Chapter 172: The Flame Bone Dragon

After the Void Eye disappeared, the volcanoes across the Ember Battlefield gradually stabilized again. The ground still trembled faintly from the aftershocks, and the air was filled with the smell of hot ash and scorched metal, but at least the red-purple Magic Arrays had vanished and were no longer supplying energy to the Flame Bone Dragon.

Ruo Yan stood beside her new puppet, one hand resting on its scorching forehead bone. The Bone Dragon had folded its enormous wings, its body lying quietly beside the deep crater, while the white-gold flames inside its eye sockets no longer carried the ferocity they had shown while it was controlled by the Void.

A System notification appeared after several minutes of silence.

[The first pursuit wave has ended.]

[Trial participant Ethan Ashford has fulfilled the conditions to enter the next area.]

[The teleportation gate to the third layer has opened.]

In the distance, a black-red gate slowly appeared above the cracked ground. It was more than ten meters tall, with a continuously rotating vortex inside. The energy radiating from it was even stronger than the teleportation gate in the Lava Sea.

Laira looked at the gate, then turned toward Ethan.

"It finally opened. Are we going now?"

Ethan did not answer immediately.

He checked the time interface, then looked toward the locations where the teleportation pillars that would bring the nonhuman group here were expected to appear.

He had entered six hours ahead of them. If he stepped through the gate now, he could naturally continue taking resources from the next layer before anyone else arrived.

However, those nonhumans had already spent a large number of Energy Crystals buying fish from him, and they were also carrying an array prepared by the elders of their races.

If he simply let them keep all of their remaining wealth and enter the next layer, they would still become a pile of trouble later.

"We're not leaving yet."

Ethan spoke with a smile that made even Mumu, who was lying limply on his shoulder, raise its head.

"We'll stay and greet some old customers first."

Laira immediately understood, and the corner of her mouth curved upward.

Ruo Yan hesitated slightly as she looked at the teleportation gate, then at the Flame Bone Dragon beside her, which stood more than twenty meters tall.

She did not ask what Ethan planned to do.

Instead, she raised a hand and tugged on her Soul Threads, silently controlling the Bone Dragon to crawl behind a collapsed ridge of volcanic rock.

With its enormous body, hiding was not truly easy, but the Ember Battlefield was already filled with skeletons, scorched cliffs, and lava pits.

As long as it lay beside the remains of a gigantic monster and used its wings to conceal most of its body, it could blend into the battlefield well enough.

Ethan did not waste any time either.

He took out several remaining crystals and let Mumu absorb part of their energy to recover.

The moment Mumu swallowed one crystal, it immediately lit up, its soft body trembling happily.

Ethan looked at it, then pointed toward the Flame Bone Dragon.

"Don't eat everything this time," he said. "Buff it with everything you can."

Mumu raised its head and looked at the Bone Dragon, clearly not very willing.

It had only just been so exhausted that it had pretended to be dead on Ethan's shoulder, and now it had to share its energy with a puppet as large as a mountain.

However, when Ruo Yan gently stroked its head, Mumu still jumped to the ground, stretched its body into a thin layer of gel, then spread across the Flame Bone Dragon's leg bones, wings, and chest.

Pale golden light slowly seeped into its joints.

The Bone Dragon's aura immediately became heavier, while a transparent layer of gel covered the cracks left across its bones from the previous battle.

Its speed, strength, defense, and stability were all pushed to another level by Mumu.

Even the flames inside its eye sockets became brighter, though they remained a pure white-gold without the slightest trace of the Void.

Ruo Yan observed it for a while, then said, "If we're only using it to scare people, this is already more than enough."

"I also hope scaring them will be enough," Ethan replied. "But judging from the way those people looked at us in the Lava Sea, I don't think that's very likely."

Laira, who was sitting on a nearby rock, laughed when she heard that.

"And you still want to take their belongings. If someone gets stopped by a dragon the moment they arrive, they'll definitely think we're robbers."

"I'm not forcing them."

Ethan spoke with an extremely serious expression.

"I'll give them a choice."

Not long afterward, spatial fluctuations began appearing at the edge of the battlefield.

A smaller teleportation gate opened, and groups of nonhumans emerged from it one after another.

The horned nonhuman came first, followed by Dark Elves, Harpies, Beastkin, and members of several other races.

The moment they stepped onto the glowing hot ground, their expressions immediately changed.

The Ember Battlefield before them was completely different from what they had imagined.

Monster bones were scattered everywhere, but many areas had already been cleared, making it obvious that Ethan and his companions had arrived earlier and collected a large amount of resources.

Farther away were terrifying traces of battle.

One volcano had been smashed half apart, while lava was still pouring continuously down its slope.

The horned nonhuman clenched his fists.

He knew Ethan had entered six hours ahead of them, but he had not expected the other party to cause such a massive disturbance.

The Dark Elf beside him looked at the deep cracks across the ground and spoke in a slightly dry voice.

"What happened here?"

No one answered.

Just as the nonhumans were still observing the area, the ground beneath their feet suddenly trembled.

A scorching and ancient aura slowly pressed toward them from behind the black rock ridge.

The skeletons lying across the battlefield shook hard enough to roll across the ground, while the lava inside the fissures also surged into small waves.

The Flame Bone Dragon stepped out.

Its body towered like a massive building.

Its skeletal wings spread nearly seventy meters wide, covering most of the sky above the nonhumans.

Mumu's transparent golden gel had already blended into the skeleton, leaving only faint streaks of light running along its spine and wing joints.

The flames inside the Bone Dragon's eye sockets erupted, causing the newly arrived nonhumans to feel their scalps go numb.

The horned nonhuman took half a step backward.

He had seen many enormous monsters before, but this was the first time he had ever encountered a true Bone Dragon at such close range.

Its aura did not resemble that of an ordinary summoned beast.

It felt more like an ancient creature that had just awakened after countless years of slumber.

At that moment, a hoarse voice echoed from within the Flame Bone Dragon's hollow chest.

"Those who enter the territory of my master, hand over all the possessions you carry."

The voice was deep and heavy.

Every word carried the grinding sound of bone and deathly energy, making it sound nothing like a human voice.

In reality, the Undead Mage was sitting inside the Bone Dragon's chest cavity, controlled by Ruo Yan through the Soul Threads.

It sent deathly energy through the skeleton, causing the sound to resonate from within the Bone Dragon's skull, making it seem as though the monster itself were speaking.

A Harpy was so frightened that she almost dropped her weapon.

She looked at the Flame Bone Dragon, then around the empty battlefield, her voice trembling.

"Who is its master?"

The voice from inside the Bone Dragon's chest sounded again.

"You are not qualified to ask."

Behind a large rock, Laira had to cover her mouth with one hand to stop herself from laughing out loud.

She turned toward Ethan and whispered, "This guy sounds even more like a villain than you do."

Ethan glanced at her.

"This is peaceful communication."

"Your version of peace comes with some very expensive conditions," Ruo Yan whispered while controlling the Undead Mage.

However, the corner of her mouth also curved slightly.

She had not expected the Undead Mage's voice, transmitted through the Bone Dragon's body, to be this intimidating.

The horned nonhuman gradually regained his composure.

He looked at the Flame Bone Dragon, then at the people around him.

They had all gone through many trials and possessed plenty of life-saving items.

Their opponent only had one Bone Dragon.

No matter how powerful it was, it could not force all of them to bow their heads immediately.

"You want our belongings?"

He sneered and raised his weapon.

"Then let's see whether you have the qualifications to take them."

The moment he finished speaking, the Flame Bone Dragon opened its mouth.

A stream of white-gold flames blasted down in front of the horned nonhuman, melting a large section of rock and soil.

The nonhumans scattered in panic, but the Bone Dragon did not stop.

It flapped its enormous wings and charged forward, its skeletal claws slamming down toward the formation they had just created.

A Beastkin raised an axe to block it, but the instant the weapon touched the Bone Dragon's claw, he was sent flying more than ten meters.

A Dark Elf fired several arrows carrying dark energy, but the gel Mumu had spread across the wing bones trembled and absorbed most of the damage.

A Harpy flew upward and tried to circle behind it, but the Flame Bone Dragon only needed to swing its tail to create a terrifying wave of heat that knocked her out of the sky.

The nonhumans were not weak.

Against an ordinary Bone Dragon, they could still rely on numbers and coordinated skills to prolong the battle.

But this Flame Bone Dragon had its lava core restored by Ethan, was being precisely controlled through Ruo Yan's Soul Threads, and had also received every buff Mumu could provide.

Its strength, speed, defense, and resistance to fire-element energy had all increased significantly.

Even when their attacks landed, the golden gel and hardened skeleton reduced them to nothing more than a few shallow burn marks.

The horned nonhuman avoided a bite from the Bone Dragon and ground his teeth.

He knew that if this continued, his group would only be broken apart one section at a time.

His gaze immediately shifted toward several of the strongest people in the group, including a silver-haired Dark Elf, a heavily armored Beastkin, and a Harpy with an injured wing.

"Use the array!" he shouted. "Stop holding back!"

The others immediately understood.

They simultaneously took out crystal fragments engraved with formation patterns, then spread out in different directions.

Dark red and black-silver light rapidly formed connecting lines across the ground.

The Flame Bone Dragon noticed the abnormality and immediately spread its wings, intending to break through the encirclement, but just as Ruo Yan controlled it to charge forward, four pillars of light shot into the sky at the same time.

An enormous cage covered the Bone Dragon.

The energy within the cage did not explode immediately.

Instead, it slowly pressed against the Flame Bone Dragon's skeleton, like a corrosive liquid spreading layer by layer across its body.

Mumu's golden gel produced sizzling sounds as its surface began to dissolve.

Gray streaks also appeared across the Bone Dragon's hardened bones, while the fire-element energy within its joints was gradually being drained away.

The Flame Bone Dragon roared and slammed its claws against the cage.

The entire array shook violently, but did not break.

Outside, the horned nonhuman wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and a vicious look finally appeared in his eyes.

"Let it keep corroding."

He stared at the struggling Bone Dragon, his voice hoarse.

"I want to see how long its master can keep hiding."