Plumes of smoke rose up into the sky, smearing black soot across the azure blue. The choking clouds belched forth freely from the lip of a vast volcano, the great peak nothing more than a cauldron-like caldera, full of frothing lava that churned and bubbled. For this reason, it was sometimes referred to as Boiling Soup Hell by those who knew of its existence - a slightly comical name for truly inhospitable place only the most desperate or most powerful dared to venture, where even the mightiest Spirit Beasts fled.

They fled not because of the danger inherent to the caldera, but because of the presence there. Boiling Soup Hell was currently the lair of one of the most dangerous existences known to this world - any creature with sense enough to realise would flee.

It was here that Ao Long found himself arriving. His steed, the great and mighty Thousand Wind Eagle, cowered in fear, shrinking against itself in abject terror at the power it sensed from deeper within the caldera. He gave it a few gentle pats in assurance, but left it where it was - after all, it was right to fear. Although it had stepped into the Nascent Soul Realm, a feat few humans could ever claim, it knew instinctively that what waited in the caldera was far beyond it. He would've been disappointed if it were not afraid.

He stepped across the burning lava as though it were nothing more than a path in a garden, humming lightly to himself as the lava splashed against his boots. Despite the sheer heat of it, there wasn't even the slightest hint of any burning or even discomfort. There, in the center of the caldera - a vast distance from the rim that would take a mortal half a day just to traverse, but for Ao Long, took no longer than a few minutes - that the monster was waiting.

She was undeniably beautiful, as powerful cultivators tended to be, and her long obsidian hair was undone and left to freely span across the lava sea - indeed, from the way she was resting against a piece of obsidian that had stubbornly formed in the middle, flat and clean like a platform, one might be forgiven for thinking she was merely soaking in a bath… if one were willing to stretch imagination to its breaking point and see the Boiling Soup Hell as nothing more than a hot tub.

Glancing over to acknowledge Ao Long's approach, she dutifully emerged from the lava, rising up gracefully to where her robes were laid out on the stone. If she was at all concerned that she was naked, she showed no sign of it, her long hair draped over her body in a silken curtain. Although it offered her some level of modesty, there was nothing about her movements that suggested it was by design or even a concern for her. The smallest gesture of her Qi turned more molten rock into solid obsidian, creating a more sizable platform around them as she began to dress herself.

The Ebon Conflagration. Black Fire Destroys the World. One of the Three Great Calamities, and the Immortal of Ruin. It was said that no mortal object could withstand bearing the weight of their name, and so mortals who tried to speak it would find their tongues withering, and those who sought to write it found that the ink would powder and paper burn.

Few were those who knew their name and fewer still were those who would dare speak it.

"Senior Sister Tian Chyou," Ao Long greeted, clasping his fist in a polite stance as he bowed. "This Ao Long kept you waiting, and can only apologise."

The great and fearsome Immortal of Ruin shrugged her robes on, adjusting their fit until it was comfortable. She struck an imposing figure, dressed in satin black, lined with grey and edged with an ember orange that seemed to flicker like fire. "Your apologies are unneeded," she replied simply, carefully combing her hair, "It is only understandable. As we grow in age and power, we only become more distracted and busy. It is enough that you were able to come, Long-er. But if you must give apologies, then you ought to offer them to Lan Kuye."

At that moment, as if summoned by her words, a vast and powerful dragon crashed into the platform with enough force to crack it, sending waves of lava forth as though something had cannonballed into the caldera itself. It was clear at a glance that the dragon was already dead, eyes glassy and sightless, and had been dead even before impact, given its neck had been gouged out severely by something sharp and brutal - long ago enough that the blood barely trickled out of it now.

Both of them glanced over at it, utterly calm and unbothered as a figure clambered off the corpse. "Hah?! Finally showing up, Ao Long?! We were waiting for years, you bastard! What kept you, hah?!"

Ao Long and Tian Chyou were both elegant and refined in appearance - the latter seemed like the absolute picture of a peerless Jade Beauty, especially with her long black hair carefully pinned up, and although Ao Long had a more rugged, adventurous air to him, with his boots and shorter robes cut for movement and to avoid getting in the way, he nonetheless had the air of someone refined and cultured. Lan Kuye had no such bearing.

He wore furs and animal skins in place of silks, and he wore them in a way that could only be considered utterly barbaric. The pelt of a Celestial Wisdom Tiger, a creature renowned for its vast wisdom and intelligence, adorned him as a cloak, paws crossed over his chest to keep it in place, pinned in place with its own fangs. The rich brown hide of a Guardian Bear, known for their noble and protective nature, was used as a loincloth, cinched with a belt adorned with the shells of the elegant and refined Jade Shell Tortoise. Wrapped around his wrists and ankles were bracers and guards made from the scales of an Abyssal Dive Serpent, which lived at depths where the very concept of 'light' and 'land' may as well have been fantasies.

Each and every single of these wondrous, impossible creatures had been personally slain by him.

"Forgive me, Junior," Ao Long said pleasantly, "I happened to notice it was a prime opportunity to obtain a Cloudfisher Heron egg and got distracted."

Lan Kuye snarled viciously, slipping off the carcass of his prey to land before them on all fours, advancing swiftly into Ao Long's personal space. Although he was a head or two shorter, he still leaned up right under his chin, growling darkly like a dog about to bite. "Hah?! What the fuck was that, you shitty idiot?! A fucking bird egg was what distracted you?! You want to die, trash?!"

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Ao Long merely smiled placidly, hands held up in a placating gesture. "Of course not, Kuye - again, forgive me. It was wrong of me to get distracted when my precious sworn siblings were waiting for me so loyally."

Kuye snarled again, his Spirit and Intent howling with rage - and without uttering a word or moving a muscle, he shaped it into a fierce, divine technique.

Baihu's Rending Fangs.

Innumerable and uncountable blades of intent rushed past Ao Long, and where they cut, the stone of the platform was no defense - the lava itself was split and rent, carved away by the power of the technique, and its passing continued through the edge of the caldera, causing the lava to flow out in a great gushing river.

And yet they did not harm Ao Long.

The Enactment of Knowledge and Wisdom.

As though he were a stone in a raging river, the rushing winds simply parted around Ao Long, sparing him and the ground he was standing on. Just as Kuye made no motion or uttered no words to invoke his technique, Ao Long invoked his defence similarly. At no point did his placid smile even shift or waver.

"Ku-er," Tian Chyou intoned blandly, "Ao Long has already apologised."

The third Immortal snarled furiously, but stomped away with an air more suited to a sulking child than such a wild and destructive existence. "Apologised my fucking ass! You just going to let him get away with this, Big Sis?!"

"There is nothing to 'get away with'. Long-er was late. Long-er has apologised. Such things are only natural. A year here or there is no great feat of patience for us, Ku-er."

"Speak for yourself, hah! You know I can't fucking stand sitting around doing nothing like everyone else! I had to go out and hunt this shitty bastard just to pass the time!" He jerked his thumb at the dragon's corpse. "And you know what? It was a waste of my fucking time anyway! This dog faced bastard spent more time whining about 'righteousness' this and 'judgement' that!" Lan Kuye folded his arms over his chest, scowling petulantly. "Who the fuck gives a shit about anything like that, anyway?"

Ao Long nodded understandingly. It was best to simply wait and listen when Lan Kuye was upset, which was often. As the Immortal of Beasts, he had little patience for a great deal many things - or perhaps it was because he had little patience for so many things that he was the Immortal of Beasts.

"It's just a fucking fight! What reason do we need?! I don't fucking get it!"

His elder sister acknowledged his words with a nod as well, before straightening a little and sweeping them both with a stern gaze. "But now that we three have convened, let us go over the state of our affairs. As the Eldest, I will go first." Silence hung in the air the way a corpse might. "... I have very little to report," she admitted after a moment, "Nothing of interest has truly happened. I have razed the Emerald Verdant Heart Sect down to the stones after Chang Wen lost our wager. The Emerald Verdant Valley is now nothing but ash and dust."

Ao Long blinked. "Ah, Senior, is that what happened? I passed by it earlier. That was you, then?"

Tian Chyou nodded simply. "As always, I spared those who surrendered, or those who were too young to truly decide, and allowed them the clarity and freedom that destruction brings. We shall see if they grow and reform in a hundred years… and if they remain in their stagnant ways, I will burn them down again."

Seeing as his senior was looking expectantly at him, Ao Long delivered his report. "It is much the same for me. I taught a lesson to the so-called Peerless World Severing Sword and found him wanting. It seems after having his own arms severed, he failed to truly grasp the Dao he claimed to follow - a disappointment, but such things happen. Perhaps he will grow from this, but I find myself doubtful. I have heard of interesting events on the Scarlet Continent though - it sounds like that old monster, Meili Tianhua is coming out of seclusion."

"Hah?! That bitch is still around?! I thought she ascended already!"

Ao Long shook his head. "Not yet. They say she is bound to soon. When she does, there will be a mad rush to claim what she leaves behind."

"Pitiful," Tian Chyou lamented, "The vermin always crowd around scraps. I will gladly clean up after Senior Meili, in gratitude for the freedom she granted us."

"And on my trip to obtain the Cloudfisher Heron Egg, I came across some interesting potentials."

Lan Kuye crossed the distance between them in less than a blink, already snarling. "Hah?! Who the fuck are they, then?! You trying to replace us, you bastard?! I'll fucking kill you!"

He held his hands up again. "Of course not. You are both my irreplaceable sworn siblings. I would never dare dream of replacing either of you. It is merely that one of them has potential to become quite powerful - and the other is merely interesting."

"Interesting in what sense?" Tian Chyou asked, a delicate eyebrow raised.

"He has an interesting soul. An interesting outlook. He reminds me a little of Han Tingfeng."

"Ain't he that guy who fucking ate people?"

Ao Long laughed gently, offering Lan Kuye a small smile. "Junior, you eat people."

"Yeah, but I'm not fucking weird about it."

Truly, he does not know if there is a 'normal' way to eat people, but he supposes that in the eyes and ways of the Immortal of Beasts, eating people would be no different from eating any other animal. "But yes. He was."

"Is he going to be another Han Tingfeng, Long-er?" Tian Chyou asked calmly, "If he is, there is no reason to let him get to such a point. The world ill needs another."

Ao Long waved her off. "Nonsense. I said he reminded me of him, not that he was going to become him. He's much gentler. Truly, I do not think he is like the others - he is not some old monster trying to regain lost glory. He's a gentle soul - far too gentle, really."

"Gentle? Might as well kill him now anyway, spare him the fucking pain. There's no room for gentleness in the world."

"Perhaps there should be."

They pondered on that statement for a small eternity, silently considering the weight and meaning. "And the other potential, Long-er?"

"Just someone with the potential to grow, perhaps. He has the seeds of greatness. I gave him some pointers, so I'm curious to see what he will learn."

Tian Chyou nodded in understanding. "And you, Ku-er?"

Lan Kuye shrugged roughly. "I dunno. I killed some bastards, hunted some beasts. Some bitch from some Raging Whale Temple or whatever said something about how she was getting revenge for her mistress, but she just kept talking and talking." He shook his head, disgruntled. "I got bored and punched a hole in her. She might still be alive, I don't fucking know."

"The cycle of revenge is truly a wasteful thing. I shall bring an end to their misguided vengeance."

"Nah, don't do that. If they keep comin', I won't be bored. It's their fucking lives they're throwing away."

Tian Chyou nodded calmly. "Very well. Now that our affairs are sorted, is there anything each of you wish to discuss?"

At this, the Immortal of Beasts raised a hand like he was a child in a classroom. "Yeah, I got something, Big Sis. You guys checked out that new musician down in Sapphire Port City? His melodies are fucking incredible I hear. I wanted to check them out, but I can't fucking stand that place."

"Oh, you are speaking of Feng Sizhui? Truly, his pieces are transcendent. It is a pity he has chosen such a place as his residence - if it pleases you, Ku-er, allow me to free him of those shackles."

The Three Great Calamities moved from discussing world shaking events into simple gossip and Ao Long let himself enjoy the company of his sworn siblings for the first time in a century.