Chapter 34 - Middle Stage

"Wew...It sure is hot here. Good thing I have fire affinity now or I would dehydrate so fast," Leyvi said as he stepped foot at the periphery of the volcanic area. 

"Boss, I'm going to the spirit beast bag now. I don't like this place!" Mr. Bison immediately escaped into the spirit beast bag. 

"What the heck! He ran away so fast. I'm going to deduct your salary later." Leyvi jokingly complained.

While Leyvi was interacting with Mr. Bison, Anda was already moving toward the nearest lava tube. 

"Leyvi! Come here! We'll start by exploring this cave. After that, we'll see where it brought us," Anda raised her voice and called Leyvi.

"Coming!" Leyvi immediately followed Anda inside the cave.

Leyvi looked around the cave and it looked very dull with lava stalactites formed on the ceilings along the way. As they went deeper it became darker so Leyvi and Anda illuminated the area with light made by their Qi. 

"The cave is quite wide. There must be a ton of lava flowing through here in the past." Leyvi stated his observation. 

An hour later,

"Leyvi, don't you feel something was off?" Anda asked.

"Huh? What do you mean? Is there something wrong with the cave?"

"There's no other people here at all. There should be some people here looking for special fire, but we have been exploring for a while and not a single person appeared," Anda was suspicious about the situation. 

"Really? Maybe they went into other caves. There are a lot of cave entrances to pick after all." Although Leyvi said it nonchalantly, he started to raise his guard up.

"Maybe..." Anda didn't press her suspicions further. Leyvi might not think this was weird but she studied a bit before they departed.

Even if there were a lot of lava tubes formed around the lava field, there would always be people exploring the lava tubes either looking for special fire, weapon forging materials, hunting volcanic demonic beasts, or cultivating for cultivators with fire spirit roots. 

However, now, not a single person is around, and it feels like it has been quite some time since the cave was devoid of people.

After exploring further, Leyvi found a few intermediate-level demonic Lava Bats. He used his Qi Detonation skill to make a booming sound and the demonic bats instantly got stunned. Leyvi and Anda took this chance to slay them and keep the carcass.

They also found a few cave splits which they always picked going in the left direction for easier navigating purposes.

Soon, they found an illuminated spot in the lava cave which was filled with greeneries. Leyvi noticed that there were some holes in the ceiling of the caves which allowed sunlight to reach the insides of the cave. The holes also allowed rainwater to come into the cave which caused some plants to grow.

Anda immediately recognized some plants that could be used as alchemy ingredients such as Read-Leafed Ferns, Lava Moss, and Smoky Liverworts. These were all ingredients for tier-3 alchemy products which were very valuable.

"Leyvi, let's rest here for a while," Anda suggested. She wanted to harvest all of the ingredients.

Leyvi agreed and he found a flat area to sit on. He assumed a meditative pose as he took out a jade slip of a martial skill he bought from the Treasure Pavilion. He wanted to learn it as soon as possible so he could fight using his hands too.

He picked a martial skill that would allow him to fight better in close combat, and not just charge from a distance like previously.

----

At this moment, ten cultivators with masks covering their faces arrived at the lava field. It was the same mask as the cultivator crushed by Mr. Bison previously. They were the men of the City Lord Magna.

"There are 9 lava cave entrances here. I will stay here and the rest slit up and search them in each cave. If you find the target immediately inform the rest and give your location. Don't confront our target alone." The leader of the masked group quickly gave them instructions.

The masked group leader has cultivation in the peak-stage Foundation Building realm while the rest of the members are in the late-stage Foundation Building realm.

"Two early-stage Foundation Building that can kill a late-stage Foundation Building realm. We must not be careless. They might have some powerful methods or weapons. Understood?" 

"Yes!" They replied.

"Move out!!" He gave the order.

The nine cultivators swiftly went into each cave while the leader stayed outside.

"We have killed a lot of people that came near the Bara Volcano recently....I wonder what the city lord's plan by doing this. If this continues much longer, it will attract more attention..." The masked leader muttered.

----

After a few hours, Leyvi achieved the initial success of the first level. Since he has more experience in combat now, learning a new martial skill was a little easier. When he finished, Anda was already waiting for him patiently nearby.

Leyvi knew this since his Dual Mind allowed his spiritual sense to be activated at all times. If it was before he had Dual Mind, he would never practice in a place like this because he might get ambushed by a random demonic beast.

"Let's go," Leyvi walked to Anda as his arm wrapped around her waist and his hand started to claw around her body.

"What are you up to now?" Anda glanced at Leyvi suspiciously. She didn't mind her husband exploring her body, but it was just too sudden and out of nowhere.

"I'm just trying to figure out which body part is the best to grab. My new martial skill requires me to grab and hold a person." Leyvi explained as he grabbed her plump bottom.

Anda rolled her eyes. "Is that a martial skill or an erotic skill?"

Leyvi and Anda continued the lava cave exploration and killed more demonic beasts along the way.

When Leyvi sensed some precious forging material deep within the walls of the cave, he couldn't just destroy the cave randomly as it might collapse on them, he would summon Stripey and let him use Dimension Crossing Hand to grab the materials directly without using forceful methods.

Stripey also escaped into the spirit beast bag as soon as he was done with his task. He doesn't like being in the cave too. 

2 days later, 

The temperature in the cave started to become higher and higher the deeper they went. Leyvi and Anda sweated more and more so they started to drink more water to stay hydrated.

Finally, they reached the area where the source of the heat was coming from. It was a big pool of magma. They can hear the bubbling sounds made by the magma all around them.

"Leyvi, I wanted to cultivate here. The atmosphere here is suitable for my cultivation and the spiritual energy here is abundance." Anda told Leyvi. She started to find a good spot to sit and cultivate.

Leyvi nodded. He also wanted to find an inspiration here to improve his Fiery Trailblaze Martial Skill. He then walked further away from Anda so they would not disturb each other's cultivation session. 

A week passed.

Leyvi and Anda had consumed the Fasting Pill so they wouldn't be hungry during the cultivation. They had also become accustomed to the heat of the magma since they both have an affinity for fire. Their body no longer sweated from the heat.

At this moment, Leyvi open his eyes. He saw Anda at the opposite side of the magma pool starting to absorb more and more spiritual energy. A fiery vortex formed around Anda as the essence of fire from the magma could be seen being sucked by her.

The process continued for a few more minutes and then it finally stopped. 

Anda has broken through to the middle stage of the Foundation Building!

"Hmm?" Leyvi was confused. Why hasn't she stopped yet?

While Leyvi was confused suddenly he saw a ray of holy-looking light shine on Anda. He was not sure where this light came from. They are in a cave after all. Suddenly his eyes widened as he remembered something.

The Light of Dao Enlightment!

When someone was having a Dao Enlightenment, a holy ray would shine on them until they finished comprehending the truth of heaven and earth.

Hahaha! Leyvi laughed in his mind as he didn't want to disturb his wife but he was very excited for her. This is a rare phenomenon where it happens more frequently when someone's cultivation is higher. For it to occur in the Foundation Building realm is extremely rare.

A few minutes later, the holy light faded and disappeared. Anda slowly opened her eyes and a few rings of fire appeared in front of her. It rotated and moved around her as she willed.

"Holy!" Leyvi was shocked. This is not Anda using her Qi to produce fire. She directly changed the surrounding spiritual energy into fire with a mere thought!

Leyvi knows what this was.

The Concept of Fire! 

Anda has started her journey to comprehend the Dao of Fire!