A Race Against Time!

"Damn it all — if we make it out of this alive, I swear I'll carve that two-faced backstabbing bastard into eight pieces." Zhao Manyan sprinted and cursed without pause, one breath after another.

There was no point holding anything back now. Every last piece of Enchanted Gear they'd been saving for emergencies was out and in use.

**BOOM — BOOM — BOOM — BOOM — BOOM!**

Death had a sound, and it rang right in their ears. The terrifying part was that they were charging headlong toward it — for all they knew, they might crash straight into it, and that would be the end of them.

This time, they were truly racing Death itself. The cave Lingling had mentioned still seemed to be some distance away.

Red. Everything around them was red. Molten lava had filled every hollow and depression, spreading completely across the mountain path where they ran. Where their feet hit the molten surface, droplets splashed up and burst into flame mid-air, burning with a heat that made the stomach drop with terror.

The rocks on either side couldn't take the assault. Under the surging impact of the blazing liquid, chunks of stone cracked apart all at once.

Lava sprayed outward, showering them. The heat was beyond description — enough to burn straight through a human body.

"Light Grace — Painted Wall!"

Zhao Manyan's reflexes were lightning-fast. Just as the erupting lava was about to pour over them, he traced out a wall of holy light woven from blazing golden rays at incredible speed.

The molten spray crashed against the golden barrier and held. The group passed through that section safely.

But something far worse had arrived: the lava flood had begun shaking the mountain path violently. The more it trembled, the more rocks cracked apart. In the narrow space, lava splattered in every direction. Somehow the airborne droplets had kindled into swirling flame on their own, burning everyone badly enough to leave their skin scorched and split open.

"Are we there yet?!" Mo Fan was at the front of the group, doing everything he could to force a path through the fire and lava for the others behind him.

He was the only one who hadn't been hurt. The Rose Flame made him immune to these hazards — but he understood clearly that if the lava swallowed him completely, being immune to fire wouldn't save him from being boiled alive.

Lingling sat on Swift Star Wolf's back and said nothing.

She needed absolute focus. She had to locate — somewhere in this mountain path, now utterly unrecognizable, submerged under a flood of molten rock — the single cave opening she had only glimpsed in passing.

At last, Lingling's eyes lit up. She shouted to everyone: "Left side — over there, now!"

The words barely left her mouth when the bend in the path ahead exploded with blinding crimson. It surged forward like some primordial beast in full rampage, its body wide enough to fill the entire mountain path, crashing toward them with mindless fury!

The sight was pure nightmare. Ice shot down every spine. In a matter of seconds, there would be nothing left of any of them.

The cave was still a short distance away. They simply didn't have enough time — there was no way to reach it before the lava did.

"Everyone get in — go!" Mo Fan shouted back at the group from his position at the front.

"What are you going to do?!" Xinxia cried out.

Mo Fan didn't answer. Rose-colored flames erupted across his entire body, enveloping him rapidly until he looked like a creature born from the inferno itself.

He planted his feet and held his ground. A Star Chart took shape beneath him. Most people, facing something like this, would have forgotten everything — the monstrous lava flood carried an overwhelming presence that could blast a mind completely blank, leaving a person capable of nothing but standing there, blank-eyed, waiting to be consumed.

Mo Fan wrenched his mind into absolute focus. The moment he thought of the people behind him — every single one of them someone who mattered to him — he could not afford even a sliver of fear or retreat.

He threw his head back and roared with everything he had. The ring of blazing fire on his right wrist compressed and condensed, gathering into a torrential surge of flame.

"**Blazing Fist!!**"

The lava flood came crashing in. Mo Fan's face had been scorched completely crimson by the heat, but his fist drove forward without hesitation, slamming into the monstrous tide.

Left to itself, the lava would have already swallowed everyone — but Mo Fan's blow drove deep and blasted a massive gap through the molten flood. The blazing liquid had already filled everything around them, and the entire group seemed to vanish within it.

And yet inside that roiling inferno, a single figure still stood. Channeling the Heavenstrike force erupting from his fist, he held his ground — forcing the lava to divide and flow around him, buying just enough time for everyone to fall back into the side cave Lingling had marked.

The Blazing Fist could tear open the lava wave, but more violent surges were already roaring in from behind, and the gap Mo Fan had forced open was filling back in by the second.

Xinxia, Lingling, Swift Star Wolf, Zhang Xiaohou, Zhao Manyan, Chenying — all of them threw themselves into the side cave with barely a second to spare. Before any of them could feel the first breath of relief, they turned back — and the figure standing outside was swallowed whole by a wall of blazing red.

**BOOM — BOOM — BOOM — BOOM!**

The thunder shook their very bones. Looking out from inside the cave, all they could see was an endless sheet of lava hammering past the cave mouth — a massive fire dragon barreling through with blind, reckless fury.

Compared to that all-consuming dragon, Mo Fan — swallowed inside it — was nothing at all. He disappeared so fast. So fast that Xinxia didn't even have time to look at him one last time. All that remained in her mind was that resolute silhouette, standing without a shred of hesitation or retreat, his fist squared against that rampaging fire dragon of molten stone…

"Mo… Mo Fan!!"

Almost in unison, the group surged back toward the cave entrance, ready to throw themselves into the inferno — but the lava's roar was deafening, and they couldn't get anywhere near it.

As if striking a hidden rock formation, the lava exploded at the cave mouth with a thunderous boom. The shockwave blasted them all back into the cave's interior.

The fire dragon churned and clawed at the entrance with terrifying power — it seemed ready to rip the cave mouth apart entirely.

More and more lava poured inside. When Xinxia and Lingling saw that Zhang Xiaohou was about to hurl himself into the magma to save Mo Fan, they immediately ordered Swift Star Wolf to stop him.

Swift Star Wolf moved with explosive speed. In a single bounding leap, it snapped its jaws onto Zhang Xiaohou's back collar and hauled him back by force.

At the same moment, blinding crimson lava surged inward, driving everyone deeper into the cave.

"Quick — seal the entrance!" Lingling commanded.

"We can't seal it!" Zhang Xiaohou shouted.

Zhao Manyan and Chenying stood frozen, completely at a loss.