Chapter 309: Fire For a Hundred Li
The thousands of Fire Ravens were all at least at the first level spirit realm, and their stronger brethren were even at the third, fourth level spirit realm.
When all these Fire Ravens released their spirit power in unison and waved their flaming wings, the enormous spirit power formed a large wave and made the trees on that mountain face quickly wither, shrivel, turn into ash and dust at a speed that could be visibly observed by the human eye.
Waves of hot air beat down on Jiang Chen even from afar, making him feel like countless needles were stabbing into him in an exceedingly uncomfortable fashion.
“That these Fire Ravens have released their spirit power and formed this fire attribute force field means that they are surely summoning their leader. It looks like the king of the Fire Ravens are about to appear.”
Jiang Chen was privately astonished. The destructive abilities of a couple thousand fire ravens were vastly superior to the million strong Swordbird Army he’d possessed before!
After all, the Swordbirds were all mortal rank creatures equivalent to the human true qi realm. None of them had advanced to the spirit rank and couldn’t form a strong spirit force field.
Their abilities were naturally nothing compared to these spirit rank fire ravens.
Not to mention that it was obvious the king of these fire ravens were about to emerge.
“Chirp!”
A desolate chirp broke through the air, as sharp as an arrow, full of boundless presence like it would break through the air.
The might of this chirp from the king actually cause the mountains his subjects to cry out in response. The waves of response rolled and echoed through the sky.
Jiang Chen’s face immediately changed when he heard this voice.
From this presence alone, the fire raven king’s level of training was at least on par with the Goldbiter Rat King!
He could even judge from this stunning posture that this king was likely half step origin realm.
Jiang Chen didn’t know whether to be surprised or dejected now.
He hadn’t thought that the struggle over this wondrous flower would give rise to such a large disturbance.
Indeed, a crack suddenly appeared in the mountain face as a spray of stunning sparks spewed forth, shooting towards the red clouds.
As the red clouds churned and covered the skies, a Fire Raven King that was as large as one of the ancient elephants of old appeared.
The Fire Raven King’s wingspan was quite astonishing. He could encompass almost a small mountain with his outstretched wings.
The Fire Raven King’s feathers were all red, and he seemed to be bathing in red flames as a red haze surrounded him. This made the king seem even more like one of the four mythical creatures, the vermillion bird, being reborn as his immensely awe-inspiring aura flared and lorded over all.
Chirp ——-
Another long chirp rang out as the Fire Raven King shook his wings and took to the sky, forming a marvelous line and rising like an enormous pillar of flame. It was quite an impressive sight.
The thousands of fire ravens below all began cawing excitedly, chirping and calling out as well, full of worship for their king.
It was like their king was their totem, their god.
Jiang Chen prayed inwardly when he saw this scene, “Go, hurry and go. Take your children and descendants and go for a walk. I’ll be able to pick that flower if you give me even fifteen minutes.”
Jiang Chen still hadn’t lost hope. That kind of wondrous flower was something one could only wish to stumble upon within the sixteen kingdom alliance, and he was absolutely not willing to give it up.
Missing it would result in regret for a lifetime.
However, he also knew that even if he didn’t know the exact details behind this Raven King’s training, he knew that this wouldn’t be a character to antagonize lightly, just judging from the Raven King’s presence.
It would be an absolute disaster to provoke this Raven King, and the level of the repercussions wouldn’t be any less than when he’d been surrounded by the rat tide.
“Children, the day in which the Cloudflame Flower blooms is the day in which this king assails the saint rank. But disgusting, pathetic humans have dared pollute our territory in this valley and disturb the peace of the Valley of Destruction. Isn’t this hateful?”
“Hateful!!”
“Do we kill them or not?!” The Fire Raven King continued to caw mightily.
“Kill!” Thousands of ravens cried out in unison.
These ravens all had their own consciousness after entering the spirit rank and all spoke the ancient beast tongue.
The hairs on Jiang Chen’s body stood on end when he heard these words. He only had one thought in his mind, the practitioners in the valley were in for it!
Jiang Chen knew that the double provocations from the two batches of candidates had thoroughly infuriated the Fire Raven tribe. Even the Fire Raven King had been disturbed. It looked like a bloodbath was about to visit the humans currently in the Valley of Destruction.
“I command you, in my name as the Fire Raven King, all within a hundred li must be set on fire. Even one li less than a hundred is unacceptable. All that you pass must be turned to cinders!”
The Fire Raven King gave the order, full of severe majesty.
“Fire for a hundred li…”
“Fire for a hundred li, all turned to ashes!”
All of the Fire Ravens started wildly agitating in great excitement after hearing these words. All of the Fire Ravens shot out like loosed arrows in all directions after receiving their king’s order. They transformed into streaks of fireballs and started spreading out in the vicinity.
Jiang Chen’s heart sank when he saw this.
“This is bad, with the Fire Ravens’ fire spirit power, all the places that they cover will be turned to ash and cinders. Nothing will be left alive!”
A strong sense of danger hit Jiang Chen.
His first thought was to retreat, but he quickly dismissed the notion.
It was obviously too late to retreat. The thousands of Fire Ravens had already spread out, and with their speed, a human on two legs would never outpace them.
To run out at this moment was to become their living target and seeking death!
Jiang Chen was strong, but he wasn’t strong enough to the point where he could be chased to death by thousands of Fire Ravens at once, not to mention there was a king at the peak of the spirit rank.
Jiang Chen had heard the king earlier in that he was planning on using the Cloudflame Flower to assail the saint rank, the equivalent of the human origin realm.
As confident as he was, Jiang Chen didn’t think that his training was enough to meet a Fire Raven King at the peak of the spirit rank in battle.
Jiang Chen wouldn’t have been so arrogant as to publicly meet the king in battle even in the outside world, not to mention this was Fire Raven territory.
“Remain calm, I must remain calm.” Jiang Chen kept reminding himself. “I’m only courting death if I run out at this moment. all the Fire Ravens have gone out at this moment, and I would run out straight into the middle of their operations. Even if the Fire Ravens don’t attack me, the fires burning within this hundred li will prevent my escape. They shouldn’t have discovered me hiding in here for now.”
Jiang Chen’s emotions became calmer the more dangerous the situation was.
He’d calmed himself in this moment between life and death. The only silver lining was that he was hidden in a stone crack a far distance from the mountain face and had yet to be discovered.
It was also that he possessed adept methods of concealment, otherwise the Raven King’s consciousness would’ve easily discovered a human even a far distance away from the mountain face.
The dire sounds of human cries and wails continuously traveled to Jiang Chen’s hearing at this time.
These sounds were close and far, panicked or ghastly.
“Ah! What is this?!”
“They’re spewing fire! Oh, heavens, help! Someone help me!”
“Fire is just fire, but there’s fire on all sides, we’ve been surrounded!”
“Flee! Hurry and flee! We can’t be cut off by the fire or we’ll be dead without a doubt!”
All sorts of sounds faded in and out, filtering into Jiang Chen’s consciousness through the Ear of the Zephyr.
Jiang Chen sighed, “What an undeserved catastrophe. These candidates may have no idea what the Cloudflame Flower but have been unexpectedly embroiled into this. What an unexpected misfortune.”
He knew that only practitioners outside of this hundred li would have the hope of escaping. Otherwise, their king had said to set fire to a hundred li, and precisely a hundred li would go up in flames. No matter how fast they were, the candidates would never be faster than wingbeats of the Fire Ravens or the swiftness of the fires.
They’d be hard pressed to escape even if they grew wings.
The thousands of fire ravens circling in the sky had completed cordoned off the surrounding area, and the fires were spreading faster and faster.
The momentum of the fires were akin to the tides, continuously pushing forward and expanding. A radius of a hundred li in the immediate area had been turned into a fiery ocean.
The fire had spread so quickly and ferociously that those caught up within it had no time to escape.
Apart from humans, even other life caught up within the firs had no chance of escaping.
Various desperate wails and screams, numerous ghastly growls and furious roars were all futile in this world destroying fire ocean.
Jiang Chen had occupied high ground on this cliff and so the fires hadn’t made their way up yet. However, the direction had been set and the flames kept roaring upwards.
Wave upon wave of hot air crashed into the cliff as if the tidewaters.
Judging from this situation, Jiang Chen’s hiding place would be engulfed soon.
He raised his head to look up into the sky and saw that the Fire Raven King hadn’t moved. He’d remained hovering in mid air and exuded a boundless, severe countenance, as if releasing his majestic dignity upon his children and descendants.
“Damn it, that king isn’t moving. I’ll be revealed if I move the slightest bit beneath his purview and he’ll discover me.”
Jiang Chen inwardly cursed the Raven King. He’d wanted to wait for him to move away and make use of the opportunity to pick the flower.
It looked like that’d been idiotic daydreams. The Raven King was obviously not leaving the Cloudflame Flower’s side and wouldn’t let his precious out of his sight.
“Damn, at this rate, even if the king doesn’t discover me, I’ll be baked to a crisp by the heat waves.”
Jiang Chen knew he’d be in great trouble if this continued.
The flames would burn for three days and nights once they started. However, Jiang Chen would’ve still been confident in making it out if the Raven King hadn’t been there.
But since he was here, destructive attacks would quickly follow if Jiang Chen made the slightest move.
With the might of this king, Jiang Chen didn’t think he’d be able to withstand a blast of his flames.