The condensation and precipitation of magma takes a process, and the lava line of a volcano is not a clear thin line like a snow line, but a transition zone that is several kilometers wide. As the Red River reaches here, the temperature gradually drops, and the fluidity is much less than before, like glue about to cure. Such a river cannot allow the hunters who fall into it to vaporize instantly, but the burning and corrosion from the outside out will prolong the process of death by tens or even hundreds of times. Those in the magma may still have the strength to struggle and cry out, but the gradually condensing lava will form a loose and porous pumice crust on the surface of the body, completely restraining those who dare to step into the minefield.

Even those who boast that their skin can withstand thousands of degrees of heat are not afraid to walk freely in the lower reaches of lava rivers. Most of the people who can live here are omnivores who are strong and can adapt to the small living space and the food that is in dire need.

Each life has its own survival intelligence, but only humans can cross the forbidden zone between species and appear in the field of vision of other lords.

Kaede finally stopped running and gasped for breath as she leaned onto a tall pumice stone full of air holes. The air on the lava line didn't smell good, but the four of them couldn't manage that much at the moment. The hunter's heaving chest calmed down, and he unscrewed the kettle at his waist, poured a large gulp of cold cold drink, and wiped his mouth and said, "Everyone is okay?" ”

"Didn't catch up......" Feng Chen looked at the back of the path, and the platform where everyone was surrounded had completely disappeared from view. Ah Xia and Ah Dong nodded, and the crossbowwoman untied the weapon behind her back, spontaneously alerting the surrounding situation.

"So that's your plan? Ha? The crisis was temporarily lifted, and the hunter senior raised his eyebrows, leaned on the warm stone, and began to liquidate the situation at that time, "Rush up to the volcano without a head and a brain, and see which hunting group you will die in?" ”

"Aren't we still alive?" Feng Chen whispered without confidence, "And it's already climbed to such a height, so it's basically under control." ”

"Do you call this control?" Kaede pointed to the tip of the young man's nose, "If it weren't for the chance to encounter that purple shield crab corpse, we would have turned into four sarcophagi now, floating on the magma!" ”

"Who said it must have been an accident." Feng Chen only silently said in his heart. It was only when the Shadow Hunter knew that the Giant Crab was still alive that he dared to take a dangerous approach to the "Ashes", and even the monster's actions after waking up were under the control of the Dragon Cavity. Surrounded by a dozen hunters, the beast in a life-and-death state was the easiest to listen to the hunter's "persuasion", and it didn't take much effort to convince it to make a bait for himself and others.

"The good thing is that the results are not bad." The young hunter said perfunctorily, gesturing towards the summit, "This is still some way from last night's minefield, and we need to be quicker to reach that height." ”

"We're not going to go up." Kaede said categorically, "Didn't you hear that gang just now said that there is a larger 'Falcon' active on it, and that kind of luck will not be replicated again." ”

"At that fork in the road just now, they were the ones who flew the orange bird dragon flag." Feng Chen pursed his lips, "We've traveled so far, we should have already crossed those people's hunting area." ”

"Okay...... Damn it. "Young people shouldn't make any decisions for the team, that's what Kaede has learned from years of Shadowhunter career. In the eyes of the hunter's predecessors, he was only led by the rookie in front of him once, and he almost paid the price of annihilation, "That's not good!" God knows what stronger hunting groups are up there, and do you want to kill us all? ”

"What else can I do?" Feeling the resistance of the Shadow Hunter, Feng Chen's mentality became even more anxious, "We have passed through the occupation zone of several hunting groups, whether it is up or back, the difficulty is actually about the same. There's also an ash behind us that has lost its prey because of us, and I'm sure they won't give us a chance to say anything when they see you and me again. Even so, do you want to keep turning back? ”

Trapped halfway up the mountainside, Feng found that he had been calculated by this unattractive young man from the beginning, and now he was hanging between the cracks of several large hunting groups. The frustration on the old hunter's face flashed: "We can call it an airship." ”

"Then there will be no chance to return to the hunting grounds." Feng Chen continued, "Whether it's to compete for the ownership of the dragon's materials, or to prevent more people from sharing the pie, it won't be long before the big hunting groups will unite and completely monopolize the way up the mountain from Burning Rock Town." You've been a Shadowhunter for a long time, and you know these ways better than I do. ”

"Why?" Kaede hammered his skull hard, gritted his teeth and asked Feng Chen, "Why do you have to go up to the volcano?" There is only one copy of the material for the dragon family, there are so many powerful hunting groups, we are just lone hunters, no matter how it works, that treasure will not be our turn. ”

"You have to try, don't you?" The young hunter shrugged, "What if we really win?" ”

The Shadowhunter looked at Dusty's clear eyes, as if trying to read the other man's thoughts on the little guy's face. It took a few seconds before he whispered to confirm, "No...... That's not what you want. I've seen too many crazy people who risk their lives for their prey, and you're not like them. You want something else...... Who the hell are you? ”

A series of thoughts finally aroused the Shadowhunter's question about the essence of the seal, and once the thought was born, there was no way to dispel it immediately. The questions came out of Kaede's mouth one after another, like a series of cannons: "That hunting suit on your body is a prototype type that even the Hunter Guild doesn't mass-produce, right?" You can't tell the source of the information about the scales - and the one-handed sword, don't think I can't notice it, where did it come from, and don't you dare to show it to others? ”

"It's my own business." At the mention of the mysterious one-handed sword at his waist, Feng Chen's expression became tight, and vigilance and anxiety were mixed on his face, "What does it have to do with the current situation?" ”

"Absolutely! Unless I tell me your true purpose, and in order to reduce your chances of survival, I'm going to ask you to leave right away - I'm not going to put the safety of the three of us on a guy with unknown intentions. The old hunter said firmly.

"It's not what you think!" As Kaede's tone became more and more urgent, the eyes of the two girls looking at Feng Chen became more and more unkind. The relationship between the temporary teams was determined by the underground unions, and unlike the hunters' unions, they were not very effective. Without the regulation of hunter glory, there are many examples of poachers fighting each other over payment disputes. Today's Feng was suspicious in his heart, even if he attacked the dust seal on the spot, it was already the most sufficient reason in the underground world.

"So what exactly do you want to do?" The Shadow Hunter grabbed the front of the young man's hunting suit and lifted Dusty Dust off the ground. It wasn't until the little Orion's cheeks were flushed that he put it down hatefully, "It's better to be a pretty excuse." ”

Of course, there is the most beautiful reason in the world.

The oath of the ancient dragon species hangs high above their heads, and the death of the three-headed true dragon means the beginning of a fierce war that can affect the entire hunter world. So far, the true dragon has fallen two heads, one of which happened to die at his own hands. When the bell of war does ring one day, even if it is calculated in the most ruthless way, one out of every three hunters who die in battle will have his life counted on his head.

But reality is not a numbers game, and remorse and self-blame cannot be measured in the number of those who have died. Along the way, Sealing Dust experienced the powerlessness of the Challenge Sacrifice Defense War, the panic when the Fengshan Dragon descended on the sky above Locklac, and his shoulders carried more innocent lives than the average eighteen-year-old young man. If wandering in the dark world for two years and grabbing information about a mysterious organization for Amphinis is a way to calm one's self-blame and change one's direction to atone for one's sins, then the ancient dragon species that is close at hand is a chance to ensure that he does not make a new round of mistakes.

In the entire hunter world, except for the nameless predecessors who had a similar experience to himself, no one is more afraid of the advent of war than Feng Chen, and no one wants to strangle the germ of every war in the cradle more than him. The hunters re-ascended the volcano with one goal: to find the mysterious ancient dragon and warn it to leave the treacherous volcanic hunting grounds and never return to the poachers' infested area.

"My excuse? What are you talking about? Feng Chen's tone relaxed, "Of course it's making money." ”

"Fool me? With just a few of us, it's impossible to beat the dragons. Kaede forked his hand.

"I never said I needed to fight on my own." The young man suppressed his restless mood and said, "There are so many large hunting groups in the Ghost Fury, of course, there is more than one one who can hunt the dragon family, they just lack information and time to track. If we can get the position of the top predator first, all the hunting groups in the mountain will rush to cooperate with us. At that time, as long as you get 10% or even half of the value of the materials from them, it will already far exceed the benefits that should be obtained from hunting step by step. ”

"What can't be found by so many hunting groups on the volcano, how can you find it alone?" The old hunter looked at Feng Chen's eyes with the eyes of an idiot. Half a day has passed, and there has never been a battle of the same intensity as yesterday on the hunting ground of the main peak, and it is clear that no one has gotten any trace of the mysterious monster yet. Although there are still many large hunting groups participating in this search, a considerable part of the team has already abandoned this illusory goal, seeing that the airships overhead are rushing back to Burning Stone.

"That's because they don't have the whole volcano's monsters to help." Feng Chen added in his heart. The hunter pointed his thumb at him, and the corners of his mouth raised slightly, "Don't forget why you chose me when you recruited in the first place. ”

"Hunting is my specialty, the whole continent doesn't dare to say it, but on this small volcano, I'm afraid no one can compare to me."

"Forget it, I took a fancy to you at the beginning, just because you were relatively young and not well paid." Kaede sneered, "Do you think you are, a hybrid of humans and the Eru clan?" ”

"Even if I have to choose an orc bloodline, I want a dragon man more." Seeing that the senior's tone softened, Feng Chen also secretly put down his hanging heart, "I won't tell you, I already have a destination." A few kilometers further up, there should be an underground hot spring, and the dragon family should rest at one of the springs. We've walked a little bit and got the trail of the monster before we decide what to do next, okay? ”

"Let's do it for now." The poacher is an adventurer at heart, Kaede groaned for a moment, and the lure of heavy reward finally defeated his doubts about the young man in front of him. No matter how mysterious Feng Chen is, he is just a single child, three of his own side, and there is still some risky capital under the premise of superior strength, "But the ugly words are ahead, once there is any change, Ah Dong and Ah Xia and I will immediately turn around and leave." ”

"Of course." The young hunter nodded.

…………

Boiling hot water gushes out of the cracks in the rocks, filling a small depression and forming a natural bath on the lava-strewn volcanic waist. Near the crater, the temperature of the spring water exceeds 90 degrees Celsius, almost reaching the level of boiling. Even if the water contains a lot of beneficial minerals, which can speed up the healing of wounds by nearly a double, no one will actually go to the bath. But such a pond is a healing place for volcanic monsters, and this fragile depression has not only not disappeared under the volcanic terrain changes, but is still intact, perhaps intentionally by lord-level monsters.

"Damn...... How did you know there would be a mountain spring here? Have you ever been to a volcano? Kaede looked at the boiling spring in disbelief.

"Who knows, maybe the purple shield crab just told me." Feng Chen's brows furrowed, and he searched carefully in the vicinity.

"Trick the devil into it!" The Shadowhunter snorted, unaware that what the young man was saying was the real situation, "What are you looking for?" ”

"Nothing, footprints, feces, blood...... I've looked for everything I can find. The young man bit his lip, "It shouldn't be like this...... It's always left a trail when it comes. ”

"If you look for a way like yours, you won't be able to find any useful information in your life. I thought he was such a great tracker...... Is it just a newcomer? Hearing Feng Chen's muttering, Feng shook his head and said helplessly, "Monsters of this level are very good at protecting themselves, even if you guess its foothold, you won't find any traces of it." ”

"What then?" The young man begged for help.

"Look at it, boy." Kaede sighed lightly, pulled out a white signal flare from his waist, put it in his hand and "snorted" it. A white flame of light rose in his hand, and the old hunter lifted forward, hanging over the hot water.