The Fury of the Enchantress!

Mo Fan's plan was simple: go straight back to the Flame Enchantress and have her escort him and the others out of the Fire Cloud Forest.

He had spent a few days with her, and he was fairly confident she wouldn't refuse such a request. She wasn't just kind — as long as you didn't bring up the Fire Calamity Fruit, she was easy enough to deal with.

Nan Jue's group had originally set out with around ten people in search of the Fire Calamity Fruit. Only five remained — a dismal start to the expedition.

Mo Fan still knew the way back to the Star-Whispering Tree. Bluntly put, he had been the one to lead Nan Jue's group to the Fire Calamity Fruit in the first place. But what he wanted these military types to understand was that with the Flame Enchantress guarding it, any thought of seizing the Fire Calamity Fruit was suicide, plain and simple.

"What is this place…" Nan Jue studied the rocky slope jutting abruptly from the earth, her guard still up.

Atop the slope, the Star-Whispering Tree rose in solitary majesty at the highest point of the wasteland, keeping company with the stars and the blazing sun alike.

The surroundings were bare — not a single Fire Cloud Tree in sight, no other living creature. The Star-Whispering Tree's winding branches spread so wide they nearly blanketed the entire rise of the slope, dense enough to reach out and touch.

"Fair warning," Mo Fan said, turning to Nan Jue and her subordinates. "Whatever you see, don't do anything rash. She lives here. As long as you mean her no harm, she's quite willing to help. All we need is for her to get us out of here."

The other officers had been badly shaken by their encounter with the three-headed serpent and were now unusually compliant — whatever Mo Fan said, they went along with.

"Let me go greet her first. Don't worry, she won't—"

Before Mo Fan could finish reassuring them, a terrifying fireball erupted without warning at the crown of the Star-Whispering Tree.

It blazed like a scorching red sun hanging from the treetop, bathing everything around it in furious crimson light, its tongues of flame licking all the way down toward the ground.

The temperature spiked in an instant. The area had already been brutally hot, but now, with the fireball igniting out of nowhere, it felt as though the living would be baked to husks.

Nan Jue's face drained of color. She snapped into a defensive stance and shot Mo Fan a furious glare, convinced he had lured them here to rob and murder them.

Just as Nan Jue was about to confront him, a blazing figure appeared within the heart of that towering inferno.

It stood atop the fireball, its entire form composed of flame, sculpted into the silhouette of a woman — graceful and untouchably proud.

With the inferno blazing beneath her feet, her presence became only more overwhelming. No one within sight could muster even the faintest thought of resistance.

Waves of fire erupted in rings, one after another, the crimson halos spreading across the curved vault of the sky until they blazed far into the distance, igniting a vast and breathtaking sea of flame clouds overhead.

Looking up, the sky was swallowed whole — a surging ocean of fire ready to incinerate the heavens themselves. It was an image of the apocalypse made real.

"You bastard — you're trying to get us killed!" The sheer force of the Flame Enchantress's aura was crushing the breath from Nan Jue's lungs, but she still managed to scream at Mo Fan.

"If I wanted you dead, I'd have just left you back there…" Mo Fan snarled. "Stay calm and let me find out what happened. Someone else must have set her off — not us. Damn it all, which idiot did this? Want to get yourself killed? Fine — but don't drag the rest of us with you!"

The Flame Enchantress was beyond furious.

When the three-headed serpent had once tried to devour her, she had Released an awe-inspiring ruler's aura to express her wrath. But now she had clearly been pushed past the point of reason — flames poured off her body and spiraled skyward out of control, painting the heavens a harrowing sea of fire.

The massive fireball beneath her feet was even more terrifying. If it exploded, God only knew whether the Fire Cloud Forest — and everyone standing in it — would simply be erased from existence.

Mo Fan had dealt with the Totem Xuan Serpent before, which gave him some insight into how beings of overwhelming power behaved. He was certain the Flame Enchantress was not a bloodthirsty Demon-Beast that slaughtered without reason — she was even more kind-hearted and compassionate than the Totem Xuan Serpent.

Someone had to have provoked her.

The Fire Calamity Fruit?

The Fire Calamity Fruit on the Star-Whispering Tree — it was gone.

The Fire Calamity Fruit was the Flame Enchantress's absolute line — the one thing that must never be touched. Now it had vanished, and that had to be what had sent her into this blind rage.

Mo Fan reached that conclusion in a heartbeat. Seeing the Flame Enchantress wind up to hurl that sun-like ball of destruction at them, he leaped forward.

"It's me — it's me!" He kept his voice steady, doing everything he could to talk down her fury. "I know someone has stolen your Fire Calamity Fruit — just as I warned you before, others had been sneaking in here with their eyes on the treasure… Going on a rampage won't get it back. Tell me what happened. Maybe we can help you recover it."

The Flame Enchantress was consumed by rage — the sight of humans approaching had triggered a primal urge to destroy them all.

Even as Mo Fan stepped forward, she showed no sign of stopping.

The fireball kept growing. God only knew what devastation it would wreak. Mo Fan knew perfectly well that even with his fire resistance, he couldn't withstand power on that scale — his only option was to keep talking her down.

**Liiiing——!!**

The Flame Enchantress could understand human speech. Those burning eyes were filled with savagery — one command from her, and the fireball would obliterate everything.

She fixed her gaze on Mo Fan, the wild flames across her body churning and flickering at a frantic pace, burning with frightening intensity.

**Whoooosh——**

At last, the flames slowly began to quiet. She drifted down from the towering fireball and descended to stand before Mo Fan.

She swept a cold, imperious gaze over the military personnel standing behind him. Every last one of them — Nan Jue included — had hearts hammering so hard they couldn't move a single finger, let alone entertain any thought of resistance.

Now they finally understood why Mo Fan had told them to abandon any notion of taking the Fire Calamity Fruit. The guardian of that fruit was terrifying beyond measure — ruler of the Blazing Plains, and they felt every ounce of it.

"Tell me what happened," Mo Fan said, composing himself and addressing her with quiet sincerity.

The Flame Enchantress did not respond. She seemed to have realized that the thieves were not among this group. Her gaze shifted to the west, and she began drifting slowly in that direction.

Mo Fan had been about to speak — but the moment the Flame Enchantress turned, he froze.

Lodged in her back was a deep-blue spike radiating an aura of biting cold.

It had driven nearly all the way through to her heart, buried deep.

The cold-iron spike had clearly been crafted specifically for use against the Flame Enchantress — the freezing energy was actively suppressing the flames across her entire body, and spreading further inward with every passing moment.

Frost poison.

The cold-iron spike had to be some Mage's Enchanted Gear. And since it was buried in her back, it had come from a sneak attack…