Volume Two: The Mortal Realm, Chapter 107: Fire on Snow

"A little monster?"

Ye Mingke was somewhat surprised by the old beggar's words. Judging by the reactions of the old beggar and Liu Xi, it seemed they had an old acquaintance in the Dragon Ridge—a place where, as far as he knew, no humans lived and where fierce beasts and monsters roamed. Moreover, this acquaintance should be around his own age.

Over the past few days of travel, Ye Mingke had learned that the reason the vast Dragon Ridge was devoid of human presence was largely because it was simply not suitable for mortals to survive. Anyone living here could not be an ordinary person.

"Is he a martial arts master like you, Senior?" Ye Mingke could not help but ask.

"A martial arts master?"

Hearing the question, the old beggar and Liu Xi exchanged a glance, and as if sharing a silent thought, they both burst into laughter.

"That little monster is indeed quite 'high' in form, but unfortunately, it's not his hands that are high," the old beggar said with a mischievous smile.

"High in form?" Ye Mingke could not fathom what that meant. If he wasn't a master, how could he survive in the Dragon Ridge? Furthermore, the old beggar's expression—happy as if he were about to see a son, yet with a hint of roguishness—was baffling. It was as if they were going to see a foolish child.

By now, the sky had turned completely dark. Beneath the heavy snow clouds, the mountain ridges were devoid of stars or moon. Only because the old beggar, Ye Mingke, and the others possessed cultivation could they travel on such a snowy night. The mountains were deathly silent; not even the chirping of birds or insects could be heard. The surrounding darkness was thick and viscous. Even with Ye Mingke’s spiritual eyes, the monotonous journey through such an environment felt suffocating.

Just as Ye Mingke’s focus began to drift, a thunderous roar suddenly erupted from the wilderness ahead. It shook him so violently that he staggered, looking up in shock.

In the distance, the pitch-black night sky was suddenly illuminated by a dazzling flare of fire, resembling a phoenix spreading its wings in a sea of flames, shielding half the night sky. However, the brilliant light faded after only a few moments.

Spots of light from the blinding flash still lingered on the membrane of Ye Mingke's eyes.

"What was that? A high-level fire cultivator?" Ye Mingke asked, looking at the darkness that had reclaimed the scene, feeling a mix of shock and uncertainty. "Should we avoid it?"

"It's nothing. It looks scary, but in reality, it couldn't even kill a novice cultivator. It’s of no real use," the old beggar said, looking at the vanished fire without the same surprise as Ye Mingke. Instead, he seemed dismissive, though his words carried a faint trace of concern. "That little madman, tinkering with his contraptions in the middle of the night on the snowy mountain—isn't he afraid of being buried by an avalanche?"

"Brother Ergou has done quite well for himself to have come this far as a mortal," Liu Xi said, her gentle eyes also fixed on the wilderness as she explained for the 'little madman' mentioned by the old beggar. "He probably sets off those blasts at night to use the chaotic fire-elemental fluctuations to scare away the monsters in the mountains."

"Hmph, if that little monster keeps playing like that, one of these years we might return to find he's played himself to death. The fact that he’s still setting off cannons means he’s still alive this year, which is something, I suppose," the old beggar grumbled, though the joy of their impending reunion was still evident in his tone.

"Is the little monster you're talking about a fire-breathing dragon?" Aru, who had also been startled by the sudden explosion and fire, asked curiously, looking ahead.

Ye Mingke also looked at the old beggar and Liu Xi with a questioning gaze.

"That's about right. That little monster loves playing with fire more than anything," the old beggar said with a hint of mockery. "But how should I describe him? A monster? A fool? A madman? A blind man? A megalomaniac? A weakling?"

"He is a genius, and a good person," Liu Xi corrected with a soft smile.

"Enough, let's keep moving. It's not far now. You'll know what kind of person he is when you see him," the old beggar added, then casually tacked on, "Yezi, remember to follow behind us."

The old beggar and Liu Xi quickened their pace. Driven by curiosity, Ye Mingke followed suit.

But he had only taken a few steps when he felt something beneath his foot. As he moved, his senses detected the object under his boot spring to life. It was a round bead, like a stone, and in his perception, it seemed harmless—yet his intuition screamed a frantic warning.

He swept the bead away with his foot, dove to the side, and unleashed a cyan aura from his body, enveloping both himself and Aru.

*BOOM!*

A thunderous explosion erupted in mid-air as the bead detonated, unleashing a surge of fire.

"What kind of spell is this?" Ye Mingke, who had rolled to safety, narrowly avoided the blast, his aura blocking the stray sparks. He felt the fire-elemental energy in the air surging violently, turning the surroundings into a sea of crimson.

Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, he felt a movement beneath his foot again—the same sensation as the previous trap. It seemed these 'spells' triggered the moment weight was lifted.

"Careful, don't move! There's an ambush all around!" Ye Mingke shouted, his voice steady despite the cold sweat trickling down his back.

"What is this?" The old beggar and Liu Xi flashed over, shielding Ye Mingke from the lingering shockwaves. They looked into the surrounding darkness with a mix of surprise and faint apprehension.

Ye Mingke noticed that unlike a cultivator's spell, where the gathering and release of spiritual energy took time, the energy of this 'spell' appeared instantaneously and dissipated just as quickly. In the blink of an eye, the crimson night began to return to its original calm.

Still, Ye Mingke did not relax. He was still standing on one, and he didn't know how many more were buried in the dark.

"Don't move," he said, closing his eyes and pushing his spiritual perception to its limit, covering a radius of twenty yards. Anything with spiritual energy could not escape his sight. Now that he had been caught off guard once, these objects were laid bare to him.

His spiritual perception fed him a massive amount of information, and his heart sank. These inconspicuous but lethal objects were buried in every direction. Wait, they were behind him too. Why hadn't they stepped on them while walking earlier?

He scanned the area again and realized that the traps were laid out to leave a path—one that roughly overlapped with the route the old beggar and Liu Xi had taken. He had only triggered the trap because he had wandered off their path.

"Is this some new weapon that little monster has been tinkering with?" The old beggar stared blankly at the trees charred by the explosion. "I used to mock him, saying he couldn't hit a practitioner with that gunpowder. Is he trying to slap my face with this?"

The old beggar had only been startled at first, but he calmed down quickly. After all, the 'spell' couldn't even catch Ye Mingke, so it posed no threat to him, especially now that he was prepared. He didn't seem nervous at all; instead, he seemed annoyed, his mind drifting elsewhere.

He turned to Ye Mingke, who was still tense, and snapped, "This forest is filled with traps laid by that little monster. Didn't I tell you to follow behind us?"

"???"

Ye Mingke, still standing on a landmine, was filled with confusion. It was only thanks to his remarkable memory that he recalled the old beggar’s casual remark about following behind them. But with such terrifying traps, couldn't the man have been more explicit?

Ye Mingke rolled his eyes and sighed. "Senior, when there are traps this dangerous, couldn't you have given me a proper warning? You said it so casually, how was I to know you were being serious?"

"I wasn't really being serious. I've never liked that he refuses to learn martial arts from me and insists on playing with these strange, flashy tricks," the old beggar said with a childish pout and a shrug. "Before, this forest only had bows and pits, maybe a fire arrow or two. How was I to know that in the year I've been away, that little monster would invent all these bizarre weapons?"

He looked at Ye Mingke and asked with mock concern, "Why are you still squatting there? Are you relieving yourself or do you have a stomach ache?"

"Could you stop being so relaxed?" Ye Mingke retorted, his legs cramping. "I told you I'm still standing on one of these things. It'll blow up the moment I lift my foot."

He hadn't understood the mechanism before, so he had instinctively kicked it away. But now, realizing it was a pressure-sensitive trigger, he shuddered to think what would have happened if he had been slower.

"Move aside. I'll handle the bead," the old beggar said nonchalantly.

Ye Mingke felt the old beggar's *qi* extend toward him. He trusted the old man's strength, so he patted Aru’s hand to reassure her—the girl hadn't even cried, perhaps stunned into silence by the blast.

Ye Mingke leaped several yards to where the old beggar and Liu Xi stood. The moment he jumped, the inconspicuous, soul-snatching bead leaped high into the air once more.