Light Fortress-Chapter 1403 - 177: Lord of Wine Strife (3)

The Vermilion Bird muttered: "Whether it’s the local geniuses of Sangzhou Cave or the Extraordinary Beast Tide, they aren’t really important tasks... Mr. Tianshui must have already told him the most crucial information, the key to the Torch Trial is [Tanyao]!"

"That’s right... it must be so!"

With a bit of self-talk, his thoughts grew more certain.

The Vermilion Bird contracted the [Li Fire Domain], though he was shot twice by Jia Wei, he was injured but not seriously. At this moment, the interference of these "mountain ashes" was not enough to make him lose the ability to act.

He walked towards the core area of [Tanyao].

Visibility further decreased, the floating mountain ashes around began to erode his domain...

Continuously, blazing waves rushed towards him. After walking for more than ten minutes, the firmly held thought in the Vermilion Bird’s mind suddenly wavered.

Above the Skytop, birds called.

The Vermilion Bird looked up and saw two pitch-black large birds. Under the stimulus of the awakening experiment, the whole life of Sangzhou Cave had undergone Transcendent mutation. These two large birds, which might have originally been no bigger than a palm, now had grown to three or four meters in size, fiercely soaring in the sky, resolutely spreading their wings and violently hitting the sky, crashing into the volcano mouth—

Not even the slightest noise was made.

"Swish—"

The hot wind brushed against his cheek.

A moment of bewilderment jolted the Vermilion Bird wide awake, producing a sense of alertness.

"Could I be overthinking? The Red Dragon isn’t here at all... in such a dreadful place, who would approach?"

The top-tier Spirit intuition of the Fourth-order Transcendent told him there might be danger ahead.

However, at this moment, a chance glance by the Vermilion Bird revealed some fragmented ashes left on the ground. He squatted down, stretched out two fingers, and picked up the crystalline dust on the ground.

This was a piece of wind-dried and melted rubble, with a corner of a blood-red cloak mixed in it.

The sensing and recognition abilities of the Fourth-order Transcendent are astonishingly precise... the Vermilion Bird immediately recognized the origin of this leftover item on the ground.

This was indeed the remnant of the Red Dragon’s robe.

"The Red Dragon... really has been here."

The Vermilion Bird’s expression turned pale, and his eyes became cold and stern.

He didn’t expect that his previously absurd guess turned out to be correct. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

The Red Dragon visited the core area of [Tanyao].

He stood up again.

The Vermilion Bird looked expressionlessly towards the direction of the volcano mouth, step by step, braving the resistance of the pervasive mountain ashes, he arrived before the cracked mountain mouth.

This yet-to-awaken volcanic mouth was floating and spilling surging waves of heat... for those low-level awakened beings, here was a hell on earth; anyone who approached would be scorched to ashes.

But for the Vermilion Bird Divine Envoy who controls "Li Fire," the temperature here wasn’t considered hot; it could only be said to be "unbearably warm."

He stood at the mouth of the volcano, gazing inside.

Tanyao, Tanyao, as its name suggests... it was just at the brink of awakening, like a flower ready to bloom, merely unfurling its bud but not yet opening its petals. The glow and fire within the volcano were like an infant’s breath, opening and closing, flickering and dimming.

Between the illumination and extinction, it seemed as if a blood-red, scarlet flower was thriving.

The Vermilion Bird’s gaze became somewhat hazy.

He stared at the scarlet patterns within the volcano crack, his expression turning somewhat entranced...

The strong wind surged.

Finally, he unfolded his domain, proceeding with "elemental transformation," and jumped into the volcano mouth.