Translator: CKtalon
“Ahem, what are you doing here?” Bida retracted his foot and looked at Zhou Wen gloomily.
“We are partners. Of course I have to follow you,” Zhou Wen said with a smile.
He hadn’t really been following Bida all this time. However, Zhou Wen had left Primordial Spore here as his informant when he first came to the volcanic crater. If it discovered anything here, he would be first to know.
To his surprise, he realized that Bida had sneakily come here. Zhou Wen felt that this fellow was somewhat odd from the beginning, so he used Truth Listener to listen carefully. He roughly knew what was happening, so he stopped him before he went down. He wanted to figure out what was beneath the magma.
“Didn’t I already help you find that break-out creature? Our cooperation is over. Why are you looking for me instead of killing it?” Bida said.
“You can’t say that. You used me to lure the break-out creature and people away. This means that we are still cooperating. I should have a share of the treasure here, right?” Zhou Wen said slowly.
Bida knew that it was impossible to shirk Zhou Wen off again. He gritted his teeth and said, “Alright, so be it. We’ll split the items below equally, but you have to go down with me and bring the items up.”
With that said, Bida wanted to walk into the magma.
“Wait. Tell me what’s down there first.” Zhou Wen naturally didn’t believe Bida’s words. He extended his Bamboo Blade and stopped him.
Bida suddenly threw a punch and struck the Bamboo Blade’s scabbard, causing it to tilt to the side before plunging into the magma.
Zhou Wen looked at the magma below and summoned the Fiend-Armored Tiger Soul General to follow Bida, but he didn’t go down himself.
After the Fiend-Armored Tiger Soul General entered the magma, it immediately became excited. The purple flames in its body ignited as it ran rapidly through the magma, chasing after Bida.
“This fellow is really difficult to deal with...” Bida was somewhat depressed when he saw that the Fiend-Armored Tiger Soul General was not afraid of the high-temperature magma.
It wasn’t easy for him to have a Black Iron Gold Thread Turtle Armor drop, allowing him to enter the magma layer. Yet, just any random Companion Beast of Zhou Wen’s could achieve the same effect, leaving Bida displeased.
Thankfully, Bida was very fast in the magma. The Fiend-Armored Tiger Soul General was momentarily unable to catch up to him.
The deeper into the magma, the hotter it became. After a few hundred meters, the bottom suddenly became empty. After the Fiend-Armored Tiger Soul General rushed down, it realized that it was in magma. There was magma all around it without any support, but there was an invisible force that blocked out the surrounding magma. In the middle of the space, there was a black cocoon with magma patterns.
Through the thoughts transmitted by the Fiend-Armored Tiger Soul General, Zhou Wen knew the situation there. His expression immediately changed. A Guardian cocoon. There’s a Guardian here? In that case, that break-out creature is actually protecting the Guardian cocoon.
I thought there was something good, but it’s actually a Guardian. Zhou Wen found it meaningless. He no longer needed a Guardian to advance his Life Soul, nor did he need the blood of a Guardian. Guardians were no longer of much use to him. At most, they were meant for killing.
Bida quickly rushed towards the Guardian cocoon. It looked like he was planning on trying to contract the Guardian here.
Zhou Wen made the Fiend-Armored Tiger Soul General halt and didn’t stop him from making the contract. Guardians would appear sooner or later anyway. Killing a Guardian without a contract was about the same difficulty as a contracted Guardian. It might even be easier to kill a Guardian after a contract, so there was no need to stop him.
Bida rushed to the Guardian cocoon and dripped his blood on it. Soon, the black-red Guardian cocoon absorbed Bida’s blood. Then, crimson magma cracks appeared on the cocoon. As the cracks spread, a fiend formed from magma rushed out.
“My name is Balrog. From today onwards, I’ll fight with you and pledge my life to follow you.” The magma on Balrog’s body splattered as he pressed a large hand on Bida’s head.
Balrog’s body transformed into magma that swept towards Bida’s body. Layer after layer of magma wrapped around Bida’s body, quickly turning into a magma armor. The terrifying fire-elemental power also filled Bida’s body.
Zhou Wen had already unsummoned the Fiend-Armored Tiger Soul General and left the volcano.
Boom!
Not long after Zhou Wen came out of the volcano, he heard a terrifying rumbling sound coming from the volcano. Then, he saw a scarlet pillar of fire rush into the sky with plumes of black smoke. The volcano had erupted.
Zhang Xiao and company, who were fighting the Blue Sky Crystal Beast, also noticed the situation on the volcano’s side. They didn’t know what had happened or why the volcano had suddenly erupted.
When Bida rushed out wearing Balrog armor, everyone’s hearts skipped a beat.
Greed was the original motivation for humans. Clearly, Bida was also a greedy person. After obtaining Balrog, Bida rushed out with the eruption of the volcano and charged straight at the Blue Sky Crystal Beast. Clearly, he wanted to snatch it.
The White Crane team members were all fighting the Blue Sky Crystal Beast with all their might, so they didn’t have the capacity to deal with Bida. Bida’s body carried magma-like flames that swept towards the Blue Sky Crystal Beast.
The Blue Sky Crystal Beast was trapped by the spirit energy net. It failed to dodge the terrifying flames even after teleporting as its entire body was ignited.
Even the Zhang family’s spirit talismans and spirit energy net were consumed by the flames.
The Blue Sky Crystal Beast lost the restriction of the spirit energy net and constantly teleported. It charged into the sea, hoping to use the seawater to extinguish the flames on its body.
However, after the Blue Sky Crystal Beast entered the sea, the flames on its body didn’t extinguish. It continued burning its body rapidly.
Bida had already rushed into the sea like a fire dragon, chasing after the Blue Sky Crystal Beast.
Zhang Xiao was peeved and furious. They had done so much, but they ended up benefiting another. However, the White Crane team wasn’t good at water battles. Looking at Bida’s might just now, they knew they probably didn’t have the chance of being the ones to take down the Blue Sky Crystal Beast today.
The Xia family and a few freelance hunters chased into the sea, but they quickly lost them. With their speed in the sea, they couldn’t catch up to the teleporting Blue Sky Crystal Beast and Bida.
Bida was also a strange person. He clearly cultivated a fire-elemental Essence Energy Art and contracted a fire-elemental Guardian, but he was surprisingly good in water.
Furthermore, Balrog didn’t seem to be afraid of water. Its flames could burn in the water without any obstruction.
The Blue Sky Crystal Beast constantly teleported. It wasn’t difficult for it to pull away from Bida, but the flames on its body couldn’t be extinguished. As the flames burned, the Blue Sky Crystal Beast’s vitality became weaker and weaker. The distance it could teleport became narrower and narrower, and eventually, Bida caught up to it.
Seeing that the Blue Sky Crystal Beast was already on the brink of collapse, Bida blasted out a magma-like fire dragon and devoured its already charred body. In a moment, its body was burned to ashes as a crystal dropped.
“Essence Energy Skill Crystal!” Bida was delighted and was about to grab the crystal.
Suddenly, a figure slid across the water. His posture was like a dragon or a wyrm, and he was even faster than Bida in the water. He snatched the Blue Sky Crystal Beast’s crystal before Bida did.
Bida was slightly taken aback. On careful look, he realized that the person who had snatched the crystal was Zhou Wen.
“Didn’t you f*cking say that you are from inland and don’t know how to swim?” Bida wished he could slap Zhou Wen in the face. The finesse in water that Zhou Wen displayed was even better than his. To think that he had pretended to be a non-swimmer in the beginning. He was just too shameless.