Beneath the head, there was only a skeleton, still preserved despite the scorch of the magma.
The large monster approached, staring at the young man, and punched him hard.
The young man tilted his head, a piece of skin from his face fell, turning to ash in the magma, yet he still wore a smile.
"You didn't expect this, did you? This time, the one who came is someone completely Devilic, yet still in control of himself, and he's a body cultivator who has mastered Gui Water Qi.
The minions you created are no match for him.
The young man burst into laughter, provoking the monster to throw more punches at him.
As the monster pounded on him, the volcano's inner wall slowly thickened, and the slightly widened volcano mouth also gradually shrank.
The young man looked up and, glancing at the monster, his gaze turned disdainful.
"Let me remind you, it's not you trapping me, but I who have trapped you. Go ahead, make your move. If I vanish completely, you'll be thoroughly buried.
Forget it, for a monster born of a curse, if you had any smarts, you wouldn't have fallen into my trap."
The young man closed his eyes, ignoring the monster.
The monster was filled with rage, unable to vent it. It wanted to lash out at the young man again but feared the shrinking of the volcano mouth until it was completely buried.
Finally, the monster could only randomly grab some small creatures bathing in the magma, crushing them one by one to vent its anger.
On the other side, Yu Ziqing returned to the second layer of the inner mausoleum.
He glanced at Ao Qing, sprawling on the ground with limbs outstretched.
"What are you... doing?"
Ao Qing got up calmly, first sizing up Yu Ziqing and, upon discovering Yu Ziqing was uninjured, let out a sigh of relief.
"Can you tell me what you saw on the lower layer?"
Yu Ziqing narrated the events, and Ao Qing breathed a sigh of relief.
"Don't worry, that monster won't get out anytime soon. He's trapped by the twenty-year-old me, and that volcano is what's trapping him.
But it also trapped the twenty-year-old me; unless we deal with that monster, rescuing my twenty-year-old self is impossible."
Having said this, seeing Yu Ziqing's appearance, Ao Qing spoke earnestly again.
"You don't need to go back. My twenty-year-old self is ready to bury it all."
"No rush, I think it's worth a try. The creatures look like devils but aren't. Killing their minions isn't hard, the bigger monster is a bit tricky. I'll try first, and if it doesn't work, I won't overestimate myself."
Yu Ziqing had prepared to leave. Upon learning the volcano wasn't the monster's lair but its trap, he had some ideas.
The cores within those small creatures, forming gems after forced cooling, contained strong power.
They perfectly matched another Body Refining Technique Yu Ziqing had prepared.
Earth Fire Yang Escape.
This was a body refining technique corresponding to the Golden Water Yin Escape, passed down from ancient times. Its original creator was unknown but widely circulated.
A technique with both low minimum and high potential.
The power contained within those gems particularly resonated with Yu Ziqing, making him feel it was worth a try.
If possible, even if unable to rescue the twenty-year-old Ao Qing, he would at least gain something else.
Yang shuttled inside the Evil Dragon, searching continuously.
After months, he finally followed some cracks corroded by death qi to find what he was looking for.
The Evil Dragon was dead, but by devouring blood food, it could kindle the last spark of life, so part of its flesh was incomplete.
Finding the heart, it was completely tainted by death qi and was the most concentrated area.
Yang looked for less concentrated death qi and finally found a section of still vibrantly alive liver inside the Evil Dragon.
There, life force stoutly resisted death qi, and any penetrating death qi was counteracted by that portion of the not-yet-dead liver.
Yang did not touch the liver but found an intact inner skin nearby.
He spat out a sharp stone blade from the Jade Tomb, stood upright, clamped it with his hoof, and carefully sliced the inner skin.
The stone blade, infused with death energy, matched the death qi here, slowly etching away the inner skin, sectioning it off.
Soon, a human-sized piece of inner skin was peeled off, and as the surrounding death qi tried to erode it, Yang quickly moved near the lively part of the liver.
The surrounding vitality kept all the death qi at bay.
Yang looked at this piece of inner skin and let out a sigh.
He stayed there, taking out substantial materials, and taking advantage of the life's vitality, incessantly inscribed rune after rune into the inner skin.
Strange runes were written on one side, while the other side was entirely covered in dragon patterns.
As time passed, the thin piece of inner skin slowly transformed into a piece of dragon skin, its dragon patterns resembling dragon scales.
Yang's eyes turned into human eyes, gravely observing the dragon skin, and murmured to himself.
"I really have been swayed by Ziqing, growing bolder and bolder..."