Angel walked forward another few kilometers. Besides the Six-Tailed Fox he had seen earlier, he now spotted a Cossix Fire Salamander surfacing from the magma.
However, this Cossix Fire Salamander only poked its head out, glanced around, and quickly submerged back into the orange-red magma, disappearing from view.
Angel had a feeling that the Cossix Fire Salamander took a glance in his direction before diving back into the magma.
Could it have discovered me?
"It shouldn’t be, right?" Angel muttered to himself. His entire body was concealed by the Nightmare Illusion Node, and he had deliberately erased all lingering pheromones. Even a True Knowledge Wizard might not detect his presence, let alone the Cossix Fire Salamander, which didn’t seem to be Wizard Level.
Perhaps I’m overthinking it. Angel shook his head, choosing not to dwell on it, and continued onward.
Throughout this journey, every few kilometers, Angel would encounter a few unique elemental creatures. However, he didn’t disturb them and merely circled around.
Yet, in just this half-day’s journey, Angel already felt a profound sense of awe.
It is recorded in the common records of the Wizards’ Realm that the birth of elemental life in nature is extremely difficult. It must meet three conditions: extreme environments, coincidental timing, and a regional elemental concentration sufficient to sustain the energy consumption of elemental life.
This is different from the fire creatures Angel encountered in Duling Garden. Those were formed from Reeves’ elemental energy, not the natural forces of nature. These artificially formed elemental creatures still carried some of Reeves’ elemental attributes, which is why Angel didn’t choose to capture those fire creatures back then.
But in this region, the fire creatures Angel encountered were undoubtedly all naturally born.
In the outside world, a volcanic region supporting the birth of even one or two elemental creatures is already quite remarkable. But here, despite nurturing so many fire creatures, the power of the fire elements remains abundant, as if it has never been consumed.
Such a place is simply unimaginable in the outside world.
Amid these thoughts, Angel arrived at a fissure in the ground. This fissure was different from the previous ones; it could easily be called a "gorge," about ten meters wide, with large amounts of gray-black smoke rising from it. Peering through the smoke, one could see the vivid orange-red, rolling magma river below.
The temperature of the magma river was exceedingly high, distorting the space above the fissure with heat. Furthermore, as Angel stood next to the fissure, he could clearly see massive ground flames shooting up from the magma river, reaching skyward.
Compared to the ground flames he encountered before, these were even more terrifying.
Ordinary apprentices, even with flying vehicles, would probably not dare to fly over.
However, for Angel, although these ground flames were formidable, they couldn’t inflict too much harm on him. His reaction speed was fast enough to surpass the speed of the ground flame strikes.
With this in mind, Angel pushed off with one foot and leaped over the fissure.
After avoiding five consecutive ground flame strikes, Angel safely reached the other side of the fissure.
Having landed, Angel did not immediately continue forward. Instead, he turned back to look at the vibrant orange river flowing in the fissure.
"Something feels off. Even with frequent ground flames, they shouldn’t have sprayed at me five times in just ten meters, right?" Angel sensed that the ground flame strikes earlier were abnormal, as if they were deliberately targeting him.
Could an elemental creature in the magma river have discovered him? Yet, he was clearly hidden from start to finish.
Or was it truly a coincidence that five consecutive ground flames aimed at him?
Angel pondered for a moment, deciding to test once more. This time, instead of flying across, he took a step forward and suspended himself in the air above the fissure.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—
Three consecutive loud explosions erupted from the magma river. Three pillars of ground flame, enveloping glowing high-temperature magma, shot directly at Angel.
"I’m really being targeted," Angel exclaimed, dodging the ground flame strikes and retreating to the edge of the fissure. He called out, "Earl Mi!"
As his words fell, the shadow on the ground boiled like a black swamp, churning up. Shortly after, the outline of a head with Blue Lantern Flowers emerged from the shadow—it was Earl Mi!
Earl Mi lifted his head, his scarlet eyes looking over. Even without Angel issuing a formal command, Earl Mi understood his intentions.
With this, Earl Mi compressed his form, transformed back into a shadow, and darted forth like an arrow along the edge of the fissure, diving toward the magma river below.
Upon reaching the sky above the magma river, the black shadow turned bright red, resembling boiling blood flames, and plunged into the bubbling magma.
Thirty seconds later, dozens of ground flames erupted from the magma river, each reaching several tens of meters in height.
However, the power of the ground flames soon weakened, and their numbers decreased.
Two minutes later, Earl Mi flew out from the magma river, quickly returning to the edge of the fissure and merging into Angel’s shadow.
Once Earl Mi entered the shadow, he gradually emerged, revealing his head again.
The next moment, Angel watched as Earl Mi opened his mouth, and a Fire Butterfly, vibrant and orange, flew out from within.
"So this is the elemental creature causing the ground flame disturbances?" Angel asked softly.
Earl Mi nodded, the Blue Lantern Flower on his head swaying as he communicated waves of thought directly into Angel’s mind.
Earl Mi conveyed the memory of how he had chased the Fire Butterfly in the magma.
In the vision, the Fire Butterfly seemed nearly fused with the surrounding magma, and with each wing flap, spiral fire elemental shocks flew towards Earl Mi. Earl Mi redirected these fire elemental shocks upwards, creating the towering ground flame pillars earlier.
"So it was really responsible," Angel once again focused his gaze on the Fire Butterfly.
Despite being released from Earl Mi’s grasp, the Fire Butterfly showed no fear. It even fluttered around near the Blue Lantern Flower, finally landing on it, seemingly quite at ease.
With some observation, Angel understood why the Fire Butterfly was so unafraid.
Because this Fire Butterfly... was an Elemental Sprite.
Elemental Sprites are also elemental creatures. They are referred to as sprites because they are in their juvenile phase of elemental life. During this phase, elemental creatures are generally small, mischievous, and endearing, much like elves.
This Fire Butterfly was such a juvenile elemental creature.
And such Elemental Sprites are always fearless, just as Jon once taught him with a saying from his childhood: "Newborn calves are not afraid of tigers."
It didn’t care about the consequences of the ground flame strikes or who the targeted person was; it simply did as it pleased.
Even when it was captured by Earl Mi, it wasn’t too scared and was still curious about the Blue Lantern Flower on Earl Mi’s head.