173: Chapter 132 Struggle for the Imagery of Metal

At this moment, the morning light finally climbed over the eastern ridgeline, dyeing the entire charred surface of Nanming Volcano a layer of warm gold.

The distant volcano crater was still emitting white smoke, thin and straight columns of smoke rising into mid-air before being scattered by the wind.

He turned to look at Xiao Muting. "You go in first. Do not get close to the remains; just use the Metal Essence to simulate the Spiritual Power fluctuations of the Fire Phoenix. Daoist Master Kumu's Divine Sense will be lured away by you."

Xiao Muting did not ask any more questions, leaping off the rock ledge; his figure flashed within the dark red light and disappeared into the depths of the fissure.

A moment later, the liquid surface of the lava lake began to show subtle ripples, like the rising and falling of a sleeping giant beast's belly as it breathed.

The ripples spread from the lake surface, carrying a faint heatwave that was almost identical to the aura before the true Fire Phoenix spirit awakened.

Chen Xuan retreated into the shadows behind the rock ledge, putting some distance between himself, Master Liu Yun, and Master Qingmu.

The three of them each guarded a position, their auras all suppressed to the absolute minimum.

The wait did not last long.

When the sun was high in the sky, a disturbance appeared on the northwestern skyline.

A golden light fell from the clouds, like the tail of a shooting star, landing on the rock ridge on the northeastern side of the volcano.

After the golden light dissipated, three figures stepped slowly out of the light; the leader was none other than Daoist Master Kumu, wearing grey-white monk robes, barefoot, with a calm expression, the corners of his mouth still hanging with that touch of gentle, compassionate smile.

Behind him followed two old men wearing dark red monk robes, their cultivation profound and their faces gaunt; they were the last two Golden Core Cultivators of the Buddhist Sect's Vajra Department.

Huike did not come; perhaps the last teleportation had exhausted his magic power.

Daoist Master Kumu was not in a hurry to act.

He stood on the rock ridge, his gaze first falling in the direction of the lava lake, sensing for a moment, and then the smile at the corners of his mouth deepened slightly.

"The Fire Phoenix spirit is indeed here," he said in a low voice, as if talking to himself, "The dormant period has already begun. It is the best time to take the Metal Essence."

He lifted his foot and walked down the rock ridge, with the two Vajra Department Cultivators in dark red monk robes following closely behind; the three of them advanced steadily toward the lava lake.

Each step landed extremely lightly, but the rocks beneath their feet would develop subtle cracks after their footsteps landed.

They had walked about one-third of the way when the liquid surface of the lava lake suddenly surged violently.

A dark red pillar of fire shot straight into the sky from the center of the lake, wrapping a blurred figure inside—shaped like a giant bird, wings half-spread, head lowered, its entire body covered in dark red scaled feathers, like a sculpture cast in raging fire and cooled for thousands of years.

The Fire Phoenix remains.

The appearance of that figure caused the heatwave of the entire lava lake to rise sharply, and the gravel on the ground was swept up by the airflow, swirling in the air.

Daoist Master Kumu's footsteps stopped, his gaze lingering on the figure in the pillar of fire for a moment, and his brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

"The aura is wrong," he said, "This aura... is too young."

The two Vajra Department Cultivators behind him also sensed it and stopped at the same time.

Daoist Master Kumu slowly raised his right hand, a mass of dark green light condensing in his palm, like a core formed by entwined vines, where layers of woody textures could be vaguely seen.

That was the core of his cultivation that he had practiced for eight hundred years—the Wood-Attribute Golden Core.

The dark green light spread toward the lava lake, like vines silently crawling across the earth.

The moment the light touched the pillar of fire, the figure inside the pillar jolted violently, then erupted with an even more violent heatwave, colliding head-on with the vine light, exploding into a circle of red and green intertwined shockwaves.

Chen Xuan saw this scene clearly from the shadows behind the rock ledge.

Daoist Master Kumu was indeed attracted by the aura simulated by Xiao Muting, but he was clearly already starting to doubt the authenticity of that aura.

The first collision between the Wood-Attribute Golden Core and the exotic fire Metal Essence had already occurred; he could not remain deceived forever.

He turned his head to look at Master Liu Yun, and Master Liu Yun happened to be looking at him as well.

The master and apprentice looked at each other across the distance for a moment, then each took a step forward.

"Act," Chen Xuan said.

Three figures killed their way out from different directions simultaneously.

Master Liu Yun leaped down from the northeastern rock wall, his white hair scattering into a silver arc in the firelight.

Master Qingmu flashed out from the rock cave on the southwestern side, the purple bamboo staff in his hand turning into a turquoise stream of light, stabbing straight at Daoist Master Kumu's back.

Chen Xuan appeared from the fissure directly in front, the three bright moon sword unsheathed, the sword light differentiating into nine, sealing off all retreat paths three zhang in front of Daoist Master Kumu.

Three Golden Core Masters, one direction, attacking simultaneously.

The moment the three appeared, Daoist Master Kumu finally stopped his pace toward the lava lake.

He looked at the three-zhang retreat path blocked by Chen Xuan, then turned to look at Master Liu Yun's silver-white sword light and Master Qingmu's turquoise staff shadow; after a moment of silence, he laughed instead.

"What a grand Formation," he said, "Three Golden Core Masters besieging me alone—Benefactor Yun, you are better at mobilizing people's hearts than I imagined."

Chen Xuan did not respond.

The sword light had already reached three inches in front of Daoist Master Kumu; the nine sword lights merged into one, the Nine Heavens Unity Sword Qi heading straight for his glabella.

Daoist Master Kumu raised one hand, the mass of dark green vine light in his palm meeting the sword light; the moment the two forces collided, a dull explosion sounded.

The shockwave spread, shattering the rocks beneath their feet into a spiderweb pattern.

Daoist Master Kumu retreated half a step; this was his first retreat in this battle.

Immediately after, Master Liu Yun's sword light and Master Qingmu's staff shadow arrived simultaneously, the three attacks converging into one point on Daoist Master Kumu's body, exploding into a blinding light.

A slight muffled groan came from the light mass, which Chen Xuan heard clearly.

Daoist Master Kumu was injured; under the siege of the three Golden Core Masters, his Wood-Attribute cultivation was interfered with from the inside by Xiao Muting's exotic fire Metal Essence, unable to operate at full capacity.

His defense had obvious gaps, like a suit of armor eaten by moths—it looked intact, but with a slight touch, the cracks underneath would be exposed.

At the same time, the two Vajra Department Cultivators in dark red monk robes moved.

Their target was not Chen Xuan, but the remains in the pillar of fire in the direction of the lava lake.

A giant palm burning with flames slapped toward the pillar of fire; when the claw marks crossed the air, they left three dark red scorch marks, tearing a large piece of the Spiritual Power fluctuations surrounding the remains.

The outer shell of the remains began to crack, exposing the grey-white bones underneath.

That was indeed a set of remains.

The Fire Phoenix spirit had long since departed, and all that remained at the bottom of the lake was this skeleton that had been tempered by lava for who knows how many years.

The outer layer of the skeleton was covered with a dark red hard shell, like newly solidified lava, which was being peeled off layer by layer by the Vajra Department Cultivators' palm power.

"Shift Heaven and Change Sun Formation, activate!"

Daoist Master Kumu's voice became extremely loud at this moment, like an ancient bell being struck, the sound bursting from the depths of his throat, carrying powerful Spiritual Qi vibrations, echoing over the entire Nanming Volcano.

Golden patterns began to appear on the ground.

The patterns spread from under Daoist Master Kumu's feet to the surroundings, forming a huge circular Formation map, enveloping the lava lake, the pillar of fire, the remains, and himself within it.

Dark green light flowed within the lines of the Formation map; that was the magic power of the Wood-Attribute Golden Core irrigating the entire Formation along the Formation lines, crazily drawing the surrounding Spiritual Qi into the Formation eye.

Chen Xuan's expression changed.

The Shift Heaven and Change Sun Formation was larger, more complete, and activated faster than he had expected.

Daoist Master Kumu had clearly prepared for this for more than a year; all the steps were pre-arranged, just waiting for him to trick the Spiritual Power of the Fire Phoenix remains out as a catalyst.

"Retreat!" he shouted toward Master Liu Yun and Master Qingmu.

But it was already too late.

The golden light of the Formation suddenly lit up at this moment, illuminating the entire volcano crater as if it were day.

Daoist Master Kumu in the Formation eye pressed his hands together, chanting an obscure incantation, and the dark green vine light poured out crazily from his body, spreading toward the lava lake, entangling the skeleton of the remains in the pillar of fire, like vines entangling a withered tree.

At this moment, Chen Xuan took something out of the Storage Pouch—the cyan Jade Slip of Ancient Golden Core Cultivator Zhao Wuji—and pressed it to his glabella.

A very slight tremor came from the Jade Slip, like a bell being gently struck, the sound extremely light, yet it directly penetrated the golden light screen of the Shift Heaven and Change Sun Formation.

Deep in the lava lake, a dark golden light suddenly lit up.

That light was not emitted from the remains, but surged out from the rock crevices even deeper at the bottom of the lake, carrying a warm and ancient aura, like a sun that had slept for thousands of years finally opening a slit of its eye.

Heavenly Fire Metal Essence.

It was not inside the remains, not in the Fire Fox's rock cave, and not in the position Daoist Master Kumu thought.

It had been quietly sinking in a natural fissure deeper at the bottom of the lake, its aura covered by the residual Spiritual Power fluctuations of the remains, and even Daoist Master Kumu's Divine Sense had not penetrated that disguise.

Before the Fire Phoenix spirit departed, it left the Metal Essence at the bottom of the lake, covering it with the Spiritual Power fluctuations of the remains for three whole years.

The aura of the remains that Daoist Master Kumu sensed was just the shadow projected by the Metal Essence.

And the remains he exhausted his magic power to lock onto by activating the Shift Heaven and Change Sun Formation was just that layer of worn-out shell.

Chen Xuan drew his sword, the sword tip aimed at the direction of the lava lake, splitting the surging dark golden light, cutting it off from the middle.

The split light divided into two; one half fell onto the lava lake surface, re-condensing into a complete pillar of fire like burning grease; the other half climbed up along the rock fissures, finally turning into an extremely thin golden silk thread, bypassing the operating Shift Heaven and Change Sun Formation, passing through the gap between Daoist Master Kumu's Wood-Attribute cultivation and the remains' Spiritual Power, and steadily falling into Chen Xuan's palm.

That warm golden light mass floated in his palm, as light as the reflection of a newborn sun falling onto the water surface.

Daoist Master Kumu's gaze finally shifted away from the remains.

His eyes turned to the golden light mass in Chen Xuan's palm, his pupils suddenly contracting, and the touch of compassionate smile at the corners of his mouth disappeared completely.

"...So that's how it is," he said, "It was under the remains. You knew all along."

Chen Xuan did not answer.

He gripped the Heavenly Fire Metal Essence tightly in his palm, then took three steps back.

The lava lake behind him surged violently, the skeleton of the remains began to collapse under the traction of Daoist Master Kumu's Formation, but without the Metal Essence, the Shift Heaven and Change Sun Formation was just an empty shell.

Daoist Master Kumu was silent for a moment.

The dark green light around him began to slowly retract, like vines re-entwining back onto the tree trunk; the two Vajra Department Cultivators stopped their actions behind him, their gazes also falling on that golden light mass.

Just at this moment, a vibration came from the bottom of the lava lake.

A fire-red light surged out from the depths of the lake bottom, stopping at the edge of the Formation; a figure appeared in the light, wearing a fire-red long dress with a very high slit, and the three-pronged flame at the tip of her tail was slowly burning.

The Fire Fox's figure emerged from the light, glanced at the golden light mass in Chen Xuan's palm, then glanced at Daoist Master Kumu, her red lips curving slightly.

"I knew it," she said, "You couldn't possibly wait honestly and let me watch you take it."

The airwaves exploded from the bottom of the lava lake had not yet dissipated, and the golden patterns of the Shift Heaven and Change Sun Formation had already lit up to the extreme.

Daoist Master Kumu's expression changed completely.

He stared at the warm golden light mass in Chen Xuan's palm; eight hundred years of cultivation seemed to have been pried open a crack from the foundation at this moment.

That Heavenly Fire Metal Essence, he thought it had been locked by him within the remains, but he did not know it had been hiding in a deeper fissure all along, covered tightly by the aura of the remains.

His silence lasted only one breath.

Within this one breath, his hand reached into his sleeve, took out a dark red bone talisman, and crushed it violently.

The moment the bone talisman shattered, a low rumble came from the skyline in the northwest direction of Nanming Volcano, like giant stones rolling over the mountain ridge, and also like the lingering sound of a giant drum being struck, colliding back and forth underground.

Immediately after, five escape lights broke through the air from that direction, moving extremely fast, each escape light wrapped in the aura of at least a Golden Core Early Stage.

Chen Xuan's Divine Sense swept across those five escape lights, and his heart sank suddenly.

Five people.

Two Golden Core Early Stage, two Golden Core Middle Stage, and one Golden Core Middle Stage Peak.

All were unfamiliar faces; their clothing was not the standard monk robes of the Buddhist Sect, nor was it the style of any Sect in the Southern Region.

It was closer to the style of Loose Cultivators from the Central Region; each person had different tokens hanging at their waists, some were copper, some were iron, and the Golden Core Middle Stage Peak Cultivator at the very front had a bone-white token hanging at his waist, with a clear blood-colored character "Xing" engraved on it.

People from the Central Region's Ministry of Justice.

Outside help that Daoist Master Kumu had invited at an unknown cost.

The five people flew in from the northwest direction, fanning out, instantly occupying the high points in the northeast, southeast, and due west of the volcano, surrounding Chen Xuan, Master Liu Yun, Master Qingmu, and the Fire Fox in the middle.

Daoist Master Kumu had regained his footing.

The mass of dark green Wood-Attribute golden light around him had re-condensed into shape, even more profound than before, like a suit of armor that had been irrigated again, the cracks on the surface healing rapidly.

He pressed his hands together, then separated them, and between his ten fingers condensed a walnut-sized dark green core, the surface of the core entwined with fine woody textures, and at the edges, a trace of extremely faint red light could be vaguely seen flowing.

That was a part of Maitreya's remains.

Daoist Master Kumu had refined a small fragment of the remains into his own Wood-Attribute Metal Essence core, ready to be unleashed as his final trump card.

He no longer looked at the Metal Essence light mass in Chen Xuan's palm, but turned toward the direction where the five Central Region Ministry of Justice Cultivators were, and lifted his chin slightly.

The five escape lights moved simultaneously.

The Golden Core Middle Stage Peak Cultivator at the very front landed first; the moment he landed, the ground beneath his feet sank a foot deep, like a giant stone smashing into mud.

He straightened up, his gaze sweeping across the entire scene, and finally stopped on Master Liu Yun.