Chapter 92

After making thorough preparations, Hu Gao took out a fine steel sword from his spatial ring. This was one of the items he had plundered from the martial artists he had robbed. Gripping the sword, Hu Gao threw it toward the pool, skimming it along the ground.

Accompanied by a roar filled with anger and killing intent, a slender beast figure leaped up, stirring up a wave of lava-like liquid, and swatted the spinning steel sword in the air.

The steel sword collided with the fire poison in the air and was inevitably corroded into a pool of black water. After roaring, the fire salamander immediately locked onto its target, charging toward Hu Gao, who had not concealed his presence.

"Boss, be careful!" Xiao Wu timely warned. After upgrading to the peak of the first stage, he seemed to have awakened many memories related to beast monsters. "This is a fire salamander!"

A fire salamander, which can both swallow and spew fire, is a second-stage initial beast monster.

"Good, you came!" Hu Gao's eyes were filled with fighting spirit, but he turned and jumped into the passage behind him. After confirming the identity of the beast, his worries diminished.

The fire salamander twisted its body, skimming the ground, and quickly approached, swiftly chasing into the passage.

Hu Gao did not retreat quickly. The fire salamander soon approached within ten meters of Hu Gao, opening its mouth to form a purple fireball.

"Waiting for you!" A smile curled at the corner of his mouth. Flames rose from Hu Gao's hand, burning with essence energy and absorbing the heat from the air, instantly transforming into a huge fire dragon, illuminating the entire passage.

A basketball-sized purple fireball flew out of the fire salamander's mouth, heading toward Hu Gao. At the same time, the fire dragon on Hu Gao's hand rushed toward the fire salamander at an even faster speed.

Red and purple flames intertwined, roasting the air and the rock walls, creating a spectacular scene of a fire dragon playing with a pearl, making the already scorching environment even more volatile.

The fire salamander did not stop. Being able to bathe in the scorching pool, it was not worried about the heat. With a fierce look, it pounced on the enemy who coveted its treasure.

Hu Gao was retreating, his invisible sword out of the sheath, gathering sword momentum, and refining a sharper sword intent in the heat, ready to strike with a hidden move.

The fire salamander passed through the intertwining flames, and a golden light shot down from the rock wall behind its head, drawing a blinding golden trail in the air, aiming for the fire salamander's eyes.

A small dragon, about the size of a palm, with sharp claws, could easily hide on the rock wall for a short time. Being mentally connected with Hu Gao, it was not difficult to coordinate.

The only concern was that the fire salamander had not mutated to gain powerful strength, making the previous preparations very adequate and effective.

The fire salamander could not avoid Xiao Wu's attack. After all, the young divine beast had claimed it could deal with a second-stage initial beast monster, which meant a swift and sudden attack. This attack was perfectly timed and flawless.

The explosion of an eyeball, along with pain and blindness, caused the fire salamander to veer off course, exposing the back of its neck to the most lethal enemy.

Hu Gao, who had comprehended sword intent in the combat academy and refined it on Qi Hong, delivered a powerful strike from above, accurately slicing into the fire salamander's neck. The sword light exploded, almost severing the head with its jagged scales.

"Damn! This guy's scales are really hard!" Hu Gao cursed, pressing down the sword, and the clear invisible sword rotated, thoroughly ending the beast's life.

Relieved, Hu Gao sat on the ground, retrieving the invisible sword and wiping the azure blood off it.

This second-stage initial fire salamander was not as powerful as he had imagined, making Hu Gao feel like he was using a sledgehammer to crack an egg. He had exerted all his strength, but it was largely wasted.

After sitting down to adjust his essence energy, Hu Gao looked at the separated stone head of the beast, hoping to find something valuable.

Xiao Wu, wrapped in golden light, separated the contaminated blood and skillfully delved into the fire salamander's head to rummage around. However, he soon came out empty-handed, cursing, "What a lousy beast, no inner core!" He then smashed the other eye of the fire salamander, which was still staring lifelessly.

"Alright, just a beast core. Although it's our first second-stage beast we've hunted, we still have the black fire lotus waiting for us inside."

After adjusting his essence energy, Hu Gao comforted Xiao Wu, raised the clean invisible sword, and began to skin, dismember, and cut the fire salamander's body, storing the materials in his spatial ring.

"Boss, why are you taking that thing? As a keepsake?" Xiao Wu asked, perched on Hu Gao's head.

"Not really, I just suddenly thought of Old Pipe. I have a feeling we'll meet him again in the Fire Beast Forest. I'll publicly shove this thing into his arms as if it were a treasure! Anyway, it's our first second-stage beast, so I'll take something as a keepsake, like a tooth."

Hu Gao reached for the discarded fire salamander's head. "Hmm, why are this guy's teeth purple? They look pretty good."

The fire salamander's teeth, fine and dense, glowed purple in the dark red light, with a faint blue hue, looking very beautiful, unlike the usual red teeth of a fire salamander.

"Could it be a mutation?" Hu Gao recalled that the fire salamander's fireballs were also purple, confirming his earlier suspicion that the fire salamander had undergone a mutation, though not completely, which is why it did not display powerful strength. Otherwise, he might have needed to use the Wind and Thunder Pearl to deal with it.

"Whatever, let's take them down first and study them later. If there's a chance, I'll ask Old Pipe. The old guy seems to know a lot. If it's not useful, I can make some small jewelry to charm girls." Hu Gao carefully tested the teeth, confirmed they were not poisonous, and removed both rows of teeth from the fire salamander...

"Xiao Wu, it's your turn now!"

Returning to the abdominal cave, facing the sky full of fire poison, Hu Gao used the sliced fire salamander as a test stone, confirming there were no more beast monsters in the pool. Wiping the blood off his hands, he solemnly said to Xiao Wu.

The black fire lotus was right in front of them.

"No problem! Leave it to me!" Xiao Wu proudly puffed out his chest, easily plucking the black fire lotus. He then floated to the ground, took a step, and approached the pool.

As Xiao Wu neared the pool, he transformed into a golden light, swiftly coiling down the black fire lotus and safely handing it over to Hu Gao, who had been holding his breath.

"Mission accomplished, ready for a meal!" After easily picking a few black fire lotuses, Xiao Wu eagerly landed on the black fire lotus, lifting his paw, but unsure which one to pick first.

"What are you hesitating about? Aren't they all yours?" Hu Gao plucked a lotus seed and stuffed it into Xiao Wu's mouth.

"Boss, I'm starting!" Xiao Wu, delighted by this good fortune, extracted all the black fire lotus seeds, swallowed them one by one, and informed Hu Gao that he needed about half an hour to cultivate. He then transformed into a golden light, wrapping around Hu Gao's wrist to cultivate.

Hu Gao observed for a while, finding no changes in the surroundings, and found a place to sit cross-legged, cultivating with Xiao Wu's dragon aura.

For the next half hour, Hu Gao used cultivation resources to enhance his essence energy and absorbed dragon aura to refine his body.

As Xiao Wu's absorption time increased, the dragon aura he emitted became more intense, and Hu Gao's cultivation unexpectedly broke through to the mid-ninth stage.

"Wow, Boss, the energy of the black fire lotus is indeed extraordinary. One lotus seed is at least three times as powerful as a black fire lotus. Boss, we must go to the Fire Beast Forest and obtain more black fire lotuses. Ideally, we should take all of them!"

Xiao Wu, having finished his cultivation, jumped onto Hu Gao's shoulder, very excited. His golden-yellow glow was brighter, and his aura was more powerful, showing signs of a potential breakthrough.

"Boss, with my current strength, if I launch a surprise attack, I can kill the fire salamander we just faced!"

"Really that powerful?"

Hu Gao drew a sharp breath, feeling amazed.

If Xiao Wu launched a surprise attack, a first-stage Body Integration Realm martial artist would be unable to resist, and even second- and third-stage Body Integration Realm martial artists would be in danger.

"Wow, that's why we must get all the black fire lotuses from the Fire Beast Forest."

Xiao Wu urgently said, "Boss, it's about time. Let's head to the Fire Beast Forest now?"

"Alright, we'll try to get as many black fire lotuses as possible. For now, let's refine some fire poison bombs."

Hu Gao nodded.

The quality of the black fire lotuses in the Fire Beast Forest might not be as good as those here, but the quantity is much greater. If they could get more, Xiao Wu's strength would definitely improve significantly.

"Xiao Wu, it's up to you again."

"Leave it to me!"

Saying this, he emitted a golden glow, swallowing the fire poison from the air, and began to refine fire poison.

Hu Gao took out a large number of items containing abundant essence energy from his spatial ring and absorbed them all, though not as quickly as with essence energy pills, it was enough to refine some fire poison bombs.

For the next three hours, Hu Gao did not rest for a moment, refining a total of nine fire poison bombs. If he had not exhausted all his cultivation resources and needed to save the essence energy pills for emergencies, and if he was not worried about other martial artists entering the Fire Beast Forest and taking the treasures, he would have refined more.

"Now we have nine fire poison bombs. I believe I can walk confidently in this Flame Valley..."

Nine fire poison bombs meant he could instantly kill nine ordinary Body Integration Realm martial artists, and there wouldn't be too many Body Integration Realm martial artists in the Flame Valley.

Moreover, during these three hours, he not only refined nine fire poison bombs but also absorbed a large amount of cultivation resources. Although refining the fire poison bombs consumed 90% of the resources, the remaining 10% pushed his essence energy cultivation to the peak of the mid-ninth stage, just one step away from the late-ninth stage.

"Next, we should head directly to the Fire Beast Forest. Xiao Wu, sense the direction, and let's set off."

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