Chapter 233: Fire Spirit Beast

The last golden armored general had its runes shattered and turned into a golden light.

Qin Sang panted rapidly. Dealing with six golden armored generals at once was quite challenging for him, but fortunately, he managed to resolve it successfully. He put away the fiendish corpse, swallowed a spiritual energy recovery pill, briefly adjusted his breathing, and then walked towards the end of the passage.

Intense heat assailed him, and the air shimmered.

Qin Sang activated his spiritual energy to protect himself, warding off the scorching air, and carefully approached the passage exit.

As soon as he stepped out of the passage, Qin Sang's expression subtly changed. He spun around abruptly. The moment he exited, the passage had vanished into thin air, replaced by a smooth, mirror-like stone wall. Qin Sang touched the stone wall, finding it exceptionally hard. He couldn't find any mechanism or restriction to open the passage, as if it had never existed.

He now stood atop a circular stone platform, a good ten meters in diameter. Qin Sang alone on the platform felt exceptionally vast and empty. In the center of the platform stood a stone tablet, identical to the one at the entrance. The tablet was pitch black, also dozens of meters tall, exuding an ancient aura, with no inscriptions on it.

Qin Sang carefully approached, releasing a wisp of spiritual energy to test it. The stone tablet swallowed his spiritual energy like a bottomless pit, without the slightest ripple. After a moment of thought, Qin Sang walked to the tablet and, the instant his hand touched it, the restrictions on the tablet were triggered, and a deep vortex appeared. Qin Sang understood then: this was the exit of the trial. If one decided to give up the trial, they could return here and leave through the stone tablet. This meant the previous passage was just an appetizer; the real trial lay ahead!

Qin Sang gazed into the distance, seeing a hazy gray mist permeating the area ahead, making it difficult to see far. Faint mist also swirled around him. Fortunately, this mist didn't impede spiritual sense. Qin Sang extended his spiritual sense from his body, sweeping it through a short distance around him, and felt no obstruction. However, he retracted his spiritual sense before extending it too far.

The mist drifted and flowed like ordinary fog in the mundane world, but Qin Sang dared not underestimate it. He had a feeling that unknown entities were lurking within the mist, waiting for intruders!

The stone platform floated in mid-air, connected by only one extremely thick iron chain that extended deep into the mist. He had no idea what lay at the end of the chain. Besides this, both his left and right sides were shrouded in mist, obscuring everything. He could only look down, where a red line was visible. Fiery red light and intense heat emanated from it—it was indeed a river of magma! Due to the mist, he could only see a thin line, but Qin Sang knew this wasn't the full extent of the magma river; the actual river was likely much wider than what was visible.

After assessing 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. The stone platform showed no changes. Aside from the shifting mist and the surging magma river, the entire space was eerily silent. His gaze shifted to the iron chain beneath his feet. This was clearly the most obvious hint. Was this trial about proceeding along the iron chain?

He lifted one foot and placed it on the iron chain. No matter how much force Qin Sang applied, the chain didn't budge an inch, surprising him. It was indeed a very stable path.

A dark shadow flickered.

Qin Sang summoned a zombie, affixed his spiritual sense to it, and ordered the zombie to walk forward along the iron chain. In a blink of an eye, the zombie disappeared into the depths of the mist.

A moment later, Qin Sang's expression suddenly changed. His connection with the zombie had been severed by an inexplicable force. The change was so swift that he didn't feel anything before the link broke! Immediately after, the mist suddenly boiled like a pot, churning violently, as if a group of monsters had been startled by the zombie and were about to rush out from within the mist. Qin Sang frowned deeply, not daring to hesitate. He summoned the Ebony Sword to protect himself. Still feeling unsafe, he also conjured the Yama Banner, which formed a ghostly banner array, surrounding him. He didn't release the fiendish corpse, as whatever was in the mist might be a bane to corpse puppets. Losing one zombie wasn't painful, but having the fiendish corpse destroyed here would be quite unacceptable.

Just as Qin Sang finished setting up the Ten Directions Yama Array, whatever was in the mist finally rushed out. Before he could even see what it was, Qin Sang felt a 'buzz' in his ears, which were immediately overwhelmed by an endless cacophony of sound. These sounds were strange bird cries, pouring into his ears like demonic music, even starting to assault his nascent soul. If it had been anyone else, caught off guard by the strange sounds, they might have fallen into a daze, becoming easy prey.

Qin Sang, protected by the jade Buddha, naturally wasn't afraid of these. Ignoring the incessant strange sounds, he widened his eyes and finally saw clearly: rushing out of the mist was a large flock of strange red birds. These birds resembled neither eagles nor phoenixes. They were small, each only palm-sized, and what was even more peculiar was their entirely crimson color, with feathers like blazing flames, resembling the mythical divine beast, the Fire Phoenix. Qin Sang had never heard of any demonic bird having such an appearance.

The moment they appeared, a scorching aura washed over him, and their cries were indeed the source of the sounds.

"These are... Fire Spirit Beasts?" A flash of inspiration struck Qin Sang, and he remembered what they were.

In places rich with fire elemental energy, after long periods of evolution, these peculiar beings naturally come into existence. They are a type of demonic creature known as Fire Spirit Beasts, with similar variants like Water Spirit Beasts, Earth Spirit Beasts, and so on. Born from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, they possess formidable power from birth. However, developing sentience and completing their transformation is much harder for them than for other demonic beasts. Some Fire Spirit Beasts have no true form, while others can transform into animal shapes, and there are even humanoid Fire Spirit Beasts. Their forms are diverse and varied, and their abilities are equally strange and numerous. These firebirds were bird-shaped Fire Spirit Beasts. Below this place lay a vast river of magma, existing for untold tens of thousands of years, its fire elemental energy abundant to the extreme. The birth of Fire Spirit Beasts here was not surprising. This meant that what was hidden in the mist was likely flocks of firebirds, and perhaps other types of Fire Spirit Beasts.

Qin Sang vigilantly watched the flock of firebirds. There were thousands of them, densely packed, rushing out together like a cloud of fire, their momentum astonishing. The Ten Directions Yama Array suddenly expanded, protecting Qin Sang within its formation. The next moment, it was swallowed by the fire cloud.

"Oh?" Hidden within the array, Qin Sang activated the Ebony Sword, thrusting it into the fire cloud. He discovered that these firebirds were surprisingly fragile; pierced by the Ebony Sword, they immediately died and dissipated into a wisp of flame. Their only two methods of attack were their demonic bird cries and when the flock collectively flapped their wings, they conjured a hurricane of flames, but its power was not strong and could not shake the Ten Directions Yama Array in the slightest.