Chapter 41: Chapter 41: Fire Rain Mountain’s Secret Realm
Chapter 41: Secret Realm of Fire Rain Mountain
The lanky man glanced at Ouyang Lie and said nothing. He picked up the purse on the table and left. Unable to defeat Ouyang Lie, he had to concede.
After Ouyang Lie sat down, Lu Yu said, "Thank you."
The lanky man was a martial cultivator of the Qi Cultivation stage. If a fight broke out, Lu Yu would surely suffer losses, but as for life-threatening danger, Lu Yu didn’t believe the man would dare commit murder openly in Beifeng City.
"No need to thank me," Ouyang Lie replied. "Actually, he has a point. Without Qi Cultivation stage powers, entering the Fire Rain Mountain Secret Realm is indeed very dangerous."
"Inside the Fire Rain Mountain Secret Realm, there are creatures called Fire Spirits. In terms of strength, most Fire Spirits aren’t very strong; a Body Refinement stage of level six or seven can handle them. However, Fire Spirit attacks are very troublesome for those at the Body Refinement stage."
"Fire Spirit attacks carry violent fire-attributed spiritual qi. If you haven’t reached the Qi Cultivation stage and don’t have spiritual qi yourself, you can’t expel the fire-attributed spiritual qi that invades your body. This means that martial cultivators in the Body Refinement stage can’t afford to be injured by Fire Spirits, or they face certain death."
Lu Yu became excited upon hearing about fire-attributed spiritual qi, thinking this was exactly the place he sought.
It sounded pretty good. Lu Yu nodded and said, "Indeed, from this perspective, the Fire Rain Mountain Secret Realm is certainly dangerous for martial cultivators at the Body Refinement stage."
"So are you planning to give up?" Ouyang Lie asked, looking at him.
"No, I will participate in the secret trial." Lu Yu responded calmly. Outwardly he was calm, but inside he wished he could rush into the Fire Rain Mountain Secret Realm right then.
"I knew it." Ouyang Lie seemed to have anticipated his response.
"The elders told me that true geniuses never fear challenges," Ouyang Lie said after taking a sip of porridge.
"Don’t worry, if by any chance you die in the Fire Rain Mountain Secret Realm, I’ll make sure your body is retrieved," Ouyang Lie promised.
Lu Yu indicated that he didn’t want to continue the conversation.
There was nothing to do during the day, so Lu Yu stayed in his room, cultivating the Bladeless Blade Technique, and when bored, he glanced at information in the regional chat.
Lu Yu noticed that the information about forming a team to encircle a monster snake kept appearing today, as they seemed unable to find members.
The treasure-hunting master’s treasure-seeking mouse still hadn’t been sold, but the treasure-hunting master seemed relaxed about it, with Lu Yu only seeing a message from him after a long while.
After a day of cultivation, Yu Xiaoman still hadn’t logged into the game, and Ouyang Lie snored away next door. He seemed to do nothing but eat and sleep.
At night, Lu Yu’s room was visited again, and not just once. It seemed as if the person knew Lu Yu would enter the Fire Rain Mountain Secret Realm the next day. They attempted multiple times to steal Lu Yu’s recruitment order.
In the end, Lu Yu fought with the masked person, collapsing half of a wall before guards from the Divine Weapon Pavilion were forced to intervene, or the entire building could have been demolished.
Lu Yu still didn’t know who the masked person was, and the guards from the Divine Weapon Pavilion showed no intention of pursuing the masked person.
This made him suspect that the masked person might be a member of the Divine Weapon Pavilion.
In the morning, everyone gathered in the courtyard, with Ouyang Lie, appearing as if he hadn’t woken up, yawning next to Lu Yu at the front of the crowd.
Apart from Lu Yu, everyone else was a martial cultivator at the Qi Cultivation stage.
Before leaving, the steward asked Lu Yu if he wanted to participate in this secret trial. If not, he could stay and wait for other trials next time.
Lu Yu, of course, chose to participate. When he expressed his intention to join, most people looked at him as if they were seeing a dead man.
Everyone knew that at least a Qi Cultivation stage power is required to enter the Fire Rain Mountain Secret Realm; otherwise, any injury from a Fire Spirit would be fatal.
The steward, knowing Lu Yu wanted to participate in the secret trial, didn’t say much more. He led everyone onto the Divine Weapon Pavilion’s carriage, heading towards the Fire Rain Mountain Secret Realm.
The entrance to the Fire Rain Mountain Secret Realm was located three hundred miles away from Beifeng City on a barren mountain range. When the carriages from the Divine Weapon Pavilion arrived at the secret realm entrance, many martial cultivators had already gathered there after hearing the news.
However, the realm’s entrances and exits had not yet opened, so everyone waited at the base of the mountains.
More and more people gathered at Fire Rain Mountain, with numbers nearing a thousand. From the depths of the mountains, a violent wave of spiritual qi emanated, raising the air temperature outside the mountains by two or three degrees.
Lu Yu couldn’t sense the wave of spiritual qi, but he felt the change in temperature and asked, "Is the secret realm open?"
Ouyang Lie replied, "It should be."
After the spiritual qi wave around the area calmed, the steward from the Divine Weapon Pavilion told everyone, "You can enter now. Remember, the top ten in terms of the number of Fire Crystals obtained can become official disciples of the Divine Weapon Pavilion. The secret realm is open for three days, and everyone must exit within that time."
He then turned to Lu Yu, Ouyang Lie, and a man in blue and said, "You three must rank in the top three for Fire Crystals obtained."
Following the crowd, Lu Yu approached the entrance to the Fire Rain Mountain Secret Realm and asked Ouyang Lie, "What are Fire Crystals?"
"Fire Crystals are the energy core of Fire Spirits. Killing a Fire Spirit gives you a chance to obtain them. Generally, killing a Fire Spirit instantly ensures a Fire Crystal is obtained. Sometimes, Fire Crystals also rain down from the sky."
"Still, let’s hope it doesn’t rain Fire Crystals."
After listening, Lu Yu pondered and walked with Ouyang Lie into the entrance of the secret realm.
After passing through a red vortex, Lu Yu entered the secret realm of Fire Rain Mountain, where the air temperature was at least over 50 degrees, and ordinary people would be suffocated soon after entering.
Lu Yu, however, did not feel uncomfortable due to the high temperature. Upon entering the secret realm of Fire Rain Mountain, he found that the Ice-Fire Cultivation Technique began to operate automatically.
The deeper he went into the secret realm, the higher the temperature. The center of the secret realm was an active volcano, with lava occasionally flowing down from the crater.
He found that hanging idly while cultivating the Ice-Fire Cultivation Technique did not affect his movement; he could walk and cultivate at the same time, and the cultivation technique would automatically operate in such an environment.
The higher the temperature, the denser the fire-attributed spiritual qi around, and the faster the cultivation speed.
Soon, Lu Yu and Ouyang Lie separated. Ouyang Lie went to find fire spirits to kill to obtain fire crystals, while Lu Yu continued to advance deeper into the secret realm, searching for the place where the fire spiritual qi was the densest to cultivate.
Inside the secret realm of Fire Rain Mountain, Lu Yu felt his qi blood strengthening every second, and he had an inexhaustible amount of qi blood.
By operating the Ice-Fire Cultivation Technique, he could continuously absorb fire spiritual qi and convert it into qi blood, enhancing his body’s strength.
Whoosh~ Suddenly, a flame spewed out from a crack in the ground, and Lu Yu saw a flame floating in the air flying towards him.
"Fire spirit?" Lu Yu tried to communicate with it, but unfortunately, that flame seemed to lack consciousness, simply pursuing him and spewing flames at him.
He pulled out the knife given to him by the Han family a long time ago, dodged the fire spirit’s flame spray, and slashed at the body of the fire spirit, feeling as if it cut through air.
The knife was charred black, and if it lasted a little longer, it might have melted.
"It’s a pity I can’t sense spiritual qi, or I could directly attack the fire spirit’s core."
Constantly slashing at the fire spirit, dodging left and right to avoid the fire spirit’s flame spray, he finally felt he struck something solid.
Crack~ The sound of breaking came from inside the fire spirit, followed by the extinguishing of the flame-shaped fire spirit, revealing a cracked red crystal on the ground, its energy depleted in battle.
Picking up the fire crystal, he felt a bit of warmth flowing from it into his palm.
"Fire crystals can accelerate my cultivation!" Lu Yu’s eyes lit up.
Holding the knife already deformed by the high temperature, he made his way towards the center of the secret realm. Along the way, he saw many others who were martial cultivators at the Qi Cultivation stage, who could easily penetrate the core inside the flame-shaped fire spirits by infusing their weapons with spiritual qi.
Encountering fire spirits, Lu Yu did not stop. Now, he couldn’t gain intact fire crystals by killing the fire spirits, so he preferred to look for places with dense spiritual qi to cultivate and enhance his strength.
Reaching the boundary formed by lava, Lu Yu paused his steps. Moving forward would mean climbing the volcano, and the infant-like fire spirits playing in the lava were not something he could handle.
Inside the lava, he saw fire spirits shaped like human infants dive in and out, and he even saw childlike fire spirits appear on the volcano.
Not far from the lava river, Lu Yu found a spot with no one around to sit down and cultivate.
Only a few minutes into cultivation, a flame-shaped fire spirit floated over, seemingly attracted by him.
Lu Yu had no choice but to get up, kill this fire spirit, and pick up a depleted fire crystal, absorbing a little bit of fire spiritual qi.
This was not cost-effective at all, as he wasted a lot of effort to kill a fire spirit, only to end up with an exhausted fire crystal.
Lu Yu had a bold idea. Since a fire spirit’s body consisted of fire spiritual qi, could he directly absorb the fire spiritual qi within the fire spirit?
As there were not many people near the lava river, Lu Yu easily found solitary fire spirits. He first used his knife to roast the interior of a fire spirit, then mustered the greatest courage to touch the red-hot blade.
Lu Yu felt it was hot, but he wasn’t injured, seemingly due to the Ice-Fire Cultivation Technique creating resistance to high temperatures in his body.
Lu Yu concluded: in a short time, he would not be burnt.
Thus, after evading a flame spray from the fire spirit, he directly reached out with his right hand towards the fire spirit. Before touching its fiery body, Lu Yu felt his palm singe painfully.
Feeling the pain as his palm was about to contact the fire spirit, Lu Yu sensed the speed of the Ice-Fire Cultivation Technique’s operation accelerate instantaneously.
He then felt a suction force from his palm, absorbing the fire crystal inside the fire spirit into his palm, waves of burning heat surging from his palm into his body, making Lu Yu’s right hand turn scarlet, like red-hot iron.
Strangely, Lu Yu’s hand was not burnt, just extremely painful.
Once Lu Yu grasped the fire spirit’s core, the fire spiritual qi within was swiftly absorbed, extinguishing the fire spirit.
Clang~ The fire crystal fell to the ground, Lu Yu’s right sleeve had been burned away, his forearm below presenting a red hue from inside out, resembling a heated iron rod.
Lu Yu was dripping with sweat, tears of pain streaming down, yet he was elated. Absorbing one fire spirit had increased his cultivation progress by 2% and his qi blood by 8 points.
A few minutes later, Lu Yu’s right hand returned to normal, although the temperature had not yet dropped.