At Little Skeleton's reminder, Han Shuo immediately came to his senses and stabilised his state of mind. He focused his consciousness and sensed Gilbert's not-yet-dissolved soul.
The Demonslayer Edge suddenly flew out of Han Shuo's body, generating an intensely powerful suction. Gilbert's undissolved soul was drawn to it. In a split second, he flowed into the Demonslayer Edge.
Although the Demonslayer's Edge couldn't help Han Shuo in battle for the time being, absorbing a soul wasn't a problem. As the master of the Demonslayer's Edge, Han Shuo could even create a special area within the Demonslayer's Edge for Gilbert to take refuge in.
Han Shuo shook off his worries. He suddenly remembered that demonic arts and necromancy magic, his forte, were dark arts that the righteous despised. Whether it was demonic arts or necromancy, they provided the practitioner with extreme abilities against souls.
Han Shuo thought for only a moment before realising that regardless of whether he used demonic arts or necromancy magic, by using Gilbert's powerful soul, he could rebuild his physical body and resurrect him. As long as Gilbert's soul remained, he wasn't completely gone.
With that in mind, the grief that Gilbert caused Han Shuo was greatly diminished. After the Demonslayer's Edge returned to Han Shuo's body, Han Shuo took one look at the Fire Elite Zombie and found the Fire Elite Zombie almost at the point of complete exhaustion. He immediately knew that he could not hesitate a moment longer.
The cold air in the Jade Frost Cage was as cold as usual. At this moment, the demonic yuan that once filled Han Shuo's body from head to toe had been drained down to his knees. However, the energy released from the Jade Frost Cage still seemed to be infinite and eternal. This left Han Shuo with the realisation that the opponent had definitely surpassed him in terms of endurance.
"Move!" Han Shuo shouted and descended straight towards a narrow slit in the lava fall.
Before Han Shuo reached the lava crack, the entire canyon suddenly began to tremble. Scorching temperatures soared higher and higher. Violent magma erupted like geysers.
Suddenly, a strong feeling of longing filled the entire canyon, like a grief-stricken mother waiting bitterly for the return of her long-lost child, and finally finding him on the doorstep.
"She, she knows I'm back!" the Fire Elite Zombie was pleasantly surprised and relayed to Han Shuo. He also seemed overjoyed.
Han Shuo finally arrived at the crack in the lava fall. He set up a protective shield around Elizabeth and the cage, and descended further.
As Han Shuo, the Fire Elite Zombie's refiner, descended down, he could clearly sense that the Fire Elite Zombie was communicating with the Lord of Flames below. Upon reaching this region, the exhausted Fire Elite Zombie began to recover bit by bit along with the rising temperatures.
Fierce flames roared around them. Fiery bubbles erupted from the site of the extreme fire. A terrifyingly high temperature filled the area around them.
Suddenly, a thunderous roar came from the place of extreme fire. As Han Shuo looked down, he saw the huge body of the Lord of Flames slowly emerging from there. On the cliffs nearby, countless Scorching Demon Warriors had risen at some unknown time. Their eyes followed Han Shuo and his group as they slowly descended.
Sensing Han Shuo's alertness, the Fire Elite Zombie hastily transmitted to him, "Father, don't worry. She will help me!"
"Okay, it's all up to you now!" Han Shuo trusted the Fire Elite Zombie very much. When the Fire Elite Zombie assured him that there wouldn't be a problem, he immediately let go of his worries.
Right after Han Shuo said those words, the Fire Elite Zombie, holding his Fire Lotus, landed on the body of the Lord of Flames who had just emerged from the place of extreme fire. The Fire Elite Zombie then sat on the broad shoulders of the Lord of Flames. Endless streams of energy were suddenly unleashed from the Lord of Flames. A dozen streams of magma even spewed from its mouth. Like fiery silk, they all wrapped around the Jade Frost Cage.
At the same time, the place of extreme fire that had existed for who knew how long, and that had even nurtured the treasure of the fire attribute - the Fire Lotus - suddenly seemed to come alive. Thousands upon thousands of strands of fire yuan energy flowed into the Fire Elite Zombie's body. In an instant, the Fire Elite Zombie was replenished with all the energy it had used up.
The Fire Lotus suddenly exploded with magnificent beams. Under the Fire Elite Zombie's manipulation, it mobilised the enormous Yuan energy of fire at the place of the extreme fire, sending out small clouds of flame that fluttered towards the Jade Frost Cage.
Han Shuo immediately felt the pressure on him ease considerably. After such actions by the Fire Elite Zombie and the Lord of Flames, the piercing cold of the Jade Frost Cage was all used to resist the onslaught of the flames. Han Shuo no longer needed to resist with excessive use of his demonic arts. Even Elizabeth and the dark dragons, whose bodies were almost frozen stiff, recovered in the heat of the place of extreme fire.
Thousands of miles away at the Ice Shrine...
"Not good! There's an intense energy of fire pouring into it. What's going on?" The Sacred Rank Magus who had been licking Ice Celestial Corey's ass suddenly changed his expression dramatically and exclaimed in surprise.
The previously calm, unflappable faces of the Ice shrine experts were replaced with solemn expressions. Every single one of them glanced at Ice Celestial Corey, their leader.
Even Ice Celestial Corey was shocked. Through some kind of mysterious connection, he also felt the changes in the Jadefrost Cage in the Dark Forest. The energy that suddenly deepened turned out to be the most searing flame energy. As far as the Ice Shrine was concerned, this fiery energy was what they hated the most, and it was also the most difficult energy to deal with.
The sudden surge of this incomparably powerful energy completely shattered Ice Celestial Corey's serenity. Under the watchful eyes of his subordinates, Corey turned in his mind to find a countermeasure, while trying to determine the source of the fiery energy that had suddenly appeared.
After a while, Corey spoke again, "They must be making a comeback on the brink of death. As long as we do all we can to withstand this wave of attacks, they won't have the energy to resist!"
"Lord Corey, if it turns out that this is not their final push before they die, and we use all our strength to withstand this wave of attack, if, and this is completely hypothetical, by any chance their strength exceeds ours combined, it would be very difficult for us to retreat by then," another sacred magus from the Ice Shrine suddenly chimed in.
After letting out a cold groan, Ice Celestial Corey said, "There is no error in my judgement. Even if another entity intervenes, with so many experts from our Ice Shrine working together, how many in the entire Profound Continent can stand up to us? Rest assured. This time, I will use all my power, and I will undoubtedly freeze them all at once!
Seeing Ice Celestial Corey's displeasure, the others had no further objections. Corey's ego was notorious in the Ice Shrine. He was a man who never listened to the opinions of others. Once he had made his decision, all one could do was to carry out his plans wholeheartedly, without questioning whether his decision was right or wrong.
Under Corey's command, the strongest few of the Ice Shine began to release the divine energy from their bodies with all their might using the mysterious magical array, intending to get rid of Han Shuo and the others far away in the Place of Extreme Fire once and for all through the Jade Frost Cage blessed by the Ice Goddess.
Back in the Dark Forest, in the Place of Extreme Fire...
"Master, what should we do? What should I do?" Elizabeth, finally able to speak, shouted frenetically.
"Stay like this and keep quiet. This time it won't be us who get the headache!" Han Shuo insisted before he stopped answering Elizabeth.
The inexhaustible Yuan energy of fire in the place of extreme fire, through the two existences of the Fire Elite Zombie and the Lord of Flames, poured into the Jade Frost Cage. Scorching heat filled the entire region. The patriarch of the dark dragons, Gilges, finally woke from his fainting spell caused by the searing heat.
"Foolish little one, where is Gilbert, the foolish thing? Where is my grandson?" After Gilges woke up, he anxiously searched everywhere for Gilbert.
"Patriarch, Gilbert is ..... he's dead!" a dark dragon sighed sadly with teary eyes.
"Ahhh....."
As grief struck his heart, Gilges let out a mournful howl.
At that moment, the party from the distant Ice Shrine launched a fierce counterattack. Cold, icy air tripled in volume as it poured out of the columns of the Jade Frost Cage and made contact with the high temperatures of the Place of Extreme Fire, instantly producing thick smoke that enveloped Gilges and the others.
The extreme cold, like water in a collapsed dam, gushed violently through Elizabeth's two hands towards her body. Startled, Han Shuo hastily focused all his attention and wildly sent his remaining demonic yuan into Elizabeth's two hands.
"Arhhh... That hurts!"
Elizabeth let out an agonising scream that sounded like a pig being slaughtered. Red, white and green lights radiated from her hands. One moment it would be freezing cold, the next scorching hot. As these two opposing energy forces collided, she felt a pain she had never felt before.
Previously, when Elizabeth's body had been frozen stiff by the cold, the pain hadn't been so difficult to bear because her body had been numbed. But now, as the ice thawed, the pain became much more pronounced and agonising.
At this moment, Han Shuo could not care for Elizabeth at all. As he unceasingly used his Demonic Yuan to solidify and form flames on both of Elizabeth's hands, his consciousness suddenly felt something faintly coming from the Jade Frost Cage. As he concentrated, Han Shuo's consciousness seemed to sense some presences from an extremely distant place. It was as if some sort of miraculous connection was connecting the Jade Frost Cage to some sort of energy from that distant place.
It suddenly became clear to Han Shuo. The presence his consciousness felt on the Jadefrost Cage was a trace of the souls of Ice Celestial Corey and his group. In order for them to transfer their energy to the Jade Frost Cage through this mysterious method, their mental strength had to be highly concentrated. Therefore, through this mysterious connection, Han Shuo's powerful consciousness could faintly sense them.
Just as Han Shuo comprehended these thoughts, the Jade Frost Cage burst out again with ten times the coldness. Thick smoke enveloped the air of the entire place of extreme fire. Even the fiery threads that the Lord of Flames had spat out were quickly solidifying.
The Lord of the Flames seemed to have never encountered such a thorny problem. Suddenly, irritated, it raised its head and let out a roar. The entire gorge, including the place of extreme fire, seemed to echo with her roar.
Suddenly, the magma in the Place of Extreme Fire erupted. As a counterattack from the enraged Suddenly, the magma in the Place of Extreme Fire erupted, the flames, the fire yuan energy that had been cultivated in this place of extreme fire for tens of thousands of years converged and travelled along the fiery line that shot from the mouth of the Flaming Lord to the Jade Frost Cage.
The Fire Elite Zombie leapt headlong into the Place of Extreme Fire. The Fire Lotus in his hand instantly gathered the terrifying energy within the Place of Extreme Fire. The Fire Lotus no longer emitted clouds of flame, but with the Fire Elite Zombie's hurling, it carried boundless fire energy and slashed towards the Jade Frost Cage. "Father, be careful!" came the message from the Fire Elite Zombie.
Han Shuo understood that the battle had now reached its most critical moment. He focused all his attention. Even his mighty consciousness, which had been carefully hidden from the Six-Horned Soul Race Tribal King without any misgivings, fully unfolded to firmly grasp the souls attached to the Jade Frost Cage.
"Hang in there, they will be finished in no time!" shouted Ice Celestial Corey in the faraway Ice Glow.
Everyone there was using their greatest strength. The divine energy they had received from the Ice Goddess for their devotion rushed like runaway horses into the Jadefrost Cage far away.
Rumbling...
As the Fire Lotus bombarded the Jadefrost Cage, a terrible sound was heard. Clouds of flame leapt from the Fire Lotus and clung to the pillars.
The dark dragons inside the Jadefrost Cage were shaken. The young lady even spat out a mouthful of blood. She seemed to be injured by the sudden jolt.
As the Lord of the Flame unleashed her full power, the fiery strings attached to the Jadefrost Cage erupted with seemingly inexhaustible energy. More white smoke spread in all directions.
"They're too powerful! Lord Corey, I can't resist anymore!" the sacred magus who had been praising Corey cried out in fear.
With the Fire Elite Zombie and the Lord of Flames working together to harness the energy that had been in the Place of Extreme Fire for millions and millions of years, they crushed everyone in the Ice Shrine. The Jade Frost Cage gradually began to melt under the scorching heat.
Through Elizabeth's two hands, Han Shuo could see that Ice Celestial Corey and his group were unable to hold out any longer. Han Shuo's consciousness could even sense that the few presences that had shrouded the Jade Frost Cage all along were fading away by the second.
It was at this moment that Han Shuo, who had been waiting for the right moment, suddenly made a move. As they all desperately resisted the counterattack of the flames, all of Han Shuo's mental power, including his consciousness, struck at those few souls like a sharp sword.
"Pfff..."
The group of experts in the Ice Shrine, including Ice Celestial Corey, had streams of blood coming out of their mouths. They felt as if their souls were being shredded and severely damaged.
As a result, they no longer had the energy to resist. The Jade Frost Cage shattered with a loud crash. Afterwards, not a trace of cold energy could be felt in this place of extreme fire.
Elizabeth's two hands were freed. Han Shuo easily stopped her fall. The entire race of dark dragons had just been released from their imprisonment. Although they had not fully recovered, they were still able to float in the air with minimal effort. Not one of them fell into the place of extreme fire beneath them.
Thousands of miles away in the Shine of Ice...
Corey and the others, still frozen like ice sculptures, exploded from the ice and shot out. The body of Ice Celestial Corey even flew far away, dripping with fresh blood.
The Ice Shrine, enveloped in arctic cold all year round, was suddenly assaulted by a blast of warm air. This lofty, majestic shrine made of ice crystals was reduced to a lifeless body of water.
The disciples, who had been practising martial arts and water magic in the Ice Shrine, suddenly felt high temperatures, which they instinctively abhorred and feared. Their faces were furrowed as they tried to find the source of the heat. They soon discovered that the largest shrine, which housed the sculpture of their Ice Goddess for them to consecrate, was also slowly thawing.
This had not happened in thousands of years. This phenomenon was seen by the people of the Ice Shine as more threatening than even demons rising from the gates of Hell. They were panicked and frightened, and had no idea what was happening.
Could it be that the Ice Goddess had abandoned them?
As the Ice Shrine descended into a pandemonium it had not seen in thousands of years, Han Shuo breathed a sigh of relief. However, he was soon shocked and looked at the Lord of Flames in the place of extreme fire below him with an unimaginable expression.
All he could see was that the gigantic Lord of Flames, whose body was made of magma, iron and stone, was undergoing a shocking transformation. Chunk after chunk of stone, as red as branding iron, eroded from the Lord of Flames with a thunderous roar. An insurmountable amount of energy erupted from her body.
Gradually, as the titanic body of the Lord of Flames swayed, her body grew in size. The lava from all over the Place of Extreme Fire poured into it like river rapids, seemingly feeding it with tremendous amounts of energy that the Place of Extreme Fire had been feeding it since the beginning of time.
Right in front of Han Shuo's eyes, the Lord of Flames first grew wildly huge, her body almost filling the Place of Extreme Fire. But after a while, the rocks on her body were rapidly shaken out. As the lava thinned, her body began to shrink bit by bit.
Han Shuo looked at the Lord of Flames without blinking. He could sense that as her body became smaller, the energy within her became even more powerful. Soon after, strands of fiery rays erupted from her body. She was like a miniature sun, radiating light so dazzling that her eyelids were transparent.
"Hahaha, I have finally evolved! Finally evolved!" As Han Shuo watched intently, the Lord of Flames, dazzling with red light, let out a belly laugh. Gradually, the red light faded, revealing a plump middle-aged woman with red skin in front of Han Shuo.
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