Chapter 364: The Burning Lands

Translator: Truth

Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys

Less than half a day later, Lu Ye noticed something wrong. He was unable to locate any Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators in the region, and it appeared that the Spirit Beasts that called this place home had also escaped to safer pastures, so to speak.

The bee swarm was as relentless as it was numerous. If Lu Ye wasn’t able to replenish his Spiritual Power with the Tree of Glyphs and the Gluttonous Feast, he would’ve faltered a long time ago.

The honey he plundered from the giant bee nest had also done him a great favor. The superior quality honey clearly restored more stamina and Spiritual Power than the ordinary ones.

He was aware that he was basically renewing the scent the bees were using to track him down, but it was the best out of the bad options. He would’ve run out of stamina long ago if he hadn’t consumed the honey.

Lu Ye had tried escaping into the air multiple times during this time, but even if he ignored the cost to his Spiritual Power and maintained Windwalk until he had shaken off the bee swarm, his respite was only temporary. At best, he would get a few minutes rest before the unholy buzzing noises drilled into his ears once more.

At this rate, he was going to run out of resources, stamina or both before he could shake the bee swarm.

It was time to consider the risky options.

The 10-point map showed that there was a place called the Burning Lands deep within Misty Mountains. It was an extremely hostile environment that was several thousand kilometers wide in radius. It was one of the most dangerous places on the Spirit Creek Battlefield.

Logically speaking, the Burning Lands was hot enough to kill any and all lifeforms in its area, but in reality that wasn’t the case. It certainly was no life-filled land teeming with greens and wild animals, but it was no barren wasteland either. Specifically, it was rich in Fire Attribute Spirit Plants and ores.

Lu Ye had taken notice of the Burning Lands since the day he decided to enter the Misty Mountains. In fact, he had been planning to look into that place after dealing with his pursuers.

The Tree of Glyphs could consume ownerless items that contained heat energy. There might be something in the Burning Lands that it could consume.

While he was no longer being pursued by the Thousand Demon Ridge, the bee swarm was easily ten times worse. Left with no choice, Lu Ye could only travel to the Burning Lands.

He hoped that the environment would be hostile enough to stop the bee swarm in their tracks—assuming that he could survive the environment, of course.

He believed his chances to be pretty good though. He was a Heaven Seven cultivator who was as resilient as a body-tempering cultivator at the same cultivation level. Theoretically speaking, his endurance should be greater than the Mutant Bees’.

His mind made up, Lu Ye started moving toward the Burning Lands following the 10-point map’s instructions.

On the way, he tried flying telekinetically to see if he would get lucky. All of his attempts had ended in failure.

Two days later, the massive trees that blotted out most of the skies were gone. The amount of foliage in the area had visibly decreased as well. The air was hotter than normal.

He had finally arrived at the periphery of the Burning Lands.

He had barely caught any rest for the past two days. He was nearing his limits to put it mildly. Now that he was at the Burning Lands, he could confirm that the environment was almost as hostile as was stated in the 10-point map. For the first time in a while, hope sprung in his heart.

The amount of foliage kept decreasing as he continued forward. Eventually, it reached the point where it was no longer capable of slowing down the bee swarm. Lu Ye had no choice but to take out his flying Spirit Artifact to increase his speed while staying close to the ground.

The further he went, the hotter it became. Eventually, even the ground started to look dry and withered.

The 10-point map’s description of the Burning Lands was accurate though. Despite the crazy temperature, the region was brimming with a strange sort of vitality. There was no way an ordinary Spirit Plant could’ve survived otherwise.

It was rumored that there was a priceless treasure at the center of the Burning Lands, and it was the true cause behind its paradoxical environment. Over the years, countless cultivators had ventured to this place hoping to find the rumored treasure, but they either returned empty-handed or died in the wilderness.

The Burning Lands was classified as a forbidden area on the 10-point map sold by the Divine Trade Association for a reason. All places dangerous enough to earn the label were usually too dangerous for a cultivator to survive.

It wasn’t just the environment that was hostile toward cultivators. There were other factors that contributed to the classification as well.

For example, one of the reasons the Burning Lands was so dangerous was the Spirit Beasts. A lot of Fire Attribute Spirit Beasts lived here due to its unique environment, and most of them were beyond the ability of an ordinary cultivator to defeat.

The Fire Chameleon Lu Ye was fighting was one such example. The creature had been sitting on the ground and waiting for a prey to pass by its hiding spot. It looked identical to its environment, Lu Ye was unable to detect it until a long tongue appeared out of nowhere and caught the bottom of his Spirit Boat. If he hadn’t reacted quickly and slashed its tongue with his flying weapons, the Fire Chameleon would’ve succeeded in pulling him toward the ground. Its concealment ability was as good as some of the best ghost cultivators in the Spirit Creek Realm, if not better.

The Fire Chameleon’s tongue was also flexible enough that even Lu Ye’s flying weapons weren’t able to slice it completely. Not only that, it spat a jet of flames at him after it pulled back its wounded tongue. Lu Ye immediately soared higher and hurried away from the Fire Chameleon.

And not a moment too soon. The bee swarm arrived at his previous location just in time to become caught in the blazing flames. Dozens were scorched into a crisp by the searing heat.

The sight was unexpected but most welcome. The ball of frustration that had been gnawing his insides for the past couple days had diminished considerably.

Of course, the Mutant Bees weren’t the type of creature to live and let live. The one hundred Yi Ye Elimination Front cultivators they had stung to death a few days ago were proof of their viciousness. They might be lacking in terms of intelligence, but their vengefulness was off the charts to put it mildly. Lu Ye had only stolen their royal jelly and some honey, and he had been hunted all the way to the Burning Lands.

Technically, the Fire Chameleon had been aiming at Lu Ye. However, it didn’t change the fact that it had slaughtered their numbers. Naturally, they weren’t going to let it live.

The buzzing grew more intense as the Mutant Bees descended on the Fire Chameleon from every direction. At first, the Fire Chameleon was able to burn dozens more Mutant Bees with its flames, but it quickly turned stiff and collapsed limply on the ground. From time to time, it would spasm in response to the venom coursing through its veins.

It wasn’t the only Fire Chameleon in the area either. At least a dozen Fire Chameleons were dead by the time the bee swarm had finally passed through the area.

That said, the Fire Chameleons were some of the weakest Spirit Beasts in the Burning Lands. In fact, most of the Spirit Beasts that lingered at the periphery of a valuable land were the weaker ones because they were pushed out by more powerful contenders. Generally speaking, the deeper one ventured into the Burning Lands, the more Fire Attribute Spirit Beasts they would encounter. Their threat level was much higher as well.

As with most animals, these Spirit Beasts generally never left their territories unless they were going out on a hunt. No one had thought that death would suddenly descend on them one day until it did.

Perhaps it was because some of their numbers were killed by the Fire Chameleons before, but the bee swarm did not hesitate to kill every Spirit Beast who was unfortunate enough to happen along their path with or without provocation.

As a result, the Spirit Beasts living in the Burning Lands lost many of their numbers that day.

Maybe it was because the heat was getting to them, but the Mutant Bees were acting as if they had lost all senses. They were enacting their vengeance on any and all living beings they could find.

Or maybe they realized even with their small brains that Lu Ye, the thief who had stolen their precious treasure, was about to make his escape.

Half a day passed, and Lu Ye had reached the inner depths of the Burning Lands. At this stage, the environment couldn’t just be described as hot anymore. The air was completely distorted by the rising heat, and the ground itself was an unnatural dark red.

Lu Ye was sweating buckets despite channeling his Spiritual Power to shield his body from the heat. His sweat evaporated immediately after it exited his pores. His clothes felt uncomfortably dry and stiff against his skin.

He was suffering even though he was a Heaven Seven cultivator who cultivated a Fire Attribute cultivation technique. Almost anyone else would’ve collapsed a long time ago.

It was worth it though. The bee swarm had lost much of its numbers because of its senseless violence against all the Spirit Beasts it passed. The survivors seemed to be growing weaker and weaker due to the environment as well. Not only were they moving much slower than before, the weaker ones had fallen so far behind that they were nowhere to be seen. Besides that, some of them were taking damage to their wings because of the burning heat. As a result, they fell to the ground and began burning alive. When they were completely dead, their bodies would suddenly explode into fireballs.

Relief washed over Lu Ye when he looked back for the umpteenth time. His gamble had paid off. Considering the Mutant Bees’ persistence and vengefulness, the Burning Lands really was his only shot at shaking them off.

He continued forward a while longer when he realized that the buzzing that followed him was subsiding. He looked back one last time and saw that the few remaining Mutant Bees had stopped in their tracks. For a moment, they simply watched him soundlessly from a distance. Then, they turned around and went back the way they came.

Lu Ye watched them until they had completely disappeared into the horizon. For a while, he had thought he would never shake off these bastards. In the end though, he had won, and they had lost.

As the tension left his body, what felt like a crushing wave of exhaustion struck him from every direction. It was so that his Spirit Boat wobbled a little.

He hurriedly took out the superior quality honey and gobbled it down to restore his stamina and Spiritual Power. He also swallowed a couple of Spirit Pills.

After that, Lu Ye did not head back to the forest or proceed deeper into the Burning Lands. Instead, he descended to the ground to get some rest.

It had been a few days since he was hunted by the Mutant Bees, and he hadn’t had the time to get a proper rest at all. The environment was hardly suitable for resting, but at least he wasn’t being chased by murderous Mutant Bees anymore. Plus, poor rest was still better than no rest at all.

The reason he didn’t leave for greener pastures was because he was afraid that the Mutant Bees might wait for him outside. It had taken him literal days to finally shake them off his tail. He never wanted to interact with them again if he could avoid it.

The second reason was because the Tree of Glyphs was reacting oddly.

Since half a day ago, he had felt a strange reaction from the Tree of Glyphs. To be specific, it was acting like when it was consuming the Flames of Earthen Spirits.

When he looked within himself, he could even see it stretching out its roots from his Source Spiritual Point as if in search of something to consume. However, it was unable to determine the location of its desire…

This affirmed Lu Ye’s suspicion that there was a Fire Attribute treasure in the Burning Lands. Not only that, it was a treasure that the Tree of Glyphs could consume!

Lu Ye was very tempted to seek out the treasure because the Flame of Earthen Spirits could only be purchased from the Vault of Providence, and each one cost two hundred Contribution Points.

Two hundred Contribution Points was a sizable sum to any cultivator, and Lu Ye had spent almost twenty thousand Contribution Points on them.

If he could acquire this Fire Attribute treasure, then he would be saving a ton of Contribution Points. Whether or not he would actually succeed, he thought it was worth the attempt at least.

Time passed slowly as Lu Ye gradually recovered his strength. The scorching heat around him felt much more manageable as well.

It wasn’t because the heat itself had decreased, of course. It was his body slowly adapting to the environment and growing some resistance.

He hadn’t felt this until now because he had been flying toward the center of the Burning Lands at top speed. As a result, the environment was worsening faster than his body could adapt to.

Now that he had come to a stop, his body finally had the time to slowly adapt to the environment.

Realizing that this was an opportunity, Lu Ye gave up his original plans to fly into the center. Instead, he walked.