As Han Wu fell toward the lava, his first thought was to use the Small Locust Blades to carry him away. He quickly changed his mind upon actually coming into contact with it.

Surprisingly, what engulfed him wasn’t scorching him but a pleasant warmth, similar to a sauna. So, Han Wu took a deep breath before he plunged into its depths, pretending to be swallowed whole in hopes of deceiving Gong Jun into lowering his guard.

After Gong Jun left, Han Wu floated to the surface of the lava. There wasn't a single burn mark on his body. Not even his hair was singed. He had one of his Divine Weapons to thank for this miracle.

The Abyss Armor not only had extremely high physical resistance but also elemental resistance. Combined with Invulnerable, which allowed the Abyss Armor to take no damage from attacks that couldn't break its defense, the lava did absolutely no damage to Han Wu. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

“Even this desperate situation couldn’t harm me at all. How lonely it is to be unparalleled,” Han Wu muttered, walking on the lava as if on flat ground.

He didn't dare summon his other Divine Weapons. The lava was ineffective against him because of the Abyss Armor, but his other Divine Weapons didn’t have the same protection. While in the lava’s damaging range, their durability would surely suffer.

Unwilling to take that risk, Han Wu wandered around in search of a place to climb out. However, on the way, he encountered many mutated beasts in the sea of lava.

Fire Bats emerged from the magma below. Their mouse-like forms were shrouded in flames, with sharp fangs that protruded from their mouths and a fleshy pair of wings.

They flew and pounced at him the moment they saw him[1]. Han Wu ran for his life. Fortunately, with the Freespirited Ape God technique, he was able to flee, and he soon found a scorching rock to clamber up.

Although the rock was searing hot, it was far enough from the lava. Han Wu hurriedly summoned his Small Locust Blades to attack the Fire Bats. After effortlessly killing several of them, Han Wu noticed that the Small Locust Blades' durability was rapidly decreasing.

The blood of the Fire Bats ran hotter than magma, far beyond what the Small Locust Blades could withstand. Han Wu hastily changed tactics and summoned his other Divine Weapons.

As the Explosive Locust Blade had the fire attribute, it didn’t suffer from loss of durability, but its explosions also didn’t harm the bats at all.

The Locust Soul Orb’s attributes leaned towards the Yin, making it susceptible to heat damage. The Gluttonswarm Ring, the Heavenly Demon Spike, and the Dark Curse Nail were even worse. When exposed to high temperatures, their durability would continuously decrease. It was completely unsustainable.

Only Locust-V had some resistance to high temperatures, so he summoned it and unleashed a barrage of bullets on the mutated beasts.

After killing a large number of Fire Bats, Locust-V asked, “How did you come to this place?”

“Do you know what this place is?” Han Wu asked in lieu of a response.

“Of course I do.” Locust-V patted its small chest proudly. “But why should I tell you?”

Han Wu’s eyebrow twitched. Despite being confined time and time again, it still hadn’t learned obedience and kept trying to challenge him for no reason. “I’ll count to three. If you tell me what you know, I won’t confine you. Otherwise, you’ll suffer. One—”

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk, okay?!” Locust-V immediately gave in. “This is actually the depths of the planet’s core, and also a natural forging site for Divine Weapons. Look in the lava. There are stones that don’t melt even in that heat. Those are good materials that can be used to strengthen Divine Weapons—”

Han Wu jumped into the lava before Locust-V could even finish.

Locust-V watched as Han Wu moved nimbly in the lava, fishing out the aforementioned stones as if taking things from a bag, and gave a thumbs up. “You’re really awesome!”

After collecting a few stones, Han Wu set them before Locust-V and asked, “What’s this thing called, and how do you use it?”

“This is a Furnace Stone. It can be used to upgrade fire attribute Divine Weapons,” Locust-V explained. “It can also be used to strengthen Divine Weapons in general, but the latter requires a highly skilled blacksmith.”

Han Wu was somewhat disappointed. There was obviously no blacksmith in this burning hellhole! Even so, being able to use it to upgrade fire attribute Divine Weapons was still pretty good.

Luckily, Han Wu had a fire attribute Divine Weapon: the Explosive Locust Blade. He fished out a large amount of Furnace Stones from the lava and allowed the Explosive Locust Blade to absorb them all.

As Locust-V said, the Explosive Locust Blade’s rank rapidly increased, and its explosive might reached impressive heights.

Each explosion effectively hit like a missile at this point. It was truly spectacular. Wanting to boost its power further, Han Wu also took out shards of Thunderous Flame from his Dimension Bag as well.

Between the Thunderous Flame sword shards and the Furnace Stones, the Explosive Locust Blade soon became Han Wu’s second Divine Weapon to reach 9-Star God grade.

This was an unexpected but pleasant surprise. Han Wu’s next task was to find Gong Jun’s hiding place. It would be quite the challenge, given that it was only he and Locust-V in this vast lava.

Locust-V then proposed that Han Wu fuse an Armament Spirit into the Explosive Locust Blade. The material for the Armament Spirit was the Firebat Cores that the Fire Bats had left behind.

The Firebat Cores contained part of the Fire Bats’ egos and could also record various skills of their race. Moreover, with a Fire Bat Armament Spirit, the Explosive Locust Blade could transform into a Fire Bat and take flight, which would save Han Wu a lot of effort.

Deciding to follow Locust-V’s suggestion, Han Wu used the Firebat Cores to fuse an Armament Spirit into the Explosive Locust Blade.

Fortunately, there was no lack of Fire Bats in this sea of lava. Han Wu fused a tremendous amount of Firebat Cores, and the Armament Spirit soon formed. Then, it started ranking up.

At first, it was only a Common-grade Fire Bat, then a Faith-grade Elite Fire Bat, then a Divine-grade Fire Bat General, and finally, a God-grade Firebat King! Although it was a God-grade Armament Spirit like Locust-V, the Firebat King was far inferior in terms of intelligence.

Despite this, it had one distinct advantage over Locust-V: it was especially obedient! It followed his commands without a peep, and Han Wu couldn’t help but like the Firebat King more than Locust-V for it.

The Firebat King’s massive body carried Han Wu out of the sea of lava, soaring to scan the area for Gong Jun.

After some searching, Han Wu finally discovered traces of Gong Jun and Hei Qi in a cave far from the lava. Their situation didn’t seem good.

1. I thought bats had poor eyesight? ☜