Chapter 275 — Dangerous Desert

While Liora was deep in thought, time did not stop to wait for her to collect her mind.

Before long, the group left the beautiful, now ruined, landscape behind them and arrived in another place.

It was an infinitely stretching desert.

Crimson specks of dust flew around as the wind blew, while a gust of hot wind brushed against Liora’s face.

For a moment, she had the illusion that she had returned to the Inferno Valley and was once again facing its dangerous environment.

And that was even before they had actually entered the desert.

"This is the place where I stopped last time."

"This desert is not only quite dangerous by itself, but I also have a hunch that there should be several powerful creatures hidden inside."

"Although I can’t sense them, my intuition warned me that I would be in danger if I chose to go in.", the Slave Lord stared into the desert and stated.

Her words hardly came as a surprise.

In fact, as they approached the Hollow’s center, the strength of the creatures they met along the way had grown stronger.

In Liora’s opinion, it was only a matter of time before they faced a True Devil.

The fact that the landscape had changed only served to reinforce that suspicion.

"However... I want to give something a try.", Liora couldn’t help but think secretly, and unbeknownst to everyone, a complicated four-sided symbol appeared in her crimson eyes.

Each of its sides had a different shape, as well as a different color.

Red, blue, green, and brown—the four colors coexisted yet were distinct at the same time, blending like Yin and Yang.

In particular, the red side was much brighter than the other three sides, which were slightly grayed out in comparison.

Surprisingly, Liora chose this time to activate the Four Elements Method.

Or to be more accurate, she activated her Elemental Affinity.

Not to manipulate fire or any other elements, but to sense them instead.

Immediately, her field of vision seemed to have changed.

Where her consciousness originally found nothing, her eyes now saw many bright orange lights.

"Each light should represent one of the native creatures.", Liora instantly realized.

Soon, she discovered that the brightness of these lights varied significantly.

Some of them were faint and ready to go out, while others shone intently like torches in a dark place.

"Is it dependent on their strength?", Liora guessed.

"If that’s the case...", she muttered inwardly as her focus turned deep within the desert.

There, several extremely bright orange lights could be found, towering over any other light in the perimeter.

If Liora’s guess was correct, then just like the Slave Lord previously suggested, several True Devils lived deep within the desert.

In an instant, Liora’s originally carefree attitude changed, with her caution overpowering her other emotions.

Although Liora sensed several dangerous opponents, she showed nothing of it on the surface.

From the moment she stopped her footsteps to the moment she activated Elemental Affinity, less than a split second had gone by.

In such a short period of time, the Slave Lord discovered nothing wrong.

"I’ve already checked. This desert surrounds the Hollow’s center from all sides."

"If we want to get there, we have to go through this place sooner or later.", she continued on her earlier explanation.

Doing her best to maintain a composed expression, Liora merely nodded her head to show that she understood.

"If that’s the case, there’s no reason to hesitate.", she stated, as her eyes wandered on the army behind the Slave Lord for a brief moment.

By now, less than 80% of their original members remained alive, the other part ending up as the strange creature’s victims.

Seeing her gaze, the Slave Lord understood what she was implying.

Though reluctant, she could only wave her hand.

Immediately, the army of slaves was rearranged, forming a circle with Liora, the Slave Lord, and Alpha at the center, as if protecting them.

Then, without speaking any further words, they entered the desert like this.

--

The temperature within the desert was much higher than everyone anticipated.

Although even the weakest member of the slave army was a Lesser Devil, and an elite among this stage, they were still quite troubled.

As a few tiny specks of dust were brought up by the wind and collided with their bodies, several clanging noises echoed, as burn marks formed on their skin and their faces turned pale.

The weakest among them coughed a mouthful of blood while black smoke flew out of their mouths, as if their internal organs had been cooked.

The Slave Lord noticed their state.

Though she had already predicted the desert’s danger, she had not expected that its effects would be this intense.

Although this place could cause no harm to True Devils like her and Liora, it was indeed a threatening environment for Lesser Devils.

If the Slave Lord did not do anything, it would only be a matter of time before her subordinates died one after another.

Realizing this, she was forced to take action.

With a thought, demonic energy poured out of her body and dissolved into the surroundings, keeping the heat away.

Standing closest to her, Liora immediately realized that the temperature cooled down.

It was still higher than usual, but would no longer bring any danger to Lesser Devil beings.

At first, Liora did not care about this and was not even planning to comment on it.

But very soon, she noticed a change occurring deep within the desert.

Perhaps alerted by the Slave Lord’s outburst, one of the several True Devil lights began to move.

Unsurprisingly, it walked in a straight path, rushing straight towards their direction.

For a moment, Liora opened her mouth and was about to warn this ally of hers.

But following a thoughtful flicker in her eyes, she stopped in her tracks.

After she took one more glance at the Slave Lord, her eyes narrowed, and pretending that she did not notice anything, she continued walking.