Chapter 135 - 104: Do Not Fight a Prepared Wizard!

Chapter 135: Chapter 104: Do Not Fight a Prepared Wizard!

A skeleton leaned against the blade, but it was incomplete. More than half of it had scattered, leaving only the skull, spine, and a few ribs still maintaining a rough structural connection.

The shape of the skull was identical to Iliet’s. It was elongated with large, deep eye sockets. There were two protrusions at the temporal bones, indicating where a mane of flames used to attach.

"That must be Hephaeston. It seems Iliet wasn’t lying."

Chen Shang and the others didn’t rush forward; instead, they concealed themselves. Not far from the skeleton, a creature lay prone.

A Tier Four Fire Elemental Lord!

Its size was somewhat smaller than the one they had encountered in Wind Eye Canyon, but its oppressive aura was vastly stronger. At a careless glance, one might easily mistake it for a massive chunk of molten lava. Fortunately, the Eye of True Sight could see far enough.

Its body was semi-humanoid, possessing a head, torso, and limbs. However, the head was disproportionately large, making up almost a third of its total body mass. In place of eyes were two clusters of deep purple light—some sort of High Tier Elemental Aggregation.

The surface of its body was covered in a dense layer of scale-like structures. They weren’t actual scales, but rather crystallized formations born from high-density Fire Elements condensing over its skin. The color of these crystals transitioned smoothly from a dark red to a bright gold, growing increasingly radiant the closer they were to the core.

Right now, it was fast asleep. Its body rose and fell slightly with its breathing, and with every exhale, two clusters of dark purple sparks spewed from its nostrils—if those could even be called nostrils.

Scattered around the Lord were at least a dozen Tier Three Fire Elemental Spirits. They came in all sorts of shapes—some humanoid, some beast-like, and others entirely spherical. They slumbered alongside their Lord.

No, they weren’t asleep.

As Chen Shang’s Eye of True Sight swept past them, he noticed that these Low Tier Favored Ones were breathing in sync with the Lord. With each breath, their internal auras grew marginally stronger. This was likely a Cultivation method unique to Fire Elemental Spirits. The higher their Level, the deeper they sank into this state, whereas the lower-tier ones would still occasionally wake up.

He quickly ran an assessment. A Tier Four Lord, over a dozen Tier Three minions, plus the unpredictable elemental tides and memory echoes in the area.

A head-on clash meant certain death.

Back then, a heavily injured Marcus had completely decimated his Creation Species. Although Chen Shang was now several times stronger, this Fire Elemental Lord was in pristine condition. Not to mention, he couldn’t even borrow the might of the High Tower right now.

"We need to figure out a way to lure them away," Evelyn said, keeping her voice incredibly low. "And we can’t make too much noise. If it’s too loud and the Lord wakes up, we won’t even be able to flee."

Ella looked at the Tier Four Lord, her Spiritual Force Field silently expanding around her. "I can try using Nightmare Witchcraft to influence those Low Tier individuals. I’ll make them think there’s prey outside, prompting them to leave on their own."

Twilight’s dark red Black Fog surged. "My fog can guide them, creating a fake target zone on the periphery."

Chen Shang thought for a moment. "That works. But the Lord can’t be disturbed. How large is its perception range?"

Evelyn pointed at the dark red halo surrounding the Lord’s body. "About fifty paces. Within fifty paces, any Energy fluctuation that isn’t from a Fire Element will jolt it awake. Outside of fifty paces, as long as we don’t attack it directly, it should remain asleep."

Chen Shang mentally simulated the route before shaking his head. "The risk is too high. Let’s discuss this further before making a move."

The group carefully retreated a long distance away. They carved out a small cave in the rock wall just large enough to accommodate the four of them. Twilight’s Black Fog sealed the entrance, blocking out most of the sweltering heat and the stench of sulfur from outside.

Chen Shang unrolled a map and traced a circle with his finger over the basin located deep within the Fallen Land.

"It’s too reckless. Luring the Lord away before going for the sword has an unknown success rate. If it wakes up prematurely, none of us will make it out." He traced the circle on the map a little deeper. "Such precious lives shouldn’t be wasted in a place like this. I’d rather cancel the plan entirely."

Evelyn leaned against the cavern wall, her arms crossed over her chest. "Then what do you suggest we do?"

Chen Shang didn’t answer immediately. He drew a few lines on the map, wiped them away, drew them again, and erased them once more. After a long while, he finally lowered his hand.

"I have three plans of action.

"First, we still lure them. But we need to prepare an escape route in advance." He looked at Twilight. "Select a few points along the way and construct one-time Teleportation Arrays leading five hundred kilometers to the west.

"The kind that is destroyed immediately after use. If anything unexpected happens, we won’t even need to run; we’ll just teleport away."

Twilight nodded without asking any further questions. Back during the assessment world, she could already use the gray fog for short-distance evasions. Now, constructing a Teleportation Array with Materials was even less of a problem.

"Second, prepare detonation points in advance." Chen Shang shifted his gaze to Evelyn. "My Eye of True Sight can see the Pivot Points of the underground Fire Veins. I want you to plant Detonating Runes on those Pivot Points.

"If we actually end up alarming the Lord, we’ll detonate the Pivot Points and trigger a massive explosion. It might not necessarily hurt it, but stalling it for just a few breaths will be enough."

Evelyn nodded. "No problem. That’s my specialty."

"Third," Chen Shang said, turning to Ella. "The Fallen Land is filled with Spiritual Power residue. Gather those clustered fragments and create chaos. Once the Lord’s attention is divided, we’ll have a much better window to strike."

Ella hugged her little bear and tilted her head. "I can do that, but it’ll take time."

"How many days do you need?"

"Four or five days. The fragments here are widely scattered; I’ll have to collect them slowly."

Chen Shang put away the map. "Then five days it is. In five days, we make our move."

Over the next five days, the four of them busied themselves with their respective tasks.

Under the cover of the Black Fog, Twilight traveled back and forth between their escape route and the cave. With each trip, she inscribed Teleportation Array Runes at different coordinates. After carving them, she would cover the arrays with her Black Fog and apply an extra layer of camouflage on top.