Chapter 566: Golden Thread Kingsnake
The Sun Devouring Wolf was a fire-element beast, but it was also the predator of all beings that used the fire element.
After Xiaolang emerged from the Primordial Realm, he stood next to Long Chen and hung his head as he gazed at the fiery men. Black flames flickered in his eyes.
If all of the fiery men attacked Xiaolang at the same time, even Xiaolang would suffer, so Long Chen’s current task was to cover for him.
He activated the Demon Illusion, and his clone separated from his body.
Long Chen and his clone stood to the left and right of Xiaolang.
Xiaolang gave Long Chen a look to show that he was ready, then he leaped towards the fiery men, which had just recovered from Long Chen’s Heaven Sword Array. Xiaolang arrived in front of them in the blink of an eye, and Long Chen followed him closely.
“Let’s begin …” When the closest fiery man threw a punch at him, Xiaolang opened his mouth, and a black whirlpool appeared in his throat!
Whoosh!
The overwhelming sucking force pulled the fiery man in. It tried to retreat when it realized what was happening, but it was too late. It struggled to take even one step and was quickly mashed into a fireball before Xiaolang swallowed it whole. Xiaolang closed his mouth. Two red flames flickered in his eyes, then they disappeared.
During that time, Long Chen chopped two fiery men into halves!
“It worked! That’s good …” Long Chen sighed in relief while Xiaolang looked excited. This showed that swallowing the fiery men was beneficial to him. Perhaps he could really become a King-tier demonic beast soon.
If he reached the King-tier, he would be able to take human form. Although his main body was still one of a beast, getting a chance to live like a human was the greatest surprise to Xiaolang.
Long Chen was even more careful because of this.
While Xiaolang was swallowing a fiery man, Long Chen worked hard to chop up the other fiery men. Xiaolang swallowed them increasingly fast as he became more familiar with the process. The number of fiery men slowly dwindled, and they became less and less of a threat to Long Chen.
Without the assistance of a special beast like Xiaolang, Long Chen would never have been able to defeat all ten fiery men. Even Long Yue and the others probably had to defeat them slowly. Every kill was time-consuming!
Finally, Xiaolang killed off the last man.
Xiaolang’s aura had strengthened greatly.
“What do you think? Is it enough for you to break through to the King-tier?” Long Chen asked with concern.
“No, I need just a little more. Reaching the King-tier is different because it’s like becoming a life form on a whole different level. Almost no demonic beast has been able to progress from the Heaven-tier to the King-tier. That’s why I think it'll be very difficult!” said Xiaolang, a little resigned. He had already digested a lot of fire, even absorbing the solar fire from before. Unfortunately, he was unable to cross the canyon between his current level and the King-tier right now.
If he ever reached the King-tier, he would surely become much more powerful.
“I don’t think there’s only one test here. We need to proceed to the next one. Perhaps we’ll make more gains.” Right when Long Chen finished speaking, the bronze door at the end of the passage suddenly opened. He and Xiaolang nodded, and he let Xiaolang back into the Primordial Realm while he carefully walked up to the bronze door.
Once he passed through the door, the space in front of him suddenly opened up and he found himself in a luxurious, underground hall. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all made of clear, fire-red fire crystal. Although this type of crystal was not as precious as royal crystal, their neat arrangement was aesthetically pleasing.
This place was a squared-shaped hall, though it was separated into five sections that resembled five corridors that led to the next stage. However, there seemed to be an invisible wall between each section that prevented anyone from crossing over, though they could see through the entire room.
One of the sections belonged to Long Chen. There was another bronze door at the end of the hall, and at this moment, it was open.
The first thing Long Chen saw were sparkling white crystals scattered messily on the red floor. They were royal crystals! Many of them!
royal crystals were valuable, and he knew that this was his reward for passing the first round. He immediately stored them in the Primordial Realm. After a rough count, he found that there were more than seven hundred crystals. He knew that the average First Earthly Martial Stage cultivator had about ten royal crystals, and Second Earthly Martial Stage cultivators had around fifty. Seven hundred crystals was well above the net worth of even Third Earthly Martial Stage cultivators.
After putting away the royal crystals, Long Chen looked over and saw four other bronze doors, which were all open. The floor was also clean.
Does this mean that the other four have passed the first test already? Long Chen looked around and found nothing else out of the ordinary. He turned around and passed through the door, which rumbled and closed behind him.
The other four were at the Third Earthly Martial Stage, so he was not surprised that they had passed the first test quicker than him.
The first stage was so difficult … What will the second stage be like? Long Chen was not very confident, but after a brief moment of hesitation, he steeled himself.
I’ve already come this far! If I don’t go on, can I even call myself a man? He was in tunnel identical to the previous one, and as he walked further, he noticed that the surrounding temperature was hotter than before.
There were whooshing sounds coming from the front.
Something was waiting there for him.
Long Chen was still in his Dragon Soul Transformation. With the Desolate Cleaving Sword in hand, he slowly made his way deeper into the tunnel. After walking for about fifteen minutes, he saw a bright firelight. He put his guard up as he approached, and he found that there was another cave ahead. This cave was much larger than the previous one, perhaps several times larger.
He sensed a huge threat in this cave.
What was it?
Hiss!
Long Chen heard snake hisses. The ground was empty, but when he looked up, he suddenly saw a sea of fire on the ceiling! The fire burned brightly, and the hisses were coming from the sea of flames!
When he looked closer, he realized that it was not a sea of fire, but millions of small, fiery snakes. Every snake was just half a meter long, but they were not real snakes. Just like the fiery men from before, they were made of flames, but the snakes moved exactly like real snakes.
Long Chen spotted a small, golden snake made of real flesh and blood at the center of the millions of fiery snakes. It was almost as small as the fiery snakes, but Long Chen sensed a terrifying aura coming from its body.
“Be careful. That demonic beast was very famous in the Middle Ages. It’s a Golden Thread Kingsnake, a Category Two King-tier beast, but it can kill opponents far beyond its level,” the knowledgeable Little Cat explained.
Long Chen eyed the golden snake cautiously. In his mind, the higher level a beast was, the larger it was supposed to be. It was unbelievable to him that this tiny snake was a Category Two King-tier.
Category Two King-tier?
Long Chen’s scalp went numb.
“What’s so special about it?” Long Chen asked tiredly.
“Look at the other snakes. They are made of normal, condensed flames. Every fiery snake is a clone of it. Normal people can’t find the snake’s true body in the sea of fiery snakes. Its strength is in attacks and being able to hide easily so no one can touch it. However, it does not have strong defenses, and you stand a chance to survive because of this flaw. So, use your Soul Swallowing Gaze well,” Little Cat said nonchalantly, as if this was none of his business.
Long Chen’s brows were deeply furrowed.
Li Xuanji was the one who had taught him the Soul Swallowing Gaze. After reaching its third stage, which was Sight, he never progressed further. However, Sight had proven to be very useful recently. Everything disappeared from his sight; only the soul of the Golden Thread Kingsnake remained.
Long Chen was able to pinpoint its location due to its soul.
This was his only chance to win and live.
“You don’t need to be scared. You’re extraordinarily lucky. A First Earthly Martial Stage cultivator would have died on the first level, but you had Xiaolang. In this level, Second Earthly Martial Stage cultivators might exhaust themselves to death, but you stand a chance because of your Soul Swallowing Gaze,” Little Cat said.
Even Long Chen felt like he was indeed quite lucky.
He looked up at the Golden Thread Kingsnake, and the millions of fiery snakes also looked at him. Then the Golden Thread Kingsnake hissed once and fell to the ground. The rest of the fiery snakes followed suit, as if the kingsnake had a gravitational pull.
Loud hisses sounded across the cave.
Long Chen’s hair stood on end.
The countless fiery snakes instantly drowned out the kingsnake, and there was a sudden burst of firelight. Then a gigantic fiery snake as large as the King-tier Blood Ocean Viper appeared before Long Chen!
When he took a closer look, the gigantic snake was made of countless tiny snakes! The whole colony moved as one like they had gained sentience, their tongues flickering out of their mouths!