Chapter 923 923 - Purgatory And Paradise

Aiden hesitated for a long time before deciding to give it a shot.

He would first place a leg of the bronze square tripod into the golden lava and see if it would melt.

Even if it was melted and lost a leg, that would not affect a bronze square tripod that was already abandoned, to begin with.

At that thought, Aiden withdrew the bronze square tripod and flew toward the mouth of the volcano.

When he arrived at the vicinity of the mouth of the volcano, the heat of the flame became even more terrifying and Aiden felt his head spin as though he could faint at any moment!

The longer he stayed at this place, the more danger he would be in.

Gazing at the moving golden lava beneath him, Aiden did not dare to hesitate as he directed the bronze square tripod slowly into the mouth of the volcano.

A leg of the bronze square tripod was about to make contact with the golden lava.

Suddenly, the surface of the lava bubbled, as though something was trying to come forth from beneath it. Shocked, Aiden hurriedly controlled the bronze square tripod to rise into the air.

Even so, some golden lava splashed onto the walls of the tripod before sliding down.

"Hmm?"

Aiden focused his gaze.

It was perfectly fine!

There was no mark on the spot where the bronze square tripod was splashed by the golden lava!

Success!

Aiden was elated.

The bubbling golden lava calmed down once more, as though that was only an ordinary reaction.

Aiden controlled the descent of the bronze square tripod, only turning to leave after it was filled with the golden lava.

While the golden lava was terrifying and berserk, as if it could incinerate and destroy everything, it was calm when stored inside the bronze square tripod, as though it was isolated from the world.

Aiden did not sense any heat when he carried the bronze square tripod.

The body of the tripod was cold as always – the heat of the golden lava was trapped within completely!

Leaving the mouth of the volcano, Aiden placed the bronze square tripod carefully into a separate storage bag and hung it on the side of his waist.

Not long after he left, the golden lava in the mouth of the volcano began rumbling and spewing once more.

There was something that floated on the surface of the lava.

Faintly visible, it seemed like it was a coffin!

The coffin was transparent and made of some unknown material such that there were no signs of burns even as it was immersed in the golden lava.

Floating on the surface of the lava, it could be vaguely seen that a woman lay within the coffin!

Her palms were closed together and rested before her chest, revealing two smooth, jade-like arms that resembled the texture of an elephant's tusks.

The woman had an exquisite figure and exuded a lazy, charming aura as she lay there, seemingly asleep.

As the coffin swirled slowly along with the lava, a peerless face appeared and was frighteningly seductive!

The peerless woman's eyes were initially closed.

All of a sudden!

Her long lashes twitched slightly and her beautiful eyes showed signs of opening!

A shuddering aura began to emanate.

The peerless woman could awaken at any moment!

There was a slight pause.

Going silent again, the peerless woman seemed like she returned to sleep once more.

The transparent coffin sank gradually, entering the golden lava and disappearing within.

Silence returned to the mouth of the volcano, as though nothing had happened.

…

Aiden knew nothing about the changes in the deepest part of the cave within the mouth of the volcano.

Initially, he did not feel comfortable with the temperature inside the cave.

But now that he was returning from the volcano along his original path, he felt cool and could not help but lament internally, "The mouth of that volcano is truly purgatory hell. This place is paradise compared to that!"

The little fox waited at its original position and heaved a slight breath of relief upon seeing Aiden return safely.

After all, he was her benefactor.

Even though she was guarded against him, the little fox did not wish for him to meet with misfortunes.

Furthermore, she had witnessed the scene of Aiden in his draconic form.

In her heart, he was also someone of the beastly races. He wasn't the same as this greedy mortal races.

Aiden only paused in his tracks upon returning to the vicinity of the cave's entrance. Assuming a lotus position, he began to heal up and recuperate his stamina.

He did not have the chance to rest at all the entire night.

From the fight against the otherworldly soldiers up till daybreak, he had not rested for the entire night and even nearly lost his life in between fighting against a fiend demon.

Be it physically or mentally, Aiden was at his limits.

Prior to this, he consumed many spirit herbs directly in the underground palace.

Not much of the tremendous amount of energy contained within those spirit herbs was absorbed by Aiden and they accumulated within his body.

Now that he was healing his injuries, all of those energies surged forth and entered every single fiber of his.

Aiden's injuries and stamina were rapidly recovering!

In the blink of an eye, an entire day had passed.

With a bright gaze and rosy cheeks, Aiden rose with vigor and roared into the skies!

"Ah!"

The roar was loud, clear, and robust and no injuries or signs of fatigue could be seen on his body anymore.

Feeling the condition of his body, Aiden could not help but break out into a faint smile.

Those spirit herbs carried fire attribute spirit energy and coupled with the environment of this place, he discovered that his power had advanced by quite a bit!

Of course, Aiden was still quite a distance away from mid-stage Martial Master although his strength had advanced.

He had just only formed his core.

Disregarding the journey taken to reach the Great Forbidden Ruins, only two days had passed.

If he hadn't experienced the intense battles in the Great Forbidden Ruins and was merely training in seclusion, he would need years to reach his current point of training!

The best way to grow was to grind between the borders of life and death, battling through blood.

Furthermore, he was in such a favorable environment and had the help of spirit herbs that were more than 10,000 years old.

This was also the reason why many martial artists would choose to explore outside after they reached a bottleneck in their growth.

While explorations were filled with danger, there were also accompanying opportunities!

Calming himself, Aiden was ready to attempt to fix his top-grade artifact weapons.

Not far away, the little fox sat on the Fire Blocking Basket quietly, gazing over with black, bright gem-like eyes.

It had been watching Aiden for the entire day.

Although it did not get close, Aiden could sense that the little fox was much less guarded towards him.

If it was previously, given the distrusting nature of that little fella, it would definitely be lifting its Fire Blocking Basket with both paws, ready to hide inside at any moment rather than be as relaxed as it was now.

Smiling, Aiden said, "Little fella, I'm preparing to refine artifact weapons. You must not disturb me during this period of time."

When she heard Aiden refer to her as 'little fella', a look of indignance flashed through the little fox's eyes.

However, immediately after, the little fox was touched internally upon thinking deeper.

That statement revealed a form of trust.

The handsome man was extremely terrifying in combat and could easily restrain her in captivity. That way, she would not be able to interrupt his weapon refinement process at all.

But now, the other party chose to give her his trust instead.

Could that person… have ulterior motives?

The little fox blinked and was still a little worried.

After being locked here for dozens of years by the Scarlet Armored Gigantic Crocodile, the little fox was fragile mentally and was easily suspicious.

Other than her deceased mother, she was constantly guarded against others.

She was truly way too terrified.

Just as she was imagining things, the handsome man on the other end had already withdrawn a thick, ebony blade from his storage bag and began with refinement.

During his tenure in Ugburg City, as well as later on in the territory of the Azure Myst Sect, Aiden obtained a rather high quality, top-grade artifact weapon forging technique to fix one of his major flaws in the current day. He would gradually wear down all his weapons, making them lower quality and dull. He needed a method to fix them back into tip-top shape, especially if it was someone like Rygintarth who he already thought of as more than just a weapon, but as a part of his ever-growing family.

The so-called damage did not refer to the artifact weapon itself, but the breaking of the sixth spirit pattern.

There were no impurities within a damaged top-grade artifact weapon.

In other words, by using a top-grade Spirit Fire to forge a top-grade artifact weapon, one could ignore the initial steps of weapon refinement completely and head straight to spirit gathering once the artifact weapon was heated to a scarlet red state.