Chapter 16: Catching Sight of the Fallen Heart Flame

"What's wrong with you? Is there a problem with these two names?" the Little Fairy Doctor asked, noticing Xiao Yan's strange expression.

"No, it's nothing." Xiao Yan shook his head, packed his items away, smiled at the Little Fairy Doctor, and opened his arms.

The Little Fairy Doctor moved with light, lotus-like steps, walking into Xiao Yan's embrace with a fragrant breeze, her hands naturally wrapping around his neck. Xiao Yan followed through and lifted her up.

Sun Shan watched this scene with a blank expression, completely failing to understand why these two had to flirt right now, and in front of him at that. Could it be they wanted to bully him, a lonely bachelor?

"Come here and hold onto my leg."

"Huh?" (This book is first published on Heavenly Reading Novels, providing you with an error-free and orderly reading experience.)

"Hurry up!"

"Yes!"

Although Sun Shan didn't understand, he still held onto Xiao Yan's right leg tightly.

Then he saw a pair of purple shadows flash before his eyes, appearing to be a pair of wings.

I must be muddled; how could there be wings? You have to know that only a Dou Wang can use Dou Qi to manifest wings...

Suddenly, a hurricane swept down from above, kicking up a sky full of yellow sand that drilled into Sun Shan's nose, mouth, and eyes.

But Sun Shan was in no mood to care about that, because... he was flying.

Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn! No, Big Brother, you really are a damn Dou Wang!

Sun Shan only felt that he must have forgotten to check the almanac before leaving the house; otherwise, how could he have run into a Dou Wang right after escaping from the Snake-People?

Although Sun Shan misunderstood Xiao Yan's strength—after all, high-end goods like flight Dou Techniques aren't things ordinary people would know about.

But he wasn't entirely wrong; after all, whether Xiao Yan was a Dou Wang or a Seven-Star Da Dou Shi, he could easily finish him off.

Xiao Yan, of course, did not know about Sun Shan's rich inner monologue, nor would he care to know.

After rising to a high altitude, Xiao Yan roughly identified the direction and flew toward the place marked with a flame symbol on the map.

………………

As for why Xiao Yan didn't just fly from the start but chose to walk, it was mainly because flying was too fast, making it easy to fly past landmarks. Secondly, there were magical beasts in the sky, and being targeted by them accidentally would be a troublesome affair.

With one Red Flame Arrow and one move of the Seven-Colored Poison Palm, another group of avian magical beasts was dealt with by Xiao Yan and the Little Fairy Doctor.

But quite awkwardly, they had, unsurprisingly, lost their way.

It was at this moment that the necessity of Xiao Yan bringing Sun Shan along became apparent.

"Sun Shan, wake up. Stop pretending to be unconscious and see what place this is."

For low-level cultivators, high altitudes were always a place of dread, especially with nothing beneath their feet, which only served to breed fear.

However, the request of "Lord Dou Wang" certainly could not be refused. Trembling, Sun Shan opened his eyes, scanned the surroundings, recalled the mark on the map Xiao Yan had shown him, and cautiously extended half an arm to point in a direction.

"That, that way. If you fly for about another half an hour, you'll be there, my Lord."

"Good."

Xiao Yan flew abruptly in the direction Sun Shan pointed.

But not long after, Xiao Yan stopped suddenly in mid-air, the aura around his entire body contracting sharply, his eyes locked onto a spot far below.

Although the Little Fairy Doctor hadn't discovered anything yet, she cooperated by taking out a medicine pouch used to mask their scent. The Snake-People tribe's sense of smell was far sharper than humans'; one could not afford to be careless.

Indeed, in the spot Xiao Yan was staring at, there were two Snake-People wandering about, though they didn't look like they were patrolling so much as searching for something.

The Heavenly Flame must not have been found yet, Xiao Yan judged.

Slowly circling to the back of the two Snake-People, they descended from the sky and hid behind a sand dune.

"Hmm, these two Snake-People aren't very strong, only at the Dou Shi level," Xiao Yan said after observing them carefully.

"How about it, my Lord? Should we take them both out?" Sun Shan, standing to the side, suddenly became excited for some reason, acting as if he were the one about to strike.

"I think it's better not to strike, so as not to alert the enemy," the Little Fairy Doctor said suddenly.

"Hmm, if even two random Snake-People in this squad are at the Dou Shi realm, then the leader must be at least a Da Dou Shi or even a Dou Ling. We cannot be careless." Xiao Yan nodded. "Our goal is the Heavenly Flame. As long as the Snake-People haven't found it, we don't need to clash with them."

"It's just that this place is already full of the Snake-People tribe; I'm afraid it won't be so easy for us to find it," the Little Fairy Doctor said with a worried frown, her jade hand hooked under her chin.

Indeed, this place wasn't small, but it wasn't large either. If they were also searching everywhere for the Heavenly Flame, it would be hard not to run into the Snake-People.

Xiao Yan tried hard to recall his blurred memories, hoping to find a breakthrough.

"Underground!" Xiao Yan said suddenly. "Sun Shan, do you know of any large pits nearby? The very deep kind."

"Pits?" The Little Fairy Doctor and Sun Shan were both stunned, clearly unable to keep up with Xiao Yan's train of thought.

"Although this area isn't small, the Snake-People have been here for several days. They must have searched it once already, otherwise they wouldn't have sent people to such a remote place," Xiao Yan continued. "Sending people this far to scout means they've already searched once but didn't find it. Therefore, either there is no Heavenly Flame here, or the Heavenly Flame is underground!"

"Not bad, that makes sense. So we should focus our efforts underground from now on. And this way, as long as we enter the underground through a pit, we can avoid the Snake-People above and not have to worry about being discovered." The Little Fairy Doctor's eyes lit up, and she said excitedly, her gaze toward Xiao Yan filled with little stars, which gave Xiao Yan a sense of satisfaction.

"If it's a pit leading underground, I do know of one," Sun Shan said at the right moment. "But I've never been down there myself. If I get lost..."

"It's fine, at worst we'll just dig a hole to get back up," Xiao Yan said nonchalantly. Clearly, many problems in this world are useless against those with absolute power.

"Since it's decided, let's set off."

Bypassing the two Snake-People, Sun Shan was responsible for leading the way, Xiao Yan for keeping watch to avoid encountering other Snake-People, and the Little Fairy Doctor for covering the rear. The three of them moved quickly through the desert in this formation.

Several hours passed, and as the moon was about to rise to the center of the sky, several dilapidated buildings appeared in front of the three.

"This is?" Xiao Yan asked, somewhat puzzled.

"This used to be a desert post station. There is a well behind these buildings. It was built here when there was originally water inside," Sun Shan explained. "But this isn't our target. About a mile east of this station, there is another well that was attempted when the water source originally dried up. Although it didn't yield water, it connected to a large lava cave underground."

"Lava cave?"

"Yes, a lava cave formed by magma! If there really is a Heavenly Flame underground, we will definitely be able to find it if we go down from this place," Sun Shan said with certainty.

Bypassing the post station and walking another few hundred paces—there was nothing else in between... ahem, they didn't encounter anything else—at a position about a mile east of the station, there was indeed a vertically sunken hole. Because it never yielded water from the start, there wasn't even a stone well-curb around it.

Looking down from the hole, one could only see a pitch-black void. Even if you threw a stone down, you couldn't hear the slightest echo.

Xiao Yan was not one to give up; he finally threw a fireball down, and this time he saw clearly.

It turned out it wasn't that the hole was deep, but that the bottom of the hole had been filled in by years of yellow sand, which was why there was no sound when the stone was thrown down.

Through the illumination of the fire, Xiao Yan could basically be certain that there was indeed a large lava cave below.

"Alright, this is the place, let's go down," Xiao Yan said.

"But how do we go down? Not to mention there's no rope, there's also nothing to anchor to around here," Sun Shan said with some worry. For some reason, he always had an ominous premonition.

"Rope? What do you need a rope for? Just jump down," Xiao Yan asked with a strange look on his face, as if Sun Shan had said something inconceivable.

"Ah! Jump down? Wouldn't that mean falling to our deaths? Besides, how are we supposed to get back up later?" Sun Shan asked in surprise.

But Xiao Yan didn't listen any further; he kicked him down, and immediately followed by jumping down himself.

The Little Fairy Doctor waited at the cave entrance for a moment, and once she figured enough time had passed, she also jumped down.

Ahhh—

Boom!

The screaming Sun Shan landed heavily on the sand pile at the bottom of the cave entrance. He wasn't hurt, just ended up with a mouthful of sand.

Immediately after, Xiao Yan also landed. Just before hitting the ground, a burst of flames erupted from the soles of Xiao Yan's feet, reducing his descent speed and allowing him to land steadily. Afterward, he skillfully spread his arms and slightly crouched his legs, precisely catching the falling Little Fairy Doctor; his crouched legs effectively cushioned the impact. Clearly, this was not the first time the two had done this.

In the pitch-black lava cave, Xiao Yan took a torch from his Storage Ring and lit it. Although he could conjure a fireball to provide light himself, it was better to save his Dou Qi where he could. After all, it was unrealistic to think that such a large underground space would contain nothing at all.

This lava cave ran in an east-west direction, and Xiao Yan chose to head east as usual.

The sand pile at the cave entrance was not very large, and it disappeared after walking a few steps. The boots on his feet made "tap, tap, tap" sounds as they stepped on the cave walls left by the lava, echoing throughout the massive cavern.

After walking another few miles, the passage became increasingly narrow, eventually only wide enough for one person to pass through. The clothes on their bodies rubbed against the cave walls from time to time, making a "hissing" sound.

Finally, at the end of the lava cave, seven forks appeared before the three of them under the illumination of the torchlight.

Xiao Yan scanned them; each fork looked no different from the others, and it was hard to judge which passage would lead to the location of the Heavenly Flame, or rather, it was uncertain if there was even a Heavenly Flame at all.

"Xiao Yan." Just as Xiao Yan was still thinking about which passage to enter first, the Little Fairy Doctor suddenly tugged at the corner of his clothes.

"Hm? What is it?" Xiao Yan turned his head to ask.

"Look over there." As she spoke, the Little Fairy Doctor reached out and pointed to the passage on the far right.

Xiao Yan looked in the direction of the Little Fairy Doctor's hand and saw an inconspicuous trail at the entrance of the rightmost passage.

"This is a trail left by a serpentine Magical Beast!" Xiao Yan's expression gradually turned serious; running into a Magical Beast in a place like this was no laughing matter.

"We should go check the other six passages first," the Little Fairy Doctor suggested.

Xiao Yan nodded, but he didn't hold much hope in his heart.

After all, if there really were a Heavenly Flame, it was impossible for this Magical Beast that had lived here for a long time not to have discovered it.

For three consecutive days, the three of them explored the remaining six passages. As expected, they found no traces of a Heavenly Flame.

Looking at the long trail that extended all the way to the deepest part, Xiao Yan's expression was somewhat grave.

But the path of refining a Heavenly Flame was one he had chosen himself, so no matter how difficult, he had to keep going.

"Little Fairy Doctor, you stay..."

"I'll go with you."

Xiao Yan had intended to have the Little Fairy Doctor stay here, as he couldn't guarantee safety for the path ahead. If the Heavenly Flame was truly here, he likely knew the origin of this snake. Dealing with that existence, even for the current Xiao Yan, left him with no leeway to protect the Little Fairy Doctor.

But Xiao Yan's words trailed off halfway; the Little Fairy Doctor was looking straight at him, her eyes devoid of fear, filled only with the determination to face the hardships together.

Xiao Yan had always known that the Little Fairy Doctor was a girl who was soft on the outside but firm on the inside. Even if he left her here now, she would follow him on her own.

"Have you decided?"

The Little Fairy Doctor gripped Xiao Yan's hand tightly; this was her response.

"Alright!" Taking a deep breath, Xiao Yan said, "Then let's go."

Leaving Sun Shan behind to wait, Xiao Yan and the Little Fairy Doctor proceeded along the rightmost passage.

However, after less than a quarter of an hour, the temperature in the passage began to rise, and the space grew larger.

The Volcanic Stone Flame inside Xiao Yan's body trembled violently, and a strange sensation enveloped him.

At this moment, Xiao Yan's consciousness seemed to cross the winding lava cave ahead and the vast lava, arriving at a cyan lotus flower located in the center of the magma.

In the dark red sea of magma, a cyan lotus flower was in full bloom. The cyan light shone from the center of the lotus, making the surrounding scorching magma appear somewhat cool.

But hidden beneath this coolness was an even more terrifying high temperature; even the finest refined iron would be instantly vaporized here.

Just as Xiao Yan wanted to go further to see the Green Lotus Core Flame at the center of the lotus, the scene before his eyes instantly pulled away and quickly vanished.

At the very last moment before the scene disappeared, he saw a two-headed, crimson giant snake wandering in the scorching magma.

Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snake! Xiao Yan recognized it immediately.

"What's wrong?" Seeing Xiao Yan, who was walking in front, suddenly stop, the Little Fairy Doctor asked with some curiosity.

Although a while had passed for Xiao Yan in the vision just now, only an instant had passed in reality.

"Xian'er, I think we've found the Heavenly Flame." Xiao Yan told the Little Fairy Doctor what he had just seen, and she listened in constant amazement.

"Is it because you have a Heavenly Flame? Did some kind of resonance occur between the two Heavenly Flames?" the Little Fairy Doctor guessed.

"I'm not sure, I think it might be for other reasons, but the most important thing now is the Heavenly Flame and that Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snake!" Xiao Yan said, carefully recalling the details from before: "If what I just saw wasn't an illusion, they should be about ten miles away from here."

"What level is that Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snake?" the Little Fairy Doctor asked.

Xiao Yan thought for a moment: "It should be a Tier 4 Magical Beast, equivalent to a Dou Ling."

"If that's the case, it's going to be troublesome."

Facing the powerful threat of the Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snake, the expressions of the two gradually became heavy.