CHAPTER 111 (2): AMETHYST SOUL

From there, the two groups banded together to conduct search and rescue efforts.

Any bodies that they encountered along the way were immediately incinerated, and after passing over the nearest mountain, they arrived on a plain nestled between mountains.

Not only was the area littered with villages, there was even a small city.

Some of the villages had been destroyed, but thankfully, there weren't many bodies, and most encouraging of all was the sighting of new graves in the area.

The fact that the people who had evacuated from here were still able to bury the dead was a sign that the area hadn't been all that heavily affected by the volcanic eruptions, which meant that there had to be many survivors.

After traveling onward for two hundred kilometers, they finally came across a village with many survivors. All of them were severely emaciated, but they were jumping for joy in the rain, and some of them had knelt down and were kowtowing to the heavens for this torrential blessing that had saved their lives.

Fang Che and the others hurriedly arrived on the scene to discover that all of the survivors were elderly individuals over sixty years of age.

There wasn't even a single young person or child in the village.

"Where are all the young people?"

"They fled the village."

"Why didn't all of you go with them?"

"We're too old and slow, we would've only weighed them down. They're much more likely to survive without the extra burden."

Fang Che and the others fell into a solemn silence.

Some of the administrators rushed into the houses, inside of which were many elderly people who were already unable to move. They resembled withered corpses that had been completely roasted dry, and the administrators immediately began brewing medicine to be handed out to those in need of urgent care.

An old man was trembling as he said in a feeble voice, "As soon as the volcanoes erupted, we knew things were going to take a turn for the worse, so we immediately began filling the water vats, but it was so hot... Even after covering the water vats with wooden boards, the water was still evaporating so quickly... There was still snow here just a few days ago...

“Everyone was wearing coats, and my grandson was telling me that he was cold, but all of a sudden, it became so hot that he couldn't breathe... The young people refused to abandon us, and they only left after we threatened to kill ourselves if they didn't go... Please don't blame them, they didn't want to go! We forced them to leave!"

Some of the administrators had gone to check on the nearby villages, and those villages were also occupied solely by elderly residents, some of whom had already passed away.

Thankfully, all of the women, children, and young people had managed to evacuate in time.

As these frail elderly people gradually began to recover their vitality, Fang Che felt like this trip had been very worthwhile.

Soon, the smell of cooking began to waft through the air, and the oppressive heat had been replaced by a refreshing coolness from the torrential rain.

After doing all they could to help the people in this area, the administrators continued onward in their search and rescue efforts.

They encountered many more deceased individuals along the way, but the situation was already much better than in the areas closer to the volcanoes.

Before long, they had visited hundreds of villages, and they even encountered some people returning to their villages in the heavy rain.

Clearly, the storm had given them hope, and they immediately returned home to check on the elderly.

For the people in this area, the disaster had passed.

All of the administrators from both prefectures stood under the pelting rain, their bodies covered in mud.

They looked on with gratified smiles as those who had evacuated their villages earlier came rushing back with looks of concern and elation on their faces.

"Our mission is complete! It's time to go back!" Yuan Jingjiang declared with a wide grin. "Are you heading back as well, Hall Master Cao?"

"That's right," Hall Master Cao replied with a smile. "We'll go back the same way we came from. There are many comrades for us to take them back."

Tears began to stream down Hall Master Cao's face, blending in with the rain as he fell to his haunches and began bawling his eyes out. Throughout the mission, he had to maintain a strong front for his comrades, but now that the mission was over, all of the emotions came flooding out at once.

"We had 420 comrades in the beginning, but I lost 347 of them on the way here!" Hall Master Cao bawled.

The seventy or so people behind him were all silently weeping as well.

Yuan Jingjiang wanted to say something to console his fellow battle hall master, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he also burst into tears.

While carrying out their mission, everyone was able to carry themselves with dignity and courage, but with the mission completed, the weight of the raw emotions became too much to bear.

After the tears ran dry, Hall Master Chao rose to his feet as he ordered in a hoarse voice, "Let's go! We're going back the same way we came from!"

All of the White Elephant Prefecture administrators bade farewell to their White Cloud Prefecture counterparts in the rain.

"May all of you return safe and sound!" Hall Master Cao said in a sincere and earnest voice.

"Likewise!"

After exchanging some parting salutes, the two groups split apart and went their separate ways.

They didn't bid farewell to the people in the villages. They were already content in the knowledge that those people were now safe.

Shortly after the two groups parted ways, the earth suddenly began trembling violently, and there was a radiant flash of light above the clouds.

"Flame Demon is over here!"

It was Bing Qianshan's voice, and by the time the final word was uttered, his voice was already very far away.

Sure enough, this place had become a battlefield for some of the most powerful warriors from both sides.

Fang Che and the others immediately began to forge ahead with greater urgency.

On the way back, they repaired all of the sections of the roads that had been damaged by the heavy rainfall, and all of the bodies that they encountered were immediately buried.

Eventually, they encountered the search and rescue teams sent out by the local authorities, and with a sense of immense relief, they knew that their work was finally done.

They booked some rooms in a nearby inn, then began washing up and changing into clean clothes.

The clothing worn by many of them was no longer wearable and had to be discarded, and only now were some of them noticing that they had even lost all of their hair.

The intense heat had reduced their hair to ashes, serving as a reminder of the fiery hellscape that they had just returned from.

Fang Che wasn't completely bald, but half of his hair had gone missing.

However, this had no impact on him as he had already cultivated the Covert Shapeshifting Technique to the third level, which was on par with Qian Sanjiang's level of mastery of the technique.

Even though he had only just reached the third level, regrowing hair was not a problem for him at all.

Unfortunately, the female administrators clearly had no such abilities, and all of them were looking utterly distraught.

They would just have to wait for their hair to grow back naturally.

"Once we return to the Hall of Protectionists, I'm going to report the impact that you made on this trip to our higher-ups," Yuan Jingjiang said to Fang Che. "Your efforts cannot go unrewarded!"

"Sure," Fang Che said with a faint smile.

Even though this trip had only been a brief one, Fang Che felt like his mental state had evolved in its wake, and as a result, he had made a breakthrough to the second-rank Warlord tier as soon as they arrived at the inn.

He had completed countless missions of this nature in his past life, and there was no comparison to this feeling of saving countless lives.

He took a deep breath, his heart filled with serenity and pride.

***

Meanwhile, Mo Ganyun's group was still trudging through the snowy forest.

They were now all seventh and eighth-rank Lords, and their confidence had grown immensely alongside their cultivation bases.

They were certain that they would at least be close to surpassing Fang Che upon their return!

"Once we get back, I'll finally be able to take off this headband," Mo Ganyun said, his voice full of excitement and anticipation.

"From there, all of us can take turns beating Boss Fang for all of the past beatings that he made us endure!" Qiu Yunshang chimed in.

All of a sudden, their elation turned to horror as a glowing pillar of lava erupted into the heavens not far up ahead.

"It's a volcanic eruption!" Yu Zhongge exclaimed with a stunned expression. "Come with me!"

He immediately rushed into a cave that was nestled into a nearby cliff face, followed closely by Mo Ganyun, Qiu Yunshang, and Jing Shuanggao, and the snow was melting beneath their feet as they ran.

Not long after they squeezed their way into the cave, all of the snow and ice in the area was melted into water as they looked on with bewildered expressions.

After that, the mountain directly behind them erupted as well, and the cave that they were situated in instantly transformed into a natural oven.

The four of them began exchanging anxious glances with one another.

Should we stay here or get out?

Before they had a chance to make a decision, they heard an earth-shattering rumble sound from deep within the earth beneath them, following which the entire cliff began to slowly descend.

All of a sudden, the slow descent turned into a rapid free fall, and at the same time, the cave ceiling above them collapsed violently.

Unable to escape, the four of them could only support the cave ceiling with all their might as they plummeted downward alongside the cliff.

All the while, the crushing weight pressing down upon them continued to increase, slowly forcing them to their knees.

Right as the weight was becoming too much to bear, the ground beneath their feet suddenly gave way, and they began to plummet downward once again.

After a long descent deep into the belly of the earth, the cave beneath their feet shattered into pieces with a thunderous impact, and the four of them hurriedly braced in anticipation of the weight of the giant rocks that were surely about to fall upon them, but the crushing weight never came.

It seemed that the cliff had fallen into a body of water.

Sure enough, ice-cold water began to flow in through the cracks of the shattered cave, and the pressure from above was significantly lessened.

Thus, they continued to descend, and the cliff began to split apart, allowing more and more water to gush inside.

The four of them struggled with all their might, and while flailing around, Yu Zhongge was able to kick a rock away, allowing a vast volume of water to gush into the cave at once and inundate all four of them.