940 The 13th Mountain

The lava from the 12 volcanoes flowed inward as well, but due to the immense heat in the valley, they never froze as soon as they did on the outside, and instead created a ring around the massive valley.

The valley itself was close to 5 kilometers in diameter and was mostly barren apart from the few plants that did grow.

Aside from that, there were many other resources that were mixed into the valley itself. If Alex wasn't wrong, the valley itself used to be a pool of lava that later froze to be what it was at the moment.

Multiple sources of fire energy bombarded Alex's senses as the Dao of fire, not even the True Fire dao, allowed him to locate almost every Fire energy treasure nearby.

Not only that, but he could also tell their potency and type to some extent.

Many people around the inner ring were working to freeze the lava that flowed in the ring and took from it what they could get.

Since this was a free place for anyone to enter, hundreds of people were there, trying to get their hands at getting something valuable for themselves.

As Alex felt the fire energy in the air, he also sensed something in the distance and turned around.

Towards the center, but a little to the left, there was a massive rock that was about twice the height of Alex. It was red in color and even from afar it was easily visible.

Also, Alex could sense some manipulated space from there.

"Where's the final volcano?" Alex asked, wanting to confirm.

"Don't you want to stay around here, do what you came to do?" the old woman asked. "There's plenty of fire energy to go around."

Alex shook his head. "It's too weak. I need stronger energy. Let us enter the secret realm, senior," he said.

"Sigh, very well. Come with me," she said and took him over to the red rock. As they got closer, Ning could now clearly see writings on it that looked like runes.

"Who wrote those runes?" Alex asked curiously.

"It was always here," the old woman said.

'The demons then,' Alex thought to himself. He placed his hands on the stone as he approached it, and even before the old woman could stop him, he vanished.

Alex appeared in a very hot environment, surrounded by glowing lava all around him.

He saw a few people working in here too but compared to the number of people that were outside, this number was terrible.

Although, why would it not be? After all, the amount of Fire energy that was here was enough to kill anyone, not in the True realm. If they were in the True realms, it would be easy to get negatively affected by the absurd amount of fire Qi in this place.

Even the Saint realm cultivators could barely get by here.

The 13th volcanic mountain was a massive volcano over 5 thousand meters in the sky. Even looking at it from far away, it was bigger than the other 12 without question.

The old woman appeared behind him and scolded him, but Alex only apologized for a little and stopped caring for her.

His senses were on fire as the many different fire attribute treasures in the area were calling for him through his dao.

Even if he didn't have a Dao, he would still have been able to sense such a thing through his Flame Mastery Scripture.

He looked towards the top of the volcano and sensed quite a lot of fire aura emanating from there. "I have to go there," he pointed to the location.

"To the top? But it's extremely hot," the old woman said.

"I'll be fine," Alex said and started walking.

The old woman tried to stop him, but Alex didn't hear her words. She was way too cautious for the wrong reasons.

Alex would understand if there were beasts here that were dangerous or lava randomly jumped out of the mountain and threatened to kill you.

But from what she was saying, Alex could only assume that she didn't think that his newly Saint ascended body could handle the flame aura.

Alex shook his head and continued on his path toward the top. He went past a few people, all of whom were searching for treasures around the location or digging for them from the volcano itself.

Alex reached next to one of the lava trails that the men were digging on with their pickaxe. He looked into the lava for a few seconds and reached out his hands.

Suddenly, something flew out of the fire. It was a small rectangular piece of translucent red stone, that was otherwise more commonly known as Fire jade here in this place.

Alex fished out 3 more Fire jades before leaving the place.

The old woman stared at Alex with a surprised look on her face. She had the dao of Fire too, but she was nowhere near as capable as him at distinguishing different fire types when they were close to each other.

The fire aura in the lava was different from the fire aura in the jade. It was such a small difference that when one was covered by the other, it would take the old woman at least a few minutes to properly grasp the differences in the fire and understand that there was more than one.

However, Alex had only used a few seconds and did in that time what would've taken the old woman at least 5 minutes.

While the old woman was lost in her own little world, surprised to no extent, Alex had already found his way to another free spot in the lava where he got some more stuff.

The woman quickly followed him, while Alex took his sweet time finding fire resources.

Compared to the outside, this place was amazing. The entire atmosphere was full of a Fire aura of such strength that it would leave one's lungs burning if they breathed in too much.

And yet, Alex continued going up fearlessly, employing absolutely no techniques whatsoever as he believed that was not needed.

He arrived next to a small branch of the flowing lava and pulled out some more Fire jades from there. He clawed his hands through the ground where he stood as he pulled out more fire jades.

He also found a few hidden herbs that weren't plucked just yet. They were either hidden incredibly well in the rocks and grounds or were simply something that wasn't thought of as resources by the people here.

"That's poison, don't take that," the old woman said from behind.

"Thank you for the knowledge, senior. I will be more careful," Alex said. He continued walking up the mountain, with only a few stops for adding more resources.

Finally, after more than half an hour, Alex arrived at the top of the volcano and looked at the scenery in front of him.

The entire crater was just a massive pool of magma, with the only seating sites being the edge of it.

Alex looked around and felt the intense fire energy coming from the volcano.

"This is perfect," Alex thought to himself with a smile on his face. "With this, I should be able to improve my fire spiritual root."