Chapter 293: Chapter 280: Spirit Fire Demon
No light, no water, this is what it’s like a thousand feet deep underground.
Zhouyang followed Ma Shaoyang, flying downward through a hole hidden beneath the Desert Sea, and soon arrived in such a place.
Zhouyang wasn’t clear about the size of this underground cave, but the environment was indeed very harsh.
In such an environment, even demon beasts accustomed to the harsh conditions of the Boundless Desert Sea cannot survive here long-term without Tier Three strength.
After all, unlike human cultivators, demon beasts cannot carry Grain Avoidance Pills or large amounts of fresh water, nor can they use spells to condense water vapor into potable water.
For instance, Zhouyang carries dozens of jade bottles of Grain Avoidance Pills with him year-round, and his Water Storage Spiritual Artifact holds a large amount of water.
These Grain Avoidance Pills and water, along with the hundreds of thousands of Spirit Stones he carries, are enough to sustain him for years in extreme environments without starving or dying of thirst, without hindering his daily cultivation.
Of course, demon beasts cannot carry supplies like cultivators, but some special kinds can survive without water or food.
For example, the Tier Four demon beast "Gold-devouring Beast" that Zhouyang helped the Chen Family Ancestor slay only consumed Spiritual Gold and Spirit Ore, and the "Earth Dragon Worm" he encountered could survive by eating soil.
There’s also the Tier Four demon beast "Fire Qilin Beast" he is about to confront, a special beast that lives in magma and earth fire, feeding on flame spiritual qi.
These special demon beasts often inhabit extremely harsh environments, where they have a significant home-field advantage; demon beasts or cultivators unable to survive in such environments are greatly affected when battling them on their turf.
"Let me conceal my aura first to avoid disturbing the demon beasts inside; you lead the way ahead!"
In the pitch-black underground cave, Zhouyang accurately directed his gaze towards Ma Shaoyang nearby, issuing a command in a deep voice.
After speaking, he immediately formed a spell hand seal, causing the aura belonging to a Purple Mansion Stage Cultivator to instantly drop to around the Fifth-Layer Foundation Establishment level.
Zhouyang had not yet fully mastered the Third Layer of the "Golden Cicada Concealment Technique"; otherwise, his cultivation level could have dropped even more, down to the First-Layer Foundation Establishment.
Yet, even so, seeing Zhouyang’s aura suddenly decrease so significantly, and upon scanning with his divine sense finding nothing amiss, Ma Shaoyang was greatly shocked.
As a loose cultivator, having experienced countless magical combats and life-and-death crises, he well understood the immense value of such a Concealing Breath Secret Technique.
If he had such a secret technique, whether for disguising as a low-tier cultivator to lure sand bandits into a trap or concealing his aura to lower the vigilance of Tier Three top-grade demon beasts for ambush demon hunting, it would have been of immense utility!
"Is this the foundation of a Purple Mansion Clan?"
He muttered to himself, reining in his astonishment, and obediently led the way.
Zhouyang followed him through the underground cave, while his vast divine sense had already been released, probing the situation within the cave.
Under Zhouyang’s divine sense exploration, each passage within this underground cave twisted and turned without any rule, and the size and shape of each passage were very similar.
It was as if some kind of gigantic beast had used its own body as a drill to bore through the earth.
"It’s said that the Tier Five demon beast ’Sand Worm’ likes to burrow underground in search of food. Could it be that this entire underground cave, with its irregularly circular passages, is where a Sand Worm demon beast once lived long ago, burrowing these pathways to seek food?"
Zhouyang’s divine sense swept over each passageway, thoughts swirling as he recalled certain documentation he had read before, inevitably linking the formation of the underground cave with the famous Tier Five demon beast ’Sand Worm’ in the Boundless Desert Sea.
Every cultivator in the Desert Sea Cultivation Realm heard the tales of the Sand Worm, but truly few have seen this Tier Five demon beast and returned alive.
Even if someone claimed to have seen a Sand Worm, others might not believe it.
After all, it’s an infamous Tier Five demon beast!
Who would believe a Qi Cultivation Stage Cultivator or a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator could survive seeing a Sand Worm?
Zhouyang grew up hearing the tales of the Sand Worm, and held some curiosity about whether this legendary thousand-feet-long giant demon beast was as colossal and fierce as the rumors suggested.
However, his curiosity would never drive him to venture into the "Sea of Death," where such beasts are active, just to glimpse the Sand Worm in person.
Now, if this underground cave truly is as he suspected and is related to [Sand Worm], he could calculate the actual size of the [Sand Worm] based on the size and length of each passage.
Thus, during the subsequent journey, he followed closely behind Ma Shaoyang as they traversed the underground cave, while his Divine Sense meticulously swept through the entire passage, calculating the actual size of the [Sand Worm] by comparing the indentations on the tunnel walls.
As he continued this comparison along the way, Zhouyang discovered that the rumors might not be exaggerated after all.
Based on his comparison with the markings in the passage, if this tunnel was truly formed by the [Sand Worm] burrowing underground, then the body length of this [Sand Worm] is indeed over eight hundred zhang long.
A body over eight hundred zhang long, what an enormous size that would be!
Zhouyang’s eyes flickered with light, and his heart was filled with shock.
After the two of them traversed the underground cave for a few hours, Zhouyang felt the surrounding temperature suddenly rise dramatically.
As they continued forward, the temperature became increasingly higher. Without Ma Shaoyang’s reminder, he had already discovered the underground fire abyss he had been talking about through his Divine Sense.
It was a flowing magma river, with magma mysteriously generated from some unknown origin and flowing toward another unknown destination, with a section approximately over a thousand zhang long contiguous with the underground cave.
The sand worm demon beast responsible for initially breaking through the underground cave seemed to be wary of the existence of the magma river. Once the tunnel reached the edge of the magma river, it took a turn and veered away, thus forming a corridor over a thousand zhang long by the riverbank.
Zhouyang didn’t know why this corridor was able to avoid being melted into magma by the high temperatures of the magma river. Perhaps it was due to the initial power exerted by the sand worm demon beast, or perhaps the rocks constituting the corridor were particularly heat-resistant; none of these were important.
What was important was that he had already seen the cluster of what seemed to be the "Purifying Blue Lotus Flame," a Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire.
Just above the slow-flowing dark red magma river, on a piece of black-red rock at the corner facing the other side of the corridor, burned a sizeable azure-purple flame roughly the size of a face basin.
The azure-purple flame flickered as it burned, the flames rising in layers, resembling a half-open azure-purple lotus flower, with inner azure hues and outer purple hues, quite magnificent.
Watching the azure-purple flame flickering amidst the fire, Zhouyang’s eyes flashed with golden light, and the black and white pupils instantly morphed into a golden-red color, for he had activated the "Separation Fire Golden Eye" divine technique.
At this moment, as he looked at the azure-purple flame again, he saw that the fire spirit power contained within the small cluster of azure-purple flame was far purer and richer compared to the Tier Four fire-type demon pill he held, and moreover, every moment, a large amount of flame spiritual Qi from the magma river converged towards the azure-purple flame, being refined by it.
With the endless flame spiritual Qi from the magma river nourishing it, the azure-purple flame was able to keep burning robustly, continuously growing stronger under the nourishment of the flame spiritual Qi.
Zhouyang understood that if this cluster of azure-purple flame was not discovered either by himself or another demon beast, then after countless years, given a conceivable opportunity, this azure-purple flame might develop spiritual wisdom and transform into a peculiar existence known as "Spirit Fire Demon."
The term "Spirit Fire Demon" evidently refers to a demon beast formed from Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire after developing spiritual wisdom.
Once such a demon beast is born, it practically becomes an unbeatable presence in places like the magma river and possesses a special divine technique called "Undying Body" that all demon beasts and humans envy.
However, such "Spirit Fire Demons" are extremely, extremely rare, even rarer than the Tier Seven demon immortal equivalent to the Tribulation Crossing True Immortal, and so far, only less than a handful of "Spirit Fire Demons" have been discovered by cultivators in the Cultivation Realm.
Therefore, Zhouyang simply pondered the information he had read about these and then shifted his attention elsewhere.
His gaze swept left and right along the azure-purple flame and quickly discovered something below the magma several zhang to its right.
In Zhouyang’s eyes, the fire spirit power beneath that section of magma was exceptionally dense, hardly weaker than the azure-purple flame. As the flame spiritual Qi attracted by the azure-purple flame flowed through that region, more of it seemed to sink beneath the magma and vanished, as if absorbed by something.
Witnessing this scene, he immediately understood that the Tier Four demon beast "Fire Qilin Beast" Ma Shaoyang spoke of was certainly sleeping below.
So he withdrew the golden-red color from his eyes, restored them to black and white, and turned to Ma Shaoyang standing behind him, saying, "Your information is indeed correct, that is the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire [Purifying Blue Lotus Flame]. Now you can take this Foundation Establishment Pill and leave, lest you get drawn into the battle when I confront the [Fire Qilin Beast] later!"
Saying that, he patted the storage bag at his waist and took out a jade bottle containing a Foundation Establishment Pill, and tossed it to Ma Shaoyang.
This Foundation Establishment Pill was acquired from Zhang Yunpeng in the past. It had been in his possession, waiting for a Zhou Family cultivator to exchange for it, but now Ma Shaoyang, an outsider, benefited from it first.
Ma Shaoyang took the jade bottle, raised the cork to take a look, and immediately smelled the rich aroma wafting out.
After confirming it was genuine with a brief glance, he hurriedly sealed the bottle again and put it away, then with joy all over his face, he bowed respectfully to Zhouyang and said, "Thank you for your grace, senior. Then this junior will not disturb senior in your quest for slaying demons and seeking treasures. Farewell, senior!"