Mystic Eyes: My Eyes Steal the Laws of Cultivation

Chapter 355: Five-Horned Lava Lizard

Kyrian and the group remained standing in a defensive formation, all looking in the indicated direction.

Weapons were drawn, flaming Qi shining around their bodies like small suns of war. The air, already hot and suffocating, seemed even heavier with the tension that gathered like clouds before a storm.

No one spoke.

Only the distant sound of the wind carrying hot ash and the growing tremor in the ground filled the silence, a silence that was not peace but tension. A calm before the storm.

The elder frowned as he felt the vibrations beneath his feet. The tremor increased gradually, intensifying with each second, as if something colossal were approaching underground, moving with a slowness that did not match its size.

Pan Zheng approached him cautiously, his voice low but urgent.

"Elder, maybe we should retreat. If they’re running desperately, something truly powerful must be behind them. This tremor... doesn’t feel good."

Several disciples murmured in agreement, nervous glances sweeping through the group. Some already held their weapons with trembling hands, others took deep breaths, trying to calm themselves.

The elder, however, crossed his arms over his chest, his expression arrogant.

"No. We’ll wait here. I will deal with whatever it is." His voice was firm, filled with pride.

"Even if it’s a powerful beast, fighting together, I don’t believe we can defeat it. This is still the intermediate area, after all. Nothing here is invincible."

Despite the confident words, concern was visible on the faces of the other cultivators. They exchanged looks among themselves, seeking comfort in each other’s presence.

Only Kyrian’s supernatural calm, standing like a statue of ice in the middle of the volcanic hell, his snowflake eyes fixed on the horizon, brought a minimum of reassurance to some.

He did not tremble. He did not sweat. He did not breathe faster.

He only observed.

They waited.

...

Three minutes later, the first desperate screams echoed in the distance.

They were not screams of pain. They were screams of pure human terror, the kind of sound only someone fleeing imminent death can produce.

Five minutes later, the tremor became so intense that some disciples lost their balance, having to support themselves on each other to avoid falling. Small stones jumped from the ground as if the earth itself had a fever. Cracks opened in the volcanic soil, some releasing superheated steam.

Kyrian observed everything with heightened focus.

There was indeed something running beneath the ground behind the ten approaching cultivators.

He could see its presence now, a dense mass that melted the ground behind the ten, so concentrated it seemed like a second sun buried beneath the earth. But the creature did not appear to be attacking the fugitives directly. Only chasing.

That was strange.

Normally, beasts that powerful would attack without hesitation, slaughtering their prey with ferocity. Why only chase? Kyrian stored the question in his mind. Perhaps the answer would come soon.

The screams grew closer.

Finally, the ten cultivators entered the field of view of Kyrian’s group.

They ran like madmen, their clothes torn and burned in several places. Their faces were covered in sweat, ash, and blood. Some wounds seemed fresh, others already charred by the extreme heat. It was a miracle they were still standing.

When they spotted the group ahead, brief relief appeared in their eyes, for just a second.

Before the elder could open his mouth to ask what was happening, the relief on the fugitives’ faces turned into renewed terror.

"RUN!" one of them shouted, his voice hoarse from screaming.

"RUN NOW!"

"IT’S A FIVE-HORNED LAVA LIZARD!" another yelled, gesturing frantically.

"QUICK! GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

They passed through Kyrian’s group like a storm, not slowing down even for a moment. Some shoved cultivators who were frozen in fear. No one complained.

At that same moment, the elder in the scarlet robe visibly paled.

His face, once full of arrogance and pride, turned white as paper. Pure terror took over his features, erasing any trace of the confidence he had displayed minutes earlier.

Without saying a word, he bolted in the same direction as the other ten, using all the speed of a 4° stage Core Formation cultivator. He abandoned the group he led without looking back.

The disciples hesitated for less than half a second.

Then, they followed his example.

Collective panic took hold of everyone. They ran as if death itself were at their heels, and perhaps it was.

Each of them released the maximum of their Qi to increase their speed, turning into flaming blurs that disappeared in the opposite direction.

The name of the beast was a death sentence.

Pan Zheng was the only one who hesitated.

He paused for a moment, turning toward Kyrian, who remained completely still in the same place as before. The young man’s ice eyes glowed in the red dimness, his expression as calm as if he were contemplating a simple landscape.

"KYRIAN! RUN! NOW!" Pan Zheng shouted, his voice trembling with a mixture of terror and desperation.

"It’s a beast with dragon blood! We don’t stand a chance!"

Kyrian did not move. He did not respond. He simply continued looking toward the approaching danger.

Fear prevailed. Pan Zheng did not wait for an answer. He turned and ran after the others, his feet striking the volcanic ground with desperate force. He looked back only once, his expression anguished, a silent plea in his eyes.

Then he disappeared into the ash-filled mist.

...

Kyrian did not move.

Now alone, he closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath. The hot air filled his lungs, but his ice energy protected him from discomfort. When he opened his eyes again, his snowflake-shaped pupils shone with an intensity that had not been there before.

A terrifying intent of ice burst from his body, spreading in all directions like a silent wave. He channeled a large amount of Qi, more than he had used during the entire exploration until that moment, and directed it into the ground in front of him.

The sound of ice forming echoed like broken bells.

The ground before him froze instantly. Not just the rocky, uneven surface, but also the layers beneath, a solid mass of ice extending for dozens of meters in a fan shape, creating a translucent and gleaming barrier that defied the infernal heat of the volcano.

The extreme cold rose from the ground, meeting the hot, humid air. Massive clouds of white vapor formed immediately, rising in turbulent spirals like a wall of clouds.

Kyrian wanted to force the beast to surface.

And he hit perfectly.

A deafening roar exploded from beneath the earth.

The sound was so powerful it made the surrounding rocks vibrate and crack. Pieces of stone broke off nearby formations, falling to the ground with dry crashes. The ground shook violently, and the ice Kyrian had created trembled, cracks forming across its surface.

Then, the creature emerged.