Chapter 597: Soul-Devouring Crocodile

“Uh…”

On the small path within the desolate mountain range, Jiang Yi—who was walking in large strides—abruptly paused. At this moment, his mind suddenly appeared with a scene of lightning in the sky, which was similar to the time when the Everlasting Mirror descended. This time, it was a jade scepter that was falling. At the same time, his mind appeared with a message: the eighth treasure had been obtained.

When every treasure was obtained, all the people that were inside the palace would sense it. Jiang Yi was feeling rather curious right now as he wondered who obtained the jade scepter. What was the function of the jade scepter? Was it a transcending saint artifact or a pseudo-divine artifact?

After all the thoughts running through his mind, Jiang Yi didn’t dare to ponder anymore as a chilly aura presence could be felt from ahead. It was needless to say that the crocodile-headed creature was coming to attack again.

“Hmph!”

Jiang Yi’s Fire Spirit Pearl lit up with three bundles of ghost flame. Before the crocodile-headed creature—the Soul-Devouring Crocodile—appeared, he abruptly sent out a bundle of ghost flames with a palm strike. Both his hands continued to brandish as he consecutively launched out two more bundles of ghost flame. As he had expected, before the crocodile-headed creature passed through the three bundles of ghost flame, its body turned into white smoke and vanished.

“Hu-Hu!”

Jiang Yi had killed one of the crocodile-headed creatures, but his heart wasn’t very pleased. Who knew how long was this meandering pathway? How many more crocodile-headed creatures were ahead?

The amount of Netherworld Ghost Flames in the Fire Spirit Pearl was slightly more than half, which were around 3000 bundles. In other words, if another 1000 crocodile-headed creatures came attacking, Jiang Yi would run out of ghost flames. When that happened, what was he going to use to withstand the attacks?

Moreover, the Netherworld Ghost Flames could only be found in the Stellarsky Continent’s Soul-Seizing Valley. Along the way here, Jiang Yi couldn’t find anymore; and it was his greatest reliance. If it was depleted, his combat strength would be greatly decreased.

“Let’s go!”

Time was pressing, and Jiang Yi didn’t dare to overthink it. The longer he stayed in this place, the more dangerous it got. He extended his divine senses out and hastened his footsteps.

The small path was a yellow dirt road which was rugged and unstable while it was surrounded by mountainous wilderness. There wasn’t a single human on sight. In fact, there weren’t any signs of life. When taking a glance, the entire spatial zone was filled with desolate, ruined, and sinister aura presence. Those that were weak at the heart would probably go insane even before the crocodile-headed creatures attack them.

Swish! Swish!

Jiang Yi’s was moving faster and faster. After walking about one mile, there was a ripple in the spatial zone on the right. Jiang Yi scanned with his divine senses and didn’t panic. He effortlessly let out three bundles of ghost flames and incinerated a crocodile-headed creature.

Swish!

Jiang Yi increased his speed again, which was around the speed of a first-stage Soul Travel Realm martial artist as his body turned into an afterimage that was dashing on the small pathway. He didn’t recklessly travel across the wilderness, and since there was only one pathway in this place, he reckoned that it was definitely safer to travel on the pathway.

Chi! Chi!

The spatial zone on the left and right started to ripple. Jiang Yi’s expression turned grave, not because he feared these two crocodile-headed creatures. The thing that he was most worried of had happened. As he advanced, these crocodile-headed creatures would continue to multiply. It was two now, but it might be three later, then four, ten… a hundred.

“Ha!”

As the Soul-Devouring Crocodile was about to appear, Jiang Yi’s hand brandished with lightning speed and struck out six bundles of ghost flame. Before the two Soul Devouring Crocodile could even make it to Jiang Yi’s side, they let out a bone-chilling scream and turned into white smoke.

“Let’s go!”

Jiang Yi traveled at a rapid speed, and he had no longer bothered about depleting the ghost flames. He just wanted to use the fastest speed to reach the end of this pathway; otherwise, he was going to perish in this place.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

As his body was rushing rapidly, the spatial zones in the surrounding constantly rippled as the Soul-Devouring Crocodiles appeared and rushed at Jiang Yi.

“Ghost flames!”

Jiang Yi didn’t strike out ghost flames anymore as he realized it would deplete much faster. He quickly controlled the ghost flames to pour out from the Fire Spirit Pearl and enveloped his body. Layer after layer, he enveloped himself in three layers while he advanced with his fastest speed.

Creak—!

The spatial zones in all directions constantly rippled as countless crocodile-headed creatures rushed at Jiang Yi. However, Jiang Yi was enveloped in three layers of ghost flames. Hence, none of the crocodile-headed creatures made it into Jiang Yi’s mind. Instead, they were all incinerated into white smoke and letting out sharp screams which echoed in the surroundings, making this desolate place even more horrifying.

“Goddammit! This isn’t working… the ghost flames are depleting too quickly! How can there be so many of these creatures all of a sudden?”

After sprinting desperately for about ten miles, Jiang Yi was silently grumbling. The ghost flames were incinerating the Soul-Devouring Crocodiles, but they were depleting his ghost flames. In just ten miles, Jiang Yi had been assaulted by nearly a thousand crocodile-headed creatures, and a few hundred bundles of ghost flames had already been used up.

The meandering path was extending far into the distance, and no one knew how long this path would be. If there were so many crocodile-headed creatures, and if Jiang Yi didn’t have the ghost flames to protect his body, he was definitely going to die due to his soul spirit collapsing from the attacks.

“Rush! Rush! Rush!”

Since things were already at this stage, how could Jiang Yi stop here? He could only hope that the path wasn’t too long, and he would be able to reach the end before his ghost flames were depleted.

Twenty miles, 30 miles… 50 miles!

Jiang Yi didn’t dare to continue running as he had already depleted two-thirds of his ghost flames. His divine senses could see that the end of this path was nowhere near. His divine senses could at least scout 20-30 miles ahead while his ghost flames would only be able to last for that amount of distance.

“Stop!”

He had no choice but to stop. He wanted to see if there were truly so many crocodile-headed creatures after he had stopped.

Chi! Chi!

The surrounding air rippled while dozens of Soul Devouring Crocodiles broke through the air. Once they were incinerated by the ghost flames, the entire spatial zone had turned quiet. Jiang Yi’s suspenseful heart had also relaxed. It seemed like the faster he ran, the more crocodile-headed creatures he would attract.

“What should I do?”

Jiang Yi didn’t let the ghost flames pour out from the Fire Spirit Pearl anymore as his body automatically absorbed the rest of the ghost flames. He slowly walked forward while his eyes flickered non-stop as he was thinking of methods to break out of this situation.

Jiang Yi had a very brilliant characteristic. He was more composed when he was in a dangerous situation, and his mind would think even faster. He merely took three steps while his mind thought through hundreds of times. Just as two crocodile-headed creatures flew over, his eyes lit up with a flash as he had a general direction.

His soul spirit wasn’t able to withstand the attacks from a large group of these creatures. If he wanted to walk out of this place alive, he had to think of a method to effortlessly kill all these Soul-Devouring Crocodiles.

He had many offensive methods, but only the ghost flames and the Nine Heaven Stars’ power could kill the crocodile-headed creatures. He didn’t even have to consider the latter as it was too precious, and it was his final trump, which was pitifully low in quantity.

It meant that his only choice was to rely on the remaining ghost flames!

Hence, there was one thing he had to do. He had to use the least amount of ghost flames to produce the most fatal damage and kill as many as Soul-Devouring Crocodiles as possible. This was his only method to save himself.

After striking out a few bundles of ghost flames and killing those two crocodile-headed creatures, Jiang Yi stood in place and quickly closed his eyes. His aura presence felt as though it was indistinct as he looked like he was immersed in a strange state.

Moments later, his aura presence grew strange as his entire body seemed to have fused with heaven and earth. He didn’t even look like a standing individual from afar as he looked more like a rock or a tree, which was very natural.

His body moved as he gently drifted towards the front. His eyes were still closed as he was floating across the rugged pathway. He looked very natural, as though he was a piece of a leaf drifting in the wind.