"What a good chance. An incredible chance."
The few apprentices of Shadow's Light pushed aside the tall grass in front of their view and looked at this peaceful world with shifty eyes. Their hearts were filled with excitement.
The adult male serpentfowls were all gone, and only two female serpentfowls remained. There couldn't be better news than this.
The apprentice group had stayed here for two entire days and finally found this chance. They immediately went to work.
Gemogemogemo.
A metal chick emerged from the Black Forest with wooden steps, letting out a strange metallic noise.
This strange object immediately attracted the attention of the three serpentfowl hatchlings playing in the field. They stopped chasing each other and bent down to take a good look at this odd fellow they had never seen before.
These little animals did not sense any dangerous aura from the chick and saw no need to run back to the nest.
The metal chick flapped its wings, flashing its shiny body. It took one round around the field before clucking and running back into the Black Forest.
The three bloodthirsty hatchlings immediately beat their wings in excitement and chased after the chick.
Three big and one small; all four of them disappeared into the Black Forest.
A short moment later, one of the serpentfowls on the cliff looked out with its snakehead. This time, it was shocked to find that three of the hatchlings were missing.
The female serpentfowl immediately cried out. Its peculiar cry possessed the shrillness of birds, but also the hissing noise of snakes.
The sad cry reverberated around the cliff and lingered for a long while.
A short moment later, the two female serpentfowls flew out of the nest and started circling about the cliff, anxiously looking for the missing hatchlings.
The other two napping hatchlings ran back into the nest in a hurry upon being woken up.
The two serpentfowls landed on the field and flicked their snake tongues. Soon, they picked up on the trail of the hatchlings.
The serpentfowls quickly communicated with a bunch of hisses. One of them returned to guard the nest, while the other took to the skies and chased in the direction the smell of the hatchlings vanished toward.
Chapter 754 The Disaster of the Serpentfowls
The female serpentfowl found the tracks of the hatchlings after flying for a kilometer.
The three hatchlings were curled up together near a pile of rocks in the forest. Their heads hung limply by their bodies with not a trace of movement from them.
The serpentfowl cried and dove down from the canopy. It snapped many branches along the way as its ferocious body landed heavily in the woods, gouging the earth as it did so.
The female serpentfowl was a bit smaller than a male, and had much brighter and prettier wings.
Their strength might be inferior to the males, but their speed and the toxicity of their venom was superior.
The serpentfowl lunged toward the rocks. Her one and a half meter long snakehead immediately sensed the life force in the hatchlings when it touched them.
The hatchlings weren't dead!
The serpentfowl's pounding heart finally relaxed.
Just as she nudged the hatchlings with her head, a round metal ball rolled out from beneath them and bumped against her bird claws.
What was this?
As the serpentfowl bent down to inspect the strange object, several dozen holes abruptly appeared in the metal. A dense green gas released into the air.
The poison gas swiftly engulfed the serpentfowl's body.
She took a few steps backward out of shock, but her odd snake-bird hybrid body started swaying before she could get out of the poison cloud. She was stumbling like a drunk.
The poison gas was indeed toxic. In fact, it was a potent poison!
Unfortunately, this much poison was still insufficient to bring down a creature that was poisonous itself.
A wild wind blew across the place as a muscular bald man jumped out of the bushes. The long blade in his hand smashed down upon the head of the serpentfowl.
The female serpentfowl was only at the pseudo-adept level at best. Her snakehead might be protected by fine scales, but even they could not defend against such a ferocious strike. If the bald man hadn't struck with the back of the knife, his nine points of strength would have cleaved the head in half.
A dull thud rang out and blood splattered from the serpentfowl's head. Her head had almost been bashed into pieces.
The serpentfowl cried out in pain, swayed about, and finally fell with a thud.
The last scene reflected in the serpentfowl's eyes was of a few human silhouettes walking toward her with wicked smiles!
"It fell…it fell."
Blanco started laughing gleefully, and the other apprentices were full of smiles as well.
"What about it, boss? Do we stop here or do we keep going?"
"Of course we are gonna keep going," There was a wicked smile on Ponta's face as well, "There's still three hours before dark; those male serpentfowls won't be back so soon. We should take this opportunity to clear out their nests. Don't forget, the most valuable things about the serpentfowls are actually their eggs!"
"Then we must act faster. We need to find a place to hide after we finish searching the nests, or the male serpentfowls will find us." Body-Refining Adept Dakso prompted his teammates, bloody knife still in hand.
"Let's go. Eco; you and Little Locke stay here and bring the serpentfowls back to our hiding spot. We will meet up with you once we are done searching the nests!" Ponta decisively ordered.
"You guys be careful!" Eco said longingly.
The three apprentices vanished into the forest in the blink of an eye.
Eco looked around for a while and finally retracted her gaze after the three of them had disappeared entirely from sight. She sighed faintly, "Let's get moving on our end as well then!"
"Alrighty!" Little Locke replied. He took out seven or eight magical machinery components from his pouch and started to put them together in the clearing.
In less than seven minutes, he had basically completed a three-meter-tall miniature magical machine warrior of smaller stature. Little Locke pulled open the tailgate on the back of the machine and carefully slotted in three sets of magic energy batteries into it.
The next second, the miniature magical machine warrior stood up before the two apprentices, grinding and clanging with all sorts of metallic sounds.
"Magical Machine Worker J001 reporting for duty. Please give work orders."
One-meter tall Little Locke appeared all the shorter in front of this towering machine. Still, Little Locke seemed to be more energetic and confident than ever before when in front of his magical creation.
"Don't just stand there bumbling. Go over and carry those prey. We are gonna start running immediately!" Little Locke jumped about and gestured wildly as he finally gave his first order.
The magical machine warrior that was made entirely out of scrap metal appeared to have no magic energy weapons at all. The only thing that could be said to be a weapon was probably its giant clamp-like metal hand.
The energy source of the magical machine warrior might come from magic energy batteries, but one could see plenty of other technologies on its pieced-together body. There were signs of steam valves, switches, suspension systems, grinding gears, and metal levers.
The machine worker walked toward the serpentfowls with heavy steps after receiving its order. It tossed them onto its shoulders before following the goblin and the female apprentice toward their hidden spot.
Meanwhile, at the Serpentfowl Cliff, the other serpentfowl that had stayed guard over the place was flying in the sky. It occasionally dove down and used its terrifying snake bite and sharp bird claws to attack these invaders.
Sadly, though it had the power of a pseudo-adept, it was not equipped with any weapons. It could only fight three fully-armed human appren
tices with its bare body. Moreover, one of the three apprentices was a dark pseudo-adept whose abilities were not inferior to its own.
The aerial attacks of the serpentfowl were all blocked by Body-Refining Adept Dakso.
Dakso calmly blocked all the attacks with his tower shield, giving his two companions the perfect environment to use their spells.
Pseudo-Adept Ponta's shadow arrows and Blanco's armor-piercing crossbow bolts all delt decent damage to the serpentfowl. In particular, the constant barrage of shadow arrows had a very high chance of ignoring defense. They would corrode the serpentfowl's feathers and skin every time they hit its body, revealing the red blood and flesh beneath.
After fifteen minutes of combat, the badly wounded serpentfowl realized that it could not deal with these invaders. It cried and took to the air, trying to escape toward the forest.
"Trying to go look for help? Stay!"
Ponta put on a wicked smile. He had been secretly gathering power for this moment. He strode forward, and the dark energy in his hands gathered into the form of a dark spear. He threw it at the serpentfowl with all his strength, piercing through its body with the spear.
The serpentfowl fell from the sky with a pained cry.
"Dakso, you go retrieve the corpse! Blanco, come with me to the nests!"
The three apprentices immediately split up with victory in sight. They started to perform the clean-up for today's combat.
Yet, just as the three apprentices scoured Serpentfowl Cliff and packed up all the eggs and hatchlings, a strange, loud cry came from the distant horizon.
"Dammit, it's those male serpentfowls! They're back! Let's leave, quick."
Ponta, who had the most attuned Spirit sense, immediately changed expressions. He could no longer care for a more detailed search of the caves. He whistled and immediately started running with his two companions.
As many as seventeen adolescent serpentfowls were living on Serpentfowl Cliff. They had dealt with two of them, which left fifteen serpentfowls more.
That was fifteen pseudo-adept-level serpentfowls!
Regardless of how prepared or well-equipped they were, the apprentices could not deal with the attacks of the entire flock if they were trapped in the cave.
The hatred from the killing of their mate and the grudge for stealing their eggs was at stake. If the three of them were to fall into the hands of the serpentfowls, they would not die happy deaths.
Dakso and Blanco immediately picked up the massive bags, even without Ponta's instructions. The three of them sprinted down Serpentfowl Cliff. Ponta took the rear, scattering a strange yellow powder as he retreated.
This alchemical powder could effectively disrupt scent trails left in the air, leaving magical creatures who relied on their sense of smell helpless in tracking down enemies.
However, relying on this method alone to throw off the pursuit of the serpentfowls was still too risky. Ponta quickly took out a magic wand and quietly whispered several words.
A short moment later, Little Locke received the magical transmission and sent out his eyeball combat machine. The machine flew into the skies and started shooting at the serpentfowls.
These heat rays, with only eleven points of power, could not possibly kill the serpentfowls; it only made them shriek in pain a few times. The eyeball machine turned and fled without any hesitation after drawing the attention of all the serpentfowls. It flew toward the edge of the Black Forest with flame streams blasting out of its jets.
The serpentfowl flock was infuriated and distracted by the eyeball machine before they could even figure out what had happened at home. They cried out loud and beat their wings to chase after the machine. Soon, they vanished from sight.
Shhhh!
The three apprentices could finally relax, seeing that the serpentfowl flock had been drawn away. They brought their spoils with them and calmly returned to their hiding.
This hiding spot was a deep ditch that Little Locke had made the machine worker dig in a forest clearing. He then covered and concealed it with woody plants and vines. The effect was much better than merely hiding in a cave or between rocks.
"Good job, Little Locke! There will be your share in these spoils once we get back!" Ponta was clearly very satisfied with Little Locke's contributions in this adventure. For the first time, he recognized him as a teammate.
"Thank you, boss. Thank you."
Little Locke grinned widely!
Chapter 755 Sea of Ashes
The Fire Elementium Plane.
It was a boiling sea of fire here.
The boundaries between earth and sky were no longer as distinct here. The entire world had turned into a dreary, blazing furnace.
Since the Fire Elementium Plane was a world of pure fire elementium, it was only natural that other elementium particles could not appear. It caused the basic framework of the world to be formed of only fire elementium that had temporarily taken on different states of existence.
Naturally, one could see material fire elementium all over the Fire Elementium Plane; the existence of fire elementium was ubiquitous. However, if one were to look at the entire planar space as a single entity, they would find the distribution of fire elementium to be imbalanced.
The areas with less fire elementium were naturally the more impoverished and barren regions of the plane. Meanwhile, the areas with denser concentrations of fire elementium would always be taken up by powerful fire elementium creatures. These fire elementium creatures might not have much desire or greed–or even the scheming minds of other intelligent lifeforms–but their instinct to become stronger still drove their simple and violent thought processes.
Everyone in the world agreed that fire elementium creatures were the most ferocious and warlike branch of the four major elementium.
The Sea of Ashes was a relatively famous place in the Fire Elementium Plane. An area with a radius of nearly five thousand kilometers had been burned to nothingness by a terrifying fire. Naturally, the regions bordering the Sea of Ashes became the ideal home to powerful fire creatures.
The one living in the depths of the Sea of Ashes was Fifth Grade Fire King Groms.
At this moment, a magma giant five meters tall arrived in front of an ancient altar at the border of the Sea of Ashes.
Five mysterious guards clad in green-white flames abruptly appeared around the empty altar once the giant stopped walking.
"Stop there! This is the quarters of Fire King Groms. State your intent!"
These mysterious fire guards were no more than three meters in height and had inconspicuous appearances, being far less muscular than the magma giant before them. However, there was a world of difference between their power compared to the giant.
The magma giant was only Second Grade, while these five mysterious guards all possessed the terrifying power of Third Grades. If a fight broke out between them, the fire guards wouldn't need more than five seconds to take apart this giant who had yet to learn how to conceal his aura.
"Revered Firespirit guards, I am a lord serving beneath the great Fire King Groms. By his instructions, I have come here for an audience today!" The magma giant's loud voice boomed.
"An audience by his instructions? Wait here. We will verify this with the king himself!"
The fire spirit in the lead turned and knelt before the ancient altar to silently communicate with a certain powerful existence in the distance.
A short moment later, the fire spirit stood up and solemnly said, "I have communicated with our Lord. You are not lying. You may enter now!"
The five fire spirits stood on five nodes that had extended from the altar and started pouring their energy into the platform.
The ground trembled slightly.
The red sea of fire not far behind the altar suddenly parted under the force of a mysterious energy, revealing a clear path leading toward the depths of the sea of fire.
"Go in! Remember; don't touch these flames, or else."
The fire spirit didn't
finish, but the meaning behind his words was clear as day.
The magma giant acknowledged the reminder and walked onto the path toward the depths of the Sea of Ashes.
It was as if translucent glass had been fitted around him. The swirling fires could not affect him while he was on the path, regardless of how fiercely they blazed. Instead, the magma giant could faintly sense the terror and power of the sea of fire through the invisible force separating them.
Though he had the power of a Second Grade, as well as shocking fire resistance, he would be reduced to ashes in less than fifteen minutes in a sea of fire like this. It couldn't be helped. Most of the laws of the Fire Elementium Plane became extremely vague and chaotic when they reached this place. They could no longer be restored to their former states.
The fire corridor was long. Extremely long.
The magma giant had to walk for three entire days and nights before reaching the other end of the passage. When he emerged, he was stunned by the sight in front of him.
An extraordinarily tall and magnificent palace stood at the center of the Sea of Ashes. This palace levitated just above the blazing sea of fire as if it was a majestic beast of legend guarding the place. Its jaws were wide open and invited its lowly prey to enter of their own accord.
The ones supporting the palace were over a hundred thick stone pillars. Each of them would take five grown adults to encircle completely, and they were shrouded with golden flames. Several strange fire runes would occasionally appear on the pillars.
The wooden palace, the stone pillars; the Fire King's way of doing things was indeed beyond the limits of the magma giant's imagination. It was important to note that any foreign substance could not exist for extended periods inside the Fire Elementium Plane.
These stones and wood that appeared so insignificant had to be rare treasures that the Fire King had somehow obtained from a different world. Otherwise, they would have been reduced to ashes in such a terrifying place.
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