Translator: Silavin & PewPewLaserGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

Fearing for Dong Xuan’er’s safety in her heart, the woman almost used all her strength to raise her speed. At first, she was worried that Yang Kai wouldn’t be able to keep up with her and deliberately slowed down, but when she saw him running beside her with ease, she gradually increased her pace.

Now, Yang Kai was actually leading the way.

This startled her greatly but remembering that he was able to chase down her Spirit Fox in this Flowing Flame Sand Field, she realized Yang Kai had probably not yet reached his limit. He was now the one holding back for her.

Hesitating for a moment, the woman suddenly said, “Junior Brother…”

“Hm?” Yang Kai turned his head and looked at her curiously, not knowing why she was calling out to him. As for being called Junior Brother, seeing how this woman’s cultivation was two Minor Realms higher than his own, Yang Kai didn’t see anything wrong with it.

“If you can move faster, you don’t need to concern yourself with me, just go all out, I can keep up.”

Yang Kai’s eyes flashed a strange light as he realized that this woman had also not used her full strength yet. It seemed that any cultivator who could reach the Third-Order Saint King Realm would have some hidden means.

Not saying anything, Yang Kai simply nodded before directly increasing his speed to its maximum, his figure turning blurry as he darted forward.

Yang Kai didn’t use his Wind and Thunder Wings though because he was certain that once he did, even if this woman had some secret technique, he would instantly throw her off.

A burst of Saint Qi fluctuations suddenly appeared behind Yang Kai as the woman used some unknown method. In any case, Yang Kai could feel that this woman’s strength had also increased greatly, and she was following close behind him.

However, after increasing her speed like this, her breathing ceased, as if she had inhaled deeply then held all the air inside her chest.

A hundred kilometres from the massive Silver Star Ore, there was a huge lake of lava. This lava was extremely hot and seemed capable of melting down anything it touched. The lava was dark and thick, and there were constantly huge bubbles rising to its surface, bursting apart with gurgling sounds, releasing a black mist which contained an incredibly corrosive fire poison.

The lava lake gave off an apocalyptic aura that made anyone who laid eyes upon it shudder.

At the center of the lava lake was a tortoise shell floating on its surface. This tortoise shell was ten metres in diameter and seemed to originally be a yellowish-brown colour. However, after baking in this lava lake, it had become dark red and was exuding a hot aura., it even had spider web of cracks running across its surface.

Through these cracks, the scorching aura of the lava lake seeped upwards, tormenting a group of young men and women who were struggling atop the tortoise shell.

This group of people were the Core Disciples of Shadow Moon Hall let by Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er. In addition to the two of them, there are two other men and one woman for a total of five people.

The area of ​​the tortoiseshell wasn’t very big, just wide enough for five people to stand comfortably together on.

At this moment, all five of them had pale faces and their Saint Qi’s fluctuations were quite faint.

Wei Gu Chang was in the best condition of the five, but he had long lost his heroic bearing, his face filled with bitterness and annoyance. Only when he glanced over at Dong Xuan’er would a flash of tenderness and calm fill in expression. Seeing his beloved woman standing beside him in this harrowing situation, Wei Gu Chang would feel strength return to his body. If not for this emotional support, he would not have been able to endure this torment for so long, and once he fell, the other Shadow Moon Hall disciples would surely be wiped out.

Dong Xuan’er still wore the same gentle and quiet look. Since falling into this formation, she had not uttered a word of complaint, only occasionally cheering up her fellow Sect Brothers and Sisters, encouraging them to hold on, but how could this white-robed, always sweetly smiling woman who seemed as if she would be happy even if the sky were to collapse as long as Wei Gu Chang was beside her, not be a dry oil lamp?

Her calm exterior was just an act she was keeping up through force of will. She had the same mindset as Wei Gu Chang; that was, she couldn’t let her Junior Brothers and Junior Sister see her weakness and discouragement.

Once either of the two of them lost hope, the situation would only get worse.

The situation of the three others Shadow Moon Hall Core Disciples on the other hand was extremely bad. The faces of the two male disciples were filled with gloom, as if covered by dark clouds that blocked out all light of hope. They were constantly muttering to themselves under their breath, the threat of death seemingly having thrown their minds into chaos.

Another tall woman in a red dress was also completely overwhelmed, streaks of tears clearly visible running down her cheeks. She was almost mechanically pouring her Saint Qi into the tortoise shell now to help activate its defensive properties.

But whether it was Wei Gu Chang, Dong Xuan’er, or the other three Shadow Moon Hall disciples, all of them knew that if no one came to rescue them within a day or two, they would definitely die.

They had been trapped here for too long now and had all but completely consumed their Saint Qi reserves. On top of that, in this damned place, they could not use their Secret Arts and could only rely on Saint Crystals and pills to restore themselves.

Their situation had been tolerable when they still had pills, but they have run out a few days ago, no matter how they tried to draw energy from the Saint Crystals they had on hand, they couldn’t keep up with their consumption.

The Artefact Armour each of them wore was now completely dim as they couldn’t spare any Saint Qi to activate them.

If they were merely stranded in the middle of this lava lake atop this tortoiseshell, it wouldn’t be difficult for these five Shadow Moon Hall Core Disciples to escape.

What made them helpless though, was that no matter how they urged the tortoiseshell under their feet, it remained motionless, as if there was some mysterious power coming from the lava lake which firmly held them in place.

To make matters worse, there was some kind of Spirit Array inside this lava lake that would from time to time cause pillars of lava to shoot up towards them from all directions, causing them incredible danger. Fortunately, Wei Gu Chang had so far been able to use his superior strength to avert these crises, allowing the five of them to survive until now.

However, in exchange, his body was now covered with dark red burns and scars that had turned black from the invading fire poison. Wei Gu Chang had no extra strength to expel this fire poison and could only do his best to ignore it as it gradually ate away at his strength and vitality.

Gradually, traces of this black aura began appearing on Wei Gu Chang’s pale face, making him look terribly morbid.

“Senior Brother…” Dong Xuan’er saw this and couldn’t help trembling, almost bursting out into tears as she cried out, “I’m sorry!”

Wei Gu Chang grinned and declared in the most spirited voice he could manage, “Among the two of us, there’s nothing you need to apologize for, so don’t speak such distant words in the future.”

“But if it weren’t for me wanting to explore this place, we wouldn’t have fallen into this trap!” Dong Xuan’er’s beautiful eyes dimmed.

It was precisely because she had noticed that there was something odd about this place that she had begun investigating it. But as soon as the five of them had stepped into this area, the ground had cracked open and sank into the burning hot lava lake, trapping them in place.

Unable to fly here, the five of them could depend upon this tortoise shell to barely maintain their lives, but it was impossible for them to leave this place.

This tortoise shell was left behind after some unknown Tenth-Order Monster Beast that was abnormally strong, so even after it had been baked in this lava lake for more than a month, it still hadn’t broken, but it did have many thin cracks.

After all this time, the tortoise shell wasn’t looking very good and seemed as if it was on the verge of breaking.

“Don’t say that, any place that has benefits also has dangers, and the five of us all agreed to explore here, it has nothing to do with you,” Wei Gu Chang said calmly, “If that weren’t the case, we wouldn’t have found that treasure. After leaving here, we’ll divide that thing up evenly and everyone’s strength will surely increase a lot.”

“Will we be able to leave here?” The tall woman in the red dress looked over at Wei Gu Chang, tears suddenly leaking from her big eyes again, “Senior Brother Gu and Junior Sister Liu died just after we entered the third layer… Are their resentful souls now retaliating against us for failing to save them?”

Hearing this woman’s words, the other two male disciples’ faces changed greatly. Seemingly recalling the situation from more than a month ago, their already pale complexions went even whiter.

Wei Gu Chang shot her a sharp glare and coldly declared, “Junior Brother Gu and Junior Sister Liu were killed by Fire Spirit Beasts, it wasn’t that we didn’t try to save them, it’s that we were too weak to do so. The will of the Heaven’s is inescapable, but our current predicament has nothing to do with them, don’t think about such pointless things.”

The death of their Junior Brother and Junior Sister had left a great psychological shadow on the others, because before entering the Flowing Flame Sand Field, each of them had been extremely self-confident. They were all Core Disciples with superior aptitude and strength, each of them not thinking much of the Flowing Flame Sand Field, only imagining that with their skills, they would obtain enough benefits here and amaze their peers and Elders after leaving.

The first and second layers had indeed not posed a challenge to them and could even be described as free of danger, but just after they entered the third layer, two of their group had died!

Two companions who they had lived and cultivated together with for many years, who they were laughing and joking together with just moments ago, died tragically right before their eyes; weighing heavily in their hearts.

Although Wei Gu Chang was quite put off by such negative thoughts, he could understand what his Juniors were feeling so he did not reprimand them too harshly.

If Wei Gu Chang had not constantly been running around outside and had instead taken the same path as the others here, remaining inside the Sect all the time to cultivate, his mental endurance would not be so strong. Sure enough, flowers raised in a greenhouse that had not experienced great wind and rain were unable to grow up to be truly strong.

These so-called elite Core Disciples all performed magnificently inside the Sect, each of them earning praises as favoured Sons and Daughters of Heaven and the worship of countless Junior Brothers and Junior Sisters. When they compared notes and sparred with one another, each of them acted swift and fierce, but the moment they came out into the real world, all kinds of problems immediately became apparent. If they managed to survive and return home, Wei Gu Chang secretly made up his mind to talk to his Master and Elder Qian about this issue. If all of Shadow Moon Hall’s disciples continued to act like this in the future, the Sect would surely be destroyed in short order.