Qian Qiqi rubbed her arms, her face contorted in pain, and said tremblingly, "Don't you guys feel like it's a bit cold around here? My arms are freezing."
She touched her arm and tentatively asked everyone, terrified that this was just her own hallucination—that would be terrible. But if it were real, that would be even worse.
Her words drew everyone's attention. Everyone was empowered by spiritual energy and was focused on looking around, trying to find a flaw. As a result, no one noticed the anomaly. But after she said that, everyone realized what was going on.
"This temperature is weird. How can this be? The surrounding lava is still bubbling, so why is it so cold? Is this some kind of illusion?" Jing Liren looked around. This place didn't seem like a cold place at all, but they were definitely feeling the chill.
Zhan Qi channeled his spiritual energy to warm himself, but he felt increasingly uncomfortable, as if something was gripping his lifeline. "This godforsaken place, I've had enough! We've been walking for so long and haven't found anything, nothing at all. We might as well just sit here and wait to die. At least I won't have to expend so much energy before I die, and my death will probably be quite pleasant."
As Zhan Qi sat down on the ground, a nonchalant expression on his face, he didn't even look at the remaining people. Ning Xi snorted coldly as she passed by him, "Outside, when everyone finds we're missing, they'll definitely try to rescue us. If you sit down now and don't leave, you're basically throwing away your chance to survive."
"You don't know this, do you? Danger often approaches the lone person, and you stopped, which is exactly what the lone person is." After hearing this, Zhan Qi felt that his legs stopped shaking, his back stopped aching, and he could even walk a few steps.
His eyes began to look around.
Mei Ming and the others were used to his behavior. Whenever Ning Xi spoke, whether it was true or false, he would believe most of it, but most of the time he would argue about the half that he didn't believe.
Neither of them felt they could convince the other.
...
"Young friends, now that you're here, why are you leaving? You didn't even say hello. Isn't it impolite to just leave like this?" A mechanical voice rang out from the surroundings. They weren't naive enough to hope that this voice belonged to a kind person.
"Who are you! Get out here right now, stop hiding in the shadows, you have no sense of responsibility at all!"
Zhan Qizhi was stunned, and was the first to stand up and shout into the air.
The voice seemed to chuckle before saying, "This young friend seems rather anxious, and quite fond of me, hence the urgency in looking for me."
Zhan Qi was disgusted. "Stop talking nonsense! If you want to fight, come out now and stop wasting time."
"No, no, no, I won't fight you. All of you little guys combined aren't even a fraction of my age. Fighting you would be bullying me, and I won't do that," the owner of the voice said.
Xu Yuehuai narrowed her eyes, then asked, "Are you the Demon Lord?"
The voice in the air paused for an even longer time, and when it spoke again, it was with a hearty laugh, "I didn't expect my reputation to still be circulating outside. This is not a good thing."
This statement is tantamount to an admission of the matter.
In an instant, everyone's expression turned serious, even solemn. Even Zhan Qi, who had been shouting the whole time, fell silent. If it were anyone else, it would be fine, but he was the Demon Lord.
Who is the Demon Lord? Although they didn't know much about him, they were aware that in a great battle long ago, the Demon Lord single-handedly caused chaos in the Second Layer. He was eventually sealed away, but no one knew where the seal was located.
Unexpectedly, the person in front of them was the Demon Lord. For a moment, Zhan Qi's face turned somewhat ugly. He never thought that the person he was cursing was actually the Demon Lord. If he had known his identity, he would never have dared to do this.
When the Demon Lord saw that the little ones who had been talking to him had fallen silent after he revealed his identity, he exclaimed, "Why are you all so quiet? Don't be afraid. I'm a very friendly person. You're still young, so I won't hold it against you."
Zhan Qi felt that this Demon Lord was completely different from what he had imagined.
Xu Yuehuai asked, "Senior, how can we get out?"
"You want to get out? It's simple, just jump into that lava, that's the exit." The Demon Lord wasn't surprised at all by Xu Yuehuai's question and kindly pointed out the way for them.
Ning Xi frowned, believing that the Demon Lord had ill intentions and wanted them to go to their deaths so that he wouldn't have to lift a finger.
Ning Xi thought this clumsy lie was easy to see through, and wanted to see what Xu Yuehuai thought. She turned around and found that Xu Yuehuai looked completely naive and actually believed it. She pursed her lips and thought about how the two of them had just interacted. She couldn't help but remind her, "You don't actually believe such a clumsy lie, do you? Don't tell me you really plan to lead us to do this."
Ning Xi's eyes showed resistance. She didn't want to listen to Xu Yuehuai at all, but if this woman really led everyone to jump into the lava, she would be left here alone and there would be no way to help her get out.
Xu Yuehuai turned to look at her, a hint of a smile in her eyes, and tilted her head. "Why not? Didn't the senior already say that this is the correct passage? If we want to leave, we have to go through there. Besides, if there's no other way, do you have any other way out?"
She said it casually, her voice light and cheerful.
Seeing her like this, Ning Xi frowned even more deeply. "Xu Yuehuai, wake up! That's the Demon Lord! You may not know what the Demon Clan is, but if you believe him now, you're pushing yourself into an abyss of no return!"
Xu Yuehuai's expression suddenly changed. "How is it a place of utter ruin? It's clearly a way to be reborn. Don't try to shake everyone's hearts in this way."
"Fine, even if I listen to you and the Demon Lord didn't tell us the truth, then I ask you, how are we going to get out of here now? Do you have a plan?" Xu Yuehuai approached step by step, and Ning Xi, looking at the face so close to hers, couldn't help but take two steps back.
With a furrowed brow, she stopped abruptly as she approached the edge of the lava, looking at her with displeasure. "What you think or do is none of my business, but don't take me with you. I don't want to go to my death with you all."
She turned her head away from Xu Yuehuai. If you looked closely, you could see a hint of hesitation in her eyes, and her hands, hanging at her sides, were clenched tightly.
An eerie silence fell over the room. No one spoke. Xu Yuehuai began to urge them, "Are you really not going to give it a try?"
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