We shot over the flowing lava-like a comet, leaving a trail behind us.
The pod I was on was designed for one thing and one thing only, Speed.
It was fast incredibly so and was on the cusp of breaking the speed norms of Qi and reaching Saint Qi.
But the threshold and difference between the Qi from regular crystals and Saint crystal is both a quantitative and qualitative change. The speed I gained now is probably at least three times faster than before. And we were zooming the fuck off.
For a wyvern to think that it could reach us, was nothing but a hopeful dream. As we flew past them like lightning bolts.
Soon we arrived to the entrance of the first red zone, far back, and I slowed down.
"You're seriously taking that path? It's full of high-tier beasts, and we won't have the flags even if we reach the end," she said.
"Don't worry about that, we'll not use our own flags," I said as I twisted the pods and then stomped the accelerator again.
We flew into a separate area, a direct path to the Black City, bypassing all and every red city that we should go through.
As we flew forward, I was surprised to see several pods of several cultivators along our path, they too were desperate, however, my speed left them all in the dust.
It didn't take long before we encountered the first hurdle.
This path wasn't a valley but was an open field with incredibly wide swaths of burning land.
The ground was cracked and broken, full of magmatic and lava currents.
While the skies had drakes, and these things were far stronger than wyverns.
We were noticed, but they won't be able to catch up to us.
The drakes hunted after us but there was no way they'll reach us in time. Soon, the front of our pods began reddening, from the accumulated heat and our speed.
I then used my own Veridian Flame to cover our pods, and we looked like a flying green fireball that was shooting through space.
"There is a pouch next to you, grab the Top Grade Spirit Stones in it and replace the cracked ones on your panel", I said.
Liang Yu understood and began doing as asked.
This way we won't lose speed, but at the same time, our current consumption of Top Grade Spirit Stones was heavy, I should have enough to arrive at the final city, but I'm sure that the pod will be in catastrophic shape.
This wasn't the issue, however, as long as we arrive.
Our flight continued, among the many beasts that rose up from under the ground, and the beasts that flew from the skies, but we were fast, too damn fast for them to do anything.
My greatest worry was the explosive torrents of magma that rose up without prior notice, and I had a couple of close calls that made my own pale face paler and almost caused Liang Yu to faint from fright.
However, we kept moving, we kept increasing our speed and decreasing our distance to the end game.
Several creatures, of great size, scaled bats came at us, but with a spin of the steering wheel, my pod began spiraling forward dodging them acrobatically but at the same time dangerously.
We came out unscathed thankfully.
Soon, we arrived to a new area, it was a massive volcano area where we had to cross right through a falling lavafall.
The path forward needed us to cross right through the lavafall as it was a long large cave inside that will allow us entry and exit from the other side of the mountain. It was pretty similar to the ice mountain area, but I decided against entering.
I can't control the pods as accurately as I did before in the ice mountain since this pod was too fast to be able to drift around, so I took the longer route.
Going to the side of the mountain. With my current speed, it would be irrelevant for us to go right through the mountain as we will only lose time there since we'll have to slow down. But here in the open, I'm the king of speed.
We blasted through all and everything in our way, and with such a massive Qi signature we alerted everything to our arrival, but nothing could stop or chase after us.
"Shen Bao, you're a crazy man!" she said.
"The Crazy man is getting us to the finish line, keep a watch on the stones!" I said as I maneuvered difficultly through several ridges that seemed to appear out of nowhere.
But once we went past them, I sent my divine sense and had to gulp, those weren't some ridges, but it was the back of a turtle that had an incredible size.
The turtle noticed us but soon decided to ignore us, something of that size would have probably had the ability to eradicate us if it wanted to.
Sooner than I expected, the magmatic areas seemed to be lessening more and more.
Which caught me by surprise.
"Can you locate our position on the map?" I asked as I kept moving forward.
"Right, one moment," she said.
Then soon, "Oh my god," she said.
"What?"
"The mountain we passed through, was the central danger zone, we're actually at the exit of the dangerous shortcut, we should be able to arrive at the black city in less than an incense's time," she said.
"Good," I grinned. "Everything is going according to plan."
Soon enough, we reached the end of the scorched areas and were back in the open fields. Once we were in the open fields, it was a straight line toward the black city. There are no hindrances and no problems.
However, by doing a quick calculation of time I was grinning from ear to ear.
This turned out far better than I expected and then moved to the side.
"Where are you going? The black city is up ahead?" she asked.
"We're still not able to enter it, we need the qualifications," I said.
It took us another incense stick of time to arrive at the destination I had in mind. And once we were there.
"Don't tell me…" Liang Yu's eyes widened.
"Yes," I said and I left the pod after stationing it on the ground.
Once the two of us were down, I began writing a formation on the ground then sent X forward.
"Make them come here," I said and he left.
It took some time before I could hear explosions in the distance.
Then soon three pods were coming our way at incredible speeds.
I didn't want to risk killing them off, but I had something else prepared.
Just as the cultivators was approaching, I heard a loud domineering voice transmission right through my mind.
"YOU DARE STAND IN MY WAY!" came the voice.
"Oh believe me, I dare," I replied.
Just as the pod owner was about to change direction, the information I had set up sprung up to action.
A massive wall of laws shot from the ground and began wrapping around the three pods. It wasn't meant to destroy his pod, but to do something else completely different.
The speed of their pods began decreasing incredibly so it was as if their speed was irrelevant against the law lines.
I was actually not slowing them down, but removing all friction and negating the pushing power from his pod. The first of the cultivators who shouted in my ears, cursed and then somehow managed to rip through the laws I made.
The other two, however, weren't as lucky.
He flew forward towards the city.
But I didn't care much.
I flew towards the other trapped cultivators and busted through their pods breaking them.
Then spat a large quantity of Breath Sealing Qi, causing their entire cultivation base to collapse. They were no stronger than toddlers without their Qi and then snatched both their bags.
I didn't take anything but the flags and left towards my own pod.
"You know that you'll be putting us in a lot of trouble, do you know who that guy was?" she said.
"I don't really care, it was his crew that ambushed me, I'm only repaying the favor," I said, "Then how about we get to first place?"
"First place? Even with your speed, I think we won't make it, he is already almost at the end." She said.
"Trust me on this," I said then we both entered the pod, "Brace up, this is going to be fun," I said and then pressed once, twice, and thrice on the accelerator.
This was an option I added, not only will it exhaust the crystals, it will completely suck them dry for one single push.
The pod rattled then blasted off like a meteor, shooting forward at incredible speed my head was stuck to the back of my seat on the pod.
The pods creaked and began tearing, rattling against the air but they still shot forward.
Parts began ripping from the pods from the incredible speed, and a moment before the cultivator at the front was even able to go through the finish line.
We flew past him leaving him shocked and stunned at the blast of speed that surpassed him.
We came in first!