After the Mystic Dao Sect launched their ambush once, it was obvious they wouldn't dare linger. After all, though they excelled at using poison, once they were cornered and faced everyone's combined assault, their deaths would be all but certain.
Even so, Jiang Chen remained extremely cautious. He wasn't particularly worried about hidden weapons or sneak attacks, but with Yue Pan taking point, there was no reason for him to block the way.
As for priority rights—it was merely a verbal agreement. Who would actually honor that when the time came?
Besides, was Yue Pan even guaranteed to make it to the end? No one could say for sure.
The rolling lava bubbled and churned like a giant boiling cauldron, occasionally surging upward into towering waves that rose several zhang high.
Though they were all Origin Realm powerhouses, they could still feel the searing heat radiating from the molten rock.
If anyone was struck by a lava wave and fell in, it would be a near-death situation—nine chances out of ten they wouldn't survive.
To cross, they had to traverse the lava lake that stretched across their path. By the look of it, the gap was a full hundred zhang wide.
For cultivators of their caliber, gliding across a hundred zhang posed no difficulty whatsoever.
However, the lava jets erupting from the lake's center zone were ferocious beyond measure. If they were mid-glide without any foothold and caught by one of those surges, the trouble would be extreme.
Moreover, there were clearly living creatures lurking within the lava. If those beings emerged to attack, the danger would multiply.
The two from the Great Hall exchanged a glance, a trace of a smile tugging at the corners of their mouths.
They each grabbed something, and a yellow spirit talisman appeared in each of their hands. The moment the talismans were activated, streams of strange light enveloped their bodies.
"Fellow cultivators, we'll be going ahead. Feel free to follow after."
Yue Pan and Xu Gang's figures shot forward as though wings had sprouted from their backs, transforming into streaks of light that streaked toward the opposite shore.
The speed was breathtaking—like a meteor, they landed on the far bank in the blink of an eye.
"Flight talismans! The Great Hall really does spend lavishly!" Lin Feng watched the scene unfold, suddenly recalled something, and cursed under his breath.
Staring at the roiling sea of molten rock, Mu Gaoqi felt his scalp tingle.
Feng Wanjian cursed loudly: "Son of a bitch! They've got flight talismans and didn't even think to bring us along!"
"Brother Feng, we need to pick up the pace. If those two beasts from the Great Hall reach the other side first, they sure as hell won't wait for us," Lin Feng urged.
The two exchanged a glance, and Feng Wanjian nodded: "Brother Lin, follow me!"
With that, Feng Wanjian murmured an incantation, then suddenly spread both arms wide. Behind him, twenty or thirty sharp beams of light erupted outward in a brilliant burst.
Those twenty or thirty luminous beams were Feng Wanjian's flying swords, and they instantly formed a rainbow-like suspended bridge spanning the width of the lava lake.
The gap between each sword was only four or five zhang—trivial for Origin Realm martial artists. It might as well have been solid ground.
Feng Wanjian and Lin Feng whooshed forward in twin streaks of light, crossing the void and using the hovering swords as stepping stones to rocket toward the far shore.
Their speed through the air was equally blistering.
But in that very instant, enormous bubbles began rising from the surface of the lava lake.
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion shattered the air as a massive bubble burst apart.
More than a dozen lava geysers shot skyward like fountains, their momentum comparable to flood dragons bursting from the sea. The molten jets curled directly toward Feng Wanjian and Lin Feng.
Seeing this, Lin Feng understood that Feng Wanjian was devoting every ounce of his focus to controlling the swords and couldn't spare a hand to fight off the lava jets. He knew clearly that in this situation, he and Feng Wanjian shared the same fate—if Feng Wanjian fell, he would die too.
Gritting his teeth, he swept his hand wide and activated the Three Star Art.
"Three Stars Arching Heaven!"
Three beams of light shot from his hands, transforming into three rings of energy that shielded both their bodies. Without breaking stride, they continued hurtling forward.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The incessant explosions of bursting bubbles echoed one after another. The lava lake seemed to have gone completely berserk—towering waves of molten rock surged upward in relentless succession.
Within those towering waves, humanoid demonic creatures were clearly visible, thrashing and clawing with savage fury, looking ready to tear Lin Feng and Feng Wanjian to shreds.
"Brother Lin, hold them off!" Feng Wanjian cried, frantic with urgency. He was pouring everything into controlling the swords and simply had no capacity to deal with these lava demons.
He didn't need to tell Lin Feng—the situation was painfully clear.
But facing so many lava demons, on solid ground Lin Feng wouldn't have been the least bit afraid.
The problem was that they were airborne, and their only footholds were flying swords spaced four or five zhang apart.
One misstep and they would plummet into the endless sea of molten rock below.
In these circumstances, Feng Wanjian could barely exert thirty percent of his true power.
Even so, Lin Feng gave it everything he had. The three-star energy currents generated by the Three Star Art hammered relentlessly into the lava demons.
But the demons were simply too numerous—as if someone had kicked a hornet's nest. They surged up ceaselessly, wave after wave, and the entire lava lake seemed to have awakened every single creature within it at once.
A hundred zhang of distance was nothing for Origin Realm powerhouses.
Yet right now, it felt like an insurmountable chasm—one step forward was heaven, and the next was hell.