Chapter 935: Underground (two in one)

Lulu turned her head and, without a word, the gem on her forehead glowed blue, illuminating Xiao Qunbao.

Soon, the blue light receded, and Xiao Qunbao returned to its unblemished state.

“You’ll keep using Energy Regeneration from now on to recover your energy as quickly as possible,” Qiao Sang told Lulu.

She could feel that Lulu’s energy was running low.

Although there hadn’t been a particularly fierce battle, the large-scale deployment of Ice Heaven Domain earlier had indeed consumed a lot of energy.

If another batch of opponents appeared, Lulu might not even be able to use Ice Heaven Domain once.

“Ice Emperor.”

Lulu nodded, then her whole body glowed blue.

Steel Treasure carried Guo Ruiqi and Mi Jiala to Tooth Treasure’s side.

“Xiao Xunbao…”

Xiao Qunbao felt that it had no face to see its little brother now, so it quietly moved away from Steel Treasure’s position, from its Yu Beast Master’s left side to the right.

Qingbao followed its movement, turning its head.

“Xiao Xunbao…”

Xiao Qunbao felt the gaze of its future little brother, its body stiffened again, and it floated backward a bit.

“This area is too terrifying; there are so many General-level Pets,” Guo Ruiqi finally found his voice when everything returned to calm.

At this moment, Mi Jiala looked at Qiao Sang and said,

“Don’t you feel like these Flame Night Birds are a bit too weak?”

Is this still weak? Guo Ruiqi looked at Senior Xu Gehong with a stunned expression, wanting to retort, but he didn’t dare to speak.

In his opinion, if it weren’t for Senior Qiao’s overwhelming strength, especially that Pet named “Lulu,” they would have probably been wiped out by the attack of that group of Flame Night Birds long ago.

“A little bit,” Qiao Sang recalled the scene just now and said, “But wild Pets’ group attacks are like this; once the leading Pet falls, the remaining Pets are basically like a pile of loose sand and can’t exert their full strength.”

This was a truth she had realized during her recent trips into the secret realm.

Wild Pets’ attacks are usually reckless, and their battle instincts are generally strong, but once it’s a group battle, as long as the strongest one among them falls, most of them lose the will to fight.

Perhaps among the first batch of Flame Night Birds that fell just now, there was their spiritual leader.

Furthermore, with Ice Heaven Domain plus giant Ice Cone, and then Mars Rain, how many General-level Pets could withstand it? Flame Night Birds’ defense itself isn’t high, so it’s very reasonable for them to fall in batches.

The reasoning is sound, but… Mi Jiala subtly glanced down at the fiery red ground, then guided the conversation:

“I heard that some material Pets will forcibly evolve just by coming into contact with them, as long as the Pet’s internal energy reaches the minimum standard line.”

She paused, then added:

“However, Pets that evolve this way will also be among the weakest of their rank.”

“Do you think these Flame Night Birds were all forcibly evolved by some kind of material?”

Qiao Sang perfunctorily said with little interest: “Maybe.”

After speaking, she turned to prepare for Xiao Qunbao to pinpoint the location again; the most important goal now was to quickly find the Lele Seed.

But when she turned, Xiao Qunbao wasn’t there.

Qiao Sang sensed something, looked back, and her mouth twitched: “Why are you so far away?”

“Xiao Xunbao…”

Xiao Qunbao quietly floated back to its Yu Beast Master’s side from dozens of meters behind.

“Let’s keep looking,” Qiao Sang said.

“Xiao Xunbao.”

Xiao Qunbao nodded, its eyes glowing blue.

Qiao Sang closed her eyes.

Mi Jiala, who was beside her, hesitated to speak, feeling a bit disheartened.

This child, how could she not understand what she was implying?

The resources that could forcibly evolve so many Flame Night Birds were obviously extraordinary; the few Flame-tailed Fan Foxes encountered earlier were probably also due to these resources that they successfully evolved.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t be reasonable for an area to have so many Pets of the same attribute and high levels.

One must know that wild Pets care most about their territory; at the General-level Pet stage, it’s highly unlikely they would willingly stay in the same area as another General-level Pet of a different species.

What’s more, they are of the same attribute, requiring the same resources.

The fire-element resources here are probably more abundant than imagined, so abundant that one species cannot consume it all, which is why they are reluctant to leave even if they don’t want to live in the same area as other species, leading to this situation.

Flame Qilu’s main attribute is fire, and its future evolution path is unknown; encountering resources that can evolve so many fire-element Pets should at least be investigated.

She thought Qiao Sang would be interested after she mentioned it and would proactively suggest exploring the surroundings, but she didn’t expect her to show no interest at all.

If they just left this place, they might miss out on a resource that could potentially aid Flame Qilu’s evolution… Mi Jiala’s thoughts raced.

Although she wanted to finish the mission quickly and leave the secret realm, compared to resources that could potentially help Flame Qilu evolve, she was naturally willing to stay in the secret realm a little longer.

Can’t just leave like this… Mi Jiala’s gaze swept across the fiery red ground, then she glanced at the empty space beside her.

Immediately after, Guo Ruiqi’s left shoe inexplicably fell downwards.

Guo Ruiqi felt his foot lighten, lowered his head, saw the falling shoe, and instinctively reached out, shouting: “My shoe!”

Mi Jiala turned to Sleepy Bird: “Help him pick it up.”

“Sleepy.”

Sleepy Bird was dutiful; with a flap of its wings, it transformed into a green light and flew downwards.

Its speed was so fast that it quickly caught the shoe when it was about two meters from the ground.

But it was unknown whether it was the strong airflow generated by Sleepy Bird flying downwards or if the ground had been too severely damaged beforehand.

The moment Sleepy Bird caught the shoe, the previously messy and broken ground suddenly collapsed with a roar.

An unbearable heat surged upwards.

Sleepy Bird flapped its wings, holding the shoe, and stared at the scene after the ground collapsed,愣frozen in mid-air.

“This, this…”

Guo Ruiqi stammered, completely forgetting about the shoe, his pupils constricted, and his eyes were filled with shock and bewilderment.

Sure enough… Mi Jiala said loudly:

“Qiao Sang, look!”

In fact, Qiao Sang had already opened her eyes when the ground collapsed and made a sound, without “Xu Gehong” needing to speak.

She looked down.

Deep underground, it was a fiery red expanse; hot lava flowed slowly, like a thick, burning river, advancing forward to an unknown destination, dyeing the entire underground a daunting fiery red.

Along the edges of the lava, on charred rocks, lay many fire-element Pets.

They varied in level, species, and form.

Some of these fire-element Pets looked up at them, but quickly lost interest and looked away, continuing to lie still.

There really is something unusual below… Qiao Sang’s heart rate involuntarily quickened, and her mood was unusually complex, both excited and nervous.

Actually, when she first arrived, she felt that this area was not quite right, especially underground; otherwise, the ground wouldn’t be so red or hot.

She didn’t expect it to be lava.

One must know that Tooth Treasure’s evolution back then happened within the lava of a volcano.

At this moment, Qiao Sang became even more certain that Tooth Treasure’s next evolution location might truly be nearby.

But the problem is, Tooth Treasure is only General-level mid-stage right now…

Qiao Sang really wanted to go down and explore, but her rationality told her that a General-level mid-stage Pet evolving to King-level could absolutely not be completed in a short time, even if Tooth Treasure added all the accumulated Points from before, it would only reach the late stage, not the perfected late stage.

Most importantly, the mission isn’t even finished yet; who knows how much time it would take to explore down there.

The Regional Competition is about to start soon…

“Ya Ya…”

Tooth Treasure looked down, always feeling something attracting it.

“So it’s lava down there, no wonder it’s so hot here,” Mi Jiala said, guiding the conversation: “Do you think the resources that evolved so many Flame Night Birds might be down there?”

Qiao Sang recalled what the other party had said earlier and asked, “You mean forced evolution?”

Mi Jiala nodded: “Exactly.”

Qiao Sang looked down, and another thought surged in her mind: Could Tooth Treasure also be forcibly evolved?

As soon as she thought of this, she became a little uneasy.

She wanted Tooth Treasure to evolve, that was true, but absolutely not through forced evolution.

One must know that if a Pet is forcibly evolved when its internal energy value hasn’t reached the level for evolution, even if it reaches King-level, its strength will be among the weakest of King-level Pets.

Seeing that Qiao Sang still hadn’t made up her mind, Mi Jiala pretended to casually say:

“This secret realm is truly amazing; there’s even such a place down below. I wonder where the entrance is. If the ground hadn’t suddenly collapsed this time, we probably wouldn’t have discovered it.”

Upon hearing this, Qiao Sang’s heart stirred, and she looked at Xiao Qunbao, saying:

“Take out a piece of bluish-black invariable stone.”

Regarding invariable stone, she had stocked up on some when she was on Super Dormant Star.

invariable stones of different qualities have different colors, and the higher the quality of the invariable stone, the higher the level of Pet evolution it can block.

A bluish-black invariable stone can block the evolutionary power within King-level Pets, so it’s more than enough for Tooth Treasure.

“Xiao Xunbao~”

Xiao Qunbao didn’t ask why, directly took off its ring and started searching.

Looks like she’s decided to go in… Mi Jiala saw this and felt relieved.

She also didn’t want Flame Qilu to be forcibly evolved, but Flame Qilu’s evolution path was unknown, so it was natural to explore resources that could evolve so many fire-element Pets, just in case they might be useful later.

Xiao Qunbao took out the invariable stone and handed it over.

Qiao Sang took it and put it in her pocket.

This invariable stone wasn’t threaded, so it was difficult to put on Tooth Treasure, but an invariable stone would work just by being in contact with it. If anything unexpected happened while she was on Tooth Treasure, she could just put it on it in time, so there was no need to wear it specially.

Guo Ruiqi saw this scene and asked uncertainly: “We’re not going down, are we?”

Qiao Sang nodded: “That’s right, the Lele Seed might be down there. We’ll go down and take a look; if it’s not there, we’ll come back up.”

How could there be great happiness down there… For the first time, Guo Ruiqi felt that what Senior Qiao said was wrong.

This place below was clearly for fire-element Pets.

As thoughts flashed, a Grass-type Pet, about twenty centimeters in size, with fruit growing on its head, and its entire body looking wilted, slowly passed by below.

As it passed a fire-element turtle-type Pet, that fire-element turtle-type Pet raised a claw, plucked the fruit from the Grass-type Pet’s head, and put it into its mouth.

The Grass-type Pet looked numb, offered no resistance, and continued forward.

Guo Ruiqi’s heart suddenly trembled; he remembered that the leaves of the Lele Seed could exude drops of water that made people and Pets feel happy and comfortable.

His great happiness wouldn’t be captured by these fire-element Pets and used as a “source of happiness,” would it?

Thinking of this, Guo Ruiqi gritted his teeth and said:

“Okay, let’s go down!”

Qiao Sang patted Tooth Treasure’s back.

“Ya!”

Tooth Treasure’s expression was slightly excited as it plunged straight into the ground.

Steel Treasure and Sleepy Bird followed closely behind.

An unbearable heat instantly assailed them.

“Qingqing…”

Qingbao, who had transformed into Wind Transformation at some unknown Point, reappeared due to the heat.

The resting fire-element Pets looked over again; they showed no surprise when they saw Tooth Treasure, but when they saw Steel Treasure and Sleepy Bird, they showed expressions of astonishment.

So hot… Qiao Sang immediately hugged Lulu, who was still continuously using Energy Regeneration, closer.

Large beads of sweat continuously streamed down Guo Ruiqi’s forehead, then he remembered something and looked at Sleepy Bird, asking for it:

“My shoe.”

Sleepy Bird came to his side, holding the shoe in its mouth.

Guo Ruiqi took it and put on his shoe.

The levels of the fire-element Pets here aren’t high, yet they aren’t afraid at all despite seeing such high-level Pets… Mi Jiala observed her surroundings and said in a low voice:

“Be careful.”

“Understood.” Qiao Sang looked forward, her expression becoming solemn.

Below ground, as far as the eye could see, it was a fiery red expanse; lava, like a sleeping giant dragon, dyed everything around it a fiery red, without end.

Will it all be lava if we walk through here… Qiao Sang didn’t immediately walk in, but instead turned and earnestly instructed “Xu Gehong”:

“I’ll be sensing; if there’s danger during that time, I’ll be relying on you.”

She didn’t know why, but she had a feeling that if she didn’t say it, the other party wouldn’t act.

Mi Jiala nodded and said: “I understand.”

Qiao Sang looked at Xiao Qunbao and nodded.

“Xiao Xunbao…”

Xiao Qunbao wiped the non-existent sweat from its forehead, floated to Lulu’s side, and its eyes glowed blue.

Qiao Sang closed her eyes.

In an instant, the surrounding terrain appeared in her mind like a three-dimensional image.

Lava, lava, still lava…

Various kinds of fire-element Pets, just like those in their current location, lay quietly on both sides of the lava.

Only about ten kilometers away, on both sides, there were no Pets, an eerie silence.

No Lele Seed… However, Xiao Qunbao’s sensing range is only 15 kilometers; just because it’s not here doesn’t mean it’s definitely not underground… The range down here is much wider than imagined… Various thoughts flashed through Qiao Sang’s mind, then she focused, wanting Xiao Qunbao to move to the location where there were no Pets on either side.

After all, while she wanted to find the Lele Seed, she also genuinely wanted to confirm what exactly was underground that attracted batch after batch of fire-element Pets.

Just as Qiao Sang was about to have Xiao Qunbao move, in the three-dimensional image presented in her mind, a huge, steel-hard red head, each scale shimmering with a mysterious luster, suddenly emerged from the lava and looked coldly towards their location.