Ouyang Lie pulled Lu Yu away just in time, and within seconds, the Profound Water Array that trapped the Fire Spirit King was shattered. The furious Fire Spirit King’s fiery spiritual energy churned violently, forming a fire phoenix that swooped down towards the three people hundreds of meters away.
The Fire Spirit King’s all-out attack caused the fire phoenix to explode into flames upon landing, engulfing an area of nearly a hundred meters. The Martial Cultivators tangled with the three who stole the sacred artifact were reduced to ashes in the flames, with no chance to resist.
Amidst the raging flames, three blue light spheres enveloped the figures of the trio. After enduring the most intense phase of the attack, the protective shields shattered, and their figures emerged from the flames.
The little Fire Spirit boy holding the sacred artifact was incinerated in the previous strike, turning to ash. The sacred artifact and fire crystal stone fell to the ground.
Yue Laoda mustered his own spiritual power to withstand the surrounding flames. After withstanding the fiercest stage, he relied on his own strength to endure the residual waves caused by the fire phoenix.
He took out a blank scroll, opened it to cover the sacred artifact on the ground, and when he collected the scroll again, it contained burning flames and the sacred artifact. With this special spatial scroll item, he was able to take the remnants of the sun out of the secret realm of Fire Rain Mountain.
The Fire Spirit King’s full-strength strike failed to annihilate the trio, and he could only watch as the heavily injured three escaped the secret realm.
After the sacred artifact left the secret realm, the whole place echoed with pounding sounds. It was the sound of the flame giant shadow assaulting the sealing array, causing the Fire Spirit King to become extremely afraid.
To quell the wrath of the flame giant shadow, the Fire Spirit King ordered the fire spirits to launch a full-scale attack on the human Martial Cultivators, intending to use these humans as sacrifices to calm the giant shadow’s fury.
Under the Fire Spirit King’s command, all the fire spirits charged at the human Martial Cultivators. Originally scattered, the fire spirits gathered to form a massive, borderless cloud of flames pressing down on those at the edge of the secret realm.
Amid the fire cloud, Ouyang Lie felt his spiritual power depleting rapidly. He hurriedly charged towards the exit of the secret realm, knowing that staying within the fire cloud much longer would result in his incineration due to spiritual power exhaustion.
Lu Yu pried his hand open, telling Ouyang Lie to leave the secret realm on his own. He discovered that staying within the fire cloud did not harm him.
After completing his Fire Spirit Body transformation, Lu Yu possessed high fire resistance. Within this fire cloud, whose power only reached the Qi Cultivation level, he wouldn’t get hurt.
Ouyang Lie glanced at Lu Yu, and seeing his reluctance to leave together, he headed alone towards the secret realm’s exit.
In the fire cloud, Lu Yu’s vision was filled with orange-red flames, with a very short visible distance. However, through spiritual perception, he could clearly sense many spiritual qi clusters around him, differing from the fire spiritual energy; these belonged to other Martial Cultivators.
Martial Cultivators within the fire cloud had to use spiritual qi to protect themselves to avoid being burned to death by it. This protective use of spiritual qi provided Lu Yu with positional information, allowing him to pinpoint their locations.
He pursued the nearest Martial Cultivator and upon approach, Lu Yu realized it was the tall man from yesterday who wanted to buy his Hero Recruitment Order for 1,000 gold.
Lu Yu could sense the other person, but the other person couldn’t sense Lu Yu, as Lu Yu was filled with fire spiritual energy. In this fire cloud formed by fire spiritual energy, Lu Yu was like cloaked in natural invisibility.
He approached the tall man, tripped him, and said, "Robbery! Hand over your storage bag!"
The tall man was tripped and felt bewildered. Hearing Lu Yu’s voice, he realized someone was nearby, but he couldn’t see or feel Lu Yu’s spiritual qi.
Feeling his own spiritual power quickly depleting, the tall man hurried to his feet and ran towards the secret realm’s exit but was tripped again after just a few steps. He angrily shouted, "Who are you? If you have the guts, say your name! Don’t sneak attack me. I’m telling you, I’m from the Divine Weapon Pavilion. Offending me means offending the Divine Weapon Pavilion."
Lu Yu stood by his side, watching him yell while searching for Lu Yu’s figure.
As he felt the number of spiritual qi clusters belonging to Martial Cultivators diminishing, Lu Yu had no time to haggle. He struck with a Black Tiger Heart Attack at the tall man’s chest.
Before reaching the tall man’s chest, Lu Yu felt a resilient spiritual qi film block his fingers from piercing the chest, reducing the Black Tiger Heart Attack’s power by nearly forty percent and barely leaving five blood marks on his chest.
The attacked tall man was panicked, unable to detect the surrounding individual’s presence. He only saw an arm at the moment of being attacked.
Enduring spiritual power depletion in the fire cloud and being attacked by an invisible foe, the tall man’s heart was anguished. The chest pain made him realize that if he didn’t hand over the storage bag, he might indeed die here.
Reluctantly unfastening his waist storage bag and throwing it afar, he shouted, "Dare to rob me, I’ll remember you!"
With that, he sprinted towards the secret realm’s exit.
Lu Yu picked up the storage bag from the ground and placed it into his backpack. Without spiritual power protection, the storage bag would soon be destroyed in the fire cloud, and everything inside would spill out.
After robbing the tall man’s storage bag, Lu Yu chased after others.
Storage bags differ from storage rings; storage bags use arrays to store items, requiring spiritual qi to receive and withdraw items. They also have a limited lifespan and space, unlike storage rings, which are far superior. Their only advantage is being cheap, but are limited to Martial Cultivators of Qi Cultivation level and above.
Storage rings can be used by ordinary people. Establishing a connection with a storage ring by methods like blood binding lets one keep and store items. More importantly, storage rings can bind identities. Without special means, others cannot open them, preserving their contents.
Taking advantage of his ability to move freely in the fire cloud and his inherent invisibility, Lu Yu robbed many Martial Cultivators, acquiring numerous storage bags.
He glanced at the newly acquired storage bag, the most noticeable being dozens of fire crystal stones inside. Lu Yu kept the storage bag in his backpack, sighing, "You don’t gain without risk, nor wealth without windfalls."
The fire crystal stones he robbed in the fire cloud far exceeded those he arduously gained from slaying fire spirits. Moreover, the storage bag contained weapons, elixirs, miscellaneous items, and more.
In his perception, he sensed a large blue light cluster ahead, and Lu Yu headed towards it, preparing to rob.
"Robbery! Hand over your storage bag!"
Before he could attack, Lu Yu sensed something slicing towards him in response to his shout. He quickly withdrew, catching a flash of sword light within the flames.
"It’s that Ice Man," Lu Yu realized.
After exchanging a few moves with the Ice Man, Lu Yu understood he wasn’t like the previous Martial Cultivators he could easily handle, so he didn’t pursue further and turned to chase after other Martial Cultivators.
Though the Ice Man had many good items, he wasn’t easy to deal with. During the fight, Lu Yu managed to land a blow on the Ice Man, but it was completely blocked by the spiritual armor he wore, causing no harm.
Realizing the difficulty in robbing the Ice Man, Lu Yu chose to abandon him and rob other Martial Cultivators instead.
The number of spiritual qi clusters representing Martial Cultivators in the fire cloud dwindled, so after robbing several, Lu Yu had no choice but to exit the secret realm.
The secret realm’s exit was easily perceivable; following the flow of spiritual qi would locate it. With a final glance at the secret realm of Fire Rain Mountain, Lu Yu entered the exit, leaving the secret realm.