Chapter 37: Regrets and Questions

The crimson earth trembled beneath their feet.

Li An declared with solemn determination, "I'm heading straight to the third tier for Blackfire Ore. Coming with me?"

Frostsnow turned abruptly, her silver hair swirling like moonlit frost. "Wait... something's calling me." Her glacial eyes narrowed toward the horizon.

"Calling?" Li An's brow furrowed.

"From there." Her pale finger pierced the sulfurous haze.

"Let's check it out then."

Without hesitation, Li An surged forward. Prisonfire Star's crimson plains stretched endlessly before them - a planetary crucible where survival depended solely on one's physical endurance and meager energy reserves. No provisions allowed, only cultivation resources and a single storage ring for ore.

As his boots sank into molten gravel, realization struck: this was no trial, but a baptism by fire. An ocean of magma stretched beyond vision's edge, each step draining precious vitality. His breathing quickened.

"Forward. Just keep moving."

The pair broke into a synchronized sprint, leaving first-tier's mild heat far behind. High above, Whale Year shook his head at the youth's brashness from his aerial observation platform.

Three days later...

Li An collapsed onto the scorched earth, drenched in sweat that evaporated before hitting the ground. "Haven't... even reached... second tier?" His hoarse voice cracked. "Did we... go wrong?"

Beside him, Frostsnow stood composed, her boundless energy reserves barely tapped.

In the floating command center, a bear-like man in tank top and flip-flops exhaled cigarette smoke. Liu Xiuyuan's gravelly voice rumbled: "See? The gap's obvious now."

Whale Year's holographic form shimmered. "Why did he refuse the Starfire Domain back then?"

"He wouldn't abandon his grandfather." Liu flicked ash. "Said the old man wouldn't survive among domain elites."

"But we'd have protected—"

"Trust issues." Liu's calloused fingers crushed the cigarette. "That twelve-year-old looked me dead in the eye and said 'I want both - grandpa's dignity AND my future.' You ever seen a kid with that kind of steel?"

"Regrets?"

"Who knows?"

Two more days of torture brought Li An to second tier's threshold. Crossing the invisible boundary, volcanic fury assaulted his senses. Heatwaves warped reality itself as he knelt, channeling water energy through parched veins.

"Not enough..." Liu watched the struggling figure through monitors. "Compensating with tactics instead of raw power? Tragic. That boy was born to command battlefronts, not grub in dirt."

Below, Li An's cracked lips found unexpected sustenance - gnawing on Blackfire Ore like some primordial beast. The observers stared dumbfounded as he casually consumed mineral and soil.

"Goddamn survival instinct..." Liu muttered, equal parts horrified and impressed.

Five days later, twenty-eight ore fragments clinked in Li An's storage ring. His shadow stretched long across third tier's threshold, where even the air shimmered with blue flames. Without pause, he stepped into the inferno.

Frostsnow's voice carried from ahead: "The call grows stronger. I must..."

"Go." Li An nodded, fingers already glowing with extraction energy. "I've got my war to fight here."

As crystalline shards flew into his ring, the watchers above leaned forward. Against all logic, the stubborn flame still burned.