After a calm journey for the better part of an hour, Zhang Ling frowned when his divine sense, probing ahead, discovered something.
Before long, a lava river appeared, blocking the way. Bubbles gurgled and strange hissing sounds came from the lava continuously.
Zhang Ling directed the puppet to stop at the riverbank, and focused his divine sense to probe the opposite bank.
However, after probing more than forty miles ahead, there was still no end in sight. He couldn't help but ponder. It seemed this lava river was at least a hundred miles wide. Moreover, he couldn't see the ends on either side, suggesting there was no way to go around it.
Flying was not possible in this area, making crossing the river quite troublesome. Of course, with his powerful strength, he could directly use some minor spells, similar to levitation, to fly at a low altitude, but crossing such a wide lava river in this way would take at least the time it takes to burn a lamp of tea. (一盏茶: the time it takes to burn a lamp of tea)
This was under the condition that there were no dangers. If he encountered some wild beasts, the time taken would be even longer. If he was unlucky, he might even encounter high-level wild beasts, so Zhang Ling thought about this method and discarded it.
Then, he suddenly thought of something, slapped his storage bag, and with a flash of white light, a small white jade flying boat instantly enlarged, transforming into a two-zhang (丈: zhang, a unit of length) long white flying boat that landed at his feet.
This was a top-grade flying magical instrument, a flying treasure he used when he was still in the Foundation Establishment stage, and he hadn't used it for a long time.
This treasure could be activated with spirit stones without consuming his own spiritual power. Now was the perfect time to use it to cross the river.
However, the flying boat didn't have much defensive capability. Zhang Ling waved his hand again, and a few fiery red spirit talismans appeared, sticking to the flying boat with a whoosh. Immediately, a layer of fiery red light shield appeared on the treasure.
Without further delay, he threw the flying boat into the lava river and stood on it himself.
With a thought, he commanded the flying boat to travel through the lava river, and in the blink of an eye, it crossed more than ten zhang (丈: zhang, a unit of length), turning into a red light and quickly disappearing into the distance.
A quarter of an hour later, he had traveled dozens of miles. Zhang Ling didn't relax at all, constantly releasing his divine sense to always cover a distance of dozens of zhang (丈: zhang, a unit of length) around him, observing the river surface to prevent other dangers.
Such a long lava river, he didn't believe he could cross it so easily.
Sure enough, after traveling another mile or two, a loud bang suddenly echoed from the lava surface ahead, and a pillar of fire shot up. In the firelight, a crimson fire python as thick as seven or eight normal buckets darted out, turning into a fire shadow and opening its mouth to bite him.
Zhang Ling waved his hand expressionlessly, and slashed out a cross of light. The fire python was instantly split into two pieces. This was a fourth-order fire python, unable to hinder his speed.
In the next stretch of the journey, he encountered a few more fire python, but none of them posed much of a threat.
After traveling another fifty or sixty miles, a layer of fire mist floated on the water surface ahead, obscuring a large area.
Seeing this situation, Zhang Ling frowned slightly, but didn't reduce his speed. In this special environment, crossing the lava river first was the top priority. He remained vigilant at all times, plunging headlong into the fire mist.
Once inside, he sensed that the fire spiritual power contained in the fire mist was even more violent. As he continued to travel, it was like traveling through real fire. Outside the spiritual power shield, streaks of fire streaked and occasionally some sparks burst.
The spiritual power consumed by traveling within it was much greater.
He took out another pill and swallowed it. Having been in this place for so long, he would swallow a pill to restore his power every so often, always keeping his power at around 90%.
He traveled calmly in the fire mist for the time it takes to burn an incense.
Suddenly, Zhang Ling's eyes lit up. In front of him, he discovered a large area of reef protruding from the lava. He couldn't help but slow down, stopping next to a strangely shaped reef. He lightly shook the flying sword in his hand, and a sword light struck the reef.
With a loud bang, the reef was cut with a deep crack, splitting into streaks of cracks. But it was not directly cut to pieces by his flying sword.
Zhang Ling squinted his eyes slightly, and couldn't help but release his divine sense to carefully sense this reef. Then he smiled and whispered.
"Hehe, it really is a piece of hematite."
The flying sword's blue light flickered, and with continuous chops, he chopped the reef into pieces.
Zhang Ling directly picked up a piece, rubbed it in his hand a few times, and then put it away. At the same time, he released his divine sense to explore this reef area, and then he showed great joy.
These reef all looked like some black rocks, but under the observation of his divine sense, many of them were actually hematite.
Moreover, his divine sense explored towards the lava below and found that there were also many black rock hematite below. This reef area seemed to be a hematite mine, which was the reason for his joy.
hematite is a good fire-attribute weapon refining material. Although it is not enough to be used as the main material for a magic weapon, it is enough to refine top-grade fire-attribute magical instrument.
Afterwards, he began to collect hematite in this reef area. Although it would consume a little spiritual power, since he had encountered this hematite mine, he would naturally collect some for future use.
This material was also a treasure refining material he needed, and it was a good material for refining puppets. If the black tiger puppet he released earlier was mixed with hematite, its power could be greatly increased.
In this way, he slowed down his pace and collected hematite along the way.
Before long, he had collected hundreds of thousands of jin (斤: a unit of weight) of hematite. Of course, these hematite were just raw ore and had not been refined.
But it also filled the storage belt in his hand. If he used ordinary advanced storage bags to store, he could store at least five or six storage bags.
Zhang Ling planned to collect tens of thousands more jin (斤: a unit of weight), enough to gather 200,000 jin (斤: a unit of weight) for his use for a long time. 200,000 jin (斤: a unit of weight) of hematite raw ore, just exchange for spirit stones could be exchange for millions of spirit stones.
And this only required wasting him one or two hours. For high-level cultivators, it was also a considerable fortune.
This also reflected the abundance of resources within the Tianyuan, no wonder many high-level cultivators entered this place to seek treasure.
Even if he did nothing else but collect hematite for the next period of time, he could accumulate a lot of wealth.
Zhang Ling was collecting hematite while thinking wildly in his mind.
woof!
Suddenly, a roar interrupted his reverie, Zhang Ling immediately stopped his movements and became vigilant.
After a rumbling loud noise, a monster appeared on a huge reef pillar not far to the left, with a flash of red light.
