Chapter 188 Don’t hit Brother Zhao, we are one!
Once we entered Fire Dragon Pass, our guard became much looser.

The reason is very simple. If the front pass cannot be blocked, it will be useless no matter how strict the defenses behind are, because they cannot compare with the defense level of the front pass.

Especially not long ago, Liao Rulong's and Wen Shaoyang's troops launched a feint attack, but not only did they fail to achieve anything, but they also suffered dozens of casualties. They then withdrew thousands of miles back to Zhiyou City, and the defenders became even more lax.

Of course, this is also relative.

Now is wartime, and compared with normal precautions, we need to be several levels higher.

Zhao Xing, Chen Shijie, Yu Ziqi and Long Xiao, under the command of their commander, passed through five checkpoints safely.

Especially since Zhao Xing used the soul-binding straw man to collect the souls of the four commanders and read their memories of the past few days, he could easily deal with them even if he was interrogated.

Until the last level, Zhao Xing and his three companions were puzzled about how to enter the Earth Fire Lotus planting area.

"Loba, Xuba, Huowei, and Lahe are all the commanders of the outer city's underground defense zone."

"The planting area is a completely different system from theirs. We can't go on like this. We can't get by."

In a ruin, Zhao Xing and three others were discussing something.

"Now we have no choice but to kill four more people, and they must be people who can enter the Earth Fire Lotus planting area to replace them."

"What are you waiting for? Kill him." Long Xiao said, waving his fist.

"The problem is that we don't know who to kill." Zhao Xing said, "These people don't remember anyone from the Earth Fire Lotus Planting Area. They are from two completely different systems."

"So we have to wait here for the people inside to come out, or for new people to plan to go in."

Chen Shijie asked: "Is there no better way?"

Zhao Xing shook his head. At this point, he had no good ideas. According to his experience in his previous life, he had to use his life to lure the people inside out and fish in troubled waters.

Now that we only have one life, of course we have to use it sparingly.

As long as they get the things, retreating will be easy. They can run to the heartland of the Fire Demon Clan.

After escaping the pursuit, you can take a detour to another place and cross the Flaming Mountain without having to return the same way.

"Wait, don't be impatient, we still have time." Zhao Xing said. The straw man left at the underground checkpoint can also delay some time.

The minotaur Ye Chongxian, along with Xia Jing and Guan Junyang, two members of the Fire Demon Clan, were heading towards the planting area.

"Sir, don't say anything for a while. I will handle everything."

Xia Jing nodded slightly: "I know."

The three of them were walking on the road, while Xia Jing and Guan Junyang lowered their heads slightly and remained silent.

The Earth Fire Lotus planting area is also one of Xia Jing's goals this time.

Ye Chongxian is a strongman leader who has been lurking here for many years and has become the leader in charge of personnel transfers in Huolong Pass.

The three of them walked towards the Earth Fire Lotus planting area. When passing by a ruin, Xia Jing stopped and tilted his head slightly.

"What's wrong?" Ye Chongxian asked.

"It's okay." Xia Jing thought, "Maybe I was too nervous. I felt a hint of murderous intent."

Ye Chongxian also looked around and found nothing unusual: "This ruin was once a residential area, but it was destroyed by a fire."

"It may be the resentment of the dead souls left behind in the past."

"Yeah." Xia Jing nodded, "Let's keep going."

Soon Xia Jing, Guan Junyang and Ye Chongxian arrived at the entrance.

It was a tunnel exposed on the surface, very spacious, with the entrance slanting downward and more than ten meters wide.

"Pabo, hey, my good brother." Ye Chongxian walked over with a smile and greeted the leader of the Fire Demon Clan who was guarding the pass.

"Yaliduo, are these the two illegitimate children you want to arrange?" Pabo crossed his arms over his chest and asked teasingly, "They don't look like you. Are their bloodlines pure?"

Facing the other party's teasing, Ye Chongxian smiled and said, "I am from the Bull Demon Clan, but their mother is from the Fire Demon Clan. She looks like his mother, not like me."

Pabo said lazily, "They look a little weak. Can they withstand the burning fire below? Don't delay my work."

Pabo kept talking about this and that but refused to say let it go.

Apparently the benefits given before were not enough, so they changed their minds at the last minute and wanted to increase the money.

Ye Chongxian cursed him in his heart, but luckily he had made preparations. He took out a bag from his arms and handed it over: "Please take care of me, Pabo."

Weighing the bag, Pabo smiled and asked, "Have you taught them the rules?"

"I've taught them a lesson. They are all good children and will never cause any trouble to you, Pabo."

"Okay, let's go in then."

Outside the Earth Fire Lotus Cave, in the ruins.

"Why didn't you let me take action just now?" Yu Ziqi asked. Zhao Xing's soul-binding grass man could read memories. Even if there were only three people, as long as he could deal with these three people, he would be able to know more information.

"You can't fight him." Zhao Xing shook his head. "That minotaur is weak, but the fire demon behind him looks only rank eight, but he's actually not simple."

"I was just observing with my bright eyes just now, and he seemed to have noticed something."

"How did you get it?"

"intuition."

Zhao Xing said: "This could be the son of some important person who went in to inspect the Earth Fire Lotus, or he may have a treasure on him. In any case, he is likely to see through our disguise."

Chen Shijie nodded slightly: "I feel the same way."

"The son of a big shot?" Long Xiao licked his lips: "That's perfect, we can kill him when we leave."

"You only know how to chop." Yu Ziqi said sarcastically, "Can you use your brain?"

This time, Zhao Xing shook his head and said, "This man is a bit dangerous. If we don't run into him, it's fine. But if we do run into him and find anything unusual, we must kill him first, otherwise we will be easily exposed."

"Okay." The others nodded.

After waiting for nearly two hours, Zhao Xing and his four companions finally found an opportunity.

A simply dressed member of the Fire Demon tribe passed by the ruins of a house.

Suddenly a dark shadow appeared behind him, covered his mouth, and dragged him into the shadows.

“Hmm??”

This member of the Fire Demon Clan was of the eighth rank, and was quickly dragged into the darkness.

"Pfft~"

Before he could react, his throat was slit.

The last thing he saw was someone undressing him.

There were three familiar figures standing next to him; they were his brothers.

"Why did my brother want to kill me?"

With doubts, the consciousness of this fire demon disappeared.

"It's done. This guy named Sang Ma is also the maintainer of the Earth Fire Lotus."

"He, Ji Sang, Sang Mu, and Sang Er are all from the same mother."

Zhao Xing clapped his hands and brought the soul in.

"The Fire Demons are really fertile. They can have eight babies in one pregnancy." Long Xiao curled his lips, "Barbarians are indeed barbarians."

"They have more characteristics like animals than humans. It is not advisable to assimilate these barbarians." Yu Ziqi said.

Zhao Xing did not express his opinion. Each era has its own policies. During the reign of Emperor Taizu, people did not have much opinion on these barbarians. During the reign of Emperor Wen, they were even relatively close to them.

But during the reign of Emperor Jing, the propaganda direction turned to foreigners again.

The path to naturalizing the barbarians has never been smooth - it is too difficult to force the people of the Great Zhou to recognize them as their own people when they have the head of an ox or the body of a horse.

"Change!"

Zhao Xing shook his head and suddenly became like Sang Ma.

"When we get in later, try not to talk. I will take care of everything." Zhao Xing said.

"If you run into someone you know, just act according to circumstances and try not to use violence."

"clear."

Entering the lava cave, there is a very long tunnel.

Even though there was a barrier separating the tunnels, a wave of heat was still emanating from them.

As soon as Zhao Xing and his three companions entered, they felt dry mouth and tongue.

"The Flame Mountains are indeed a natural barrier. It's really uncomfortable." Long Xiao breathed out in frustration.

Their realm levels are not low, but now they are all pretending to be at the eighth level, so they must demonstrate the strength of the eighth level.

The eighth-rank general of the Great Zhou Dynasty couldn't bear it when he entered the underground cave.

That is, the Fire Demon people, who grew up in this environment, and their body structure and skin are very heat-resistant.

"If a seventh-grade cultivator doesn't have any protection, he won't be able to cross the Flame Mountain." Chen Shijie looked around. He was here to assess the environmental conditions of the Flame Mountain Range.

The conclusion is that it is impossible to cross the Flaming Mountain without protective gear.

"What is that?" Yu Ziqi pointed to the cave wall in front of the left.

"The flame crystals in the lava cave are of high value, 1 kilogram is worth 10 points." Zhao Xing introduced, "Fire magicians have a great demand for them. However, these are just fragments, not a real mining area, and mining is difficult."

As soon as you step into the lava cave.

The four of them felt the temperature around them gradually rising.

The further down you go, the more serious it becomes.

The cave is empty and not dark, but rather bright.

On the rock wall, there are crystal stones with different colors, embedded in the wall, sparkling.

Those are flame crystals with very low concentrations.

We continued walking forward for about half an hour.

The ground became flat and a lava river appeared ahead!
"We're here!" Long Xiao and Yu Ziqi were a little excited. Isn't this the lava river?

"It's still early." Zhao Xing shook his head and said, "This is just a low-temperature zone."

"Look at that sign. It says it right there."

"As a fifth-tier treasure, the Earth Fire Lotus must be in a high-temperature area. We can get there by following the sign."

Zhao Xing and three others continued to walk down.

"Gulong~" "Gulong~"

Bubbles popped up from the lava river from time to time.

There were also many eighth-grade miners from the Fire Demon Clan along the way.

They were collecting fire crystals and transporting them somewhere.

"This is the mining area." Zhao Xing whispered, "Some are used to make weapons, and some are piled in the soil to make fire plants grow quickly."

Ding dong~ding dong~
The sounds of mining can be heard one after another.

Zhao Xing and his three companions walked quickly through the mining area.

Suddenly, there was a bright light before my eyes.

In the cave above my head, a sky full of stars appeared, twinkling.

That was a layer of rock above the head that was inlaid with a very high concentration of flame crystals.

"Earth Fire Cultivation Formation."

"We're here!"

Zhao Xing was also a little excited. The last time he came here was in his previous life, so this was another kind of "revisiting the old place".

"Look, that's the Earth Fire Lotus!"

Zhao Xing pointed to the lava river ahead.

The river began to flow back in the front, and the area where the flow was originally faster accumulated into an underground magma lake.

And in the lake, red lotus flowers are blooming.

"This was changed using an artificial magic circle, the Earth Fire Spirit Lake."

"But the Earth Fire Lotus that is bred here is only of the third level."

Yu Ziqi asked: "Are the third-level seeds enough?"

Chen Shijie looked at Zhao Xing. He had no way of making the plants break the growth limit.

"To be safe, pick the fourth-level lotus seeds." Zhao Xing said, "And pick some third- and fifth-level ones as well."

The cultivation environment of the Earth Fire Lotus is harsh. Although [Instantaneous Origin] has reached the sixth high level, it is not safe.

Now that I'm here, of course I want to get a little bit of everything.

"Lao Chen and I will do the stealing, you guys go and move the things." Zhao Xing waved his hand.

The four of them dispersed, and Long Xiao and Yu Ziqi went to move the boxes.

Their job is to carry boxes of flame crystals, pass them through the suspension bridge, and pour them into a lotus area.

"Hooha~hooha~"

Long Xiao and Yu Ziqi began to fiddle with it, panting.

Zhao Xing and Chen Shijie also joined in the work, but they were doing it covertly, picking seeds in the lotus area.

There are a lot of people in the third-level Earth Fire Lotus area, but they are basically just laborers.

No one could notice what Zhao Xing and Chen Shijie were doing.

In a short while, the two of them collected hundreds of seeds and put them into a box.

"Is it okay to leave it like this?"

"No problem. The seeds of the Earth Fire Lotus are very resistant. This box is made of flame crystals, so it will fit perfectly inside."

"We don't stand out when we carry these boxes. This is what we do," said Zhao Xing.

"It's time to go to the fourth level area."

"Well, be careful."

Zhao Xing and his three companions continued to move downwards and soon saw a warning sign:
[Ahead is the fourth-tier Fire Spirit Lake area. The Fire Demons have not yet reached the late stage of the Spirit Bridge, so enter with caution.]

The four people ignored it and immediately crossed the warning sign.

"Fourth-level spiritual lake."

Zhao Xing entered the Linghu area, still pretending to be working, and then stole seeds with Chen Shijie.

Linghu Lake is quite large and people are scattered around. In such a hot and humid environment, few people noticed that there were two guys stealing seeds.

Chen Shijie and Zhao Xing each stole a grain here and there, just like taking a grain of rice from a rice jar, which was not noticeable at all.

"The fourth level is enough, let's go to the fifth level area." Zhao Xing said.

"Walk."

Things were going smoothly, but unexpectedly, we ran into problems as soon as we entered the fifth-level area.

A leader of the Fire Demon Clan suddenly stopped Zhao Xing and Chen Shijie and said, "Stop, which master are you serving under? How come I have never seen you before?"

"We were sent by Lord Yuehai." Zhao Xing said, "We were just promoted to the Earthly Demon Realm not long ago, and were ordered to come to the Fifth Level Spirit Lake to do some work."

"Oh?" The commander stared at Zhao Xing suspiciously, but he couldn't see anything. He waved his hand and motioned them to go over.

He muttered, "Why are there so many more commanders today... Wait!"

Just as Zhao Xing and his four companions passed by them, he suddenly asked, "You said you were following Lord Yue Hai's orders. Where is the order?"

Chen Shijie narrowed his eyes slightly.

Zhao Xing said calmly, "I came in a hurry and didn't bring the warrant with me."

The commander said vigilantly: "Even if there is no warrant, there must be a password. What is the code?!"

Password?

Any password?

Zhao Xing was also stunned.

I had planned everything, but I didn't expect to miss this step.

The few people whose souls he had captured were not qualified to know the fifth-level Earth Fire Spirit Lake area, and they needed a password to pass through.

Zhao Xing didn't know about passwords in his previous life.

Is it that the practices are different in different periods?

"Pfft~"

When the commander saw Zhao Xing hesitate, he immediately took something from his body.

Yu Ziqi and Long Xiao were both veterans. Seeing Zhao Xing in a daze and the commander making a move again, they immediately took decisive action.

Two swords, one pierced his chest and the other pierced his forehead.

"Hehe~"

He covered his neck and was about to fall down.

Zhao Xing reacted and immediately kicked him into the lava river.

"Gulong~"

The lava river quickly engulfed the unfortunate fellow, melting him till nothing was left.

“Were you not discovered?” Zhao Xing’s heart was pounding.

"There shouldn't be any." Chen Shijie scanned the surroundings, "This place is a turning point."

"We have to act quickly. We don't have the password, and problems will arise sooner or later." Long Xiao said.

"Yes." Zhao Xing and Chen Shijie set off immediately and walked quickly towards the Linghu Lotus District.

As a result, as soon as I turned the corner, I met two more commanders.

Moreover, Zhao Xing and his team had also met these two people.

He was led in by the minotaur.

But aren’t they of the eighth rank?

Why can an eighth-grade person come in here?

"Stop, where's the warrant?"

Zhao Xing immediately took the lead in giving orders.

It's better for me to ask you than for you to ask me.

Xia Jing and Guan Junyang were stunned.

They were holding a box and had passed the checkpoint smoothly, but they didn't expect to be questioned when they were about to leave the fifth-level Fire Spirit Lake.

Where do Xia Jing and Guan Junyang get the warrant?
However, their approaches are exactly the same as Zhao Xing's.

Xia Jing said, "Sir, we were just promoted and came here in a hurry, so we didn't bring the warrant with us."

Zhao Xing frowned: "Since there is no hand warrant, there must be a password, right?"

Xia Jing was stunned.

Any password?

He narrowed his eyes slightly and took a few steps closer nonchalantly: "My Lord, please listen to me..."

When Zhao Xing saw him gathering his strength, his heart suddenly began to pound, a sense of crisis surged in his mind, and he quickly retreated.

"Hey~"

The moment he just retreated.

A sword and a knife flashed.

The sword is Long Xiao's sword, and the knife is Xia Jing's knife.

"clang!"

The swords clashed, and Long Xiao's flying sword was knocked back.

Xia Jing's whole body trembled, and the box tied to his back fell down.

His blood was boiling and he felt unwell.

There is actually such a strong seventh-grade swordsman among the barbarians? !
"Kill him!" Zhao Xing was furious.

Damn it, he just tricked someone else, but he didn’t expect to be tricked by others in the future.

He was almost hit by a knife just now. If it weren't for the warning from his life soul, he would have been seriously injured if not killed.

"Kill that sword cultivator first!" Xia Jing also spoke to Guan Junyang.

Xia Jing and Guan Junyang, confident of their martial arts skills, had no intention of running away.

The two of them completely ignored Chen Shijie, Zhao Xing and Yu Ziqi, and immediately directed all their moves towards Long Xiao.

"Swish, swish, swish~" Guan Junyang immediately launched his strongest killing move, and thick green hair suddenly grew on the palm of Long Xiao.

The sword-riding style immediately became unstable, deviated from its trajectory, and shot into the lava lake.

At the same time, Zhao Xing also took action, and his Teng Snake Transformation immediately attacked Xia Jing.

Yu Ziqi started later but arrived first, and his four flying swords stabbed at Xia Jing and Guan Junyang respectively.

As for Old Chen, a fiery red chain spread out from the ground and instantly tied up Guan Junyang.

Both sides want to get rid of the other side as quickly as possible and with the least noise.

"what?!"

Xia Jing felt very uncomfortable because the seemingly inconspicuous Yu Ziqi actually controlled four flying swords.

Another fucking swordsman?!

And the two inconspicuous people next to them, how come their spellcasting speed and power are so fast? !

"Wait, what is this move?!"

Xia Jing pointed his finger at Yu Ziqi's four flying swords, and the Qinglong Poyuan Finger turned into an afterimage, pushing away the four flying swords.

But his heart suddenly became out of control and scales grew on his neck.

The five internal organs seem to be shifting.

This is the power of Teng Snake Transformation!

"Don't hit Brother Zhao, he's one of us!"

Xia Jing immediately shouted.

"Huh? Stop!" Zhao Xing called out suspiciously, and the Thunder Finger also reduced its strength, only hitting Xia Jing's ankle.

　One more update.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)