Chapter 322: Three Spiritual Stoves (III)
Long Haochen nodded, giving him the reply, “Very strong. The demons that came this time seem to have suppressed their strength before entering the Illusory Paradise. That Ah’Bao is at least at the eighth step, or may even have reached the ninth step. His external spiritual energy has reached 20,000 units. Even with the combined power of Asura Strike and Asura Thrust, I could not break past the natural defense of his physical body. He is afraid of Cai’er’s Spiritual Stove of Samsara, so for now, we have to be steady and cannot let emotions affect our decisions. He is bound to become one of our future great enemies. And he’s very possibly the successor of the Demon God Emperor.”
Hearing this, everyone’s expression changed completely. The successor of the Demon God Emperor, just what kind of status was that?
Chen Ying’er said, unconvinced, “So what about it? Haven’t we just chased them off?”
Cai’er replied indifferently, “The reason why he was wounded by Haochen and prefered to escape was because he is more afraid of death than us. Being the successor of the Demon God Emperor, he will become the future ruler of the demons, and is thus not willing to take risks. Otherwise, we would have all died here today. Even by utilizing the full force of the Spiritual Stove of Samsara, I have only one sixth of certainty to take him down. To him, we are the same lowly existences as the six Demon God Slayers in relation to the Demon God Emperor when they appeared in front of him on that day.”
Standing in front of Long Haochen, Zhang Fangfang expressed his appreciation, “It’s fortunate that you came here in time, otherwise I would also have ended up dying here today. We have after all underestimated those who came from the demon side. To the best of my knowledge, the other two aside, at least three more of the ten of us have already died in battle. And the spiritual stoves acquired by the demons are exceeding seven.”
He didn’t inquire Long Haochen’s team about how they appeared in the Illusory Paradise, but only provided them with all the information he had.
Long Haochen furrowed his brows, “Let’s go then. We should recover those three spiritual stoves first and bury the corpses of those magical beasts before discussing how to move forward.”
Returning to the previous battlefield, they saw the corpses of the mage and the warrior from different Demon Hunt Squads, in a very miserable state. Long Haochen recovered their corpses and transported them to the Tower of Eternity, planning to hand them back to their own team after leaving. In fact, the death of a Demon Hunter was considered a fatal blow for the whole team, and would very possibly cause the disbanding of this Demon Hunt Squad as a whole. Moreover, this time almost only core team members came, so those demons would naturally show no reservation to kill them upon encountering them. Just like the Demon Hunters would kill them without any reservations.
But from today’s situation, it was visible that the Demon Hunters were in a state of absolute disadvantage.
However, it was already too late to say anything now. Who would have expected that this time the assets that came from the demon side, including several successors of the seventy-two demon gods, came after suppressing their own strength through secret methods.
After burying the corpses of the magical beasts without even touching their magic crystals, Long Haochen led his comrades in front of those three spiritual stoves.
A fantastic scene happened; Yating slowly floated to the front of those three spiritual stoves, murmuring some incantations which surrounded the three spiritual stoves with a soft golden light. Immediately, the three spiritual stoves glowed with a soft radiance, as they arrived before Long Haochen while following Yating.
Facing the three spiritual stoves, everyone immediately looked fervent at this sight, but Long Haochen turned towards Zhang Fangfang, telling him, “Brother Zhang, pick one of those first.”
“Eh? Me?” Zhang Fangfang looked at Long Haochen with some astonishment.
It was impossible to deny that he longed for these three spiritual stoves, but he had already suppressed the desire deep inside of him. The fact that Long Haochen’s whole team was brought magically to the Illusory Paradise as a whole was not a matter of strength, but their own secret. And furthermore, if not for the presence of these people from the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad here, survival would be very hard for him. Thus, he naturally didn’t hope for too much. In the previous battle, he saw personally the deep mutual understanding and the great strength of their whole team. Although, with the exception from Long Haochen and Cai’er, none of them had broken through to the sixth step yet, their cooperation was plentily formidable. Never did he expect Long Haochen to let him first pick a spiritual stove.
Long Haochen explained, “Brother Zhang, you were the one who discovered these spiritual stoves, and without you, we wouldn’t necessarily have been able to drive those demons away. Don’t be modest, Brother Zhang, please just go on.”
Zhang Fangfang took a deep breath, unconsciously looking at the others at Long Haochen’s side. Regarding Long Haochen’s words, no one opposed in the slightest, and no one even looked unsatisfied in any way.
After a short time of internal struggle, Zhang Fangfang’s face returned to a serene look, declaring earnestly, “Brother Long, thank you. However, I can’t accept. I cannot deny that I long for spiritual stoves. However, if not for the help I had from you during this battle, I wouldn’t even be alive. You are my saviors so for now, how could I take one of the spiritual stoves you gained from having fought such a hard battle.”
“Brother Zhang…” Long Haochen was about to keep insisting, before being prevented from saying anymore by Zhang Fangfang. With resolution, he declared, “Brother Long, how about that, I just have a little request. I hope that I could stay with your group for the time being. If our luck is good enough to encounter more spiritual stoves, how about giving me one at that time? I really don’t want any of these three.”
This being said, the members of the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad exchanged surprised looks when seeing Zhang Fangfang, but they were all full of respect. Not everyone was able to renounce something as enticing as spiritual stoves. Although they made an agreement to let him have the next spiritual stove they would run across, who could guarantee that they would still encounter any more spiritual stoves?
Long Haochen wasn’t an unreasonable person, and time wouldn’t wait for them. After a short time of reflexion, he replied, “Okay then, since this is what you want, I won’t show reservation.
Lin Xin, the red spiritual stove is yours. Sima, that spiritual stove glinting in a frantic red is for you. And Yuanyuan, assimilate the silver-colored spiritual stove. Start assimilating now, we will give assistance by guarding you during this time.
Everyone in the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad was not only full of trust towards Long Haochen, but also trusted his judgment. Hearing him, none of them spoke anymore, and the three immediately started the absorption of the three spiritual stoves.
Because this was merely a temporary absorption, and they wouldn’t directly be able to use them, so it took only a short time before the three of them completed their respective assimilations.
Lin Xin and Yuanyuan had tolerable reactions, just showing happy expressions, but having just assimilated his spiritual stove, Sima Xian shouted loudly, “So invigorating! This almost electrocuted me to death.”
Long Haochen smiled, “The spiritual stove Lin Xin assimilated is called Heart of Flames, and forms a flame of extremely high temperature. It cannot help the fire element mages in cultivation nor does it carry any additional ability, but it causes the quality of the flame released by the mage to reach the greatest levels. Its temperature will also reach a terrifying level. The Heart of Flames Spiritual Stove may not seem to be of great value, but it is ranked in the top five among all spiritual stoves that can be absorbed by mages, and in practice, it is of formidable utility.
Yuanyuan’s spiritual stove is a rarely seen space elemental spiritual stove, and matches perfectly with her. It is known as the space elemental spiritual stove with the highest utility. If the flames from Lin Xin’s Heart of Flames Stove can be said to have the risk of producing bad aftereffects upon overuse, Yuanyuan’s spiritual stove is however absolutely not the least dangerous. This spiritual stove is called Spatial Gate, and simply said, it enables Instant Shift. If I’m not remembering it wrong, the Spatial Gate can be used multiple times every day, and the frequency and range will depend on its degree of evolution. And to a warrior of spatial element, taking possession of this spiritual stove gives an enormous boost to any other spatial elemental techniques that can be learned. Wang Yuanyuan and Lin Xin had pretty good luck.”
“Then, boss, how about me? What about the spiritual stove you told me to assimilate? It really electrocuted me without limits…” The expression on Sima Xian’s pained face looked far from merry.
With a laugh, Long Haochen explained, “Didn’t you want a spiritual stove of high bursting power? This is what you wished for. It’s a rather uncommon spiritual stove, and very rarely seen. It is of the thunder element and anyone can absorb it.” Arriving at this point, he gave Zhang Fangfang a look. His original intention had been to let Zhang Fangfang choose this spiritual stove, because in contrast, he couldn’t surrender the two spiritual stoves given to Wang Yuanyuan and Lin Xin, especially the one for Wang Yuanyuan. As known, the spatial elemental spiritual stoves after all even exceeded the top three ranked in rarity.
“Sima Xian’s spiritual stove is called Purple Thunder, and doesn’t carry any active, but a very powerful passive ability instead. As long as your body can bear it, after assimilating this spiritual stove, all your attacks will carry a powerful lightning force. As for the specific level it can reach, we will know after trying it ourselves in the future. However, I need to warn you that because of the tyrannical and brutal aspect of this Purple Thunder Spiritual Stove, I’m afraid that at the time you will undergo its real trial, the degree of difficulty will be rather high. You have to prepare well mentally.”
Sima Xian appeared satisfied, “Very good. I like this one.” His straightforward personality aside, he was actually a rather thoughtful person. Although Long Haochen didn’t tell him about its real level of power, he could tell out that even among all uncommon elements, the thunder was the most powerful one.
Having already obtained four spiritual stoves, Long Haochen finally felt the pressure on his shoulders ease. These were a lot of rare heavenly treasures, and all of them were very useful. These four spiritual stoves already made their trip worthwhile, but there was still some time, though it was hard to say whether there were still any free spiritual stoves left.
Everyone got in action once again, and with the addition of Zhang Fangfang, their group now reached a total number of eight people. Even when encountering those demons, they would still be able to put up a fight. But that would be on the premise that the entirety of the demons weren’t gathered.
Time passed little by little, and on their road, they didn’t encounter any other spiritual stoves. Long Haochen also didn’t sense much, just encountering the corpses of magical beasts, which they buried just like before.
With the descent of night, the Illusory Paradise seemed to look the same as outside; there actually existed both a day and a night. The eight of them were gathered together, looking for a rather covert place to have some rest.
This was how they passed their first day since entering the Illusory Paradise, but this was just the beginning. According to Ling Xiao’s information, the following days were still going to be filled with opportunities, but even more danger.
