"Looks like not all barbarians are scary like An Zhi," Mu Chen sighed. He was able to track the barbarian youth without any hiccups. The barbarian youth didn't seem as perceptive as An Zhi.

Halfway through, the youth caught up with An Zhi and his team. On hearing the chief's warning, An Zhi and his team became cautious about an ambush. An Zhi divided the team in two, they no longer traveled in a straight line and began to send scouts. Sometimes they backtracked to leave a false trail, other times they circled avoiding paths suited for an ambush.

All of this annoyed Mu Chen to death, who now had to be extra careful so his own trail wasn't exposed. It was almost unbearable since he knew there was no ambush, just a misunderstanding caused by him.

As they continued further, the terrain changed and became steeper. They had come to the base of a gigantic mountain. Even after craning his neck, Mu Chen couldn't see the mountain top as it disappeared into the clouds.

Without any hesitation, the barbarian began to climb the mountain.

Mu Chen decided to fall back, the mountain was rocky and there was barely any vegetation. If any barbarian glanced behind, he would be exposed. Mu Chen wasn't naive enough to think he could take on a team of fifty barbarians head-on, not to mention there was someone like An Zhi.

An Zhi and the barbarians were very accustomed to climbing the mountain, and they soon disappeared into the clouds.

Mu Chen waited for several breaths of time. After confirming that An Zhi and his group had truly gone, he came out of the forest and began to climb the mountain.

By the time Mu Chen reached the clouds, darkness had fallen. The thick fog made it difficult to see beyond the distance of a few feet, but it did little to deter Mu Chen.

As Mu Chen continued to climb, the temperature began to drop rapidly. The ground underneath was no longer rocky, but covered with snow. Cold wind blew bringing along with it tiny ice particles. At some point, it began snowing.

The wind howled in Mu Chen's ears as he trudged through the deep snow.

"Where did they go?" Mu Chen shivered as he looked around, but didn't find any trace of An Zhi and his group. Any footprints they had left behind had already been covered by falling snow.

Mu Chen frowned and searched carefully, but still failed to trace any trace of An Zhi and others. The barbarians had disappeared without a trace as if swallowed by the snow.

After over an hour of wasted effort, Mu Chen decided to give up. He was interested in the holy spirit An Zhi was talking about, but without any direction, he would only be wasting his time and energy. Moreover, the cold was starting to affect him, making him feel drowsy.

Feeling resigned, Mu Chen retraced his steps back and began his descent. As he left the snow-clad peak, the chill dispersed, but the fog was still thick and visibility was still low.

A gust of wind passed by and with it, it carried more than just snow.

"Who?" Mu Chen was startled. He thought he heard someone speaking just now, but with the wind blowing in his ears, it was hard to be certain.

Mu Chen pricked his ears and focused as hard as he could. Soon broken fragments of someone talking entered his ears.

"How is… it?" The voice sounded vaguely familiar to Mu Chen, but he couldn't recall where he had heard it before.

Mu Chen knelt on the ground and crept towards the source of the sound. Soon, three people appeared in his field of vision. Mu Chen was surprised to see them—they weren't barbarians, but rather cultivators around his age who entered the realm like him. One of them could even be called an acquaintance.

"The world is indeed small," Mu Chen sighed and continued to observe.

The three of them were looking in a particular direction. Mu Chen followed their line of sight and was pleasantly surprised to see an opening into the mountain. Somewhere along the line, the barbarian he was following had entered the cave. Mu Chen, whose line of sight had been blocked by the fog, remained clueless and assumed the barbarians were moving in a straight direction.

"Young Master, they are still fighting!" One of the guys was holding a crystal in his hand with his eyes closed. He opened his eyes and looked at the young master. "There are casualties on both sides."

"Good, good," the young master chuckled. "Let them kill each other. Once they have killed each other, we will go pick up our baby… "

"Young Master, your plan is brilliant. With this, we will be able to get the treasure without even lifting a finger… " another guy said.

"It's nothing, I just played a few tricks," the young master waved his hand. "It's these barbarians who are stupid."

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"Young Master, you don't have to be so modest."

"Yeah, with Young Master's talent, he should have been chosen as the heir, but instead they picked up a tomboy—"

"Sssh!" the young master jumped and smacked the guy behind his head. "Don't talk nonsense!"

"Oww!" The guy groaned and looked at the young master with shock. "Young Master, she is not even her. Why are you so afraid of her?"

"I am afraid? Me?" the young master smacked the guy once again. "I am doing this for you! If you make it a habit, you will slip your tongue. Did you forget how Yang Meng here got his ass handed over to him by that woman?" He said and patted the shoulder of the other guy standing next to him.

The guy who was beaten looked at Yang Meng and shuddered on realization. "Young Master, I was wrong. Forgive me!"

"It's alright," the young master sighed. "I think of you guys as my friends. I don't want you to suffer on my watch."

"Young Master… " The eyes of the two guys who listened to their young master's heartfelt words, moistened and they looked at him with respect.

The three of them chatted with each other for a bit more. Secrets were shared, promises were made, plans were hatched, all of which made Mu Chen drowsy…

"Huh?" Yang Meng raised the crystal in his hand and looked at it with a frown.

"What happened?" Young Master Long asked. "Is it over?"

"I don't know…" Yang Meng shook his head. "It looks like the mother pearl broke."

"What?" Young Master Long was surprised. "Didn't you hide it well?"

"I did," Yang Meng said. "I even covered it with a protection array as a precaution."

"Then it must be because the fight was too intense," Young Master Long chuckled. "As expected of these barbarians, they don't hold back. Get ready, we will go in soon."

"Young Master," the other guy said. "Yang Meng hid the mother pearl in the ceiling."

"So?" Young Master Long was in a good mood. It was time to reap the harvest.

"Since the pearl was destroyed," the other guy said. "Wouldn't it mean that the ceiling collapsed?"

"Shit!" Young Master Long cursed and sprinted towards the cave. "My fire spirit!"

Yang Meng and the other guy saw their young master run and they followed suit.

A fire spirit? Mu Chen's heart palpitated. He didn't expect the holy spirit in An Zhi's mouth to be a fire spirit. Perhaps the barbarians didn't know the value of a fire spirit, but cultivators were well aware.

When the concentration of an element in a place reached its peak, and the condition persisted for a long enough time, there was a chance that a spiritual consciousness would be born. Cultivators called it spirit.

These spirits didn't have a physical body, but were made of rich elemental aura. Refining one would increase the chances of a cultivator ascending to the Heaven Opening stage.

Can't let go! Mu Chen's eyes became fiery. Although he couldn't use it, people around him could.

Mu Chen watched the three of them enter the cave. He had sensed the vibrations from the battle, and it didn't feel like the cave had collapsed. According to him, if the cave collapsed, the impact should've been much larger. But then again, he didn't have the experience, so he wasn't sure.

Mu Chen had some misgivings, but the temptation of the fire spirit was too great. He thought about it and decided to go in. With the three of them leading the way, if there was any trouble, he would have enough time to react.

At the entrance of the cave, deep red blood had been spilled. Mu Chen walked past it, without giving it a second look. All his attention was now focused on the cave itself.

The cave was large and spacious enough for several men to walk sideways. The walls were covered in lichen and moss. Warm air blew out of the depths of the cave dispelling the chill. Some of the fungi on the walls glowed with a faint glimmer, providing the only source of light.

The cave twisted and disappeared into the depths of the mountain.

Mu Chen didn't see any sign of the three people who had entered the cave, but he wasn't in a hurry. After knowing the treasure was a fire spirit, many things became clear to Mu Chen. At first, he thought that the Long Clan's Young Master was very apathetic, sparking a war between two tribes for treasure. If it was him, although he would have killed a few barbarians and stolen the treasure, he wouldn't have triggered a war.

But since it was a fire spirit, it made sense.

A fire spirit wasn't easy to tame and capture. Their bodies were ethereal, rendering physical attacks completely useless against them. But although it was immune to physical attacks, it had an obvious weakness.

The spirit was a form of consciousness so the cultivator's divine sense could affect it. But the cultivator's divine sense had to be powerful enough.

Among his group, Young Master Long's cultivation base was highest, in the spirit condensation realm. His divine sense wasn't strong enough to affect the spirit.

Even if they brought hundreds of cultivators, it would be useless. The strength of the divine sense of different individuals couldn't be combined unless they practiced some special technique. But fusing divine senses was still difficult, required years of training and above all, it required innate compatibility, say, twins.

Capturing a fire spirit with their strength was a pipe dream, and the number of people was simply irrelevant.

So it left them with only one choice. It was the oldest trick in a cultivator's book: a blood sacrifice.

Over a hundred barbarians were battling in a life and death battle. Even if a few survived, the number of barbarians killed should be enough to stun the spirit. A defenseless spirit was much easier to capture.

So Young Master Long had to resort to sacrificing the lives of the barbarians and to do that he triggered a war among them.

But Mu Chen was different. His sword sense was strong enough. Even without the blood sacrifice, he felt he had a chance to subdue the fire spirit. He didn't need to rely on Young Master Long to capture the spirit. What he was worried about was not the fire spirit, but someone else.

An Zhi.

While their encounter was short, An Zhi had left an indelible impression on Mu Chen. Mu Chen, who had been confident in his physical strength, never thought he would meet someone who could surpass him. If it was some old monster who had lived for long, Mu Chen wouldn't have been so distressed. But An Zhi was only in his twenties. Granted that the other party was a barbarian and should have an innate advantage when it came to physical strength, and caught him off-guard, Mu Chen still felt uncomfortable. He didn't know if An Zhi had any other tricks up his sleeve. As long as he was around, Mu Chen had a hunch it would be difficult to get the fire spirit.

Mu Chen continued to walk deeper into the cave. As we went deeper, the temperature began to rise. Mu Chen's throat became dry, and he began to sweat. Mu Chen removed his robe, rolled Xiao Xue in a bundle and dangled her by his waist. At the same time, he couldn't help but curse. It was freezing outside, but it was boiling inside. As the temperature reached unbearable levels, the realization hit Mu Chen and he understood why there was a fire spirit here.

It wasn't just a mountain, it was a volcano.