Chapter 1024: Chapter 777: Exploring the Underground City
In the Underground City, the Red Demon Scorpion is considered a very famous and powerful monster. Although it may not be the strongest, among the creatures that ordinary people can encounter within this city, the Rune-armored Red Demon Scorpion is undoubtedly the most difficult to deal with.
This group actually has a Red Demon Scorpion as a mount, which makes many people enviously turn green with jealousy. However, the thought of them catching a Red Demon Scorpion themselves was utterly impossible.
As they proceeded along their chosen paths, Long Yi soon could no longer sense the presence of other people around them. Not only were there no other people, but there weren’t even any monsters nearby—of course, this was thanks to the Red Demon Scorpion. The mere presence of the powerful Red Demon Scorpion was enough to deter ordinary monsters from approaching.
Throughout the journey, Ai Lin communicated with the Red Demon Scorpion, discussing the Underground City. Although the Red Demon Scorpion had grown up here, it knew very little about it. Before meeting Ai Lin, it had simply acted on instinct: hunting, then resting. That was all; it had never thought of exploring the Underground City, nor had it been curious about anything. It had its own territory and rarely left it.
The Red Demon Scorpion Xiaohong had never seen the original inhabitants of the Underground City, but it often encountered adventurers who came here.
As they talked, the Red Demon Scorpion delved deeper into the Underground City. According to the scorpion, the deeper they went, the stronger the monsters became. The former version of itself would never have dared to approach these depths, an instinctive fear holding it back. But ever since following Ai Lin, that instinctual fear had disappeared.
Suddenly, Xiaohong stopped moving, and at the same time, a strong sense of crisis swept over everyone.
At the same time, a fierce energy surged up from underground!
"Scatter!"
The Red Demon Scorpion quickly shrank and returned to Ai Lin’s hand. The team members scattered, and a gigantic pillar of energy burst forth from the ground. Xiaodie’s wings unfolded behind her as the energy pillar twisted towards her, and she forcefully absorbed it.
Immediately afterward, a huge body squeezed itself out of the small hole in the ground.
Was this, a slug?
Long Yi stared at the massive mollusk.
"Oh my god!"
Both Ai Lin and Little Zi actually hid behind Long Yi, and while Silverlight still stood by his side, judging by her footwork, she seemed to be retreating as well.
"Hey hey, it’s understandable for the girls to be scared, but what’s a dragon like you afraid of?" Long Yi asked Silverlight.
"It’s not about being a dragon; that’s a slug! Do you know how dangerous those things are?" Silverlight said, unabashedly taking refuge behind Long Yi.
"Hey, are you guys joking? Look at Xiaodie!" Long Yi was praising her but then saw that Xiaodie also had taken cover.
"You’re scared too?" Long Yi could hardly believe it.
"Not scared, but it seems like something a girl should probably do," Xiaodie said.
"Alright! I give up, leave this thing to me!"
Long Yi couldn’t help but laugh and cry.
The Cosmic Stone Greatsword was drawn, its arc of light accompanied by the Destruction Ripple instantly bisected the huge slug into two halves. But astonishingly, the two halves of the slug squirmed and each transformed into a separate entity!
"Ah!" Ai Lin and Little Zi clutched each other and screamed in unison. It was clear they were genuinely frightened. By comparison, Silverlight seemed much calmer; she just stepped back tensely and didn’t forget to protect Ai Lin and Little Zi. Xiaodie tried to shout a few times, but feeling it was too abrupt, ultimately remained silent.
"So what if it became two?" Long Yi’s sword kept arcing, with the destruction ripple accompanying each slash. He repeatedly cut the slug in half, and in a blink of an eye, the originally massive slug had become hundreds of small individuals.
But Long Yi stopped, as he suddenly realized that inside these small slugs was a familiar power.
At this moment, countless small slug entities crawled together, gradually fusing back into a massive being. And inside the body of that massive being was the very Destruction Ripple and the arc of Fighting Aura that Long Yi had just released!
Can it absorb my power?
Long Yi was astounded. However, what was even more shocking was yet to come; the giant slug suddenly opened its enormous mouth, and a giant arc of light imbued with the Destruction Ripple roared out, heading straight for Long Yi and his companions! And the power of that blast seemed several times stronger than Long Yi’s own attack!
"Nice try, absorbing my power to attack me? You wish!"
Long Yi turned around to attack, but Xiaodie jumped forward again. All of the Destruction Ripple and arcs of light curved towards her, and she absorbed them completely.
"Weren’t you playing the role of a girl afraid of bugs just now?" Long Yi asked.
"But it would be a shame to waste all this food," Xiaodie said with a blush, retreating back.
Long Yi pursed his lips, thinking such a large creature must have a weakness.
"Are you afraid of lightning?"
Boom!
Long Yi unleashed a Thunderstrike, striking the slug. However, the slimy beast showed no reaction whatsoever, only gaining a few more crackles of electricity. Indeed, even this spell had been absorbed by it.
"Are you afraid of ice?"
As a freezing chill sprayed out, the soft slug was immediately encapsulated in ice, but quickly, Long Yi saw it begin to writhe and mutate, activating with icy shards still clinging to it.
I refuse to believe you aren’t afraid of fire!
The Blazing Impact burst forth from below, initially burning the slug until its skin cracked and flesh burst open, but soon, the flames were also absorbed, and streams of fire flowed underneath its semi-translucent skin!
This thing is incredible!
"Hey big bug, you’re really pushing me to break out my trump card," Long Yi said with a smile.
All of a sudden, he was enveloped by the searing Crystal Stone armor.
"Crystal Stone Ground Spikes!"
With a heavy stomp, the fiery red Crystal Stone spread out like waves, and the huge slug was immediately pierced through, hanging in mid-air. The rolling heat waves inside the Crystal Stone continuously roasted the slug, but the enormous creature showed no sign of pain. Its body began to crystallize, and eventually, it too turned into a searing Crystal Stone!
"Haha, fell for it, didn’t you!" Long Yi clapped his hands, and the originally fiery red Crystal Stone rapidly released a terrifying heat, immediately followed by a sudden chill!
The Crystal Stone had instantly transformed into icy rock!
The slug, now Crystal Stone itself, had just absorbed a massive amount of heat, but faced with the icy rock, its body instantly stiffened.
"This time I’d like to see how you plan to reassemble!"
Transforming the Cosmic Stone Greatsword in his hand into a huge war hammer, Long Yi leapt high and smashed down with a thunderous blow, instantly shattering the huge slug crystal.
This time, it did not regenerate and was clearly dead.
"Trying to fight me!" Long Yi, now unarmed, stood proudly over the scattered crystals. Ai Lin and the others crowded around: "Brother Long, you’re amazing!"
Ai Lin said as she clapped her hands.
"Amazing!" Little Zi also clapped.
Silverlight simply smiled, while Xiaodie also clapped absent-mindedly, her tone flat, "Amazing..."
"Ai Lin and Little Zi being afraid of bugs is one thing, but what’s with the two of you joining in the ruckus?" Long Yi shook his head.
Silverlight immediately laughed embarrassedly, and Xiaodie also tried to mimic Silverlight, as if trying to appear embarrassed.
"Forget it, let’s keep moving. The unknown treasures are waiting for us!" Long Yi shook his head, having abandoned all hope for the behavior of these girls.
Not long after Long Yi and his party left, two Guardians of the Ancient Mage Tower arrived at the scene, frowning at the scattered crystal fragments.
"It’s unexpected that we couldn’t stop Long Yi," one of them said.
"If a mere bug had stopped Long Yi, that would have truly been surprising," said the other.
"Are you suggesting we should take matters into our own hands?"
"Let’s not rush, wait and see. There are many powerful creatures deeper in the city, creatures that even we brothers are wary of. Maybe those few will have bad luck and just fall right in, hahaha!"
The two laughed merrily, not taking Long Yi and his companions seriously at all. However, as they left, an invisible Female Demon’s Avatar lurking nearby also vanished in a flash.
The Female Demon caught up with Long Yi and the others from another direction and relayed what had just happened.
"So it was their doing after all, no wonder Xiaohong said it has never seen this creature before," Ai Lin said.
"Which means, this adventure is bound to be full of excitement," Long Yi laughed.
As they continued forward, they encountered a few more powerful creatures, but although strong, none were a match for the Red Demon Scorpion. In fact, there was no need for Long Yi and the others to lift a finger; the Red Demon Scorpion could handle them all on its own. If it were before, the Red Demon Scorpion would have fled at the first sight of these creatures, but since following Ai Lin, its strength had surged. Now, it no longer paid any attention to these creatures.
Their progress was fairly smooth until they came upon a wall.
It was a purely silver metallic wall, towering less than a mere meter tall—more a fence than a wall. The outer wall was covered in strange characters, utterly straightforward and orderly, exuding a mechanical aesthetic. However, upon approaching the wall, the Red Demon Scorpion felt increasingly unwell, and the closer it got, the more pronounced the discomfort became until it had to turn into a hair ornament to shake off this feeling. Moreover, no powerful creatures could be seen in the vicinity. It seemed that the metallic wall had a repellent effect on those powerful creatures.
"What do you think, will we encounter the natives here?" Long Yi asked.
"We will, definitely," said Silverlight, who had been watching the distance, raising her hand to point ahead.
Indeed, vague figures approached in the distance, accompanied by the sound of metallic footsteps, and some ’people’ seemed to be coming their way.
Long Yi took a defensive stance, not daring to let his guard down before confirming who these people were.
But as the ’people’ drew closer, Long Yi realized they were not human at all. They were large suits of armor, all in black with Runes and Cosmic Stone shards embedded on them.
"I’ve encountered these suits of armor before. Remember the Cosmic Stone shards I initially got?" Ai Lin said.
"So they’re the natives?" Long Yi nodded and then called out loudly, "Hello there! We mean no harm! We’re just a group of explorers. Can we communicate?"
When visiting someone else’s territory, it’s always best to express good intentions first.
The advancing group of armors stopped, then one of them slowly approached, eyeing Long Yi. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)
