Chapter 402 – Rock, Scissors, Paper
Edited by: Shiroyukineko
TLCed by: Shiroyukineko
The Purgatory Flame King was incensed as he reached out his giant hands to drag Hui Tai Lang into the lava lake.
Any beast with a physical body would not be able to fight in a geographical location like the Fire Palace.
More often than not, in a beast fight, location and timing played a bigger role in turning the tables around than skills. For example, even though a Gold-ranked Level 10 Golden Mammoth might be invincible during battle, it would still die instantly if it were to fall down from a height of a few thousand metres. Or taking for example the powerful Purgatory Flame King, if it were to fall into the ocean, it would die before it could even fight and turn into a pile of broken stones… To defeat the Ghost Army that was immune to all attacks, shining them with a ray of sunshine would do.
Cases like these were countless.
Of course, Hui Tai Lang wasn’t willing to bathe in the lava lake.
As Hui Tai Lang flapped its fire wings to resist being pulled by the Purgatory Flame King, it used its newly obtained Origin Fire Scythe to slash the Purgatory Flame King’s head repeatedly.
Sparks and broken stones flew everywhere. A Gold-ranked equipment’s strength was nothing towards the Purgatory Flame King’s body that was made of stone. The strength of Hui Tai Lang’s flapping definitely paled in comparison with the arm strength of the Purgatory Flame King’s giant arms.
After struggling for a few minutes, Hui Tai Lang was dragged into the lava lake. It struggled with its claws with all of its might, but to no avail.
Yue Yang watched in silence but did not attempt to stop all this.
Few of those Flame Demon Commanders and Fire Monsters that came from far away to help knew how to battle in a long distance fight. Spewing lava and fireballs, the Fire Monsters aimed them towards Yue Yang, but of course all these were meaningless. Although Yue Yang was constrained by the restrictions, he still possessed his skills and strength. He could even ignore all these painless attacks.
When Yue Yang was in mid air, he could dodge all the lava and fireballs just by shifting his body slightly.
When the Spirit of Flame and Smoke saw Hui Tai Lang being dragged into the lava lake, she was angered. She unleashed a world-shaking violent tornado, almost lifting the Purgatory Flame King’s body into mid air.
The Purgatory Flame King held onto the fiery red giant reef along the edge of the lava lake embarrassingly, trying to get hold of himself amidst the violent tornado.
If not for it weighing a few hundred tonnes, it would have been sucked in by the violent tornado.
Large amounts of lava were sucked up into the sky by the violent tornado and splashed all around, causing a rain of lava.
The Flame Demons that were too close and weren’t quick enough to escape were immediately sucked up into the sky, their bodies dismantled and broken apart in the centre of the tornado that was like a spiral-shaped whirl of sharp blades, causing them to suffer a horrible death.
There was a large red rock in the distance.
There was a fire ball covered in lava climbing onto it, and like a dog that had fallen into the water, it was desperately shaking its body.
After a long while, the lava dripped off and Hui Tai Lang was revealed underneath… The lava lake wasn’t able to kill Hui Tai Lang who possessed an undying body, but it still made Hui Tai Lang suffer as it kept sneezing. The Purgatory Flame King charged towards Hui Tai Lang, reaching his giant hands out to it as he prepared to drag it into the lava lake again. But using the same trick on Hui Tai Lang twice proved to be ineffective. Hui Tai Lang had already morphed into the form of fire hence the Purgatory Flame King weren’t able to seize Hui Tai Lang at all. His fingers had passed through Hui Tai Lang… Hui Tai Lang in the fire form exclaimed proudly. “Meow~!”
The meaning of its exclamation was, “Unimpressive, this trick is outdated already.”
Unfortunately even a cat wouldn’t be able to understand what it said.
Waving a strong punch, the Purgatory Flame King smashed the rock under Hui Tai Lang’s feet into pieces, but Hui Tai Lang in fire form was still floating in mid air, unharmed.
Its long firetail, curled with its Origin Fire Scythe rained blows on the Purgatory Flame King with a tingling sound. These resulted in a few faint scratches onto solid rock, but towards the Purgatory Flame King, it was nothing and weren’t able to injure him.
The situation went on with Hui Tai Lang unable to do anything with the Purgatory Flame King and vice versa.
They came to a stalemate temporarily.
Hui Tai Lang gained the upper hand slightly because it still had chances of defeating the Purgatory Flame King, as long as it found a viable way. But the Purgatory Flame King definitely wouldn’t be able to defeat Hui Tai Lang in fire form.
On the other hand, the Spirit of Flame and Smoke bullied the Red Spirit Fire Demoness who was of a higher level terribly.
The injured Red Spirit Fire Demoness hid in the lava lake, but the Spirit of Flame and Smoke had the power to enter the lava lake. She had always liked to live in volcanoes. Both fought a tough battle, and although the Red Spirit Fire Demoness was of a higher level than the Spirit of Flame and Smoke, her attack towards the Spirit of Flame and Smoke was useless. On the contrary, both the Nirvana Flame and Electricity of the Spirit of Flame and Smoke could injure the Red Spirit Fire Demoness, especially the Nirvana Flame that caused the Red Spirit Fire Demoness to be scared witless.
Both chased each other around and in a blink of the eye, they went out of the central region.
On seeing that Yue Yang did not stop her, the Spirit of Flame and Smoke went after the Red Spirit Fire Demoness immediately, and swore to devour her Fire Ability completely.
The Purgatory Flame King got beaten up horribly by Hui Tai Lang. Whenever the opportunity comes, Hui Tai Lang would fly into the sky and morph into a meteorite to crash onto the Purgatory Flame King, causing the strongest Guardian of the Fire Palace much headache. Finally, the Purgatory Flame King decided to hide into the lava lake to avoid Hui Tai Lang temporarily.
Although this would tarnish the grace of his royalty, it was better than to be beaten up by his opponent for nothing.
On seeing the Purgatory Flame King’s withdrawal, Hui Tai Lang was furious.
If he couldn’t win the fight, then he should have just conceded defeat and give up his treasures willingly. Why is he being such an ostrich now?
Hui Tai Lang was really incensed this time!
On seeing that the Flame Demon Commanders and Fire Demons standing around, watching blindly, Hui Tai Lang turned to kill all of these insignificant creatures. Although Hui Tai Lang couldn’t kill the big one, it would definitely be able kill the smaller ones. Except for the Flame Demon Commanders, the rest were killed instantly by Hui Tai Lang.
All the Flame Demons and Fire Monsters dispersed and almost all fire type Beasts went to hide at the bottom of the lava lake, and no matter how Hui Tai Lang killed their comrades, they wouldn’t come out.
Hui Tai Lang raised its head and howled into the air, feeling gloomy.
Although it wasn’t afraid of the heat of the lava lake, Hui Tai Lang wouldn’t be able to catch its opponent if it were to dive in.
The power of the Fire Monsters might be weak, but in the lava lake, they were even more agile than fishes and prawns. Hui Tai Lang chased around for a long while but to no avail.
“Ha! Idiot!” On seeing it, Yue Yang burst out laughing, but he did not advise Hui Tai Lang on any way to continue the fight as he wanted Hui Tai Lang to think about it on its own.
“Awoooo…” On realising that its master wasn’t willing to help, Hui Tai Lang turned his eyes, and grew a pair of fire wings to besiege and attack the injured Red Spirit Fire Demoness. Sure enough, it was the best way. On seeing Hui Tai Lang’s arrival, the Red Spirit Fire Demoness grew even more panicky as she ran mindlessly. If she were to return back to where the Purgatory Flame King was, she could make use of his immense size as a cover up, and hopefully she would be able to continue the fight.
This decision made the start of the tragedy of the Red Spirit Fire Demoness.
Her power was way weaker than Hui Tai Lang, and was slower in terms of speed. Her intelligence differed from Hui Tai Lang even greater. The only strength she had was the ability to hide in the lava lake to recuperate.
But this strength was rendered useless by the presence of the Spirit of Flame and Smoke.
In the lava lake, the Spirit of Flame and Smoke was even stronger than the Red Spirit Fire Demoness, she could even absorb all of the pure Fire Ability in her body directly.
Within a minute after the battle started, the Red Spirit Fire Demoness was hit by Hui Tai Lang. While she was dizzy from the strike, Hui Tai Lang threw her onto the stone wall directly, causing her body to cave into the wall. The Spirit of Flame and Smoke charged forth immediately, absorbing all her pure Fire Ability crazily. The Red Spirit Fire Demoness wanted to struggle, but due to Hui Tai Lang who was pressing her down with all its strength like the accomplice of a rapist, this caused the Spirit of Flame and Smoke with ‘animal instincts’ to take everything away from her… In the end, even her Fire Crystals were sucked out, and was immediately refined by the Nirvana Flame.
After absorbing the Fire Ability and devouring the Fire Crystal, a golden light shimmered off the body of Spirit of Flame and Smoke.
Raging flames rose to the sky.
Thick smoke rose to the sky as if there was a volcanic eruption, and smoke started to fill up the entire Fire Palace.
Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed amidst the thick smoke, giving off a blinding brightness amidst all the noises.
After absorbing the energy in the body of the Red Spirit Fire Demoness, the Spirit of Flame and Smoke started to evolve and morphed into a new form… Her new form was even closer to human form as her ten fingers were distinct, and toes grew out from her feet. Although it was not yet near to being perfect as they would disappear sometimes, at least she developed new features. It could be said that it was like a rebirth, because regardless of her physique or internal body, several human-like features had developed. Of course, these features were formed by fire energy, they were only similar to a human in terms of appearance.
The fire crystal of the Red Spirit Fire Demoness was refined and became a heart gradually.
It differed greatly from a human’s heart as it was a ball of flame that was beating with temperature close to a thousand degrees!
Yue Yang’s Grimoire appeared and flipped pages automatically. Now the Spirit of Flame and Smoke had switched occupation, but did not level up. She had evolved to become the ‘Spirit of Earth Fire’.
“Looks like this is just the beginning of her evolution.” Yue Yang remembered that she was a Spirit of Fire and Mist initially, then she became the Spirit of Flame and Smoke, and then now after absorbing the core fire energy, she became the Spirit of Earth Fire. Could it be that she’d become the Spirit of Heaven Fire in the future? Or even Spirit of Nirvana Flames?
Her future evolution would be unpredictable, but Yue Yang was anticipating the future evolved Spirit of Earth Fire.
In short, evolution was definitely a good thing.
No matter which direction the beast was growing towards, as long as it was able to evolve, it’d be good!
Now, her thick smoke had turned into beautiful, shiny black hair while her raging flames had become her body. The tornado had become her mount and electricity was her weapon. With these changes, it would mark the beginning of the suffering of the Purgatory Flame King. However, the Spirit of Earth Fire was still far from being in human form. Her black hair wasn’t very visible and her tornado wasn’t similar to a mount, it was actually spiral-shaped. Her electricity did not have a fixed shape and was merely flickering randomly on her arms. But even so, Yue Yang was still delighted.
Any evolutions would pale in comparison to the growth of intelligence… Although the Spirit of Earth Fire lacked intelligence and self control, she had already started to develop a consciousness.
As long as she continued to evolve, she would definitely follow the footsteps of the Bloody Queen and the Golden Crown Thorny Flower Queen and become a Holy Beast. At least she was moving in the direction of becoming human-like now.
The Purgatory Flame King could only barely defend against her previously, but after her evolution to become the Spirit of Earth Fire, the Purgatory Flame King quickly escaped when she plunged into the lava lake.
Facing the Spirit of Earth Fire that could take in Fire Ability directly in the lava lake, the Purgatory Flame King realised that he wasn’t the master of fire anymore. Majority of the fire in the lava lake was controlled by the Spirit of Earth Fire, if he didn’t hide, he would solidify at the bottom of the lava lake due to loss of body temperature.
And in the end, his Fire Ability would be sucked dry and the Purgatory Flame King’s energy would wither and die.
“Boom, boom!” The Purgatory Flame King moved ferociously on the surface of the lava lake as he waved his arms vigorously in an attempt to swim away.
“Meow!” Hui Tai Lang was pleased. Serves you right!
Hui Tai Lang reminded the Purgatory Flame King not to forget about it.
Facing attacks from both the Spirit of Earth Fire and Hui Tai Lang, the clumsy Purgatory Flame King lost his favourable geographical location. Even if he could still persevere now, he would definitely face a tragic end. Yue Yang didn’t have to continue watching because he know what the outcome would be. The only question now was whether Hui Tai Lang could devour the Purgatory Flame King’s Fire Crystal in its skull before the Spirit of Earth Fire did.
With the cunning Hui Tai Lang and the Spirit of Earth Fire’s lack of intelligence, Hui Tai Lang would most probably succeed.
But if it were to be the Bloody Queen or the Golden Crown Thorny Flower Queen, Hui Tai Lang would definitely fail. Even if it was the Barbarian Cow Shadow, Hui Tai Lang’s chances would be slim. The loyal Barbarian Cow Shadow would probably snatch it away and give it to her master… Okay, it’s fine for Hui Tai Lang to bully the Spirit of Earth Fire and the Reaper Mantis, at least for now.
After absorbing the Purgatory Fire Crystals, Yue Yang believed that it would increase Hui Tai Lang’s combat power.
Yue Yang did not count on its combat power to boost rapidly, but it would be nice if it could help Hui Tai Lang to level up its Bronze Grimoire by a few levels. After all, one has to take things slowly.
After finding the Fire Palace Teleportation Circle, Yue Yang left the hot Fire Palace and went for the last Palace among the Five Elements Palace.
The Sand Palace.
After teleporting, even before he reach the ground, Yue Yang realised that there was a huge crowd below him.
A huge crowd of people was cowering on top of the Herculean Rhinoceros Beetle’s back as thousands of hyenas and desert spiders surrounded them. The most ridiculous thing that Yue Yang saw was that a Platinum-ranked Level 10 ‘King of Earth’ that was over 50 metres tall was actually rocking it enormous stony head and huge arms, playing a wagering game with a scrawny-looking human.
That human that looked scrawny in comparison to the King of Earth was none other than Ye Kong.
“If you lose, ten of these men will be mine. After giving me ten men, we can bet again. If you win, I’ll return you 20, if you lose again, you will give me ten men again. Don’t hesitate, a real man is never indecisive! Ten of you come down now, if you can’t, I will take you all down personally and if i were to break your bones in the process, don’t complain that I’m too rough!” This ‘King of Earth’ was astute, needless to say, he was definitely a Holy Beast. Although he was only higher than the Purgatory Flame King by three levels, his real power might be superior to him by a hundred times.
Forget about him being a superior being in the Sand Palace, even outside of this place, the combined power of Ye Kong, Fatty Hai, Li brothers, Xue Tan Lang, Prince Tian Luo and the rest of the adventurers might not even be enough to defeat him.
The King of Earth had a skill, as long as his feet remained on the ground, the ground would give him limitless energy.
In other words, his energy would never run out.
It was just like the Thorny Flower’s ‘Take Root’, but his skill was even more direct and convenient than that.
Together with the enormous size of the King of Earth’s body, with a height of over 50 metres and weighing over a few hundred tonnes, forget about its strong combat power, even if he were to only roll around on the ground, he would be able to crush alot of people…
And if he were to really fight, Ye Kong would be a dead meat even if he had a hundred lives.
Even if Ye Kong had the Herculean Rhinoceros Beetle, he wouldn’t be able to defend against a few punches from the King of Earth.
After Ye Kong betted for a long while, with the bettings mixed with wins and losses, Ye Kong and the King of Earth came to a draw. But his luck ran out as before Yue Yang arrived, Ye Kong had already lost ten rounds consecutively. On top of losing the Desert Spiders that he won previously, he also lost 60 men to the King of Earth.
Why would the King of Earth gamble with Ye Kong?
This made Yue Yang puzzled.
Could it be that he had stayed in the Sand Palace for too long that he got too bored?
“Rock, paper, scissors! Yay, I’m rock and you are scissors, you lost again, hahaha, give me ten men.” When Yue Yang saw the King of Earth playing ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ with Ye Kong, Yue Yang almost fell from the sky.
“Idiot!!“ Yue Yang dived down in a flash and sent Ye Kong, who was wearing a sorrowful expression, flying into the sky with a mighty kick. “Hey! I love playing the Rock, Paper, Scissors game! Let me bet with you!“ Yue Yang said as he lifted his sleeves.