In the deep cavern, the crimson magma kept rolling and surging, and from time to time huge bubbles came out of the bottom of the magma pool, and then exploded with a snap, and the sound echoed in the empty and silent pit.

The five-leaf leaf is covered with budding flower bones, fearless of the scorching heat of magma, rooted in the center of the magma pool, absorbing the nutrients and spiritual power contained in the magma and growing slowly.

The firebird's huge body crawled on the edge of the magma pool, and it looked at the five-leaf flame fruit in the center of the magma pool, chirping, and opened its mouth to spit out a small mouthful of blood.

This small mouthful of blood is bright red and sparkling, as if there is a fresh life hidden in it.

This is the essence of the firebird, containing vigorous vitality.

The essence blood was poured on the flower bones of the five-leaf flame fruit without sprinkling a drop, and the flower bones were like hungry and thirsty travelers in the desert, absorbing all the essence and blood of the firebird, and then the whole fruit plant was red and translucent, exuding vigorous vitality.

The firebird looked at the vibrant five-leaf flame fruit, nodded with satisfaction, then turned his neck back, put his head on his back, and slowly closed his eyelids. It needs a good night's sleep.

A small mouthful of essence blood is insignificant compared to its huge body, but essence blood is not ordinary blood, but the essence of life force condensation, so even if it is only a small mouthful, it is also a great loss for the huge one.

Every day, it will water the five-leaf leaf fruit with a small mouthful of essence blood, hoping that it will bloom and ripen quickly.

After flowering and ripening, the five-leaf flame fruit will quickly wither, and regardless of it, after a period of time, the ripe flame fruit will replenish the rhizome and leaves, helping it to regenerate from the fire, and then an extra leaf will grow on the stem, turning from the five-leaf flame fruit to the six-leaf flame fruit.

When the six-leaf leaf is ripe, the firebird will pick and eat it.

With the power of the six-leaf spirit fruit, its tail can give birth to the ninth colored feather, reborn from the fire, incarnated into a phoenix, and promoted to the demon king realm.

Watching the five-leaf flame fruit ripen day by day, the firebird's mood is very good every day, the only thing that makes it unhappy is that the ugly-looking black-haired beast has always coveted its five-leaf flame fruit, and comes to trouble it every once in a while.

It is not afraid of black-haired beasts, every time this black guy comes to the door to provoke, it will be burned to the point that there is not a single hair left, and the head of the mouse is running. However, this black guy has a very strong ability to heal himself, and within a few days, he will be alive again, and then come to provoke, which is very annoying.

What makes the firebird jealous is that recently, the black-haired beast got a magic bow out of nowhere. Not only does it not need arrows, but it can track itself, and it is extremely powerful and terrifying. Luckily, it was fast enough to shake off the tracking arrows, so the black-haired beast failed to sneak up on it several times.

But it didn't dare to be careless, because it could feel that the black-haired beast had not exerted the true power of the divine bow, and if the black-haired beast was stronger and exerted the stronger power of the divine bow, it was afraid that it would break its wings and arrows.

In the past few days, it has been trying to figure out how to introduce the black-haired beast into the pit for a big fight, because in the pothole, it can use the power of magma, not only to double its flame power, but also to make its self-healing power reach the extreme, and it is not a problem to resist the black-haired beast with two or three arrows, and it is confident that the black-haired beast will not return.

However, the black-haired beast was cunning and ruthless, and it was tempted many times, and even did not hesitate to take an arrow from the divine bow, but it failed to lure him into the hole.

"When I eat the six-leaf flame fruit, turn into a phoenix, and be promoted to the demon king, I will roast the black-haired beasts and eat them. The Firebird said indignantly.

In addition to the black-haired beast, there was one thing that hit it from time to time.

In the dimly lit corner of the pit, there is a stone statue half a foot high.

The stone statue is jet-black and resembles a monkey rather than a monkey.

It is covered with scales, no hair on the top of the head, wide ears, prominent eyeballs, turned nostrils, no lips on the mouth, long and thin teeth, and slightly upturned corners of the mouth, as if smiling but not smiling. The arms are long and the legs are short, the front paws are sharp, and the hind paws have five fingers, which resemble human feet.

The whole body of the stone statue knelt on the ground, its head slightly raised, looking in the direction of the magma pool. It seems to have been staring at the five-leaf flame fruit in the magma pool.

This made the firebird very unhappy, and it felt that the stone statue was coveting its treasure.

The strange thing is that the stone statue cannot be moved, burned and broken, and the firebird covers it with earth and stones in order to be out of sight and out of mind.

Suddenly, the earth and stone loosened, and the stone statue burst out of it.

"Ahh

In the darkness with no fingers visible, Zhang Xiaopaw woke up with a scream. He had a nightmare in which he saw a terrible stone statue coming at him.

When he woke up and found that it was a nightmare, Zhang Xiaopaw couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. But the unknown environment in front of him, which was dark and without his fingers, made him a little nervous and afraid. Fortunately, his right hand tightened, and he felt that the bone knife was still in his hand, and his heart suddenly added some confidence.

Zhang Xiaopaw climbed forward two steps, moved half of his body out of the water, and then turned over and sat up. I only felt that my shoulders were heavy, my whole body was sore and weak, and my head was dizzy and painful, as if I had been hit by a heavy object.

"How can it be a youkai? It's terrifying!"

Recalling what happened to Hantan, Zhang Xiaopaw had palpitations and couldn't help but shiver. I thought it was a godsend, but I almost died, it was terrible.

"I don't know what kind of monster it is? It shouldn't be a monster, but a ghost, a demon that sucks people's essence and eats people's bone marrow. ”

Zhang Xiaopaw touched a vertical wound on his eyebrows, perhaps because of the soaking in the water, the wound had just scabbed. The thought of the demon breaking open his eyebrows and sucking his bone marrow, and the pain in his bones like being bitten by a leech drill, he couldn't help but stand on end and shivered.

"The black ape saved my life again. Zhang Xiaopaw rejoiced.

Sitting on the ground and resting for a while, after his body regained some strength, Zhang Xiaopaw stood up, groped around, and found that he should be in a cave, no wonder he couldn't see his fingers in the dark.

Thinking that he was washed away at the bottom of the cold pool, and when he woke up just now, half of his body was soaked in the water, so he guessed that he should have been washed into the underground river by the water, and luckily did not drown, and floated all the way to this place and ran aground at the water's edge.

"This should be an underground cave, and I don't know if there is an exit?" Zhang Xiaopaw said worriedly as he listened to the sound of running water in his ears.

Then Zhang Xiaopaw used the bone knife as a pathfinder stick, and groped his way through the dark cave with no fingers.

After about three hundred paces, the river and the cave forked, and the water went in the other direction. Zhang carefully investigated the groundwater and found that the river had flowed into another hole.

There was no land to walk on either side of this cave, and the distance between the top of the cave and the water surface was only fifty or sixty centimeters, and the situation ahead was unclear, so Zhang Xiaopaw did not dare to venture in, so he chose to continue along the dry cave.

He thought in his heart that if the road ahead was not clear, he would turn back and take the waterway.

However, this walk is like walking into an infinitely long tunnel, which will never end.

At first, Zhang Xiaopaw was not in a panic and anxious, explored the way with a bone knife, walked forward not fast or slow, stopped and rested for a while when he was tired, and slept against the stone wall when he was sleepy. But after seven or eight cycles, he began to slowly panic.

Because of the dark and silent environment, people will feel lonely and depressed, anxious and panicked, and mentally under great pressure. Ordinary people can persist in this environment for a day or two, but Zhang Xiaopaw has slept five or six times, and every time he is extremely sleepy, that is to say, he has been walking in the dark cave for at least five or six days.

Jingle Bell –

Zhang Xiaopaw struck the stone walls on both sides with the back of his bone knife, splashing clusters of sparks.

This is his only means of relieving boredom and decompression.

I don't know that a few days have passed, Zhang Xiaopai's mood has become more and more irritable and panicked, and he has tended to get out of control.

Every time he took a step, he struck the stone wall with the back of his bone knife, causing it to splash a large spark, and every time the spark was shining, he would jerk back into the darkness behind him, and he always felt that a pair of eyes were hiding in the darkness and staring at him.

He roared madly, but all that was answered was an empty echo.

In order to force himself to remain calm, he even slashed his arm again and again with a bone knife to stimulate his brain in such an extreme way.

He was hungry and thirsty, but out of the cave came mud and sand and stones.

He was tired and tired, but he was more and more afraid to close his eyes to sleep, because as soon as he closed his eyes, he had nightmares.

He dreamed that there were countless evil spirits following him.

I dreamed that I was eaten by a youkai.

I dreamed that my parents abandoned him.

I dreamed that my relatives in Liujia Village starved to death one by one.

Dream about –

He wept bitterly and called out the names of every loved one.

He ran wildly, and in a moment his head broke and bled out.

He fell to the ground weakly, so sleepy that his upper and lower eyelids were glued together, but he either cut himself with a bone knife, or bit his fingers or the tip of his tongue to stimulate himself, and he did not dare to sleep.

He was very glad that he had penetrated the force gate, although he was hungry and thirsty, but his strength had been slowly recovering, otherwise he would have passed out long ago. However, as the body gradually weakened, the role of the force gate gradually weakened.

"Damn! Damn! Damn!"

He was so angry that he kept beating himself, regretting that he didn't go down the river, feeling that if he had followed the river, he would have walked out a long time ago, and he would never have a saliva to drink. And now his weak body was no longer enough to support him to turn back to his head, so he could only stubbornly continue to move forward.

"Ahem-cough-ahem-"

He was so hungry that he grabbed and stuffed dirt into his mouth, but he choked and coughed violently.

The soil is so dry that it is blocked in my throat and eyes, and I can't swallow it at all.

"I'm afraid I'm going to die in this cave. ”

Zhang Xiaopaw lay on the ground like a dead fish, feeling deep despair, he had no strength, even if he climbed an inch further, he couldn't do it.

His cloudy gaze looked ahead, hoping to see a glimmer of light, but unfortunately there was only endless darkness ahead.

He closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

After sleeping for an unknown amount of time, he woke up from a nightmare.

He dreamed again of the terrible-looking stone statue in the pit, and dreamed that the blue-faced fanged monster came to life and threw itself on his shoulder to bite his neck.

During this time, Zhang Xiaopaw has been controlling himself not to think about the strange dream about the firebird, because he is afraid to think about it, but what he is afraid of has not dissipated because he doesn't want to, but the more he doesn't want to think about it, the more it will come out of the nightmare.

In the dream about the firebird, the scary stone statue could not be moved or burned, so the firebird had no choice but to bury it with earth and stones, begging to be out of sight and out of mind.

But Zhang Xiaopaw clearly remembered that he was afraid that there were other treasures hidden in the pit, so he searched every inch of the pit, but he did not see the mound of earth that should be there in the dim corner where the firebird buried the stone statue, only saw a pile of separated earth and stones, with a funnel-shaped concave shape in the middle, he was afraid that there were treasures buried under the soil and stones, and kicked the earth and stones away with his feet, but he did not see anything strange.

In other words, the stone statue of the firebird that could not be moved or burned disappeared.

And judging by the shape of the funnel of the bulldozed stones, the stone statue seems to have really come to life and emerged from the mound of earth and rock.

When did it disappear?

Was it before or after he and the black ape went down to the pit?

Where did it go?

None of this is known.

The thought that he had slept leisurely in the pit for several times, and that there was probably a pair of terrible eyes staring at him and the black giant ape in the dim corner, Zhang Xiaopaw felt goosebumps all over his body.

"It must have been the Firebird who found a way to remove the stone statue, but it didn't manifest itself in the dream. ”

Zhang Xiaopaw hurriedly comforted himself, because the more he thought about the terrible things, the more he felt that there were ghosts watching him in the dark.

The body regained some strength, and Zhang Xiaopaw propped himself up, unwilling to give up.

He raised his head, and a flash of light suddenly jumped into his field of vision, and he rubbed his eyes, thinking that he was hallucinating again, but the light was still there after rubbing his eyes.

"Ha-ha-ha-"

Repeatedly confirmed that he was not hallucinating, there was indeed a bright light in the darkness ahead, although it was nothing, although it was faint, but it was real, Zhang Xiaopu couldn't help but be ecstatic, and laughed in a hoarse voice.