Braised Dragon with Soy Sauce

Just as Mo Yuming, filled with curiosity, was about to go into the water to retrieve a bead to find out what it was, a loud "thump" was heard, and water splashed everywhere in the pool.

Through the splashing water, you can clearly see a round bead slowly sinking.

"Ok?"

The two of them simultaneously raised their glow sticks and looked up.

Sure enough, at the top of the cave, more than ten feet above the ground, among the many stalactites, there was a strangely shaped cylindrical stone pillar hanging above the middle of the pool.

There was a small hole in the middle of the column, and a little light-colored liquid was flowing out of the hole, as if something had just been discharged from it.

"Could these beads in the water have originated from that stone above?"

Xinlan asked Mo Yuming, full of doubt.

"should be!"

Mo Yuming was equally puzzled, but he was quite certain that the beads in the water must be its product.

"What is this?"

"I don't know either. I've never heard Grandpa mention such a strange thing!"

Xinlan also looked bewildered.

Shh! Give me the glow stick and hide it!

Just as the two were observing the beads in the water with great interest, Mo Yuming suddenly felt uneasy, as if some unknown danger was approaching.

This feeling came extremely suddenly, yet it truly terrified him.

An unprecedented fear arose within him, making him want to escape for no reason, to get as far away as possible.

However, it seemed impossible to leave the cave quickly at this point.

That inexplicable sense of crisis seemed to fill the entire underground palace in an instant.

Without time to think, Mo Yuming quickly whispered a signal to Xinlan.

While quickly putting the glow sticks into his storage bag, he carefully led Xinlan up a stalactite about ten feet high and hid in a secluded recess.

Sure enough, less than ten breaths after the two had concealed themselves, an extremely powerful magical energy fluctuation came from not far ahead.

This surging magical power was truly extraordinary, many times greater than the magical power released by the magical beasts they had previously hunted.

The powerful, almost tangible magical pressure made it nearly impossible for Mo Yuming and Xinlan to move; the immense pressure made it almost impossible for them to breathe.

"Dong, dong..."

A series of muffled thunderous sounds emanated from the underground palace, as if a giant object was striking the ground.

Each loud bang was followed by a violent tremor in the ground.

As the frequency of the sounds and vibrations changed, it was clear that a giant object was slowly moving from the depths of the cave toward the underground palace.

Sure enough, not long after, a dazzling red light shone from a large cave ahead, and then the cave seemed to burst into flames, spewing out intense heat.

The flames grew larger and larger, and the underground palace suddenly became very hot.

A moment later, a tiger-shaped demonic beast, over ten feet tall and over three feet long, emerged from the firelight.

This monster was enormous, its entire body resembling a ball of blazing, molten lava, with countless sparks flying with every step it took.

The underground palace, which was originally quite cool, suddenly became much hotter.

Mo Yuming and Xinlan lay in wait, holding their breath and not daring to make a sound.

This was the first time they had ever seen such a powerful magical beast, especially in this underground palace that they had originally thought was vast and empty, but now resembled a fiery hell.

The initial excitement had completely vanished.

Although Mo Yuming was very brave, it would be a lie to say that he wasn't afraid at this moment.

At this moment, there was nothing they could do but secretly pray that the monster was just passing by and would not be discovered.

However, things didn't go as planned.

The fiery beast walked straight towards the pool and came directly to the stalactite where the two were hiding.

It slowly circled the stalactite, each step causing the ground to shake and stone chips to fall from the stalactite.

Moreover, the monster would occasionally look up and peer at their hiding place, clearly indicating that it had discovered them.

Mo Yuming was sweating profusely, his heart pounding, whether from the heat emanating from the magical beast or from sheer terror.

Xinlan was so frightened that she fainted.

At this moment, Mo Yuming was overwhelmed by a surging tide of regret. His intestines were in a complete mess of remorse, and he wished he could find a block of tofu and smash his head against it to die.

He kept blaming himself in his heart, wondering why he had been so impulsive in coming to explore this cave.

He felt that losing his life here was probably a minor matter, after all, he was a time traveler, and at worst he could just travel through time again.

Ke Xinlan is innocent! If it weren't for my encouragement, she would never have stepped into this cave.

Now that Xinlan is also going to lose her life, Mo Yuming is filled with guilt, which is like a heavy boulder pressing down on him, making it hard for him to breathe.

"No, we absolutely can't just sit here and wait for the monster to come up and devour us. We have to find a way to get Xinlan out of danger no matter what!"

Even if it's as difficult as an ant trying to move a mountain, we must fight with all our might!

Mo Yuming secretly made up his mind.

Regardless of whether his efforts were futile, he gritted his teeth and leaped from the stalactite like an arrow, headfirst and feet first, using all his strength to strike the demonic beast with both palms.

The two golden palm shadows struck the monster with lightning speed, and at the same time, his body used the force to tumble forward and lightly leap onto a stalactite opposite.

Immediately afterwards, he casually swung a large sword at the monster, then turned around without looking back, flipped behind the rock, and leaped off the boulder with a nimble somersault, charging forward like a wild horse.

Mo Yuming was determined to provoke the monster, distract it, and lure it to chase him, so as to buy Xinlan precious time to escape danger.

Mo Yuming's two palm strikes were delivered with all his might.

With his current fifth-level Earth Rank cultivation, the power of his full-force strike, while not enough to flatten a hill, could easily shatter a thousand-pound rock.

In addition, the force of that large sword when swung out with all one's might should not be underestimated.

Mo Yuming was full of confidence that although the attack just now could not cause much damage to the magical beast, it could at least make it feel pain and provoke it.

Mo Yuming ran wildly, covering nearly a hundred feet in one breath.

The stone wall was right in front of them, seemingly within reach. With just one leap, they could rush into a cave and greatly increase their chances of escape.

However, he suddenly stopped in front of the stone wall, because he suddenly realized that what he was doing had not worked at all.

Xinlan's danger has not diminished in the slightest.

The monster didn't care at all about his attacks or his escape.

That powerful, earth-shattering strike was like a gentle breeze on the magical beast, having absolutely no effect on it.

It felt like that attack wasn't even enough to tickle it, let alone cause any damage.

The monster remained leisurely under the stalactite where Xinlan was hiding, as if nothing had happened.

Mo Yuming stood there blankly, unsure whether to go forward or retreat, completely at a loss for what to do.

My usually quick and sharp mind seemed to have stopped working, and went completely blank.

Now, Mo Yuming has finally come to a profound understanding: in the face of absolute power, any means are futile, especially when there is no one to rely on.

It's like a tiny ant trying to fight a huge elephant. The elephant remains unmoved, and no matter how much the ant bites, it can't pose any threat to the elephant, let alone harm it.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

Mo Yuming stood there dumbfounded, extremely anxious but helpless.

Just then, Xinlan woke up. She stood up in the hollow and, finding Mo Yuming not beside her, panicked and cried out loudly, "Brother Yuming! Brother Yuming!"

Seeing this, Mo Yuming didn't care about anything else.

He anxiously called out to Xinlan:

"Lanmei! Don't make a sound, quickly hide!"

He quickly pulled a long spear from his storage bag and charged bravely towards the monster.

The monster let out a low roar at Xinlan, raised its front paws, and leaped onto the stalactite, coming to Xinlan's side.

Xinlan was terrified, her face turning ashen. She retreated in a panic while channeling her ice power, haphazardly firing icy arrows at the monster in a passive resistance.

Although Xinlan's Frost Arrows had extremely strong penetrating power, they were like snowflakes falling into hot soup in front of this fiery beast.

Before even touching the monster's body, the sharp, icy arrows immediately melted and vaporized, causing no harm whatsoever to the monster.

At this moment, Mo Yuming, who had already gone mad, recklessly thrust his spear forward.

The spear tip, infused with spiritual power by Mo Yuming and nearly shattered, unleashed a three-foot-long sharp edge, radiating a dazzling yellow light, as it pierced the back of the demonic beast.

However, just as the spear tip was about to touch the monster's body, the monster's long tail moved.

Like a fiery serpent, it instantly coiled around Mo Yuming's spear shaft.

Immediately, the monster flung him aside, and Mo Yuming was propelled away by a powerful magical force transmitted through the gun barrel, flying more than ten feet away before crashing heavily to the ground.

The spear shattered into fragments upon impact with the two forces, and quickly burned away.

Strangely enough, after throwing Mo Yuming away, the demonic beast was not angered by his provocation, nor did it launch another attack on Mo Yuming.

Instead, it stopped about ten feet away from Xinlan, only growling at her in a low voice, without any intention of attacking further.

Xinlan had retreated to the edge of the stone wall, her whole body pressed tightly against it, her eyes tightly shut in fear, not daring to move an inch.

His originally pale face turned bright red from the intense heat emanating from the monster.

After a long standoff without any further attacks from the monster, her tense mind finally relaxed a little.

She took a deep breath and secretly increased her spiritual power, allowing ice energy to circulate within her body to resist the heat from the magical beast.

Having been thrown far away, Mo Yuming climbed out from behind the stalactites. Ignoring the pain, he clung to the stone wall and slowly moved to Xinlan's side, tightly holding her hand as they confronted the monster. In that moment, he forgot his fear, wanting only to face the threat of death with Xinlan.

And so, on one side was an incredibly powerful magical beast, and on the other were two inexperienced human children.

On a stalactite only ten feet in diameter, the two sides were locked in a stalemate, separated by less than one foot.

"Brother, it doesn't seem like it's going to eat us?"

After a suffocating standoff, Xinlan couldn't help but whisper something to Mo Yuming.

"It's really strange. Didn't Grandpa and the others say that monsters and humans are mortal enemies?"

Why has this monster been blocking our way for so long without attacking us? Does it have some other plan?

According to Grandpa and the others' understanding of magical beasts, it seems that magical beasts always fight humans head-on when they encounter them. They don't recall ever encountering a situation like this before.

"Is it going to toy with us like a cat first, and then eat us?"

Xinlan started to cry, her voice trembling slightly with fear.

"Lanmei, did you see that? That monster is wearing a strange ring around its neck!"

As Mo Yuming stared at the magical beast, he noticed that it had a metal ring around its neck.

The ring was a deep blue color, made of some unknown metal. Its surface was engraved with many patterns, some raised and some recessed, and many rubies and emeralds were embedded in these patterns, making it exceptionally exquisite.

The deep blue metal ring emitted a faint blue light, making it quite extraordinary.

"I saw it a while ago. As soon as it came over, it kept shaking its neck, making the iron ring swing around its neck, as if it was showing off to me!"

Xinlan whispered to Mo Yuming.

"...If that's the case...Lan-mei, if I'm not mistaken, this magical beast really isn't here to harm us!"

After careful consideration, Mo Yuming grabbed Xinlan's hand and said emotionally.

"Really? How can you be sure it's not here to hurt us? It's a magical beast! All magical beasts and humans are mortal enemies!"

Xinlan was a little incredulous. She felt that such a good thing couldn't be true. In the knowledge passed down to her by her grandfathers, monsters and humans had always been irreconcilable enemies.

"I'm asking you, did Grandpa and the others say that monsters can create tools or weapons?"

Mo Yuming asked.

"No, magical beasts only use magic. I've never seen them use weapons, let alone heard of them making weapons."

Xinlan answered definitively that, in all her knowledge, she had never had any memory of monsters using weapons.

"Did it put that iron collar around its neck on itself?"

Mo Yuming countered with a question.

"Oh! You mean..."

Xinlan suddenly realized!

"Yes! The collar on this magical beast must have been placed on its head by some master. Look, the collar clearly emits cold-attribute spiritual power, which is obviously incompatible with its own fire-attribute magic power and restrains it to some extent."

If it put it on itself, then it can only mean one thing: this monster has gone mad! It's just asking for trouble!

"You mean, it's been staring at me because it wants me to take off the collar on its head?"

Xinlan seemed to have thought of something.

"Yes, the reason it ignored my attacks and escape is because I manifested earth-attribute spiritual power, which may not have been enough to gain the collar's approval and help it! That collar may have a very special restraint that only people with water-attribute spiritual power can remove."

Mo Yuming analyzed.

"If I remove its collar, will it harm us when it's no longer restrained?"

Xinlan asked with deep concern.

"I don't know about that?"

Mo Yuming was also unsure of himself.

Just then, as if it understood their conversation, the monster took a step back, bent its limbs, and crawled down.

It raised its head, shook its neck, and growled softly, as if trying to please. If it weren't for its enormous body, which inspired awe and radiated intense magical power, one would definitely think it was a docile big cat.