Chapter 565: Immortal Fire
Something’s happening. Long Chen retreated hurriedly after the flames flared up, keeping his guard up in case anything else happened. He knew that the Red Emperor Seal was in the Divine Fire Realm, so he assumed that he was heading towards it. Five people were competing to take the Red Emperor Seal for themselves, and they would have to face various tests to get it.
These sparks were Long Chen’s first test.
“Interesting.” Long Chen watched as the twinkling sparks quickly expanded to the size of a human, they then morphed into human shapes. They looked similar to Long Chen’s Divine Fire Clones, though they were countless times stronger.
The flames burned brightly and colorful lights danced and flowed within them like crystals.
A total of ten flaming men appeared before him.
Their faces slowly morphed until eyes, ears, noses, and mouths took shape. Only the eyes took a more detailed form with darker-colored, tiny fireballs.
Whoosh …
Rays of light shot out of their eyes. Long Chen sensed that slumbering souls were waking up.
“Do I need to defeat them to pass through?” He looked at the passage up ahead and saw another bronze door at the end of it. The door was wrapped in flames and tightly shut. He guessed that he would never be able to open it if he tried to force his way through. Therefore, the only way was to defeat the flaming men.
These were not normal living beings, so he could not tell how powerful they were. For his safety, Long Chen activated the Dragon Soul Transformation, radiating the aura of dragons and powerful fire energy due to the Golden Crow’s soul remnants. They provided Long Chen with an advantage when facing fire.
He was sure that although the other four people were powerful, they did not have a huge advantage like he did.
Faint, red flames flowed on the surface of his blood-red scales.
As Qi traveled through his body, the Golden Crow’s energy covered him in a fiery membrane.
The membrane boosted his defense.
One of the ten flaming men stepped out and approached Long Chen.
“Is one coming over to test my strength?” Long Chen’s mind raced. There were ten of them, so he chose to remain in the tunnel. That way, due to limited space, he would not need to deal with all of them at the same time.
He would not need to worry if it was just one opponent.
The flaming man suddenly accelerated—it charged right up to him and threw a punch. To his shock, the punch brought with it a powerful wave of heat, and the fist became several times bigger when it flew towards his chest. He even sensed Earthly Martial Realm-level energy from the punch!
“He’s strong!” Long Chen was startled. He threw his own punch in retaliation. It was a simple punch backed by his physical strength, but it was special due to the boost from the Golden Crow’s soul remnants. The Golden Crow’s energy turned into red flames and wrapped around his fist. The two types of fire collided!
Boom!
The Golden Crow’s energy was slightly stronger, causing his opponent to take several steps back!
Long Chen was shocked because the Eagle Martial King had also been forced back by his punch. Didn’t this mean that one flaming man was the equivalent to an Earthly Martial Realm cultivator? And there were ten of them!
Chills ran through his body.
If this was only the first test, what more awaited him?
No matter what lay ahead, he could not give up now, as he had to stay alive. He quickly stabilized himself and took out the Desolate Cleaving Sword, setting fire to the blade. Then he charged at the flaming man. The first time he slashed, the flaming man blocked with its fist, and the second time he slashed, the flaming man was split in half!
Without the Golden Crow’s power, Long Chen would’ve found it very difficult to resolve this situation.
“One down, but many more to go.” Long Chen rushed back to the mouth of the cave with the sword still burning in his hand. The other flaming men had not moved yet, so he did not move either.
“How do I get past them?” Long Chen and the flaming men stood in a stalemate while his mind raced.
“Long Chen, careful!” Little Cat warned.
Long Chen’s hair stood on end. When he heard Little Cat’s voice, he felt a huge threat coming from behind him. He turned and swung his sword as fast as he could. It coincidentally collided with a flaming man’s fist!
If he had not been fast enough, the punch would have landed on the back of his head! He would have been greatly injured, as the flaming man was at the Earthly Martial Realm.
After Long Chen’s desperate slash, the flaming arm was cut in half and flew in the air.
“Didn’t I split that guy in half just now? How is he still alive?” Long Chen was very puzzled.
Then he saw the flaming arm, which had been thrown up in the air, disappear. A brand new arm grew from the flaming man’s body, and it attacked him again!
“Is it immortal? Are you kidding me?” Long Chen smiled bitterly. It was difficult enough to fight ten of them, and now they were immortal? How long would it take him to defeat them all and open the bronze door to get to the next level?
“I refuse to believe I can’t kill you!” Long Chen refused to accept defeat when the flaming man’s arm regrew. He swung his flaming sword around with all his might. Seven minutes later, the flaming man had been cut to tiny pieces.
Long Chen heaved a sigh of relief.
The flaming men were not immortal. They had something that resembled life force within them, and every time he hurt them, their life force deteriorated. Its previous injury had not caused much damage to its life force, but after landing about a hundred slashes on its body, the flaming man finally died and dispersed completely.
Long Chen put down the Desolate Cleaving Sword, panting heavily.
“What a tough being! It takes a hundred slashes to kill one?! Even if they come one by one, I’m going to die from exhaustion!” Long Chen paled as he looked at the other flaming men. After the first death, the rest of them moved simultaneously.
“No!” Long Chen gasped. He thought two or three would come, but now all of them were approaching. He even saw anger in their eyes!
Long Chen was not in the cave, but the tunnel. Since it was not wide, he was only faced with four or five of them. Even then, it was brutal!
Five fists flew at him simultaneously. It did not matter how fast he was—it was impossible to block that many punches. He could only attack and retreat at the same time, but the flaming men needed a hundred slashes to die. After he retreated a hundred meters, he still had not killed even one!
“I’m dead if this goes on.” In the face of great pressure, Long Chen’s brows were deeply furrowed, though he did not regret his decision at all. He continued to retreat. One of them, with a mate as cover, managed to land a punch on his shoulder!
Boom!
The flaming man’s punch was strong. Although Long Chen had the True Martial Demon Body, a tough Dragon Body, and was boosted by the Golden Crow’s power, he was thrown back in the air, almost dropping the Desolate Cleaving Sword!
“It’s powerful!” Long Chen was destabilized by the punch and almost vomited blood. One punch was enough to injure him, and he was very clear about the reality of the situation.
“If this goes on, I will die.” Long Chen understood this very well when he crashed into the ground. If he did not have the Golden Crow’s fiery membrane covering his body, the flaming man’s fire energy would have burned him to crisp.
When he landed on the ground, six or seven of them swarmed towards him. They had already successfully landed a punch; if they rode on this momentum, they would be able to kill him!
Long Chen’s face changed. After he landed, he quickly unleashed the Heaven Sword Array. Blood-red sword symbols emitting endless sword light materialized in the tight space. The flaming men were swallowed by the Heaven Sword Array, and the crowded tunnel suddenly became empty!
Is it over? Just as the question popped into his mind, the sparks that remained in the tunnel turned into flaming men again. Not a single one of them had died, though their life force had diminished after the attack.
“A full-power Heaven Sword Array merely diminished one-tenth of their life force. I can’t use the Heaven Sword Array ten times …” His brows were furrowed.
How would he survive such a terrifying test?
Xiaolang’s voice came from the Primordial Realm.
“Big Brother, let me try! Aren’t they immortal? I’ll swallow them whole! But since they’re difficult to defeat, why don’t I swallow them when you catch them?”
Xiaolang was at the Category Nine Heaven-tier, so he was almost on the same level as the flaming men. Long Chen had a feeling that his idea would work, so he nodded and let Xiaolang out of the Primordial Realm.
This was his only hope …