Swish! Swish!
Two arrows shot out in quick succession one pierced straight through a fire beast's head, killing it on the spot.
The other was narrowly dodged by a bird-shaped fire beast, which let out a sharp screech as it dove straight toward them.
At that moment, several cold aura spells struck from all directions. The temperature around them plummeted, and when the spells hit the firebird, its flames dimmed significantly, even its speed slowing down noticeably.
From the ground, a lithe figure leaped into the air razor-sharp metallic claws glinting with cold light as it slammed the firebird to the ground. Its massive jaws snapped down and crushed the creature's skull in an instant.
Whoosh
Both fire beasts crumbled into black ash. Li Ye deftly controlled his puppets to collect the exposed fire beast cores. Sensing the aura from a distance, he paused in thought.
It had been about fifteen minutes since the puppet team entered this ruined island structure.
And in that short span, they had already drawn the attention of four or five fire beasts one of which even possessed late-stage Qi Refining level combat power.
If the puppets hadn't been outfitted with layered defenses and capable combat abilities, he might've lost one or two.
Of course, while puppets were expensive, with Li Ye's current resources, he wasn't overly concerned about the cost.
Just the fire beast cores collected so far were enough to refine a whole batch of pills worth a tidy profit.
What truly concerned him, though, was the density and activity of these fire beasts.
"Could it be that the disciples of the sect that once occupied this lava palace were all wiped out here? This is just a ruined structure on the outskirts, yet there are already so many active fire beasts…"
He did a quick mental calculation, and his expression turned grim.
"If this holds for the entire area, and considering how vast this place is and how many island structures it has… then just the low-tier fire beasts alone might number in the thousands!"
"And that's still a conservative estimate I've barely finished exploring this single structure and I don't even know yet how many Foundation Establishment-level fire beasts might be lurking deeper in."
Given the faintly visible formation levels in the area, there was a high probability that Golden Core-level fire beasts existed deeper in the heart of the lava palace.
At that thought, Li Ye felt both awe at the immense treasure hidden there and a chilling sense of dread at the deadly power that could easily devour him.
One small comfort was that, despite having been here for some time and triggering numerous traps and formations via his puppet explorations, none had caused any major reaction so far.
His greatest concern was the possibility of the formation field expanding hadn't shown any clear signs of happening yet.
"Maybe the situation isn't as dire as I thought?"
Li Ye mused, "After all, my method of disabling formations isn't as crude as that of Xu and Ma… Maybe what I'm seeing now is the result of the two of them disturbing the array too aggressively while trying to plunder it?"
With that thought, his expression eased slightly.
Though further observation was needed, if his theory proved correct, he might have ample time to explore this treasure trove thoroughly.
With the puppets doing the dangerous work, the risk to himself remained minimal, and with such potential rewards ahead, there was no reason to turn back.
Even if he failed to uncover any ancient secrets, legacy techniques, or alchemical formulas from the lava palace, simply hunting fire beasts could already yield tremendous profits.
At the very least, it could help him acquire all the cultivation techniques, legacy inheritances, and spiritual herb seeds necessary for advancing through the Foundation Establishment.
Still, if that's the case, the Ma family will need to be… handled differently.
A flicker of cold light passed through Li Ye's eyes.
Meanwhile, the puppet squad continued its exploration.
But perhaps because this outermost ruin was so heavily damaged, there was nothing of true value to be found.
After nearly completing the search of this ruined structure island, all Li Ye had turned up were fragments of magical tools long broken and scorched by the surrounding heat, with all spiritual energy long since dissipated.
Not only were they beyond repair, they weren't even worth salvaging for raw materials.
"Still… it does seem this lava palace experienced a great battle back then. The only mystery is when exactly did it happen? There's not a single surviving rumor among the Chidi Mountains about such a thing…"
"Even the tattered map Ma's camp used to find this place is ancient and heavily incomplete. They only stumbled upon this location by chance, and with the help of Xu Pingyang a local cultivator they managed to get anywhere."
Li Ye carefully recorded the details he'd gathered so far, and as he pieced them together, the sense of mystery surrounding this place only grew deeper.
"My puppets and talismans haven't taken much damage yet. I can continue exploring for a while longer…"
Using the bird-shaped puppet, Li Ye had the loot delivered back to his hands one by one. He then commanded a few puppets to exchange their nearly depleted spirit stones with each other.
With the array and restrictions on this previously explored structure now well understood, he moved on toward a nearby, larger island structure that had a similar strength of formation defenses.
Although his puppet-controlling secret art, combined with the Thousand Thoughts Divine Refinement Technique, had significantly extended his control range allowing him to even assign basic autonomous instructions to his split consciousness for coordinated actions there were still limits.
But now that Li Ye had already mapped out part of the outer formation and cleared a safe path, the risks were at their lowest.
This allowed him to cautiously try entering the already explored island structure himself, closing the distance between him and his puppets to better direct the exploration team.
"Still, it's not without risk. I should stock up on fire-resistance measures and become more familiar with, even fully grasp, the formations here before I engage in any deep exploration myself…"
"And even then, I mustn't go too deep. For now, I'll stick to clearing out these many ruined structures on the outskirts, each only protected by first-tier formations."
Li Ye's mindset remained steady and conservative.
Even if all he could collect were fire beast cores, the profit was already significant. There was no need to get greedy.
Unless he reached late-stage Foundation Establishment… no Golden Core stage!
Until then, even if all he did was pick up scraps from the outskirts, he wouldn't dream of getting close to the main body of the lava palace.
As these thoughts ran through his mind, the exploration of the second island structure proved far less smooth than the first.
The changes in the formations weren't a big deal. Formations, after all, followed certain principles. After his previous breakthroughs, Li Ye already had a solid grasp of the general rules.
What truly caught him off guard happened after he took down several fire beasts
Suddenly, three late-stage Qi Refining fire beasts emerged from the surrounding lava.
That alone wasn't too alarming. With coordination between several puppets and the use of talismans, they could still be suppressed.
But just as he was about to finish off one of them
One of the fire beasts turned on its kind, devouring its two companions in a frenzied attack. It then rapidly absorbed the surrounding fire's spiritual energy and instantly advanced to the Foundation Establishment stage, transforming into a three-headed fire beast!
Had Li Ye not reacted quickly sending his heavily armored puppet forward to block the attack and immediately activating several tier-two talismans stored on the puppets things might have gotten out of hand.
Seizing the moment while the beast's strength was still unstable, he unleashed a saturation attack and took it down before it could cause chaos within the already precarious formation.
Fortunately, despite using several talismans, there was no significant reaction from the surrounding formations, and the island remained stable.
Even so, the event was completely unexpected. Li Ye decided to call it a day, choosing to first observe whether the earlier battle would cause any delayed disturbances in the formations.
After recalling several of his puppets, Li Ye looked at the crystal core in his hand, about the size of a walnut and glowing with intense firelight. A trace of delight appeared on his face.
"This should count as a second-tier core, right? More than enough to try refining a batch of pills…"
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