Within the Ancient Divine Arms Camp.
The red light curtain illuminated everything.
"It's incredible." Old Iron burst out laughing, although there was no amusement in his laughter.
Big Iron turned around and looked at Old Iron dumbfoundedly before lightly bumping into him.
"When she first came, she was still a fledgling..." Old Iron chuckled oddly, "But now, she's latching onto our little rookie... Do you understand? The transformation from a girl to a woman?"
Big Iron floated in the air motionlessly, his eyes filled with rigid bloodlust.
"I have no common language with someone like you, who lacks sentience at birth," Old Iron laughed loudly, "So, the conspiracy... and, an egg."
"The aim was spot-on!" Old Iron laughed again, the bloodlust in his eyes suddenly becoming extremely intense, the blood-colored light almost illuminating half of the metallic hall. "I mean, this egg, was hit spot-on... You guys are really a bunch of good-for-nothing pups, a bunch of good-for-nothing pups... The little rookie needs a bit of a lesson!"
Wu Tielang wiped off the thick egg liquid on his face.
The egg liquid was foul-smelling, dense, and astonishingly scorching, searing his skin so that it turned red and almost formed blisters.
"Bastards, what are you doing?" Wu Tielang roared, but the figure that smashed the egg onto him had already run hundreds of meters away, never looking back as it fled at full speed.
The ground shook violently, a high-pitched furious roar resounding as more than a dozen large ferns, the thickness of an embrace, were shattered into pieces, and a fiercely shaped colossal head suddenly bumped out from the broken fern fragments.
At first glance, this huge head was about seven or eight points similar to the gray rock lizard, but this head was about two or three meters in size, several rounds larger than the head of a giant river hippo.
Its head was densely covered with seven or eight sharp horns. When it opened its mouth and roared loudly, a reddish umbrella-shaped fin behind its neck suddenly expanded, and the semi-circular fin had a diameter of at least five meters, covered with numerous purple spots, giving it a ferocious and majestic appearance.
The beast charged forward. Behind its massive head was a body that reached more than ten meters high. It resembled a gray rock lizard, but with a body several times larger than an adult gray rock lizard. On its robust body, a pair of degraded meat wings, only about two or three meters in size, were flapping violently.
The beast's tiny crimson, fierce eyes locked onto Wu Tielang.
The shattered eggshells were underneath Wu Tielang's feet, and his head and face were covered in thick egg liquid.
A warrior from the Bull Clan near Shi Lingqing grabbed her and fled towards the distance in a sorry state.
Wearing a worried expression, Shi Lingqing shouted at Wu Tielang, "Young Master, be careful... this beast has gone mad!"
In the short time it took to utter those words, Shi Lingqing had already been taken away over a hundred meters by her subordinate. Wu Tielang had yet to recover from the series of unexpected events, when the beast's neck suddenly swelled, and fire erupted in the skin covered with dense scales.
Wu Tielang instinctively somersaulted to the side. An invisible force field enveloped his body, allowing him to glide almost on the ground, swiftly flying over ten meters away.
A fiery red column of flame, as thick as a water barrel, slid past his scalp. Wu Tielang's hair sizzled and burnt away, black smoke billowing. He caught the scent of the pungent burnt odor, and patches of transparent blisters the size of his palm appeared on his scalp from being roasted by the high temperature.
The fire pillar landed heavily behind Wu Tielang, causing a thunderous boom. The ground was burned into a large pit several meters in diameter, and shallow molten rock continuously bubbled out from within, releasing bubbles large and small.
Wu Tielang let out a strange yell, driving his diamond-shaped protrusion on his chest armor with both hands and covering his head, resulting in his hands and head being quickly covered by the armor. He then jumped up and fled at full speed in the opposite direction.
The monster's eyes, crimson and filled with madness, focused on Wu Tielang.
The shattered eggshells were underneath Wu Tielang's feet, and his head and face were covered in thick egg liquid.
A warrior from the Bull Clan near Shi Lingqing grabbed her and fled towards the distance in a sorry state.
Wearing a worried expression, Shi Lingqing shouted at Wu Tielang, "Young Master, be careful... this beast has gone mad!"
In the short time it took to utter those words, Shi Lingqing had already been taken away over a hundred meters by her subordinate. Wu Tielang had yet to recover from the series of unexpected events when the beast's neck suddenly swelled, and fire erupted in the skin covered with dense scales.
Wu Tielang instinctively somersaulted to the side. An invisible force field enveloped his body, allowing him to glide almost on the ground, swiftly flying over ten meters away.
A fiery red column of flame, as thick as a water barrel, slid past his scalp. Wu Tielang's hair sizzled and burnt away, black smoke billowing. He caught the scent of the pungent burnt odor, and patches of transparent blisters the size of his palm appeared on his scalp from being roasted by the high temperature.
The fire pillar landed heavily behind Wu Tielang, causing a thunderous boom. The ground was burned into a large pit several meters in diameter, and shallow molten rock continuously bubbled out from within, releasing bubbles large and small.
Wu Tielang let out a strange yell, driving his diamond-shaped protrusion on his chest armor with both hands and covering his hands and head, covering them quickly with the armor. He then jumped up and fled backwards at full speed.
The monster fiercely raised its upper body and landed its huge paw heavily.
Wu Tielang couldn't evade in time and was hit by the monster. The tremendous force sent Wu Tielang flying, tumbling a hundred meters away and eventually crashing into a protruding stalagmite, shattering it, and sending large rocks flying in all directions.
Even with armor protection, Wu Tielang's visceral organs continued to churn violently from the impact, and he almost vomited. He gasped loudly, no longer daring to glide in the air but instead sprinting on the ground at full speed.
While gliding in the air, he couldn't change direction as freely as on the ground because the giant beast's paw was too large and it was easy for it to attack him from any direction.
Only on the ground, amidst the heap of rocks, mushroom clusters, fern forests, and various usable terrain, could he take advantage of his smaller size and use the terrain to prolong the beast's pursuit.
Wu Tielang ran around like a panicked rat, darting through clusters of mushrooms and fern forests. The giant beast roared furiously, periodically spewing out fire pillars, crazily pursuing him.
As Wu Tielang ran, he recalled the knowledge Old Iron had imparted to him.
Soon he understood--he had fallen into Luo Lin's trap.
Luo Lin figured out that he was indeed alone here, an isolated person without companions, clan members, or any powerful backings. So, Luo Lin had sent someone to provoke this gigantic beast to deal with him.
That egg must be the descendant of this monster, right?
According to the knowledge Old Iron had imparted, creatures during the reproductive and nurturing periods were mad. Behaviors that harmed their offspring would anger them. Even the weakest animals would fight their powerful enemies non-stop to protect their offspring.
That was the case even for those small field mice, what more for such a powerful monster?
"Luo Lin!" Wu Tielang roared while running, "I'll remember all of you... you damn bastards, I won't let you off!"
The response to Wu Tielang was the furious roar of the monster. Amid the thunderous sound, a boulder with a diameter of several meters was slapped up by the monster, spinning in the air and crashing into Wu Tielang's back.
Wu Tielang let out a cry, sent flying dozens of meters away by the boulder, rolling on the ground dozens of times. Even before he could get up and continue running, a fire pillar from the monster suddenly spewed out onto him.
The surface of Wu Tielang's pale armor temperature rapidly rose, reaching a temperature capable of instantly melting rocks. He felt as if his whole body was soaked in boiling water, scalding him and making him yelp and dance around before he continued to sprint madly towards a river several miles away.
Since this monster could spit fire, then he would use the river water against it.
Wu Tielang panted, running at full speed for hundreds of miles, his body drenched in sweat. His internal organs felt as if they were burning, and his lungs were particularly painful, as if someone were poking them with fine needles that could explode his alveoli at any moment.
Despite having completed the first level of the Foundation Establishment stage, his body's vital energy had already been depleted. Although intense blood in his body gave rise to powerful elemental energy, physical strength still had its limits.
Having run frantically for a distance of about hundreds of miles, Wu Tielang was already exhausted, sweating profusely, and all his internal organs felt as if they were on fire. His lungs, in particular, were in excruciating pain, almost like someone was sticking fine needles inside them, with the alveoli on the verge of bursting.
His elemental energy was completely depleted and his two legs felt as heavy as if they were filled with mercury. The sound of his footsteps grew much heavier when running.
The smaller monster's speed also became extremely slow, its size was so huge that it had pursued Wu Tielang for hundreds of miles, and its endurance was ten times that of Wu Tielang. It was already not easy for it to catch up to him at this point.
But the larger monster, full of stamina, continued to madly howl and chase after Wu Tielang. Several times it almost caught up to him, almost swallowing Wu Tielang in one gulp.
Fortunately, the terrain here was complex, with large stalagmites and columns everywhere...
Wu Tielang suddenly looked around, his heart suddenly twitching.
Unbeknownst to him, he had already left the safe zone mentioned by Old Iron and entered the half-basin closer to the lava rift. The terrain here was more complex, the vegetation denser, and the biological communities more abundant and dangerous.
Gigantic pillars and stalagmites were densely spread around him, with little space in between. Wu Tielang crawled in between them while the giant beast pursued him without any caution. With one thud, it smashed its head against a giant stalactite, causing the two-hundred-meter-tall, two-meter-thick stalactite to tilt.
The stalactite emitted a terrifying cracking sound before collapsing rapidly.
It heavily hit another stalactite beside it, and the two stalactites collided with a loud noise, tumbling one after another like a row of dominoes.
Wu Tielang let out a sharp cry as he leaped into the air, using the rocks to his advantage while an unseen force field enveloped the surroundings, allowing him to soar into the air like a bird.
From the top of the stalactite came a screeching noise, and a group of massive spiders, some much larger than reasonable, were howling madly, falling like meteors. They opened their long, sharp forearm-like legs and lunged toward the giant beast like so many falling stars.
The giant beast, in complete disbelief, raised its head and belched out a series of fire pillars toward the sky.
Wu Tielang hurriedly dodged, and on top of the stalactite were a few gigantic spiders with a size that defied logic, screaming fanatically while falling like meteorites. They released their long, pointed forelimbs and pounced towards the beast.
(End of the chapter)