134: Chapter 134 The Inferno of Ice and Fire! An Avatar from the God of Drought

The night was as dark as ink, torn to shreds by the crimson light soaring into the sky from the center of Sunset Town.

Qin Ji casually tucked the still-warm [Sunset Settlement Token] into his robe. His fingertips brushed against the rough bronze patterns of the token, feeling a bone-chilling cold. He didn't look back; the unfathomable Young Scholar behind him had already dissipated into the wind. Ahead lay the dwelling of the legendary ancestor of zombies—Hanba.

"Whew—"

With one step forward, the air that had been merely a bit sweltering instantly reached a boiling point.

If his previous position was the edge of an oven, then at this moment, Qin Ji felt as if he had stepped right into Grand Supreme Elder Lord's Pill Furnace. The scorched earth beneath his feet no longer felt like soil, but rather a semi-fluid crust of magma. With every step, his soles made a "sizzling" scorched sound, as if they might melt at any moment.

[-100,000!]

[-100,000!]

[-100,000!]

Scarlet damage numbers erupted from the top of Qin Ji's head like a frantic fountain.

One hundred thousand points of fixed environmental damage per second!

If any so-called "Divine-Grade Tank" at this stage were here, they probably wouldn't last three seconds before turning into a streak of white light and reviving in the city. That sensation of all the moisture in one's body being instantly evaporated was enough to make an ordinary player wish for death.

But Qin Ji only frowned slightly; his pace didn't even falter for a second.

This small amount of health loss was not even a scratch to his health bar, which had long since stacked to astronomical numbers. In fact, because of his terrifying health regeneration speed, his health bar was visibly crawling back to full.

"Interesting. Is this Hanba's Aura?"

Qin Ji narrowed his eyes. Through the distorted heat waves, he could vaguely see magma pools of various sizes scattered ahead. The water in those pools wasn't still; it bubbled like something alive, and the sparks that splattered when they burst were enough to ignite steel.

Just then.

"Roar—!!"

The magma pool on the left suddenly exploded, and a crimson figure wrapped in rolling heat waves soared into the sky.

It wasn't human, but a dried corpse covered in red fur! Eternal flames burned around its body, and its withered claws drew a shrill trail of fire through the air as it lunged straight for Qin Ji's face.

[Red-Furred Fire Corpse (Silver-Tier Elite)]

[Rank: 50]

[Health: 60,000,000]

[Attack Power: 69,692]

[Skills: Lava Burst, Flaming Ghost Claws, Blazing Incineration...]

Sixty million health, and an attack stat of nearly seventy thousand.

If these stats were placed on an open-world boss, it would definitely be a nightmare capable of wiping out a hundred-man raid. But in Qin Ji's eyes, it was merely a mobile "Max Health Pack."

"Good timing."

A cruel curve formed at the corner of Qin Ji's mouth as he instantly drew his longbow to its limit.

He didn't even need to aim; the muscle memory etched into his bones allowed him to instantly lock onto the monster's forehead.

"Twang!"

The vibration of the bowstring was swallowed by the heat waves, replaced by the shrill whistle of a feathered arrow tearing through the air.

Because his attack speed was so fast, it wasn't just one arrow, but a black line of death formed by a succession of black-feathered arrows!

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

While the Red-Furred Fire Corpse was still in mid-air, its body trembled violently as if it had been electrocuted. Its proud flame shield was as fragile as tissue paper before Qin Ji's arrows, which carried true damage and terrifying attack power.

-999,999!

-1,240,000 (Critical)!

-999,999!

The dense damage numbers overlapped, forming a golden waterfall.

The Red-Furred Fire Corpse didn't even have time to land before it was shot into a sieve in mid-air. With one final, shrill roar, its burning body exploded, dissipating into a sky full of sparks.

[Killed Red-Furred Fire Corpse, Max Health +100!]

"Too slow."

Qin Ji glanced at the System notification, a hint of dissatisfaction flashing in his eyes. This kind of single-monster respawn efficiency couldn't possibly satisfy his greedy thirst for attributes.

In that case...

He stopped, his gaze sweeping over the calm magma pools around him. He took a deep breath, then suddenly drew his longbow and fired a [Split Arrow] into the sky!

Whiz! Whiz! Whiz!

Dozens of feathered arrows, as if they had eyes, landed precisely into all the surrounding magma pools.

Aggroing!

Since killing them one by one wasn't satisfying enough, he would call out the whole family!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

It was as if he had poked a hornet's nest; the entire area instantly went into an uproar. Dozens of magma pools exploded simultaneously, and Red-Furred Fire Corpses roared as they rushed out, surrounding him from all directions with an earth-shattering Aura.

The flames reached the heavens, and the heat waves were oppressive.

Qin Ji, at the center of the encirclement, smiled.

It was the wild joy of a hunter seeing his prey voluntarily leap into a trap.

"Now this is more like it."

The longbow in his hand turned into the scythe of the Grim Reaper, harvesting lives. His limit attack speed of twenty shots per second fully erupted, and a storm of feathered arrows radiated outward from him in all directions without distinction.

No positioning, no need to dodge.

Qin Ji stood rooted to the spot like a nail, letting the attacks of the Red-Furred Fire Corpses land on him.

-60,000.

-58,000.

That damage, which would be fatal to ordinary players, was like an itch to him. And with every arrow he fired, the high life-steal effect instantly replenished his lost health.

It was a massacre.

A one-sided, dull, and tedious crushing of numbers.

Five minutes later.

The last Red-Furred Fire Corpse wailed and fell, turning into ashes. The once noisy magma zone returned to a dead silence, leaving only embers all over the ground and the lingering smell of burning in the air.

Qin Ji glanced at his panel.

His maximum health had increased by over seven thousand points.

"Better than nothing," he muttered, curling his lip. He put away his longbow and continued deeper into the area.

After passing through the magma zone, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

It was a dilapidated temple.

Huge stone pillars were broken and collapsed, their jagged edges looking as if they had been smashed by some immense force. Among the debris scattered everywhere, traces of former glory were faintly visible.

Qin Ji walked to a broken divine tablet and brushed away the volcanic ash on it.

"Hall... of... the... Drought... Goddess."

He pieced together the ancient seal script characters on it.

The Drought Goddess, also known as Hanba, was the daughter of the Yellow Emperor.

In ancient mythology, she was a hero who helped the Yellow Emperor defeat Chiyou, but she was eventually exiled because her out-of-control Divine Power caused thousands of miles of parched land. Since this temple was called the "Hall of the Drought Goddess," it should have been filled with incense and worshippers. Why was it maliciously smashed to pieces?

Qin Ji entered the main hall.

The divine throne in the center was empty; the statue was long gone, leaving only a bare pedestal covered in the marks of knives and axes.

"Strange."

Qin Ji looked around. Aside from the ruin, there was only more ruin. No treasure chests, no hidden mechanisms, not even a single monster.

The only thing special was that after entering the hall's range, the continuous health-drain debuff had disappeared.

"Could it be like Fan Hall, where a player's quest led to the destruction of this place?"

Qin Ji shook his head, dismissing the thought. At this stage, it was impossible for any player besides himself to penetrate this far.

Since there were no clues here, he would keep moving forward.

Passing through the back door of the hall, Qin Ji's footsteps faltered.

The scene before him made even this veteran player, who was used to the wonders of online games, feel his pupils contract slightly.

It was snow.

Goose-feather snow fluttering across the sky.

One second it was a purgatory of rolling magma and sweltering heat waves, and the next, it had turned into a polar realm of frozen miles?

This extreme visual and sensory contrast gave off an intensely unrealistic sense of absurdity.

Qin Ji tentatively reached out his hand. A snowflake landed on his palm, cold, and then melted into water.

A real sensation.

"An illusion?"

Qin Ji subconsciously activated the [Eye of Spotlessness]. This divine eye, capable of seeing through all falsehoods, flickered with a clear light. However, the world of ice and snow before him remained unmoved, without a single flaw.

He couldn't see through it.

An illusion that even the Eye of Spotlessness couldn't see through was a bit terrifying.

Qin Ji looked back, and his heart skipped a beat.

The Hall of the Drought Goddess had vanished.

The path he came from, that sea of magma and fire, was all gone.

At this moment, it was as if he were alone in this boundless white wasteland, with nothing but the sound of howling wind and snow.

"Trying to trap me?"

Qin Ji gave a cold laugh and didn't panic or run around aimlessly. In an illusion, vision is the least trustworthy thing; once you start walking based on intuition, it's easy to fall into a loop.

He pulled a feathered arrow from his backpack and notched it on the string.

"Since eyes can lie, I'll let the Laws of physics lead the way."

"Twang!"

The feathered arrow shot through the air, drawing a perfectly straight black line as it flew toward a point a thousand meters away.

Qin Ji kept his eyes on where the arrow landed and strode toward it.

When he reached the landing point of the first arrow, he fired a second one.

Two points determine a straight line.

As long as the arrow flew straight, he would never take a detour!

Whiz! Whiz! Whiz!

In this silent world of ice and snow, only Qin Ji's rhythmic archery echoed. He was like a tireless machine, mechanically and precisely repeating the actions of "shoot and advance."

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

Twenty minutes.

The surrounding temperature seemed to be quietly changing, and that bone-chilling cold was slowly receding.

Just as Qin Ji fired his one hundred and eighth arrow, a calm voice, seemingly devoid of any emotion, abruptly pierced through the wind and snow and rang in his ear:

"You are very clever."

Qin Ji came to a sudden halt, his right hand instantly gripping three arrows as he whirled around.

The wind and snow stopped at some point.

Ten meters ahead of him, a woman stood quietly.

She was dressed in a green robe, which looked exceptionally striking in this vast white world. Her long hair was like a waterfall, fluttering in the wind. Her face was breathtakingly beautiful, yet so cold that one didn't dare look directly at her.

Qin Ji immediately threw an inspection skill at her.

[???]

[Health: ???]

[Attack Power: ???]

Nothing but question marks.

Qin Ji's heart sank.

In ragnarok, there were only two situations where everything appeared as question marks: one was that the opponent's level was much higher than one's own, and the other was that the opponent possessed a special authority to block inspection.

Whichever it was, it meant extreme danger.

"You are..."

Before Qin Ji could finish, the green-robed woman's figure suddenly blurred.

Boom!

An overwhelming flame erupted from her body without warning. Her originally cool green robe instantly turned into waves of crimson fire, and her beautiful face became flickering and indistinct within the flames, revealing a fierce Aura from the primordial wilderness.

This Aura was all too familiar to Qin Ji.

He had felt it countless times in Sunset Town, but it had never been as intense and pure as it was at this moment.

"Hanba!"

Qin Ji blurted out.

The next second, the sky full of flames receded, and the green-robed woman returned to her cool appearance. She watched Qin Ji quietly, her eyes seeming to hide two volcanoes about to erupt.

"It's only been a few days, and we meet again."

Her voice remained calm, but it carried an unquestionable pressure.

Qin Ji gave a wry smile and slowly lowered his longbow, spreading his hands in a gesture of submission. "I didn't expect your true self to be hidden in this dungeon. Had I known, I would have brought a gift."

Facing an existence of this level, fighting head-on was seeking death; he could only rely on his wits.

"True self?"

The green-robed woman shook her head slightly, a faint, mocking smile playing at the corners of her mouth. "You overestimate the current me. This is merely a Clone I left behind."

A Clone?

Qin Ji's heart was in turmoil.

Just a Clone, yet even the Eye of Spotlessness couldn't see through it, and the inspection skill returned nothing but question marks? Then how terrifying must her main body be?

Was this the true power of the ten great ancient demon gods?

"I know what you are doing."

The Hanba Clone ignored Qin Ji's shock. She took a step forward, seemingly slow, but instantly crossed the ten-meter distance to appear right in front of him.

That faint, sweltering Aura hit him in the face, making Qin Ji catch his breath.

"You want to revive the Ancient Eastern Kingdom."

She stared into Qin Ji's eyes, her purple-gold pupils reflecting his slightly stiff face. "I must admit, as an Adventurer, you've done better than I imagined."

"You flatter me, I'm just trying to make a living," Qin Ji said with a laugh, trying to ease the oppressive atmosphere.

"However..."

Hanba's tone shifted, and the surrounding air instantly froze, the temperature dropping to the freezing point. "I do not wish for you to succeed."

The smile on Qin Ji's face froze instantly.

His eyes narrowed slightly, and his originally relaxed muscles instantly tensed. His fingers, hidden in his sleeve, had already gripped a teleportation scroll.

So the cards were finally on the table?

"Why?"

Qin Ji asked in a deep voice, his tone losing some of its respect and gaining a bit of coldness. "As the daughter of the Yellow Emperor and one of the guardian gods of the Ancient Eastern Kingdom, you don't want your homeland to see the light again?"

The wind and snow rose again.

Hanba didn't answer immediately. She turned around, her back to Qin Ji, her gaze fixed on the end of this void of ice and snow. Her green robe fluttered in the gale, as if she might fly away with the wind at any moment.

After a long time.

She slowly raised her right hand and lightly tapped the void with her fingertip.

Crack—

The originally perfect ice and snow illusion instantly shattered, revealing a huge rift that showed the pitch-black Void Realm outside.

"Revival means destruction."

Her voice was ethereal and hard to find in the wind and snow, yet it struck Qin Ji's heart like a heavy hammer.

Hanba suddenly turned her head. Her originally calm eyes had now turned into two masses of burning golden flames, locking onto Qin Ji. Behind her, the fragments of the shattered illusion reflected countless distorted worlds like mirrors, with fire and Frost intertwining into a portrait of the end of the world.

Her red lips parted slightly, and every word seemed like ice squeezed from between her teeth:

"Young man, some doors, once opened, can never be closed again."