After clearing the level, the fairies were reborn!

The fog had evaporated completely here, leaving only dry, hot air that whistled against our faces.

After flying for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the crater was already very close.

Then he saw that person.

On the edge of the crater, a man is sitting cross-legged on a protruding boulder.

The man was shirtless, revealing his bronze skin and bulging muscles, like the gnarled roots of an old tree, each muscle sharply defined.

Sweat rolled down his forehead, slid down his chest, and dripped onto the scorching rocks, evaporating with a hiss.

He held an iron hammer in his hand, the head of which was as big as a washbasin. It was completely black, and its material was unknown.

The hammer handle was as thick as an arm, and it had turned white from his grip.

"Clang! Clang! Clang..."

The man is forging iron.

His anvil is that boulder, and his furnace fire is the volcano beneath him.

With each hammer blow, magma erupts from the crater, splashing up golden waves several meters high.

The sparks rained down like a storm, creating countless craters on the ground.

The sparks landed on him, burning red spots, but he didn't even flinch.

Xu Ze stood at the foot of the volcano, looking up at the person with a slight smile on his lips.

Then she called out:

"Cheng Hao!"

The hammer stopped.

The man looked down and saw the young man in a blue robe standing at the bottom of the crater, and paused for a moment.

Then, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he stood up abruptly, hoisted the hammer onto his shoulder, and jumped down from the crater in three quick steps.

Cheng Hao landed on the ground, leaving two deep footprints.

"The second son?!"

His voice was as rough as thunder, making Xu Ze's eardrums buzz:

"Why did you get here so quickly?"

Xu Ze looked at him, at that face that had been scorched by flames for who knows how many years, and suddenly felt something soften in his heart.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting."

Cheng Hao waved his hand, his large palm creating a gust of wind.

"Ten thousand years have passed, but this little bit of time will pass in the blink of an eye."

He spoke of it so casually, as if only a few days had passed.

Xu Ze looked at him without saying a word.

Another ten thousand years have passed.

Lin Yueyan is still waiting for him in front of the star map.

"...Come in, come in quickly, come in quickly!"

Cheng Hao turned and walked towards the crater, but stopped after a few steps and looked back at Xu Ze:

"Could you please let that little spider on your shoulder come down first?"

"It's hot here, don't let it get dried out."

Tao Yaoyao was so frightened that she jumped off Xu Ze's shoulder and huddled behind his heels, her eight legs curled up in a ball.

Cheng Hao laughed and said nothing more, striding into the crater.

The crater is larger inside than it appears from the outside.

It is narrow at the entrance and wide inside, like an inverted bowl.

The walls were made of glowing red-hot rocks, some of which had melted and dripped down like candle wax.

At the bottom is a lava lake, golden red in color, bubbling away.

It would also occasionally spew out a pillar of fire, which would crash against the rock wall, scattering sparks everywhere.

Cheng Hao sat by the lava lake, resting the iron hammer on his knees, and patted the ground beside him:

"Second brother, please sit down, don't be shy."

Xu Ze sat down next to him.

Cheng Hao looked him up and down, his gaze moving from his face to his shoulder, from his shoulder to the sword wrapped in white cloth, and then back from the sword to his face.

His gaze was strange, as if he were looking at an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time, or as if he were confirming something.

"Second brother, you seem to have lost weight compared to before. Are you malnourished?" he joked.

Xu Ze laughed, "You haven't changed at all."

Cheng Hao also smiled, a simple and honest smile that revealed a set of white teeth, his face crinkled with wrinkles.

"I'm here forging iron every day, what changes could possibly happen?"

He paused, then his voice suddenly lowered, "But you, you've suffered quite a bit, haven't you?"

Xu Ze touched his nose.

Yes Yes.

You can't imagine how hard I've suffered out there.

He looked at the churning lava lake, at the golden waves, and at the sparks dancing in the flames.

“Second brother,” Cheng Hao suddenly spoke up, “this fire domain has been integrated with me for ten thousand years.”

Xu Ze turned his head and looked at him.

Cheng Hao stretched out his hand, palm facing up.

A flame surged from his palm, like blood.

"I can't get out of here anymore."

He said calmly, "This fire domain is my body, and my body is this fire domain."

If I leave, it will collapse.

If it collapses, the entire demon realm within a thousand miles will be swallowed by lava.

Xu Ze frowned slightly.

"then you……"

"Don't rush."

Cheng Hao interrupted him, "I haven't finished speaking yet."

“I can’t get out, but you can come in. Whenever you want to find me, just come to this Fire Domain.”

"Anyway, I don't have much to do, so I do some blacksmithing and forging, and life is pretty comfortable..."

He paused, then lowered his voice further.

"Actually, I've been suppressing this for a long time."

"Otherwise, I would have broken through to the Mahayana stage long ago. But once I reached the Mahayana stage, I would have been targeted by those bastards in the Heavenly Court."

"Once I've helped you reforge the last innate spiritual treasure, I can call it a day."

Xu Ze paused for a moment, then continued to ask:

"I had you guard this place back then, just for this reason?"

Cheng Hao nodded. "Yes, you said you need something, something that can only be forged in this Fire Domain."

"You told me to wait, to wait for your reincarnation to come back, so I waited for ten thousand years... Anyway, I don't have anything else to do, so I'll just wait and it will pass."

He spoke of it casually.

But Xu Ze knew that ten thousand years was not as simple as "just wait and it will pass".

What exactly do I need your help with?

Cheng Hao didn't speak; he just looked at Xu Ze with a slight upturn at the corners of his mouth.

"Second brother, this question... I have to ask you."

Xu Ze was slightly taken aback.

Ask me?

at the same time.

An abrupt notification sound rang out from the depths of his mind.

The system store has been refreshed. Do you want to open it?

system?

With a thought, the panel in his mind appeared.

The online store page, which was originally gray, has now lit up.

There was only one item, lying all alone in the list.

【Product List——】

【Name: Chaos Bell (Core)】

Price: 10000 points

[Description: Requires the ancient Xuanwu shell as material, to be reforged in the Endless Fire Domain using Primordial Divine Fire. Upon completion, it can control all things, suppress all laws, and protect the divine soul.]

Xu Ze's eyes widened slightly; he now had just enough points to reach ten thousand.

Not too much, not too little, as if it had been calculated.

"exchange!"