Chapter 119: Drastic Changes in the Country of Huo Fen (Part 2)

A scorching aura immediately spread throughout the earthen sphere. The fire mass, as if familiar with the path, drilled directly towards the center. But just then, the Heaven Defying Bead suddenly rushed out. The fire mass paused, then without hesitation, quickly turned around.

But it was too late. The Heaven Defying Bead ignored all obstacles within the earthen sphere, striking the fire mass like lightning. A cry of alarm came from within the fire mass, and it immediately began to struggle. However, before it could struggle much, it was swiftly absorbed by the bead.

The few leaves originally carved on the surface of the Heaven Defying Bead were now gone, replaced by a ball of flame. Soon, one ball of flame after another continuously appeared on the Heaven Defying Bead.

The fire mass grew dimmer and dimmer, eventually losing all its brightness and dissipating completely. At this moment, the tenth ball of flame appeared on the Heaven Defying Bead, and immediately the entire bead suddenly glowed with a dazzling light. Even within the earthen sphere, this light clearly spread outwards from within.

At this time, with the disappearance of the fire mass, the fire ring outside the earthen sphere, which was connected to it by red threads, suddenly dimmed, and the red threads immediately broke.

Wang Lin stared blankly at everything before him. Not only was he stunned, but all the fire beasts in the溶洞 were also frozen in place by the sudden change, unsure of what to do.

The Heaven Defying Bead quickly approached Wang Lin, re-merging into his glabella. Wang Lin had no time to examine it closely. He shook his body, and the Gravity Spell immediately controlled the earthen sphere to rush upwards, drilling into one of the magma channels.

All of this happened in an extremely short time. It wasn't until the earthen sphere containing Wang Lin flew out that the fire beasts reacted. Sixteen giant fire beasts roared, rose from the ground, tore apart the magma channel above, and gave chase.

Behind them, thousands of fire beasts roared with ear-splitting fury, following closely.

Wang Lin's body was enveloped in the earthen sphere, rapidly moving upstream through the magma in the lava cave. One must know that this magma flowed downwards, originally leading to the deepest magma pool. Wang Lin was now going against the current, so his speed could not be too fast.

But the fire beasts chasing from behind were different. They were born and raised in lava; they were naturally fire spirits. The deeper they were in the molten liquid, the faster they became.

Although Wang Lin didn't know what the fire mass was, the fact that it allowed the Heaven Defying Bead's fire attribute to go from zero to Great Perfection was enough to explain the situation. Moreover, from the respectful attitude of those fire beasts just now and their current angry roars, Wang Lin roughly guessed that this fire mass was extremely important to those fire beasts, very likely their king.

Wang Lin's guess was correct. This fire beast was born from magma, a type of Spirit Beast, and quite high in Rank. According to the unified designation of the Cultivation Alliance, it should be called a Fire Spirit Beast. From the day of its birth, it possessed a certain level of intelligence, diligently Cultivating in the underground magma of the Country of Huo Fen, constantly inhaling and exhaling magma, with its cultivation growing deeper day by day.

Over the countless years it had lived, it had undergone five transformations. If it transformed nine times, it could transcend from a Spirit Beast to an Ancient Beast. However, each transformation required a five-hundred-year period of weakness, during which it had no spiritual power.

To protect itself, each time the period of weakness approached, it would disperse all its spiritual power, giving birth to countless offspring to protect itself with their strength.

At the same time, as the number of transformations increased, it gradually discovered some methods to reduce the period of weakness, which was to devour Cultivators.

It didn't need to devour too many; every once in a while, it only needed to devour a few people. Therefore, any Cultivators who mistakenly entered the depths of the volcano cave would be captured by its descendants and brought to it for consumption.

To prevent these Cultivators from harming the weakened Fire Spirit during the devouring process, all captured Cultivators would be trapped by mud and then solidified by the excreted solution. In this way, the Fire Spirit Beast could easily enjoy its grand meal.

But now, the weakened Fire Spirit Beast itself never expected that there would be a day when it would be devoured by something else. At the moment of its dissipation, all its descendant fire beasts were enraged.

In their hearts, the Fire Spirit was not only their king but also their father.

With their father killed before their eyes, how could the descendants not be enraged? They roared and chased frantically. Gradually, they got closer and closer. One of the sixteen giant fire beasts at the front roared and spat out a stream of almost white fiery liquid.

In the purplish-red magma, this white fiery liquid was particularly striking, instantly spraying onto Wang Lin's earthen sphere, causing the entire earthen sphere to immediately shrink by a size.

Inside the earthen sphere, Wang Lin was bleeding from all seven orifices. Even his extreme realm Divine Sense could only slightly obstruct this attack from the opponent. He gritted his teeth, exerting all his spiritual power, and rushed forward.

The fire beasts behind tore through the magma channels all the way, chasing relentlessly.

Getting closer and closer, finally eight giant fire beasts simultaneously spat out white fiery liquid. The moment it hit the earthen sphere, Wang Lin's body trembled, and he burst out of the earthen sphere. His Divine Sense enveloped his body, enduring unimaginable intense heat, and he suddenly rushed out. Fortunately, he was already close to the magma surface, and with this surge, Wang Lin immediately leaped out of the magma.

After appearing, he did not linger. The moment he flew up, the iron plate Magic Treasure shot out from his Storage Pouch, landed beneath his feet, transformed into a long rainbow, and flew directly out of the top exit.

If viewed from outside, one would see a figure enveloped in black smoke, clothes tattered and scorched, rushing out of a volcano.

Behind him, sixteen giant fire beasts chased to the edge of the volcano, roaring furiously with unwillingness, but strangely dared not rush out and pursue.

Wang Lin finally let out a sigh of relief. He glanced downwards with his peripheral vision and immediately felt his scalp tingle. Inside the volcano, below the sixteen giant fire beasts, there were countless dense triangular eyes. Their gaze was focused on only one thing: Wang Lin in mid-air.

Any single fire beast here could resist his extreme realm Divine Sense. This was simply impossible. If it were true, there could only be one explanation: these fire beasts had no Soul, no Divine Sense.

Wang Lin's expression was grim. He glanced at the many fire beasts inside the volcano below his feet, and without another word, flew into the distance. Gradually, his expression grew even darker, because along the way, whenever he encountered a volcano, he could see fire beasts inside. These fire beasts were all sprawled within the volcanoes, their cold gazes fixed on him, as if waiting for a command. As soon as the command arrived, they would all rush out of the volcanoes.

Wang Lin's scalp tingled. He touched his forehead, secretly resolving to get the map as soon as possible and immediately leave the Country of Huo Fen, never to return.

Thinking of this, he stopped his body. His extreme realm Divine Sense spread out. After sensing for a moment, his eyes flashed, and he changed direction, flying towards the north.

Even though he no longer looked at the volcanoes on the ground along the way, he could still clearly feel the gazes from those emotionless eyes.

At this moment, the Nascent Soul Stage ancestors of the four major Schools in the Country of Huo Fen all emerged from their seclusion. As those standing at the pinnacle of a third-Rank Cultivation Country, they could clearly feel surges of violent, scorching Qi fiercely gathering above the Country of Huo Fen.

Such things had happened many times in the past. This signified that the various volcanoes, large and small, within the borders of the Country of Huo Fen were about to erupt. Whenever this happened, they would each Seal the volcanoes in their respective areas to prevent eruptions.

Because once they erupted, it would be a huge catastrophe for the Country of Huo Fen. Mortals might be able to flee to other countries and would not face strong resistance. Even if the monarch of the Mortal Realm tried to stop them, Cultivators from their own country would step forward to persuade them.

After all, to these Cultivators, although Mortals were like ants, if there were many Mortals, naturally more Disciples suitable for cultivation could emerge from them.

Mortals could leave, but Cultivators could not, because once a large number of Cultivators went to another country, there would inevitably be a great war. Among Cultivators, the most taboo thing was a national migration, because migration meant a large loss of Spiritual Qi, a disruption of the power of local cultivation Schools, and extreme fluctuations in Spirit Stones and Magic Treasures.

The number of cultivation Countries on the entire Vermilion Bird Star was fixed. Once the volcanoes of the Country of Huo Fen erupted, the consequence would certainly be violent fire-attribute Spiritual Qi. This violent Spiritual Qi would be impossible to Cultivate and absorb. Consequently, Cultivators would be unable to survive in the Country of Huo Fen for a long time.

Fortunately, such an event had never occurred to date. Although the Country of Huo Fen had many volcanoes, each time they were Sealed one by one without incident. Even if an eruption occurred, it was small-scale and did not affect the overall situation.

Three hours later, Wang Lin stopped on an official road. His already grim expression turned ashen after clearly seeing the scene on the road.

On the official road, dozens of bodies lay scattered, along with several carriages and a few horses lying motionless on the ground.

Most of these people were male, and without exception, every one of them showed expressions of pain. Most still held weapons in their hands, clearly having been fighting each other before death.

Outside one of the carriages, Wang Lin stopped. With a wave of his right hand, the entire carriage seemed to be struck by a fierce wind. Both the wheels and the roof were torn off with a bang. The moment a body fell, a red light flew out from it, transforming into the appearance of a Devil Head in mid-air. It stared at Wang Lin, a look of terror on its face, but then it immediately changed to ferocity, and it shrieked, "You've come at just the right time! I was just about to look for you. The Souls of these Mortals are too bland. I wonder what you taste like."

With that, it lunged fiercely towards Wang Lin.

Wang Lin had been careful before. The reason he could find this Devil Head was that he had left a trace of imprinted Divine Sense on every wild beast he had given it to devour. If he continued to feed it this way, one day, no matter how strong the Devil Head became, he would be able to control it freely. But now, too little time had passed, so he could only sense its location within a certain range.