Published: September 9, 2025
Chapter 816: Luring and Ambush
Through the fragment of consciousness inside the puppet, as soon as Han Li entered the cave entrance, he sensed everything clearly.
Before the White Wolf stood a natural passage about seventy to eighty feet high. The walls on both sides were blackish-red, with occasional flickers of flames bursting through the cracks. The intense heat distorted the surrounding air.
Han Li believed that any cultivator with a slightly lower cultivation base entering this passage might immediately be overwhelmed by the scorching hot winds and faint without warning.
But since this White Wolf was a mechanical puppet, naturally it was unaffected.
It flew forward along the passage. After a short while, the view brightened, revealing a fiery red underground world ahead.
This place spanned several hundred feet, but the most eye-catching feature was a vast lake of molten lava occupying nearly half the area. Fire-red magma bubbles continued to boil and burst with loud pops, giving the ominous impression that anyone stepping too close could be roasted to a crisp.
Around the lake was a reddish rocky ground, where a few patches of green shimmered faintly—some spiritual herbs growing there, which was truly astonishing. Such herbs must be extraordinary indeed.
However, the fragment of Han Li’s consciousness inside the White Wolf had no interest in the herbs; his gaze had already fixed on a giant rocky outcrop in the center of the lava lake.
On it lay a creature, its entire body glowing fiery red, flipping onto its back and snoring loudly in a deep sleep.
The creature was not large—about thirty feet wide and fifty to sixty feet long—shaped like a giant toad, but its flame-like glowing skin gave it a majestic aura. With each breath, a layer of red clouds flickered over its body, lending it an air of mystery.
This was clearly the Fire Toad Beast!
Han Li observed the creature carefully and cautiously for quite a while. Then his eyes shifted to a stone platform on the opposite side of the lava lake.
The platform appeared ancient.
Although adorned with many carved patterns and runes around its edges, the four corners were corroded and worn down.
At the center of the platform lay the remains of a cultivator wrapped in a simple blue robe, lying there quietly.
The robe was simple yet unique and ancient in style, clearly not something modern cultivators wore. Despite the many years, the robe remained as pristine as new, emitting a faint green glow, clearly no ordinary garment.
The skeleton wrapped inside the robe had long since turned to bones. Yet, these bones were crystal clear and translucent, like pure crystal—truly eerie.
After a meticulous scan of the bones and another glance at the Fire Toad Beast, Han Li sent out a sliver of his consciousness, quietly creeping toward the skeleton.
He wanted to see if the cultivator’s remains truly held any treasure.
On the surface, he had not found any obvious treasures or storage bags on the skeleton, which made him suspicious.
Perhaps the treasure was hidden inside the robe or somewhere near the stone platform. So he planned to search carefully.
The sliver of spiritual awareness hovered above the skeleton, drifting downward to investigate. Suddenly, something unexpected happened.
The blue robe burst with spiritual light, a faint azure glow appearing on it, instantly reflecting Han Li’s consciousness sliver away.
A strange fluctuation of spiritual energy rippled nearby.
The Fire Toad, which had been sleeping soundly, seemed to sense something. Its tightly shut eyes snapped open. The emerald pupils darted rapidly a few times before fixing on the White Wolf puppet at the cave entrance.
“Not good!” Han Li muttered in his heart.
The White Wolf puppet he controlled hurriedly turned around, its spiritual light flashing as it streaked like an azure rainbow, shooting back the way it came.
At the same time, the bulky-looking Fire Toad suddenly flipped and leapt high, landing back on the giant rock in a crouching posture.