She had been attacked by the lava spider immediately upon entering the cave. Although she was safe and sound thanks to her armor and Ai Hui’s assistance, she felt extreme angst for having landed herself in such a sorry state.
The continuous high-intensity battles in the city had enhanced her combat experience so significantly that she felt she was becoming a veteran fighter.
Yet, before she could feel proud about this, reality hit her right in the face.
Ai Hui, who entered the cave at the same time, clearly performed better.
The exploding lava collided incessantly with her dancing Cirrus, but did not raise any waves. The shockingly heavy Cirrus produced astonishingly dreadful power when spinning at a high speed. It stirred up a storm and overturned the soil in the cave. Its low whistle caused the whole cave to tremble.
It was like a humpback whale swimming in deep space. Nothing could obstruct its path and each time it moved, its body carried enormous weight.
Naturally, such mighty power came with a high consumption rate. Shi Xueman’s elemental energy was declining at an alarming speed.
The lava spider was stunned by Shi Xueman’s might, its face revealing fear. It shot lava frantically while retreating slowly, ready to escape.
Why would Shi Xueman let it go though?
She charged forward at an even higher speed now, the white circular wheel disappearing. She took a stride and before her shadow on the ground vanished, her delicate figure appeared in midair. With both hands, she held Cirrus in a tight grip, its height surpassing her head. She exhaled deeply, the brightness in her eyes lit up as she targeted the lava spider on the ground before crushing it ruthlessly with Cirrus.
Buzz!
The heavy hum was like the sound of an ancient giant swinging and striking with a hefty hammer. The airflow it created made people tremble.
Fear was evident in the lava spider’s eyes as it suddenly screeched.
Its shriek made Ai Hui feel like an awl had been drilled into his brain. There was a sharp pain in his head and a lifeless look on his face. He recovered very quickly, but his face changed drastically.
A psychic attack!
It was his first time experiencing this.
He had heard from seniors in the Wilderness hunting teams that some powerful dire beasts could attack this way. He could still remember the dread in their eyes as they talked about it. Ordinary elemental energy attacks, no matter how powerful, would have a form and a quality. The most dangerous part of a psychic attack was that it was incorporeal and could hit someone even without their awareness.
Plus, why would a lava spider be able to do this? While these spiders were powerful, they most definitely did not possess such an ability.
The moment Shi Xueman was struck mentally, Cirrus released a ball of gentle white light that wrapped itself around her.
Shi Xueman appeared to be completely unaffected as Cirrus smashed firmly onto the spider’s back like a sledgehammer.
Boom!
The whole cave shook. The lava spider was like a wooden stake, pounded directly into the ground.
Ai Hui’s heart chilled. He knew how much that strike hurt the lava spider just as an observer. Searching his memories carefully, he was convinced that he had not done anything that truly offended this Iron Lady.
Shi Xueman’s residual anger made her lift Cirrus yet again, as if it was a club or sledgehammer.
Boom, boom, boom. One powerful strike came after another, as if she was chopping firewood.
Ai Hui bore witness to this act of violence as the ground started to sink in from her strikes. He could not resist scanning through all the memories and details in his brain again.
Yeah, no problem. There was no serious feud between the Iron Lady and himself.
He sighed a breath of relief and actually had lingering fear despite feeling as if he had been reborn.
Within the figure cloaked in that exquisite armor hid a terrifying prehistoric dire beast.
Shi Xueman only stopped to catch her breath after over 10 consecutive smashes. The lava spider had long been etched into the granite rocks, which were as tough as steel.
It must be painful!
Ai Hui moved closer to look at the meter long lava spider embedded in the ground. Its black, steel-like carapace was filled with web-like cracks. It was beautifully violent. Ai Hui asked with much sympathy and pity, "Is it dead?"
"Look and you’ll know," Shi Xueman said mildly, her slender fingers brushing aside the hair that fell in front of her face. Her movements were gentle, the earlier wildness absent.
Cirrus’s spearhead pierced through the lava spider effortlessly.
Shi Xueman lifted Cirrus up as if nothing had happened. "Dead."
He really had not offended her right…?
Ai Hui could not help but to ask himself once again: Why did he feel so uneasy?
"Do not break the blood crystal." He decided to remind Shi Xueman anyway.
"Find it yourself." Shi Xueman held onto Cirrus as she walked to the side and sat down.
As her anger dissipated, Shi Xueman, who had recovered her peace, finally felt the post-traumatic stress.
She glanced at Cirrus. If Cirrus had not blocked the lava spider’s psychic attack, she would have been dead by now. The lava spider was right in front of her, so Ai Hui, who was behind her, would have been unable to save her at all.
"Shi Xueman is so capable!" Lou Lan appeared, cheering loudly.
"Lou Lan, clean this area up quickly," Ai Hui shouted as he stood beside the lava spider. Ever since he realized that Lou Lan’s butchering skills exceeded his, he had decided to leave it all to him.
"Coming!"
Lou Lan was always so happy.
When it came to sweeping up the battleground, Ai Hui believed that even with 10 of him , he would not match up to one Lou Lan. Not long ago, he was still convinced that he was the veteran in this aspect.
Luckily, the blood crystal was not broken and its quality was pretty good.
Sadly, the spider’s carapace was crushed by Shi Xueman. Lou Lan’s processing standards had improved, and he completely peeled the shell off the spider’s abdomen. Lou Lan said that there were no internal organs in its abdomen. Instead the abdomen stored lava and, hence, was best suited for fire elementalists to make a lava pouch out of it. It was commonly known as a "spider pouch."
It might not look big, but its storage was much greater than the large fire tank Fatty carried around. Post blood-refinement, its quality became even more outstanding, far exceeding that of ordinary spider pouches.
Fire elementalists’ lava was more potent than natural lava, so the requirements for its container were higher. The better the receptacle, the more potent the fire elementalists’ lava could be.
Fatty’s luck was not bad. Ai Hui felt happy for him.
Not only would color-faded blood beasts become more powerful, their blood crystals would be worth much more and their bodies would strengthen significantly. Ai Hui guessed that these were the result of the blood spiritual force’s tempering and strengthening processes. More often than not, the more outstanding ingredients came from elemental energy tempering.
With regard to tempering, ancient blood-refinement had an obvious advantage.
Even flying swords would not be able to take down refined vampires and drought demons.
Blood beasts displayed the same traits. Their bodies were enhanced after undergoing blood-refinement. This wasn’t as apparent for blood elementalists, but Ai Hui had only seen one blood elementalist after all. One thousand yuan’s demonic temperament made it hard for people to associate her with toughness like copper skin and iron bones.
That floating red skirt, eerie smile, and beautiful silhouette flashed across Ai Hui’s mind, bringing a chill down his spine.
After cleaning up, everyone forged ahead. Shi Xueman had also recovered her strength by now.
With the appearance of the lava spider, Ai Hui and Shi Xueman became more cautious.
Thinking back, the lava spider was really sly. Right from the start, it had planned to lure them into the fire coral-filled cave and detonate the coral.
It did not expect to meet a freak like Ai Hui, who would take advantage of it like that.
Then, it met the crazy Shi Xueman and deliberately allowed her to get close so it could execute its killer psychic attack.
Sadly, the lava spider was just unlucky. Its psychic attack was ineffective against Cirrus, so it got killed instead.
If there had been any complications with these two circumstances, however, both of them would have been in danger today.
No one could guarantee that their luck would be this good next time.
Ai Hui remained vigilant, but they never met another lava spider along the way. Nonetheless, there were many blood-refined fire corals everywhere. Ai Hui felt it was weird that there were so many fire corals around. Plus, their growth rate should not be this fast?
Ai Hui stopped in his tracks. "Could there be a lava river below?"
Lou Lan crooked his head while thinking. "Very possible. Fire corals and lava spiders are organisms that live in the lava zone. It is highly likely that there is a lava river beneath."
Ai Hui continued, asking, "Will there be other organisms in the lava river?"
Shi Xueman quickly caught onto Ai Hui’s train of thought. While underground, the lava river offered light and heat, so it was just like any water river or lake above ground and would be a place where subterranean organisms gathered.
No matter how powerful, there would not be only one organism monopolizing any lava river.
"There must be." Lou Lan nodded.
"Lou Lan, take note of the concentration of fire elemental energy in the nearby region. We might be able to locate the general position of the lava river. When nailing the gold needles, we must guard against fire elemental dire beasts. Oh, and blood beasts," Ai Hui muttered.
"Okay." Lou Lan nodded.
"Which way should we go now?" Ai Hui questioned.
Lou Lan pointed at a rock wall. "This way. The place to nail the golden needle is 400 meters down. I suggest we open up a passage directly. To go through the cave passage would be a long way, and it might lead to the lava river. It would be safer for us to carve a straightforward opening."
"Open up a passage directly?" Ai Hui was stunned. He examined the solid granite rocks. It was easy for him to break one piece, but to dig a 400 meter long passage was simply too much work considering that it had to be rather wide to fit the volume of the golden needle.
"Indeed. Leave it to me." Lou Lan took up the task spontaneously.
Ai Hui’s eyes lit up. What he deemed challenging was a piece of cake for Lou Lan. Lou Lan was a sand puppet. Controlling earth elemental energy was his inherent ability.
Ai Hui felt great pride.
Is there anything in this world that my all-purpose Lou Lan can’t do?