Chapter 355 – Do Not Take the Egg! Treasures Everywhere!

“Suddenly, after that barrier, the pressure significantly lessened…”

The closer Lu Yuan got to the crater, the more relaxed he felt.

The golden-red mist filled with forbidden power thinned out considerably in the air, making it seem much fresher.

Of course, that was all relative.

“The evil deity factor in this place is incredibly dense but cannot be absorbed by me. It is full of destructive force and attack…

No wonder the cuckoo bird didn’t dare come here alone. Although it’s fast, once inside, it wouldn’t get far before being shredded to bits by the omnipresent forbidden power.”

Lu Yuan suspected that the danger in this area was due to the lingering malicious and wary will of the Phoenix that had failed in nirvana.

It did not want intruders, leaving behind terrifying shredding power to deter them.

The reason he could break the restriction and enter smoothly might be due to the time that had passed, causing much of the shredding power to dissipate.

Or maybe the Phoenix that failed in nirvana was too weak to muster much strength, leaving only a trace of it behind.

Regardless of the reason, Lu Yuan grew more certain that the cuckoo bird was truthful about the Phoenix Egg in the center crater.

However…

“The divination result warned me not to take the egg and to explore deeper hidden things. Those are the true supreme treasures… What does that mean?”

Lu Yuan frowned slightly as he walked, continuously pondering.

Before accompanying the cuckoo bird, he had specifically performed a divination.

The process went smoothly, but the information conveyed by the result puzzled him.

“What are deeper hidden things?”

“What could be more valuable than a Phoenix Egg?”

Unable to figure it out, he could only proceed cautiously step by step.

“Boom-Boom-“

Two loud explosions echoed from behind, accompanied by intense energy fluctuations.

Lu Yuan didn’t need to turn around to know that the groups who had surrounded the forbidden wall earlier had broken through.

“Cuckoo!”

The cuckoo bird also seemed to sense someone was chasing them, issuing warnings and urging sounds in Lu Yuan’s ear.

This time, Lu Yuan didn’t need the cuckoo bird to remind him; he actively increased his speed to the limit.

“Boom, boom, boom.”

In the Ming King Stance, he stood fifteen meters tall. Although his speed wasn’t exceptional, his long legs made up for it.

In the blink of an eye, he charged to the base of the volcano and, without a word, swiftly ascended towards the peak.

“Whoosh-“

Raging heat waves descended from the summit, accompanied by orange-red molten magma.

This temperature was far higher than anything Lu Yuan had previously experienced.

As gusts of hot wind blew onto his face, it felt like someone was splashing molten steel over him.

“Being in minimal gear is such a disadvantage!”

Lu Yuan stepped on the steep rocks of the volcano, the searing heat underfoot making him frown slightly.

All he had on his body was the nano battle suit Yuwen Tong had given him, primarily for covering his body.

Compared to those powerhouses equipped head-to-toe in various armor and Mecha suits, he seemed inadequately prepared.

“I need to spend money to have a battle suit custom-made. Even max-level Big Shot needs some divine gear,” he resolved inwardly.

At the same time, he couldn’t help but be amazed at the volcano’s exaggerated surface temperature.

Even in the elephant deity Ming King Stance, he could clearly feel the intense heat. He suspected that in his Grandmaster form, his hair would likely catch fire.

“At this temperature, not just rocks but even superalloy steel would twist and deform. This volcano hiding the Phoenix Egg is extraordinary…”

Lu Yuan marveled as he quickly climbed.

Along the way, he saw many wondrous items and plants growing along the lava flow and in crevices in the volcanic rocks. He couldn’t resist picking them and directly stuffing them into his mouth.

Surges of evil deity factor and energy waves exploded within Lu Yuan.

The Qi Flower in his chest, still in the fusion state, spun rapidly and grew stronger just as fast.

From the base to the midpoint of the volcano, Lu Yuan had consumed at least ten wondrous items. During this time, there was a thunderous rumble in his chest, and checking his attribute panel, he saw his constitution points had increased by one.

The scorching sensation from the surrounding environment had also significantly diminished.

Although this was enjoyable for Lu Yuan, his actions of picking items along the way had inadvertently slowed down his ascent.

Whenever he saw a wondrous item, he couldn’t help but detour to collect it, making his previously straight path up the mountain turn into an “S” shape.

This nearly drove the cuckoo bird mad. It kept squawking incessantly and even emerged from his neck to peck at his ear.

“Are you asking for it?”

While Lu Yuan was picking a wondrous item that resembled a lotus root, his ear was yanked by the cuckoo bird again, making him so angry that he reached out to grab it.

The cuckoo bird squawked loudly and dodged his grasp. Then it flapped its wings and flew off towards the mountain top, leaving him behind.

“Damn…”

Lu Yuan stared blankly at the cuckoo bird’s departing figure, feeling momentarily like an abandoned donkey. Cursing the cuckoo bird for its ingratitude, he still didn’t rush after it. Instead, he continued picking and eating wondrous items while accelerating his climb.

The main objective of coming here with the cuckoo bird was to find wondrous items.

These were tangible benefits.

Though the Phoenix Egg was precious, Lu Yuan felt it wouldn’t be easily obtainable.

The forbidden power left by the Phoenix around the volcano and surrounding areas suggested there were protective measures near the crater.

Moreover, results from his chaos divination warned him not to take the egg.

Though the reason was unknown, he decided to secure the benefits he could access first.

Lu Yuan kept climbing, and by the time he neared the top of the volcano, he had consumed over thirty wondrous items.

With the nourishment and reinforcement from a large number of wondrous items, his Qi Flower blossomed vigorously, and his attributes increased by another point, this time in Strength.

Just like his constitution points, his Strength also reached 33 points.

Lu Yuan’s Strength surged once again. The Fusion of Two Flowers on his Ming King’s Body caused blood-red electric arcs to intertwine and grow even denser.

His pupils, shaped like blood-red lotuses, spun continuously. With a powerful push from his legs, he shot up like a dark red cloud, landing steadily on the volcano’s summit.

And then…

He immediately saw the cuckoo bird anxiously squawking at the edge of the crater.

“Cuckoo! Cuckoo!”

“Hurry! Hurry down and fetch the egg for me, and everything else down there will be yours!”

Lu Yuan peered into the crater.

An unbearably intense wave of heat smacked him in the face.

Churning magma, blindingly bright red, occasionally mixed with flashes of golden light…

Just a brief glance made Lu Yuan’s eyes hurt so bad it felt like he was going blind.

“How can you even say something like that?”

Lu Yuan withdrew his gaze, bewildered, and asked the cuckoo bird acting as his “little commander.”

“Cuckoo! Cuckoo!”

“Are you going or not? Are you going or not?!”

Whether the bird missed the sarcastic tone in Lu Yuan’s voice or not, it kept urging him insistently.

“Screw you.”

Lu Yuan flipped the bird with both hands, looking at the magma in front of him with a sense of dread.

The temperature inside was probably tens of thousands of degrees. Even sky level mecha would likely melt into slag if it fell in.

Even if there really was a Phoenix Egg in there, retrieving it would be a huge challenge.

He recalled a video that Lan Chen had sent him earlier.

In it, an exploration team picked a remarkably red fruit, but they couldn’t find any container that could hold it. After a lot of effort, they barely managed to take it away.

“What a trap. Forget about the Phoenix Egg in the magma; even those top-tier wondrous items growing on the inner walls of the crater would be hard to pick…”

Lu Yuan thought he was lucky not to have followed the cuckoo bird straight to the summit. Otherwise, he’d be staring at the magma with it, completely empty-handed.

At least now he had gained two attribute points. Even if he couldn’t get those wondrous items from the inner walls, it wouldn’t have been a wasted trip.

“Divination told me not to take the Phoenix Egg, but to uncover something hidden deeper. Could this be what it meant? That taking the egg would mean certain death, and it’s more practical to gather wondrous items from the volcano’s surface?”

Lu Yuan pondered this. However, abandoning the “Treasure” right before his eyes was also not an option. He considered switching to his crow deity form, donning the death energy-infused sovereign underworld armor, and flying into the crater to see if he could gather anything.

As he contemplated, Lu Yuan glanced down the mountainside and noticed that several exploration teams had also arrived at the base of the mountain.

Groups from the Distant Star Federation and Javier’s crew were both racing towards the summit.

Despite the interwoven forbidden power in this area, which greatly suppressed both mecha and Starry Sky martial arts, and the unbearable heat, the two groups were not moving very fast. But in a short while, they would likely reach the top.

“No more hesitation.”

Lu Yuan decided to take the risk as he had initially planned.

He exited his Ming King Stance, reconfigured The Fusion of Two Flowers, and summoned the sovereign underworld armor with Six Wings extended…

Wrapped in dense death energy, Lu Yuan surprisingly felt a long-lost sense of coolness.

“Maybe this is the right way to retrieve treasures in the Phoenix Volcano.”

With brightened eyes, Lu Yuan ignored the cuckoo bird and dove straight into the crater.

Upon entering, he immediately felt that the temperature inside was significantly higher than he had previously estimated.

The death energy enveloping him was being rapidly consumed in the scorching heat, visibly diminishing at an alarming rate.

“Good thing I have the huge reserve of death energy stored in the Hundred-eyed Nether Crow Feather. I can afford this consumption for a short time…”

Taking a deep breath, Lu Yuan cautiously moved along the relatively cooler inner wall of the volcano.

His first target was a golden wondrous item that resembled a Buddha’s hand. In its palm was a small, red fruit that looked extremely rare.

Due to concerns that the death energy might corrode the wondrous items, Lu Yuan didn’t dare use it to harvest them remotely. Instead, he approached in person and gently picked the golden Buddha’s hand with his own.

As soon as the golden Buddha’s hand touched his hand, a highly concentrated evil deity factor and energy fluctuation penetrated his body.

Lu Yuan sensed its value for a moment and realized that this golden Buddha’s hand was likely even more precious than the golden acorn he had consumed before.

“This is like getting an attribute point right into my hands! This will at least improve one of my attributes by 1 point!”

In such an environment, Lu Yuan didn’t dare to consume it directly. Suppressing his inner joy, he carefully tucked the golden Buddha’s hand into his chest and wrapped it snugly with his nano battle suit.

A single golden Buddha’s hand was equivalent in value to a golden acorn, and similar wondrous items were scattered throughout the interior of the volcano. A quick glance revealed at least twenty of them.

“Who needs the Phoenix Egg when gathering all these wondrous items would already be an immense boost?”

Excited and overjoyed, Lu Yuan was about to reach for the next closest wondrous item.

And then…

A clear, melodious, and incredibly pleasant bird song suddenly sounded above his head.

This sound was deeply etched in his memory.

It was… the cry of the Phoenix!!!