The lava cave within the mountainside next to the volcano was accidentally discovered by Ling Tian while capturing fire spirit essences.
Using his compass, he detected immense fluctuations in the surrounding spiritual energy, and a great number of fire spirit essences in the vicinity.
Thus, Ling Tian followed the trail, which led him to this cave.
As he entered the cave, he was stunned by the sight before him. Inside the cavern, there were several rivers of lava.
Because the cave was a sealed space, the temperature inside was much higher than outside, making it a giant oven.
Even with Ling Tian's current cultivation, he could not stay in the cave for more than a minute before he had to quickly retreat into his spiritual realm space to rest and adjust before daring to continue his actions within the cave.
This time, not only did Ling Tian appear in the cave, but four fire spirits also appeared beside him.
The bodies of these fire spirits looked similar to fire spirit essences, all being high-temperature plasma gas.
However, the bodies of these fire spirits appeared much more solidified than those of the fire spirit essences.
Moreover, ordinary fire spirit essences were merely faint masses, with no discernible shape. These four fire spirits, however, had distinct forms.
One resembled a tiger, another a leopard, a third a bear, and the last was a large coiled snake.
Ling Tian had designed the appearances of these fire spirits based on the animals in his spiritual realm space.
If Ling Tian wished, he could even transform the appearances of these fire spirits into that of his fiancée, Wang Bingxia.
Ling Tian had spared no expense in refining these fire spirits. After their successful refinement, to rapidly enhance their strength, Ling Tian directly had each fire spirit devour over thirty fire spirit essences.
It was well known that fire spirit essences were precious items, but Ling Tian, in his haste to increase his strength, could not afford to be concerned about such matters.
In fact, fire spirits were not static in their power; they could absorb the power of flames, various fire-attribute minerals, and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to evolve.
However, if Ling Tian wanted to allow those fire spirit essences to evolve to their current level of strength, it would likely take several years for these fire spirits to remain in a volcanic environment.
Clearly, Ling Tian did not have that much time, so he chose to directly have the fire spirits devour other fire spirit essences.
The remaining fire spirit essences were kept by Ling Tian for future artifact refining.
After all, there were not many active volcanoes that produced fire spirit essences, and Ling Tian could not guarantee he would have the opportunity to obtain so many fire spirit essences in the future.
Ling Tian, accompanied by these fire spirits, re-entered the volcanic cave. This time, one of the fire spirits directly attached itself to Ling Tian. The flame power released by the fire spirit enveloped Ling Tian, shielding him from the external temperature.
Only then could Ling Tian move unimpeded through the cave.
He spent another two days in the cave, during which Ling Tian acquired many valuable items.
Some precious minerals, as well as some rare heavenly treasures with fire attributes that could only be found near volcanoes.
Additionally, there were dozens of fire spirit essences in the cave. Ling Tian did not bother to collect them with the Burning Heaven Cauldron, but instead directly had these fire spirits absorb them, further enhancing the fire spirits' strength.
Overall, Ling Tian was very satisfied with the harvest from Hell Paradise Island. Compared to when he first arrived on the island, his strength had improved immeasurably.
If he hadn't known how unstable the island was, Ling Tian might have actually considered building a house there and living for a few months each year. With this rate of improvement, destroying the Heavenly Demon Sect would likely only be a matter of time.
Calculating the time, Ling Tian realized that tomorrow was the official day for the World Ability Users Conference to commence. They had already been on the island for over a month.
Ling Tian decided it was time to return to the Order Zone!
Thus, Ling Tian left the volcano and the volcanic cave. After nearly two hours of walking, Ling Tian finally arrived at the marker for the Forbidden Zone.
He observed his surroundings. With no one in sight, a thought flashed through his mind, and the suit of fire-spun cloth he was wearing vanished, replaced by ordinary clothes.
Speaking of which, Ling Tian could now truly perform a one-click outfit change; he had become extremely proficient in this skill.
After changing his clothes, he swaggered into the forest.
Meanwhile, by the river on Hell Paradise Island, near a large rock, two men and one woman were leaning against the rock, with over a dozen ability users in front of them.
These two men and one woman were none other than the cream of the crop of China's younger generation of ability users: Xuanyuan Tangfeng, Situ Leisheng, and Zhang Caifeng.
After arriving on Hell Paradise Island, many of China's ability users, nourished by the abundant spiritual energy of heaven and earth, had experienced rapid advancements in their cultivation, with some even breaking through bottlenecks.
However, being young, and having been confined on the island for such a long time, they had become somewhat restless.
Furthermore, with their recent breakthroughs, their confidence had soared, prompting them to propose to their leaders, Xuanyuan Jie and Su Dacheng, that they be allowed to explore the island's free zone, search for treasures, undertake missions, and, importantly, investigate Ling Tian's whereabouts.
Su Dacheng and Xuanyuan Jie, after conferring with the other leaders, felt they truly could not refuse this request.
On one hand, the younger generation was eager to fight, and refusing their request would be a severe blow to the morale of the Chinese team.
On the other hand, their purpose for coming to the island was also to summarize their experiences and train the team. If everyone came to the island, spent a few days cultivating, and then returned home, it would be no different from a paid vacation.
Therefore, Xuanyuan Jie and the others agreed. Of course, they were not allowed to act freely; instead, they were to form groups of three to explore the island, allowing them to look out for each other in case of any incidents.
Thus, excluding those remaining at headquarters, all the younger members formed their groups and excitedly headed to the free zone.
Among them, Zhang Caifeng was in a group with Xuanyuan Tangfeng, and there was another young person in their group.
However, as soon as the Chinese team left their base, they were discovered. Various factions were closely monitoring them.
The most significant reason they were watching the Chinese team was their belief that Ling Tian was not truly dead and had a connection with the members of the Chinese team.
Although Ling Tian had been missing for several days, the bounty placed on him had not been withdrawn.