The rune inside the last Golden-Armored Divine General was shattered, and the figure dissolved into golden light.
Qin Sang panted for breath. Dealing with six Golden-Armored Divine Generals simultaneously was no small challenge even for him, but thankfully, he had managed to resolve it smoothly. Putting away his baleful corpses, Qin Sang swallowed a medicinal pill to restore his spiritual power. After a brief period of breath adjustment, he walked toward the end of the passage.
Blistering heat washed over him, distorting the air in shimmering ripples.
Qin Sang circulated his spiritual power to shield his body, blocking out the scorching heat, and walked cautiously to the passage's exit.
Just as he stepped out of the passage, Qin Sang's expression shifted slightly. He spun around abruptly—the moment he had walked out, the passage had vanished into thin air, replaced by a stone wall as smooth as a mirror.
Qin Sang touched the stone wall and found it exceptionally hard. He could find no mechanism or restriction to reopen the passage, as if it had never existed at all.
He was currently standing atop a circular stone platform. The platform was a full three zhang across, making Qin Sang appear remarkably solitary upon its expanse.
In the center of the stone platform stood a stone stele, identical to the one at the entrance. Pitch-black and over a dozen zhang high, it exuded an ancient aura, entirely devoid of inscriptions.
Qin Sang approached carefully and sent forth a wisp of spiritual power to test it. Like a bottomless pit, the stele swallowed his spiritual power without stirring the slightest ripple.
After a moment's thought, Qin Sang stepped up to the stele. The instant his raised hand brushed against it, the restriction upon it was triggered, and a deep vortex emerged. Realization dawned upon Qin Sang: this was the exit for the trial. If one chose to give up, they could return here and depart through the stele.
Which meant that the corridor earlier had merely been an appetizer—the true trial still lay ahead!
Qin Sang looked into the distance and saw gray mist sprawling ahead, obstructing vision beyond a short distance, with faint vapor curling around him as well. Fortunately, the mist did not block spiritual sense. Qin Sang released his spiritual sense, sweeping it over the area around him without encountering any obstruction.
However, he did not project his spiritual sense far before pulling it back.
The mist drifted and flowed just like ordinary fog in the mortal realm, but Qin Sang did not dare underestimate it. He had a premonition that some unknown presence must be lurking within the mist, lying in wait for intruders!
The stone platform hovered in midair, with only an immense iron chain stretching out into the depths of the mist. What lay attached to the other end was impossible to discern.
Beyond that, both his left and right were shrouded in mist, obscuring everything. Looking down, he could only see a thin red line from which fiery glow and searing heat radiated—it was indeed a lava river!
Due to the mist, only a thin line was visible, but Qin Sang knew this could not be the lava river's full expanse; the actual river was likely far broader than what met the eye.
Having taken in his surroundings, Qin Sang stood at the edge of the stone platform, lost in thought.
Dozens of breaths had passed since he exited the passage, yet nothing on the platform had changed. Aside from the shifting mist and the surging lava river below, the entire space was deathly still.
Shifting his gaze, he stared at the iron chain at his feet. It was probably as obvious a hint as could be: was this trial meant for him to advance along the chain?
He raised a foot and stepped onto the chain. No matter how much force Qin Sang applied, the iron chain did not budge an inch, surprising him slightly. It was indeed a remarkably sturdy path.
A black shadow flickered into being.
Qin Sang summoned a zombie, attached a strand of spiritual sense to it, and ordered it to walk along the iron chain.
In the blink of an eye, the zombie vanished into the depths of the mist.
A moment later, Qin Sang's expression changed slightly. The connection between him and the zombie was suddenly severed by an inexplicable force. It happened so quickly that before he could sense anything, all contact was lost!
Right after that, the mist suddenly began to boil like a cauldron, churning violently as though a horde of monsters had been alerted by the zombie and were about to burst out of the haze.
Qin Sang's brow furrowed. Daring not delay, he summoned the ebony sword to protect himself. Still feeling unsafe, he also produced the Yanluo Banners, forming an array of ghostly banners that circled around his body.
He did not release his baleful corpses. Whatever lurked in the mist might very well be the bane of corpse puppets. Losing an ordinary zombie was no great loss, but having a baleful corpse destroyed here would be hard to stomach.
Just as Qin Sang finished setting up the Ten Directions Yanluo Array, the creatures in the mist finally surged out. Before he could even see what they were, a buzzing rang in Qin Sang's ears as an endless cacophony overwhelmed his hearing.
The sounds were bizarre bird cries that assailed the ears like demonic screeches, even beginning to batter at the origin soul. Anyone else caught off guard by such a mental assault might well have been stunned into stupor, left completely at their mercy.
Protected by the jade Buddha, Qin Sang naturally had no fear of this. Ignoring the rising and falling screeches, he widened his eyes and finally saw clearly: surging from the mist was a massive swarm of bizarre red birds.
The birds resembled hawks yet were not hawks, resembled phoenixes yet were not phoenixes. They were petite, each only the size of a palm. What made them even more peculiar was their crimson coloration, their plumage resembling blazing flames, akin to the legendary divine fire phoenix.
Qin Sang had never heard of any demonic bird with such an appearance.
The moment they appeared, a wave of scorching heat washed forward, and the bizarre cries were indeed coming from them.
"Could these be... fire spirit beasts?"
A spark of inspiration struck Qin Sang, and he recalled what they were.
In places where the power of the fire element was dense, these extraordinary creatures would naturally be born after a long period of evolution. They were considered a variety of demon and were called fire spirit beasts, similar to water spirit beasts, earth spirit beasts, and the like...
Born from the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, they possessed formidable power from birth. However, developing sapience and completing a metamorphosis was far more difficult for them than for other demon beasts.
Some fire spirit beasts had no true form, while others would take the shapes of birds or beasts, and there were even humanoid fire spirit beasts. Their forms were manifold and varied, and their abilities were just as bizarre and diverse.
These firebirds were avian fire spirit beasts.
Directly below this place was an underground river of lava that had existed for tens of thousands of years. The fire elemental power here was abundant to the extreme, so the birth of fire spirit beasts was hardly surprising.
That meant lurking within the mist was likely flock upon flock of firebirds, and perhaps other types of fire spirit beasts as well.
Qin Sang watched the flock of firebirds warily. Dense and countless, there were probably over a thousand of them. Swarming together as they charged forth, they looked like a surging cloud of fire, terrifying in momentum.
The Ten Directions Yanluo Array unfurled abruptly, shielding Qin Sang within. The next moment, it was swallowed by the cloud of fire.
"Huh?"
Sheltered inside the array, Qin Sang drove his ebony sword into the fiery cloud, only to discover that the firebirds were exceptionally fragile. They perished instantly upon being pierced by the ebony sword, dissipating into bursts of flame.
Their only two means of attack were their screeching cries, which functioned like demonic sounds, and flapping their wings together to stir up gale-force winds, launching flames that formed a fiery hurricane. However, it was not particularly potent and could not shake the Ten Directions Yanluo Array in the slightest.
Chapter 232