The Crimson Flame Lizard struggled more and more violently, and the chains cracked under the unbearable strain.
It opened its enormous jaws, a dazzling crimson fireball gathering furiously deep in its throat.
Fifty feet.
Thirty feet.
Lu Ze quietly raised his left hand, aiming his palm above the Crimson Flame Lizard's head.
[Suction Palm]
A gentle yet tenacious suction precisely caught the precarious chain joint above its head.
"Snap!"
The chain joint tore apart, and the heavy chain crashed down, striking the Crimson Flame Lizard squarely in its fireball-filled mouth.
"Urgh!"
The fireball was forcibly smashed back down its throat. The Crimson Flame Lizard let out a muffled, agonized cry, its scales bursting outward as blood seeped from its seven orifices.
Lu Ze closed in like a phantom, pressing his right index and middle fingers together.
He compressed the terrifying great strength law to its limit, turning it into a speck of gray light, and lightly touched the spot between the Crimson Flame Lizard's brows.
"Pfft!" The Crimson Flame Lizard's enormous body suddenly stiffened.
Then it slumped limply inside the iron cage, his Dou Qi crushed directly from within by that tiny speck of the twofold strength law.
Lu Ze withdrew his fingers, a fine sheen of sweat forming at his temples.
Compressing the Great Wilderness Imprisoning Heaven Finger into a single point to destroy from within placed extremely high demands on Dou Qi. Those brief three breaths had consumed more than two uses of the [Grass Character Sword Art].
He strode behind the iron cage and picked up the jade bowl filled with pure fire spirit marrow.
The instant his fingers touched the jade bowl-
"Tap! Tap! Tap!"
Slow, crisp footsteps suddenly sounded from the passage above.
Those footsteps were exceptionally heavy, each accompanied by the hiss of an ocher Dou Qi gauze robe rasping against the air.
An immense, sinister pressure crashed down the passage like a tangible mountain, suddenly making the air in the chamber thick and viscous.
Lu Ze's hand paused slightly around the jade bowl, and he looked up toward the passage entrance.
In the flickering firelight, a middle-aged man in dark crimson brocade robes slowly descended the stone steps, carrying a refined-steel broadsword.
Why was Mu Li here?
Mu Li hadn't gone to Crimson Flame Valley!
Mu Li's gaze swept over the Crimson Flame Lizard in the iron cage, over its shriveled corpse.
Finally, it settled on the jade bowl in Lu Ze's hand.
"You truly couldn't wait, young friend."
Mu Li's voice was hoarse as he slowly descended the last few steps, his refined-steel broadsword dragging across the stone and throwing up a trail of dazzling sparks.
"Who are you?"
Lu Ze did not answer.
He put the jade bowl into his Storage Ring and slowly drew the Emerald Water Sword with his right hand. Its blade pointed diagonally toward the ground, its tip scoring a faint white line across the stone slabs.
"A mere Dou Zhe, yet you managed to evade every hidden sentry I stationed."
Mu Li stopped a hundred feet from Lu Ze, his ocher Dou Qi gauze robe giving off a heart-chilling glow in the dim stone chamber.
"It seems you're no ordinary fellow! You must have some precious treasure. Or who is behind you?"
Behind his back, Lu Ze quietly formed the seal for the Earth Filth Pillar with his left hand, his awareness penetrating the layers of rock behind him.
Fifty feet, eighty feet, a hundred feet-beyond the rock wall a hundred feet away, he sensed a rushing underground river.
"You misunderstand, Commander Mu."
Lu Ze's voice was level.
"I only came to take back what belongs to me."
"Belongs to you?"
Mu Li's face twitched slightly, a trace of violence flashing through his eyes.
"Your property? Why didn't I know this fire spirit marrow belonged to you? What incredible arrogance!"
He wasted no more words. With an explosive stamp of his foot, the ground instantly shattered with a crash.
Mu Li shot toward Lu Ze like a cannonball, his broadsword cleaving down at his head with a shriek that tore through the air.
The Seven-Star Great Dou Master's strike sealed off every retreat through the passage, but Lu Ze did not choose to withdraw.
He stamped his right foot into the muddy water, tilting his body left at an angle that utterly defied reason.
With a hiss, the broadsword slashed through empty air and cut a half-foot-deep gash into the stone wall. Flying fragments sliced Lu Ze's cheek.
At the same time-
The Emerald Water Sword in Lu Ze's right hand gathered the remaining four-star Dou Qi within him, forming a transparent white gleam as fine as gossamer that thrust toward the Dou Qi gauze robe over Mu Li's chest.
[Grass Character Sword Art]
The white gleam stabbed into the gauze robe with a teeth-grating scrape.
Mu Li's expression shifted slightly, and his ocher Dou Qi surged wildly.
The Grass Character Sword Art could not penetrate even a fraction farther.
Mu Li grunted, forcibly shattering the Grass Character Sword Art's Sword Qi while sweeping his broadsword backhanded toward Lu Ze's waist.
"Bam!"
The shock waves from the Da Dou Shi's erupting Dou Qi sent Lu Ze flying. He slammed heavily into the passage wall, a trace of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.
"A Four-Star Dou Zhe dares try to hurt me?"
Thoroughly enraged, Mu Li strode forward and raised his broadsword high, preparing to hack this boy who knew neither the height of heaven nor the depth of earth into mincemeat.
Lu Ze leaned against the stone wall, gasping for breath.
The collision had just made the bones in his left arm crack under the unbearable strain.
Yet his eyes remained as calm as a pool of stagnant water.
He slowly backed away until his back pressed against the rock wall embedded with crimson flame gold-copper ore mother.
[Great Wilderness Imprisoning Heaven Finger]!
At some point, Lu Ze had already pressed his right index and middle fingers together. Compressing all that terrifying gravity law into his fingertips, he jabbed them fiercely into the crimson flame gold-copper ore mother behind him.
At the same time, he pressed his left hand against the edge of the ore mother and activated Suction Palm.
A gentle yet domineering pulling force forcibly stripped the lingering, violent fire poison from the Crimson Flame Lizard's flesh and blood and slammed it into the ore mother.
With a hum, the ore mother gave a groan under the unbearable strain.
The dark crimson light on its surface instantly exploded. The temperature around the rock wall soared, and even the air began to warp.
Sensing mortal danger, Mu Li abruptly halted and tried to retreat, but it was too late.
The gravity law and scorching fire poison erupted simultaneously within the ore mother. With a rumble, the three-foot-thick rock wall collapsed inward like a fragile biscuit under the combined force of gravity and intense heat.
Deprived of the rock wall's support, the ore mother exploded completely. The second-tier fire poison mixed with the earth vein's Fire Qi and instantly detonated in the cramped underground chamber, dazzling firelight swallowing everything.
A terrifying storm of scorching fire swept indiscriminately through the entire space, carrying shattered stone.
"You brat, how dare you!"
Mu Li roared, the Dou Qi within him erupting wildly as his ocher Dou Qi gauze robe instantly thickened several times over.
At the same time, he held his broadsword across his chest, firmly shielding his head.
At the center of the explosion, the instant Lu Ze thrust out his fingers, he used the terrifying blast wave to hurl himself like a cannonball from its barrel toward the collapsed opening in the rock wall behind him.
Bam!
He smashed through the last thin layer of rock and plunged into the freezing underground river.
The instant he entered the water, the clothes on his back were scorched by the intense heat, and a heart-piercing pain shot through his skin.
But the icy river water instantly enveloped him, extinguishing the flames on his body and concealing his presence.
Lu Ze held his breath, letting the underground current carry him rushing into the unknown depths.
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