The fiery creatures slowly closed in. The Scarlet Flame Drake showed no signs of fear. Instead, it took the initiative to pounce at them!
A violent battle ensued. After the fight concluded, countless black scorch marks appeared on the Scarlet Flame Drake’s body, but they were only minor injuries.
The fiery creatures, on the other hand, were wiped out by the Scarlet Flame Drake, leaving several scarlet crystal cores behind to be swifty devoured by the victor.
As the scarlet crystals entered the Scarlet Flame Drake’s stomach, blazing scarlet flames suddenly rose from its body. The black burn marks quickly vanished without a trace, and its aura grew considerably stronger.
“Woof!” the Scarlet Flame Drake cried excitedly, feeling proud of itself.
In the desert several kilometers away, although Zhang Che didn’t know what the Scarlet Flame Drake encountered, he finally relaxed when he heard its joyous cry.
-From the looks of it, the unknown creatures inside the flames were no threat to the Scarlet Flame Drake. But why did the fellow remain in there?-
Zhang Che really wanted to order the Scarlet Flame Drake to return and learn exactly what kind of exotic beasts were inside those endless flaming mountains.
However, judging by the Scarlet Flame Drake’s cheerful cries, it had obviously obtained great benefits. He was afraid of missing out on some fortuitous encounter if he commanded the beast to return for a minor reason.
-Let’s just wait a little longer…- Zhang Che mumbled inside. After thinking for a short while, he suddenly summoned out the Purple Crystal Tortoise. He wanted to find out whether the flames were burning on the ground or from underground.
At Zhang Che’s command, the Purple Crystal Tortoise quickly sank into the sand, disappearing.
——–
As the scarlet crystal cores were being digested, fiery light circulated around the Scarlet Flame Drake’s body. It was in peak condition. Its eyes were shining brightly, looking deep into the flaming mountains in excitement, hoping for another group of these fantastical fiery creatures to appear and give it another satisfying meal.
Of course, it didn’t forget Zhang Che’s instructions. It didn’t dare to explore deep into the flames recklessly, only waiting where it stood.
The Scarlet Flame Drake wasn’t disappointed.
After a short while, lights and shadows were suddenly seen moving deep in the flames ahead. Several large flaming beasts with flames overflowing on their bodies suddenly came charging out.
Each of the large flaming beasts were over three meters tall and close to five meters long, their auras at least twice as strong as the fiery humanoid creatures from earlier.
The Scarlet Flame Drake became slightly nervous at the sight of those large flaming beasts. It knew that the upcoming fight definitely wouldn’t be as easy as before.
One of those large flaming beasts came pouncing at the Scarlet Flame Drake after letting out a furious roar. It breathed out a mouthful of scarlet flames, which morphed into the shape of a flaming long spear shooting towards the Scarlet Flame Drake, whistling through the air.
The nearby flames were visibly withdrawing wherever the long flaming spear flew past, the spear blazing loudly!
The Scarlet Flame Drake didn’t dare let such an attack hit it. It jumped nimbly away, pouncing at the large flaming beast while it dodged the attack.
The flaming long spear flew a few hundred meters at high speed. Just as it was about to fly out of the flaming mountains’ area, it suddenly exploded, turning into countless sparks falling into the surrounding flames.
Meanwhile, the Scarlet Flame Drake jumped in front of the large flaming beast, swiping its claw at the beast’s abdomen.
The large flaming beast roared furiously, but didn’t try to dodge the attack. It similarly swung its large flaming claws, ripping towards the Scarlet Flame Drake’s head.
Unexpectedly, the Scarlet Flame Drake suddenly accelerated and lowered its body, making its way directly under the large flaming beast. Its sharp claws drew a blurry streak, ripping open a gaping wound in the large flaming beast’s abdomen.
Scarlet flames gushed out from the large flaming beast’s abdomen. It raised its head and let out a roar, then looked down with a savage gaze, biting down at the Scarlet Flame Drake’s hips.
Pa! The Scarlet Flame Drake didn’t try to dodge the attack. Its rear claws kicked out, slamming hard onto the large flaming beast’s chin. It was thrown back and fell to the ground heavily.
The other large flaming beasts rushed their way over. Each of them breathed out flaming long spears at the Scarlet Flame Drake from all directions.
The Scarlet Flame Drake lowered its body once more, hiding behind the fallen large flaming beast’s belly. Not only did it dodge the flaming long spears, it also quickly tore the first large flaming beast to pieces!
The Scarlet Flame Drake picked up a crystal core with countless scarlet flaming lights in its jaws and immediately swallowed it. The extremely pure fire elements were immediately absorbed into its body. The golden scarlet flame lights around its body burned brightly, and its aura grew stronger again.
It went without saying that the scarlet crystal core was a great supplement for the Scarlet Flame Drake! Its efficacy was no weaker than some mid-grade spiritual herbs!
The Scarlet Flame Drake sensed that it would be able to raise its strength by a large margin today if it ate sufficient crystal cores. Ranking up in level wouldn’t be a problem!
Perhaps there was even a chance of advancing in quality and breaking through to epic-quality!
———-
Zhang Che was bored out of his mind waiting outside, but he had no way to enter the flaming mountains ahead to take a look. He gradually grew anxious.
However, the Purple Crystal Tortoise was not done scouting the situation underground. The Scarlet Flame Drake seemed to be gaining huge benefits right now, too. He couldn’t possibly order them to return to him.
Zhang Che contemplated for a short while with knitted brow. He almost wanted to activate the Purple-Gold Demonic Armored Worm armor’s Elemental Protective Barrier skill and enter the flames ahead to observe the situation himself.
However, the Elemental Protective Barrier only lasted an hour, and its cooldown time was a whole day. Zhang Che wouldn’t have much ability to defend himself if he came across any powerful fire-type exotic beasts.
Just as he was wavering on what to do, the sandy ground at his side suddenly sank down. The Purple Crystal Tortoise silently dug its way out.
“Hmm? This fellow is actually injured?”
What surprised Zhang Che was that the Purple Crystal Tortoise’s body was actually emitting a strong wave of heat. It was in very bad condition. Obviously, the scorching flames had hurt it badly during its scouting mission.
-Could it be that the flames are really burning underground?- While he considered that, the Purple Crystal Tortoise suddenly opened its mouth, spitting out a bunch of fiery red crystals to form a small pile on the sandy ground.
A warm aura spread from the pile of fiery red crystals. Zhang Che could faintly sense those crystals contained fire elemental energy.
Although Zhang Che didn’t know what exactly those scarlet crystals could be used for, he was able to conclude that they were an extremely rare mineral that no one had discovered before.
“Good boy, looks like I’m about to get rich!”
Zhang Che took a quick glance at the pile. There weren’t many of those fiery red crystals, roughly about a hundred pieces of them, coming in uneven sizes. The big pieces were as large as a human head, and the small pieces were only the size of an egg.
He smiled faintly, then let the Purple Crystal Tortoise put those fiery red crystals away in its storage, and recalled it back into his spiritual sea with a wave of his hand to recuperate from its injuries.
Although Zhang Che very much wanted to gather more of those fiery red crystals, he had to wait for the Purple Crystal Tortoise to recover from its injuries first!
As for the Scarlet Flame Drake who was still in the flaming mountains ahead, Zhang Che heard its happy barking again. Obviously it had obtained huge benefits, too!
His decision to come into the desert was really the right choice.