Chapter 177: The final attempt

Ethan had exactly one activation attempt left for the Main Furnace.

He stood before the newly revealed fire-patterned path without any intention of starting immediately. The red-gold fire vein was buried beneath a thick layer of flooring, while the gray source channel was still connected to all three circulation rings.

If they simply opened the clean channel and poured fire into it, the two streams would collide inside the core area, and the result could be even worse than the previous two attempts.

He needed to separate the gray channel from the Main Furnace, restore the red-gold channel to its proper position, then allow the fire source beneath the ground to rise.

All three things had to happen almost simultaneously.

After hearing his explanation, Ruo Yan looked toward the Bone Dragon resting in the plaza.

“It only has enough fire left to ignite the furnace once for a short period. If the source below doesn’t rise on its own, I won’t be able to use it to compensate again.”

“That’s enough.”

Ethan pointed toward the junction in the core area.

“I need you to keep the flame stable until this section opens. After that, pull the Bone Dragon out immediately. Let the underground source handle the rest.”

“What about me?” Laira asked.

“Hold the two pressure doors and don’t let anyone open the auxiliary valves.”

Ethan glanced toward the nonhumans.

“If someone insists on helping, you can invite them to stand a little farther away.”

Laira gripped the Boundless Fishing Rod, smiling happily.

“Does my invitation need to be polite?”

“As long as they still have enough strength left to walk through their own challenge afterward.”

Mumu received a different task.

It had to maintain a barrier around the core area and support Ruo Yan when she pulled her Soul Threads away from the suction flow.

As it listened, Mumu slowly expanded, forming two layers of gel around the junction on the ground.

After working with the Main Furnace twice, its golden color had still not fully recovered.

Ethan placed several crystals it could absorb in front of it.

Mumu immediately hugged the entire pile.

Only then did Ethan say, “Use as many as you need, but don’t eat them all before the furnace starts.”

Mumu froze, then pushed one crystal forward as though declaring that it understood the meaning of moderation.

Ethan looked at the crystal and decided to trust it for the time being.

He and Ruo Yan began preparing the pressure locks inside the workshop.

Ethan used Decomposition to separate the damaged metal into usable materials, while Ruo Yan threaded Soul Threads through the narrow gaps and placed the new locks into their proper positions.

Along the red-gold source channel, Ethan did not attempt to destroy the protective structure of the ruins.

He only removed the repair layers that had been installed over it.

Each time another section was removed, the Eye of Truth revealed a longer stretch of the fine fire patterns beneath.

The Fragment of the Lava Emperor’s Heart in his hand also responded, but only when he stood close to that path. The moment he crossed to the other side of the plaza, it fell silent again.

Naturally, the nonhumans did not remain idle.

After six hours of fleeing from the Volcanic Colossus, they had already lost too many people and too many resources to simply stand by and watch Ethan take the reward from the third layer.

The horned nonhuman gathered several of those who were still in decent condition around the auxiliary pipeline.

The silver-haired Dark Elf watched Ethan dismantling the pressure locks and spoke quietly.

“They’re preparing to use their final attempt. If we increase the pressure from the side branch at that moment, the furnace will force their team to fail. Afterward, once we’ve seen the entire channel system operating, we can use our remaining two attempts to find the answer.”

“Are you sure that won’t blow up the entire furnace?” the horned nonhuman asked.

“Not sure.”

The Dark Elf looked at the faded array crystals in his pouch.

“But if he succeeds first, there might not be anything left worth taking.”

The horned nonhuman fell silent for a moment before nodding.

The rules of the third layer did not prohibit combat.

What stopped them from attacking Ethan directly was the Bone Dragon, Laira, and their own current condition.

Breaking an auxiliary valve seemed far safer.

He did not realize that Laira had heard the last few sentences.

She stood on top of the tall furnace cover, her silver hair blown by the rising heat, watching the group fumble around the pipes with an expression like someone observing children trying to dismantle the leg of a table.

Ethan had already anticipated something like this.

He did not tell Laira to attack them immediately, because if the nonhumans panicked and activated all their remaining crystals at once, the pressure might erupt in an entirely different direction.

He only asked her to hold the valve shut when he began.

Laira looked slightly disappointed, but still nodded.

The Boundless Fishing Rod swept in a circle.

Its thin line wrapped around the metal handle at the end of the auxiliary pipe before disappearing beneath the ash.

The horned nonhuman standing nearby noticed nothing.

Once everything was ready, Ethan returned the heart fragment to his storage space so there would be no risk of accidentally using it as an energy source.

He needed its rhythm to identify the correct fire channel.

He did not want to throw an incompletely understood sealed fragment into the furnace.

Then he walked to the core area and placed both hands against the sections of material still holding the gray channel in place.

The Eye of Truth activated.

Overlapping structures appeared layer by layer.

He could decompose them extremely quickly, but if he did so before the clean fire rose, the pressure within the core area would collapse backward into the red-gold source channel.

So he had to wait.

“Begin,” Ethan said.

Ruo Yan controlled the Bone Dragon and made it breathe a thin stream of fire-element energy into the feeding port.

The first ring lit up.

Then the second.

Mumu spread gel over the dragon’s wing joint, while another portion of its body extended around Ethan and Ruo Yan like a soft shield.

Laira stood between the two pressure doors, one hand resting against a stone pillar while the other held the fishing rod.

The Main Furnace released a deep rumble.

Ash shook loose from every roof across Emberfall City, briefly covering the entire area in a hazy veil.

The horned nonhuman chose the exact moment the third ring began glowing to give the signal.

Two nonhumans pushed crystals into the auxiliary branch while the silver-haired Dark Elf opened the pressure lock.

The gray current immediately surged toward the Main Furnace.

But the valve handle only managed to turn halfway before Laira’s fishing line tightened.

She lightly tapped the stone pillar with the tip of her rod.

In the distance, the entire valve assembly was ripped out of the nonhumans’ hands and jammed between two rocks.

The horned nonhuman angrily tried to pull it back.

Laira merely lifted one finger, causing him to stumble forward along with it.

“If you want to open the valve, wait until I’m finished.”

She looked down from above, her voice still cheerful.

“I also want to see who it explodes on afterward.”

The horned nonhuman was about to curse back when the ground beneath his feet suddenly shook violently.

Although the valve had not been fully opened, the pressure he had already introduced was enough to send the gray current rushing toward the core area.

Ethan saw it crossing the junction before the red-gold source had risen.

He immediately activated Decomposition on the first layer of material.

The gray current struck the newly created gap and split into two branches.

But within a single breath, it found another route around the obstruction.

The Main Furnace shook violently.

The third circulation ring changed from red to gray.

“Pull the Bone Dragon out!” Ruo Yan shouted.

Her Soul Threads were stretched so tightly that blood had begun seeping from her fingertips.

“One more moment.”

Ethan stared at the source channel beneath his feet.

“It’s almost here.”

Ruo Yan gritted her teeth and maintained the flame.

The Bone Dragon roared, its old wing joint making another cracking sound.

Mumu immediately shifted its protective gel toward that side.

Its small body was stretched so thin that Ethan could clearly see the crystals dissolving inside it.

Laira sensed the rising pressure and abandoned the horned nonhuman, directly bracing both pressure doors and using her strength to keep the furnace body from shifting.

The stone beneath her feet cracked into a spiderweb pattern.

The red-gold fire patterns beneath the ground lit up.

Ethan saw the correct fire stream reach the core area, only to be blocked by a damaged mold segment.

It was the only part he had been unable to remove before the furnace activated because both source channels were relying on it for support.

The mold was deeply cracked.

If Ethan decomposed too much of it, the support beneath the clean source channel would collapse.

The Eye of Truth could show him the fracture and the path of the fire, but it did not hand him a ready-made repair solution.

‘If I remove the whole section, the clean channel collapses. If I leave it, the Bone Dragon gets drained dry.’

Ethan forced himself to remain calm and picked up the materials he had prepared in his other hand.

He examined the structure once more and finally realized he could preserve the mold’s outer frame, decompose only the core blocking the channel, then immediately fuse new material into place as the flame passed through.

The time between those two actions would be so short that if he hesitated for even a moment, the pressure would shatter the frame.

He moved.

The core of the mold separated into countless particles of light.

Almost simultaneously, the fire-element material in Ethan’s palm flowed into the empty space.

The red-gold current passed through the material before it had fully stabilized, forging it into a new channel on the spot.

Terrifying heat traveled up both of Ethan’s arms.

Mumu sensed it and hurriedly pulled another layer of gel over his hands, but Ethan still felt as though his flesh had been pressed against the mouth of a volcano.

“Now!” he shouted.

Ruo Yan immediately withdrew all of the Bone Dragon’s fire.

The dragon staggered backward, its wings slamming against the stone, but its core was no longer being drained.

At the same time, the underground fire source began pushing upward through the channel Ethan had just created.

The first circulation ring turned red-gold.

The second followed.

The remaining gray current tried to wrap around the third ring, but Laira rotated the entire pressure door and forced it back toward the half-open auxiliary branch.

The nonhumans felt the pipe beneath their feet heat up and immediately abandoned their crystals, scattering in every direction.

A plume of gray ash erupted from the exact spot where the horned nonhuman had been standing, coating both of his horns in a pale white layer.

Inside the core area, Ethan’s newly fused material began to crack.

The clean fire flowing through it was far stronger than he had estimated.

He still had Decomposition, but the energy inside his body had nearly bottomed out.

If he let go and allowed it to break, their final activation attempt would fail right in front of him.

Ethan summoned Realm Breaker and pressed the body of the gun against the material, using its evolved structure as a temporary support.

The Burning flame on the weapon lit up, then Ethan forced it backward into the channel, not to burn anything, but to keep the fire-element energy from spilling outward.

Ruo Yan turned back and immediately used her Soul Threads to brace the mold frame.

Mumu poured the last of its support energy into Ethan.

Laira held the furnace door steady while leaning aside to avoid a chunk of stone falling from above.

Then she slammed it back into place with her shoulder as though she were fixing a crooked chair.

The entire Main Furnace shook one final time.

The third ring fully lit up.

A bell rang throughout the city.

This time, the sound was longer and clearer than the previous two.

The fire-patterned locks covering the gate behind the furnace fell away one after another.

Ethan removed his hand from the mold and took a step backward.

Mumu immediately collapsed flat against his shoulder.

Ruo Yan hurriedly checked the Bone Dragon’s core and found that although it was weak, it remained stable.

Laira looked at the three circulation rings now rotating smoothly, then at Realm Breaker in Ethan’s hand.

“Did we clear it?” she asked.

The notification appeared before Ethan could answer.

[Purefire Main Furnace successfully restored.]

[Ethan Ashford’s team has completed the third challenge round.]

Ethan looked toward the opening gate, then at the nonhumans covered in ash on the other side of the plaza.

Before the horned nonhuman even had time to wipe his face, he heard Laira laughing.

“Were you just trying to help us blow away the ash?”

He opened his mouth, coughed violently for several moments, then finally managed to curse:

“Fuck, you can clear it like that too?”