Outside the southern part of Kagawa Prefecture.
Su Mo climbed all the way up to the crater. Along the way, many tourists looked at her with confused expressions.
“What is that girl doing climbing up to the crater? Isn’t it super hot up there?”
“Who knows? Young people these days are pretty strange. They always like doing things that are hard to understand. By the time they regret it, it’ll be too late.”
“Ah, she’s such a pretty girl, but she insists on going somewhere so dangerous…”
“Let’s go, let’s go. We’re old now, don’t go sticking our noses into other people’s business.”
Two elderly men shook their heads and sighed as they watched Su Mo.
Su Mo wiped the sweat from her forehead. Honestly, she felt fine. With her physical condition, not to mention standing at the crater, she could probably even stay there for a few days without any problems.
She walked a little closer, curious about what kind of clue she could possibly find here, when a woman’s voice came from beside her: “Miss Chiba, I didn’t actually think you’d dare to come.”
Su Mo turned toward the voice. The woman was wearing metal-rimmed glasses and had an amazing figure—exactly the type that most men would like.
Su Mo couldn’t help but sneak a couple of extra glances, then asked seriously, “Who are you, and what are you plotting by asking me to come here?”
“Wasn’t I clear enough?” The woman chuckled lightly. “Of course, it’s to help you uncover the secret of the man-eating monsters.”
Su Mo’s expression turned serious. “What do I need to do?”
The woman covered her mouth and smiled. “Miss Chiba sure is direct. Fine, I won’t beat around the bush either.”
She pointed at the jade hairpin on top of Su Mo’s head.
“You want this?”
“No, I want what’s inside it—a red stone. The Demon Stone.”
A flicker of shock crossed Su Mo’s face, barely noticeable. Then she pretended to be confused. “What’s the Demon Stone?”
The woman suddenly got a bit angry and let out a sarcastic laugh. “How can such a young lady like Miss Chiba be so forgetful? Have you been so dizzy from absorbing the power of desire from my Demon Stone?”
So the energy absorbed by the Yin Fire was called the power of desire.
Su Mo could imagine just how much power came from the efforts of so many couples. Though she didn’t know what it was good for, one thing was certain: she had stolen it halfway, and the other party must be really, really angry.
Most importantly, this woman knew Su Mo’s true identity!
She was probably the owner of the voice from that night who had begged Su Mo not to destroy the Demon Stone. The voice sounded pretty similar.
Su Mo kept playing dumb and said, blushing, “What power of desire? I’m just a pure little girl who just turned twenty. I don’t understand your wild grown-up talk.”
No matter what, she wasn’t giving the Demon Stone back. Putting aside its value, what if this woman used it to control her again?
The woman finally lost her patience. She furrowed her brows and looked like she was ready to kill Su Mo.
Su Mo wasn’t scared. The woman seemed to be around C-rank, maybe B-rank at best. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been so polite and tried to negotiate…
The woman’s eyes turned purple, and her whole body glowed with a purple light. Her aura suddenly surged, reaching peak B-rank. She was on par with Qin Xun, who had once single-handedly taken down a bunch of terrorists.
“Hey, sis, let’s talk nicely. You’re so pretty—fighting would really ruin your image.”
Su Mo considered herself a true gentleman, and the key was knowing one’s limits. Her specialty was being flexible—able to stand tall or bow as needed…
Sure enough, the woman’s expression softened a bit when she saw Su Mo’s attitude. She said coldly, “Then stop wasting words and give me the Demon Stone—now!”
Su Mo took out the Demon Stone from the jade hairpin. It was now only the size of a walnut. After glancing at it, she shoved it back inside.
“What do you mean by that?” The woman felt insulted.
Su Mo put on an innocent, good-girl act. “Sis, here’s the thing. You’re the one who called me out here today. Logically, you should give me what you promised first, and then I can give you the Demon Stone. That’s correct, right?”
The woman rolled her eyes and snorted. “You’d better not try anything funny, or I’ll throw you into the volcano.”
Su Mo nodded obediently. Her cute expression somehow made the woman trust her a tiny bit.
Such a cute girl probably wouldn’t lie, right?
She pointed at the crater and nodded toward it. “Jump in. The secret is inside.”
Su Mo looked at her strangely. “I admit I’m pretty cute, but I don’t look that stupid, do I?”
The woman couldn’t be bothered to argue. She grabbed Su Mo’s arm and forcefully threw her down.
Caught off guard, Su Mo was tossed into the volcano. She panicked for a second, but just as she was thinking about what to do, the space around her suddenly warped. Then she felt solid ground beneath her feet.
She opened her eyes wide and found herself in a world painted fiery red. The sky was red, the ground was red, and the scorching temperature was at least several hundred degrees. Even with Su Mo’s physical condition, it was a bit too much. She had to use the Yin Fire to withstand it.
Honestly, it was kind of embarrassing. A fire-controller like her couldn’t handle a few hundred degrees. Sun Yuchen would probably be better than her in this regard.
But well, Yin Fire wasn’t about high temperatures anyway.
“Know where this is?” The woman was still right beside her.
Su Mo looked around and said in a low voice, “A ruin?”
“Not bad. You’re pretty knowledgeable.” The woman sneered. “Follow me. I’ll take you to find the evidence.”
The evidence was here?
Su Mo really couldn’t figure it out, but she followed anyway. Since she couldn’t escape for now, checking it out wouldn’t hurt.
She touched the top of her head. The jade hairpin was still there.
Surprisingly, this woman was pretty reasonable. She hadn’t tried to steal it.
Su Mo followed the woman through the red world until they finally reached a place that looked like a mine.
The rock walls around them had clearly been carved out. Su Mo couldn’t help but wonder: was someone mining in here?
Whoever it was must be at least B-rank, or they’d be burned to ashes in seconds.
When they went inside the mine, Su Mo was so shocked that her mouth fell open. The ones doing the labor here weren’t humans—they were the man-eating monsters!
Each and every man-eating monster was working hard, like crazy creatures that never knew fatigue. Occasionally, one would fall to the ground, and others would come to carry it away.
If she hadn’t already had the brutal impression that man-eating monsters were bloodthirsty cannibals, she might have actually felt a little sorry for them.
“They’re natives living in the volcanic ruins. Humans call them the Volcano Clan. Since there are lots of spiritual ores in the ruins, someone has been controlling these Volcano Clan members to work for them.”
“That someone is Mr. Sato?”
“It’s Mr. and Mrs. Sato.” The woman’s eyes grew deep. “That man with the surname Sato was just E-rank. Even with all those resources piled on him, he’s only C-rank now. He doesn’t have the ability to control the Volcano Clan.”
Hearing her say that, Su Mo suddenly understood. “Does he use some kind of eye technique to control these Volcano Clan members?”
“You’re pretty clever.”
It matched!
Su Mo took a deep breath.
The first time she met Mrs. Sato, she had been drawn to her beautiful eyes for a short while. That was why Su Mo suspected the purple eye pattern on her own eyes had been left by Mrs. Sato back then.
And that unforgettable dream she had… it wasn’t a dream at all. It was an illusion!
Because if it had really been a dream, the Yin Fire should have gone out of control. But it didn’t. The Yin Fire had simply pulled her out of the illusion in time.
So she had good reason to suspect that if the Yin Fire hadn’t saved her, she really might have been controlled.
See? Beautiful women are not to be messed with!
