"Rumble~~~" Before Lin Lei could think of anything else, he saw countless massive boulders converging from all sides and above, blotting out every trace of sunlight. Every fire-red boulder pressed inward and closed around the demons. In an instant, Lin Lei himself was pinned by several boulders, unable to move.
"Hiss~~~"
All the fire-red boulders began shifting with eerie coordination. From the outside, one would have noticed — among the volcanic mountain range, a new fire-red peak had appeared out of nowhere.
This peak was formed by the gathering of countless fire-red boulders.
Lin Lei and all the surviving demons, along with the corpses of those who had perished, were all inside it.
"What's going on?" Lin Lei stared in astonishment at the scene before him.
The boulders pressing against him had moved away, and ahead there was now a narrow passage. Lin Lei followed it for roughly ten meters before discovering a horrifying sight — ahead was a vertical shaft, going straight up and down!
Surviving demons were streaming in from various narrow corridors into this wide vertical shaft. Lin Lei and his entire group were floating inside it.
"Where's Dilia?" Lin Lei searched urgently, peering into each passage.
The vast majority of demons gathered alive in the shaft were Highgods, with only a small number of Midgods. That sudden attack had claimed the lives of many Midgod demons.
"Boss!" A voice suddenly rang out.
Lin Lei spun around.
There came Dilia and Bei Bei, emerging together from a distant path.
"Dilia! Bei Bei!" Lin Lei was overjoyed and hurried to meet them. Bei Bei and Dilia both wore beaming smiles. Lin Lei looked Dilia over carefully, his heart surging with relief.
"Thank goodness for Bei Bei just now," Dilia said with feeling. "That attack was far too sudden, and there were so many of those boulders. Fortunately, I used the Death God Puppet to withstand the first blow. After that, Bei Bei helped me, and I got through that terrifying attack safely."
Bei Bei grinned. "I was staying right next door. When that metal life shattered, I was only a few meters from Dilia, so it was easy enough to help." Although he seemed casual about it, a trace of worry still lingered in his eyes.
Lin Lei understood — Bei Bei was worried about Nissa.
"Where's Nissa? Wasn't she with you at the time?" Lin Lei suddenly asked.
Bei Bei forced a smile. "Nissie had gone to her brother's side back then. That Solomon is a Highgod, so he should be able to protect Nissie, right?"
"Bei Bei." A voice called from the distance.
Bei Bei immediately turned to look, and a look of joy bloomed across his face. "Nissie." Nissa and Solomon flew over at once. Having survived such an ordeal, everyone wore rare smiles.
Suddenly —
"Cut through this mountain wall and get us out!" someone called out loudly.
Boom!
With an explosion, by the time Lin Lei and the others turned to look, they only saw a shattered corpse plummeting downward.
"What happened?" Lin Lei and the others were still somewhat bewildered.
"So, everyone — what do we do now?" a voice suddenly spoke up.
Everyone, including Lin Lei, turned to look. The speaker was a Highgod demon. Lin Lei had heard his name before — Spory. Among the demons hired in Yilan City, he held considerable authority. His strength was estimated at that of a four-star or five-star demon.
Spory had slightly curved brown hair.
He flipped his hand, and a black blade shadow materialized without warning. Space trembled as the blade shadow swept across the mountain wall. The oscillation left a crater half a meter deep, but the massive amount of debris generated flew back toward Spory with terrifying speed.
Countless blade shadows flashed, and the debris crumbled to dust.
Strangely, that dust gathered together once more, flying back to fill the original half-meter crater completely. As the stone powder shifted and settled, the surface of the wall became perfectly smooth again, without a single scratch.
"As you can all see," Spory swept his gaze across the group.
Many of these demons were experienced and well-traveled. Seeing this, most had already deduced the answer.
"This should be a Volcano Giant!" someone immediately spoke up. "The most important thing about a Volcano Giant is its Lifeblood Core. As long as the core remains intact, it can command countless boulders to reform its giant body. The entire volcanic range is probably part of the Volcano Giant's body."
"A Volcano Giant?" Lin Lei was greatly alarmed and couldn't help exchanging a glance with Bei Bei.
Lin Lei thought of a creature he had encountered long ago — the monster from the sixth level of the Tomb of the Gods: the Flame Lord!
Back then, that monster had also been a small mountain giant. The first time it was split apart, it had reformed its body around a transparent stone at its center. In the end, it was Lin Lei who had used the Earth Pulse to shatter its Lifeblood Core and kill it.
"Could this also be a Flame Lord? Or perhaps a Highgod-level Flame Lord?" Lin Lei thought to himself. This "Volcano Giant" was definitely a Highgod. If it were only a Midgod, how could it have killed so many Midgods so easily?
"Who would have thought we're inside a monster! This entire volcanic range — it's all a single monster," Bei Bei muttered.
"You all understand the situation now. What do we propose to do?" Spory said, then turned to the white-horned elder beside him. "What are your thoughts? You're the one who hired us for this."
The white-horned elder said earnestly, "What thoughts could I have? Everyone, just decide."
"Among us here, there are only seven Highgod demons," another person called out. "That kind of attack poses a real threat to Midgods, but not much to ordinary Highgods. Besides... the Edwards brothers and Lielmons — none of them are here. I refuse to believe they're dead either. So, I think the surviving demons must have been split into two or three groups."
Everyone nodded slightly.