“Boss, those dumb Thunder tribesmen have vanished.”
“Don’t worry about them, the main issue is what’s important.”
Approaching the edge of the marshland, Ivan and his group slowed their pace. According to the map, there should be a territory of fire ahead.
However, the areas on both sides of this Fire Territory were more dangerous and covered a considerable span.
He planned to cross through the Fire Territory to check the situation on the other side.
To be honest, this search was all about luck since he didn’t have the Belizi family’s treasure-hunting secret techniques or any sort of predictive power, and the time available for searching was limited.
The map came with notes, indicating that the Nine Colored Pit had its own turbulent and calm periods.
It was only during the calm periods that one could comfortably come and go; other times, it wouldn’t be easy to leave. The calm period was now, usually lasting between ten to fifteen days.
Since the high altitude was scattered with various halos, the Nine Colored Pit had no distinction between day and night, and darkness did not bring any disadvantage to the search.
The time available for searching wasn’t long but wasn’t short either; Ivan didn’t plan to waste any of it, lest he miss this rare opportunity.
“Wow, there’s so much iron sand.”
Having passed the marsh, and calling it a Fire Territory, it was actually a desert full of iron sand and iron mountains, with a hot and dry climate.
Crossing the territorial boundaries, Ivan’s group could feel a wave of intense heat hitting their faces.
“Besides Fire-type energy particles, there is a special type of metallic characteristic particle; Earth-type energy particles are few and far between.” Compared to Locke, who only knew how to exclaim, Jennie’s words clearly showed more insight.
“Well said, there’s no need to linger in this kind of place.” Ivan nodded slightly; he could also see that this Fire Territory was more dangerous than the Earth-type territory they had just come through.
But thinking of the giant crocodile they had encountered earlier, he felt that nothing could be said with absolute certainty.
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In this Fire Territory, he was determined not to stir up any unnecessary trouble.
Along the way, they encountered fire scorpions, iron spider clusters, and such, all of which they avoided; odd broken blades and mysterious underground fire caves were ignored.
After a while, the entrance to Eight-character Ridge emerged ahead, with a high-danger area bordering outside of it.
This was undoubtedly a natural strategic pass.
“Come out!”
Approaching the pass, Ivan halted in his tracks.
His voice carried far, but no one seemed to jump out in response.
“You Thunder idiots, didn’t you hear what my boss said? If you have the guts to block our path, then have the courage to show up.” Locke was not as polite in his speech.
Hearing this, Gordon and the other five members of the Thunder tribe finally revealed themselves, flashing in front of the group, a murderous intent fixed on their faces.
“Why aren’t you troubling that crocodile, and instead blocking our way?”
“Locke, that’s because you don’t understand, it’s called ‘bullying the soft, fearing the hard.’ They’re so frightened they can ignore the death of their own kin; this might be a Thunder tribe tradition.”
Both men spoke in turn, especially Ivan’s leisurely comments, which caused the anger of Gordon’s group to become nearly uncontrollable, turning into lightning that lingered around them.
“Despicable human sorcerer, hand over our Thunder tribe’s Three Colored Pearl.” Gordon shouted angrily.
“What Three Colored Pearl? Oh, I understand, you mean the pearl that was delivered to our doorstep not long ago. Do you want this yellow one, or this blue one, or that—”
Ivan pretended to be confused, then took out the jewels he had collected, showing them off.
Beside him, Locke looked at his own boss with admiration; when it came to taunting, he had much to learn from Ivan.
“Damn human sorcerer, go to hell!”
Gordon no longer wanted to hear the sorcerer’s words across from him, disregarding the accumulation of Thunder Power, and regardless of any tactics, he flapped his wings and charged toward the front.
Like Gordon, the other Thunder tribesmen shone with unique lightning patterns on their skin, wings, and horns; the patterns in the runes formed a coherent whole from which lightning spawned, fueling their ferocious attack.
“Tactic number three, quick battle, quick decision, slaughter them all!”
Faced with the oncoming enemy, Ivan issued a brief command to his companions.
He had not wanted to bother with these Thunder tribesmen; otherwise, he would have turned around and made the kill earlier, but since the opposition was bent on dealing with him, how could he tolerate it? He was ready to kill as well.
The next second, numerous spells were cast.
Locke’s “King’s Ode,” which merged the cries of insects, illusion techniques, and toxins, when played, could drive a person into mental disarray and conjure a multitude of illusions.
The Scented Butterfly’s “Wooden Origin Poison” could cause all things to wither.
The Silkworm Queen had borrowed the “Mist Wind Miasma.”
The swamp ant’s “Gravity Manipulation.”
Jenny’s “Earth Gravity.”
Under the synergy of these various spells, they forcibly created an area shrouded in poison fog and disturbed gravity, enveloping the charging antagonists of the雷族 within and causing them severe interference.
“Quick, charge through!”
Gordon shouted, but he didn’t shrink back.
Their unleashed Thunder Power had arrived, and the ferocious lightning struck directly at Ivan and the others, only to be blocked by two Ant King Sky Shields manipulated by Ivan.
In addition to controlling the Ant King Sky Shields, Ivan multitasked, condensing a large amount of Space Silk and mixing it into the poison fog.
Jenny also multitasked, wielding the effects of gravity from her Earth-type powers on one side while directing multiple Pan Iron Roots to probe into the poison fog on the other, in coordination with the Space Silk to create a strangulating formation.
“Ah—-be careful!”
“It’s a trick, retreat quickly!”
The Pan Iron Roots were exceptionally hard and also possessed armor-piercing and pulverizing powers. The Space Silk was renowned for cutting through anything. Masterful in their coordination and both lethal, the雷族, as expected, paid a heavy price.
In the end, only one雷族 managed to break out of the area encompassed by the poison fog.
Before he could celebrate his narrow escape, his feet were suddenly entangled by the elongating Pan Iron Roots, scaring him into a panic as he mustered his Thunder Power in his ankles, trying to break free from the bind.
The force of Thunder Power rippled out, jolting the roots apart for a distance, and the雷族 swung his longsword to cut through.
At that moment, two pristine Space Silks shot out: one wrapping around the longsword, the other deftly spiraling around the雷族’s waist, cutting him cleanly in half from the midsection, following which he ceased to breathe.
In a brief moment, the battle had concluded.
“Boss, Strategy Number Three was a bit unfulfilling.”
“Always with the smart comments, go see if there’s any loot, will you?”
Once Ivan realized there were no survivors, he dispersed the Space Silk and sheathed the Ant King Sky Shields.
He silently compared the victims to the雷族 assassins from Lightning Cliff and Red Cloud Realm; these were clearly much stronger, but still not enough against him and Jenny.
If judged by the standards of the offspring sent from the Belizi family, these people must have held some status among the雷族.
This way, he had exacted some revenge on the雷族, venting the frustration from being continuously targeted by assassins.
“Will do.”
Hearing the command, Locke scurried forward, scavenging through the corpses.
Soon enough, he brought back a heap of items, nearly packaging everything of value.
Ivan picked through them, selecting two Space Rings and three maps, one of which—a map as thin as a cicada’s wing—piqued his interest the most.
This map was obscured, but it wasn’t a challenge for someone like him, who was adept in energy particle manipulation and proficient in runes enchantment.
After probing for a moment, a map with details exceeding that provided by Solomon by more than tenfold unfolded before him, clearly documenting the general information of each domain, including the various elemental forces involved.
“Earth, wood, fire—-“
“Indeed, but this place is an intermediate to high danger zone, huh.”
Ivan searched the map from one domain to the next until a place name caught his eye—Spiral Valley.
Not only was Spiral Valley an intermediate to high danger zone, but its surroundings were equally treacherous; it was notably an area where the battles of the past had been fiercely intense, leading to a naturally harsh environment thereafter.
What left him somewhat speechless were the additional special regions attached to Spiral Valley, which were extremely terrifying.
“Why are there only low-intermediate and intermediate-high instead of low, intermediate, high?” Locke quietly asked.
“The reason is simple,” Ivan casually replied to his question, “Given the unpredictable nature of the Nine-colored Pit, there is no clear distinction between low, intermediate, and high danger levels. Low danger can transform into intermediate at any moment, and intermediate can become high at any time. This is to warn the entrants to proceed according to their abilities and to retreat promptly if the situation turns dire.”
While answering, Ivan’s thoughts still lingered on Spiral Valley.
He searched meticulously once more but couldn’t find a place more suitable for him than Spiral Valley.