"Excuse me, are there any caravans passing through the Hellfire Corridor today?"
As the sun rose, a lean and handsome young man walked into the Feng Clan Convoy.
Unlike the bustling merchants coming in and out of the agency, this young man was carrying a cat in his arms and a light backpack on his back, resembling a backpacker on a leisurely tour.
It was Qi Han, who had packed his bags early and was ready to head to the Hellfire Corridor with Pururu.
The Feng Clan Convoy had branches all over the Douluo Continent, in both the Star Luo Empire and the Heaven Dou Empire.
After thinking it over, Qi Han decided that it would be more convenient to travel with their convoy.
With his current strength of three rings (Level 30-40), as long as he didn't cause trouble, he wouldn't face too much danger traveling the continent.
Theoretically, he could travel on his own, but without a means of transportation, it was easier to go with the convoy.
Glancing at Pururu in his arms, Qi Han sighed softly.
Forget it.
Relying on a cat for transportation was unrealistic.
No matter how big Pururu grew, he couldn't become a mount.
"Meow?"
Pururu wriggled in Qi Han's arms, feeling like he had been mentioned.
"Please wait a moment; I'll check for you," said the attendant of Feng Clan Convoy, always respectful to customers regardless of their appearance.
After inviting Qi Han to sit in the waiting area, the attendant quickly left and returned shortly with a graceful and beautiful woman.
"Boss Qi, we meet again."
Qi Han turned at the voice and, recognizing the woman, recalled, "Manager Feng, long time no see."
It was Feng Lingyue, the manager of the Feng Clan Convoy in Shrek City.
Surprisingly, she was now in Star Luo City.
Feng Lingyue smiled slightly. "It hasn't been that long. I happened to be in Star Luo City for business these past few days and had a hot pot at your restaurant yesterday."
Qi Han scratched his head, a bit embarrassed.
"The regular customers in Shrek City are in an uproar after you stayed in Star Luo City for ten days. They're planning to come and drag you back to Shrek City," Feng Lingyue joked. "You're in luck. A caravan will be passing through the Hellfire Corridor soon. It's a regular caravan, and you only need to pay a hundred Gold Coins."
Great.
Qi Han smiled, handed Feng Lingyue a hundred Gold Coins, and was then escorted to a private room to rest and wait for the convoy to depart.
Feng Lingyue wanted to chat with Qi Han more but had other business to attend to, so she excused herself with a smile.
...
After a three-hour journey, Qi Han left the convoy midway and could easily see the peaks of several volcanoes a few miles away.
The Hellfire Corridor was close by.
No towns were located within a hundred miles of the large spirit beast gathering area to prevent potential beast tides from causing catastrophic damage to the towns and their residents.
Stepping on the edge of the Hellfire Corridor, Qi Han could already feel the heat rising from the ground.
The dry land was scorching hot, as if baked by the sun all day, and the surrounding temperature was over forty degrees.
Few plants could survive in such an area.
The desolate land was barren and yellow, like a life-forbidden zone.
Fortunately, Qi Han was prepared.
He took off his outer coat, leaving only a short-sleeved shirt, feeling much cooler.
Pururu jumped out of his arms, and despite the hot ground, seemed comfortable enough.
Pururu's physical condition had become extremely robust due to its nourishment over time.
Despite not being a fire-attribute spirit beast, the heat posed no significant issue.
Without lingering, the man and the cat quickly advanced toward the Hellfire Corridor.
The Hellfire Corridor consisted of eleven volcanoes: three large ones and eight smaller ones.
According to the information Qi Han had obtained, the three larger volcanoes housed the three most powerful clans in the Hellfire Corridor, each with a ten-thousand-year-level presence, forming the core area of the corridor.
The eight smaller volcanoes were home to various powerful species of the Hellfire Corridor.
However, none of these species had the privilege of claiming an entire mountain and lived together on the volcanoes.
These species, though lacking 100.000 years old-level beings, certainly had no shortage of 10.000 years old spirit beasts, making them equally dangerous.
Besides these, several relatively weaker spirit beast species couldn't even occupy the volcanoes and were forced to live in the corridor itself.
These species had thousand-year spirit beasts as their strongest members, with ten-thousand-year spirit beasts being rare.
If a species in the corridor produced a ten-thousand-year spirit beast, they would be eligible to move to the more fire-element-rich volcanoes.
Hierarchy among spirit beasts was strict and rigid.
Qi Han's target, the Hellfire Dragonfish, resided within the corridor.
However, unlike other species driven out of the volcano areas due to their weakness, the Hellfire Dragonfish lived in the corridor for a different reason.
In the corridor, there were small liquid lakes known as Chiyan Lakes.
These lakes didn't contain water but a diluted magma-like substance formed when magma from volcanic eruptions mixed with special metallic minerals found in the corridor.
No one would think magma was diluted with water, right?
This metallic mineral reduced the magma's temperature and increased its transparency, making it appear diluted.
After gathering in the corridor, these formed the various Chiyan Lakes.
The diluted magma's temperature dropped to about two to three hundred degrees Celsius, still very high but tolerable for many fire-attribute spirit beasts.
The Hellfire Dragonfish lived in these Chiyan Lakes and was one of the two fish-like spirit beasts in the Hellfire Corridor.
The other fish-like spirit beast was a top-tier species that controlled the ultimate fire, residing in the three large volcanoes.
The Hellfire Dragonfish had a trace of dragon blood, making its potential high, with ten-thousand-year spirit beasts among its ranks.
However, due to lacking the ultimate fire's power, they couldn't live in magma and were confined to the Chiyan Lakes in the corridor.
In an area with almost no ten-thousand-year spirit beasts, the Hellfire Dragonfish, with its high innate potential, was at the top of the food chain, an unchallenged predator.
Many spirit beasts in this unique landscape needed to drink the diluted magma from the Chiyan Lakes to survive, much like other creatures needed water.
The Hellfire Dragonfish lay in wait in these lakes, hunting any spirit beasts that came too close.
This scenario was reminiscent of crocodiles lurking in waterholes on the plains of Earth.
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