In and out

In the desert, a man and two horses raced through the night.

"Young master, where are we going?" Lei Zang, who had just joined the group, asked in bewilderment.

"Weren't you curious about the details of my commission? There's no harm in telling you. I found a very rare Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snake. I'm taking you to have a look."

The Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snake was merely an excuse. Chen Cang intended to put greater time pressure on Queen Medusa and make her collect the green lotus core flame as soon as possible.

He had never lowered his guard against Queen Medusa, but deep down, he was also quite confident.

That confidence came primarily from three things.

First, before collecting the green lotus core flame, he and Medusa had no grievances whatsoever. She was unlikely to attack him.

Second, the Void Pegasus Beast had awakened some of its racial talents. Any formations or encirclements that did not involve space could no longer hold it.

Third, Xun'er's protection!

All things considered, Queen Medusa really posed little threat to him. As he had said before, the very worst outcome would merely be all his efforts coming to nothing.

But after investing so much effort, who wouldn't want to succeed?

Thus, to achieve his goal, Chen Cang needed to give Medusa a push from the sidelines. Even if the method was crude, it would do as long as it worked.

Black cat or white cat, a cat that caught mice was a good cat!

The facts had also proved that Medusa was indeed getting anxious. She had already made several attempts in secret.

However, mere attempts were not enough for Chen Cang.

He needed Queen Medusa to make up her mind completely and collect the green lotus core flame, even if she had to pay a price!

"Young master, something's wrong! The ground is shaking, and the energy between heaven and earth is a little strange, too."

While Chen Cang was thinking, Lei Zang's wary voice suddenly rang out.

Chen Cang came back to his senses. After briefly sensing his surroundings, he too noticed the abnormalities. The closer they came to the area containing the green lotus core flame, the stronger the tremors became.

There was no such thing as an earth dragon turning over in this world. Every disturbance had a traceable cause.

Could it be...

Queen Medusa was getting serious?!

Realizing this, Chen Cang put on an angry expression, yet he still could not keep the corners of his mouth from rising. He had put considerable thought into bringing things to this point.

"Queen Medusa must be stealing my opportunity. Hurry, let's go take a look!"

Now that things had reached this stage, by all rights, it was time for Chen Cang to meet Queen Medusa formally.

After all, she also knew that the green lotus core flame was something he yearned for. It would have been strange if he showed no reaction upon discovering that someone had beaten him to it.

"Young master, but that's Queen Medusa..."

Lei Zang had made it sound pleasant, saying he had come to befriend Chen Cang.

But he knew perfectly well that he simply could not disobey orders from above.

If he had a choice, he truly wanted nothing whatsoever to do with Queen Medusa.

That woman's fearsome reputation was simply too overwhelming. Saying she could frighten a crying child into silence was no joke.

Moreover, judging by Chen Cang's current reaction, his relationship with Queen Medusa seemed far from harmonious. It was nothing like what the clan leader had described before Lei Zang came.

Thus, he was panicking now. He had already begun beating the drums of retreat, wondering whether he should slip away immediately.

"I know."

Chen Cang answered casually and had the Void Pegasus Beast speed up slightly, leaving Lei Zang far behind. From beginning to end, he had never expected anything from the man.

Soon, Chen Cang and the Void Pegasus Beast arrived at the Underground Cave.

This was the source of every abnormality, and the disturbances here were far greater than those outside.

Violent energy surged out from deep within the magma, turning everything in sight into raging waves, without a trace of its former calm.

Powerful tremors rose from the depths, shaking the earth and mountains and making it difficult to keep one's footing.

And all this was caused merely by the aftershocks coming from below!

Sure enough, letting Queen Medusa take the lead had been the right choice. Had Chen Cang gone to retrieve it himself...

The consequences hardly needed imagining.

The energy grew increasingly violent. The entire Underground Cave seemed on the verge of collapse, and the collection below appeared to have reached a critical moment.

Shaking his head slightly, Chen Cang returned to the surface with the Void Pegasus Beast. He schooled his expression and waited in readiness with a dark face.

About an incense stick's worth of time later, rumbling crashes came from underground.

Soon, an enormous dark-purple snake, some two or three hundred feet long, burst through the passage with a cluster of greenish, lotus-shaped flames wrapped in her coils and entered Chen Cang's sight.

The enormous dark-purple snake was terrifying. With every breath she took, she exuded an unparalleled pressure, making even the Void Pegasus Beast beneath Chen Cang tense all over, ready to break through space and flee at any moment.

The mysterious expert concealed so expertly in the shadows also grew solemn. Dou qi quietly circulated within their body, ready to rush to his aid at any moment.

A Peak Sixth Tier magical beast, the Purple Nether Flame Snake!

She was also Queen Medusa's true form.

Compared with her, the Demonic Scale Python he had encountered in the Black Eagle Mountains seemed hardly worth mentioning.

However, the Purple Nether Flame Snake was not in good condition either. A large portion of her body was charred black, and her injuries were severe.

The area wrapped around the heavenly flame in particular had lost many scales, exposing half-cooked flesh. He could already faintly smell it.

"Queen Medusa!"

Forcing himself to remain calm, Chen Cang shouted for her to stop. Resentment was written all over his face, yet it carried enough wariness to make him look utterly unwilling but helpless.

Hearing his shout, her two lantern-like snake eyes lowered slightly. She glanced at the tiny human staring at her, then paid him no further attention and prepared to leave.

The green lotus core flame had severely injured her. Keeping the heavenly flame restrained now left her unable to divide her attention, and she wanted only to return to the Holy City and seal it as soon as possible.

"Leave the heavenly flame..."

His voice rang out again, as naive as a child's.

"Scram."

Already seething, Queen Medusa did not want to waste time. She replied with that single cold, merciless word and charged straight at the youth blocking her path, carrying the heavenly flame with her.

Almost all her attention was focused on suppressing the green lotus core flame, but even this most primitive and brutal movement was still unstoppable to an ordinary Dou Ling.

The Void Pegasus Beast stepped lightly with its four hooves and vanished from the spot with Chen Cang in an instant.

It easily avoided being crushed by her enormous body, but also cleared the way for Queen Medusa.

Watching the giant snake shoot into the depths of the desert, Chen Cang, who had seemed furious and flustered just a moment earlier, made no further attempt to stop her. He remained where he was, frowning.

Just now, he had read Queen Medusa's memories.

Although the time had been too short to read them all, he had still obtained a very useful portion.

It was within those memories that Chen Cang discovered a crucial piece of information he had overlooked.

Queen Medusa's strength.

The current Medusa was indeed a Nine-Star Dou Emperor.

However, she was still making progress through cultivation.

In other words, the current Queen Medusa had yet to reach the true Peak Dou Emperor level.

Thus, although she very much wanted to advance to Dou Zong, she was nowhere near as desperate or hopeless as she had been in the Original Timeline.

She had risked collecting the green lotus core flame merely to leave herself another fallback for the future.

Breaking through to Dou Zong was simply too difficult. Even someone as confident as Medusa had no certainty of success.

In Chen Cang's original plan, having Queen Medusa collect the green lotus core flame was only the first step. This would allow him to avoid the danger of the heavenly flame's initial eruption while weakening Queen Medusa in the process.

After Queen Medusa returned, she would surely prepare for her evolution, gathering rare treasures such as ice spirit cold spring to reduce the risks.

And this was precisely what Chen Cang wanted to see.

With the Void Pegasus Beast, borrowing a little for himself would be no trouble at all. It would also save him the painstaking effort of collecting it himself.

Once Medusa had prepared those things, Chen Cang would once again find ways to push matters forward. Whether through robbery or theft, he would force Queen Medusa to begin evolving ahead of time, thereby consuming as much of the green lotus core flame's power as possible.

At that point, whether Queen Medusa succeeded or failed, she would no longer be a threat.

Then Chen Cang would retrieve the green lotus core flame, weakened countless times over. With rare treasures such as ice spirit cold spring to support him, he would have a very good chance of success.

After all, compared with Xiao Yan in the Original Timeline, his strength was far ahead. He was already in the Dou Ling realm.

Moreover, he did not need to devour the heavenly flame to evolve his cultivation method. He only needed to refine and control it, which would spare him a great deal of trouble and danger.

That had been the plan. But now it seemed that Queen Medusa had yet to reach the point where she could advance no further. Forcing her to throw caution to the winds and evolve immediately might not be so easy.

"Come on, horse. Let's go underground. There are still plenty of good things down there."

Shaking his head slightly, Chen Cang set his fixation aside for the time being.

The past could not be changed, and the future could not be predicted. In any case, he would first secure the benefits right before his eyes.