"The Endpoint" 050. (Guardian of the Sun Forest Chapter) Fire Spirit Crystal Vein

"It seems I underestimated your abilities... You actually managed to escape." Long Wu smiled faintly, the slight curve of her lips exuding a dangerous aura no matter how one looked at it.
'However, you are not very smart either. You barely escaped, yet you still dare to follow us all along. Are you really that confident in your hiding skills?'

Qing Yan raised his eyebrows, his face turning somewhat pale. He opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing. Only the occasional darting of his eyes in all directions revealed the trace of panic in his heart.

'W-why can't we come here? It's not even your territory...'

Du Gu Xiao Xuan behind him blushed slightly, seemingly embarrassed for not being able to fulfill her promise of 'being prepared.' However, this weak excuse, in the end, even she could not continue, and her face turned increasingly awkward.

'Tie them up...'

Another squad leader behind Long Wu, with eyes cold as ice, clearly had no interest in engaging in pointless arguments with these so-called trackers, and issued the order in a low, firm voice.

Recognizing their disadvantage, Qing Yan and his group did not resist much. Aside from Du Gu Xiao Xuan struggling more than the others, they were quickly bound hand and foot without difficulty, six of them standing tightly against the cliff wall, their expressions blank.

'Gui Zhan, why must you be so cold and stiff? Can't you change a bit? Scaring the kids would be terrible!'

'Used to it.'

...

Long Wu's passionate teasing formed a sharp contrast with the original squad leader's cold and taciturn demeanor, echoing continuously throughout the lava-spewing volcano. Yet, their conversation did not affect their highly skilled and orderly commands at all.

After about ten minutes—neither too long nor too short—the special forces' highly proficient operations were finally completed under the three squad leaders' termination orders. By this time, the expressions of Qing Yan and the other five had completely changed—from their previous indifferent blankness to utterly impossible-to-believe shock and confusion!

Because, in these ten or so minutes, what the special forces had accomplished was just too familiar! Yes, familiar!A crimson red triangular formation was cleverly superimposed over a dark black pentagonal formation, and the flickering red-black light inside this volcano full of red rocks was so eerie and seductive, like fresh blood.

A double gate formation!

It was, again, a double gate formation! But the difference was that the fifty or so array points of this formation were each replaced with blocks of red transparent crystal burning with strange flames. Moreover, the powerful mystical energy occasionally leaping from these crystals left no doubt that this gate formation before them possessed even more shocking power.

"Fire Spirit Crystal!"

Dugu Xiaoxuan exclaimed, making Qing Yan and the four men unable to resist looking at those strange red crystals.

"Not bad, the little one seems to know quite a lot. But often, knowing too much isn't always a good thing,"

Long Wu stood beside Dugu Xiaoxuan, listening to her exclamation, turning back with a low laugh, lightly lifting Dugu Xiaoxuan's chin with his hand. However, her signature alluring, charming smile made Qing Yan and his group feel a chilling sense of dread.

"Tch…"

Suddenly, a light sound came from above. In this relatively quiet volcano, the sound had considerable weight. The three squad leaders, always on alert, immediately looked toward the volcano above, their palms already sensing faint mystical energy fluctuations between the thunder.

However, aside from some scattered stone powder falling, the space above quickly returned to its original calm, as if nothing had happened. At the same time, the special forces, who had also gone completely quiet, made the already somewhat oppressive atmosphere even more intense.

"It should be a minor tremor before the magma erupts; everyone need not worry,"

The last of the three squad leaders, the iron-strong Iron Yan, finally broke the silence. His deep and steady voice immediately stabilized the soldiers' minds. After a brief pause, he analyzed:

"It's still about twenty minutes until the Fire Golem emerges. We don't have much time, so we need to leave quickly. Once the strange fire boils again, it will be beyond our ability to fight…"

The emergence of the Fire Golem would only weaken the power of the strange fire for half an hour.Only Qingyan and his companions suddenly remembered this problem, and in an instant, their faces turned pale. \ At this critical moment, the special forces clearly did not have much energy to pay attention to the expressions of Qingyan and the others. Instead, they quickly drew their sharp combat knives and fiercely cut into the thick fiery rock around them! \ With the swinging of these knives, which cut through iron like mud, it wasn't long before some red-transparent crystals appeared from the rocks. These crystals were extremely strange: when exposed to light, they ignited with a crimson flame, emitting the same dazzling glow inside the volcano! \ "It's really the Fire Spirit Crystal Vein!" \ Qingyan used his other hand to grab a small piece of Fire Spirit Crystal that had protruded from the rock due to the earlier tremor. Feeling the surging mystical power, Qingyan's lips curled into a bitter smile, and he lightly mocked himself, \ "But I see that I won't live to enjoy it… It's pitiful, I don't even know what the marvelous world outside is really like." \ At this moment, no matter the situation of the special forces, for any observer who had witnessed a classified matter, there was only one possible outcome: death! Only the dead could forever guard the secret. \ Qingyan sighed, not thinking about any illusory miracles, because he knew that if the roles were reversed, he would choose the same. \ His sigh was for pitying himself, yet he did not blame Dugu Xiaoxuan for leading him into such a desperate situation. After all, the real fault lay in his own greed. If it weren't for the faint hope in his heart, he wouldn't have followed Dugu Xiaoxuan to this point. Moreover, Dugu Xiaoxuan's situation was the same; what good would blaming her do? \ The four men had also recovered from their pale expressions. Having walked the line between life and death for years, they had long predicted their own deaths, and thus saw it most clearly, even wearing faint smiles. \ Since death was inevitable, why not die a little more happily? \ In about five minutes, the special forces had removed no less than a hundred fist-sized Fire Spirit Crystals from the rock wall. Even the now barely alive Flame Monkey Fire Puppet was collected into a spatial bracelet owned by Captain Longwu.At this moment, Tie Yan walked up to Qing Yan and the others. He paused for a long while before softly saying:

"Don't blame us. The only explanation I can give you is this: war is always brutal! If you don't die now, perhaps in the future, we will have to pay several times, or even dozens of times, the price for it!"

After saying this, a gentle yet irresistible force swept up from behind the six of them. The six of them quickly felt weightless and fell toward the strange molten flames right in front of their eyes!

At that moment, a soft little hand suddenly grabbed his arm tightly. Qing Yan turned his head and saw Du Gu Xiao Xuan's eyes, filled with slight terror. Before he could even think, his body plunged into the molten lava, and a piercing heat completely engulfed all his consciousness...

In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the special soldiers solemnly saluted the calm molten lava in unison. After finishing the salute, they quickly leapt toward the volcano's upper exit and soon disappeared completely into the inner space of the volcano.

The volcano's interior returned to calm. The crimson rock walls were still somewhat glaring. On some protruding surfaces of fire rock, red translucent Fire Spirit Crystals burned with strangely enchanting light. It seemed as if nothing had happened, and the temperature in the air began rising rapidly!

At this moment, on the fire rock that had just made a sound, a small figure appeared strangely from the stone. This figure seemed to merge with the mountain rock, indistinguishable from it. The way it appeared was extremely abrupt.

It was none other than the mysterious maid, Xiao Qing! At this moment, her face showed concern as she looked down at the molten lava below, her eyes flickering with an unknown message.

After less than half a minute, Xiao Qing gave a soft sigh, turned her head, and her figure once again eerily merged into the mountain rock, disappearing completely.

Meanwhile, on the back of the mountain outside the volcano.

"Captain Tie Yan, just now on that rock…" Long Wu asked with some concern in her brows.

Before Long Wu could finish, Tie Yan said firmly: "As you guessed, there was indeed someone up there!"

"Then…" Long Wu was puzzled."If it weren't for his slight emotional fluctuation, we wouldn't have been able to detect his existence at all. And to be able to hide so perfectly in front of the three of us......" Tie Yan's words were somewhat serious. After a pause, he continued, "If it weren't for his strength far surpassing ours, he would be a madman who has mastered the art of concealment to the extreme! And such madmen are usually only the ace-level figures of the assassin organization!" "These two types of people are not people we can afford to provoke. If such a person truly wanted to interfere with our actions, he could have done so long ago. But he hasn't done anything against us......" Long Wu mused. "Even if they're not allies, at least there is no hostile relationship between us. So, he probably wouldn't be interested in leaking our secrets. And for us, if we can avoid provoking him, that's naturally the best outcome." " Tie Yan analyzed a lot calmly, and it was quite thorough. It's truly unimaginable that such a brute man possesses such meticulous thoughts. Even more unimaginable is that beneath such a tiny surface, in just a moment, he figured out so many problems and weighed the pros and cons so clearly. "Moreover, by doing so, he has taken advantage of the situation to stabilize morale—killing two birds with one stone!" Long Wu quickly figured out the key point, and in her heart, she admired Captain Tieyan of the same military rank as herself, sighing inwardly, "It seems I still have a lot to learn!"
At this moment, deep within the Strange Fire Magma, a strange mutation quietly occurred!