Yes, the temperature of molten lava was so high that everything it flowed over would be burned away, and once the lava cooled, it would harden into volcanic rock, covering over the original ground.

Every trace of the past would be buried forever!

If Lishang’s secret was a totem’s secret, it would surely be destroyed!

And if it was a sound of nature, there’d be no hope of finding it at all — sounds of nature were mostly tied to terrain, and once the volcano erupted, the entire landscape of this small fire mountain would change completely!

When Jun Beiyue said this, everyone fell silent.

In truth, Situ Haonan and Yelu Qianqian’s presence here was merely coincidental — their real purpose in coming to the fire mountain was to find Lishang’s secret!

Now everything had come to nothing. Disappointment was secondary; the real problem was that without this piece of the secret, Lishang would remain incomplete, and they’d never be able to uncover the true secret at all!

This wasn’t simply a matter of wasted effort on the journey.

Everyone fell silent, everyone staring fixedly at the pale white expanse below. But gradually, unnoticed, the swirling mist began to clear, the white smoke slowly dispersing, and the entire fire mountain came steadily into clearer view.

Everyone’s attention was fixed on the crater, where molten lava and flames kept erupting, shooting up into the sky!

If not for the Four Great Poisonous Beasts, with so many people needing to flee, they might not have escaped at all.

Just as everyone stared at the crater in silent disappointment, Xiong Xiaobao suddenly cried out in surprise, “Mommy, look!”

Ziqing felt utterly drained. No matter how difficult or bitter the search, she’d always been willing to keep looking — but faced with something gone forever, her mind had simply gone blank.

She turned back and said flatly, “What is it?”

“Mommy, look at the trails the lava left!” Xiong Xiaobao said excitedly, shouting while calling for the Great Beast Zizhu to fly higher!

Jun Beiyue and the others turned their attention as well, all looking toward the entire fire mountain!

Though the crater’s pit ran deep, the fire mountain itself really wasn’t very tall!

Once the lava filled the crater, much of it had already flowed down the mountainside, leaving trails crisscrossing and dense when viewed from above — nothing particularly special about them.

But when the Great Beast Zizhu flew up a full three zhang higher, Baili Weisheng was the first to blurt out, “A totem!”

Heavens!

It really was a totem!

Although the lava trails flowing down the mountain were dense and numerous.

Looking down from high above, several of the trails were clearly distinct from the rest — not only much thicker than the others, but also not flowing straight down in a line, sweeping and curving and looping around instead!

Just like picking out a shape formed by thick lines hidden among a dense tangle of thin ones — it wasn’t obvious at first glance, but viewed from a distance, it became very easy to make out!

It was a totem, no mistake!

The very same male totem marked on Baili Weisheng’s face!

So the secret hidden in the fire mountain wasn’t a sound of nature after all, but a totem’s secret!

The lava, flowing down, would naturally follow the terrain — this totem must have been formed by the mountain being artificially carved beforehand, with the totem set into the mountainside, only revealed when the volcano erupted and the lava flowed out!

Ziqing thought that the Nanzhao musician back then must have encountered a volcanic eruption right here.

And the legend of the fire dragon associated with this fire mountain was probably because it was a volcano that erupted only once every few hundred years, which was why the legend had been passed down generation after generation.

For now, only the totem itself had appeared — no one yet knew what musical note it represented.

Everyone’s hearts were in their throats, eyes fixed unblinkingly on the scene below.

Earlier, they had desperately wished for the volcano to stop erupting as soon as possible; now, they worried it might stop too soon, before they could see anything at all!

But as it turned out, they ended up waiting a full two days.

Although some volcanic eruptions could last several days, with ash haze lingering for months afterward, even Ziqing, who knew full well that three days wasn’t unusual, began to feel something was off.

Two days passed, and the lava kept gushing out, filling up much of the mountain paths before overflowing in all directions. All the patterns became a tangled mess, and the original totem shape vanished entirely.

Now, everything below was in complete disarray!

Ziqing and Xiong Bao had stared almost without pause the entire time, refusing to look away unless absolutely necessary.

After all, once this totem’s secret was found, they could combine the two totems with the twelve musical notes to form one complete code!

Even with Lishang still missing one note, they could at least start having someone decipher the meaning of this one sentence of code!

Mother and son were genuinely on edge with anxiety.

By comparison, everyone else had relaxed, worn out from days of exhaustion and tension.

Though Jun Beiyue’s leg injury looked serious, thanks to the miracle doctor Jue Mingzi, nothing too dire had come of it — though, like Meng Duo’er, he’d need nearly a hundred days to fully recover.

After two full days, someone finally couldn’t hold back any longer. “I’m so hungry…”

They hadn’t eaten a thing since arriving at the fire mountain, and their dried rations had been lost somewhere during their flight.

All told, it had been three full days without food or water.

No sooner had those words left someone’s mouth than another stomach growled loudly, embarrassing everyone even further.

But just then, Xiong Xiaobao slowly turned his head, sweeping his gaze thoughtfully over everyone present, before suddenly shouting, “Ah… I forgot!”

“What is it?” Ziqing turned back at once, asking urgently.

Xiong Xiaobao immediately sat himself up properly, pulled out his Universe Poison Pouch from inside his robe, and began muttering to himself as his little hand reached inside to dig around!

Huh?

Everyone tensed, eyes lighting up with anticipation.

Soon, Xiong Xiaobao pulled out a large bag of braised duck legs. “There’s plenty of this, help yourselves.”

As he spoke, he kept rummaging some more, eventually pulling out a large bucket. “Clean water, guaranteed boiled!”

He kept digging around for more…

To a group who had just escaped a volcano, water was nothing short of sweet nectar, crystal clear, reflecting everyone’s faces.

To a group who had gone hungry for three days and nights, braised duck legs were an absolute feast, and everyone’s mouths watered at the sight.

Except!

For a group communicating entirely through ventriloquism, holding their breath in suspended animation, opening their mouths was simply out of the question!

Looking at the delicious food before them, everyone’s eyes had lit up with excitement a moment ago — now they could have strangled Xiong Xiaobao instead.

The air here wasn’t just filled with the poison gas Ziqing had mentioned, but also thick with volcanic ash. The moment anyone opened their mouth to breathe, they’d inhale it straight in.

No one was willing to risk that just for a meal.

Baili Weisheng and Madam Jinjiao were so hungry they looked ready to cry!

But just then, unnoticed by everyone, Meng Duo’er, who had been unusually quiet, sat with her eyes tightly shut and her hands clenched, seemingly straining with all her effort at something…