All the way, James Walker held his bow, extremely alert. That Little Grace seemed to be affected as well, becoming just as cautious. When the sun had fully risen and the mist in the jungle dissipated like snow, a majestic mountain appeared ahead of James Walker. The mountain was entirely brown, and a wave of heat rushed toward him.

Moreover, at the very top of the mountain, a plume of black smoke rose into the sky, looking quite spectacular from a distance.

“Black Flame Peak…” James Walker murmured. After carefully surveying his surroundings, he charged up the mountain without hesitation. He had come prepared, with plenty of heat-repelling herbs stuffed under his feet. Now, without the slightest pause, he climbed straight toward the summit.

Though he climbed quickly, James Walker’s caution did not diminish—in fact, it only increased. Who knows how much time passed; when he reached the middle section of the mountain and was about to continue, Little Grace behind him suddenly let out a faint whinny.

At that sound, James Walker didn’t hesitate for a moment. He shifted to the side, pressing himself into a crevice in the cliff. His feet gripped the rock, his right hand drew the bow, and his left hand swiftly pulled out an arrow—all in an instant. Little Grace even arrived a step ahead, pressing close to James Walker.

James Walker’s breathing slowed, his eyes glinting coldly. In this position, if he encountered people from the Black Mountain Tribe and they discovered each other, it would inevitably be a fight to the death.

Before long, the faint sound of voices drifted over, mixed with the noise of falling stones.

“So early in the morning, and we’re made to dig these damn rocks. Who knows what they’re for.”

“You’ve been grumbling the whole way. Since it’s the chieftain’s order, we have to do it. By the way, did you hear? Grandpa seems to have broken through…”

“I heard people in the tribe say yesterday that Grandpa seems different from usual. Now he looks kind of scary.”

“Do you think the chieftain making us dig these rocks has something to do with Grandpa?”

As the two voices grew clearer and then gradually faded away, James Walker remained motionless in the crevice. Only when he sensed they had gone far did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.

“The barbarian elder of the Black Mountain Tribe has broken through… I remember Grandpa once said that the barbarian elder of the Black Mountain Tribe was at the eighth level of Blood Condensation, but had mastered an evil barbarian art, so he could barely match Grandpa.” James Walker’s eyes flashed. He planned to report this to Grandpa when he returned.

After waiting a while longer to make sure the two had gone far away, James Walker was about to continue climbing up. But just then, the little monkey beside him tugged at James Walker’s clothes.

James Walker immediately turned around to see the little monkey looking excited, pointing to the depths of the crevice they were in. There, a small natural cave could be seen, with heat faintly wafting out.

James Walker’s eyes narrowed. He immediately gave up on climbing further and instead approached the small cave. After a careful look, he took off his woven basket, grabbed it, and crawled inside. Little Grace followed right behind.

The cave was small. If James Walker weren’t so thin, an ordinary barbarian would never be able to squeeze through.

Volume One: If Life Were Only as It Was at First Sight

Chapter 9: Tempering and Dissipation

This little cave was quite strange, its size uniform throughout. After crawling for about a dozen or so zhang, James Walker saw the end ahead and slowed down.

Cautiously approaching the exit, he glanced out and was stunned for a moment, then took a deep breath.

This was a fire-melt cave. Countless conical stones hung from above, their surfaces cracked and looking as if they could break off at any moment. The ground was pitch black, but streaks of red rock crisscrossed, casting a brownish glow over everything. The heat here was several times stronger than outside.

Not far away lay a pitch-black skeleton, about eight or nine zhang long. At a glance, James Walker recognized it as the bones of a python.

On the python’s skull was a horn as thick as an arm, also pitch black.

James Walker had never seen such a long python, but he vaguely remembered Grandpa mentioning that long ago, there was a kind of ferocious python beast on Wulong Mountain. These pythons had a horn on their heads and were called horned pythons. The sharp horn often became a treasured offering in the tribe.

Their Wushan Tribe had a horned python’s bone horn, passed down through generations of chieftains.

“Could this be a horned python?” He estimated the size of the python’s skeleton and looked at the small cave he was in, faintly arriving at an answer.

After a moment’s thought, James Walker took a leaf of herbal medicine from his basket and tossed it downward.

The herb drifted down, and when it touched the ground, it sizzled. About a quarter of an hour later, it slowly withered. He tried several more times and finally determined the ground’s heat. Though intense, he could endure it for a while, as long as he didn’t touch the red rocks.

By now, Little Grace was already impatient. If not for knowing this place was dangerous, it would have jumped out long ago.

James Walker cautiously crawled out and leapt down. As soon as he landed, his feet sizzled, and a wave of heat surged from his soles through his whole body, but his feet wouldn’t be burned in the short term.