Looking at the simple key, Lin Mu found it a bit suspicious.
'A bit too simple…' Lin Mu thought as there were basically no Immortal Qi fluctuations coming from it at all.
This definitely would have made it hard to spot it even with their Immortal sense as the fire immortal Qi would cloud their senses. The simple key would have basically been a grain of sand in a sea; unassuming.
~shua~
Lin Mu made contact with the key with his Immortal sense and learned another thing about it.
"It really is a simple iron key." Lin Mu muttered.
"There must be something more to it." Lady Kang found it suspicious too.
~Ripple~
And sure enough, a few seconds later they felt the large lava lake in front of them ripple. These ripples would have been easy to mistake for the normal ripples that happened due to the bubbling lava, but for the senses of two immortals, they easily stood out.
"Of course, it wasn't going to be easy." Lin Mu said as he drew out Afternoon Pine.
A sense of danger could be felt by them, and they got ready for whatever was about to come.
"The fire elemental Qi is gathering." Little Shrubby informed. "A new presence is forming." He added.
"Oh?" Hearing that information Lin Mu realized something. "So that's why we saw no foes… They don't exist until we cause them to appear." He spoke.
"Just like before." Lady Kang said before pointing her finger towards the source of the ripples.
~SHA~
She shot out a single small star which strut the lava, causing an explosion.
~BOOM~
The thick lava splashed and a depression was created in the lake. But this also ended up revealing a being that had freshly formed.
It had a long flat body without any limbs that were about three meters long and half a meter wide. Then it had several tentacles wiggling on its back, and two long eyes that were attached by a fleshy branch. In the center of its head, there was a circular mouth that was filled with hundreds of teeth that were made from sharp rocks.
It was a slug!
~PWESH~
The lava slug targeted Lin Mu and Lady Kang right away and shot a ball of lava towards them from its mouth. ~SHA~
Of course, Lady Kang easily blocked with a single star and caused the lava ball to be blasted apart. But that was merely the start as the lava slug amped up its offense. Several of its tentacles bulged before spitting out streams of lava that soared towards Lin Mu and Lady Kang.
~ROAR~
This time though, Little Shrubby was the one to retaliate.
With his superior speed and massive resistance to fire, the beast simply slapped the lava streams away. He then tanked the next flurry of attacks from the slug with his body, sustaining no damage before his jaws closed around the head of the slug.
~SPLAT~
Little Shrubby crushed the slug's head in its jaws before ripping it from the rest of the body. ~POSH~
The lava slugs body broke down into the same lava as the rest of the lake, though Lin Mu's eyes picked up on a strange energy mixed into it.
'It is similar to the previous trial… The Chasm beasts were also created from that dark gas.' Lin Mu thought to himself as another memory returned to him. 'Those mud beasts I fought back on the spatial plane with that indigo woman… they were also animated using some kind of energy.' The more he thought about it, the more he was sure that all these kinds of beasts had some link to each other. "I'll need to see what that energy is first." Lin Mu muttered to himself and directly rushed to the disappearing body of the lava slug.
~shua~ But before he could reach there, the unknown energy had already disappeared.
"Missed it." Lin Mu furrowed his brows.
~Ripple~
As if to tell him that this was not the last of it, more ripples appeared around the area. "Fire elemental Qi is gathering again… More presences are gathering." Little Shrubby spoke, his sensitivity to the fire element coming in handy.
"Try to see if you can restrain them, Little Shrubby. I want to test something." Lin Mu spoke before turning to Lady Kang. "I think these might be similar to the Chasm beasts. I want to see what kind of energy is animating them." He informed.
~PWESH~PWESH~PWESH~
A couple of seconds later, six more lava slugs rose from the lava lake and surrounded Lin Mu.
"Now!" Lin Mu shouted, causing them to start their assault.
~SHA~SHA~SHA~
Lady Kang shot off several stars, hitting the bodies of the lava slugs and causing holes in them.
But unlike before, they didn't just explode right away. Instead, the holes in their bodies reformed while the stars exploded behind them.
"They are more resilient than the Chasm Beasts." Lady Kang narrowed her eyes.
Lin Mu heard her words and knew there must be something more to these beasts. "Can you sense anything peculiar about them, Little Shrubby?" Lin Mu asked the fire expert.
Little Shrubby glared at the lava slugs and soon came to a decision. He suddenly pounced at one of the Lava Slugs, pulling their attention towards him. The slugs shot streams of lava at him with no effect, while the beast tore at them with his claws.
~SPLASH~
Similar to what had happened with Lady Kang, Little Shrubby's claws simply passed through the slug's body like it was water, which then reformed. What was surprising was that even hitting their heads and cutting them apart didn't work.
~SPLAT~
But at a certain point, Little Shrubby's claw struck the base of one of the tentacles, causing the entire slug to burst apart.
~GROWL~
"They have a central source in their body that is maintaining their form." Little Shrubby said with a growl. Hearing that, Lin Mu knew there was a difference between Chasm Beasts and these Lava beasts.
