Chapter 156: The lava sea

Half of the Thunder Wings instantly unfurled from Ethan’s back.

Boom!

Blue-purple lightning exploded outward.

The moment Ethan extended his right hand, Ruo Yan stepped forward on her own. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close, while Ruo Yan immediately controlled her Soul Threads to wrap around both of them and secure their positions.

Laira also spread her wings. The portion of the Thunder Wings fused with her dragon wings lit up at the same time, streams of red-purple Thunderfire running along the metallic feathers.

Mumu stood behind them, looking at the path ahead and then at the spatial storm roaring on both sides.

"Mumu..."

It hesitated for only a second before immediately making a decision.

Splat.

Its body, more than three meters tall, melted into a mass of black-and-yellow liquid before crawling directly onto Ethan.

"Wait..."

Before he could finish speaking, Mumu had already wrapped itself around his abdomen, back, and part of his chest like a bizarre layer of soft armor, leaving only his head and limbs exposed.

Ethan lowered his head and looked down.

"Mumu?"

A small head immediately popped out from his left shoulder.

"Mumu!"

"You plan to travel like this?"

"Mumu."

Of course Ethan had no idea what it had just said, but at least the weight on his body had barely increased.

Mumu looked enormous, but most of its structure seemed to consist of energy and some special kind of liquid. Once compressed, it weighed far less than its actual size suggested.

Laira looked Ethan up and down, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly.

"You look very handsome."

Ethan turned toward her.

"Shut up."

Ruo Yan, still held in his arms, also curved her lips slightly.

Ethan decided not to look at her anymore.

The Thunder Wings immediately blazed with light.

BOOM!

Ethan transformed into a streak of lightning and shot directly into the corridor Qing Lian had just opened.

Laira launched almost simultaneously, the two of them flying one behind the other straight toward the spatial tear.

The energy strands on both sides constantly trembled as though trying to close, but the lingering Sword Intent continued holding them outside the corridor.

The distance to the gate rapidly shortened.

One kilometer.

Five hundred meters.

Two hundred meters.

At that moment, roars suddenly came from behind.

"Chase him!"

"Do not let him escape!"

"Enter the gate first!"

Ethan did not even need to turn around to know what was happening.

The younger nonhumans who had still been waiting for their elders to open paths immediately abandoned their previous positions the moment they saw the road Qing Lian had created and charged wildly into the corridor.

Harpies.

Elves.

Beastkin.

Dark Elves.

Dozens of auras rapidly gathered behind Ethan.

Qing Zhu stood outside watching the scene, her brows immediately furrowing.

"These shameless bastards..."

The bamboo staff in her hand had barely risen when another hand extended sideways and blocked her.

Qing Zhu turned.

"Senior Sister?"

Qing Lian gently shook her head.

"Let them go."

"They are chasing Ethan."

"I can see that."

"Then why..."

Qing Lian looked at the road carved open by the sword light ahead, her expression remaining calm as though the dozens of people pursuing Ethan were nothing worth worrying about.

"Give him a little more of a challenge."

Qing Zhu fell silent for several seconds before looking at the nonhumans running frantically through the corridor.

"Is that not a little too much?"

"No."

Qing Lian answered naturally.

"If a few people like that are enough to trouble him, then my wager was wrong from the beginning."

Qing Zhu looked at her senior sister for a moment before laughing.

"Fair enough."

She lowered the bamboo staff.

The nonhuman elders in the distance, who had already prepared themselves to stop the two women from interfering, were all stunned.

An old Harpy frowned, his gaze repeatedly shifting between Qing Lian and the younger generation rushing toward the Gate.

"What are they planning?"

No one knew.

But the fact that Qing Lian was willing to stand aside and let their younger members enter was already the best possible outcome.

The Elven elder immediately turned and shouted:

"Quickly! Follow them!"

The remaining young people instantly rushed into the corridor.

Only several elders continued staring at Qing Lian longer than usual, because an inexplicable sense of unease had risen in their hearts.

That woman was far too calm.

Ethan soon stopped hearing any noise from outside.

The instant he crossed the edge of the spatial tear, all the light before him suddenly stretched into an endless tunnel.

Ruo Yan immediately tightened her arms around his shoulders.

Laira continued flying close on his right.

Mumu also tightened the part of its body wrapped around Ethan.

"Mumu!"

"Do not squeeze!"

"Mumu!"

The surrounding space spun violently.

For an instant, Ethan felt the Thunder Wings lose all lift.

Then gravity completely disappeared.

His entire body felt as though it had been thrown into a void with no direction at all, until the sensation abruptly ended.

Boom!

Everything returned.

Hot.

That was the first thing Ethan felt.

The temperature was nothing like ordinary sweltering weather. Even the first breath of air entering his lungs made him feel as though he had inhaled the heat blowing from a furnace.

Ethan immediately opened his eyes.

The red-gold light was so intense that it almost filled his entire vision.

Laira landed first.

Ethan followed close behind, beating one Thunder Wing hard to slow himself before finally allowing his feet to touch a solid surface.

Ruo Yan immediately left his arms.

Mumu also slowly flowed off Ethan’s body and returned to its original form beside him.

"Mumu..."

The moment it expanded, it immediately shrank back from the heat.

Laira, on the other hand, took a deep breath. Her orange-red eyes seemed brighter than usual.

"I like this place."

Ruo Yan turned toward her.

"Of course you do."

Ethan did not join the conversation.

His gaze was fixed on the scene ahead.

A city.

Or more precisely, something that had once been a city.

Black stone buildings stood densely packed together, most of them with only their upper halves protruding from the blazing red liquid that stretched all the way to the horizon.

Tall towers leaned at strange angles. The stone bridges connecting them had collapsed in many places, yet the remaining structures showed no signs of having melted.

Lava.

There was lava everywhere.

Not a few scattered streams, but an entire blazing red sea.

Orange-red waves of lava continuously struck the stone structures, each impact sending hundreds of sparks into the air.

The heat distorted the air in the distance without pause, making the entire world look as though it were submerged inside one enormous flame.

But that still was not the strangest sight.

"Ethan."

Ruo Yan suddenly raised a hand and pointed ahead.

He followed her finger.

A tree was growing in the middle of the lava sea.

Its trunk was completely black and more than ten meters tall, while its roots were buried deep beneath the blazing lava.

In contrast to the trunk, its leaves were blue-purple, releasing a faint glow whenever the hot wind blew through them.

Farther away was an entire forest.

Mumu tilted its head.

"Mumu?"

Ethan had no idea how to explain it either.

At that moment, a small shadow suddenly swept beneath the surface of the lava.

Whoosh.

Ruo Yan immediately stepped half a pace backward.

A fish.

It was genuinely a fish.

Its entire body was covered in transparent red scales, and it was nearly two meters long.

It swam through the lava exactly like an ordinary fish swimming through water.

Then a second one appeared.

After that, an entire school of smaller fish followed behind.

Ethan watched the scene for several seconds before speaking.

"Fish that live in lava?"

Laira also stared intently at them.

"They look edible."

Ethan immediately turned toward her.

"Do not start thinking about eating them yet."

"I was only asking."

"You had not even asked anything."

"I was about to."

Ruo Yan silently raised a hand and rubbed her forehead.

But at that exact moment, the surface of the lava sea in the distance suddenly bulged upward.

An enormous black shadow passed beneath it.

Ethan’s expression immediately changed.

Laira also lowered her center of gravity at the same time, her eyes locking onto the area ahead.

Boom!

Lava exploded into the air.

A creature more than a hundred meters long burst from the sea.

Its body resembled a whale, but its entire skin was covered in red-gold crystals.

Brilliant lines ran along both sides of its body, looking as though lava were literally flowing beneath its flesh.

It soared hundreds of meters into the air.

Its enormous body turned once against the blazing red sky, sending millions of droplets of lava scattering in every direction like a meteor shower.

Mumu opened its mouth.

"Muuu..."

The whale completed its arc through the air and began falling back down.

BOOM!!!

The entire lava sea surged upward in a wave dozens of meters tall.

Red light washed across the faces of Ethan, Laira, Ruo Yan, and Mumu.

All four silently watched as the surface of the sea slowly settled.

Ruo Yan was the first to speak.

"This place..."

She looked at the forest growing in the lava, at the schools of fish swimming beneath the burning red liquid, then toward the place where the enormous whale had disappeared.

"...what the hell is this place?"

Ethan wanted to know too.