Everyone quickly boarded the flying vehicle, shooting into the sky, racing toward Flame Mountain.
Through the windows, the scenery below shifted from verdant forest to barren desert, then to scorched earth where not a blade of grass grew.
The closer they got to Flame Mountain, the hotter the air became.
“Boss, do you really think this Banana Leaf Fan is that amazing? Can it really put out the fire at Flame Mountain?” She was genuinely curious, ‘could a mere fan really extinguish this conceptual divine fire?’
Su Fu nodded and said, “All things are mutually reinforcing and restraining. This divine fire may be fierce, but it has its nemesis—and that’s this fan.”
“According to the Iron Fan Princess, the Banana Leaf Fan can not only put out the fire of Flame Mountain, but even sever the root of the fire forever.”
Mutual generation and mutual restraint—this is the core concept of the Chinese pantheon.
“Wow,” Yi Congling exclaimed, excited, “doesn’t that mean we might actually wreck this map?”
Su Fu smiled, “Yes.”
From what she gathered on the forum, once the core of an anomaly map is destroyed and its support is gone, the map will gradually collapse like a broken ecological chain—irreversible.
The core of Flame Mountain was obviously this never-dying, raging fire, from which sprang the Banana Leaf Fan, the Iron Fan Princess, and the Bull Demon King—anomalies all.
This way of dissolving a core existence was a common method for destroying high-level maps, called “core bombing.”
As maps became ever more complex and vast, direct physical destruction became more and more difficult—plus, this method was reckless and wasteful.
Su Fu gazed out the window at Flame Mountain, suddenly experiencing a peculiar feeling.
Once, the Great Sage used the Banana Leaf Fan to snuff out the mountain’s flames; now, she would retrace those same steps.
It was as if the gears of fate clicked into place at this moment.
She suddenly understood what was meant by fate—this was the fate of the Great Sage…
And she, walking behind.
***
Meanwhile, at the foot of Flame Mountain the raging flames roared and waves of heat rolled out.
A man in black stood atop a boulder, wearing a tall top hat and a sleek black suit, completely out of place in the scorching environment.
He looked up slightly, gazing at the sky-darkening flames, and sighed, “So this is Flame Mountain? It’s even more magnificent than I expected.”
His eyes were an unusual deep blue, his skin pale as paper, his facial features sharp and defined.
At that moment, a voice came to his ear: “Hopte, are you there yet? Don’t mess up this time.”
Hopte smiled at the words, “If it’s about taking you down, I never mess up.”
The other end: “…………Your offense stat is maxed, huh.”
“So, did you find out where they’re headed?” Hopte retorted.
There was a pause before the reply came: “They’re cautious—not a single clue left behind.”
“So that means you haven’t found out?” Hopte chuckled.
He slowly put on a pair of snowy white gloves, sliding each finger in one by one.
“But it doesn’t matter. This won’t affect the big picture. I’ll take care of them myself. Don’t forget your promise.”
The other end seemed confident, but still warned: “Don’t underestimate Su Fu—her mountain-collapse skill is truly formidable. If you get cocky, I’m not picking up your corpse.”
“Formidable?” Hopte couldn’t help but laugh, his grin exaggerated.
“My patron god is the creator Ymir. A little mountain-collapse—what’s that to me?”
He finished donning his gloves, then teased, “You should be the one having kids.”
The other end: “!!!”
With that, Hopte cut off the communicator by his ear and looked up at the black dot growing larger in the sky.
“Oh, they’ve arrived.” Hopte smiled in anticipation.
***
The flying vehicle slowly descended at the foot of Flame Mountain.
As soon as the hatch opened, a wave of scorching heat swept in.
“Hiss—” Theresa sucked in a sharp breath—no, a mouthful of hot air—”It’s as hot as ever! The environment here is absolutely miserable.”
The surrounding air shimmered from the heat, and distant sights blurred into vagueness.
The team disembarked; not a single blade of grass grew on the ground, just cracked earth and scattered rocks.
“It’s hell,” Yi Congling wiped the sweat from her brow, then guzzled sweet dew water, instantly refreshed!
“So, heh, let’s hurry and try the Banana Leaf Fan!”
But just as they’d taken a few steps, Su Fu suddenly stopped, holding out her arm to block her teammates.
It was unusually quiet; even the raging fire seemed to fall silent, leaving only the “crackle” of burning in their ears.
“Wait!” She lowered her voice, “Something’s wrong.”
Everyone instantly tensed, on guard.
“What is it, Boss?”
Before Su Fu could reply, the next second, the fire of Flame Mountain seemed to come alive.
Breaking free from the ground, it morphed into a giant serpent and charged straight at the group!
“Not good, it’s an ambush!”
The team quickly retreated, faces changing.
“Someone can control the fire of Flame Mountain?” Theresa immediately used Earth’s Grasp, summoning dozens of giant stone spikes to block the fire serpent’s path.
But sadly, it only held the fiery serpent for a moment before it devoured the earth spikes whole.
Her face darkened and she said, “It’s no use—it’s truly the fire of Flame Mountain!”
At the same time, Su Fu’s Six Ding Divine Fire rushed at the flaming serpent.
A golden-red dragon roared as it shot toward the crimson fire python and the two clashed fiercely in midair!
“BOOM!”
A deafening explosion rang out, and the shockwave whipped everyone’s robes into a frenzy.
Two ultimate fires tangled and tore at each other in the air, shrieking and spraying sparks—neither gaining the upper hand for a time.
The heat rolled in waves, distorting their vision, everything blurring.
Hopte stood at a distance.
When he saw the fire Su Fu unleashed, a flicker of surprise flashed in his eyes: “She can match the fire of Flame Mountain?”
“Impressive indeed.” He’d manipulated fire for years, but never encountered any as difficult to control as Flame Mountain’s.
It was wild and unruly, and each attempt at control cost him tremendous divine power.
But at the same time, it meant this fire was superb—of the highest quality, which was why it was so hard to tame.
‘Yet Su Fu’s fire could go toe-to-toe with it? Didn’t that mean—’
Before he could finish the thought, the situation flipped.
The fire serpent he’d sent out suddenly whipped back, reversing direction and lunging straight for him!
“What the—?!” Hopte’s face changed.
He saw that the two colliding fires had somehow fused into one—now a fire dragon ten times larger than before, its gaping maw surging at him.
“Damn it!”
Hopte was shaken, “She can control the fire of Flame Mountain too?!”
He cursed inwardly—’she’d hidden her hand well!’
Though the fire couldn’t actually harm him, the immense impact certainly wasn’t a joke.
Forced out of the flames, Hopte flickered and appeared before the team.
At that critical moment, a fierce wind suddenly arose.
A howling cold wind split the air, thundering like thousands of stampeding horses, making their eardrums ache.
He stared in shock at the scene before him: the air around Flame Mountain seemed to be sucked dry, forming a massive cyclone, all funneling toward the center.
Dust billowed, stones swirled, and even the burning flames of Flame Mountain weakened noticeably.
In the next instant, Su Fu gently waved her fan—
The wind, carrying the power to topple mountains, rushed straight at him!
Hopte was dumbfounded. “God! What kind of artifact is this?!”
As the whirlwind swept over him, Hopte’s face twisted.
He tried to control the flames again, but they were instantly extinguished!
Hopte: “???”
And that wasn’t the end.
That was just one swing of the fan.
Hopte looked up in shock to see Su Fu swinging the Banana Leaf Fan again—
‘No, again! And again! Faster and faster!’
Each wave stronger than the last, the wind howling, clouds rolling, and the temperature of the entire Flame Mountain visibly dropping.
For the first time, Hopte was dumbstruck and asked. “What’s your grudge against me?! Why are you fanning me so many times?”
His hat had long since blown away; even his clothes were barely holding up.
Hopte fumed, divine power bursting as he swore to at least save his clothes.
Increasing his divine power, he barely managed not to be blown away by the storm.
Behind Su Fu, Yi Congling was shocked and asked, “Did you see that? That guy in black!”
She pointed at Hopte in the distance, “This fan can blow out the flames of Flame Mountain—how come it can’t blow him away?”
The flames had already subsided by more than half; in some places, the fire was completely out.
But though the man in black looked a little disheveled, he still stood firm, showing no sign of being swept away.
Su Fu, too, was inwardly shocked, ‘What the…?’
“This Test Taker… is he really this tough? Even the Banana Leaf Fan can’t budge him?”
After forty-nine swings of the fan, the flames of Flame Mountain were finally extinguished, leaving only scattered sparks.
The residual wind still howled.
The flames that had burned for countless years on Flame Mountain were out, exposing its charred surface.
Smoke swirled like ink, billowing up to block what little light remained in the sky.
Su Fu was exhausted, gasping for breath, propping herself up with the Banana Leaf Fan.
Yet the man in black still stood there.
“No way,” she muttered in shock, “This guy is that strong?”
Behind him, the smoke rolled, and it seemed neither fire nor raging wind could shake him in the slightest.
Su Fu’s gaze changed at once—a formidable foe.
The Banana Leaf Fan alone might not be enough.
And there was something seriously wrong with him.
The fire of Flame Mountain was conceptual divine fire; the only thing that could put it out was a conceptual artifact.
For any examinee, this should be insurmountable, but this man in black had resisted it?
‘Could he have eaten something like a Stabilizing Wind Pill or the like?’
Su Fu’s heart was on high alert—’this black-clad man was clearly an enemy, and extremely powerful.’
Hopte felt his face had gone numb from all the fanning; only by using his divine power could he keep his footing.
He was shaken—no, not just shaken, terrified!
He’d never imagined someone could go so far as to fan him so many times just to deal with him.
With that kind of tenacity… she could succeed at anything, truly!
He eyed the Banana Leaf Fan in Su Fu’s hand warily.
‘What kind of artifact is that? It can even snuff out all the fire of Flame Mountain…’
To counter a conceptual fire like that would require a conceptual artifact—at minimum, A+++ rank.
But what stunned him the most was that he could feel there was no fire element left in Flame Mountain.
In other words, the map’s core was broken.
This woman, who’d fanned him dozens of times, had taken out the map’s core herself!
‘So… did she just get full marks at this stage?’
Hopte was frightened and thought, ‘In the Newborn Joint Entrance Exam, a Test Taker from the fourth ring just got a perfect score?’
He immediately grew cautious, his expression turning grave.
He understood now and muttered, “No wonder they sent me—she’s a real problem.”
Both sides stood facing off, neither making a move.
The wind wailed, now weak, now strong.
At that moment, Su Fu spoke: “Who are you?”
Hopte blinked, then raised his brows, his face showing utter disbelief.
Seriously?
Someone didn’t know who he was?
Hopte tidied his wind-tousled collar with self-importance and declared, “Hopte. From the Norse Pantheon, chosen of the creator god Ymir.”
At his words, Theresa’s expression changed sharply.
“Hopte? The Hopte with maxed-out Elemental Immunity? The one favored by Ymir, gifted with Primordial Resistance, possessing nearly perfect Elemental Immunity—Hopte?”
‘This was bad. Really bad!’