Chapter 279: Fight or Pay?

Four skeletons, white as jade, each bone absorbing the flames from the lava.

Among the white bones, it seemed as if a crimson liquid was flowing.

“Fire Bone!” Lu Yu was astonished.

After obtaining the King’s Bone, he consulted the Lord of the Underworld about some issues regarding the mutation of bones.

Famous for its formidable defense, something like the King’s Bone!

Another part possesses various offensive capabilities.

Among them, Huugu (Fire Bone) reigned supreme through destruction.

A person with fire bones can imbue any attack with flames.

Moreover, the Fire Bone itself possesses an astonishing temperature; any life form below the Sovereign level that approaches the Fire Bone’s owner could be instantly reduced to ashes.

The Fire Bone is extremely difficult to cultivate.

Lu Yu never expected that there would be four skeletons here cultivating Fire Bones!

The four white figures all turned to look at Lu Yu, as if mocking him, knowing that he was too afraid to come down.

“Go down?” Lu Yu sneered, his eyes shifting as he said, “Everyone, even the most courageous person wouldn’t think they could leave after being attacked by four of you.”

The four skeletons were momentarily stunned, their blue flames flickering in the four pairs of eyes, not expecting Lu Yu’s response to be so decisive.

“Heh, this is getting interesting!” a skeleton said, “Since you’re here, I wonder if you have the strength to take anything with you when you leave.”

“He’s right beneath the lava; if you’ve got the guts, go down yourself,” said Bai Gu, pointing downward from the platform. “But let me warn you, even if you possess the King’s Bone, you might still be reduced to ashes by the flames.”

Lu Yu stared into the sea of lava below the platform. He had no idea how deep the lava sea was.

I don’t know whether the White Bones’ words are true or not!

Therefore, Lu Yu hesitated slightly as he stared at the sea of lava, deep in thought.

A white skeleton bent its bony finger and flicked. A stream of energy shot into the sea of lava, carving out a passageway through it.

Lu Yu followed the path created by the rushing energy and saw, deep within the sea of lava, a sphere surrounded by countless green long swords, floating and sinking amidst the molten waves.

Demon-Slaying Sword—

Lu Yu’s heart suddenly trembled, and without hesitation, he leaped into the lava.

After he leaped from the stone wall onto the lava, the heat became even more intense!

Moreover, the closer one gets to the lava sea, the hotter the flames become.

Bang!

A pillar of fire rolled up from the lava, surging upward and grazing past Lu Yu’s shoulder.

His shoulders were instantly charred and blackened by the fire. A palm-sized piece of flesh sloughed off, but new flesh immediately regenerated!

Boom!

Around Lu Yu, countless droplets of water began to form.

These water droplets converged, forming a massive water sphere that enveloped Lu Yu’s body.

The water balloon smashed into the lava, splashing up countless droplets of molten rock.

Converge

The water sphere collided with the lava. Instead of the lava’s intense heat evaporating the water sphere, it actually blocked the lava from the outside!

Moreover, what is separated by the water sphere is not only the lava itself, but also the intense heat within the lava!

Lu Yu had already braced himself for the scorching heat.

But now, Lu Yu discovered the wonderful use of the Yellow Spring water and couldn’t help but feel overjoyed!

“The water of the Yellow Spring!”

The four skeletons were astonished, watching the water ball sink into the lava, and were shocked once again.

Water and fire have always been incompatible with each other.

However, the water from the Yellow Spring can coexist with flames and can also insulate against the high temperature of fire.

Back then, I was able to survive here largely thanks to obtaining a few drops of water from the Yellow Spring to protect myself, which helped me endure the early stages.

They obtained the water from the Yellow Spring, and only then agreed to help that person seal away this human for ten thousand years.

Ten thousand years have long passed, and the man has never managed to break free from his shackles, so they eventually stopped paying attention.

Even the waters of the Yellow Spring, a farewell to the underworld, have now appeared upon a mortal being.

Had the world outside changed?

The water of the Yellow Spring has long since vanished, and the only one who possesses it now is the Demon Lord.

How could the Demon Lord ever give the water of the Yellow Spring to humans?

The four skeletons did not understand, watching helplessly as Lu Yu disappeared into the lava.

A white skeleton sighed, “What a pity. I had originally thought that after his flesh was destroyed by lava, his bones might still be of use. But now it seems that snatching them will be a bit troublesome.”

“However, as long as the Fire Bone is successfully refined, it won’t be inferior to the King’s Bone,” said another white skeleton.

Lu Yu began to sink into the lava. Through the transparent water wall, he could see the blue sword shadow deep within the lava sea.

“Is that the young friend?” a weak voice called out from within the azure sword light.

This voice was even weaker than when Lu Yu first met him, but it carried joy and excitement.

“It’s me, Senior.” Lu Yu approached the blue sword shadow, wrapping a water sphere around the sword formation created by Zhanmo Sword, and said, “Senior, you can put away the Zhanmo Sword now.”

“Good!” A weak, hoarse voice struggled to utter a single word.

The Demon-Slaying Sword transformed into a streak of cyan sword qi and was absorbed into the body of an elderly man.

The old man was bound to a massive piece of astral ore, his entire body wrapped in chains that shimmered with starlight. His limbs were pierced by the chains and nailed to the astral ore.

The old man looked like a skeleton, most of his flesh having already vanished, with some areas revealing nothing but white bones!

After retracting the cyan sword aura, the old man’s blood vessels appeared as if infused with fresh blood, beginning to bulge beneath his skin and flow.

Fresh flesh begins to regenerate on the bare bones that had lost their tissue.

The old man’s bones were also very special, with blue veins glowing between the white bones.

At this moment, after absorbing the sword aura, the old man’s bald head began to grow silver-white hair, and his cheeks started to become fuller.

Lu Yu looked at the chains piercing through the old man’s limbs and tightly furrowed his brows.

The chains that even he couldn’t crush with his strength were certainly not made of ordinary steel.

The old man smiled and said, “Young friend, don’t worry. Just take me away from here; once I regain my strength, I can open it myself.”

“It’s okay, I have a way!” Lu Yu cut his wrist, and a few drops of blood fell onto a section of the chain.

Hmph!

Fresh blood began to corrode the chains, emitting black fumes.

“Toxic!” The old man’s expression changed as he stared in shock at the spot that had been corroded halfway through in an instant.

This chain is not an ordinary one; common poisons can’t easily corrode it.

“Is this poison one of the Ten Most Deadly Poisons?” the old man stared at Lu Yu in shock and asked, “Can you coexist with the poison?”

Lu Yu smiled slightly and said, “Ten Thousand Poisons.”

The old man was startled again and said, “Young friend, you’ve truly surprised me. How old are you exactly? We haven’t seen each other for more than ten years, yet you’ve actually mastered the Ten Thousand Poisons technique! As far as I recall, even the fastest record previously took a hundred years. But you’ve accomplished it in merely a decade!”

Lu Yu smiled and dripped his blood onto the four chains. In less than a few breaths, the chains were quickly melted through.

The old man gritted his teeth and let out a loud roar, then pulled the chain piercing through his bones out of his body.

Four wrist-sized holes were struggling to heal!

“Leave this place!” the old man said, nodding gratefully at Lu Yu. His voice was weak as he added, “You’ve saved me, and I won’t forget this kindness.”

While speaking, the elderly man spat out a storage pearl from his mouth and retrieved a golden silk robe from within it, which he then put on.

Lu Yu said earnestly, “Senior, please don’t say that. If it weren’t for you teaching me the Demon-Slaying Sword back then, I probably wouldn’t have survived until now. Therefore, it was you who saved me first. If anyone should repay a favor, it’s me who should be repaying you.”

“Let’s talk about these later,” the old man said. “This is not the place to speak. Take me up there; I’m going to confront those four.”

Lu Yu can control the descent of the water ball because he is able to apply additional force.

As for rising to the surface, that’s not so easy.

However, both of them possessed the ability to teleport, allowing them to move directly from the lava to the top of the fiery abyss.

As the old man appeared above the fiery cave, after taking a few breaths of the dry, hot air, he stepped directly onto the platform floating within the lava.

Lu Yu also landed on the platform along with the old man.

The old man, as if unaware of the searing heat of the platform, sat down on it and formed a circle with the four white-clad figures. With a cold and arrogant tone, he said, “Back then, if it weren’t for you, I would have already broken free. Today, since I’m finally out, it’s time to settle our account. Don’t sit here any longer—come out and fight me. If you win, we’ll call it even. But if you lose—”

The old man’s gaunt face exuded a murderous aura as he said, “I’ll rip the bones right out of you.”

Lu Yu noticed that the old man referred to the skeleton not as “you all” but as “you,” which made Lu Yu look in surprise at the four skeletons.

Could this really be a person?

The elder noticed Lu Yu’s different gaze and kindly explained, “Young friend, you probably don’t know that these four skeletons actually belong to one person. He had four different bodies, each cultivating one bone separately. He wanted to integrate all four Fire Bones.”

The four skeletons all turned their hollow eye sockets toward the old man. One of them opened its jaw and said, “Old man, back then we sealed you away because I owed that person a debt. After imprisoning you for ten thousand years, we no longer interfered. It’s simply because your power wasn’t sufficient to break free.”

“Hmph, don’t waste words. I know you have a piece of a star artifact in your possession. I’d like to experience its power firsthand,” said the old man, rolling up his sleeves, his brows furrowed with fury, clearly ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

Lu Yu stood aside, speechless for a moment.

When he heard Huo Wu talking about the old man and learned about the old man’s actions, he could roughly tell that the old man was someone who deeply hated evil.

He really didn’t expect that right after escaping danger, this person would immediately start challenging others.

If it weren’t for the old man’s voice still sounding very weak and his body remaining extremely frail, he wouldn’t have believed that this elderly man was the same person he had just rescued moments ago.

“Hmph. Do you think he could have rescued you without us letting him down first?” another white skeleton remarked.

“Don’t give me any nonsense. If you don’t want to fight me, then compensate me. Otherwise, right here in this lava sea, I swear I’ll fight until it’s completely dried up. I’ll make sure your fire bones never fully form for the rest of your life!”

This—

Lu Yu stared at the old man.

This old man’s way of doing things is really too bizarre!

This is a mix of threats and intimidation—who would expect such behavior from an elderly person who has just escaped from a difficult situation!

The four skeletons fell silent at once, their eight blue flames of eyes fixed on the old man, exuding an intense desire to devour him.

“I regret not killing you back then!”

“I shouldn’t have let him go down there in the first place.”

The teeth of the four skeletons were chattering, biting down with a sound like gnashing, as if they were about to devour someone.

“Cut the chatter.” The old man rolled up his sleeve and said, “Fight or pay up—make a quick decision. Ten seconds, or I’m making the first move. I’ll start by smashing this platform to pieces.”

The four skeletons fell silent for a moment, then sneered coldly, “Slaying demons, huh? Just wait until I get out—I’ll reclaim it a hundredfold.”

“That’s what happened after you left. Now, bring me the item.” The old man stretched out his withered, thin hand.

One of the skeletons still had a broken sword embedded in its chest, and now he wished he could pull the sword out and fight back.

“What do you want?” another white skeleton yielded.

Losing this sea of lava at a critical moment would mean all previous efforts go to waste.

Therefore, the timing of the old man’s extortion was perfect, leaving the four of them too intimidated to voice any objections!