At the same time…
HUFF! HUFF!
In the middle of its fierce fight with Feng Luo, the 40-meter-long, partly-shaped fire dragon seemed to have received some kind of summoning, and suddenly flew towards the short mountain that Nie Tian had escaped from.
It had gathered a considerable amount of power from the air, and it carried the aura of a formidable Flame Dragon.
Currently, it seemed to be attracted by the Flame Dragon Armor. It abandoned Feng Luo and stopped attempting to buy Nie Tian more time to escape.
The Fire Dragon had left. However, Feng Luo didn’t have the slightest bit of relief on his face; quite on the contrary, it became increasingly grim.
Moments ago, he was fuming with rage and wished to drain and refine all of Nie Tian’s blood.
As Yu Tong’s martial uncle, the obscene action that Nie Tian had done to Yu Tong made him extremely angry.
However, he had stopped thinking about the possible damage that Nie Tian could inflict on Yu Tong’s soul. Instead, his eyes and all his attention were locked on the nearby trembling mountains and the unceasingly cracking earth.
Yu Tong had also calmed down from her previous frenzied state.
“Uncle Feng, what’s happening to the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range?” She sounded panicked.
Mountains collapsed and cracked open, revealing lava-filled gorges that fractured the earth. All of this signified that the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range was undergoing a world-changing upheaval.
Facing such a heavenly power, she was seized by a deep feeling of powerlessness, and felt that she might be destined to die there.
That threat of death was so terrifying that it even made her temporarily forget about what Nie Tian had done to her.
“Now I know why An Shiyi would say something like that just now. They… knew what would happen, and they knew that the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range was about to undergo a drastic change!” Feng Luo took a deep breath and looked off into the direction of the Spiritual Treasure sect. His expression as dark as the deepest ocean, he said, “This time, our operation against the Spiritual Treasure sect might be greatly affected by what’s happening to the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range. Many of us may die too.”
The area that they were in was already rather far from the valley of the Spiritual Treasure sect. However, he knew that because of what was happening, the most afflicted area might be the valley where the Spiritual Treasure sect was located.
A large group of experts from the Ghost sect and the Blood sect were there, but only two of them were in the Profound Realm, and thus possessed the ability to soar in the sky.
The others’ cultivation bases hadn’t reached the stage that would allow them to fly, which meant that besides those two, all the other experts from the Ghost sect and the Blood sect would have to face the same desperate situation that Yu Tong and he were facing now.
Perhaps they would face something even more desperate.
“What should we do?” asked Yu Tong.
Feng Luo didn’t answer right away, but rather took advantage of his profound Greater Heaven cultivation base and unleashed his formidable psychic awareness to scan the area and search for An Shiyi and Nie Tian.
After a long moment passed, he opened his eyes and said, “It seems that Nie Tian and his group have also run out of options. Now they are charging towards the peak of a mountain. By doing that, they may be able to delay their deaths for a period of time; it’s hard to say how long it’ll take for the lava to reach them and if there’s going to be other forms of danger. However, their choice is a wise one!”
“What about us?” Yu Tong asked.
“We’ll do the same thing,” Feng Luo said decisively. “We’ll choose a mountain that seems sturdy, and go to its peak. Then we’ll wait for an opportunity to present itself!”
“Alright!” Yu Tong replied.
The two of them adopted Nie Tian and An Shiyi’s method. They looked around and found a nearby mountain that looked like it wasn’t going to collapse any time soon, and immediately charged over.
On the top of another mountain…
Nie Tian and the others were all panting heavily. They had spent so much energy climbing up the mountain that the moment they got to the top, they dropped to the ground, exhausted.
Normally, they would take out spirit stones and use them to recover their lost energy at the first possible moment.
However, they simply weren’t in the mood to restore their strength for the moment. Instead, they all cast their desperate gazes towards the surrounding mountains and rivers below them. Panic and restlessness filled their faces.
They heard heaven-shaking rumbles echo out from the mountains around them. They saw two of them shake violently from side to side and seconds later, numerous cracks appeared on the bodies of those two mountains, indicating they were about to cave in.
On the ground below the mountains, countless cracks were split open by the terrifying shaking.
Lava was already flowing out of the cracks and gradually spreading out to low-lying areas.
Many rivers were were now filled with lava and had turned into blazing rivers of fire. If any living thing fell inside, they would suffer the same fate as Fei Li, and be vaporized without even leaving behind their bones.
ROOOOOOAR!
A terrifying roar echoed out from the short mountain that they had escaped from.
Standing on the summit of the mountain, they looked into that direction with their full attention, and discovered that the short mountain had already collapsed and been reduced to many gigantic rocks which rolled out into the surrounding area.
They saw the figure of an enormous beast that was covered in raging flames suddenly fly out of the collapsed short mountain. The moment it broke free, it threw its head back and roared to vent its burning rage.
Around the mountain that the beast had rushed out of, one short mountain after another continuously shook violently and was constantly hit by the surging magma from the earth’s core.
The beast roared for a moment, and after getting a hold of its bearings, it sped off into the distance.
The beast was like a burning meteor with a tail of raging flames. The direction that it chose to charge in was none other than the location of the valley of the Spiritual Treasure sect.
Because of the exceedingly far distance, Nie Tian couldn’t get a clear look of the beast’s appearance. He could only faintly see that it had a body of a lizard, with four legs, a head that resembled that of a Qilin, and three enormous, flaming tails.
The Earth Flame Beast was probably a hundred meters long, and the aura it released was so intimidating that it seemed to be able to suffocate humans.
An Shiyi’s face turned pale. “It’s at least a sixth grade spirit beast!”
A sixth grade spirit beast’s strength could even match that of a Qi warrior of the Profound Realm. Even Nie Tian’s master Wu Ji was only at the Profound Realm.
However, the Profound Realm cultivation base was already the pinnacle for Qi warriors in the Realm of Flame Heaven. The Hell sect had two Profound Realm experts, while the other sects each had one who had stepped into the Profound Realm.
Being a sixth grade spirit beast, the Earth Flame Beast could be viewed as a terrifying existence across the entire Heaven Leaving Domain, as it was actually at the peak of the pyramid.
Other than Wu Ji, Fang Hui, and the other Qi warriors at their level, anyone else who were to get in its way would definitely be drowned by the lava flames that it breathed, and be reduced to a bloody mess.
WHOOSH!
It wasn’t long before the Earth Flame Beast flew further and further away, and finally disappeared from their line of sight. Like a fleeting, burning meteor, it shot towards the area where the Spiritual Treasure sect was.
“Perhaps, it wasn’t a bad thing that it broke out from the earth’s core,” said Pan Tao.
Everyone was puzzled as they looked toward him.
With a bitter smile, Pan Tao said, “If it was at another time, the escape of the Earth Flame Beast would doom the Spiritual Treasure sect. However, now… the Spiritual Treasure sect is being ravaged by the alliance of the Blood sect and the Ghost sect, and is already on the verge of being destroyed.
“After the Earth Flame Beast charged out of the earth’s core, it might not only view disciples of the Spiritual Treasure sect as its enemies. It’ll attack every Qi warrior that it sees!
“The Earth Flame Beast is extremely grumpy. Having been sealed within the deepest part of the earth for decades, it definitely hates all human Qi warriors. So everyone will be deemed as targets to exterminate.”
An Shiyi’s expression flickered and with a nod, she said, “That makes sense. With its appearance, perhaps… the situation within the valley can be changed. Those from the Ghost sect and the Blood sect definitely won’t imagine that there has been such a terrifying spirit beast hidden within the depths of the earth under the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range.”
While they exchanged ideas, Nie Tian didn’t speak, but rather used his soul to sense the existence of the Flame Dragon Armor.
He noticed that, when the Earth Flame Beast charged out of the earth core and headed towards the Spiritual Treasure sect, the magical Flame Dragon Armor didn’t go along with it.
He could sense that the Flame Dragon Armor had remained in the earth’s core under the short mountain… it seemed to have immersed itself deep in the ocean of magma, using the blazing flame power of the magma to restore something.
He had a sudden enlightenment. “The Flame Dragon Armor was damaged?”
Pointing in a direction, Jiang Lingzhu exclaimed, “Look! Over there!”
When everyone looked over, they saw that there seemed to be two human figures on top of another standing mountain that was not very far away from them.
An Shiyi narrowed her eyes to get a better look of the two figures, then she said, “It’s Feng Luo and Yu Tong. Those two are pretty lucky. I can’t believe they actually survived and found a safe place like ours.”
Pan Tao felt relieved and said, “That’s actually good news. Lucky for us, they didn’t catch up to us. If they did, and got up the mountain where we are, we would have nowhere to run.”
After hearing his theory, everyone thought about it, and also let out sighs of relief.
They all realized that the reason why they could escape from Feng Luo and Yu Tong was completely because Feng Luo was too confident and insisted on Yu Tong killing Nie Tian herself, to help her get rid of her inner devil.
If Feng Luo hadn’t behaved so arrogantly, but instead went all out to attack Nie Tian, no matter how many mysterious tricks Nie Tian had up his sleeves, he wouldn’t have been able to help everyone escape.
Everyone talked to each other about the situation they were facing, about how grateful they were to still be alive, and about how uncertain they felt their future looked.
However, they were completely unaware how lucky they actually were to have a peaceful place to stand on and the privilege of talking to each other.
That was because, at the moment, the Spiritual Treasure sect was already full of scattered corpses. Countless experts from the Ghost sect, the Blood sect, Qi warriors of the Spiritual Treasure sect, as well as guests from other sects that had come to participate in the Treasure Convention had all suffered significant casualties.
While they were in the middle of their fierce battles, the earth under their feet suddenly started to shake violently, and then the three volcanoes that had always stood tall in three directions of the valley, suddenly erupted with blazing lava.
In a split second, the eruption of the three volcanoes turned the valley into a purgatory of burning molten rock!
Just as everyone was shrieking with fear and speeding away in all directions, the Earth Flame Beast that had just broken free suddenly appeared from the sky. Like a flaming meteor, it plummeted toward the mountain valley.