Fire Marrow Crystal, Domain Triple

The spaceship arrived at the Lava Secret Realm.

After parting ways with the Black Ape warrior, Su Zhe chose not to team up with other mercenaries, opting instead to venture into the Lava Secret Realm alone.

Within the Lava Secret Realm, volcanoes and magma lakes were everywhere, and the ground consisted of scorching red-brown rock with temperatures reaching thousands of degrees; ordinary metals would melt here.

If one were merely at the Apprentice Level, they would not even last a few minutes in such a harsh environment.

Only by reaching the Star Level, combined with the protection of a Force Battle Suit, could one move freely in these conditions.

Even so, unless one cultivated the Law of Fire, their combat effectiveness would be more or less affected in such a place.

Only those at the Universe Level could truly ignore the environment of the Lava Secret Realm.

However.

The Universe Mercenary Alliance's restriction of this Death-level mission to Star Level entrants was likely intended to cultivate geniuses.

Otherwise, powerful Universe Level beings entering the Lava Secret Realm could easily obtain vast quantities of Fire Marrow Crystal and slaughter the Lava Monsters here.

Humanity's advantage over fierce beasts was still far too great.

Laws of perception, Force Weapons, Force Battle Suits...

These were all human advantages.

Inside the Lava Secret Realm.

Atop a towering cliff.

Su Zhe stood there, looking down at a relatively open lava basin below. In the center of the basin was a lava lake over a hundred thousand meters in diameter, emitting heat filled with the scent of sulfur.

Surrounding that lava lake, about twenty Lava Monsters of various shapes were busy at work.

Lava Monsters, while called fierce beasts, were actually more akin to energy-based lifeforms.

Although they were flesh-and-blood creatures, they had evolved different forms within the unique environment of the Lava Secret Realm; some resembled giant tortoises with heavy rock armor on their backs, excelling in defense, while others resembled pangolins with sharp claws, excelling in offense.

Different Lava Monsters possessed different characteristics.

And at this moment, they were all busy with one thing.

That was... mining Fire Marrow Crystal!

"Master, the strongest of these Lava Monsters is at the Star Level 9, and the weakest is at the Star Level 5."

Xiao Yu reminded him.

Su Zhe nodded slightly. These Lava Monsters were digging into the rock walls; their instincts helped them locate Fire Marrow Crystal, which served as their food source.

After a Lava Monster died, its corpse would dissolve into the magma, and after long ages of evolution, it would reform into veins of Fire Marrow Crystal deep underground.

If not for human intervention, this secret realm could have remained stable and sustainable until its eventual decay.

But with humans discovering this realm and engaging in large-scale exploitation and slaughter, this Lava Secret Realm would likely not last much longer.

"Can you detect the status of those Fire Marrow Crystal veins?"

Su Zhe asked.

Although the Black Dragon Spaceship had been given to Luo Feng, Su Zhe had kept the detector from the Black Ink Star Ship on his person.

"Unable to detect."

Xiao Yu said, "The environment within the Lava Secret Realm has a significant impact on detection; I fear only those Lava Monsters can locate the positions of the Fire Marrow Crystal veins."

Unable to detect?

Su Zhe nodded slightly.

No matter, he had other methods.

The Fire Marrow Crystal veins within the Lava Secret Realm were divided into two types.

One was the type the Lava Monsters were currently mining, buried deep underground.

The other was what the Black Ape warrior had mentioned earlier: scattered Fire Marrow Crystals that would occasionally appear on the surface, which could be mined directly, but the quantity was too small to meet Su Zhe's expectations.

Su Zhe preferred to be proactive.

The Lava Monsters below were all digging for Fire Marrow Crystal, with one exception.

That was the Star Level 9 Lava Monster.

Its body was massive, like a small mountain; its length alone reached nearly three thousand meters, and it stood nearly a thousand meters tall, making it larger than many mountain ranges on Earth.

It did not follow the other Lava Monsters in digging for Fire Marrow Crystal, but instead stood like a foreman on a protruding piece of Obsidian beside the magma lake, its eyes coldly watching the other Lava Monsters.

Su Zhe's gaze fixed on that Lava Monster; as long as he took it down, the other Lava Monsters would be nothing to fear.

Kill it!

One unit of Fire Marrow Crystal was about 20 kilograms, yet its volume was only the size of a palm.

Su Zhe could already see a significant number of Fire Marrow Crystals piled up at the feet of that Lava Monster; the crystals were a brilliant red-gold, shimmering under the light emitted by the magma.

This small pile of Fire Marrow Crystal contained at least several hundred units.

That is to say, over tens of billions of Black Dragon Coins!

This was already comparable to, or perhaps even more than, Su Zhe's total earnings in the Thunder World.

However, obtaining these Fire Marrow Crystals would be extremely difficult.

First, one would need to kill that Star Level 9 Lava Monster, and then manage to escape while surrounded by over twenty other Lava Monsters; the difficulty was no less than attempting to assassinate someone from a major faction in the Thunder World.

In the Thunder World, Su Zhe had only ever killed some ferocious beasts and ordinary adventurers.

As for those from major factions, they were always accompanied by a large number of Star Level 9 guards, making it impossible to even get close.

"There are no Universe Level entities present; this is killable."

With a shift in his intent, Su Zhe activated his movement technique, Thousand Shadows, and rapidly charged toward the Lava Monster below!

After such a long period of cultivation, Su Zhe had finally managed to master the basics of this movement technique.

Thousand Shadows had reached the first layer, allowing him to form a single afterimage.

With his already extreme speed bolstered by the movement technique, Su Zhe arrived above the Star Level 9 Lava Monster before it could even react!

Domain, activate!

Flowing Fire Blade, Fifth Form!

Su Zhe brought his arms together, transforming them into a massive blade that he brought crashing down, hacking fiercely into the top of the Lava Monster's head.

The surrounding magma and flames were devoured by Su Zhe's domain.

Nihility Devouring Flame was an incredibly powerful flame in its own right, naturally possessing a suppressive force over ordinary fire. In the blink of an eye, the surrounding flames were completely consumed, and the energy within the Lava Monster began to drain away rapidly.

With a single strike, Su Zhe cleaved the head of the Lava Monster wide open.

"Devour!"

Triple Devouring Power—the predation of the Blacklight Virus, the annihilation of the Nihility Devouring Flame, and the refining of the origin through the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art—all activated simultaneously!

[Devoured Star Level 9 Lava Monster, obtained 655,360 Devour Points]

[Devour Point conversion: 65 Devour Coins]

As that notification appeared, Su Zhe felt as though his domain had simultaneously reached a breakthrough.

Domain, Third Layer!

With his domain reaching the third layer, Su Zhe's comprehension of the Law of Fire ascended to a new level, and faintly, he seemed to be on the verge of grasping a trace of the Origin Law of Fire.