The Core of the Burning Stampede Sect (2)

As if he was alone in the void of space, Shui remained focused. He left the red spirit in the Riot clan estate so he didn't have to worry about her. All he needed to do was concentrate on controlling the divine energy in his body. When he could perfectly sense the energy at the tip of his fingers, Shui used Mutation Control to transform into a small white bird. He had little practice flapping his wings but he knew he needed to get used to it quickly if he wanted to reach his destination as easily as possible.

He clumsily flew towards the volcano that the sect was built around, unseen by the core disciples and elders. As he was still concealing himself, even the other birds couldn't sense him. Since he was so focused in hiding it became harder to endure the tremendous heat and rotten scent in his bird form, but he still flew straight to the main vent of the volcano.

There was a protection array around the volcano but getting past this was much simpler than the detection array. Since no one was watching it as attentively, he just had to break through it and fix it faster than they could notice.

Shui waited until his beak touched the transparent barrier above the volcano and pierced it with divine energy concentrated to the size of a needle. He then drew a circle with that beak until a hole opened up in the barrier and flew it through it. Now that he was past the barrier, Shui fully released his spiritual sense to find the core of the protection array and added enough energy for it to quickly repair the hole that had been made.

"Whew~. I can't let my guard down but I should be fine for now."

Shui landed at the edge of the vent and returned to his human form while staring down the volcano. The volcano was protected by an array because it was restricted area, but not many would go to the same lengths as him to reach it.

It was a good location to build a sect, but even those who practised fire-attribute cultivation methods and forge masters wouldn't be willing to take this risk just to sneak into this area. Furthermore, Shui wasn't even sure if his idea would work out, but he would hate it if he ended up regretting giving up this chance to boost the limits of his power.

He removed all of the protection his divine energy provided from the heat and grimaced due to the sudden rise in the temperature he felt. However, if he couldn't handle this level of heat there was no way he would be able to handle what came next.

Relying just on his quasi-divine body, Shui jumped into the volcano. His clothes instantly incinerated despite being on the same level as special-rank artifacts, but he was too concerned about himself to care about that. He knew that this lava wouldn't be able to melt his body, but he wasn't immune to the pain of his surface flesh burning before regenerating and burning again.

"MMMM!!!"

He didn't want a mouthful of lava so he suppressed his screams and clenched his teeth. It was taking a lot of effort just to float inside the lava, but Shui pushed himself since he wanted to make the most of this experience. He planned on using this lava bath to further refine his quasi-divine body as well as his perfect relic, Sui.

Shui slowly pulled out the blade from his chest and hugged it without fear of its sharp edge. While he embraced his weapon, in the midst of the harsh pain, Shui could perceive his insides more accurately than before. As if to look away from this reality, he focused on his self, far more than before...

While Shui was still bathing in the volcano, the day of Serina's battle quickly approached. At first, the Riot clan, excluding Fatty, were worried since Shui was absent, but Serina and Fatty managed to calm them down using the strong faith they had in him. Even when the day of the match came and he was still not back, they went to the arena inside the inner section, still confident that he would appear when he needed to.

Since this was a fight where the result seemed obvious, there weren't many who came to spectate. After all, considering the core values of the Burning Mountain Sect, majority of the disciples disdained fights like these.

However, those who were interested in the participants themselves still appeared, the most famous of which was the same woman who Shui had helped when he first arrived in the city. After seeing him for the second time with Serina and Fatty, she dug up information on him and came hoping that she could see him again.

'No, I'm just here to thank him. That's all. Nothing more and nothing less.'

The woman convinced herself that this was her reason for coming, but no one else could have deduced such a reason. Especially not Tico who kept nervously glancing in her direction.

'Why is she here?!'

If it was a few days before Tico would have been filled with the urge to impress her so that she would join his clan's faction, but yesterday Gin had informed him that she firmly rejected his big brother's proposal.

'Is she having second thoughts? But then why would she come here? She's a core disciple so why would she come all the way?'

As Tico was anxious, even his group of friends who wanted to take this time to make fun of Fatty didn't feel like this was the right mood to say anything.

In this awkward atmosphere, it was actually the arrival of Fatty and Serina that put them at ease.

"Tch, took you long enough piggy. I was afraid you and that little girl ran away."

Despite sighing in relief on the inside, Tico welcomed them with scorn.

"Wow, despite you being the one who set up this farce of a fight I'm surprised you can say something like that. I didn't know you were practising a thick skin art," Fatty countered.

"There's no art like that!"

"So it's just natural then?"

"Youuu-! Hmph, we'll see if you can still talk like that when you have to drag that girl out of the ring."

Fatty definitely won in the battle of words, but Tico's last comment stole that feeling of accomplishment. He tightly clenched his fist and imagined slamming it into Tico's face, but then he felt another hand grasp his. As he and Serina exchanged glances he remembered the plan and calmed down once he thought about how ugly Tico's face would be as a result of it.

Fatty turned back to Tico and said, "Whatever, so, who's the elder looking over this match?"

"That would be me."

Almost like he timed his entrance, a familiar elder floated down to the stage. It was the same elder whose class Fatty had interrupted. He didn't have a reputation for being corrupt, but since Tico orchestrated this Fatty wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't the most impartial.

However, unlike Fatty's assumption, the elder didn't come here with the intent to bully juniors, even if that was what would happen under his supervision. What he was told was that Fatty and Serina had been the ones to push for this match, as ridiculous as it sounded. According to Tico, they arrogantly proclaimed that someone like him would still lose to a younger opponent like Serina.

Of course, Elder Marco knew that this would likely be an embarrassing experience for the girl, but he believed that this would be better for her development.