Chapter 239: Couldn’t help it
The Lord of the Flames’ terrifying wave of sound carried within it savage and earth-shattering power. It caused all of the spurting magma to stop, and then fall downwards to the fire lake with an even more ferocious speed.
At that moment, not only was the magic boundary unable to rise anymore, but it fell speedily towards the fire lake below due to the reversed flow of the magma.
“This is bad!” Marceau exclaimed anxiously with a face full of shock. “The Lord of the Flames is controlling the magma and making it fall. I used too much mental strength just now and have no way to control the boundary and fly out.”
Han Shuo had been resting with his eyes closed and suddenly opened his eyes. He looked at Marceau, “So we’re stuck in the fire lake?”
Kind hearted female knight Sophie was equally helpless in this situation and looked anxiously at the scorching magma roiling towards them, completely unsure of what to do.
Suddenly, Marceau revealed a resigned expression and said to Han Shuo and Sophie, “I’m very sorry, I don’t think I can leave the fire lake if I bring you two. I’m sorry!”
An strong pulse of magic suddenly traveled out from the position where Han Shuo and Sophie was at. It felt the same as last time when Han Shuo had left the boundary. As fiery sparks flew, the section of the boundary where Han Shuo and Sophie was located was directly cut off from Marceau’s boundary as if it had been chopped off by a sharp weapon.
Without the support of Marceau’s magic, Han Shuo and Sophie were immediately drowned by the flowing magma as they fell into the fire lake.
“Instead of the three of us dying together, I might as well escape by myself. This couldn’t be helped. Please don’t blame me!” Marceau murmured to herself remotely as she watched the two people fall and be quickly covered by the magma.
“ROAR…”
The earth-shattering roar was growing closer and closer. Marceau’s expression turned to shock when she heard that and she no longer dared remain. She controlled the boundary that was clinging rightly to her and inched upwards against the magma that was falling like a waterfall.
“Ahhh…”
Sophie’s yell as she fell towards the fire lake was completely covered by the roar from the Lord of the Flames. Aside from Han Shuo, who happened to be right next to her, no one else heard her scream of despair.
Even a female knight with extraordinary abilities,would instinctively reveal her weak side when facing a life or death situation, so this yell of despair was not a shameful act.
However, no one was able to withstand it when this sort of sharp scream was continuously ringing out right next to your ear. Han Shuo was naturally no exception.
“Miss Sophie, can you stop yelling!” Han Shuo couldn’t help but say to Sophie with a look of annoyance as he held Sophie’s slender waist with one arm.
To his surprise, the remaining magic boundary that was left on the two of them did not suddenly burst due to Marceau’s departure. It was instead covered with a dark light. The dense magma in the surroundings continuously crashed against this dark boundary, but the latter didn’t move or crack. Only rays of ghostly light slowly seeped out from Han Shuo’s body to stick to the dark boundary.
Sophie very quickly realized the situation they were in after Han Shuo’s scolding. Her clear eyes swiftly surveyed her surroundings and she exclaimed in joy, “We’re actually not dead!”
“Of course, I just recovered some strength. I think we can hold on for a bit more until we leave this mysterious place!” Han Shuo smiled faintly and comforted Sophie.
Sophie suddenly realized that Han Shuo still had an arm wrapped around her waist. She immediately straightened herself uncomfortably, and struggled out of Han Shuo’s arm to maintain a safe distance from him.
Seeing that Sophie had recovered from the shock, Han Shuo no longer intentionally took advantage of her. He smiled apologetically and said, “It couldn’t be helped just now, I hope you don’t mind. The Lord of the Flames will come back very quickly, we have to leave immediately!”
“That Marceau is actually a famous person from the Brut Merchant Alliance, I didn’t think that she could actually do something like this. What a petty character!” The kind Sophie swore furiously as she was still very hung up over Marceau’s actions.
Han Shuo however, felt that it was natural. He didn’t think that there was anything wrong with Marceau’s. After all, the three of them had just met and there was no true friendship between them. When danger befell them, everyone naturally had to think for themselves. Marceau had been forced to do what she’d done, so Han Shuo didn’t fear any grudge towards her.
That was because he would’ve done the same if he were in her position!
However, Han Shuo didn’t say much, he merely shrugged and smiled, concentrating on circulating his magical yuan as they slowly flew up through the falling magma.
At Han Shuo’s level of magical cultivation, he could naturally form a protective barrier around him via manipulating the magical yuan. As long as his magical yuan didn’t run out, he could continue to maintain the barrier so that it didn’t break, and use it to stop the invasion of the magma and flames.
Compared to Marceau’s barrier from earlier, the insides of Han Shuo’s shield had a more moderate temperature. None of the various threats in the surroundings could penetrate the barrier. After the barrier enclosed Han Shuo and Sophie’s body, their flight speed actually increased greatly as they broke through the obstacles of layers of magma. They swiftly identified a narrow crack and rushed upwards against the scorching sparks.
Sophie focused on observing Han Shuo’s protective barrier during this process and displayed a confused expression. She even reached out carefully her hands and touched the protective shield with black light flowing through it, then mused blankly as she felt the weird texture.
Han Shuo’s expression was carefree and confident without pain and suffering he’d shown before as they rushed upwards. This caused the observing Sophie to be very confused. In the end, she couldn’t resist as she asked with suspicion, “Are you actually hurt or not?”
Han Shuo understood her meaning the moment she said this and turned to look at Sophie. He smiled wryly and said, “Don’t think that I’m fine just because my expression is carefree. I’ve actually been enduring agonizing pain. It’s just that I have to show my strong side in front of a beauty, only then will I leave the image of a powerful man in your mind!”
Sophie obviously hadn’t expected Han Shuo to say that. These words were full of ambiguities which Sophie naturally heard as well. She first blanked, then rolled her eyes at Han Shuo with annoyance and laughed, “You’re so interesting, who says things like that!”
Han Shuo shrugged and pretended to in pain. He even used his magical cultivation to force himself to break out into a sweat and turned his face ghastly pale. He said with difficulty while panting, “Look, this is my real situation. I might fail at any moment, then we’ll both fall into the fire lake together to see that beautiful lotus!”
Sophie was extremely unused to Han Shuo’s sudden change in appearance. She said anxiously with great shock, “Don’t scare me, I don’t care if it’s real or not, but I want to see your carefree look of just now!”
“No problem!” Han Shuo laughed heartily as the painful expression disappeared from his face in the blink of an eye. The sweat on his forehead also miraculously disappeared, and he winked at Sophie with an evil smile. He teased casually, “Is this better?”
“Pfft!”
Sophie was unable to hold in her laughter, and she waved her firsts to punch towards Han Shuo’s chest. She huffed as she waved her fist angrily in front of Han Shuo, “You evil person, you were tricking me the entire time!”
“Haha!” Han Shuo laughed proudly. He then broke through the layers of magma with Sophie in tow and rushed directly towards the crack above.
“You guys are actually fine?!” Marceau, from the Brut Merchant alliance, suddenly exclaimed from a boundary wrapped in magma located beneath Han Shuo and Sophie’s body.
Right now, Marceau looked like she was drenched by rain. Her body was soaked in sweat and her face was pale as she huffed and puffed weakly. She moved the magical boundary with difficulty and slowly inched upwards.
Her current appearance was similar to the appearance that Han Shuo had faked. It was obvious that she’d used up a lot of mental strength, and was finding it harder and harder to hold on. When she noticed Han Shuo and Sophie had passed her by like an arrow as they flew straight towards the surface, she was even more shocked.
“Hi, let’s meet up there!” Han Shuo casually looked down at Marceau beneath his feet as he responded with a smile. He then activated his magical yuan and ignored Marceau’s concentrated gaze as he rushed towards the crack in the ground that was revealing the sky.
One of his yin demons had been left near the underground fire lake, while the other two had remained in the valley all this time. This had enabled Han Shuo to see everything clearly through the three yin demons’ surveillance.
When the Lord of the Flames left behind its three enemies without hesitation and wanted to return to the Kingdom of Flames, the enormous silver ape was the only one that went to stop it, but was easily beaten back by the fury of the Lord of the Flames.
Without the cooperation of the golden dragon and the cyclops, the enormous silver ape was unable to defeat Lord of the Flames, it could only watch as the Lord of the Flames entered the largest crack on the ground and hitched a ride underground with the flowing magma.
As the traces of the Lord of the Flames disappeared, the proud golden dragon seemed to remember the purpose for coming to the valley, and immediately started to attack its previous ally – the cyclops. The cyclops seemed to know well beforehand that this would happen as well as it started fighting with the golden dragon. It carved a passage through the valley, as it fought with the golden dragon, making for the exit.
When the Lord of the Flames landed in his kingdom of flames, the enormous silver ape knew that it didn’t have any more chances and left from the path that the golden dragon had torn open after beating on its chest. It disappeared with a few hops.
Han Shuo saw all of this through the two yin demons he’d left in the valley. The yin demon left around the fire lake also noticed the enormous body of the Lord of the Flames at this moment. It was mixed with the flames and magma, and was slowly sinking towards the bottom of the lake.
“Phwee…”
A long whistle rang out from a crack in the ground as a black arrow shot out from within, hovering in the sky above the valley.
Having managed to escape from danger, Han Shuo let out a long whistle as the barrier of black light flowing around him cracked like an egg shell. Rays of black light seemed to wrap around Han Shuo like lightning before it slowly sinking into his skin.
These black lightning wiggled beneath his exposed skin. They seemed to be like moving tattoos and displayed a shocking beauty. With Han Shuo’s long whistle, the black light slowly faded away as his skin color returned to normal.
“How long are you going to hold onto me for?” Sophie gazed at the series of changes to Han Shuo’s body and couldn’t help but glare when she saw that he refused to let go of her slender waist.
Due to the crack in the protective barrier, Han Shuo had been afraid of Sophie falling down from the sky and had held onto her slender waist in hurry just now. When he felt the soft elasticity of Sophie’s slender waist, the long whistle earlier had also been indescribably comfortable.
“Eh… I couldn’t help it, hehe, couldn’t help it!” Han Shuo didn’t feel awkward at all as he chuckled. “I don’t know that if I let go, would you directly crash to your death?”
Sophie looked at Han Shuo in an unfriendly manner and then pointed below. “I’m only a few meters up from the ground. The surrounding area has not been covered by lava yet. Do you think a knight who has dared come to the Dark Forest by herself would fall to her death from a few meters in the sky?”
“呃……我想不会，你该趁早提醒我的！”韩硕摸了摸头，嬉皮笑脸的说了一句，挽着苏菲细腰的右手紧了紧，留念的感受了一下她细腰的柔软美妙，这才放手任由她往地面落去。
“Ugh… I think not, you should have reminded me earlier!” Han Shuo touched his head and said with a laughing expression. He tightened his right hand on Sophie’s thin waist, then gave a last feel for the miraculous softness of her waist, before letting her go and fall towards the ground.
“Awroo…” The Lord of the Flames’ strange roar suddenly rang out from deep within the ground.
By using the yin demon underneath to investigate, Han Shuo noticed that the Lord of the Flames’ enormous body had been completely fused into the fire lake. The fire lotus that had sunk into the fire lake was raised in its giant palm. A powerful feeling emanated from the Lord of the Flames towards the fire lotus through some sort of mystical power.
Just as Han Shuo was growing worried, the Lord of the Flames suddenly looked up and called out continuously, then carefully caressed the shut fire lotus as if it was a treasure. The murderous air around it was nowhere to be felt. Instead, it was more like a mother as it brought the fire lotus to its chest as a strange motherly love filled the entire fire lake.
“No way, it’s not treating the fire elite zombie as its child, right?” Han Shuo guessed in confusion as he was completely dumbfounded.