Pop... pop... pop...
The underground lava flowed calmly, occasionally bubbling up with small blisters that burst into tiny sparks.
Solidified lava rocks and scattered fragments of blackened structures formed a jagged path leading toward the Lava Palace Secret Realm.
Several puppets advanced in formation.
The bird-type scout puppet flew ahead to probe the way expendable, should anything go wrong.
Right behind it, the heavily armored puppet followed with a massive shield in hand, talismans affixed to its body and ready to activate at a moment's notice.
Behind them was the humanoid puppet, designed for ranged operations Li Ye's primary tool for dismantling formations.
At the rear, agile tiger and leopard puppets guarded the flanks, ready to counter any sudden attacks from the elusive fire beasts.
With this steady advance, they avoided formation traps whenever possible, and only attempted to break through when there was no other choice. In this cautious manner, they had already made it through most of the way. The Lava Palace Secret Realm now loomed nearby.
"From what I've read of Xu and Ma's notes, they only managed to explore the outskirts of the Lava Palace Secret Realm and pick up some scraps.
At that time, the strength and range of the formation defenses here weren't nearly as overwhelming as they are now…"
"But even so this won't stop me from getting in before hitting the real threshold."
Li Ye remained fully focused, a touch of confidence rising on his face.
The Lava Palace Secret Realm's formation barriers were indeed unfathomable.
Even at the outer edges, they ranged from tier one to tier two in complexity.
Going further into the Lava Palace Secret Realm would almost certainly bring him face-to-face with remnants of tier-three-level formations...
And once inside the core? He wouldn't be surprised if a fully functional tier-four grand array appeared.
But his goal had never been to charge into the core. Just scoping out the edges and picking up whatever scraps he could find would already be worthwhile. Even if some monstrous threat did lurk inside, he had no intention of rushing in blindly.
Still, even in this increasingly dangerous situation, he didn't hesitate to send the puppets in deeper. At this moment, he could finally understand why people like Xu Pingyang had been so cautious.
From what they'd encountered, if someone with decent formation knowledge had taken their place back then, they might have truly been able to break into the Lava Palace Secret Realm and extract something of immense value.
Compared to their brute-force approach with only map notes for assistance, someone with actual formation skills had a massive advantage… Li Ye himself probably would've been uneasy in their shoes.
But now that both Xu and Ma were dead, their thoughts no longer mattered. What did matter was understanding just how far this situation had deteriorated.
Li Ye remained laser-focused, maintaining spiritual links with each puppet as he continued to assess the condition of the formation traps along the way.
In this vast underground world composed entirely of flame, magma, and black rock...
The main body of the Lava Palace Secret Realm resembled a massive island, shrouded in powerful and terrifying formation barriers.
Its shattered structures were scattered around, their defenses uneven and chaotic like clusters of smaller islands surrounding the central Lava Palace Secret Realm.
Although the formations linked many of the ruined structures to each other and the main Lava Palace Secret Realm, each was relatively self-contained.
So far, from what Li Ye had observed, the farther from the center the structure was, the weaker its formation defenses tended to be.
That meant there was room for exploration.
The puppet squad was just about to step onto a structure island protected by formations roughly at the first-tier level, mixed with a bit of second-tier strength.
"Awooo"
With a wet splurt, a fire beast suddenly lunged out from the fiery haze cloaking the island.
Judging by its appearance it looked like the very same beast that had snatched away his damaged bird puppet earlier!
Just as they were about to set foot on the island, Li Ye was fully alert how could he possibly be caught off guard by such a beast?
The bird-type puppet flying ahead quickly ascended into the air, while the heavy-armored puppet stepped forward and slammed its massive shield down with a loud whoosh. A gust of force swept out, sending the feline-shaped fire beast flying.
Boom!
A burst of flame erupted as the fire beast was flung backward.
At the same time, the humanoid puppet in the center let loose its bowstring. A rune-etched arrow charged with spiritual energy shot out, trailing a chill wind as it instantly caught up with the fire beast, piercing through its body and nailing it to the ground.
Before it had any chance to resist, the rune on the arrow flickered. A burst of cold erupted from within, clashing with the beast's inner flame, and snuffed out its life on the spot.
The fire on the feline beast's body extinguished rapidly, smoke rising as its small body stiffened, then crumbled into black ash.
Amid the scattering ashes, an irregular dark-red crystal about the size of a broad bean flickered with a faint, ghostly glow.
Seeing this, Li Ye's eyes narrowed slightly. "So this is the fire beast core they mentioned?"
In the notes left behind by Xu and Ma, it was stated
Fire beasts weren't true demonic beasts.
Their existence was more akin to spirits or phantoms, born from the convergence of lingering souls, resentment, and malevolent energy after great carnage in regions of extreme flame.
As such, they had no flesh-and-blood bodies and could move freely through fire without harm.
Their crystal cores were similar to the soul crystals produced by ghost-type entities formed from a mixture of soul energy and fire spiritual energy... and in terms of purity, even more refined than a demon beast's core.
If one's cultivation technique matched the element, and one could expel the residual soul energy properly, the core could be directly absorbed to enhance one's mana.
Though each core offered only limited benefits and excessive use could result in the accumulation of impurities the ease of acquisition more than made up for it.
With fire beasts appearing in such large numbers in this area, these cores were a true treasure trove.
Moreover, if collected in sufficient quantity, the cores could also be used as key ingredients in the refining of fire-element pills safer even than directly absorbing the core itself.
"So this is why Xu Pingyang, who had no reputation whatsoever in alchemy, suddenly set up a high-quality pill furnace and started delving into pill refining..."
Li Ye pondered deeply.
The other puppets remained on alert while the bird puppet descended to collect the fire beast core.
Li Ye himself was not a fire-element cultivator not even possessing a fire spiritual root. So despite the value of this treasure, it held no direct benefit to his cultivation.
"All I can do is sell them off…"
"Still, with this, I now have enough materials to try crafting those second-tier fire-element pills Xu Pingyang left behind... Pills that can boost Foundation Establishment cultivators' mana would catch the interest of many forces and earn me the resources I need!"
"Plus, with the unique nature of these fire beast cores, they might also be usable in puppet crafting... First-tier puppets don't require such a core, but judging by that fragment of a puppet manuscript, once a puppet reaches the second tier, it starts needing something like this…"
Excitement flickered in Li Ye's eyes but it was tempered by a cool-headed calm.
The fire beast had attacked before they even landed. From a distance, he could already spot multiple fire beasts prowling about.
That feline fire beast just now was only a mid-level tier-one threat easily dealt with. But who knew what kind of powerful fire beasts were lurking deeper within the lava terrain and concealed by complex formations?
If two or more tier-two beasts appeared amidst such a chaotic formation field, even Li Ye would find it hard to manage.
"I'll have to let the puppets continue scouting the way ahead…"
With a sigh, Li Ye watched as his reorganized puppet squad finally set foot on the ruined structure island.
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