The flames stretched across several mountains, affecting at least a range of ten thousand meters.
The yellow-red flames burned fiercely, destroying everything combustible around, billowing thick smoke rising into the sky, obscuring the sun from this world.
From above, the earth was marked with charred traces everywhere, and there were also large amounts of dark red fluid slowly spreading, gathering in low areas to form dark red lakes. With just one glance, one could feel the astonishing heat contained within.
This was magma that hadn’t cooled yet, and it didn’t seem like it would cool down in a short time.
Following the flow of magma to find its source, eventually, a mountain peak was found. This mountain peak was flowing with lava, emitting a faint red light, reflecting the surroundings in a reddish hue.
At this point, this “mountain” couldn’t be called a peak anymore. Its top appeared as a hemisphere, more like a “mound.”
It resembled the appearance of an ice cream cone melting in the summer.
It seemed that this massive amount of magma was all formed from the melted mountain body.
At this moment, three people were floating slowly in mid-air, overlooking this land of magma and flames.
The reason they could fly was due to the ability of Ah Xing, the Origin Mage of the air, called “floating flight.”
Now, everyone was wrapped in a thick layer of air shield outside their bodies, not only allowing them to float but also isolating them from the external high temperatures.
According to Ah Xing himself, being a Origin Mage of the air element was, to some extent, unsolvable. As long as one’s imagination was broad enough, one could play out more tricks, even more than mages of other elements.
When seeing this scene of lava and flame disaster, Su Hao’s mind was flooded with many questions.
“How is lava produced? Is it the same principle as volcanic eruption? But obviously, it’s different from volcanic eruption.”
“What’s the relationship between this disaster and the source? Can solving the disaster yield the source?”
“What would happen if this mountain were blown up?”
…
Su Hao never kept questions he didn’t understand to himself, he asked his two teammates directly.
Unexpectedly, Ah Xing and Ah Wang shook their heads, indicating they didn’t know either.
Many powerful Origin Mages would try to analyze what the source really is, how it’s produced, but none have given a definitive conclusion. There’s one theory that has gained the most acceptance: the source is the origin of all things.
However, this theory lacks very reliable theoretical support.
Ah Xing said, “We don’t know how the source is produced, but we do know that if you blow up this mountain, it might trigger even more disasters.”
Su Hao asked, “Why? Is it because this mountain is damaging the surrounding environment?”
Ah Xing shook his head, “No, disasters spread like a contagion, similar to a plague, spreading to other places, causing greater disasters. It’s like a flame, if it’s just a small flame, it will extinguish after burning surrounding objects, but if you scatter the small flame around, it’s likely to ignite new things around it, causing a bigger fire.
Disasters are incomprehensible like that, inexplicably appearing and disappearing, but undoubtedly, all of this is related to the source.”
Su Hao found it truly difficult to understand. To him, everything happening here seemed to exude the word “abnormal” in every aspect. With his knowledge of physics and chemistry, he couldn’t explain such occurrences.
It was like a world imagined by a giant’s mind, full of wonders and strangeness, yet utterly illogical.
Deciding not to dwell on what he couldn’t comprehend, Su Hao asked directly, “So, how do we solve this lava situation?”
Ah Xing replied, “The most direct method is to destroy the ‘core’ causing the disaster. However, most Origin Mages wouldn’t choose to do so because once the core is destroyed, they won’t be able to obtain the source.”
“The core?”
“Yes, any disaster will have a ‘core,’ which is also the key to triggering the disaster. This ‘core’ is not fixed; it’s like the Creator casually pointing at an object and saying, ‘From now on, you are the core of disaster,’ and then it becomes the core. It could be a rock, a tree, a dead branch, or even a spoon in someone’s house.”
Su Hao’s brow furrowed deeper and deeper as he muttered, “So, it’s like inserting something into an object, making that thing the ‘core’?”
Ah Xing’s eyes brightened, immediately praising, “Ah Yang, you described it well. That’s exactly it. It’s like the Creator inserting a special something into various objects, and that thing becomes the core of the disaster. As for what is inserted, only the old man upstairs knows.”
Su Hao then asked, “Where does the source come from?”
Ah Xing answered, “The source comes from the transformation of the ‘core.'”
Su Hao didn’t understand.
Ah Xing casually took out a source bead, extracted a bit of source from it, transformed it into a spell, and waved his hand, sending a arc of light towards the sky.
“See, Ah Yang? I extracted source from the source bead, then cast a spell. In this process, the source bead and I formed a ‘core’ that creates disasters!
‘The one’ role used to guide the release of source is called ‘Trigger.’ And a disaster core is composed of ‘Source’ and ‘Trigger’ together.”
Su Hao’s mind brightened, immediately enlightened, “I see. So, in other words, every Origin Mage is a walking disaster, but this disaster is controllable. And these natural disasters unconsciously release source, causing massive destruction to the surrounding environment.”
Ah Xing flicked his bangs and praised, “Smart, you got it in one. So, when some object turns into a ‘core,’ as long as you destroy the ‘trigger,’ what’s left is the ‘source.'”
Su Hao nodded in understanding. In reality, it’s like: a Origin Mage has the source, I want it, so I take out the Origin Mage, and the source is mine.
It seemed very bandit-like, but this was the underlying logic of acquiring various resources.
Ah Xing continued, “To accomplish this isn’t easy. First, you have to distinguish which part is the source and which part is the trigger. If you make a mistake, the entire core will be destroyed, and the source will disappear without a trace. It’s all for nothing!”
Su Hao asked, “Is there a method to distinguish?”
Ah Xing grinned widely, “Experience, haha!”
At this point, Ah Wang also chuckled, “It’s hard to explain how to distinguish; it’s just a feeling. You have to actually see the core before you can judge. It’s like, if a girl doesn’t turn back, how do I know if I’ll like her? Hehehe!”
Although Su Hao understood instantly, what kind of metaphor was this…
Ah Xing waved his hand and said, “Let’s go, let’s find out what this lava core really is.”
At times like this, Su Hao was accustomed to observing how his seniors handled situations, finding the logical points for future reference. As for showing off or acting recklessly, it was impossible and highly inefficient.
Su Hao followed his two teammates, floating above the still-melting mound of lava, waiting for a demonstration from his teammates.
Ah Xing rubbed his chin, turned to Ah Wang, and said, “Ah Wang, probe the interior of this mountain.”
Confidently, Ah Wang took out a small square box from his coat pocket, opened the lid, and poured out a plethora of white spherical objects, like pouring out a basket of ping pong balls. A large number of white balls rolled out of the small box, filling the entire air bubble with a rustling sound.
This scene stunned Su Hao. Just from this small box, so many balls could be poured out?
Even though he considered himself well-traveled and knowledgeable, he had never seen such a technique before. Was it not similar to his storage space ring?
Seeing Su Hao’s astonished expression, Ah Wang was extremely satisfied and kept pouring out the balls without stopping.
It wasn’t until Ah Xing reminded him, “That’s enough, Ah Wang.”
Ah Xing spread his five fingers, and the small white balls flew out with a rustling sound, scattering around the mound. Then, with a forceful downward swipe of his palm, they transformed into bullets, shooting into the lava of the mound, making a hissing sound.
At this point, Su Hao asked, “What are these small white balls?”
Ah Xing replied, “These are Ah Wang’s specialty, detection balls. Each one is his exclusive detector, you can think of it as an extension of Ah Wang’s mental power. With my air shield protecting them, these detection balls can go anywhere, you know. Hahaha!”
Ah Wang opened his eyes and chuckled, “That’s right. If Ah Yang fancies any girl, just let me know. I have a kind of shared perception ‘shared ball,’ you can see anything you want, hehehe!”
Su Hao said, “No need, Ah Xing, Ah Wang, I’m still young.”
These two guys with strange ideas were beyond help.
To think that they would develop such abilities as Origin Mages to do this kind of thing, they were truly talented!
At this point, Ah Xing asked, “Ah Wang, have you detected anything?”
Ah Wang immediately retracted his strange smile, embarrassedly saying, “No, I just thought of some interesting scenes and got distracted. Let me check now to see where the core is.”
