird creature then we should get a chance to qualify for the promotion.”


  “In fact, not many teams chose to slay the drake. Most people were promoted to Star Lord because they had done something right in the territory of fire.”


  Han thought for a moment and said, “According to what you just said, we still have a chance to complete the promotion even if we don’t slay the drake, so if we are to slay the drake successfully, doesn’t it mean that we are guaranteed to get the title of Star Lord？”


  Dini was shocked, he whispered, “It should be, but it is difficult to do that. We’d better play by ear, don’t be too greedy.”


  Before the sound of Dini’s voice died away, the older one of the two brothers at the back, Big Mountain, said, “I can explain the rules of the Wind Forest Volcano quest to you in detail. The person who slays the drake is sure to be promoted, but not every participant of slaying the drake could be qualified for the promotion.”


  “The dark net will automatically calculate the numbers and promote the warrior with the highest damage index, the warrior who landed the fatal hit, and also the warrior with the highest total scouting, assistance, and eliminating points.”


  “That means, if we choose to slay the drake, we will have at least three promotion places.”


  Han turned back and looked at the guy with the mustache named Big Mountain, “I see, so what would be the odds of getting a promotion if we do not slay the drake?”


  Big Mountain said in his low voice, “Hard to say, it should be pure luck if we do not slay the drake.”


  Han nodded, “Hum, I see.”


  After a little while, Han was leading the team without saying a thing. The younger brother Big River opened his mouth and asked his older brother Big Mountain. “Will Han choose to slay the drake?”


  Big Mountain smiled, “He doesn’t have to choose, he can only face the dreadful fire drake since we are here.”


  Big River was puzzled at first, but then gave a knowing smile.

  A few hours later, at the peak of the mountain, Han looked into the mountain gap. There was no magma beneath the mountain gap, the magical red light was emitted by a pink rock, deep in the mountain gap. There stood an arch marking the entrance to the inside of the mountain.

  “Let’s go.” Han waved his hand and said.

  The team composition stayed the same, with Silver Fox leading the way, the other genetic beasts following Han and the two old warriors closely, and the brothers at the far end.

  Entering the strange pink stone forest, Han reached out and touched the mysterious pink stones. They were burning hot. It seemed like that there was something burning inside those rocks, as the light jumped and flickered.

  “What a strange place.” Han shook his head and said to himself.

  As the team went underneath the archway made of stone, they saw a few words and a monster engraved into the structure. The words read as follow.

  “Whoever wakes the monster will be punished by the raging flames.”


  Han frowned. ‘This is some kind of warning for the warriors coming here. I think it’s just saying to not mess with the fire drake, or we will be in danger.”


  Han said to himself, “What’s the point of coming all this far If we cannot get a promotion?”


  Lipton and Dini did not respond. It seemed like Han was determined to take the legendary fire drake on in a fight. Being confident was not a bad thing, it was just that they cannot stop worrying for Han. After all, the fire drake was one of the top godly beast existing in this universe.

  The tunnel came right after the arch. The rock walls on both sides were red as flame, and boiling hot.

  They passed through the tunnel and were greeted with a view of a vast sea of fire corallines.

  This kind of magical coralline does not live in the ocean but rather on the earth, subsisting on absorbing heat.

  The red corallines were flickering slightly, all in strange shapes, looking just like a cluster of trees.

  Numerous extremely tiny wriggling worms could be observed if close enough,

  “Don’t touch the fire corallines!”


  Han was a man of great curiosity. He was very curious about the fire coral and wanted to take a part off from it to better examine, but he was stopped by Big Mountain far away.

  “These fire corals are scary creatures, they can consume our energy. Let’s just pass through here without touching anything.” Big Mountain said hurriedly, acting like he really cared about Han.

  Han was not convinced, he took out a piece of a Star Ape’s finger and threw it towards the fire corallines.

  Shabu~

  Suddenly, that piece of well-kept Star Ape finger perished like a branch dying away, and then it shattered.

  Han frowned slightly, “How could there be such evil worms living in the world, thanks for reminding me.”


  After that, Han took out a dimension ring that he captured before, cleared up the stuffs inside, and then he cut off a few large fire coralline pieces and put that into the dimension ring, altogether with the fire corals attached to the fire corallines.

  “The fire coral are slow movers, I will not be in danger if I don’t touch them.” Han said to himself.

  Big Mountain did not expect that in the end, Han still decided to mess with the fire corallines. He frowned, “The fire corallines are extremely fragile, once they leave their habitat and reach the vacuum environment, they will die immediately.”


  Han did not care, “That’s fine, their corpses are still useful, at least I can examine them closely.”


  Going through the forest of corallines, there came another arch. The words engraved on it were even more dreadful, indicating that Han’s team is even closer to death.

  They continued proceeding down the wandering tunnel, there were many fire bamboo shoots growing on the second level, which were excellent herbs boosting the splitting and reorganization of cells. Han collected a great deal of them for future use.

  All the way down, for every single arch they passed, there were words engraved on the arch by someone. The tone became more dreadful as they went down.

  In the meanwhile, lots of rare and precious things could be found in the territory of fire. Fire corallines, fire bamboo shoots and fire gems, all of them were plants or creatures with a property of fire. Han added loads to his collection.

  Finally, Han and this team reached the last arch. There were only four words engraved on that arch and nothing else, ‘Territory of Fire Devil’. There was not even a single word telling them the danger, maybe because the atmosphere was already so foreboding.

  Lipton and Dini were so nervous that their hearts were in their mouths. However, the Big Mountain and Big River brothers gave each other a look of excitement.