Chapter 366 - Ember Beast

Demonic beast attacks were not the only dangers Long Chen would have to face in the Pyro Passageways; he would also have to be on the lookout for the other disciples. He believed that other than Murong Yu, the rest of the disciples would attack him on sight. At the very least, they would rob him of his Fire Essences.

In truth, Long Chen was not afraid of anyone other than Yang Danfeng, as he had cultivated Traceless Demon Shadow. However, he didn’t want to come across anyone before he had found sufficient Fire Essences. After all, Long Chen only had two objectives for this training exercise. One was for Xiaolang to level up, the other was to get the Demon Seed Planting Technique.

The Soul Swallowing Gaze was very useful in the huge river of lava. As soon as he entered, bright, boiling, red lava was the only thing surrounding him in all directions. If he relied on pure luck to search, it would take forever to find Fire Essences. However, everything was different with the Soul Swallowing Gaze.

When he activated the Soul Swallowing Gaze, all the lava around him disappeared and he could see souls within a five-hundred-meter radius. He spotted two souls—one was Murong Yu, who was heading westwards. Long Chen did not follow her, but instead headed towards another soul.

It was an Ember Beast.

Indeed, there was an Ember Beast within five hundred meters of him. Long Chen called for Xiaolang, then they headed towards it.

Ember Beasts live within lava and feed on it for sustenance. It’s similar to the Eight Clawed Fire Chi we saw on Goldfish Island. However, Ember Beasts are much more powerful. Fire Essence is the essence contained within molten lava; since Ember Beasts cannot swallow lava directly, they usually stay next to Fire Essence to absorb the flame essence inside. That is why places with Ember Beasts usually also have Fire Essence.

This was the information Long Chen had gathered over the past few days.

When he spotted the Ember Beast using the Soul Swallowing Gaze, it meant that he had found a Fire Essence. He believed that he would be faster than other people if he worked at this speed.

Usually, Ember Beasts and Fire Essences were found at the lowest layer of the lava. This was the case for this Ember Beast. In terms of horizontal distance, it was actually not far away from Long Chen, but unfortunately, it was hundreds of meters deeper than him. Long Chen dove down in a straight line. If he moved too much, it would cause a large disturbance in the lava, so he had to travel slowly and cautiously.

I’ll arrive soon.

Long Chen could sense an Ember Beast not far away from himself. He held his breath. Initially, he wanted Xiaolang to show off his skills, but Xiaolang was still Category Five Earth-tier, so he decided that it would be faster if he did it instead.

Long Chen quietly activated his Dragon Soul Transformation and took out the Azure Dragon Halberd. He was strong enough to defeat a Seventh River Stage cultivator, so a Category Six Earth-tier Ember Beast was not a difficult opponent.

When he approached, he could roughly see its appearance. It was half the size of the Sun Devouring Wolf, and it looked a little like a lion with a thick mane and a regal aura. However, its body was covered in thick, fire-red scales and it had extremely sharp teeth and claws. The strangest thing was that it had a tail exactly like a scorpion’s, which glinted coldly.

So, this is an Ember Beast. It doesn’t look bad at all.

This demonic beast, perhaps due to it living in lava, radiated a thick fierceness. A normal Seventh River Stage cultivator would find it difficult to win against it in this environment.

They were at the bottom of the lava. Long Chen looked around and spotted a Fire Essence not far from the Ember Beast’s foot. There were flames burning on the Fire Essence, and the surrounding high temperature was likely caused by it.

Attack!

Long Chen arrived as close to the Ember Beast as possible and unleashed Dragon King’s Burial instantly. His Qi, which was equivalent to that of a Seventh River Stage cultivator, exploded, paired with the quick attack. The Azure Dragon Halberd was instantly lodged in the resting Ember Beast’s head!

Long Chen pushed harder. By the time the Ember Beast’s eyes sprang open in pain, the halberd was deep inside its head. It cried in agony, and countless red flames poured out of its mouth. Then it died.

“There was no way you could’ve survived an ambush like that!” Long Chen chuckled and retrieved a fist-sized demonic core from its head and tossed it to Xiaolang. Excited, Xiaolang took it in his mouth without a word. Then he swallowed it with a huge gulp.

“What do you think?” Long Chen asked expectantly.

Xiaolang’s eyes widened and looked at him a little innocently. He had indeed already swallowed the Ember Beast’s demonic core, but his stomach wasn’t full yet.

“Damn, you foodie!” Long Chen laughed and scooped up the Fire Essence on the ground and put it into his bag. As for the Ember Beast’s carcass, Category Six Earth-tier beast blood was no longer useful to him, so he didn’t bother to take it ...

“Let’s go get our next target. We’ve got one Fire Essence now. I wonder how fast the other people are.” Long Chen guessed that it would be easier for him to find Fire Essences because he had the Soul Swallowing Gaze, but they had more people and were more familiar with the Pyro Passageways, so victory was still uncertain.

Now that he had experience slaying an Ember Beast, it would be much easier. Ember Beasts were common in this area, and most of the time, there was a Fire Essence near them unless he was unlucky. However, he still had not come across a Divine Ember Beast or a Divine Essence Crystal.

Long Chen spent most of his time collecting Fire Essences with the help of the Soul Swallowing Gaze, achieving easy wins in almost all his battles against Ember Beasts. The exception was when he met two Ember Beasts at once, which required more time.

He estimated that since the other disciples couldn’t spot Ember Beasts as well as he could, he still stood a chance to win first place, or even surpass the two Eighth River Stage disciples.

“Three?” This time, Long Chen saw three Ember Beasts in one place. When he approached, he killed one of them with a surprise attack, though this caused the other two to discover him. Since Ember Beasts were violent in nature, they would never flee. The moment he appeared, they engaged in a furious battle!

“Blood Devouring Domain!”

When he used this technique, the two Ember Beasts were practically incapacitated. Long Chen slashed them to death with his halberd instantly. After he took the five Fire Essences on the ground, he tossed the three demonic cores to Xiaolang. With that, Xiaolang finally broke through to attain the Category Six Earth-tier. Both his demonic power and physical strength experienced a boost.

Long Chen had tallied up the total—Xiaolang had consumed more than thirty Ember Beast demonic cores. This meant that he had already killed more than thirty of them. He had already gathered forty Fire Essences too. The Fire Essences were even more helpful to Xiaolang, but he needed them to win the Demon Seed Planting Technique, so he could only give them to Xiaolang after they exited.

“It’s been half a day. If I maintain this speed, I should be able to gather about three hundred Fire Essences in five days. But that is also not certain. I have almost killed all the Ember Beasts in this area, so it’s time to move to another spot where there are more Ember Beasts.”

Now that Xiaolang had attained Category Six Earth-tier, paired with his Divine Fire Clone and Nine Devils Ancestral Fire, the Ember Beasts were no match for him. It would speed up Long Chen’s search for Fire Essences.

“Let’s go to another area.”

Another day passed. They did not collect as many Fire Essences as the first day, though now he had reached eighty Fire Essences. Admittedly, Long Chen had spotted Yang Jun once during this time, and he was surrounded by eight other Seventh River Stage cultivators. When Long Chen spotted them with the Soul Swallowing Gaze, he steered clear of them.

Unless absolutely needed, he did not want to fight eight Seventh River Stage cultivators.

“Murong Yu was right. It looks like they will give all the Fire Essences they find to Yang Jun. But why are they grouped together?”

If they separated, they would be able to find more Fire Essences. It was inefficient to search as a group.

Despite his confusion, Long Chen ignored them and forged ahead. He continued using the Soul Swallowing Gaze to search for signs of Ember Beasts.

After a total of two days, he sensed that he had arrived in a more secluded area. The lava was now mixed with faint currents of black fire, and the surrounding temperatures were much higher, as if he was surrounded by countless Fire Essences.

“There are no Ember Beasts here, but there’s an even more powerful aura. If my guess is right, there should be an even more powerful beast hiding up ahead. It must be a Category Seven Earth-tier Divine Ember Beast.”

Long Chen made this guess based on his sharp instincts.

Indeed, after sneaking forward for a while, he finally spotted a beast smaller than the Ember Beasts. Since the Soul Swallowing Gaze could only sense the presence of a soul, he could not tell what it looked like.

“Awoo ...” Xiaolang called softly. Looking at the curious and excited look in his eyes, Long Chen understood what he meant. Xiaolang wanted to fight it himself.