Shura's Wrath

Underworld Fire

“Ding… your pet Xiao Hui has successfully devoured the Ice Soul Undead Wolf, HP+600, MP+350, Defence+200.”

The final Heaven’s End grade entity, the Ice Soul Undead Wolf, was devoured by Xiao Hui. Continuously devouring 3 Heaven’s End grade Bosses was like a massive banquet for Xiao Hui, and he had received incredible benefits. The higher-grade the corpses he devoured were, the more stats he would receive.

After finishing eating, Xiao Hui fell silent for a while. His horn then flashed with light as he continuously spat out 3 small, round objects. They were only about as big as a thumb, and they were completely transparent, as if they were made of glass.

Could they be Energy Orbs again? Ling Chen picked them up and looked at their descriptions.

[Ice Soul Heart-Protector Pearl]: A pearl of protection created from the Ice Soul Undead Wolf’s core energy. Once the energy within it is triggered, it will release an extremely protective Ice element power. Upon contact with armour, the Heart-Protector Pearl will be absorbed into the armour, and when the wearer suffers a fatal blow, the Heart-Protector Pearl will be crushed, releasing energy that cancels out the fatal damage. Effects can only take place once.

A single Ice Soul Heart-Protector Pearl could save him from fatal damage once, so 3 of them meant that they could block fatal damage 3 times, meaning that they were essentially 3 extra lives for Ling Chen!

Ling Chen took a pearl and experimentally placed it against his chest. He heard a ‘ding’ as the Ice Soul Heart-Protector Pearl was absorbed into the Chilling Crystal Battle Armour. Because they were both of the Ice element and looked crystalline, it essentially fused with the Chilling Crystal Battle Armour perfectly.

“Ding… you have successfully attached the [Ice Soul Heart-Protector Pearl] to the [Chilling Crystal Battle Armour]. The [Ice Soul Heart-Protector Pearl]’s activation conditions are the same as those of the [Evil God’s Mask]. Please decide which one should be activated first. If no choice is made, the [Ice Soul Heart-Protector Orb] will be activated first.

There was no need for Ling Chen to think, and he immediately replied, “Activate the [Evil God’s Mask] first.”

The system gave a ‘ding’ of confirmation in response.

The Evil God’s Mask’s effects could be activated every 10 seconds, and if Ling Chen received any fatal damage during those 10 seconds of cooldown time, he would be dead without a doubt. With the [Ice Soul Heart-Protector Pearls], he now had 3 additional layers of safety during those 10 seconds!

Unless he faced Mysterious God grade enemies, it would be difficult for him to even die.

Ling Chen once again came to the end of the Ice Purgatory, and the 3-coloured barrier was now gone, revealing a grey exit.

Path of Shadows, Path of Darkness, Ice Purgatory… after passing through the Fire Purgatory, he would be able to reach his destination – the Underworld Blood Lake!

After walking out of the Ice Purgatory, Ling Chen came to a narrow, dark passageway. The passageway was not too long, and he reached the end in less than half a minute. At the end was a pair of tightly-closed stone doors, on which 2 dark red words were engraved: Fire Purgatory!

Xiao Hui, who had been walking in front, stopped walking, and a grey light shone from his horn, becoming more and more intense. At the end, it became so bright that it covered more than half of his body.

Ling Chen stopped walking and looked at Xiao Hui’s because of his strange behaviour. Apart from when he devoured things, his horn would only light up when he detected danger, treasure, or hidden areas. However, Ling Chen had never seen his horn glow so brightly before.

“Xiao Hui, what did you find?” Ling Chen asked in a low voice.

Xiao Hui gave a long ‘awoo’ as the light on his horn became brighter and brighter and his hair started to stand on end. He lowered his body, almost pressing down against the cold ground. Ling Chen instantly realised that Xiao Hui had detected something incredibly dangerous ahead and was warning him.

In front of him was evidently the Fire Purgatory.

Xiao Hui naturally knew Ling Chen’s strength. For him to act in such a way, he was undeniably telling Ling Chen that what was ahead was a danger that he could not overcome. From the grey light, it seemed like this would be the most dangerous thing that he had ever encountered!

“Xiao Hui looks very scared; could there be something incredibly terrifying ahead?” Cai’Er floated over to Ling Chen’s side as she asked with a look of worry.

Ling Chen frowned – Xiao Hui’s detections abilities were peerless, and he had never given a false alert before. His warning was clearly telling Ling Chen that if they continued, it was possible that they would die!

Before entering here, he had heard from the Undead Warrior that there was something terrifying in the Fire Purgatory, something so terrifying to the point that even the Mysterious God grade 8 Underworld Gods would feel scared.

However, since he had come here, how could he retreat? In order to obtain all of the Lunar Scourge’s Orbs, he would still jump down even if there was a chasm of despair in front of him. He would not retreat.

After lightly breathing in, Ling Chen gripped his weapons as he walked towards the entrance of the Fire Purgatory. When he reached where Xiao Hui was, Xiao Hui was silent. He suddenly leapt towards him and bit onto his pants, trying to drag him backwards. However, he was too small and wasn’t very strong, so he wasn’t able to stop Ling Chen at all. He looked up at Ling Chen, a look of warning and pleading in his eyes.

This was the first time Xiao Hui had done such a thing in response to danger, causing Ling Chen’s heart to tremble. A range of emotions flickered across his face, and he squatted down as he patted Xiao Hui’s head, saying, “Don’t worry, no matter how dangerous it is ahead of us, it’s still easy for me to stay alive. Back when I was LV30, even Snow Cherry couldn’t do anything to me. Surely the enemy in front of us can’t be more powerful than Snow Cherry, right?”

Xiao Hui refused to let go and desperately tried to drag Ling Chen back, completely determined to not let Ling Chen advance. His detection abilities not only told him that the enemy ahead was incomparably strong, but he could also feel the danger of going ahead… this time, what Xiao Hui detected was simply darkness! A completely pure darkness. This meant that if Ling Chen went into the Fire Purgatory, he would die without a doubt!

However, no matter what Xiao Hui did, he was not able to change Ling Chen’s mind. Even though he knew how dangerous it was ahead, Ling Chen would not choose to retreat. After falling silent for a while, Ling Chen patted Xiao Hui’s head again and picked him up before putting him on Snow Cherry’s back and slowly walking towards the entrance of the Fire Purgatory. Xiao Hui knew that he was powerless to change the mind of his stubborn master, so he could only lower his head and look forwards as his fur started to stand again.

Step… Step… Step…

Ling Chen walked through the silent passageway and stood right in front of the entrance to the Fire Purgatory. Ahead of him was the pair of tightly-closed stone doors, and through a small gap, he could see some flickering colours. Ling Chen stretched out his hand and pressed it against the stone doors. The instant his hand came into contact with the stone doors, an overwhelming feeling of suppression appeared within his heart to the point that he felt that it was difficult to breathe.

This was a feeling he would experience right before facing incredible danger!

Just what is hidden ahead… why does it give me such a terrifying feeling?! This feeling clearly tells me… that if I take another step forwards, I’ll definitely die!

Ling Chen’s body was fixed in place as an incomparably serious expression appeared on his face. Xiao Hui’s reaction and the feeling he felt created a slight desire of retreat within him… but the instant it appeared, Ling Chen immediately quashed it. Retreating in the face of danger was not something he did. The Lunar Scourge’s Orbs were his only hope to revive Shui Ruo, so he couldn’t allow himself to retreat no matter what!

Rumble…

Ling Chen pushed out vigorously, and the heavy stone doors swung open easily. A fiery light flashed, lighting up the entire passageway between the Ice Purgatory and Fire Purgatory.

In front of Ling Chen’s eyes was a world of fire.

The ground was completely covered with flames, leaving not even a speck of white. Although these flames seemed to form a single body of flames, they burned at different intensities at different places. Some places had small tongues of fire, while others had incredibly intense and raging flames. The smallest flames were 10 or so centimetres tall, while the largest shot up to 4 to 5 metres.

What was strangest, however, was the colour of these flames. They weren’t the normal red or orange colour, nor were they the blue or purple of extremely hot flames. Instead, they were an incredibly strange… grey! What’s more, despite standing in front of this sea of flames, Ling Chen couldn’t feel any heat.

“Xi Ling, why is the fire here all grey? Are there grey flames in this world?” Ling Chen frowned as he asked, but he did not walk forwards.

Xi Ling spread her wings, and after a flash of red light, she turned into her human form. After looking at the grey flames for a while, her eyes flashed, as if she discovered something, and she said, “This is Underworld Fire! And an extremely pure type at that.”

“Underworld Fire?” It was the first time Ling Chen had heard of this.

“Although it’s called ‘fire’, it’s not true fire,” Xi Ling continued. She possessed the Golden Crow, Vermillion Bird, and Phoenix’s flames, and she was undeniably the sovereign of fire. “This is a type of extremely high-grade miasma, and it is incredibly dense. As such, it’s no longer something that is colourless or formless, but it has taken shape. It takes the form of burning flames as it flows, so it’s called ‘Underworld Fire’. Places with Underworld Fire are like heaven for Undead, but the requirements for Underworld Fire to appear are incredibly strict. It should only exist within this Underworld place.”

Underworld Fire – although it was called ‘fire’, it was not actually fire but an extremely dense type of miasma that merely looked like flames

If it was true fire, Ling Chen wouldn’t be afraid at all. This was because Xi Ling, a Mysterious God grade existence, gave all of her companions immunity to Fire damage.

Since it was miasma, theoretically, it wouldn’t harm him either. The Underworld was filled with miasma, but because of Leng’Er, he and his pets hadn’t taken any damage. Logically, the Underworld Fire shouldn’t deal damage to him either.

After thinking about this, Ling Chen finally advanced and stepped into the ‘burning’ Underworld Fire, truly stepping into the Fire Purgatory.

After stepping into the Underworld Fire, he did not feel any discomfort, but he felt that he had been brushed by something invisible. Neither he nor his pets lost any HP, allowing Ling Chen to let out a breath of relief. At this moment, a heavy rumbling sounded out from behind him as the stone doors tightly closed.

Ling Chen frowned and quickly returned to the stone doors, trying to open them again. However, the stone doors seemed to have become thousands of times heavier, and he couldn’t make them budge at all. Ling Chen immediately retreated and raised the Chilling Star and Twilight Spear, roaring as he launched 2 [Heaven Destroying Slashes] at the stone door.

Clang!!

Sparks flashed and the sound of the impact was deafening. The recoil caused Ling Chen to take many steps backwards, and he almost fell to the ground. After launching those attacks, his arms were now numb, while only a shallow mark had appeared on the stone door. In the next moment, the thin mark disappeared as if the door had never been damaged.

With the Scorpio Orb, all of Ling Chen’s attacks carried with them a powerful Destruction effect. The attacks he just unleashed would have been able to destroy an incredibly tough boulder, yet it was barely able to damage the stone doors.

Now that the stone doors were unable to be opened again… he did not have anywhere to retreat to!