Four hours later, the first rays of sunlight began to appear on the horizon.
On the Red Soil Plain, Richard glanced back at the relentless pursuers behind him and couldn't help but curse, "Are these Fire Lizards just bored? So many of them chasing after a single wizard!"
Richard counted the Fire Lizard knights pursuing him; there were at least a patrol squad, over a hundred Fire Lizard knights. This number had exceeded the range that Richard's strength could handle, and to make matters worse, his greatest reliance, Ulysses, was still asleep.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
A Magic Barrier suddenly sprang up around Richard, blocking the black arrows that were shooting towards him from behind.
Although these arrows had little effect on the Magic Equipment deck of the Magic Support Vehicle, they were surprisingly effective against the Magic Barrier, which was a pure energy shield.
The arrowheads of these black arrows had been enchanted with Dragon Alchemy, giving them anti-magic properties, and combined with the powerful kinetic energy of the arrows, they were essentially magic-piercing projectiles.
Moreover, these Fire Lizard knights were all sharpshooters; they could hit their target even from a kilometer away.
Every time Richard used the Magic Barrier to intercept these arrows, it consumed a significant amount of his magic power.
"This won't do; I need to get out of here quickly. If this drags on, I'm bound to be finished."
Richard had no idea what these Fire Lizard knights were thinking, but he was acutely aware that he hadn't memorized the map, and right now, he was just running blindly.
If he couldn't escape soon, he might very well run into a second patrol squad.
Roar! A beastly roar suddenly echoed from ahead of Richard.
A massive lizard, engulfed in flames, suddenly came into view.
Behind the lizard, Richard spotted a not-so-large pool of lava.
In this world, where fire elements were predominant, lava pools were as common as water pools, but on the Red Soil Plain, a lava pool also meant something else— it was a spawn point for the Flame Behemoth.
Flame Behemoth, a magical beast unique to the Crimson Sun World, these creatures were semi-elemental beings that could survive in lava, thriving on fire elements and various flora and fauna.
Their diet was extremely varied; they could even consume the blade shrubs of the Red Soil Plain in small amounts.
In the wizard's investigations, it seemed that the underground lava network system of the Red Soil Plain was a habitat for some Flame Behemoths.
These Flame Behemoths often attacked the settlements of Fire Lizards, destroying their farmlands. As a result, specialized beast hunters emerged among the Fire Lizards to hunt Flame Behemoths.
Looking at the flaming giant lizard roaring at him, a sudden flash of inspiration struck Richard.
Bang, bang, bang...
The flaming giant lizard charged towards Richard, its massive ten-meter-long body causing the ground to tremble as it walked.
"This wizard is finished!" one of the Fire Lizards exclaimed joyfully.
In their view, Richard, being attacked by the flaming giant lizard, would surely be delayed, giving them enough time to close the distance.
But the next moment, they realized something was off.
Richard, gripping his staff, leaped onto the back of the Fire Lizard, then plunged the end of his staff forcefully into the lizard's spine.
In the next instant, the Life Drain Tree-pattern Diagram began to take effect.
The blood of the flaming giant lizard was continuously transformed into life force by the Tree-pattern Diagram, which then flowed into Richard's body.
This life force was gentle, unlike the violent energy from the Abyss of the Source Sea in the Insect Nest World; once it entered Richard's body, it swept away all his fatigue.
"Ah, this feels good," Richard said with satisfaction.
But compared to Richard's pleasure, the flaming giant lizard was in distress.
Having a leech on its back was unbearable.
It struggled to shake Richard off, but Richard was stuck to it like glue, unable to be dislodged no matter how hard it tried.
As the blood drained away, the flaming giant lizard became frantic, while the distant Fire Lizard knights continued to shoot arrows at Richard. Richard used his deflection stance to bounce all the arrows back onto the Fire Lizard.
If Richard could be considered a leech, then the Fire Lizard knights were like piranhas to the flaming giant lizard.
Realizing the danger from the black arrows, the flaming giant lizard immediately dove into the lava pool behind it, taking Richard along into the lava network beneath the Red Soil Plain.
"This wizard has gone mad!?" the pursuing Fire Lizard knights exclaimed in surprise as they watched Richard enter the lava pool with the flaming giant lizard.
The lava pool was not easy to enter.
The lava in a fire-element-dominant world was more violent than in other worlds; the fire elements in the lava would continuously assault all living beings.
Even Fire Lizards, which had adapted for countless years and awakened Dragon Blood within them, needed to be at the peak of level three to ignore the lava. Richard, being only a level two being, was taking a huge risk by recklessly entering the lava, even as a wizard.
The leading black-horned Fire Lizard saw Richard enter the lava pool and immediately ordered the Fire Lizard squad to split up, guarding the nearby lava pools.
"Keep a close watch; as soon as the wizard shows his head, we strike together. Don't give him a chance to counterattack," the black-horned Fire Lizard said with a cold smile as he looked at the lava pool.
"I want to see how long you can hide down there!"
...
In the lava network, Richard maintained the Magic Barrier, following the flaming giant lizard as they sank deeper into the lava network.
Long before he became a level one being, Richard had already been able to survive without eating or breathing, relying solely on his cells to absorb energy from the air. So, in the lava network, he didn't have to worry about breathing.
Richard held up the Magic Barrier, continuously pulling magic stones from his pocket and consuming them.
The erosion of fire elements in the lava was terrifying for the Magic Barrier; the violent fire elements felt as if a wizard was continuously casting spells against the shield.
In this situation, Richard's magic power was rapidly depleting, and even the energy he absorbed from the magic stones couldn't keep up with the consumption.
But that was enough.
Richard opened a rift to his secret realm, removed all the Magic Equipment from his body, and placed them in his pocket before tossing them all into the secret realm.
He kept only his staff with him.
Once everything was sorted, Richard's Magic Barrier suddenly vanished, and his body was instantly enveloped by the lava.
Yet Richard felt no harm at all.
"The magic stones I adapted to my body weren't for nothing; with five hundred levels of fire element resistance, even a third-ring wizard who doesn't follow the physical route wouldn't have that," Richard thought with a cold smile.
Richard closed his eyes and followed the flaming giant lizard as they roamed freely in the lava network.
It was rumored that there were Flame Behemoths gathering beneath the Red Soil Plain, but the wizards had not discovered the reason. Now that he had some time on his hands, Richard decided to follow this giant lizard and explore this uncharted territory.
The lava network beneath the Red Soil Plain was incredibly complex and vast. Below the network, it connected to an expansive underground sea of lava.
Richard followed the flaming giant lizard deeper, and three days later, the giant lizard finally came to a halt.
This beast was not exhausted from Richard's bloodsucking; as Richard had said, he was merely a leech.
Could a person be drained to death by a mosquito?
The place where the flaming giant lizard stopped was a massive crystal pillar, which appeared to be an enormous fire element gem.
It was hard to imagine that such a large fire element gem existed in this world, big enough for a ten-meter-long giant lizard to rest upon.
Richard used his mental power to probe the gem and felt that it was somewhat different from the fire element gems he had seen before.
This gem was continuously releasing fire elements, completely lacking the closed nature of typical fire element gems.
"Strange, even if this thing wasn't a gem before, after being infected by fire elements for so many years, it should have become a fire element mineral. Why is its elemental property still so unstable?"
Richard dismounted from the giant lizard and tapped the enormous fire element gem with his staff, wanting to chip off some fragments for research.
But strangely, no matter how hard Richard tried, the peculiar fire element gem beneath his feet showed no signs of damage.
This was worlds apart from other fire element gems.
Fire element gems were notoriously hard and brittle.
"Odd, what exactly is this thing? How has it not been eroded or assimilated after being in this sea of lava for so long?
Could this be a mineral unique to the Crimson Sun World?"
Elemental erosion is a problem that many Alchemy Machines need to address, especially fire element erosion.
As the most active of the four elements, Alchemy Machines are prone to becoming brittle when exposed to high concentrations of fire elements for extended periods.
If this crystal is indeed a mineral unique to the Crimson Sun World, then both he and the two Great Wizards would strike it rich this time.
Richard crouched down, continuously tapping the crystal pillar with his fingers, using the techniques of the Breaking Mountain Fist to analyze the returning forces, trying to discern a specific frequency.
This was a lengthy process.
One day, two days, three days— a whole week passed, and Richard kept tapping the crystal pillar.
Finally, on the eighth day, Richard found the rhythms.
With a flick of his finger, a small piece of crystal broke off from the pillar.
Holding the crystal, Richard raised the Magic Barrier, preparing to open the rift to his secret realm and study it inside.
But just as Richard opened the Magic Barrier to separate the lava from the crystal, the next moment, the crystal suddenly erupted in a burst of flames— this was the fire element that had been eroding the crystal.
Once all the fire elements were expelled from the crystal, the originally crimson crystal transformed into a form Richard was familiar with.
"This is... the Progenitor Crystal!"
As a wizard who had studied the Progenitor Crystal for over a hundred years, Richard could not possibly mistake this object.
This crystal was undoubtedly a creation of the Progenitors.
In an instant, Richard understood the strange phenomenon of the crystal pillar.
This crystal pillar was a remnant left by a civilization that had vanished into the annals of history, built in the sea of lava, and it was essential for it to resist fire element erosion.
"I never expected to find the remnants of the Progenitors deep in this sea of lava. It seems the Progenitors and I are truly fated," Richard sighed, tossing the crystal into the secret realm, and then he began to swim in the sea of lava.
Since the crystal pillar was built by the Progenitors, there must be more remnants of the Progenitors nearby.
(End of Chapter)