Strongest Scammer: Scamming The World, One Death At A Time
Chapter 223: Finding The Fireborn Beasts

Chapter 223: Finding The Fireborn Beasts

Whether the altar was part of his mission or not didn’t matter anymore—if it had the power to awaken beasts of this level, the Twin Leaf Peak Sect needed to know.

But how?

The air was thick with heat and hostility. The beasts were only the first problem. Getting to the skeleton, let alone the altar beneath it, would mean crossing through lava rivers, avoiding Nascent Soul predators, and not dying from heatstroke on the way.

And that wasn’t even counting the Mist Eye Sect’s presence. If they caught him...

Han Yu stared at the bubbling magma pools in the distance, glowing like blood beneath a blackened sky.

’How the hell am I supposed to do this?’

His stomach churned with nerves—and hunger again. The grilled boar meat he’d eaten before had given him a temporary boost, but it was fading. He could feel the exhaustion in his bones now that the adrenaline was wearing off.

Still, he had to try.

He pulled his hide pouch closer, double-checked the water bag, and pulled out the charred bone parchment he’d used earlier. With practiced fingers, he began sketching a rough map based on what he had observed—paths the disciples had taken possibly, clusters of beasts, possible routes forward.

He was sure the disciples had not come the same way he had. The path he had taken was long and dangerous, they walked in like it was a garden.

’There must be a more straightforward way. Probably through that outpost of theirs.’ Han Yu thought.

Right now for him, the way forward wasn’t clear.

But he had time.

And for now, the beasts and the Mist Eye Sect were focused on each other.

’That means there’s room for me to move. Carefully.’

And so, Han Yu stayed hidden beneath the dead gecko and waited, mind sharpening like a blade in a whetstone of ash and fear.

A while later...

The cracked and blistered stones beneath Han Yu’s boots radiated a suffocating heat, like the ground itself was exhaling its fury into the air. Lava flowed in slow, churning rivers, veins of molten flame winding between jagged volcanic rock and geysers of hissing steam.

Getting to the center of the caldera felt less like travel and more like survival against a god’s wrath.

The first hour nearly broke him.

Clambering over scorched rock formations, Han Yu narrowly avoided a pair of Rock Top Vultures whose shadows circled above like scythes. A sudden shift in the terrain caused him to tumble and roll down a slope, skinning his palms and nearly snapping his wrist.

He caught himself at the edge of a lava flow, the air so hot that his sweat sizzled off his brow before it could drip. If not for his newly built body that was already more durable than normal and the reinforcement from the many pills Li Mei had tested on him, he would’ve already been cooked alive.

Then came the Obsidian Geckos, drawn to his scent. One latched onto his boot with a sickening crunch, and he had to slice it off (the gecko, not his leg) with a spin of his glaive before it could crawl higher. Another darted from the shadows and singed his robes as he ducked behind a ridge.

His lungs burned. His muscles screamed. The heat was eating him alive.

A Qi refining realm cultivator like him had no business being here when even Core Condensation realm cultivators were scared.

So, with no other choice, Han Yu reached into his bag and pulled out one of the protective talismans.

He slapped it against his chest.

There was a crackle of energy, a spherical shimmer of transparent light surrounding his body like a shell of glass. Instantly, the heat dropped by half. It was still hotter than the inside of a smith’s forge, but no longer immediately lethal.

"Emergency use only," he muttered bitterly to himself. "Guess this counts."

The relief was short-lived. Only six minutes later, the shimmering barrier flickered like a candle in a storm and then shattered with a sharp crack, like a mirror being punched.

"Shit."

Han Yu grimaced and slapped a second talisman on. Then a third.

His progress was steady, but slow. One step at a time, weaving between boulders and steam vents, hiding from prowling beasts, leaping over rivers of magma that glowed like exposed nerves and singed his nose hairs in an instant. The air was thick with poison and ash, stifling even through cloth.

Eventually, by the time he activated his fifth talisman, he had reached the inner ring of the caldera. He hunkered behind a ridge of hot obsidian spires and gasped for breath, sweat soaking through every layer of his tattered clothes.

And then he saw it.

Not the skeleton—that loomed far in the distance still, half-buried in magma—but something closer.

Plumes of dancing flame.

They rose gently from the lava pools like wisps, twirling and spiraling, taking shape mid-air. First a serpent. Then a bird. A tiger made of cinders. A boar with horns of smoke. A fox that blinked in and out of existence, leaving sparks behind.

They flickered with uncanny grace, half real, half illusion, but each exuded an unmistakable aura of power. The color of their flames shimmered between gold and deep crimson, brighter than the lava around them.

Han Yu’s breath caught in his throat.

"Fireborn Beasts..."

They were exactly as described—beasts made of elemental fire, not flesh and blood. No organs. No bones. No blood to spill. And yet, they were alive. Pulsing with energy. Beautiful, deadly spirits born from the raw fury of the caldera.

He almost forgot himself, watching them dance and play around the lava pools. There was something mesmerizing about them—as if they were calling to him, coaxing him to step closer.

But his instincts screamed louder.

Han Yu bit down hard on his tongue, snapping out of the trance just before his foot moved forward involuntarily. The coppery tang of blood grounded him.

"They’re not just pretty. They’re predators."

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