Deep underground, a massive artificial cave formed by the extreme heat of a certain dead Serpent, a peculiar scene was unfolding.

A massive Humanoid stone giant was staring in exasperation and concern as a truly massive assemble of a few dozen Huo Ling floated in front of it, trying and failing to suppress their fear while at the same time, trying to guard the vulnerable living beings that were huddled in fear behind them.

In the ‘eyes’ of the Huo Ling, or whatever passes for eyes for orbs of fire Qi that gained sentience, the stone giant was a being that had defeated a Magma Serpent that was on the verge of becoming a FucangLong, a dragon of hidden treasure and flames. A feat that was nothing short of monstrous in their eyes. Especially since this set of Huo Ling was unaware of the world outside the chasm, which made the Magma Serpent an existence akin to a god to them.

They knew, that if this being made of stone decided to take their wards as sustenance, they would be completely helpless in stopping it, but that does not mean that they would just give up.

What the tiny (from the giant’s perspective) fire spirits lacked in strength, they made up for it through sheer tenacity, how else would they have survived for a thousand years under the tyranny of the Magma Serpent?

Suddenly, the stone giant moved, causing the fire spirits to become alert of its movements and get back a little, forming a tight circle around the helpless children (from the fire spirit’s perspective) ready to duke it out with the giant just like they would with the Magma Serpent until it grew annoyed and left them alone.

However, much to the Huo Ling’s surprise, the stone giant casually pushed aside the blockade, ignoring the terrifying fire Qi packed into their bodies that would make even the Magma Serpent hesitant to devour them straight up.

The Huo Ling panicked and tried to attract the stone giant’s attention back on themselves. However, the lack of communication that they could use and the fact that the Stone Giant was incapable of understanding their telepathic communication due to not having an organic brain, they failed.

With resignation and hate, the Huo Ling prepared themselves to watch their wards die. Hopefully, the few smaller beings that some of their brethren managed to smuggle out of this hell would manage to find a way to survive in the chasm.

Then, the fire spirits received another shock when the stone giant practiced a surprising amount of care in gently picking up one of the terrified children and inspecting them.

As time passed the stone giant did not make any aggressive moves aside from sitting on the floor while staring at the apprehensive and fearful children as the Huo Ling felt something they had not felt in a long time.

Hope.

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It took all of my efforts to keep my body and my surrounding earth from shifting under my extreme anger as I stared down at the ‘slaves’ that the fire serpent, or Magma Serpent as it is supposedly called according to its memories, used to maintain its den.

Humans.

The damned snake was using humans as its slave caretakers for the maintenance of its den, and occasionally, as a snack.

While the memories that I got from devouring the Magma Serpent’s soul are still a jumbled mess that is slowly untangling itself over time, I have enough knowledge, for now, to know just what kind of situation I am in right now.

Turns out, my earlier assumption that this was a Fantasy world was only partially right. Instead of a simple Western fantasy world where I could probably move about without causing many issues once I get out of this chasm, I am in an Eastern fantasy world where there is danger at every step, even for a being like me, especially for a being like me now that I think about it.

I am in a Xianxia world.

From what I gathered, the humans that were present here were sent as a sacrifice by the primitive society that exists outside the chasm to pacify the Magma Serpent and make sure that it did not attack them and kill them all for its amusement.

Initially, the serpent had wanted to absorb the life force of these sacrifices to further its cultivation. Given the massive pile of bones in one corner of the den, it is evident that it had indeed done the deed countless times before.

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But, as time passed, the ambient fire Qi within this cavern, combined with the snake’s regular cultivation method, gave birth to the fire spirits, or as they are supposedly called in the outside world, Huo Ling.

The fire spirits did not have much consciousness in the beginning, being content with wandering aimlessly in the cavern filled with fire Qi, the strange form of the energy that I had been sensing since entering this cave that I was unable to identify accurately.

The serpent used to stockpile the humans as if they were goods, barely providing them sustenance in the form of low-level beasts it hunted and digging out a small passage for a stream to pass through the area so that they could have water and isolating it from the cavern so that it did not evaporate. It did not do this out of kindness but through the pragmatic idea of storing them for long-term use.

One of the most disgusting truths of this matter is the fact that all of the sacrifices sent by the settlement were children, barely in the double digits. Given that I see many humans that have white hair and hunched postures, it is safe to say that these elderly people have ended up spending their entire lives in this place. In the case of some children, their fate was even worse since they were literally born in this hell and this lava-filled cavern was all they ever knew.

From what I can gather from the serpent’s memories, only a small fragment of the eight-hundred-plus population of humans that I see in front of me are even aware of a world outside this cave since most of them had been born into this life, just like their parents, and their parents, and their parents before and so on.

As time passed, the fire spirits learned to interact with the humans, and gradually, developed a bond with them and any other children that would be sacrificed by the settlement above. And, when they saw the Magma Serpent devour one of the humans for the first time due to being in a bad mood after failing to break through, they rebelled.

Ever since then, the Fire spirits made every effort possible to keep the serpent away from the humans, trying every trick that they could think of to annoy it since they knew that they were no match for the serpent.

While there were many days where they failed to protect the humans that they had come to see as weak children despite their age, most of the time, they were successful in keeping their self-appointed wards safe from the serpent. The humans as well, understanding that their days would be numbered if they did not make themselves useful, took to organizing the serpent's den and trying to please it in any way they could, like using their feeble knowledge and the fire spirit’s help to build a place for it to rest, cleaning its scales when it was feeling particularly lazy and other such menial tasks that the serpent could not be bothered with.

The most hellish life I have ever seen.

The more I thought about the pitiful beings in front of me, the more I felt the rage within me grow.

I am not a good person, I know that better than anyone else. Neither am I a bad person. I am just an ordinary one with flaws matching my ordinary nature. But, even for someone as apathetic as me, there are some things that are simply unforgivable.

Any pity I felt for the serpent due to how I killed it went out the window once I fully comprehended the situation. In fact, I think the fate that I dealt to that thing was too lenient. Unfortunately, I don’t think I am capable of bringing back the dead, so what’s done is done and there is no use in contemplating how I could have tortured that foul thing.

For now, I have eight hundred-plus humans who are a mix of old people and young men and women that I need to bring out of here since I don’t wish for these poor people to suffer any more than they already have.

That, alongside the few dozen children that were nabbed by a bunch of fire spirits the moment the Magma Serpent died in an effort to save their lives.

However, in their efforts, the foolish and naïve spirits have taken the children towards the upper parts of the cave system, directly in the path of a few nests of hostile creatures.

Thankfully, I have already taken care of anything that attacked me during my travels, which happened to be all the creatures in the cave system due to the fact that they are highly territorial. This should make it safe for the children, at least, until any other pack of creatures decides to move in.

First thing first, I need to get these people out of here and back to the top of the cave system. At least, I need to take them back to the river above ground. Having generationally lived in this environment, these humans should have gained some level of immunity to the heat but that does not mean that it is necessarily their ideal environment.

With a decision made, I transformed my body into a long tube, big enough for all the humans to fit in comfortably along with the fire spirits, while transforming my limbs into makeshift wheels. The back of the tube also transformed into a nozzle that could expand or contract at will.

It took a few moments but the fire spirits realized my intention and somehow guided the humans into my tube form. Once all the humans were onboard along with the fire spirits, I manipulated my insides to grow stone around all the humans in the shape of straps, securing them in place so that they would not be harmed much during the travel.

Aligning myself with a tunnel that I knew would lead directly to the top of the cave system thanks to the snake’s memories, I pushed my energy, or Qi as I have realized through the memories, through the nozzle, producing powerful thrust, causing me to shoot through the tunnel at tremendous speeds.

I can only imagine the G forces that the humans must be feeling right now thanks to traveling upwards, diagonally, and in any other direction imaginable at such high speeds. It must be the world’s most heart-stopping roller coaster ride for them.

Wait, does this world even have the concept of amusement parks?