Chapter 36 - Central Vent

As he fell into the magma head-first, he didn't have any chance to scream as he died and became part of the magma pool.

"Anda, don't you feel uncomfortable after killing people?" Leyvi was curious. He didn't ask last time because his wife was upset but now he felt like it's fine to ask.

"No. If I killed them then it means they deserved it." Anda was firm with her answer.

"Leyvi, if people wanted to kill us, don't feel guilty about killing them." She continued.

"But what if they were forced?" Leyvi tried to apply this to different circumstances.

"Husband..that is not our problem! We are just trying to survive. They didn't think about us so why should we try to think about them? Let's go now!" Anda hugged Leyvi's arm and ended the talk.

She kicked the mask into the magma pool and walked away from the magma pool with Leyvi. They needed to move and avoid these city lord's men who were chasing them. Since Leyvi has a ten-kilometer-wide spiritual sense, avoiding them would be much easier. Even if City Lord Magna personally came, Leyvi would be able to notice him first.

Meanwhile,

"Everyone! Return to the surface now! I know which cave they were in. Mask No. 2 has lost the signal, something must have happened to him." The peak-stage Foundation Building group leader gave them a new order.

It turned out that the mask that the city lord's men wore was a communication and location tracking device. The moment it was destroyed, the parent device would know the last location of the mask.

Since they didn't have to act secretly anymore in the cave, they one by one flew out of the various caves as fast as they could. 

After they met up, the leader led them all to the cave where mask No. 2 was located.

By the time the city lord's men regrouped and started to chase after Leyvi and Anda, a day had passed. Leyvi and Anda didn't walk anymore but they flew deeper into the cave, avoiding anything in their path as they wanted to prevent leaving any clues behind.

After flying for a while, they finally came out into a bigger area where they could see the sky. Further below them was a massive pool of magma!

"This is the central vent of Bara Volcano! If an eruption took place, this is where it would happen," Anda explained while hovering above the dormant magma.

Leyvi nodded as he looked around. "It seemed we came out from one of the side vents, there are many other side vents here, let's quickly pick one to hide." 

Since there are a lot of side vents, it would be easier for them to hide. Leyvi and Anda randomly chose one of the vents and they traveled to a familiar dull environment again. 

When both of them were about ten kilometers away from the Bara Volcano's central vent, they stopped and decided to wait there. 

Since Leyvi's spiritual sense reached ten kilometers now, it was way easier to monitor the surroundings. The central vent area was still inside his range, so if the pursuers entered the side vent that they were hiding, they would run away, but if they didn't, they would just stay and hide there. In any case, they were ready to play this game of hide and seek for as long as it takes.

When the masked group of nine people reached the central vent, they were so angry that they kept cursing for a while. Bara Volcano is the type of volcano that grows taller as more eruptions occur, therefore, after so many years it has reached a height of 15 kilometers. During this time, many side vents also formed.

The group of masked men split up again and entered random side vents to search for Leyvi and Anda.

And just like that, another week passed. Leyvi and Anda both cultivated or practiced martial skills during this time. Anda would also practice her fire concept until her mental energy was depleted, rest, and repeat throughout the entire week of hiding.

During the time that she was practicing her fire concept, she felt that something was attracted to her but she couldn't tell what it was.

-----

Later that night,

A group of people was seen leaving the Bara City. They were heading toward the Bara Volcano.

A big-bellied man with a fur coat was leading five men behind him and a skinny man with a top hat flying beside him. All of them have the cultivation of the Core Formation realm.

The big-bellied man with a fur coat was Alchemist Master Babadog, the enemy of City Lord Magna. He has been preparing for nearly a month to invite a Formation Master to help him deal with the formation erected by Magna.

"Formation Master Dinding, thank you for agreeing to cooperate with me. When I got my hand on the special fire that the City Lord Magna had been hiding, all of the products that you requested, this Alchemist Master Babadog will fulfill! Babababaa!" Babadog laughed as he repeated the agreement that they had out loud. 

"Alchemist Master Babadog, you don't have to keep repeating our agreement. I am not stupid. However, are you sure these five men of yours were enough to deal with Magna?" Formation Master Dinding was quite annoyed by the loud nature of Babadog and he kept repeating what they agreed on repeatedly. He was the skinny man with the top hat who was flying beside Babadog.

"Babababaa!! You don't have to worry about that. They are my Alchemic Knights that I personally trained. They are far stronger than normal cultivators at the same cultivation level. Even that Magna only has three core formation realm underlings under him. He might have a lot of Foundation Building underlings, but they were just trash before the core formation like us."

Along the way, Babadog kept talking nonstop, and Formation Master Dinding could only endure the loud-square-faced-big-bellied Alchemy Master. He even had the urge to cancel their agreement.

Soon, the seven of them passed through the central vent and a spear-wielding Alchemic Knight suddenly thrust downward. A miserable scream could be heard echoing through the central vent. Then, they kept going north of the Bara Volcano. When they passed through the central vent, Leyvi who was still hiding in one of the side vents noticed what happened and frowned.

"Anda, there are seven Core Formation cultivators that just went north, they killed one of our pursuers along the way. I wonder where are they going." Leyvi quickly informed Anda. Leyvi was quite shocked by how powerful a core formation expert could be.

A late-stage Foundation Building cultivator was immediately killed by a long-ranged thrust of a spear user in the Core Formation realm.

"Whatever they were doing, we can't get involved at any cost! Or we will die without a doubt." Anda reminded Leyvi. 

"Hehe, don't worry, I'm not trying to get involved, I was just curious, it's boring hiding here after all," Leyvi replied.

While Leyvi was chatting with Anda, suddenly he detected another group of Core Formations realm passed through the central vent again. There were even more people than the previous group!

Leyvi immediately knew that this second group was secretly following the first group. This must be related to the secret that the city lord was trying to hide from people. The only treasure that was worth for these people to behave like this must be a special fire, right? He contemplated. This was an essential treasure for Anda to progress further as an Alchemist. Should he risk it and follow them?

Leyvi calmed down. He can't risk his wife's life like that. Treasure is good but only a living person can enjoy it. If they die, it's over. 

"Anda, there's going to be a big battle soon. I'm not sure if this place would be safe when they started fighting." Leyvi worriedly said.

"We should run toward the city as fast as possible. But we can't do it in the open. We run using the side vent of where we came from." Anda said.

"Alright, let's go!" Leyvi and Anda quickly moved to the central vent again, wearing a hood to hide their face.

As they were moving toward the central vent, Leyvi sensed one of the masked men come into the side vent that they were in. 

"Damn it! What a bad luck!" Leyvi cursed. They must have come out when one of them was killed by the Core Formation cultivator just now. He quickly informed Anda.

"We can't kill him or the others will notice. Let's turn back and hide deeper. Don't worry, the Core Formation group went north, but this side vent headed to the northwest, we won't meet them." Anda explained.

Leyvi sighed. The situations keep changing too fast. All of these could have been avoided if he was strong. That's right. If he was a strong expert how would any of this could trouble him? He would just slap them away, and nobody would dare to say anything. 

Leyvi and Anda turned around and went deeper into the side vent.