Bonus chapter as thanks to uhimgood and Lenette‘s kofis! (*⌒▽⌒*)θ~♪
Suo Fei closed his eyes, pushing the thoughts out of his mind.
Instead, he focused all of his attention on the upcoming ‘punishment’.
Punishment of Dismemberment… It should only be a metaphor. After all, with their ability, they could destroy a cart with just a flick of their finger.
Suo Fei was right. Upon landing on the ground, countless vines rushed towards them.
The little cub was relatively large thus was at an extreme disadvantage. Fortunately, it had high agility and could fly so it was able to dodge easily.
The fireball fatty was even more skilled, turning into hundreds upon hundreds of tiny fireball fatties. It didn’t even need to dodge as the vines couldn’t take aim properly.
Instead, it was somewhat more troublesome for Samael to dodge while carrying Suo Fei. Moreover, Suo Fei also keenly discovered that the vine was highly corrosive, dissolving anything that it hit.
Suo Fei jumped down and pulled out his dagger, cutting off the oncoming vines with a swish. However, the vines immediately grew out at an astonishing speed.
Samael was in no better condition. He cut a larger number of vines compared to Suo Fei but his speed could not compare to the vines’ growth speed. The situation was similar to their earlier fight with the fireball fatty.
An idea suddenly flashed in Suo Fei’s mind and he shouted towards the scattered fireball fatties, “Fireball fatty, stop splitting yourself! If you want to go home, quickly attack!”
It took a long time for the fireball fatty to realise that Suo Fei had been talking about him. Its fragile heart was wounded once again, mumbling, “I’m not fat…” Nevertheless, it obediently assembled its split-up bodies together and returned to its original ten-metres-high huge body.
The vine noticed the big target and whizzed towards the fireball.
Seeing the countless vines rushing towards him, the fireball fatty felt cold down to his marrows. Then, the fireball fatty screamed due to pain.
The chagrined Suo Fei helped in slashing the vines off its body and urged the fireball fatty, “Attack.”
The fireball fatty took a deep breath. Then, it collided with the vine straight on…
Suo Fei: … Bro, what are you doing?! Stop horsing around, will you?!!
The fireball fatty was oblivious, happily bumping with the vines and regarding himself as a new-generation bumper car. The impact of the fireball fatty’s collision was high, thus inflicting considerable damage to the vines. But he obviously has a stronger fire-type attack spell that has a wide AoE! Wouldn’t these damn vines be wiped out if he used that?
Suo Fei could only patiently remind him, “Fatty, use your skills. Your skills!”
Fatty was stunned: “Skills?” A look of realisation dawned across his face, “Wait, let me check what skills I have.”
Then, it actually looked down and began rummaging. After a short while, it raised its head, eyes brimming with confidence, “I’m ready. Watch me.”
Then it shouted, “Set the prairie ablaze, flames scattering in rage. Unstoppable like a wildfire, bottomless sea of flames. Play and get burned, add fuel to fire. Watch the inferno’s display, soaring through the skies.”
The fireball fatty drawled out a long string of words, then a rain of fire began falling from the sky, the whole place becoming a sea of fire.
Suo Fei failed to dodge in time and was scalded. F**k, it’s actually an indiscriminate attack. You should have counted one to three!
Fortunately, Samael pulled him, or else he would have been swallowed whole by the fire.
Samael and Suo Fei sat on the little cub while looking down from above. The fireball fatty had invincible might. No matter how alarmingly fast the vines’ growth speed was, it was still unable to do anything facing the tempestuous fire. On the contrary, its rapid growth only fuelled the flames.
In addition, the person behind the scenes had no choice but to come out due to this wildfire.
The ground was thoroughly engulfed in flames. There was simply no place to stand on so the person could only fly up into the air using his mount.
Suo Fei clearly saw his mighty and imposing physique as well as his dark green skin. It’s a beastkin!
The beastkin wasn’t holding a heavy hammer in his hand but a long staff instead. The staff was more than two metres long. The staff’s shaft was a shade of green so dark it seemed almost black. It looked like some kind of tree branch whereas its head resembled a flower blooming on a treetop. In the middle of the flower, there was a huge emerald green gem. At its tail, there was also a smaller gem of the same colour.
Suo Fei wasn’t familiar with it, but judging by its appearance, he knew that it was a treasure.
The beastkin caught sight of them and raised his staff. He didn’t chant but directly uttered, “Wood Serpent Encirclement.” It moved towards Samael and his group, wanting to twine around them.
Looking at its manner, it was a high-level wood magic spell. Suo Fei knew from their earlier entanglement with the vines that the beastkin was a wood-class mage. Moreover, his ability was certainly above an Archmage.
Ranged attacks were more convenient than melee attacks when fighting in mid-air. The beastkin only needed to utter his magic spell and aim his attack. They, on the other hand, were disadvantaged. There was simply no way of killing him if they couldn’t get near him.
Suo Fei was anxious while the little cub didn’t have combat experience. It was already admirable for the little cub to be able to evade the onslaught of magic attacks.
The little cub was also extremely unsteady. Suo Fei could only hold the little cub tight to stabilise his own body. They simply had no power to fight back.
Samael was a demon but he had lost his bone wings and could never fly again. Suo Fei felt gloomy. This is the price, the price Samael had to pay to obtain his terrifying strength.
On land, the sea of fire was suppressing the vines that were crazily multiplying. In the sky, ceaseless wood-type magic spells kept on pouring down on them.
The beastkin’s mana was immense beyond measure. Moreover, his chanting time was simply nil. Suo Fei had finished the whole game before but even the Elven King, who had the highest magic affinity, wasn’t as powerful.
On top of that, the person in front of him was a beastkin. Beastkins’ comprehension of magic was tremendously substandard, only slightly better than the Demons. This wood-class mage simply overturned Suo Fei’s worldviews.
Passively receiving his attacks made them choke with resentment. Samael attentively watched the beastkin and instructed the little cub in a low voice.
The little cub hesitated for a while before it resolutely nodded in assent.
Suo Fei didn’t hear what Samael had said and didn’t know what they were going to do.
The wood serpent happened to attack and the little cub actually didn’t evade. It directly opened its mouth wide and ate the wooden serpent. Suo Fei distinctly felt the little cub’s body tremble. It was evident that that thing wasn’t particularly easy to digest.
The little cub completely gave up dodging. It locked his gaze onto the beastkin and rushed over like a bullet. Its fast speed simply gave the beastkin no leeway to dodge.
Wanting to resist the little cub who was rushing over, the beastkin cast the Wood Release technique in a flurry. However, just as they were about to meet, the little cub rapidly steered away and brushed past.
At this time, Samael jumped up directly onto the beastkin’s flying mount.
The Asura Blade’s sword Qi was horrifyingly cold.
The beastkin’s back felt cold. He turned around and met the demon’s calm appearance. His eyes were immeasurably dark and profound. The sense of impending doom permeated the place.
It was as if time stood still. Samael lashed out the Asura Blade and the beastkin vanished completely.
The vines on the ground immediately disappeared. The battle was over.
The space began collapsing and they soon returned to the room. Suo Fei saw Samael holding the beastkin’s wand.
It actually stayed behind.
Seeing Suo Fei’s unbridled stare, Samael handed the staff to him, “Keep it.”
Suo Fei smiled at him and took it, not polite in the slightest. He immediately used the appraisal technique but it actually failed.
Suo Fei successively used the appraisal technique multiple times before it released its information: Darkwood Staff, artifact.
It turned out to be an artifact. Suo Fei was surprised and elated at the same time. The value of such an artifact was simply unimaginable. He affectionately caressed it over and over before carefully placing it inside his interspatial bag.
Speaking of which, although these passages were dangerous, it had been rewarding so far. The first one gave them the fireball fatty. The second one made the little cub who had not grown for ten thousand years change in size. For the third one, they actually obtained an artifact!
Wait. Suo Fei suddenly had a thought. Since the Darkwood Staff is an artifact, could it be that the resurrection artifact that they were looking for is also in one of these passages?
Considering the current course of events, this was highly likely.
Moreover, they must not pass the trial. They had to undergo punishment in order to enter the space below the passage. Then, they would have to defeat the boss for it to drop equipment.
The more he thought about it, the more certain he became of his conjecture. Suo Fei could hardly restrain his restlessness towards the remaining for passages.
Well, he was in fact somewhat worried about his lil’ shous who were still trapped inside. He had no idea how they were faring. Although all of them were elites, the punishments were truly heaven-defying. The difficulty of fighting on their own and coming out alive was not small.
Even if this was not the case, they would still have to get rid of the four doors in order to get out of the place.
With these considerations in mind, they let go of their misgivings and decided to settle the remaining doors in order, one by one. They first decided to go to Abel’s door.
Samael wielded the Asura blade and activated it with his heart’s blood. It was inevitable for Suo Fei and the others to be accidentally injured so they retreated to the middle of the room and waited.
Suo Fei was still slightly uneasy. What if it caused any repercussions?
It turned out that his worries were all for naught.
The power of the fully-activated Asura Blade was beyond their imagination. Its formidable attack wholly exhibited the prowess of the one and only attack-type Divine Artifact in the whole continent of Yalance.
It could startle the heavens and shake the earth.
One attack immediately flattened the whole place. The four doors disappeared without a trace and the four unknown spaces mixed together.
Suo Fei was outside Samael’s attack range. Hence, they witnessed the attack’s ferocious explosive force but were not injured in the slightest.
Samael’s attack wreaked too much havoc. Except for the places that were being protected by some kind of enchantment, everything else had been reduced to rubbles.
Perhaps because of Samael’s conspicuous actions, Suo Fei had yet to look at the situation at the four doors when light coming from above dazzled his eyes.
He looked up and found that the roof… had disappeared once again.
His heart jolted. The next moment, as expected, he saw a vertically-pupilled gigantic eye move closer.
The eye shifted its gaze directly onto them. Subsequently, Suo Fei heard a loud roar that seemed to come from deep underground.
The voice was deep and resounding, revealing a faint trace of concealed joy.
After that, the walls in front of Suo Fei collapsed and his field of view broadened.
He was stunned by the scene he saw.
It was incomparably vast, as if they were standing on a cloud and looking down on the world. Outside of the small room, there was actually such a vast place.
In addition, he was finally able to see the whole figure of the owner of the gigantic eye.
It’s a… dragon.
An enormous red dragon that was no less than a hundred metres long.