The Chaos Thunder Leopard's roar gradually faded into the distance. Lin Yue and Su Qingyan had just breathed a sigh of relief when heavy footsteps sounded ahead, making the ground tremble slightly. They exchanged a glance and instantly became alert. Clearly, there were other guardian beasts in the secret realm.
"It's a Mysterious Iron Lizard!" Su Qingyan's expression shifted. She had read about this vicious beast in the Chaos Creature Compendium. "Its whole body is covered in Black Iron Scales, and it commands the Metal Law. Its defenses are incredibly strong, and it can even control the metal around it to attack its enemies!"
Before she had finished speaking, a three-zhang-long, pitch-black lizard appeared at the end of the passage. Its scales gleamed coldly like polished black iron, and its limbs were as thick as pillars. Each step cracked the ground beneath it. It was indeed a Mysterious Iron Lizard.
When the Mysterious Iron Lizard spotted them, a vicious glint flashed in its crimson eyes. It let out a low growl, and the scattered fragments of black iron around them suddenly rose into the air, shooting toward the two like arrows.
"Dodge!" Lin Yue barked, pulling Su Qingyan aside as they leaped in opposite directions. The fragments of black iron whizzed past their clothes and struck the rock behind them, sending sparks flying.
"We can't keep this up! Its metal attacks are too relentless!" Su Qingyan cried. Flames surged at her fingertips, coalescing into a wall of fire several zhang tall in front of them. Most of the black iron fragments melted on impact, but a few pierced through and kept coming.
Lin Yue stared at the Mysterious Iron Lizard, his mind racing. Its scales were hard, but the ones around its joints were relatively weak. And whenever it controlled metal to attack, the Metal Law fluctuations around its joints briefly stalled—that was its weakness!
"Su Qingyan, use your flames to make a wall and stop its charge, then use sparks to disrupt its vision!" Lin Yue said quickly. "I'll attack its joints. That's where the Metal Law is weakest!"
Su Qingyan immediately understood. Her flames surged again, making the wall thicker, while countless tiny sparks flew from it and circled the Mysterious Iron Lizard like fireflies, blocking its view.
Blinded by the sparks, the Mysterious Iron Lizard roared and charged at the wall, trying to smash through it with its body. It moved with tremendous force, and in an instant, it was about to crash into the flames.
"Now!" A sharp glint flashed in Lin Yue's eyes. Chaos Energy surged through his dantian as he drew on the Law of Stability within the Dao Rhyme Fragment, merging the two energies into a more concentrated Enhanced Chaos Light Orb than before. A faint golden light flowed across its surface, and it radiated a steady yet domineering aura.
He aimed at the joint of the Mysterious Iron Lizard's foreleg and hurled the orb. It tore through the air with a sharp whistle and struck its target precisely.
Bang!
A muffled impact rang out as the Law of Stability instantly froze the metal energy around the joint. The Mysterious Iron Lizard's foreleg buckled, throwing its massive body off balance. It crashed heavily to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"Now's our chance!" Seizing the opening, Su Qingyan gathered a blazing spear of fire at her fingertips. The spear glowed a vivid red and radiated an aura capable of incinerating everything. She aimed at the Mysterious Iron Lizard's eye—the only vital spot not covered in Black Iron Scales—and hurled it with all her strength.
The fiery spear shot toward the Mysterious Iron Lizard's eye like a falling star. With a sharp hiss, it struck true.
"Roooar!" The Mysterious Iron Lizard let out a heart-rending scream and thrashed violently on the ground. The black iron fragments around it flew wildly, but with its joints frozen by the Law of Stability, it couldn't form an effective attack.
Lin Yue took the opportunity to circle behind the Mysterious Iron Lizard. He spotted powerful Metal Law fluctuations radiating from its tailbone—that was the core through which it controlled the Metal Law!
Without hesitation, he circulated his Chaos Energy and drew in the scattered black iron fragments around them, gathering them into a sharp Fragment Blade. The blade gleamed with a cold light. Gripping it tightly, Lin Yue put all his strength into a fierce slash at the Mysterious Iron Lizard's tailbone.
Crack!
With a sharp snap, the Mysterious Iron Lizard's tailbone was severed, and its dense Metal Law aura instantly dispersed. Bereft of the law's power, the Mysterious Iron Lizard writhed a few times before its massive body gradually stiffened. In the end, it turned into a heap of ordinary black iron, leaving behind only a silver-glowing Metal Law Fragment floating in the air.
Lin Yue stepped forward and picked up the Metal Law Fragment. It felt cold in his hand and contained pure Metal Law energy. He could tell it would be of great help when he crafted spirit treasures in the future.
"We finally dealt with it." Su Qingyan let out a breath and came to Lin Yue's side. Looking at the iron on the ground, she seemed regretful. "What a shame there's so much black iron. It would've been great if we could've brought it back to make spirit treasures."
Lin Yue nodded and took an empty jade box from his storage pouch, collecting the black iron fragments from the ground. "This black iron may be ordinary, but it's still a rare crafting material. We might find a use for it when we get back."
After briefly sorting through what they had gained, the two continued deeper into the secret realm. They knew that more treasures and dangers awaited them, and they had to grow stronger as quickly as possible to face the challenges ahead.
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