Chapter 45: Chapter 45: Flame Giant Shadow and Relic
Lu Yu tore off large pieces of vine, waving them to block the molten lava falling towards him.
The flying speed of the lava wasn’t fast, but the temperature was very high, and it was very troublesome once it adhered to the body. Fortunately, these vines growing in the valley could withstand high temperatures, enough to resist the scorching of the lava.
After the rain of lava arrows finished falling, clusters of molten lava could be seen everywhere on the mountain wall, and one had to be cautious of the lava dripping from above from time to time.
Whizz~ A red beam swept across the mountain wall, slicing a Martial Cultivator who couldn’t dodge in time into two, dropping into the valley, where he was incinerated to ashes by the flames spewed by numerous fire spirits.
Cold sweat dripped from the corner of Lu Yu’s eye; the red flame beam had swept past not far from him. Had it been any closer, he’d have met the same fate.
He discarded the vine in his hand used to fend off the lava, and using the Eight Steps Cicada Leap, he jumped more than ten meters up before the momentum ceased. He embedded his hands into the mountain wall to steady himself, then continued jumping upwards.
After several consecutive jumps, Lu Yu successfully climbed out of the valley. No sooner had he emerged than he felt a shockwave rushing towards him, prompting him to quickly lie flat on the ground.
A few unlucky individuals had just climbed up from the valley only to be knocked back down by the shockwave.
Lu Yu looked up and saw the advancing fire spirits battling several Martial Cultivators. The cultivators held egg-like objects, constantly hurling them at the advancing fire spirits.
When the egg-shaped items hit the advancing fire spirits, they burst into ice fog, weakening the large fireballs around the spirits.
The large fireball appeared much dimmer than before, when seen in the magma lake. The fire spirits inside also became visible, roughly the size of four or five-year-old children, much larger than the ordinary fire spirits, though not completely advanced.
The child-like fire spirits Lu Yu had seen at the foot of the mountain were about the size of eleven or twelve-year-olds, towering significantly over the still-advancing fire spirits.
"Oya Oya~" The fire spirits flew up from the valley, densely packed, covering the sky, sweeping towards the fleeing crowd like a flaming curtain.
Lu Yu chose a direction where rocks protruded from the ground to escape, looking at the towering wall of flame behind him, making him feel as if trapped in a toxic circle.
The others had also escaped from the valley, and the group battling the advancing fire spirits had already ended their fight. One person hurled a yellow talisman towards the advancing fire spirit, which transformed into a bright light, entering the spirit’s body.
The advancing fire spirit tried to struggle and resist the yellow talisman entering its body, but it was futile. Ultimately, the yellow talisman vanished, and the advancing fire spirit ceased its attack, quietly floating in place, revealing its true form.
It was in the form of a little boy fire spirit.
When the flaming curtain swept past some individuals beside the little boy fire spirit, a faint circle of light blocked all the flames, protecting them from harm.
"Boss Yue, this Control God Talisman is really useful, how about you give me a few as well." The Swordmaster in green examined the controlled little boy.
The Boss Yue, carrying a wooden box engraved with strange patterns, replied, "A Control God Talisman costs 50,000 gold, do you want one?"
The Swordmaster in green looked a bit embarrassed, "Forget it, I can’t afford that as a poor person."
The big guy in blue wielding a club said, "Let’s go! The fire spirits have all left, let’s quickly finish the task and exit the secret realm. Otherwise, if the Fire Spirit King emerges, we won’t be able to handle it."
"Yes, let’s go." Boss Yue controlled the little boy and walked in the opposite direction from the crowd.
Several people were engulfed by the fire spirits flying around, leaving them out of sight of the others. Upon seeing them buried by the fire spirits, the others cursed them in relief, as it was those few individuals who caused the fire spirits to emerge from the magma so quickly.
Lu Yu had a considerable number of spirit fruits on him, so many fire spirits chased after him.
The loss of spirit fruits to humans was a loss to the fire spirits, but also an opportunity. Usually, they did not dare to pick ripe spirit fruits, but during the pursuit of humans, if they seized the spirit fruits back, the fire spirits would swallow them without hesitation.
No fire spirit would choose to forgo a chance to advance; an internal battle might even break out among them.
"Woo woo~" Flocks of fire spirits spewed flames, merging into a broad area, making it challenging for Lu Yu to escape their attack range even using Eight Steps Cicada Leap repeatedly.
His back feeling slightly cool, Lu Yu realized his clothes had been burned away.
"Hahaha~" Ouyang Lie’s laughter rang out, "Your butt is showing!"
Lu Yu furrowed his brow, seeing Ouyang Lie, then relaxed his brows immediately, "You’re not much better off! Did you crawl into charcoal? Your whole body is black except for your teeth."
"What do you know! This way, no one will know I’m streaking," Ouyang Lie boasted with pride.
Lu Yu carefully examined him, surprisingly realizing he truly was streaking...
Suddenly, Lu Yu noticed a figure walking calmly among the crowd, "Why aren’t his clothes burned away?"
"That’s spiritual armor, rich guy. When we’re out, I’ll buy a set too," Ouyang Lie said enviously, admiring the wealthy.
The man in blue had robes emitting a faint spiritual glow, making it impossible for flames to approach him, only occasionally striking at several fire spirits that charged at him.
The blue-clothed man’s sword was covered in frost, severely disrupting the spiritual flow within the fire spirits, breaking them apart with three strikes, leaving behind spirit crystals.
Lu Yu observed his attacking method and was filled with envy. With ice counteracting fire, when ice overpowers fire, it can extinguish the flames. The man’s attack could preserve the spiritual qi within the fire spirits’ spirit crystals to the greatest extent.
This method of counteracting to handle fire spirits was far more effective than Lu Yu forcibly swallowing the fire spirits with cultivation techniques.
For ordinary people dealing with these energy-based monsters known as fire spirits, there are no more than three methods. The first is the most thankless, which is to exhaust the spiritual qi of the monsters, leaving you with nothing in the end, usually appearing when the strength of the martial cultivator and the monster is similar.
The second is to find the core of the monster and destroy it, which can result in some rewards.
The third is to attack the monster with spiritual qi of a restraining attribute, causing its internal spiritual qi to be disrupted, dispersing the energy form, and obtaining the complete core directly.
When Lu Yu and the others were fleeing, the man in blue could walk leisurely among the swarm of fire babies because, on one hand, he wore a powerful spiritual armor impervious to flames, and on the other hand, he hadn’t picked any spirit fruits, so basically no fire babies chased him.
Looking at the fire babies flying wildly behind, Lu Yu bitterly asked, "How did you escape the fire babies’ pursuit earlier? Even if we run to the foot of the mountain, it won’t work!"
"I only sneaked a little before, so not so many fire babies chased me," Ouyang Lie said. "If it really doesn’t work, just leave the secret realm; they can’t chase us outside."
Lu Yu was helpless; he hadn’t gotten a single fire crystal stone. If he left the secret realm, the trial would surely fail.
"No more talking, let’s split up and run. The more fire spirits there are, the more powerful their attacks. My spiritual qi is seriously drained, and I can’t hold on."
After saying this, Ouyang Lie changed direction and separated from Lu Yu, with a part of the fire babies chasing after him.
Lu Yu felt the burning sensation from the spirit fruit he was carrying was weakening, and soon the fire poison inside the spirit fruit would dissipate completely, allowing him to store the spirit fruit in his backpack.
As long as the spirit fruit was stored in the backpack and the fire babies could no longer sense its aura, Lu Yu could shake them off,
Poof~ A fire baby suddenly emerged from a crack ahead, blocking the way. Lu Yu glanced around, finding only the direction of the fire baby had raised volcanic rock, while other directions were filled with uncertain molten marsh.
Blood Burning Secret Technique! Fierce Tiger Descending the Mountain! Sky Collapse! Three strikes.
Upon activating the Blood Burning Secret Technique, the qi blood within Lu Yu’s body reversed its flow, and a loud bang sounded in his mind, turning the world before his eyes blood red. The fire baby ahead became an intensely hot, blinding flame in his eyes.
Lu Yu’s entire body muscles slightly swelled, with his height increasing by twenty centimeters, dragging a red streak behind him as he moved rapidly—that was the qi blood overflow escaping the body...
Boom~ The Overlord Saber took Lu Yu leaping over twenty meters, slamming hard into the ground, causing the fire baby blocking him to disappear instantly, leaving behind a brightly colored fire crystal stone.
The surrounding molten was blown out to form a vacuum zone by the impact. Lu Yu picked up the fire crystal stone, stored the Overlord Saber, and used Eight Steps to Catch Cicadas, leaping over twenty meters to dodge the fire shot down by the fire babies behind.
After killing the fire baby and dodging the attack, Lu Yu immediately stopped the Blood Burning Secret Technique. In just a few seconds, more than half of his qi blood had been consumed.
The Blood Burning Secret Technique wasn’t active for long, so the repercussions weren’t severe, only causing a slight stagnation in qi blood flow due to a small portion of qi blood not yet restored to the correct flow.
The stagnation didn’t affect Lu Yu’s actions, only preventing him from using skills in the short term. Once his qi blood returned to normal, the cooldown time for his abilities would be over.
Fortunately, there were no dead ends along the way, which was also related to Lu Yu discovering that raised rocks were generally safe zones.
Good luck reached its end when a fifty to sixty meters wide molten river appeared in front of Lu Yu, with no stones to leverage.
Moreover, upon sensing the aura of the spirit fruit, the fire babies within the molten river all flew out, blocking Lu Yu’s path, forming a pincer attack with the swarm of fire babies chasing him.
The situation was extremely critical.
Lu Yu took out a spirit fruit without fire poison from his backpack, preparing to eat it. After eating it, the Ice and Fire Sevenfold Heaven technique’s circulation speed could be greatly accelerated in a short time, enhancing Lu Yu’s resistance to fire attacks.
Having already absorbed the flame-formed fire spirit, he could naturally resist fire attacks. After eating the spirit fruit and accelerating the Ice and Fire Sevenfold Heaven cultivation technique, his fire resistance would significantly increase.
Combining it with the Rejuvenation Pill to heal injuries, and withstanding the fire babies’ attacks, as long as he wasn’t insta-killed, there was a chance to break out of the encirclement.
"Activating the Blood Burning Secret Technique and using Eight Steps to Catch Cicadas, I only need two steps to cross this molten river," Lu Yu quickly calculated after being surrounded.
Just as Lu Yu was about to purchase a Rejuvenation Pill from the system store, the screeching fire babies suddenly dispersed, and those blocking his way dived into the molten river.
Boom~ A loud noise erupted from the direction of the valley, with large amounts of molten spewing skyward like an inverted molten waterfall.
"What’s happening?" Lu Yu looked towards the valley in shock.
Four streaks of light soared from the valley, one as dazzling as the noonday sun, resembling a small sun flying in the sky.
Immediately after, Lu Yu saw a colossal flaming figure rise from the valley. But when it reached the valley’s top, the valley’s edge lit in golden light, and a golden barrier forced the flaming figure back into the valley.
"Re...trieve...the...sacred...artifact..."
The voice resonated through the entire secret realm, appearing at the volcano’s mouth a figure enveloped in flames with over a dozen child-like fire spirits behind her.
The Fire Spirit King and mature fire spirits.
After the colossal flaming figure vanished, the entire volcano trembled, rumbling and spewing black smoke, with countless fires soaring skyward.
Black smoke spread from the volcano’s mouth in all directions, and fire meteors began to fall from the black smoke.