After Melody, Lynn, and Ember woke up and listened to Evan Yang's explanation, they finally understood what had happened. The furious Lynn Lin and Ember Yang grabbed the waiter and started beating him up, leaving his face bruised and swollen. He pleaded miserably, "Spare me, please!"
"Spare you? You brat, you’ve got some nerve, daring to poison us! Do you even know who we are?" Lynn Lin shouted angrily.
"I—I know I was wrong," the waiter muttered miserably.
Just as Lynn Lin was about to retaliate again, Evan Yang said, "Enough, stop messing around. I still need him to lead us to the boss."
"The boss? Who are we looking for?" Lynn Lin asked curiously.
"Obviously his boss—the one who targeted us. Don’t you want to find out who it is?" Evan Yang said with a smile.
"Why didn’t you say so earlier? I’m definitely going to catch his boss and beat him up!" Lynn Lin said angrily. This time, she’d really suffered—almost passed out. The waiter cursed silently, "Just wait, once I get you to my boss, you’re all doomed."
"Why aren’t you moving? What are you thinking about!" Seeing the waiter spaced out, Lynn Lin slapped his back. The waiter snapped out of it, "I—I’ll lead the way now." So he walked ahead, with Evan Yang and the others following behind.
They found themselves in an underground passage. Just moments ago, they’d been outside—how did they suddenly end up underground? Ember Yang asked curiously, "Dad, what’s going on?"
"Ask him," Evan Yang said, just as curious.
Ember Yang glared at the waiter and demanded, "Still not talking?"
The waiter muttered, "There’s a teleportation array set up outside. As long as I activate it, anyone outside gets sent here. My boss arranged it."
"A teleportation array like that? That’s amazing," Lynn Lin muttered. Ember Yang was also curious—not just them, even Evan Yang grew more intrigued, wanting to know who this mysterious boss really was.
Melody Wood stayed silent, lost in thought. The group kept walking through the underground tunnel for a long time. The deeper they went, the hotter it got. Lynn Lin complained, "Are you up to something? Why is it getting hotter and hotter?"
"Oh, you might not know—my boss is based near the Heavenfire Pool. It’s really hot over there," the waiter explained quickly.
Evan Yang asked curiously, "Heavenfire Pool?" The others frowned as well. The waiter nodded, afraid of being punished, and quickly added, "The Heavenfire Pool contains massive natural flames. More importantly, it also holds our Desert Tribes’ powerful sealed artifact—the Heaven-Scorching Furnace."
"Heaven-Scorching Furnace?" Everyone frowned. Evan Yang was startled—he himself had an alchemy furnace called the Fire-Heaven Furnace, given to him by Ethan Lin. Most notably, it contained six beautiful female statues, and whenever he looked at them, it felt like they were staring back at him. He’d always thought it was related to Sacred Flame or some fire deity, but he hadn’t used it in a long time and had put it away.
Evan Yang hadn’t refined pills in ages and had almost forgotten about it. But hearing ‘Heaven-Scorching Furnace’ today suddenly brought it back to mind.
"Do you know what the Heaven-Scorching Furnace is? What’s it used for?" Evan Yang asked, curious.
"No idea. But I’ve heard my boss say that the Desert Lord often comes here to draw power from the Heaven-Scorching Furnace. I’m not sure what kind of power he takes," the waiter replied.
"Could that be the source of that mysterious power?" Melody Wood muttered.
Evan Yang didn’t think it was that simple, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He decided to check it out for himself.
With curiosity, the group kept moving forward. The deeper they went, the hotter it got. Lynn Lin finally couldn’t take it and said to Evan Yang, "I’d better go into your space."
"Me too," Melody Wood added, also unable to stand the heat. But Ember Yang, being a Fire Phoenix, only liked it more the hotter it got, so it didn’t bother her at all. In the end, only Ember Yang and Evan Yang were left.
The waiter muttered to himself when he saw the two disappear. Up ahead, as they approached a fiery-red cave entrance, Evan Yang guessed they’d arrived. Sure enough, they entered and found themselves in a furnace-like underground chamber, flames everywhere. Not far from the entrance sat a man in flaming red robes. Despite the fire, his clothes weren’t burned—in fact, they seemed to gather some kind of power.
"Boss, boss, save me!" the waiter shouted loudly.
At that moment, the man sitting there opened his eyes and looked at Evan Yang. In a flash, he stood up and appeared in front of the three of them.
"Who are you? Why did you attack my people?" the middle-aged man asked. He seemed unaware of what happened, so Evan Yang said to the waiter, "You explain."
The waiter stammered, "Boss, he’s not from the Desert Tribes—he came to cause trouble, so I teleported them here. But then..."
The middle-aged man saw through it at a glance and apologized, "Sorry for the trouble. I hope, for my sake, you’ll let him go."
Evan Yang had no objections, since the man had apologized. But Ember Yang was furious. "No way! He tried to drug us with Soulbreaker Poison, and now you just want to settle it like this? That’s wishful thinking!"
"Soulbreaker Poison? Leon Yan, what’s going on?" the middle-aged man asked.
"Boss, I—I was afraid they’d be too much to handle, so I used Soulbreaker Poison from deep in the desert," Leon Yan muttered.
"What? Soulbreaker Poison?" The middle-aged man was shocked.
"Don’t be mad, boss—they’re fine, aren’t they?" Leon Yan said miserably.
The middle-aged man looked at Evan Yang and Ember Yang and saw they really were unharmed. So he asked, "How did that happen?"
Leon Yan explained while edging closer to the middle-aged man, afraid Evan Yang might change his mind and smack him.
After listening, the middle-aged man understood and said, "So that’s it. Looks like you’re a detoxification expert."
"Not really an expert—my power just happens to counter it," Evan Yang replied.
"Since you’re all fine, I apologize. I hope you’ll let him go," the middle-aged man said.
Just as Ember Yang was about to protest, Evan Yang gently pulled her back and smiled, "It was just a misunderstanding. It's fine."
The middle-aged man was about to thank Evan Yang for his generosity when the flames in the chamber suddenly grew violent. The man exclaimed in shock, "This can't be good! How could this happen? Isn't it supposed to erupt only once every ten thousand years? Why is it happening several thousand years early?"
"Boss, what's going on?" Leon Yan sensed something was wrong and cried out in alarm.
"The Heaven-Scorching Furnace is about to erupt! Quick, get outside and tell everyone to evacuate!" the middle-aged man shouted urgently.
Leon Yan was shocked. Wasn't this supposed to happen thousands of years later? How could it be so soon? But he didn't dare linger and quickly used the teleportation method given to him by the middle-aged man to leave. Evan Yang, curious, asked, "What's going on here?"
"Sorry to trouble you. You just arrived and already encountered such a mess," the middle-aged man sighed.
"Go ahead, we're really curious about how these flames suddenly turned abnormal," Evan Yang asked with interest.
"The Heaven-Scorching Furnace is sealed below here. Every ten thousand years it erupts with fire, forcing everyone nearby to evacuate because they can't withstand the heat. But this time, it happened several thousand years early. It's just too strange," the middle-aged man said suspiciously.
Evan Yang furrowed his brow. If he guessed correctly, he must have triggered it somehow. Ever since arriving, he felt a mysterious force wanting to merge with the flames, and its source was the Heavenfire Cauldron.
"Looks like the two furnaces are connected," Evan Yang muttered to himself.
Ember Yang, delighted, stood there with her mouth open, wildly inhaling the flames. The middle-aged man was stunned, "What's going on?"
"She just likes eating fire." Evan Yang couldn't exactly tell them she was a Fire Phoenix, so he smiled.
"Really?" The middle-aged man was astonished.
Evan Yang smiled. Thanks to Ember Yang's absorption, the flames stayed at a steady level instead of erupting fully. The middle-aged man relaxed and said, "We really owe her this time. Otherwise, the people outside wouldn't have had time to evacuate and things would have gotten messy."
Just as the middle-aged man finished speaking, a tunnel appeared before them and someone walked out. Seeing the newcomer, the middle-aged man exclaimed, "Desert Lord?"
"Flint Blaze, what's going on here? Why is the reaction so intense?" The Desert Lord, sensing the changes outside, arrived and locked his gaze onto Evan Yang.
Evan Yang heard the middle-aged man call this person the Desert Lord and realized he must be that boy's father—the one who wanted to kill him. Now, he probably carried a fiery anger.
Seeing Evan Yang smiling at him, the Desert Lord didn't even wait for Flint Blaze—the middle-aged man—to explain and angrily said, "You actually colluded with outsiders and caused trouble here!"
"Desert Lord, you've misunderstood. They're here to help me. Without them, the Heaven-Scorching Furnace's early eruption would have left no time for the people outside to escape," Flint Blaze explained.
But the Desert Lord wouldn't listen. Even if Evan Yang's group was right, he insisted they were wrong. He snorted coldly, "Hmph, it was their arrival that angered the Heaven-Scorching Furnace. Flint Blaze, I think you're tired of living."
"Desert Lord, I'm telling the truth. If you insist, there's nothing I can do." Flint Blaze didn't seem afraid of the Desert Lord and retorted.
The Desert Lord snorted, "You and that girl, stop at once! If you keep crazily absorbing the flames, the Heaven-Scorching Furnace won't get its maintenance."
"Maintenance?" Evan Yang and Ember Yang were curious what he meant. Flint Blaze actually understood: every time the Heaven-Scorching Furnace erupts, it grows stronger, as if its seal is gradually loosening. If Ember Yang absorbs the flames, the unsealing process stops, unlike previous cycles.
That's why the Desert Lord wanted Ember Yang to stop. But Flint Blaze said, "Desert Lord, now's not the time for maintenance. Let's deal with the people outside first!"
"The people outside don't matter! The Heaven-Scorching Furnace unseals a little every ten thousand years. If we miss this cycle, we'll have to wait another ten millennia!" The Desert Lord didn't care about the fate of the outsiders at all.