Chapter 163: Fragment of the Lava Emperor’s Heart

The spatial tear closed very quickly. The black-purple smoke carrying Ryan’s face only had time to leave behind a cold, scorched smell before completely disappearing from the Lava Sea. Ethan continued staring at the place where the tear had just existed, his right arm already half-raised with Realm Breaker, but in the end, he lowered it again.

He had no reason to waste a bullet on a crack that had already closed. Moreover, the fact that Ryan could turn into smoke and leave this place had already gone beyond Ethan’s understanding. What concerned Ethan more was the Mutated Lava Fish that had fallen back into the sea after losing its core.

Its enormous body was gradually sinking beneath the lava, while the black-purple crystal fragments on its back were going dark one after another. If it disappeared completely, the points and materials inside it might sink to the bottom of the sea as well.

Laira noticed this too. She turned toward Ethan, several drops of lava still clinging to her silver hair, but her face showed only excitement after the battle. "Should I pull it up?" she asked, already gripping the Boundless Fishing Rod tightly. Ethan nodded, while Ruo Yan quickly used her Soul Threads to pull the Undead Mage farther away from the water.

The puppet had just been used as bait, dragged into the sea by a giant octopus, and then forced to witness a mutated fish covered in tentacles. The blue flames inside its eye sockets flickered very slowly, as though it were considering whether it should continue pretending to have no consciousness.

Laira lowered her center of gravity and swung the rod. The black fishing line shot forward and wrapped precisely around the remaining crab claw of the Mutated Lava Fish. Although the monster was already dead, its body was still extremely heavy, and its broken shrimp legs kept getting caught in the cracks between the rocks below. Laira pulled once, immediately causing a large section of the Lava Sea to bulge upward. She did not become impatient.

She simply planted one foot firmly against the floating stone field, gripped the fishing rod with both hands, and slowly dragged the corpse back bit by bit. After several rounds of struggle, the fish body covered in black-purple crystals was finally pulled completely out of the sea of fire and crashed heavily beside the Giant Lava Octopus, which had not yet been fully decomposed.

A System notification immediately appeared before everyone.

[Successful Hunt: Mutated Lava Fish.]

[Rarity: Ultra Rare.]

[Points Earned: 156,000.]

Laira looked at the number, then turned toward Ethan. "This one fish gives more points than all the fish we caught before combined."

"It was never an ordinary fish to begin with," Ethan replied. He glanced at the place where Ryan’s face had disappeared from the fish’s body, then looked at the black-purple crystal fragments still attached to its scales. "Nothing created by the Void Flame is ever normal."

Ruo Yan frowned slightly. She still was not used to the idea that someone they had once encountered in the outside world could be turned by the Void into part of a monster like this, but remembering Ryan’s final expression, she also understood that he was no longer someone capable of maintaining his sanity. "Is he still alive?" she asked quietly.

"Probably." Ethan looked toward the empty space where the tear had just closed. "But the Void saved him. He did not save himself. The next time we see him, he may not even retain a human form."

Ruo Yan did not ask anything further. She knew Ethan was not saying this to frighten anyone. The Void Flame had once nearly killed Ethan, while Ryan clearly did not have the Primordial Armor to suppress it. If the Void had already begun using Ryan’s body as a vessel, then it was only a matter of time before he became a complete monster.

Ethan walked to the corpse of the Mutated Lava Fish and placed his hand on its shattered head. The dark red scales, crab claws, shrimp legs, and black-purple crystals on the outside had all lost their vitality, but his Eye of Truth could still see several different streams of energy intertwined inside its body. One portion was the lava energy naturally belonging to the species. Another was the lingering aura of the Void left behind after Ryan escaped.

Deeper inside, however, there was an extremely small yet exceptionally stable object. It lay near the fish’s heart, radiating a dense red-gold glow that was completely different from the black-purple color of the Void Flame.

"Decomposition," Ethan said.

Light spread from his palm. The entire body of the Mutated Lava Fish began separating layer by layer. Its scales transformed into Mutated Lava Materials, the crab claws and shrimp legs became a type of dark red metal, while the black-purple crystal fragments were separately collected by the System as Residual Void Crystals.

Everything flew into Ethan’s storage space one after another, but when the light of Decomposition reached the object near the heart, it paused for a brief moment. A teardrop-shaped crystal, only half the size of his palm, slowly floated out from the dissolving flesh. Its surface resembled cooled magma, but inside it, a tiny red-gold flame was still beating faintly.

A notification appeared.

[Obtained: Fragment of the Lava Emperor’s Heart.]

Ethan paused.

"Lava Emperor?" Laira tilted her head as she looked at the crystal fragment in his hand. "Who is that?"

Ruo Yan also shook her head. "I have never heard that name. In the records of the Puppeteer Race, most powerful figures bearing the title Emperor were existences capable of influencing an entire world. If there truly was someone called the Lava Emperor, he should not have left behind only a fragment of his heart inside a fish."

"Maybe it was never originally inside the fish," Ethan said slowly. "Perhaps the fish swallowed it, or this thing deliberately chose to attach itself to the fish."

He activated the Eye of Truth. The structural lines within the crystal fragment immediately became clear before him, followed by a flood of unfamiliar information entering his mind. Ethan saw a land filled with collapsing volcanoes.

He saw a giant clad in red-gold armor standing beneath a shattered sky, and above that giant was a figure so indistinct that even the Eye of Truth could not make out its face. Even so, Ethan could still sense the aura coming from that figure. It felt very similar to the Primordial Armor, ancient, heavy, and carrying a pressure that forced all surrounding energy to retreat on its own.

The final information appeared before him.

[Lava Emperor: Retainer of the Primordial God.]

[After the Primordial God fell, the Lava Emperor was besieged and killed by multiple gods. Because he possessed the ability Ember Rebirth, his true body could not be completely destroyed. His heart was divided into multiple fragments and sealed within areas rich in fire-element energy.]

[The Lava Sea is one of those sealed locations.]

Ethan opened his eyes, his gaze resting on the crystal fragment in his palm. Laira and Ruo Yan both noticed the change in his expression, so neither interrupted him. After a while, Ethan told them what the Eye of Truth had just revealed. Ruo Yan remained silent for a long time after hearing it, then slowly looked across the Lava Sea.

The blazing red surface stretched all the way to the horizon, while lava pillars, purple forests, and strange creatures were all immersed in the same scorching light. If the Lava Emperor truly still had some remaining will, then trying to sense fragments of his own heart in a place filled with fire-element energy like this would be nearly impossible.

"Fire-element energy is everywhere." Ruo Yan analyzed in a low voice. "The heart fragments were broken into smaller pieces and hidden among countless creatures and lava, like dropping a single drop of water into the ocean. Even if the Lava Emperor’s will has not completely disappeared, he would not be able to distinguish which fire-element energy belongs to him and which energy originally belongs to the Lava Sea."

Laira looked at the heart fragment for several more seconds before saying, "Then we just catch every fish here."

Hearing such a natural suggestion, the corner of Ethan’s mouth curved slightly upward. Laira’s method was so simple that it sounded almost ridiculous, but in the current situation, it was not necessarily wrong. The heart fragments might be hidden inside the creatures here, while he had Decomposition and the Eye of Truth to distinguish the rewards. If the Lava Emperor truly had some connection to the Primordial God, then it was also very likely connected to the Primordial Armor on his arm.

"Keep fishing," Ethan said. "But we need to go deeper."

Ruo Yan immediately looked toward the Undead Mage standing behind her. The moment the puppet heard the words "go deeper," it very slowly turned its head, the blue flame in its eyes trembling once. Laira also looked at it, then toward the Lava Sea with a thoughtful expression. The fish they had caught so far had mostly been active near the upper layers, while both the octopus and the mutated fish had come from deeper below.