Light Fortress-Chapter 1494 - 210: Wildfire (Part 2)

"Did you find Gu Shen?"

However, Lu Zhe’s question made both their hearts skip a beat.

"..."

Mu Wanqiu and Bai Xiu exchanged a glance. On their way here, they hadn’t sensed any familiar presence. The evacuation here was nearly complete, and along the way, their spiritual power hadn’t detected a single living person.

"Captain Lu, didn’t you... notice anything?"

Mu Wanqiu spoke with an anxious heart.

Lu Zhe shook his head, his expression complicated: "I came south from the North Cave and just arrived at the core area... when my spiritual power spread out, I only saw countless Beast Spirits; there was only a Silent Annihilation here. As for Gu Shen, he doesn’t seem to be in the core area."

"Did we search the wrong place?"

The thought crossed Mu Wanqiu’s mind, but she immediately dismissed it.

Though she couldn’t contact the Netherworld King at the moment, as the top Angel Envoy and Crown-bearer, she could distinctly feel the urgency of the crisis.

It was a warning of the Flame Master being in a dire condition.

And the direction of this warning pointed to the core area of Tanyao!

"There seems to have been a battle here... I found some soil with Extraordinary Essence on the ridge," Lu Zhe squinted, taking out a Purple Silver Protective Bag from his chest, filled with fine dust. "Perhaps we can analyze some of the essence waves by bringing back this soil, but that’s for later; the urgent task is to find Gu Shen. Are you sure he’s still here and hasn’t left?"

"If Gu Shen left the island... then he should have connected with the main force by now."

Bai Xiu whispered, "It would be best if that’s the case, but my instinct feels very uneasy."

"Mine too."

Mu Wanqiu looked gratefully at Little Xiuzi; he’d spoken her unspoken thoughts.

"Alright... For genius Transcendents, their intuition is indeed a reliable companion."

Lu Zhe shrugged. He ascended to the height where the micro-boat landed and, landing behind the two outstanding young people, took a deep breath: "Perhaps... we should check in the direction of Tanyao Volcano’s rift."

This was a very rational suggestion.

If Gu Shen was indeed in the core area, and not at the ridge, then where else could he be?

He could only be inside the mountain.

"Boom—"

The micro-boat flipped and skimmed forward like a comet, headed toward Tanyao’s true "core." Finally, with a sudden brake from the Thunder Realm Walker, the boat abruptly halted, instantly transitioning from motion to stillness, hovering right above the volcano’s smoke-spewing rift.

"Truly an astonishing ’technique’..."

Lu Zhe raised an eyebrow at the Thunder Realm Walker advancing with the airship, unable to hold back a comment.

"At a time like this."

Mu Wanqiu was somewhat helpless; Captain Lu was great at everything, but he was too casual about every mission.

"I don’t know why you two are acting like we’re facing a great enemy..." Captain Lu said helplessly while extending his spiritual power: "But from what I know about Xiao Gu, a freak genius like him isn’t so easily taken down. Such a trivial place as the Sangzhou Cave..."

The sentence abruptly stopped.

The smile on Lu Zhe’s face also froze.

Above Tanyao, countless volcanic ashes swirled upwards. It was a devil’s domain into which neither the Thunder Realm Walker nor the Judge dared venture. But as a Fourth-Order Transcender, Lu Zhe could withstand the pressure and extend his spirit downward.

Because of this.

He caught a familiar trace amidst the ash.

"Hiss..."

It was a very weak, very weak flame.

"I saw it! Gu Shen’s ’Chi Huo’!"

With a sudden rise, Captain Lu’s words caused Bai Xiu and Mu Wanqiu to turn pale, their expressions heavy as they exchanged glances.

The Judge took human form, and the Thunder Realm Walker abandoned their support of the Source Energy Boat, letting it hover independently.

Both S-Class abilities shot towards the flames below.

"Get back!"

With an angry shout, Lu Zhe, standing on the micro-boat, extended his hands downward, crossing the hundreds of meters of airspace to grab the necks of the Thunder Realm Walker and the Judge. Mu Wanqiu and Bai Xiu turned pale again; both were S-Class geniuses who had advanced to the Fourth-Order, but in front of the accomplished Fourth-Order Transcender Lu Zhe, they were powerless!

With just a grab.

The Thunder Realm Walker and the Judge couldn’t venture deeper!

This all happened in the blink of an eye.

Reflections of countless light and fire filled Lu Zhe’s pupils. Even as he clutched the two S-Class abilities, his spiritual power seized control of the whole Source Energy Boat. The small vessel, meant for only four, suddenly tilted upward like a small boat hit at the stern, with the bow pointing skyward, while the burn efficiency of the Source Energy Core ramped to the extreme.

The Fourth-Order Transcender’s spiritual power and the climb’s pushback force held the two S-Classes tightly in their seats.

As for Lu Zhe, he stood on his seat, nearly parallel to the ground, balancing on the micro-boat like it was a flying sword.

"Boom—Boom—Boom—!"

Within a few seconds, the micro-boat shot nearly a kilometer into the sky.

Looking back at the volcano’s rift, Mu Wanqiu and Bai Xiu saw a mighty red light column erupting from the narrow opening, enveloping a high temperature that seemed to melt everything it touched, including the void!

An enormous pillar of light shot from the depths of Tanyao.

It was the culmination of six hundred years of mountain fire.

Within those years, billions of ash particles rekindled to bring forth this momentary eruption.

The micro-boat, thanks to its emergency response, managed to evade the deadly mountain fire impact, leaving the trio aboard in a state of shock, including Lu Zhe, who had initially sensed something amiss.

Captain Lu’s hands clutched the gradually dissipating Judge and Thunder Realm Walker.

Stunned and dumbfounded, Mu Wanqiu and Bai Xiu, typically composed individuals, were overwhelmed by the earlier scene’s sheer impact.

It was immense.

If they had reacted a bit slower...

"Are you crazy, trying to charge into ’Tanyao’ under these conditions!" 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"Do you realize... you would have died just now."

Veins throbbed on Lu Zhe’s forehead, and after his rebuke, his voice turned hoarse, subdued.

In the end, he spoke only these few words softly and then looked far into the distance.

The Skytop had crumbled, with the Deep Sea’s dome shattered entirely by the recent impact.

Even after the micro-boat had ascended a thousand meters, a torrent of ash and dust still roared around, as the final mountain fire ignited the entire Sangzhou Cave. Tanyao had fully awakened, unleashing millions of tons of magma onto the land. From above, Sangzhou Cave had become a hellish mural of flowing flames.

This picture held no beauty, only deathly stillness and suffocation.

The micro-boat drifted aimlessly, like a lone boat adrift in the clouds of ash and cinders.

All three were processing the information the explosion had imparted.

After a long time.

"Gu Shen..."

Mu Wanqiu spoke first among the trio, her voice hoarse: "Captain Lu, is Gu Shen inside Tanyao?"

After she asked, the micro-boat fell silent again.

Lu Zhe was reluctant to answer this question.

So in the long silence, he looked toward the north, speaking softly: "Let’s return. The fleet is still waiting."

"Return... What about Gu Shen?"

Bai Xiu clenched his fist, staring at the completely torn-apart Tanyao.

He already knew the answer.

But some things must be heard from someone else’s lips.

"Do you really need me to say it?"

Lu Zhe said with difficulty, "I didn’t see Gu Shen with my own eyes, but based on the traces and freshness of the auras at the volcano’s mouth, it’s almost certain... Gu Shen is inside Tanyao."

The faces on the two in the driver’s seats turned bleak.

Lu Zhe took control of the micro-boat, advancing slowly towards the northern Ice Sea, unwilling to look back even once.

The Sangzhou Cave crumbled apart.

Tanyao erupted, and the multitude of Beast Spirits relentlessly dove into the volcano, ultimately dissolving into the extreme heat of the sky-reaching red light, fulfilling their mission imprinted deep within their souls, returning their lives to the land that birthed them.

As for the land itself.

No.

Now, we cannot refer to ’Sangzhou Cave’ even as a piece of land. The Tide of the Storm God’s Throne had unleashed an unprecedented underground current, and with Tanyao’s eruption, it tore and drove the isolated island, allowing the Ice Sea to embrace this fragmented infant, and soon, Sangzhou Cave would be reduced to countless ashes, sinking into the currents of the Ice Sea.

This was complete annihilation.

Every blade of grass, every bird and beast, would meet their true "Silent Annihilation" here.