Out on another adventure

3 years ago before Lin Kai's capture and after Hao Ran told Elder Fan about Lin Kai's plan.

"So, what do we do here exactly?" Hao Ran asked Elder fan after he came back.

"You just stay here and practice. I'll provide you with anything you need." Elder Fan told Hao Ran and Cheng Li.

"Elder Fan, can you help me with my techniques then?" Cheng Li asked Elder Fan.

"Of course, come with me. Hao Ran, you are already talented enough with regards of cultivating, you do not need my assistance." Elder Fan took Cheng Li and disappeared with Cheng Li after finishing his sentence.

"Well, I guess I'll just practice here for a while." Hao Ran sat down on a flat rock and started cultivating.

Hao Ran felt the energy around and took a deep breath. The aura there was ten times stronger then anywhere he has cultivated before.

After a month of cultivating Hao Ran decided to advance to Heaven roaming 2nd stage and go down the mountain.

"Hao Ran! I haven't seen you in a while." Zheng Wei waved at Hao Ran and waved his hand up and down, telling him to come.

Hao Ran went up to Zheng Wei and started a conversation with him.

"Hey, I heard about what happened to Lin Kai. It's expected for bad things to happen when your on the path of cultivation." Zheng Wei said and looked down, feeling sorry for Hao Ran.

"Don't worry about it, actually, I feel better now that he's out of my life. By the way, I see you got way stronger." Hao Ran said as he felt Zheng Wei's aura.

"Yup, I'm now an earth roaming 5th stage!" Zheng Wei exclaimed and pointed at himself feeling proud.

"Only advanced one stage while we were gone, huh?" Hao Ran thought to himself and looked towards the sky before looking back at Zheng Wei.

"Hey, where all the others?" Hao Ran asked Zheng Wei.

"Oh, their all taking missions for the sect. Hey, now that we're both free, why don't we take one to? I've got nothing to do around here." Zheng Wei asked Hao Ran with a normal smile.

"Sure. Why not. I feel like ever- never mind, let's just go." Hao Ran said and cut off his own words before going to the sects mission board.

Zheng Wei felt something was off but didn't say anything as he followed Hao Ran. Zheng Wei wanted to now what Hao Ran wanted to say but took that thought off his mind quickly.

Finally they reached the sects mission board and looked through all the missions. Some were simple, like killing beasts and others were going through danger zones and retrieving items. They had to go to the easy ones since Zheng Wei was only a earth roaming 5th stage.

Finally, they decided on a quest that they both liked.

Retrieve an earth roaming 6th stage fire lizards core from 'fire rock cave'.

Earth roaming 5th stage and above only.

Hao Ran picked that quest and got directions from an elder who was sitting on a chair, staring at the sky.

"Hmm, for this quest, I'll just give you this map of the cave. It's located straight north from the sect, you couldn't miss it." The elder gave Hao Ran the map and continued staring at the sky.

Zheng Wei and Hao Ran dashed out of the sect as fast as they can and headed north. Hao Ran had to lower his speed to not let Zheng Wei be left behind.

After a while they stopped in the middle of a forest and took a break. They continued running after a while and after two days they finally reached 'fire rock cave'. The outside of the cave was quiet hot, enough to make Zheng Wei sweat. Hao Ran wasn't affected by it and walked inside a cave entrance.

"Hey, take out the map. We need to see where the fire lizards exactly are." Zheng Wei told Hao Ran to take out the map.

"We just need to head through here, and take a sharp left. After that keep going straight and we should see some low level fire lizards, a little bit deeper and we'd find the fire lizards we need." Hao Ran said and with a smile and headed deeper into the cave with Zheng Wei.

As they headed deeper they saw some small fire lizards crawling on the wall and hiding under rocks.

Seeing this Hao Ran picked one up and it felt like he was carrying a hot rock. It didn't burn him but if he was a normal human, he'd feel a little bit of discomfort.

"What're you doing?" Zheng Wei asked Hao Ran.

"I'm testing how they attack, so when we fight one we'd be ready." Hao Ran answered Zheng Wei's question and continued messing with the little fire lizard.

After a few seconds, it breathed a little fire at Hao Ran and set its body on fire which barely lasted a second.

"Hmm, the bigger version surely has more attack patterns, but this is good to know." Hao Ran said as he put the lizard down and it ran away, hiding under a rock.

"Alright, let's go now." Zheng Wei said while walking further into the cave.

After adventuring a little more deeper into the cave. Hao Ran and Zheng Wei finally saw a bug lizard about the size of them. It saw them and spit fire at them.

Hao Ran blocked and sent a slash with his fingers at the lizard cutting it in half.

"This is only a earth roaming 4th stage lizard. We need to go deeper." Zheng Wei said as he took the lizards core and continued walking.

Lin Kai and Hao Ran never bothered to take a beasts core because they were already pretty rich and didn't need any money. Thinking back to it Hao Ran thought, "Maybe it would've been better if we took their cores."

Finally after walking for about ten minutes they found a earth roaming 6th stage fire lizard. This fire lizard was bigger then them by more than a half and had flames on its back always.

"Don't worry, although I'm a earth roaming 5th stage, I have a pretty strong foundation. Let me handle this." Zheng Wei said and stepped forward, taking out a massive sword.

Hao Ran just leaned against a wall and said, "Go for it."

Zheng Wei jumped at the fire lizard and surrounded his blade with water, he slashed down at the lizard and it quickly dodged and spat fire at Zheng Wei, which he blocked with his sword. Using the fire as cover the lizard ran at Zheng Wei and head butted him into a wall.

Hao Ran saw all this and was pretty disappointed with Zheng Wei's performance. But he noticed there was a lot of cracks on the wall that Zheng Wei hit. More than the usual amount for a hard rock, Hao Ran thought that it must've lead to another cave.

Hao Ran quickly killed the fire lizard that Zheng Wei was fighting.

"Hey! What was that for?! I had it!" Zheng Wei said and got mad at Hao Ran for stealing his kill.

"Don't worry about it. We may have something more exciting then that beast." Hao Ran said as he went up to the cracked wall and punched it, breaking it.

Hao Ran could see a bright opening, and immense heat could be felt from inside the opening. Hao Ran stepped in and saw a cave filled with lava and lots of fire lizards, ranging from earth roaming 8th stage to heaven roaming 2nd stage.