With the first Volcanic Heart secured in Jian Ming's special, heat-resistant pouch, the team took a moment to catch their breath. The brief relief of their victory quickly evaporated under the shadow of the Blazing Sun Sect's threat and the relentless reality of this fiery hell.
"We can't rest," Jian Ming said, his eyes constantly scanning their surroundings. "They know where we are now. They'll wait, try to wear us down, and strike at the right moment. We have to keep moving."
Ci Ying nodded, the exertion of using her fire arts showing on her face. "The Leyna flow in this Caldera is pure fire, yes, but it's also chaotic. Every major move comes with a price."
"Then let's start the hunt," Bu He said, a cold determination in his eyes. "To wait is to be ambushed. Let's find the second heart."
They left the obsidian plains of the caldera and entered a different geography: vast, grey fields of volcanic ash. The ground was soft and unstable, clouds of ash kicking up with every step, reducing visibility to dangerous lows. The heat radiating from below made the air even more suffocating.
"My senses… they're muffled here," Lian Hua whispered with concern. "The ash chokes the Leyna signatures. I can barely tell if someone is ten paces away from me."
This meant they had lost their greatest advantage. They were now moving blind. For hours, they walked, the silence and the constantly swirling ash fraying their nerves one by one. Just as they were starting to lose hope, they spotted movement ahead. A group of creatures, darting like shadows through the ash. These weren't slow and lumbering like the previous elemental. They were wolf-like, fast and agile, made of pure cinder and embers—Cinder-Hounds. And they didn't hunt alone.
"A pack!" Jian Ming yelled. "If we don't separate them, they'll tear us apart!"
A high-speed chase began. The Cinder-Hounds attacked with incredible coordination, constantly trying to strike from the flanks and the rear. Ci Ying's fireballs were ineffective against these fast-moving targets. Lian Hua, her senses muffled, couldn't give precise warnings.
Bu He became the team's shield. He dove into the pack with his raw strength and speed, drawing their attention. Every claw-strike left a sizzling mark on his skin, every bite fueling the fire of his Dark Ascension. "Separate one!" he roared, grabbing a hound and throwing it into the air.
Ci Ying saw the opportunity. She used her fire not as a spear, but as a net. She created a wide wall of flame, cutting off a portion of the pack and trapping a single Cinder-Hound with them.
The cornered hound attacked with all the ferocity of a trapped beast. But now the team was focused on a single target. While Bu He held it in place, Ci Ying sent precise fire-needles into its weak spots. Finally, the hound collapsed into a pile of dying embers, and from its core rolled the second Volcanic Heart.
Just as Lian Hua bent down to retrieve it, Jian Ming yelled: "AMBUSH!"
Suddenly, the ash field around them rippled. The leader of the Blazing Sun Sect appeared on a high rock ledge, a victorious smirk on his face. "You fools," he sneered. "Did you really not realize we were the ones driving the hounds toward you? We used them as bait to wear you down."
He used a powerful Qi technique, shifting the ash beneath them. The ground began to collapse, creating sinking pits of hot ash designed to separate them.
"It's a trap!" Ci Ying cried, losing her balance in the sinking ash.
But Jian Ming was calm. "No," he said, a bright light in his eyes. He pulled a page from his journal. "It's not." He hadn't just been watching the fight. "I've been mapping the heat vents beneath the ash since we entered this field!" he yelled. "Don't move with your eyes, move with the heat beneath your feet! Follow me!"
Jian Ming began to run along a path of cooler, more solid ground that was invisible to the naked eye. He had found a labyrinth through the deathtrap. The smirk on the Blazing Sun leader's face froze.
Guided by Jian Ming's foresight, the team regrouped in the deadly trap. Bu He tore a massive boulder from a nearby outcropping and hurled it at the rival team, disrupting their formation. Their trap had been turned against them.
The Blazing Sun Sect, their strategy ruined, was forced into a direct confrontation again. But just then, a roar echoed from the depths of the ash fields, far louder and more furious than before. The commotion and the scent of spilled Leyna had attracted it.
A massive Alpha Cinder-Hound, its eyes like burning coals and its back lined with obsidian spikes, appeared over the crest of a hill.
The team froze. In front of them, a rival team burning with the fire of revenge. Around them, a boiling ash trap. And behind them, a new, far more powerful monster, drawn to the scent of battle. They had the second heart, but they were in more danger than ever before.