Lou Gao extended a slightly trembling hand and pointed at the tunnel wall.
"Look at this rock wall! It's scorching to the touch! It's definitely over seventy or eighty degrees Celsius! This is far beyond what normal geothermal heat should reach! And…"
Lou Gao crouched down and carefully examined the ground beneath his feet, which Larvitar had cleared away.
"The color of these rocks… something's wrong! They're far too red! It's like they've been tempered from the inside by prolonged extreme heat!"
Lou Gao suddenly raised his head, looking first at Larvitar ahead, still digging with all its might, though its movements seemed noticeably heavier under the intense heat—then toward the pitch-black depths ahead, guided only by the faint glow of Fire Glowstone. That darkness seemed to conceal a colossal, blazing furnace at the heart of the earth!
"Xiao Xia! Something's wrong! The underground heat source… it's far stronger than it was more than ten years ago! And… the distribution of this heat… it's far too concentrated! It's like… something down there… is burning madly! Or… waking up?!"
Lou Gao's expression turned exceptionally grim. Years of prospecting experience made him keenly sense extreme danger.
Instinctively, he tightened his grip on the AK in his hands. Yet even the cold metal of the gun body couldn't dispel the chill creeping through his heart.
This abnormal high temperature was absolutely not a natural phenomenon!
Recalling that mysterious cry from more than ten years ago, a hair-raising thought rose within him.
Could it be… that this excavation had already disturbed that slumbering "thing" capable of commanding hordes of beasts…?
The darkness deep within the mine, illuminated by the orange-red glow of Fire Glowstone, was like the gaping throat of a gigantic beast, exuding suffocating heat and unknown terror.
"Larvitar! Stop! Stop right now!"
Lin Xia also felt an intense sense of unease and immediately issued an urgent command to Larvitar through their mental link!
He had to confirm the little one's condition at once!
However, at the very instant the command was sent—
"Larvitar—!!!"
From the darkness ahead, Larvitar not only failed to stop, but instead erupted with an unprecedented scream, one that blended overwhelming ecstasy with a trace of pain!
The cry pierced the stifling, heavy air and detonated thunderously within the narrow mine tunnel!
Immediately afterward, an indescribable torrent of searing heat, so intense it seemed capable of igniting the soul itself—surged forth violently from the fissured rock layers ahead of Larvitar's excavation. It carried fire-element energy so dense it was almost tangible, so pure it reached the absolute extreme, like a volcano that had slept for tens of thousands of years suddenly erupting!
Boom!!!
Accompanied by an ear-splitting explosion of shattering rock, a colossal pillar of blinding light, formed purely of golden-red radiance, instantly tore through the darkness ahead!
The brilliance of the light swallowed the faint glow of all Fire Glowstone in an instant, illuminating the entire mine tunnel like the core of a hellish smelting furnace!
Under this extreme heat and radiance, the rocks along the tunnel walls crackled sharply, their surfaces instantly turning crimson, even beginning to soften and drip viscous, lava-like material!
A terrifying wave of heat slammed toward them like a physical tsunami! Lin Xia and Lou Gao felt their clothes turn scorching hot in an instant, while the smell of singed hair and eyebrows reached their noses!
They instinctively raised their arms to shield their eyes and, through the gaps between their fingers, saw a scene that left them utterly horrified.
Larvitar's small figure was completely engulfed by the erupting golden-red light!
Its rock-armored body looked like an iron billet thrown into a steel furnace, instantly glowing a uniform crimson!
Even more terrifying, across the surface of its body, intricate and ancient crimson-gold patterns—like flowing magma were appearing, spreading, and burning uncontrollably!
It was as if a volcano had been forcibly ignited within its tiny body!
"Larvitar—!!!"
Lin Xia's eyes split wide with fury and terror. Ignoring the horrific light and heat wave that could scorch skin and blind eyes, he roared as he tried to charge forward!
"Don't go over there! It's dangerous!"
Lou Gao bellowed and yanked Lin Xia back with all his strength!
His eyes were also filled with shock, but even more so with overwhelming astonishment at the source of that golden-red radiance!
Deep within the rock wall torn open by Larvitar—now completely flooded with golden-red light, there was faintly visible a sight of indescribable magnificence.
It wasn't flowing magma, but rather… a crystal vein slowly flowing like liquid gold, radiating an eternal, undying brilliance!
Within every crystal, it was as though a miniature sun had been sealed, countless profound runes seemingly formed from the very origin of flame flickering into existence and fading away!
That utterly pure fire-element energy and terrifying heat were emanating from this very source!
"The Heart of Magma…? No! Th-this… this purity… it's… Sun Essence?!"
Lou Gao's voice completely broke, trembling as if on the verge of a sob, his worldview utterly shattered by the shock!
He never would have imagined that Larvitar would dig straight into the source core of a legendary top-tier fire-element mineral!
But precisely because of that, the sudden eruption of this world-incinerating energy delivered a devastating impact upon the excavator, Larvitar itself!
When the foundation is unstable, the collapse comes faster.
Forcibly coming into contact with power far beyond one's limit, the consequences are unimaginable!
Those crimson-gold patterns raging across Larvitar's body were precisely the omen that its body was about to be burned from the inside by the overwhelmingly tyrannical power of the Sun Essence!
And just at this critical, life-or-death moment
"REE—!!!!!!!"
A terrifying cry—piercing the Nine Netherworlds, ripping apart the soul, and carrying supreme authority and furious wrath, resounded like judgment from the ancient primordial era, violently erupting from even deeper below their feet, from the hotter core of the earth itself!
This time, it was no longer a warning or an attempt to drive them away as it had been more than ten years ago.
This time, it was the proclamation of a true, catastrophic annihilation descending upon them!
The ground began to shake violently under that cry!
Outside the tunnel, those previously languid volcanic soul beasts all snapped their heads up at once, their crimson eyes filled with the most primal, berserk desire for destruction!
They turned in unison toward the mine entrance, low, destructive roars rumbling deep within their throats…
Lin Xia roared, struggling violently as he ignored Lou Gao's iron-clamp grip locked tightly around his arm, desperately trying to lunge toward that field of annihilating light and flame.
Through the mental link, Lin Xia could feel what Larvitar was transmitting, it was no longer mere pain, but an almost insane torrent of scorching heat, mixed with tearing agony and a kind of… reckless, all-consuming greed!
"Don't go over there! That's Sun Essence! Touch it and you're finished!"
Lou Gao's voice came in broken fragments amid the deafening roar of raging energy, filled with unprecedented shock.
"It's burning Larvitar alive!"
Lin Xia's heart sank straight to the bottom.
The Heart of Magma was already the stuff of legend. Sun Essence was an existence glimpsed only fleetingly in taboo records whispered among divine craftsmen, its energy sufficient to incinerate a Soul Douluo!
Thoughts raced through Lin Xia's mind. His mental power surged forward without restraint, crashing against the mental link with a single, crystal-clear command—
Recall!
He had to recall Larvitar into his body immediately!
However, just as that forced recall command was about to transmit through the link, an even stronger, even more urgent will surged back in reverse from the heart of the blazing light, like magma erupting from a volcano!
"Larvitar—!!!"
It was not pain.
It was not fear.
It was a call!
That soul-piercing cry was filled with indescribable anxiety and a near sacrificial exhilaration!
It was not calling for rescue, it was inviting!
Inviting Lin Xia to step together into this realm of annihilation, this doomed mineral vein!
----
For additional chapter's
Join pateron.com/Translaterappu