Chapter 37: The Invincible Repelling Fire Ring! Taotie! Devour!

Seeing Song Yu in such a state, the others had no intention of blaming him. After all, under these circumstances, a psychological breakdown was perfectly normal—facing a god was simply too despair-inducing.

Wang Jiucheng's brow furrowed tightly. He gritted his teeth and said, "I can't even send a message! My grandson is still outside. Once this dungeon is shattered by the Fire God's projection, I'm afraid he'll be in danger too!"

Compared to these people's restlessness, Yao Hui was the most composed one among them.

He calmly looked toward the Fire God's projection and spoke:

"Its target isn't us yet. Let's see how things play out."

At his words, the others looked over, only to see a large bird with nine heads, its entire body wreathed in black flames, currently locked in a standoff with the Fire God.

Though Lu Zheng was also somewhat frantic, remembering that he only needed to survive for three hours, he still felt he could give it a try. After all, he had two divine pets. Though this projection's level was somewhat higher, ultimately it wasn't a true god.

Whereas his divine pets were genuine true-god-level existences!

It was not necessarily without the power to fight.

He immediately decided to repeat his old trick, first having the Nine-Headed Undying Bird unleash a powerful attack, 'Death Scythe,' to test just how strong this fellow's defense really was.

The Death Scythe that tore across the sky fell toward the Fire God's projection, but this time it failed to strike it. A ring of flame suddenly appeared, stopping Death Scythe from even getting close.

【Skill: Repelling Fire Ring】

【Effect: Immune to physical damage below 100,000 points, immune to fire spell damage, immune to other spell damage below 100,000 points. For damage exceeding 100,000 points, half the damage is returned to the damage source as fire damage, and half the damage is converted into an equal amount of mana consumption to offset it.】

This skill was utterly tyrannical!

Damage below 100,000 points was nullified. For damage above 100,000, as long as his mana couldn't be depleted, he would never take real damage—and the damage would rebound!

This fellow's mana was as high as five million points. Even if they could exhaust its mana, the rebounded damage would be enough to kill the Nine-Headed Undying Bird several times over!

Fortunately, the Nine-Headed Undying Bird was immune to the returned fire damage, so it wouldn't be injured by it.

But if the damage had no effect, they couldn't possibly hold the opponent off either! And after releasing one Repelling Fire Ring, the Fire God Laban's projection immediately unleashed another skill against the Nine-Headed Undying Bird that had dared to provoke it—or more precisely, two skills released in combination.

Suddenly, within the already-active Fire God Domain, over a dozen massive lava chains formed, binding the Nine-Headed Undying Bird in midair in an instant.

This was none other than the Fire God's projection's skill, Divine Fire Chains.

At the same time the Nine-Headed Undying Bird was bound, many basketball-sized fireballs appeared around it. These fireballs blazed with roaring flames, and white fire could faintly be seen within them. When they drew close to the Nine-Headed Undying Bird, they exploded outright! Fire Burst Art.

This skill directly caused flames to explode, producing not only fire damage but also impact damage from the explosion.

The damage from a single flame explosion was nothing, but when countless flames exploded—just like when the Nine-Headed Undying Bird had used the Undying Fire Spirit to self-destruct against the Flame Monarch—as long as damage could be dealt, the accumulated damage would ultimately reach a terrifying number.

And right now, the Nine-Headed Undying Bird's HP was only 1,280,000. It absolutely could not be allowed to keep being whittled down.

In the next moment, the Nine-Headed Undying Bird was engulfed by enormous flames, instantly transforming into over a thousand small firebirds that flew away—this was the effect of its skill 'Thousand Bird Avatar.'

【Skill: Thousand Bird Avatar】

【Effect: Consumes 10,000 mana to split itself into one thousand parts. Among the thousand birds, as long as one survives, it does not die. Each can launch attacks or use partial skills.】

The Nine-Headed Undying Bird truly lived up to its 'Undying' name. Among its many skills, half were for self-preservation, and one of them could even resurrect it.

After using the Thousand Bird Avatar skill to escape, Lu Zheng understood that the Nine-Headed Undying Bird would likely find it very difficult to deal damage to the Fire God's projection now. Though it could continue to skirmish with the projection, the mission included a requirement to deal a cumulative 10,000,000 points of damage to the Fire God's projection.

This meant he had to pose some kind of threat to the Fire God's projection. Taotie, it's up to you!

Since outputting damage wouldn't work, he would try the power of devouring.

Upon receiving Lu Zheng's command, Taotie began to cast its Dharma Avatar Heaven and Earth skill, maxing it out directly. Its body swelled to a shoulder height of 120 meters, immediately drawing the Fire God's projection's attention.

Under the effect of the Dharma Avatar Heaven and Earth skill, all of Taotie's attributes multiplied several times over, reaching a level that even the Fire God's projection could not afford to ignore!

【Race: Taotie】

【Quality: Five-Star Legendary Divine Pet】

【Level: LV. 86 (48.8%)】

【HP: 8,800,000/8,800,000】

【Mana: 120,000/120,000】

【Strength: 100,000】

【Agility: 80,000】

【Spirit: 60,000】

【Constitution: 100,000】

Taotie's HP and mana were inferior to the Fire God's projection, but its combined four-dimensional attributes were on par with the projection! This was the true Divine Skill.

The Nine-Headed Undying Bird's skills were also Divine Skills, but they focused on survival, whereas Taotie focused on offense! On the foundation of these attributes, Taotie unleashed its 'Black Hole Devour' skill, directly creating a massive black hole 150 meters in diameter in midair. The terrifying gravitational pull immediately began madly devouring and absorbing the surrounding flame energy into the black hole.

Lu Zheng took the opportunity to have the Nine-Headed Undying Bird fly in front of the black hole to absorb a portion of the flame energy.

Absorbing flame energy could be considered a hidden ability. After all, as a special creature formed from fire and the Power of Death, it wasn't strange for it to possess the ability to absorb free-floating energy.

This energy also converted into a considerable amount of experience points, allowing the Nine-Headed Undying Bird and Taotie's levels to continue rising.

A level 350 King-tier Fire God's projection contained an incredibly rich amount of energy. The flame energy permeating the entire Fire God Island dungeon alone was no small figure.

And absorbing this portion of energy not only replenished consumption but could also disrupt the Fire God's projection's 'Fire God Domain' skill.

Facing Taotie's threat, the Fire God Laban's projection grew even more furious.

"The dignity of a god shall not be trampled!"

It cried out loudly, and immediately afterward, in midair, a massive scepter identical to the one in its hand suddenly appeared. Blazing flames burned atop the dark red gemstone at its very top, while the lower end of the scepter was aimed straight at Taotie, crashing down toward its head.

【Skill: Scepter of Judgment】

【Effect: Minimum consumption of 50,000 mana to create a scepter imbued with divine power, dealing a minimum of 300,000 points of spell damage to a single target and an additional 200,000 points of divine power damage.】

Without a doubt, this ultra-powerful single-target attack skill far exceeded the limit of Taotie's passive skill 'Mana Annihilation.' After all, its current mana was only 120,000, so it could annihilate at most 120,000 points of damage, yet this was a level 350 King-tier single-target attack with a minimum damage of 500,000 points.

Lu Zheng wasn't sure how much mana this fellow had poured in, but he couldn't gamble on it. In an instant, he made a decision.

The Nine-Headed Undying Bird instantly consumed all its mana to unleash Death Scythe slashing toward the Fire God's projection, while it itself appeared above Taotie's head to block that Scepter of Judgment! Please follow and keep reading. (End of this chapter.)