Chapter 275: Evil Fire Kylin

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn

“Damn it! Oh, no, such bad luck! I’ve even been suppressed as a monkey!”

Surrounded by darkness and with a bitter smile on his face, Junior Leopard curled up in an empty cave as the whole passageway had collapsed under Raging Fire Ancestor’s attack. He did not dare to use the Three Realms Division in such a strange place. God knew where he would be once he used the Three Realms Division. If he were to have bad luck, he would be transported directly into the underground rock flows, leaving him in limbo. So, he had no choice but to dodge again and again, and in the end, he was inevitably trapped in this small hole by the collapsed mud and rocks.

“Fortunately, it is not Buddha who is pressing on me, nor is the Five Elements Mountain on top of my head!” Junior Leopard said in his heart. At this moment, he did not dare to move but sat cross-legged in this small cave, which had only enough space for one person. He silently regulated his breathing and paid no attention to the dust and stone that was falling from time to time above his head.

By the time he finished regulating his breathing and leveling the damage that he had just suffered from the fire, the vibration had disappeared.

“The strength of a Level Nine expert is really eccentric. It is evident that the Golden Flame Mirror has absorbed all the fire strength, but the damage to my tendons and meridians took so long to recover. If it were in the past, it would have been restored long ago!”

“The killing power of a Level Nine expert’s Internal Qi is 20 times stronger than a Level Eight expert’s!” Green Spirit jumped out from somewhere. “That man has already practiced the Real Essence Source with a high quality. If you hadn’t managed to practice the Golden Flame Mirror by a stroke of luck, now the majority of your tendons and meridians would have already been destroyed!”

“Is a Level Nine expert really so powerful?!” Junior Leopard asked. Just now, when fighting with Raging Fire Ancestor, although that only lasted a short period, he knew that, with his present strength, he could not compete with him at all. If not for Raging Fire Ancestor being too careless to notice that he had the External Elixir of Fiery Eyes and had also practiced the Extreme Yang Heavenly Sword, he might have been stuck in a tough battle.

“Tough battle” was not the best way to put it. More precisely, it was a bitter struggle. Perhaps if he pulled out all the stops, he would be able to just barely fight against Raging Fire Ancestor for several rounds, but it was impossible for him to beat him.

That was when he secretly considered himself lucky for not having been pinched to death by Dark Lord Mie Chen in Northern Yuan.

In terms of cultivation, Dark Lord Mie Chen was only a half step to the Individual Immortal Karma Rank and was much more powerful than Raging Fire Ancestor. But obviously, his mightiness had stopped him from taking Junior Leopard seriously. On top of that, Mie Chen was concentrating on Wang She at that time. That was why Junior Leopard could gain such a big advantage. However, good luck was rare and scarce and it was a great blessing to have it.

“You’re in luck. The man didn’t mean to kill you in the beginning. He just wanted to teach you a lesson, so he hasn’t used his full force!” Green Spirit said, “Never compare a Level Nine expert with an expert under Level Nine. They have essential differences. This difference is even greater than that between Level Eight and Level Seven. Although the Internal Qi of Level Eight is greater than that of Level Seven, after all, it’s just in the category of Internal Qi, so you can beat a Level Eight expert using several methods. However, Level Nine experts are completely different. Their Internal Qi contains the power of Real Essence that can’t be resisted by Genuine Qi. To put it simply, Internal Qi is tofu, while Real Essence is a steel knife. Have you ever seen tofu beat a steel knife?!”

“Is the difference really so big?”

“Of course. You’ll understand it after you enter the Metaphysical Realm. All of the people below the Metaphysical Realm are mortals, but once they step into the Metaphysical Realm, they’ll reach the Individual Immortal Karma Rank. That is the difference between immortals and mortals!” Green Spirit said, “Once entering the Metaphysic Realm, you become an Individual Immortal or immortal. Those who are below the Metaphysical Realm are just mortals. When a mortal reaches Level Nine, though he’s not an immortal, he can use some immortal strength. That’s why you are no match for him!”

“If my Pure Yang Celestial Device is completely refined, can I contend with a Level Nine expert?”

“Yes, of course!” Green Spirit said, “The Golden Flame Mirror’s power is very strong. As long as you refine it successfully, you can defeat even an Individual Immortal. However, with your present strength, even if it is successfully refined, you can’t give a full display of its power. But it’s more than enough to beat a Level Nine expert.”

“In other words, I don’t need to be afraid of anything?”

“Bingo!”

“It seems that this time the emperor really sacrificed a lot. With a Pure Yang Weapon, you can deal with a Level Nine expert, but he is willing to just give it away!” Junior Leopard thought to himself. But he did not know that now the World Hero Competition was over and that Pure Yang Weapon had also fallen into the hands of Yan Fei, Xining King’s Eldest Son, and Royal Uncle. Strictly speaking, the emperor still kept goodies in his family.

“It’s no use thinking so much now. Just think about how to get out of this trouble!”

“It’s a piece of cake! I’ll just wait until the old guy is gone, and then use the Golden-Scaled Cudgel to cut a road through!”

The size of the Golden-Scaled Cudgel could change as Junior Leopard wished. Though it could not grow as large as the legendary Golden Cudgel, it could easily open a passageway under the ground. As the passageways were interlaced, Junior Leopard could probably go through another passageway once he opened one, and then he could find his way out. Of course, if he wanted to, he could also use the Golden-Scaled Cudgel to open a direct passageway to the ground, but in that way, it would be too noisy and inevitably alarm Raging Fire Ancestor. It was better to take it easy at first.

“Then don’t waste time, hurry up. It’s no fun being stuck in here.”

“Why?”

“Buddy, didn’t you see it? The damned place isn’t stable and may collapse at any moment. It was lucky that you even managed to find this place. But if it collapses, you will definitely have no place to hide. Even if your cultivation has reached Level Seven, and you have the Poison Cold Shield as well as an iron body, it’s impossible for you to bear the pressure of this kind of land subsidence, so it is better to leave early.”

“It seems to me that you have been trapped in the Small Thunder Temple for so long that you have a psychological shadow!” Junior Leopard said, “Perhaps even claustrophobia!”

“Don’t say anything that I don’t understand. Hurry up!” Green Spirit urged him again.

“OK! OK!” Junior Leopard had no choice but to take out the Golden-Scaled Cudgel, and he poked it forward suddenly. “Grow!”

With a flash of golden light, the Golden-Scaled Cudgel, which was originally the size of a flute, grew suddenly, and soon it opened a long and wide passageway beside Junior Leopard.

“Haha, you displayed the full function of the Golden-Scaled Cudgel.” Green Spirit laughed at the sight of this.

Junior Leopard did not speak, and as soon as he raised his body, he jumped into the passageway. He was very fast and the cudgel in his hand did not cease operating. He did not completely follow the passageway that was opened by the cudgel. He knew very well that passageways like these were completely out of line with mechanical principles and would soon collapse, otherwise, there would be no architects in the world.

Sure enough, shortly after he opened up another passageway, the previous one collapsed.

That was repeated five times. Finally, the sixth time, the passageway that he opened up connected with a natural passageway.

“Haha, I knew that it would work!” Junior Leopard cried excitedly. And with a leap, he entered the natural passageway and put away his Golden-Scaled Cudgel.

“Buddy, hurry up, otherwise this passageway will collapse!” After it happened several times, Green Spirit also seemed to figure something out. This passageway might have been very strong, but thanks to Junior Leopard’s poking, it would not sustain itself for a long time, no matter how strong it was.

Junior Leopard did not dare to stay and quickly passed through the passageways. Going round and round, he did not stop until an hour had gone by.

“Haha, it must be safe now. Even if the damned Raging Fire Ancestor has mighty power, he can’t be familiar with every passageway of this fire vein. We are here now and he couldn’t find us even if he were a god!”

“Before you get too excited,” Green Spirit said dully, “you should realize that although it is impossible for Raging Fire Ancestor to catch up with us, you are also lost!”

Looking around, Junior Leopard found that all the passageways around seemed to be the same. The palisades, the land, and even the air were all red. He could not find any differences.

“We just escaped from below. It seems that we have been going down for such a long time, so now we should be close to the bottom of the rock flows!” Junior Leopard said after thinking for a moment.

“So What?”

“Nothing. I mean, it’s better to find those underground rock flows and then go up along them, then we should be able to find out where we are!”

“Nonsense! There is more than one rock flow in this geocentric fire vein. Like rivers, which are always widely distributed, how can you be sure that the rock flow that you just found is the one that you used just now?” Green Spirit sneered, scoffing at Junior Leopard’s statement.

“Do you have a better idea? Poke through the ground with the Golden-Scaled Cudgel? Not to mention how far it is from here to the ground. The Golden-Scaled Cudgel can only extend 300 feet. Even if it did make it, the passageways are not stable. Because of the constant poking, the structure of the passageways in the underground fire vein may collapse down at that time, so we wouldn’t be able to go out even if we found an exit!” Junior Leopard said. Ignoring Green Spirit, he looked for the place full of the Spiritual Energy of Fire. According to his experience, rock flows went through places full of the Spiritual Energy of Fire. Besides, there was a plan in his mind that in this geocentric fire vein, if he was lucky enough, he might run into the Fire Evil Qi like the Blood Essence Evil Yuan and cultivate Gang successfully.

But there was no such thing as a free lunch.

Along the way, although the Spiritual Energy of Fire was getting stronger and stronger, Junior Leopard was not able to find a geocentric rock flow.

“Damn it! It is obvious that the Spiritual Energy of Fire is getting stronger and stronger, but why isn’t there a geocentric rock flow?”

“Buddy, you are really very funny, too funny, hahaha!” Hearing Junior Leopard’s complaining, Green Spirit finally could not help laughing. “Who told you that the stronger the Spiritual Energy of Fire is, the easier it is to find geocentric rock flows?”

“No one told me. I just think so!”

“Geocentric fire veins are directly connected to the lungs of the earth, buddy. The lungs of the earth, have you heard of that? All the inner geocentric fire veins in the world extend out from the lungs of the earth. It is not necessarily true that the stronger the Spiritual Energy of Fire is, the closer it is to geocentric rock flows. On the contrary, perhaps the stronger the Spiritual Energy of Fire is, the closer it is to the lungs of the earth. Of course, in terms of your ability and the temperature here, it’s still far away from the lungs of the earth, but it is a passage.”

“Lungs of the earth? So we can go straight to the lungs of the earth?”

“It should be the case at the moment, but it has nothing to do with you. I think you might as well change your direction!”

This time, Junior Leopard did not insist, nor did he have any reasons to insist. He followed Green Spirit’s advice and changed to a path that was also full of the Spiritual Energy of Fire.

“Wow, there it is, and it looks like I’m lucky!” After a long time, Junior Leopard stood on the edge of a geocentric rock flow and breathed in.

“Whoo, whoo, whoo!” Gasping for breath and with sweat streaming out like rain, he sat down at the edge of the geocentric rock flow. “I am f*cking tired, damn it. This underground fire vein is a dozen times hotter than the one I came across before. The temperature must be over 100℃. Without the Poison Cold Shield, I would have been scalded!”

“You wouldn’t be scorched without the Poison Cold Shield. At most, you would be burned to death!” Green Spirit said coldly. The temperature here had no effect on Green Spirit, who existed in different forms. Floating out of Junior Leopard’s body and circling around above the rock flows, he returned to Junior Leopard’s side. “Buddy, don’t you think there’s something wrong here?”

“No? Why?” Junior Leopard was confused and said, “This is just a geocentric rock flow.”

“No, this is not an ordinary geocentric rock flow. Do you think it looks like a lake?”

“A lake?” Somewhat taken aback at first, Junior Leopard carefully observed and then replied, “Yes, you are right, it’s quite like a lake!”

The geocentric rock flow in front of him was very large, but unlike the geocentric rock flow that he had seen before. It did not flow straight down, but was narrow at both ends and wide in the middle—it looked as if a river had been injected into a Great Lake. It was not like a rock river, but a rock lake.

“Get out of here quickly. I think something is wrong!”

“Something is wrong? Forget it!” Junior Leopard was surprised at first and then extended out his spiritual mind, which sensed nothing for a long time. “Well, can you not make a fuss? It’s just a rock lake. What’s the problem?”

Now Junior Leopard was very dependent on his own spiritual mind and trusted it very much. As he felt nothing with his entire spiritual mind, he did not think that the rock lake was dangerous.

But was he really not in danger just because he could not feel it?

Otherwise, how could a saying such as this be in the world: “You’ll just have to learn the hard way if you don’t heed the warning of someone with experience”!

Hardly had the words been spoken when the rock lake throughout the space shook and rock flows splashed out. Junior Leopard could not help stepping back.

“What, what happened?”

“You are in trouble!” said Green Spirit, floating into the green lamp, saying nothing further.

“Damn it, what a slippery guy!” Junior Leopard cursed in a low voice. He stood up and was ready to look for an opportunity to leave.

Now, it was just like an earthquake, and the ground around vibrated along with it. Junior Leopard did not know what was going on, but it was better to leave quickly. As the saying goes: “When the city gate catches fire, the fish in the moat suffer”. But now, he had no idea of what had happened, let alone how he would be affected.

Unfortunately, when he realized it, it was a little too late. He had just turned around when a steaming-hot fire strength came from behind him, which was no weaker than Raging Fire Ancestor’s attack.

But this time, Junior Leopard was finally ready. He fought back with the cudgel as soon as he had turned around.

“Poof—!” With a gentle sound, the cudgel hit nothing, but the fire strength hit him hard.

“Uh-oh!” With a dull hum, Junior Leopard’s body plummeted backward, and the scorching fire strength was drawn into his tendons and meridians. And once again, the Essence Qi of the Golden Flame Mirror rose in his body, engulfing the invading fire strength.

Compared with the palm strength of Raging Fire Ancestor, this fire strength was a bit hotter but somewhat less severe. Without a trace of Internal Qi, it was like the purest flame in the world.

“What the hell is this?!” Junior Leopard dared not neglect it. Having failed to strike anything with his cudgel, he suddenly turned around and waved his Golden-Scaled Cudgel. Then he saw the situation behind him clearly. But it was useless as there was a mass of flames instead of disordered things in front of him. The red flame was hanging over the rock lake, and from time to time, a cluster of red flames flowed out from the fireball, looking like a red sun.

“No, there seems to be something in this flame!”

Junior Leopard gently narrowed his eyes and, as a red light glimmered, he used the power of his Fiery Eyes.

But this time, he did not dare to use more. The greater his cultivation was, the more he felt that there was something wrong with his Fiery Eyes. It seemed that every time he used the Fiery Eyes, it would bring a heavy burden to his body. Yes, a heavy burden indeed. The greater his cultivation was, the heavier the burden Fiery Eyes brought to the body. Besides, Fiery Eyes represented trouble in the world itself. As his strength increased, Junior Leopard was more reluctant to use them, or even deliberately forgot them, but now in this strange situation, he could not help but use them. Anyway, he did not let the Fiery Eyes completely run but just used them to see any strange objects in the flames. That would not consume a lot of physical strength.

“Damn, what is this monster? It is—!”

Through his Fiery Eyes, Junior Leopard clearly saw the true face of the flame. At first glance, he subconsciously regarded it as a monster, but by the second glance, he recognized it.

It had a dragon’s head, antlers, a lion’s eyes, a tiger’s back, a bear’s waist, snake scales, horseshoes, and an oxtail. Its whole body was wrapped in red flames, with only the scales sparkling.

Kylin!

It exactly was a Kylin!

Junior Leopard did not expect to come across such a thing.

“Damn it! Oh my God, you’re not kidding me, are you? How can I run into a kylin?” Junior Leopard wailed in his heart. The previous fire strength had been fired out by the kylin in front of him, but it had fired out only once. Through the flames, Junior Leopard also noticed that the kylin was staring back at him. The gazes of the man and the beast locked together.

“No!” A warning sign flashed through his heart.

“Roar—!”

With a loud roar, a huge sound wave violently scattered. In an instant, Junior Leopard felt an invisible force of oppression toward him and he could not resist it, even though the Poison Cold Shield was ready.

“This is, Qi Power—!”

Both the Poison Cold Shield and Internal Qi were ineffective. Junior Leopard only felt the rattling vibration of all his bones as if a mighty force had pressed on his body in an instant. Almost at the same time, Junior Leopard suddenly realized that this inexplicable force was Qi Power with physical force, or Yi.

However, it was different from Yi. This Qi Power, or rather, this strength, was more condensed, smoother, and more powerful than Yi.

“Evil Fire Kylin! This really is an Evil Fire Kylin!”

At the same time, Green Spirit also recognized it and screamed.

Yes, screamed!

Junior Leopard did not know why he felt that he was screaming from what was only supposed to be an exchange of ideas.

“I don’t care whether it is an Earthly Evil Fire Kylin or a Heavenly Evil Fire Kylin. I will soon be crushed by him!” Junior Leopard bellowed in his heart, and tried his best to straighten up his body, which had been compressed like a bow. He did not know that a huge black fireball was burning up behind him, and then the fireball shrank sharply. As two more stars were orbiting around the hollow, Junior Leopard had given full rise to his fist intent, ready to fight against the kylin’s Qi Power.

“Are you crazy? This Evil Fire Kylin is born with Divine Sense and a mighty force. How can you fight against it?” At the sight of Junior Leopard’s actions, Green Spirit cried out urgently, but it was too late. Seeing Junior Leopard use his fist intent to fight back, the kylin felt that its dignity was greatly humiliated. With a fierce light in its eyes and low growl, it dispersed Junior Leopard’s fist intent in an instant.

“Puff!” Junior Leopard felt that he was numb all over. At least half of his skeleton was broken at this moment. He was flung away like a rag doll and did not have any strength to hold onto the Golden-Scaled Cudgel, which was rolling out.

Seeing that Junior Leopard had fallen to the ground and had no breath, the kylin cooled down a little. With an inhale, the kylin sucked all the surrounding red flames into its body, leaving only a red flame around its four hoofs as if it was flying in flames.