Chapter 367 - Divine Ember Beast

When he was closer, Long Chen finally saw what the Divine Ember Beast looked like. Just like how Murong Yu had described it, it looked similar to the Ember Beasts with thick scales and a scorpion-like tail. The only difference was that it was black all over, while the Ember Beast’s scales and mane were fire-red. It was also smaller than the Ember Beasts.

“Xiaolang, you asked for this. The Divine Ember Beast is a Category Seven Earth-tier demonic beast, and it is even stronger in lava. Do you dare fight it, even as a Category Six Earth-tier?” Long Chen said in a low voice, challenging him with a smirk.

Xiaolang nodded. Although there was a gap in their tiers, the Sun Devouring Wolf had a higher affinity with fire than the Divine Ember Beast. Plus, he had many tricks up his sleeves, so he did not believe that he would lose to a Divine Ember Beast.

“Be careful.” Since Xiaolang had made his decision, all Long Chen could do was offer a reminder at the very last moment.

Xiaolang nodded, then he slowly morphed to his combat state in front of Long Chen. The Sun Devouring Wolf’s combat state was magnificent and evoked fear; it was much more terrifying than the Divine Ember Beast. The strange, black flames that flowed on his body, as well as the golden sun mark on his forehead, showed just how unique he was.

Both the Sun Devouring Wolf and the Divine Ember Beast were black all over. Long Chen stayed in the same spot, watching the surroundings carefully while Xiaolang charged at the Divine Ember Beast. That way, Long Chen could assist if anything happened. The Pyro Passageways were dangerous after all.

At this point, the Divine Ember Beast noticed the Sun Devouring Wolf’s presence.

There were two types of beasts in the Pyro Passageways: Ember Beasts and Divine Ember Beasts. The Ember Beasts cowered before the Divine Ember Beasts, so the Divine Ember Beasts didn’t have to fight often. The only times they fought was when the males had to compete for a mate during mating season. Therefore, the Divine Ember Beast was angry when it saw a beast it had never seen before challenge it.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

When it sensed Xiaolang’s tier, it grew arrogant and let out a roar that was mismatched with its body size. Flames shot out of its mouth, attacking the Sun Devouring Wolf fervently!

“Roar!”

The two beasts collided, fighting each other with sharp teeth and claws. Animals did not fight like what humans imagined; even animals had fighting techniques practiced and mastered across generations. Long Chen felt like his vision was blurring as he watched the fight.

Teeth and claws collided again and again, and shrill cries rang between them.

Although the Divine Ember Beast was smaller, it was stronger than Xiaolang. After about seven minutes of forceful combat, the Divine Ember Beast left a wound on Xiaolang’s front limb!

This angered Xiaolang. He had been a human for more than ten years after all, and he had not spent a long time as a beast. He was still unfamiliar with fighting in this body, or he never would have been injured.

After it successfully injured Xiaolang, the Divine Ember Beast became arrogant, and roaring flames rose from its body. It roared mockingly, then it charged at Xiaolang with its small stature like a sharp arrow!

“Roar!”

When the Divine Ember Beast thought it was going to win, fierce flames suddenly rose from Xiaolang’s body. As the flames curled, black wolf silhouettes broke free from the fire. They looked similar to Xiaolang, though they were black and made out of flames.

The arrogant Divine Ember Beast was instantly surrounded by Xiaolang’s divine fire clones. The sudden peculiar twist had almost scared it into peeing. Suddenly, it halted and turned around in terror. It was preparing to flee!

Naturally, Xiaolang would not let it run. A hundred of his clones swarmed to surround the Divine Ember Beast. Once surrounded, at least fifty of them started to unleash manic attacks!

The Divine Ember Beast let out cries of pain and agony!

Although the Divine Ember Beast was a fire-type beast and the clones’ attacks did not do huge damage to it, it could not hold off so many of them. Every clone had the combat ability of a Category Five Earth-tier beast after all. It was clear how much Xiaolang had improved!

“Roar!”

The Divine Ember Beast desperately fought to break free. One after another, the clones left wounds on its body, but even more of them hit it with their attacks!

Flesh and blood mixed on the Divine Ember Beast’s scaled body. The most severe injury it sustained was the broken limb that Xiaolang had inflicted. Its movements gradually slowed down and soon, it would likely be killed by Xiaolang.

“Xiaolang, wait, let it escape!” said Long Chen, who approached quickly.

Xiaolang froze, then he retracted his clones immediately. The large swath of black wolf shadows all disappeared in the lava. The Divine Ember Beast looked around in surprise, then timidly at Xiaolang. Without another word, it fled while dragging its broken leg!

Xiaolang was confused!

“Follow it!” After the Divine Ember Beast ran for a while, Long Chen gave chase. He then explained to Xiaolang, “There are no Fire Essences in this Divine Ember Beast’s surroundings, but they are the kings of the Pyro Passageways, so how could it not possess any? I’m guessing that this isn’t its base. If we follow it, we can find out where it lives. Then we’ll get Fire Essences along with its demonic core.”

That was Long Chen’s objective.

Xiaolang suddenly understood. He looked at Long Chen in admiration, privately musing that the older gingers were the spiciest...

After deciding on the plan, Long Chen followed the Divine Ember Beast from afar. Since it was bleeding, Long Chen grew excited when he smelled its blood. No matter how far it went, he felt like he would have no trouble tracking it.

In the deepest part of the Pyro Passageways, Long Chen followed the Divine Ember Beast over a huge distance and realized he had entered a tunnel filled with lava. This was a shock to him because the bottom of the Pyro Passageways was a riverbed, and if there was a hole in the riverbed, what did that mean?

Would that mean it was the nest of the Divine Ember Beast?

When this thought popped into his mind, he activated the Soul Swallowing Gaze and saw that the deepest part of the tunnel was densely packed with Divine Ember Beasts!

They were all congregated in a large cave, gathering in duos and trios. Long Chen didn’t think his guess would be right!

He now faced a dilemma. On the one hand, these were Category Seven Earth-tier beasts. There were at least fifty here, and even if Long Chen and Xiaolang fought together, it would be difficult to fight so many. It was dangerous, but there was an opportunity that came with this risk. If so many Divine Ember Beasts were happy to stay here, then there was sure to be many precious Fire Essences too, perhaps even Divine Essence Crystals.

Long Chen described everything he saw to Xiaolang. Xiaolang frowned, also hesitating. The benefits to be gained were gigantic, but it was dangerous enough to kill either one of them.

“Let’s do it this way. Since both of us can use Divine Fire Clone, I reckon we can fight twenty Divine Ember Beasts together at most. We can stay here and wait for the Divine Ember Beasts to come out. We will kill them as they emerge, and we can even bait them out. Since we have three days, I’m sure we can slowly kill them all,” Long Chen said solemnly after some thought.

His mind was clear.

When the injured Divine Ember Beast returned to the large cave, the rest of the Divine Ember Beasts started to erupt in indignation. When they saw that their friend had been hurt, all the adult Divine Ember Beasts were extremely furious. Very soon, two Divine Ember Beasts traveled towards the mouth of the tunnel in Long Chen’s direction.

“We just talked about them, and now two are coming already. Xiaolang, let’s fight them together. We will wait at the mouth of the tunnel, and once they exit, I will use the Blood Devouring Domain and we will kill them!” Long Chen made the arrangements, and they quickly arrived at the mouth of the cave, waiting for the Divine Ember Beasts.

When the furious beasts’ heads emerged from the tunnel, Long Chen activated the Blood Devouring Domain, which pressed down on them. Since the beasts did not have their guards up, their movements were instantly restricted greatly. Long Chen and Xiaolang ambushed them at lightning speed, immediately engaging in a fervent battle with one of them.

Xiaolang used the lazy method, which was to use the Nine Devils Ancestral Fire to burn a hole in the Divine Ember Beast’s abdomen. Thanks to the Blood Devouring Domain’s influence, the Divine Ember Beast’s movements were restricted, and since it had been caught off guard, it died easily.

Long Chen used the same ambush method. He swung the Azure Dragon Halberd hard, using Dragon King’s Burial to unleash an efficient but fatal attack to quickly kill off the other beast.

A total of two Category Seven Earth-tier demonic cores ended up in Xiaolang’s belly. However, ascending to the next tier was not going to be easy. At this point, two demonic cores were only enough to partially fill his stomach.

After two easy kills, it proved that Long Chen’s method was correct. He needed to kill all of the Divine Ember Beasts to retrieve the things inside, so he did not want to waste more time and started working on a baiting strategy.