Chapter 814: Land of Molten Rock

As the few puppets scattered and fled, Han Li and the two others, who were concealing their figures behind, could not help but hold their breath.

Although Han Li had spoken quite convincingly, whether it would actually be effective was another matter entirely.

In truth, even Han Li himself did not have absolute certainty. After all, everything he knew about the Ten Absolute Poisons came from ancient texts. He had never performed such a test himself.

But a moment later, the doubts of Han Li and the two others vanished completely.

Just as the few giant apes had flown several dozen zhang away, several noisy, strange cries suddenly erupted from the previously quiet hilltop.

As soon as these strange cries entered his ears, Han Li immediately felt the Qi and blood in his body roiling, and his head felt heavy, nearly causing him to fall from the sky.

Greatly alarmed, he hurriedly circulated his spiritual energy throughout his body, which allowed him to stabilize his figure. Glancing slightly to the side, he used his Spirit Eye ability to see the two people, Marquis Lord Nanlong, beside him.

They were in no better shape, their figures swaying several times before they recovered their normal appearance.

Han Li frowned, feeling secretly horrified in his heart.

The attack from these strange cries did not seem to target the spiritual sense, but rather directly attacked the true essence within the body. No matter how powerful his spiritual sense was, he would be helpless against such a strange attack.

That these Purple-Veined Scorpions possessed such a strange innate ability was truly surprising.

It seemed that the records in the ancient texts could not cover everything after all.

Just as Han Li was muttering to himself, thirteen or fourteen streaks of dark purple light shot out from the hilltop, flashing away as they pursued the fleeing giant apes. Han Li hurriedly urged them with his spiritual sense, and the split souls within the few giant apes immediately pushed the apes to their maximum escape speed, also transforming into several white rainbows as they shot into the distance.

Even though it was only for an instant, Han Li, relying on his powerful spiritual sense, still managed to get a rough look at what was inside those purple streaks.

Apart from being frighteningly large—each one about a zhang in size—and having dark purple, gleaming bodies with a pair of transparent wings, they were exactly the same as ordinary scorpions.

However, the flying scorpion at the very front was far larger than its peers, reaching two zhang in size. It seemed to be the leader of this group of flying scorpions.

Seeing its ferocious and vicious appearance as it spat yellow mist from its mouth, Han Li could not help but shrink his pupils slightly.

The giant apes' escape speed was clearly far inferior to those purple streaks, but in the chase, they still managed to lead these Purple-Veined Scorpions far away for the time being.

In the blink of an eye, they had turned into tiny black dots.

A moment later, a loud shout came from high in the sky: "Go! A puppet has already triggered some kind of restriction. We've been caught up to."

Following these words, spiritual light flickered around Han Li, his concealment technique vanished immediately, and he was the first to break through the air and shoot away.

Seeing this, the other two also immediately transformed into golden and white rainbows, shooting toward that hilltop.

All three knew that these Purple-Veined Scorpions came and went like the wind; if they didn't seize the time to pass the hilltop ahead, the trouble would be immense.

Fortunately, none of the three were slow, and even without using his Wind-Thunder Wings, Han Li relied on his profound cultivation base, which far exceeded that of cultivators at the same stage, to fly over the hilltop in an instant.

At this moment, he sensed that the few giant ape puppets had all lost contact. Han Li was shocked and dared not stop for even a moment. In one breath, he flew more than ten miles away from the Purple-Veined Scorpion nest.

When they temporarily stopped on another hilltop, the three of them finally felt at ease.

"This time, it was all thanks to Brother Han's Azure Dove Poison and mechanical puppets. Otherwise, passing this hurdle would have been a truly headache-inducing matter," Marquis Lord Nanlong said repeatedly with a face full of smiles.

"It's nothing. It was just a coincidence," Han Li glanced at Marquis Lord Nanlong, his expression remaining calm.

Although this Azure Dove poison was originally something from the legacy treasures of Master Master Cangkun, Han Li would not bother to explain anything, merely brushing over it vaguely.

Seeing that the matter had been resolved so easily, the old man surnamed Lu also offered words of praise, which seemed quite sincere.

Han Li smiled, responded with a few words, and the three of them set off again.

The road ahead returned to the flatness of the beginning. After flying for half a day without incident, the temperature in the air began to grow hot and dry.

The lush vegetation on the mountain ridges gradually became sparse as they advanced, until it was bare and devoid of grass, appearing somewhat eerie.

In the end, the rocks of all sizes on these mountains even took on a strange, fiery red color. Furthermore, on some hilltops, one could vaguely see lava cracks of various sizes, inside which it was exceptionally fiery red, spewing out scorching hot winds and grayish-white fly ash.

It was a scene completely like a furnace or a scorched hell.

Han Li and Lu Lu Weiying revealed expressions of surprise. But seeing that Marquis Lord Nanlong's expression remained calm, they knew the route was not wrong and did not say anything more.

Not long after, a fiery red giant peak about several thousand zhang high appeared in front of the three. A large portion of the mountain peak pierced directly into the fiery red clouds in the sky. Compared to the smaller hilltops around it, this giant peak was particularly eye-catching.

Seeing this giant peak, Marquis Lord Nanlong, who was leading the way, paused his escape light and stopped his figure.

Seeing this, Han Li and the other looked at each other, their spirits rising in unison.

"Two fellow Daoists, a cave at the foot of the mountain peak ahead is the nest of that Fire Toad Beast. The remains of that ancient cultivator are inside this nest.

It is said that this beast's spiritual sense is not weak, so we should stop and discuss it first," Marquis Lord Nanlong let out a long breath, turned around, and said with a solemn expression.

"At the foot of that mountain peak?" Hearing this, Han Li's eyebrows twitched slightly, and he immediately probed with his spiritual sense.

At the base of the giant peak there, there was indeed a very large fiery red cave entrance, from which gusts of hot wind blew out from time to time.

Fearing to alert the Fire Toad Beast inside, Han Li retracted his spiritual sense and did not rashly probe further.

"What is there to discuss? With Fellow Daoist Han's ice-attribute cultivation technique as the main force, and the two of us assisting, we can just directly exterminate that Fire Toad Beast," Lu Lu Weiying said without hesitation.

"Brother Lu! Things are not that simple. According to Master Master Cangkun, the Fire Toad Beast's nest is almost half-built in the lava. No matter what kind of severe injuries this beast suffers, as long as it jumps into the lava, the Fire Toad Beast will immediately recover as if nothing happened. Fighting this beast in such a place would be extremely disadvantageous. The best method is to set up a magic array first, and then lure it out of the nest to exterminate it. For this reason, I have specially prepared a set of water-attribute magic array deployment tools," Marquis Lord Nanlong said with preparation.

Hearing this, the old man surnamed Lu did not voice any opposition. Han Li also felt there was no problem. After the three of them decided on the plan, they began a round of preparations.

In addition to the great array mentioned by Marquis Lord Nanlong, Han Li also set up several other magic arrays outside this magic array to prepare for the unexpected.

After doing all this, it was finally decided that the three of them would conceal themselves to the side, and Han Li would use a puppet beast to lure the ancient Fire Toad Beast out of the nest.

With a tap on the spirit beast pouch at his waist, the remaining white wolf puppet beast immediately flew out of the pouch.

Then Han Li sat cross-legged near the magic array, manipulating this puppet beast as it flew straight toward the cave under the giant peak.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 815 =====