Chapter 2880: Chapter 2880: Boiling

When the three-eyed boy left them be, Elvinia turned to Zen with a grim expression.

A thought struck her about the man's real identity.

Some moments earlier, in the face of death, Dorothy had called out Zen's name, which was bewildering.

When appearing on the Other Shore with his physical body, Zen assumed a different name, changing his voice along with it. This made it impossible for anyone to recognize him.

But after hearing how Dorothy called after him, Elvinia noticed something — studying 'Thad' in front of her, she couldn't help but compare him to Zen's image in her mind. Their silhouettes seemed to be almost identical.

While she now bore many great doubts in her mind, she didn't feel it right to voice them out just yet.

Standing at the door, she asked, “Now what do we do?”

Zen merely shrugged and pointed inside. “What else is there to do? We just have to do as he ordered.”

“But Dorothy…” As she spoke, Elvinia raised her hand.

As Zen realized that Elvinia was about to activate her space ring, something in his expression changed.

He couldn't tell if the three-eyed boy was still hiding in the darkness around him. It would be bad for them if Elvinia exposed what she had in her space ring.

“What did Dorothy say to you?” Zen asked abruptly, cutting off her attempt to reveal the candles.

She frowned but understood that he meant to keep the candles concealed. Well aware that she wasn't a good liar, Elvinia just pouted and said stiffly, “Nothing.”

“Let's go inside and have a look,” Zen said before entering the hut.

It was much wider than the other two below. The shelves on either side were filled with colorful Burning Crystals, while several narrow vessels of various lengths were placed on the shelves that faced the door.

Behind the vessels were a few white, cotton threads, used as candle wicks.

Seeing all the mundane resources in the hut, Elvinia felt the onset of a headache.

Did she really need to do such menial work as candle-making?

In the Phoenix Palace, it was common to see Glint Pearls as large as a house. The ingenious craftsmen would carve the pearls into various shapes, dotting the palace corners.

There, candles, used only by mortals, were such a rare matter.

“Are we really going to make candles for him?” Elvinia asked, sounding reluctant.

“If you don't want to die, you'd better just do what he said,” Zen replied.

She blinked in confusion. “But the candle he lit can light up the surrounding space in the Dark Region. If we manage to make some, won't we be able to run away with them?” ȒâＮọβĘs̩

The third hut was separated from the road by pure darkness. Without the help of candlelight, they had no way of escaping it.

Zen found Elvinia's naive assumption rather amusing. He pointed to the door and said, “Why go through so much trouble? There's a candle right there. You can try it yourself.”

And so Elvinia did as he suggested.

Leaping to grab the candle that sat on the door, she tried to pull it out.

But the moment she reached for it, the candle turned into a phantom.

Elvinia could still see the light and feel the heat emanating from it, but she couldn't touch it at all.

“Even a fool would know we will try escaping with the candles. The three-eyed boy isn't stupid enough to leave us here without making sure we couldn't leave on our own,” he explained with a shrug. “I'm afraid that even if we succeed in making a good number of candles, we won't be able to light them up.”

He had pinned his hopes on the candles that he had obtained from the bottom of the Sea of Truth. But before he could figure out how to light them up and where to escape, he first had to make the boy's candles.

Although he wasn't completely sure of the exact candle-making process, he knew he could figure it out using the materials in the hut.

The mortals in his inner world had tried every means possible to obtain fire since the very beginning of their civilization.

The first candles they created were made of animal fat and beeswax.

But there were no such materials in the hut. Zen knew from both No. 9527 and the three-eyed boy that there, Burning Crystals were the main candle-making ingredient.

He figured the first step to their task was melting and boiling the crystals.

With that point in mind, he walked up to the shelves and grabbed several Burning Crystals with both hands and turned to a corner of the hut.

There was a large pot in the corner, right beside a box of green powder.

What was interesting was that Zen could sense Other Shore Power in neither the pot nor the powder.

Everything on the Other Shore supposedly contained a certain amount of Other Shore Power, including every grain of sand on the ground. Since matters within the hut did not contain such power, Zen figured they were collected from the Dark Region. As he examined the substances, Zen grew more interested in the Dark Region.

Zen threw all the crystals into the pot with a loud, clanging sound.

Then, he picked up the box to pour some green powder evenly over the crystals. “It's your turn now,” he said to Elvinia.

“What should I do?” She asked, confused.

“The three-eyed boy left you here because you can use soul fire. He might've already tried to kill you, otherwise,” Zen explained. “The crystals need to be melted and boiled by your soul fire — that is your role here.”

Silently, she nodded and got to work.

With a flick of her right hand, a golden whip rolled out from her sleeve.

The golden whip was created by her divine flames. Under her control, it turned into a light-yellow flame that burned under the large pot.

From the side, Zen observed the process. The Burning Crystals didn't show signs of melting anytime soon, but when the green powder was heated, it integrated quickly into the Burning Crystals. Zen's brows shot up — he thought it would take more time for the crystals to start melting.

While he was deep in thought, Elvinia suddenly broke the silence. “My soul fire is not very powerful.”

The sudden shift in topic was unexpected, but Zen smiled and said, “Well, your soul fire is powerful enough on the Other Shore. Even Efrain's soul fire is far less powerful than yours.”

“I know someone with flames much more powerful than mine. If she employs her preternatural fire on the Other Shore, I bet it would have power much greater than the divine flames of the Sun Crow race,” Elvinia explained calmly.

“Really? Is there someone in the Source World with flames more powerful than yours?” Zen was doubtful about it — the divine flame of the Sun Crow race was the most powerful flame he had ever witnessed in the entire Source World.

“Of course, there is,” Elvinia laughed. “My disciple's preternatural fire is both unique and miraculous. When my mother activated it with her secret skill, the fire nearly burned up the entire Phoenix Palace. It's incredibly powerful. My disciple suffered from her own fire's counterattack and almost...”

As Zen listened to Elvinia's words, he stared intently at the Burning Crystals in the pot. They gradually showed signs of melting.

But his brow shot up at the mention of Elvinia's disciple.

'Elvinia is still so young herself.

When on earth did she accept a disciple?' he wondered to himself.

But on second thought, he recalled once hearing Laquisha, Lavender, and Nelly addressing her as 'Little Master' during his visit to the Phoenix Palace.

'A disciple who possesses powerful flame… isn't she talking about Laquisha?' he was taken aback by the sudden revelation.