With Lin Mu's call, a strong gust of energy emanated from Little Shrubby's body. The vortex of fire that had been made by him running in a circle started to rise up like a water spout in the ocean.

~GRRR~

The Bronze Tribe Wolf was certainly anxious and knew that he was not in a good situation. All this time, he had thought that while he had come across some tough prey, it didn't occur to him just how tough.

But now that he had realized it, the time had passed, and it was too late.

~CLANG~

The Bronze Tribe Wolf swatted at Lin Mu in anger and Lin Mu blocked it directly. The brown armor of the mortal strengthening scripture appeared on his arms, absorbing the damage easily without cracking.

Lin Mu had borne the full brunt of a variant tribulation lighting twice before, thus this physical attack was still easy for him to bear. But this time, Lin Mu did not resist and held his ground.

Rather, he let himself be knocked away. The Wolf felt pleased that he had finally managed to hit Lin Mu and was happy at seeing him get injured. Lin Mu was flying towards the ground at a very fast speed and if he slammed into it, he would probably get quite injured.

Unfortunately, what the Bronze Tribe wolf was expecting didn't happen. Instead, Lin Mu sank into the ground as if it was water and the entire time he had a smile on his face. And just as he disappeared into the ground, a large explosion happened.

~KABOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!~

Red flames swirled into a pillar that pierced the sky. The night sky was lit up and now it looked like it was the time for sunset instead. The heat of the flames ignited the trees that were further away from it.

Already a lot of trees had been burned by Little Shrubby, and now more of them were burning. This further fueled the pillar of spinning fire and increased its power. This was exactly the wood fueling the flames, according to the strengthening of the elements.

While Lin Mu and Littler Shrubby could not use wood attribute spirit Qi as of now, they used a different method of powering up the fire. They used the naturally present wood elemental spirit Qi in the plants and trees and let Little Shrubby's fire burn them.

The synergistic reaction caused due to this was the main reason behind the current situation. Lin Mu had picked the right moment to escape as the flames were something that would injure even himself.

The temperature of the flames had already reached the level of the magma that was present in the mouth of the volcano that Lin Mu and Little Shrubby had reached. It was enough to decimate his Mortal strengthening scripture's defenses in just a couple of seconds.

But while Lin Mu had escaped into the ground, he didn't stop there. He continued to get further and further away, as even the soil was heating up at a rapid pace.

~woong~woong~woong~

The flame vortex continued to spin and burn for about a minute as Little Shrubby kept on running. The flames were made by him, thus it was harmless for him. And even if they were not, he still had a high enough resistance to fire anyway.

~Shua~

A mass shot out of the flame vortex after a minute, looking like a meteor descending from the sky.

~THUD~

~CRASH~

Several trees were destroyed in its descent and a deep gully was carved into the ground. Of course, more fires were caused by it and even the ground was scorched. Lin Mu blinked out from the ground and went to check.

"Little Shrubby, are you okay?

" Lin Mu asked.

The meteor that had just crashed was none other than Little Shrubby.

~puff~

The flames went out and Little Shrubby jumped out of the crater that he had just made.

~huff~huff~huff~

He was panting, but seems to be doing fine.

"I'm good…

" he replied.

Lin Mu still probed him and saw that over eighty percent of his spirit Qi had been consumed.

'Hmm… that's understandable. He just managed to greatly damage if not kill a Dao Shell realm beast.' Lin Mu thought to himself.

He looked back to the flame vortex and saw that it was still raging on. The spinning of the vortex sucked more air towards itself, which further fueled it. This also created a low pressure area, further pulling in more air.

The flame vortex continued for about five minutes, after which it finally faded away. The initial spirit Qi that Little shrubby had used for it had been used and just the infusion of air was no longer enough for it to continue to burn.

The trees around it had also been reduced to cinders a long time ago and thus there was no fuel for it anyways.

~shua~

The heat waves finally stopped and Lin Mu and Little shrubby took a closer look. Previously they could not do so as even their spirit senses were being stopped. Lin Mu's was being stopped due to the volatile burning Qi in the air, while Little Shrubby's was being pushed away due to the spinning of the vortex.

~thud~ thud~

The two of them landed at the edge of the now dissipated vortex and saw its aftermath. There was molten soil and rocks present there now. It looked like a pool of lava that Lin Mu had seen at the volcano, except it was far less bright.

Lin Mu's spirit sense once again rose from his body and checked the area for the signs of the Bronze Tribe wolf.

"Oh? THERE IT IS!

" Lin Mu spotted a dark mass at the bottom of the lava pool.

"I'll take it out,

" Little Shrubby said as the five prosthetic hands that were spirit tools arrived.

Each of them was a high grade spirit tool and could easily handle such high temperature. The prosthetic hands sank into the molten ground and swam to the bottom before grasping onto the dark mass.

~splatter~

The molten liquid parted as the dark mass was pulled out by the five hands. Lin Mu and Little Shrubby could finally see its appearance. It looked like an elongated bronze mass. It was vaguely in the shape of a wolf and seemed like a deformed bronze statue instead.

~DENG~

The hands dropped the bronze mass on the ground with a loud sound as it sank into it a bit.

The mass was still very hot, but to Lin Mu and Little Shrubby, it was still handleable.

"Huh? What happened to the wolf?

" Lin Mu was a bit confused until he probed the bronze mass.

Upon doing this, he finally readable the reality.

"Whoa!

" Lin Mu exclaimed.

The metallic fur of the Bronze Tribe wolf had completely melted and formed a coating over it while the bones inside its body had been heated up to a very high temperature. But the most surprising thing was that to Lin Mu its flesh seemed to be perfectly cooked.

"This may be really good,

" Lin Mu said as he pulled out a hammer from his ring.

This was one of the many weapons he had and was a war hammer. It was over two meters long and had a hammer head that was at least three hundred kilograms in weight. It was made of a mixed iron allow and was quite tough.

Lin Mu raised it with both his hands into the air, making it stir a bit.

~HUU~

He took a breath before slamming the hammer into the bronze mass with full force.

~DENG~

As if a bronze bell had been struck, a loud humming sound was released by it that spread in the surroundings. But that was just the start, as another sound could soon be heard.

~Crack~

It started very lightly, but the new sound increased in intensity.

~crack~crack~crack~

Cracks started to appear all over the bronze mass before finally…

~KACHA~

~SHATTER~

The outer bronze layer shattered like an eggshell, revealing the tender meat within. The aroma of the meat spread in the air like a tsunami and drowned Lin Mu and Little Shrubby's olfactory receptors.

In the next moment, saliva filled their mouths, and they couldn't help but gulp.

~slurp~

Lin Mu walked forward and used his short sword like a knife cutting out a chunk of flesh. It was incredibly tender and Lin Mu felt like he would be able to cut it with a blunt stick if it came to it.

"This looks sooooooo good!

" Little Shrubby said out loud.

The Bronze Tribe wolf's meat was like that of Clay Roasted Fish!

But the clay used was its own bronze like metallic fur and the oven was the flame vortex made by little shrubby. Its own bones acted like internal heating prods that cooked the meat very evenly.

The Dao Shell realm beast's tough red meat was now a pleasantly soft brown. Lin Mu passed a chunk to Little Shrubby while he took some for himself.

~huu~

Both of them took a deep breath and inhaled the tantalizing and meaty aroma before biting into the meat.

~NOM~

After the very first bite, an intense and gamy flavor spread throughout their mouths. After chewing a couple of times they swallowed the meat and their eyes lit up.

"THIS IS AMAZING!

" Lin Mu let out a loud proclamation.

"INDEED!

" Little Shrubby agreed.

Then both of them pounced on the 'Bronze Roasted Wolf' and started to devour it like beasts… well, one of them was really a beast while the other acted like a beast.