118: Crimson Scaled Serpent Queen Yan Lingluo! A hero from humble beginnings?

Scarcely ten breaths after Lu Yu dove into the magma.

Boom!

Violent tremors and the sound of energy explosions came from the direction of the crater above.

Clearly, the battle between the possessed Xiao Yan and the three from the Fentian Sacred Valley had either concluded or taken a turn; they must have discovered the fake fire seed was gone and realized a third party existed!

Liu Yunshu and Li Miaoer exchanged glances, knowing they could no longer remain hidden.

"Go!"

Liu Yunshu made a swift decision, revealing herself alongside Li Miaoer and Lin Xiaoyou, and they sped toward the top of the crater!

They intended to expose themselves voluntarily to draw all the enemies' attention, buying time for Lu Yu!

Inside the magma, Lu Yu's sensations were quite peculiar.

Surrounded by an endless, thick, and viscous dark-red scorching flow, terrifying heat and pressure squeezed from all directions; the fire shield formed by the Crimson Flame Emperor Phoenix Manifestation sizzled, constantly being consumed and replenished from within Lu Yu's body.

Sight was completely useless, and his Divine Sense was severely interfered with by the magma, which contained violent fire spirit energy, allowing it to extend only several meters around him.

He relied entirely on the faint resonance and guidance from the two top-tier flames within him, diving deeper into the magma sea like a fish in the dark.

The pressure grew, and the temperature rose, as flows of Earth Fire Essence—darker in color and even more terrifying in temperature—began to appear.

Lu Yu had to pour more spiritual Qi into the Emperor Phoenix Manifestation to maintain the shield's stability.

"Just how deep is this hellhole..."

Just as he began to doubt if he would run out of spiritual Qi and turn into a human-shaped coal ball, the strange sensation suddenly became crystal clear, as if it were right beneath his feet!

Moreover, what came from below was no longer purely violent heat, but instead mixed with a hint of... coolness and purity?

Lu Yu's spirits lifted, and he swam toward that direction with all his might.

After about the time it takes for half an incense stick to burn, the thick dark red ahead suddenly thinned out, and the resistance decreased significantly!

Splash—!

The viscous resistance in front of him suddenly vanished!

It was as if he had passed through an invisible membrane, falling from an extremely hot, oppressive world into a completely different space.

This was a massive underground hollow located beneath the endless magma sea.

The ceiling was a translucent, slowly churning layer of dark red magma, like an inverted sky of fire, providing a faint and steady red light.

However, the space within the cavern was not scorching; instead, it was filled with a refreshing aura that calmed the mind.

At the center of the hollow was not a rocky floor, but a calm, cyan-blue lake of fire about a hundred feet in diameter!

The lake water was composed entirely of cyan-blue flames condensed to the extreme, flowing slowly and emitting a vast ripple that purified all things and overflowed with vitality.

That was the true Origin sea of fire formed by the accumulation of the Pure Lotus Heavenly Clear Fire!

In the center of the sea of fire, a Ninth-grade Lotus Platform, entirely condensed from cyan-blue flames, floated quietly, crystal clear and exquisitely beautiful.

However, what drew Lu Yu's full attention was not the lotus platform, but the figure lying upon it.

It was a woman.

She lay on her side on the lotus platform, her body's curves breathtaking; she wore a Western-style long dress that seemed woven from the hottest sunset glow and flames, its hem trailing on the ground. The design was bold, revealing a slender waist and rounded shoulders, and she wore ornate gold jewelry with flame patterns, exuding a wild yet noble beauty, like a queen of flames.

But at this moment, the queen's condition was dire.

Her eyes were tightly shut, her face as pale as paper, her long eyelashes trembling incessantly, and her forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat.

Even more striking was her lower body; from the waist down, she did not have human legs, but a long, slightly curled snake tail covered in shimmering fire-red scales!

The luster of the scales was dim, and some areas even showed signs of charring.

Bursts of uncontrolled cyan-blue fire were erupting from her body, scorching her torso and snake tail, clashing with the light of her own red scales, causing her to let out extremely painful and suppressed moans.

Her aura was weak and chaotic, sometimes surging near a critical point and then rapidly plummeting, like a candle flickering in the wind.

Lu Yu frowned slightly: "A Crimson-Scaled Heavenly Python? Judging by her Bloodline aura and form, she is close to ancestral return... She tried to swallow and fuse the Pure Lotus Heavenly Clear Fire to charge toward a higher Realm, but she failed. The Immortal Fire backfired, burning her Origin; she's in critical danger."

Almost simultaneously, the System's prompt sounded in Lu Yu's mind:

[Detected Daughter of Destiny, Crimson-Scaled Heavenly Python Queen, Yan Lingluo.]

[Name: Yan Lingluo]

[Age: 75 years old]

[Realm: Void Return Stage Perfection]

[Luck: 21,000 (Red)]

[Physique: Burning Heart Glazed Physique (Top-tier Dual Cultivation Physique)]

[Description: Daughter of Destiny Yan Lingluo is the queen of the Crimson-Scaled Heavenly Python tribe deep within the Tianyan Mountain Range. During the process of Bloodline ancestral return, she forcibly attempted to swallow the Pure Lotus Heavenly Clear Fire but failed, suffering a backlash from the Immortal Fire. The Immortal Fire triggered the 'heavenly python lustful toxin' deep within her Bloodline. Under the dual backlash, her Origin is on the verge of collapse, and her Breakthrough to the Body Integration Stage has failed. In the future, she would be the harem matriarch for the son of destiny, Xiao Yan. Please, host, seize the Opportunity and intercept Xiao Yan's Opportunity!]

[Suggestion: Using Haoyang True Fire and Phoenix True Flame as a guide, supplemented by the method of Yin and Yang harmony, you can attempt to guide and strip the rampaging Pure Lotus Heavenly Clear Fire from her body. Note: Due to her Bloodline characteristics and the state of backlash, the stripping process may trigger a strong chain reaction.]

Crimson-Scaled Heavenly Python Queen? Bloodline ancestral return? Failed fire swallowing? And she even has the 'lust poison' inherent to the snake tribe?

Although there's a slight discrepancy from the plot in the novel where the Green Lotus Core Flame was snatched, overall, it's pretty much the same.

The main plot point of the snake queen failing to refine the Essence Fire is still there!

Jie jie jie!!!

Damn it, isn't he snatching Xiao Yan's script right now!

But on second thought, he really was snatching it!

Is Medusa about to be taken by him?

Xiao Yan, sorry about that!

Lu Yu felt like he was about to drool; the scenes he had secretly fantasized about after seeing them in the 3D section in his previous life—he could finally fulfill that old wish today!

If Xu Xian and Xiao Yan can be heroes of the wilds, why can't he, Lu Yu?!

He turned his gaze back to the figure of Yan Lingluo on the lotus platform.

Looking at that hot figure curled up in pain, and then at the cyan-blue flames burning around her that resonated strongly with the fire in his own body, he understood her current situation.

This queen had no small ambition, wanting to rely on swallowing the Immortal Fire to drive her Bloodline ancestral return and Breakthrough to the Body Integration Stage in one go.

As a result, she overplayed her hand; instead of refining the Immortal Fire, she suffered its backlash and even drew out the heavenly python lustful toxin in her Bloodline. Now, she was on the verge of being burned to death.

"Consider yourself lucky to have run into me."

Lu Yu muttered, though his heart was practically bursting with joy—he was finally going to have a mature, older-sister-type snake queen to play with!