novelraw Chapter 515: The Trail
Chapter 515: The Trail
Over the scorching canyon, the call gradually faded.
If the flow of time remained unchanged, Lu Li had another 10 minutes, 600 seconds, to act.
However, the devil might not grant him that much time.
The pain on the back of his hand was growing sharper, a sign that the devil who had left the burn was drawing near.
"I hope this stone tower has something to do with Richard."
Lu Li thought to himself as he moved in the direction indicated by the stone tower.
Several dozen meters ahead, a second stone tower materialized in the distorted air, the sharp stone at its peak pointing confidently in a specific direction.
151... 152... 153...
The canyon was barren, nothing but stones and gravel. From the third stone tower onward, the landscape began to change: the faint outlines of black mountains appeared in the distance, their surfaces webbed with veins of dark red lava.
Around the 240-second mark, Anna's second call echoed from the sky.At 341 seconds, Lu Li spotted the fifth stone tower, its sharp stone pointing straight ahead.
Several dozen meters in that direction, a river of lava stretched out before him.
Lu Li tilted his head slightly, his gaze falling upon three demons wandering several dozen meters away.
They had been drawn, one by one, to the scent of Lu Li's soul, but they kept their distance, hesitant to approach. And Lu Li had no intention of wasting time on them.
Averting his gaze, he saw that the lava river, several dozen meters wide, was not impassable. A multitude of stones, each about half the size of a foot, protruded from the lava, forming a path from one bank to the other.
Clearly, someone had placed them there as well.
Many of the stones in the river were already damaged and cracked; some were charred black, others glowed red-hot, like burning embers.
Though they were scorching, it was better than fording the river of lava.
Lu Li walked to the river's edge, picked up a sufficiently large stone from the bank, and tossed it into the lava.
The lava erupted, but it couldn't reach Lu Li, who had already stepped back. Over the next half-minute, Lu Li threw several more stones, creating more footholds within ten meters of the bank, but the last few meters to the opposite side remained out of reach.
While he was moving the stones, the three lesser demons constantly prowled nearby, their gazes fixed on him with unconcealed lust.
If he had enough time, Lu Li could have paved a complete path across the lava river and crossed it with ease.
But the ever-increasing heat on the back of his hand reminded Lu Li of the approaching danger.
Clutching the patched hat, Lu Li stepped onto the first stone.
Viscous lava flowed slowly at his feet, boiling bubbles bursting and releasing instantaneous waves of heat.
At such close range, Lu Li's soul began to feel an unbearable heat. It also meant that even his own formidable life force would dissipate in an instant if he were to fall into the lava.
Lu Li calmly crossed several meters over the most densely packed stones before they grew sparse. Behind him, an agitated, low growl erupted as the three demons crowded the bank, halted by the lava.
He paid no mind to what was happening behind him, steadily and swiftly reaching the middle of the lava river. The heat was even more intense here. The distorted, sulfur-scented air obscured his vision, giving Lu Li the deceptive sensation that his very soul was sweating.
The stones he had thrown earlier ended here. Ahead, only the burning, charred, crack-covered, dark red stones remained.
The distance to the opposite bank, less than ten meters, felt like a chasm.
Hesitation was pointless. Lu Li stepped onto the first burning stone and, without pausing, strode to the second, a blackened rock half a meter away.
But as Lu Li set his foot on a cracked stone less than three meters from the opposite bank, a corner of it broke off and sank into the lava.
Barely managing to pull his foot back, Lu Li teetered on the stone, struggled to keep his balance, and started to fall backward...
A coarse, ghostly palm pressed gently against his back.
The strength of that hand was negligible, but it was just enough to help Lu Li regain his balance and stop his fall.
His balance restored, Lu Li quickly leaped across the remaining three stones and finally set foot on the rocky bank.
Looking back, he saw that the fractured stone had already crumbled, swallowed by the surging lava.
The palm that had supported him from behind was definitely not an illusion.
He recalled Marylin saying that he would meet old acquaintances in Hell—enemies, for instance... Now, it seemed he wouldn't only be meeting enemies.
Averting his gaze, Lu Li looked ahead. Several dozen meters away, next to a huge boulder, stood the sixth stone tower.
452... 453... 454...
He hoped this stone tower wasn't far from his destination.
Following the directions of the sixth stone tower, he found the seventh. Then, moving in the direction indicated by the seventh, Lu Li came to the edge of a deep pit several hundred meters in diameter.
The ground was charred and carbonized; the foot of this volcanic mountain, with its flowing lava, looked as if it had been struck by something like a meteorite.
At the edge of the pit, Lu Li found several distinct footprints. Without hesitating, he slid down into the pit and, following the tower's direction, approached its center.
The temperature inside the pit was lower than outside; at least the charred ground was no longer scorching, and the distorted air had ceased to rise.
As if wiping condensation from a pane of glass, Lu Li's vision cleared. He saw, in the center of the pit a hundred meters away, a standing stone more than ten meters tall. Next to it was a lit campfire with a human figure in front of it.
...
This was Richard's "thirteenth day" in Hell—or so Richard himself believed.
There was no night in Hell; the sky was eternally shrouded in a dark red, fiery glow. So, after each time he slept, Richard would use a sharpened stone to make a mark at the base of this meteorite.
Because the "night" he first arrived in Hell, a night he spent sleepless, Richard had also counted as a day.
Richard had been lucky: when he came to his senses, he was lying on the bank of the lava river, not at its bottom.
The thought that vaguely formed in his mind—"this is Hell"—saved Richard from idle speculation. He remembered leaping into the abyss, and the ancient god slumbering there would have had no reason to spare his soul.
In any case, Richard, now in Hell, spent some time by the river, waiting for the legendary demons and devils to come for his soul—though he would never admit that he had been so scared his knees were trembling.
Perhaps demons and devils were just fabrications of those who had never been to Hell. Richard saw no one but himself, so he began to explore his surroundings and discovered this meteorite crater at the foot of the mountains.
This meteorite crater, relatively cool, with its soft, charred earth, seemed comfortable to Richard. He made it his temporary camp and then began to explore the area.
Around the meteorite crater, for instance, or on the other side of the lava.
To Richard's horror, on the third day, he began to feel hunger, and the temperature around him seemed to grow even higher, even more unbearable.
Then, Richard saw a demon.
And Richard no longer had to worry about food.
Richard didn't know how scared or terrified others were when they ended up in Hell, but he himself felt... alright.
After all, he had always lived like this. From a certain point of view, his life had been even worse than this—at least in Hell, it wasn't cold, and he didn't have to worry about food.
Although the taste of that food was, to put it mildly, indescribable.