Casting one last look at Sofie, the disciple let out a gentle sigh before following the line of fire lizard following elder sun into the sunfire mountain range.

*****

Slowly waking up, Sofie tilted her head backwards looking tiredly up at the senior sister who made a splendid pillow in her eyes.

"Awake?" The senior sister said as she looked down at Sofie with a smile on her lips.

"Y-yes?" Not expecting the senior sister to ask her anything, Sofie answered with a slightly confused look on her face, still in a half-awake state.

Seeing the confused look on her face, the senior sister chuckled slightly while her right hand moved towards Sofie's head starting to pat it with all her might.

"W-where are we?" Waking up fully after the intense head patting session by the senior sister, Sofie finally looked at the surroundings and found out she was up in the mountain with fire burning the ground they walked on. More like the fire lizards walked on.

Sending a quick look towards the flames on the ground Sofie look confusedly towards her senior sister, waiting for her to answer the question on where she was. The fire constantly burning on the ground was quite intimidating for Sofie, making her prior confused look turn into one of fear.

The senior sister instantly felt her motherly instincts awaken, as she looked at the scared Sofie and quickly put on a comforting smile. "You don't need to worry the flames here are mostly harmless, as they are made up from lower level fire qi. The fire qi is not dangerous, but this is only true for lower level fire qi, higher level fire qi is dangerous!"

Hearing the explanation, Sofie was rea.s.sured, but the moment she heard about high level fire qi, she once again put on a cautious look, while closely observing the flames dancing along the ground.

"No need to worry about high level fire qi, it is extremely rare and only appears under certain conditions." The senior sister saw Sofie's cautious look and quickly explained how rare high-level fire qi was.

This seemed to convince Sofie, as she did not spot any differences between the flames on the ground.

Now fully awake, Sofie started to look around herself and finally saw the fire lizards in front and behind them going forward in a line. The fire lizards either had a disciple on them, or a disciple and a child from Sofie's village.

Amazed at the many fire lizards, Sofie could not help but admire the scorching sun sect for having so many of them. Maybe she herself would even get one in the future?

Lost in her own thoughts, Sofie did not notice the change in the environment, as the flames on the ground slowly disappeared and the rocky terrain changed into a lusher environment with red plants and gra.s.s replacing the flames on the ground.

"We are almost there now!" Hearing a voice ahead of her, Sofie woke up from her daydreams and looked at the man riding on a fire lizard in front of her.

Looking at the man, Sofie also managed to spot the red plants and gra.s.s on the ground.

Turning towards the senior sister behind her with a questioning look plastered onto her face, Sofie could almost not hold in her questions. Why did the flames suddenly disappear and replaced by gra.s.s and plants? Why was the gra.s.s and plants on the ground red?

Sofie had never seen something like it before in her entire life. All the plants and gra.s.s appeared suddenly, and they were all red for some reason.

The senior sister behind Sofie saw the questioningly look and immediately knew what Sofie wanted to ask, she herself had the same look on her face when she saw the flames being replaced with completely red plants and gra.s.s.

"You want to know about the red plants and gra.s.s?"

Hearing her question, Sofie nodded in response.

Seeing she was right; the senior sister proudly started her explanation. "The reason why both the gra.s.s and plants are so red is the fire qi coming from the mountain. The plants and gra.s.s all absorbed the fire qi coming up from the ground in order to survive. This in turn made them carry fire qi inside and at the same time made them more fire resistant. Another thing is that they can eve- "

"We are entering the fire caves!" Before the senior sister finished explaining, a loud yell came from up front. Sofie quickly identified the one who made the yell, as elder sun.

Not knowing what the fire caves was, Sofie turned to the senior sister behind her only to be met with a pair of serious eyes staring towards the front.

Having no idea what was happening, Sofie decided to just keep quiet and look towards the front like the senior sister, curious about what the fire cave was.

*****

After what felt like an eternity of waiting, Sofie finally managed to see the fire cave, that her senior sister mentioned.

Living up to its name fire cave, there was a giant towering mountain in front of them with a similarly giant hole in the middle of it. Fire was burning brightly inside of the hole in the mountain, likely what gave it the name fire cave.

Sofie tried asking the senior sister behind her a little more about the fire cave and found out the reason why it was dangerous. Demon beasts.

Demon beasts were animals that would attack anything and anyone entering their territory. Unlike the demon race, who were mostly like humans and were friendly with them on most occasions, the demon beasts were not. There were some demon beasts that could be tamed, like the fire lizards of the scorching sun sect.

The reason the fire cave was dangerous, was because of the demon beast inside the fire cave. They were known as fire bats and unlike the regular bats Sofie knew, these bats had a wingspan of around two meters and could control fire.

Even worse, they hated when others entered their territory.

Listening to what her senior sister said about the fire bats, Sofie felt herself starting to sweat at the thought of giant fire breathing bats.

"W-what do we do? Should we not turn around?" Sofie could not stop herself from asking, as she nervously looked at the senior sister.

"Haha, you don't need to worry so much. Most of the time the elder will deal with them and we won't even get a chance to see them. The worst thing that could happen would be the disciples needed to help fighting back the fire bats." The senior sister said with a teasing tone, as she looked at how nervous Sofie was, her face changing to a more cheerful look from her former serious att.i.tude.

Even with the senior sister teasing her, Sofie did not feel any safer at the thought of giant fire bats. The only security she felt was from the fire lizard she was sitting on.

With that, Sofie and the senior sister finally entered the fire cave together with the rest of the disciples.