Lu Yuan was surprised.

In an attempt to eliminate itself, the fire lizard actually left the lava pool and came to the ground to continue its pursuit.

So before, he had Xiao Yi provoking him and racking his brains to figure things out...

Isn't this just making me look like a clown?

"Little Yi, use Holy Light on the Cross!"

Enraged, Lu Yuan immediately ordered Xiao Yi to switch from defense to offense.

"babble!"

Xiao Yi roared, gathering spiritual energy between her hands, and a golden cross appeared out of thin air, rushing towards the fire lizard!

"Bang!"

A loud crash rang out, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Before the dust had even settled, a fireball appeared!

Lu Yuan quickly pulled Xiao Yi away and looked back.

But they discovered that the fire lizard had taken a direct hit from the Holy Light Cross without any damage; Little Yi's attack hadn't broken through its defenses at all!

"What's going on with this fire lizard?"

Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly.

After these days of battle, Xiao Yi's use of the Cross Holy Light skill can be described as masterful. Even though she is four levels lower than the fire lizard, the fire lizard was directly attacked by the Cross Holy Light and could not possibly have escaped unscathed.

But now is not the time to dwell on these things.

Dodging the fireballs shot by the fire lizard again, Lu Yuan gave the order to Xiao Yi.

"Activate the Divine Protection Array, chant the Hymn of Courage, and unleash the Holy Light of the Cross upon the Fire Lizard once more!"

"Eee!"

Xiao Yi nodded vigorously.

She activated the Divine Protection Array to reduce damage, and at the same time closed her eyes and focused on chanting the Hymn of Courage to bless herself. Immediately afterwards, she released a cross of holy light to strike the fire lizard!

The fire lizard completely ignored the attack, remaining standing still and not even bothering to dodge.

"Pfft!"

"Awooo!!!"

However.

With the sound of flesh tearing open, the salamander screamed in agony, writhing on the ground in pain, its deep red blood flowing everywhere.

It really worked!

Lu Yuan's eyes lit up.

The Courage Hymn skill can increase the various stats of the blessed one, and the attack power will naturally increase significantly. With this blessing, the Holy Light of the Cross is enough to break through the Salamander's defense!

"Little Yi, take this opportunity to finish it off!"

With another enhanced cross of holy light striking, the fire lizard lay motionless on the ground, completely dead.

"call!"

Lu Yuan wiped the sweat from his brow and stepped forward to examine the fire lizard's carcass.

[Race: Fire Lizard]

[Attribute: Fire]

[Level: Profound True Realm Third Rank]

[Potential: Earth Spirit Rank 7]

[Bloodline: Ninth Rank Earth Spirit]

[Talent: Heat Breath (Mutation)]

[Skills: Impact, Fireball]

[Status: Adult, Deceased]

[Note: Due to unknown factors, an unknown mutation occurred.]

"..."

Looking at the last piece of test data, Lu Yuan felt somewhat speechless.

Unknown factors, unknown mutations...

What else does your broken system know?

You always fail me at crucial moments, what use are you?!

but.

This fire salamander is indeed different from a normal fire salamander.

The subjugation of all beasts only loses its effectiveness under certain special circumstances.

for example.

When a beast tamer senses that its tamer's life is threatened, the urge to protect the tamer takes over, causing the submission of all beasts to fail or become less effective.

Therefore, when the assassins from the capital came to assassinate him, the "Submission of All Beasts" technique had no effect.

He didn't realize this at the time, and only understood it later.

but.

The fire lizard showed no signs of a contract, indicating it was an unclaimed adult demon beast and therefore had no possibility of protecting its master.

That means...

The fire lizard had another mission, which made it overcome the fear of all beasts submitting and determined to kill Lu Yuan.

But what exactly is the reason?

After thinking for a long time, Lu Yuan sighed.

We still have too little information to guess anything, so let's just go and see what happens.

In any case, he was determined to go deeper into the secret realm.

After putting the fire lizard into their beast-taming space, Lu Yuan and Xiao Yi continued their journey deeper into the lava cave.

Having learned from his previous experience, he tried to stay as far away as possible when he encountered a pool of lava.

However, due to the large number of monsters living nearby, it was inevitable that we would encounter a few.

Fortunately, they weren't as difficult to deal with as the fire lizards. Xiao Yi didn't need Lu Yuan to give any orders; she took care of them all by herself in no time.

"We've been walking for most of the day, let's rest here for a while."

Lu Yuan wiped the sweat from his brow and was about to sit down to rest when he was scalded and jumped up.

"Holy crap! Are they setting up a teppanyaki buffet here?"

Lu Yuan touched his sore buttocks and couldn't help but complain.

The temperature inside the lava cave was ridiculously high; he felt as if he were in a giant steamer.

"well!"

Lu Yuan sighed.

It seems there's no way to rest now; we have no choice but to grit our teeth and continue on our way.

However.

The further you go into the lava cave, the higher the temperature becomes.

Lu Yuan was sweating profusely, his clothes were completely soaked, and he could even feel the ground was hot under his feet through the thick soles of his shoes.

"Could this be a volcano? And if we go any further in, could we be at the center of the volcano?"

Looking up ahead, a somewhat blinding light suddenly appeared before his eyes.

Lu Yuan frowned.

This lava cave is eerie in every way.

Many monsters have mutated due to unknown factors, and even the "Submission of All Beasts" technique is no longer effective.

The sudden appearance of this flame suggests that some danger may be lurking ahead.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained! Who cares what it is, let's go and see!"

Lu Yuan gritted his teeth and decided to go and see what was so strange about the firelight.

As the saying goes, "Looking at a mountain makes your horse run itself to death."

The firelight looked close, but in reality, it took Lu Yuan a full half hour to get there.

"Whoa!"

Looking at the magnificent scenery before him, Lu Yuan couldn't help but exclaim in amazement.

Unexpectedly, what he saw was not firelight at all, but molten lava churning everywhere, which looked just like dancing flames from a distance!

It seems that this secret realm is indeed located within a volcano, just as he guessed.

Wiping the sweat pouring down his forehead, Lu Yuan carefully observed his surroundings.

However.

Apart from the color of the lava, nothing else could be seen in the field of vision.

Lu Yuan frowned deeply.

For some reason, he felt that this place was very eerie no matter how he looked at it.

"Eee!"

Just then, Xiao Yi suddenly tugged at his sleeve.

Following the direction Xiao Yi was pointing, Lu Yuan couldn't help but marvel.

"What is this? It looks so beautiful!"

A crystal tree nearly 100 meters tall stood in the lava, its entire body a similar orange-red color to the lava, like a meticulously sculpted work of art.

No wonder he hadn't noticed the crystal tree before.

The color blended perfectly with the lava; if it weren't for Xiao Yi, he probably wouldn't have noticed it.

only.

How could a crystal tree grow in this place filled with lava?

Thinking of this, Lu Yuan couldn't help but take a few more glances.

Upon closer inspection, he discovered something truly unique.

What is that?

Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes and was about to take two steps forward to take a closer look when the molten lava suddenly surged violently and a huge eel emerged from the surface!