5: Hijack!

The light in the Underground World mainly relied on the various colored fluorite scattered across the dome, which emitted a variety of colors that converged into a hazy white light.

The entire environment was as hazy as mountains and rivers illuminated by moonlight.

Su Ling moved through a patch of tall shrubs and soon arrived at the peak of a small hill.

Following the direction of the low growls, he cautiously poked his head out.

A hundred meters away, a dark red Yao Beast was breathing fire, continuously attacking three Cultivators.

"Lava Beast!"

Su Ling's eyes lit up as he immediately recognized the origin of this Yao Beast.

The Underground World was not entirely dark; in some places, leyline lava flowed out, nurturing Yao Beasts with flame abilities.

The Lava Beast, an otherworldly Yao Beast resembling a large lizard, was one of the most common types.

The strongest ones could even reach the Core Formation stage.

Lower ones could also reach the Sixth Level of Qi Refining.

These were all recorded in the Yao Beast Compendium provided by the Sect.

However, this one before him could breathe fire, so its strength was at least comparable to the Eighth Layer of Qi Refining.

"Zhao Yan, Li Weifeng... Zhong Er!"

His gaze fell upon the three Cultivators, and Su Ling immediately recognized their identities.

When leaving the Sect, Su Ling had been traveling in roughly the same direction as them.

He didn't expect to run into them so soon.

If Su Ling remembered correctly, there was a lava pool not far from here.

This Lava Beast was likely lured over by them from that direction.

Su Ling's heart stirred; the area near the lava pool was rich in dark molten flowers, and the Sect had posted a mission regarding them.

The mission these three were on very likely involved dark molten flowers.

With this thought, Su Ling directly took out his last remaining breath concealment talisman and activated it, quietly circling around and creeping toward the lava pool.

After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the surrounding environment became dry, faintly emitting a dark red glow.

Rounding a mountain col, a lava pool dozens of yards in diameter appeared before him.

Near the lava pool lay the corpses of two Lava Beasts.

Looking at their size, they were clearly a size smaller than the one before, likely comparable to the Sixth Level of Qi Refining or Seventh Level of Qi Refining at most.

"There really are dark molten flowers!"

Looking carefully around the lava pool, several dark red flowers that appeared withered immediately caught his eye.

Su Ling was delighted.

According to the mission posted by the Sect, each dark molten flower was worth ten contribution points.

The last time he took a mission, he had considered this one.

However, Lava Beasts almost never left their lava pools, and in places with abundant fire-attribute spiritual energy, their combat power would directly increase by one level.

How to lure away the Lava Beasts was a difficult point in itself.

With the same attribute, the damage of an explosive flame talisman against a Lava Beast would be invisibly weakened by another level.

As a result, Su Ling eventually had to give up on this high-reward mission.

Now, the ready-made dark molten flowers were laid out before Su Ling.

"Then it would be impolite to refuse."

The corners of Su Ling's mouth curled slightly as he quickly stepped forward and began to pick the dark molten flowers with a pre-prepared jade hoe.

A moment later, Su Ling patted his Storage Pouch with satisfaction.

Seven flowers in total!

One of them had medicinal potency approaching a hundred years.

This single flower alone was worth thirty contribution points.

From this effortless gain, the contribution points Su Ling harvested already exceeded a hundred.

"Roar!"

A shrill, angry roar came from the distance, and a red light flared up in the dark valley.

Clearly, the Lava Beast over there had been pushed to its limits.

Zhong Er had just promoted to the Seventh Level of Qi Refining, so his combat strength wasn't very high.

But Zhao Yan and Li Weifeng had already stepped into the Seventh Level of Qi Refining three months ago.

Living in the same small courtyard, the three of them shared the same foul tastes and had often mocked Su Ling.

Relying on their faster cultivation progress, the three had even made death threats against Su Ling.

Feeling the violent aura of the Lava Beast, a cold arc curved on Su Ling's lips.

While the effect of the breath concealment talisman was still active, he collected the two Lava Beast corpses and quickly sped toward the battlefield... "It's almost finished!"

"Junior Brother Zhong, hurry and use a Spell!"

"Junior Brother Zhao, hold it off with the blazing iron shield!"

In the center of the battlefield, the strongest one, Li Weifeng, held a dark black spear. Moving with an ethereal grace, he stabbed the spear behind the Lava Beast's ear.

On the other side, Zhao Yan summoned a fiery red shield and slammed it hard against the Lava Beast's large mouth, forcing a mouthful of breath back into its throat.

At this moment, the Lava Beast had over a dozen bleeding holes all over its body and had fallen into a final frenzy.

Seeing that it was about to end, Zhong Er didn't dare hold back any longer. He gritted his teeth, took out a Qi Recovery Pill, and swallowed it.

He thrust his sharp sword into the ground, formed hand seals with both hands, and began to cast the Ice Thorn Technique he had exchanged for with contribution points.

The two largest and deepest blood holes on the Lava Beast's body were the results of his previous Ice Thorn Technique.

A large, crystal-clear ice thorn quickly materialized in front of Zhong Er.

Battles between low-level Cultivators didn't have that much spiritual energy to squander.

When spiritual energy was scarce, a body refined by spiritual energy could still exert powerful combat strength while holding a weapon.

Of course, this was only at the Qi Refinement Stage.

When Qi Refining breaks through to Foundation Establishment, the Dantian transforms into a Qi Sea, and the spiritual energy reserves become much more abundant.

The power of the Spells cast also increases significantly.

At that stage, continuing to fight with hand-held weapons would be a complete reversal of priorities, unless it was due to being 'poor'.

The Lava Beast was also wary of Zhong Er's Ice Thorn Technique.

Sensing a massive life-and-death crisis, the Lava Beast ignored Li Weifeng's spear thrust and charged desperately toward Zhong Er.

Fortunately, Zhao Yan knew how to cooperate and constantly blocked the Lava Beast with his blazing iron shield.

"Go!"

After a few breaths, Zhong Er gave an angry shout.

Having received the signal, Zhao Yan quickly moved out of the way.

The massive ice thorn whistled as it shot toward the Lava Beast.

"Roar!"

The breath the Lava Beast had been holding in its throat was finally released.

Unfortunately, it was now at the end of its tether, and the power of its fire breath was not what it used to be.

The ice thorn pierced through the breath and shot straight into its throat.

Zhong Er lunged to the side, barely avoiding the oncoming flames.

His sharp sword was not so lucky; it visibly melted into molten iron.

Frost energy exploded inside its body, and the Lava Beast wailed as it crashed to the ground.

After a few breaths, there was no more movement.

The battle ended. Zhao Yan withdrew his slightly damaged blazing iron shield and glanced at Zhong Er, who was lying on the ground panting heavily, a flash of pity in his eyes.

"It's finally settled."

Li Weifeng showed a hint of a smile and slowly walked toward the Lava Beast's corpse. After confirming it was indeed dead, he said, "I'll collect the corpse first. We'll divide it after exchanging it for Spirit Stones at the Sect."

"Senior Brother Li, you decide. To avoid complications, let's hurry and pick the dark molten flowers! There are still two Lava Beast corpses over there!"

Zhao Yan nodded, checked the direction, and said.

"Junior Brother Zhong, can you still walk?"

Li Weifeng looked at Zhong Er and asked with concern.

"No problem."

Zhong Er struggled to his feet and took a deep breath with a smile.

He had only suffered some burns previously, and aside from the lack of spiritual energy, he was fine.

"Alright then, let's go!"

Li Weifeng nodded and led the way toward the lava pool.

Zhao Yan and Zhong Er looked at each other and quickly followed.