Chapter 18: Finally Obtaining the Heavenly Flame

The violent pillar of fire rushed past Xiao Yan's body and slammed straight into the wall of the lava cave, leaving behind a massive crater several dozen meters in diameter and over ten meters deep.

"Emperor Flame Armor!"

The moment before being struck by the pillar of fire, Xiao Yan quickly withdrew the power from the Heavy Xuan Ruler and channeled it entirely into the Emperor Flame Armor.

In the deep crater on the lava cave wall, Xiao Yan stood tall, still maintaining the dim but not yet dissipated Emperor Flame Armor.

With the enhancement of the Volcanic Stone Flame, even the Tier 4 Twin-Headed Fire Spirit Snake, which lived in magma for long periods, would need to expend several times its strength to break the Emperor Flame Armor; however, in its hasty attack, the Fire Spirit Snake simply could not accumulate such immense power.

Seeing that the attack had not achieved the expected result, the Fire Spirit Snake wanted to attack again.

But Xiao Yan clearly had no interest in continuing to trade blows with the Fire Spirit Snake; he quickly broke free from the deep crater and, utilizing the walls of the lava cave, rapidly changed his position.

After multiple failed attacks, the Fire Spirit Snake, in its irritation, simply summoned dozens of fire pillars to strafe the entire lava cave.

But the Fire Spirit Snake, having stayed in the magma for so long, was clearly not accustomed to this kind of close-quarters combat on land; conversely, Xiao Yan had honed extremely agile movements while training in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, dodging through the gaps between the dozens of fire pillars by utilizing the debris falling from time to time.

The more the Fire Spirit Snake failed to hit Xiao Yan, the more irritated it became, and the more irritated it became, the more it had to increase the power of its attacks. In any case, compared to Xiao Yan, its power was greater and more abundant; relying on the sea of magma not far away and the fire-attribute energy emitted by the Green Lotus Core Flame, its supply was almost infinite, and it could afford to squander it like this.

As the dozens of fire pillars danced wildly, the lava cave, which was relatively narrow for the Twin-Headed Fire Spirit Snake, continued to expand. The melted rock fell to the ground, forming a river of magma that flowed along the passage the Fire Spirit Snake had come from and into the sea of magma.

Due to the expansion of the space, the bottom of the lava cave had also turned into a small sea of magma, making it increasingly difficult for Xiao Yan to find footing; several times he was almost hit by the fire pillars. If this continued, Xiao Yan would fall into a situation where there was nowhere left to hide!

"This stupid snake, it actually knows how to create a home-field advantage for itself!" Xiao Yan exclaimed with some surprise.

The Twin-Headed Fire Spirit Snake also revealed a look of smugness at the right moment.

But its smugness did not last long.

The potent poison that had long since entered the Fire Spirit Snake's body followed the boiling blood and continuously invaded its internal organs: stomach, liver, spleen, kidneys, and heart. When the toxins invaded its brain, the Fire Spirit Snake suddenly felt an unprecedented weakness, and the wildly firing pillars of flame paused.

"I've been poisoned!" the Fire Spirit Snake realized in terror. In its panic, it could no longer care about Xiao Yan, and it turned its head and ran toward the passage it had come from.

Xiao Yan naturally would not miss such a golden opportunity; he raised the Heavy Xuan Ruler and slashed down.

ROAR!!!

"Can't get away! I'm going to die!" the Fire Spirit Snake realized in terror, and its two snake heads let out terrified roars. Immediately, it glared with hatred at the fire-red figure that had caused all of this.

"Since you want to kill me, then let's die together!" The fear of death and resentment activated the ferocity of this Twin-Headed Fire Spirit Snake that had lived in comfort for hundreds of years.

The snake head that was fleeing suddenly turned back, contrary to Xiao Yan's expectations, and bit down fiercely on Xiao Yan's body while he was unable to react!!

The two snake heads clamped onto Xiao Yan's limbs from the left and right, not giving him a single chance to break free.

The eight huge fangs continued to push into the Emperor Flame Armor, and it looked as if they were about to break through the armor's defense.

When two sides meet on a narrow path, the brave one wins; Xiao Yan's own ferocity was also ignited at this moment.

While exerting the Emperor Flame Armor to the limit, he continued to inject a massive amount of Dou Qi into the Heavy Xuan Ruler. The giant flaming ruler erupted, directly piercing the throat of one of the Fire Spirit Snake's heads. But no blood sprayed out; it was all incinerated into ash by the scorching flames!

A massive amount of fire-attribute energy was absorbed by Xiao Yan with the help of the Emperor Flame Armor, and the Twin-Headed Fire Spirit Snake was not to be outdone, competing with Xiao Yan for the fire-attribute energy beneath the ground.

The sea of magma several miles away became agitated because of this, erupting from time to time with waves of fire. Under the tug-of-war between the two, the immense fire energy converged into a nearly tangible river of magma that flowed upstream from the sea of magma and arrived in the lava cave.

As a Tier 4 magical beast that had inhabited this place for generations, the Twin-Headed Fire Spirit Snake's ability to attract energy went without saying. Xiao Yan, however, benefited from the enhancement of the Volcanic Stone Flame and the amplification of the Emperor Flame Armor, and his own attraction was not at a disadvantage.

In the current situation, it could be said that whoever persisted longer would achieve the final victory!

If the use of Dou Techniques consumed Dou Qi, then the continuous pulling of heaven and earth energy relied on soul power!

And because Xiao Yan had lived two lives and had undergone the practice of alchemy, his soul power could be said to far exceed the level of a Great Dou Master; even an average Dou Ling would not be Xiao Yan's match, and it was not far off from that of a Dou Wang. Not to mention that the potent poison from Little Fairy Doctor was still taking effect inside the Twin-Headed Fire Spirit Snake.

Under the erosion of the toxins, the Twin-Headed Fire Spirit Snake's consciousness became increasingly heavy, and the effort to drive the heaven and earth energy also made its soul increasingly exhausted, but the human before it was still persisting. "Why? Shouldn't he be weaker than me?"

The Twin-Headed Fire Spirit Snake did not understand, but it no longer had the chance to understand.

The aura belonging to the Twin-Headed Fire Spirit Snake gradually dissipated, and the tightly clamped fangs lost their power and loosened. The flesh that had lost its strength was immediately burned to ash by Xiao Yan's raging fire, leaving only a crimson-red magical core the size of a human head floating in the void.

"A Tier 4 magical beast's magical core!" Xiao Yan, who was also exhausted, felt a surge of spirit; he reached out and waved, quickly summoning the magical core into his hand.

Tearing off his clothes, which had already been shredded into strips of cloth, and taking out a new set from his Storage Ring to change into, Xiao Yan returned to the place where he had just set Little Fairy Doctor down.

After confirming that Little Fairy Doctor was fine, Xiao Yan stuffed a few Qi-Returning Pills into his mouth to recover his Dou Qi and then headed along the passage toward the sea of magma.

………………

"Hmm?" The leader of the Golden Snake Tribe, who was leading a team to search for the Heavenly Flame, suddenly stopped, his brow furrowing: "Everyone stop!"

"What is it, Boss?" Jin Jie walked over and asked.

"Did you all feel any movement?" the leader of the Golden Snake Tribe said.

The nearby snake-people looked at each other, not knowing why their leader would suddenly ask this, until even more obvious movement came.

"This is? Boss! I felt it, there is indeed movement!"

"Me too!"

"The movement seems to be coming from underground!"

"Could it be that the underground volcano is about to erupt?" Jin Jie said with some fear: "Boss, why don't we go back first."

The leader of the Golden Snake Tribe did not pay attention to Jin Jie's cowardly remark, pacing back and forth with furrowed brows: "Do you think this could be the movement of the Heavenly Flame?"

"Heavenly Flame?"

"Yes, Heavenly Flame! The boys in the tribe have already turned this area over several times in the past few days, but still haven't found the Heavenly Flame. If there really is a Heavenly Flame here, then it must be underground!" the leader of the Golden Snake Tribe said, and the more he analyzed it, the more he felt it was so!

Suddenly stopping, the leader of the Golden Snake Tribe said: "Among the humans we captured, who is the most familiar with this area?"

"It is a person named Zhong Bang," Jin Jie replied.

"Zhong Bang? Call him over to lead the way! Tell him, if he finds the Heavenly Flame he lives, if he doesn't, he dies! I hope his name can bring him good luck! Send word to all tribesmen, gather here within half an hour!"

"Yes!!!" x30

………………

Passing through the end of the passage, a fire-red world unfolded before Xiao Yan's eyes.

Although he had expected it, the magnificence of the sea of magma still shocked Xiao Yan beyond measure.

In the massive cavern, fire-red magma flowed quietly, rolling with astonishing heat waves, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of sulfur. Xiao Yan saw with his own eyes a piece of debris fall from above, but it did not make the splashing sound of water as it would in ordinary seawater; instead, it was as if it had fallen into quicksand, slowly sinking down. No! It was being melted, melted into it! In such a world of lava, even a Dou Wang could not last long.

Fortunately, the Fire Spirit Snake had been successfully lured out; otherwise, he would definitely not have lasted even a quarter of an hour in this environment, Xiao Yan felt a wave of relief.

"As expected of the place where a Heavenly Flame is born, it is truly terrifying!" Xiao Yan decisively used the Emperor Flame Armor to wrap his entire body, wiped the sweat from his forehead with one hand, and exclaimed.

But now is not the time to stand around feeling sentimental.

Calming his mind to sense the Heaven and Earth energy in the surroundings, Xiao Yan looked toward a certain spot in the magma sea.

Although blocked by various toxic gases steaming out from the magma, Xiao Yan could clearly feel that the Green Lotus Core Flame was right over there.

Leaning his body slightly forward, the Purple Cloud Wings sprang out from his back. With a single flap of his wings, Xiao Yan flew toward the direction of the Green Lotus Core Flame like a bullet.

As Xiao Yan continued to push deep into the molten world, the magma below gradually shifted from its initial fiery red to a pale cyan, then a deep cyan, and the surrounding temperature kept rising, to the point that even Xiao Yan's Flame Emperor Armor could barely withstand it.

When he flew to the place where the cyan was deepest and the temperature highest, he still did not see the figure of the Green Lotus Core Flame.

Xiao Yan decisively retracted the Purple Cloud Wings on his back and dove straight into the magma.

Ever since he first sensed the Green Lotus Core Flame, he had known that it was not above the magma, but within it!

But the temperature beneath the magma was absolutely incomparable to the temperature above it.

The scales of the Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snake could directly withstand the high temperature here, but Xiao Yan's skin could not; he could only rely on the Flame Emperor Armor to resist it.

This caused the Dou Qi he had just barely recovered to be consumed rapidly, and Xiao Yan could not recklessly absorb the surrounding Heaven and Earth energy to recover, because Xiao Yan's soul power was also running low, and Xiao Yan had no way to recover soul power.

One minute, two minutes.

Five minutes, six minutes.

Xiao Yan no longer needed to wipe the sweat from his face, because it had all been evaporated, leaving only grains of snow-white salt crystals remaining on his face, and Xiao Yan's Dou Qi was nearing exhaustion.

Finally, at the moment Xiao Yan was about to be unable to hold on, an intense cyan light flashed into Xiao Yan's eyes; a cyan lotus stood elegantly in the scorching magma.

Xiao Yan was overjoyed and quickly swam over. Pushing aside the lotus petals, a scorching aura like never before rushed toward his face. Xiao Yan struggled to open his dry eyes to look closely, and a cyan flame was burning fiercely within the lotus, trembling constantly, as if it had sensed Xiao Yan's arrival.

Xiao Yan was overjoyed, quickly dug out a Fire Lotus Seed from within, closed the petals, and stored the entire lotus, along with its stems, leaves, and roots, into the Bone Flame Ring.

Because the roots of the Green Lotus spread across a radius of several dozen meters, it took quite a bit of effort for Xiao Yan, but fortunately, the magma around the Green Lotus had been repelled by the power of the Heavenly Flame, which relieved much of the pressure on Xiao Yan.

Xiao Yan took the opportunity to consume a few more Qi-Returning Pills and flew rapidly back toward the surface.

………………

"My Lord, it is here; going down from here leads directly to the underground." At the dry well where the three of Xiao Yan had gone down, a thin, weak man was being surrounded by a group of Snake-People, nodding and bowing incessantly.

"Are you certain this leads to the location of the Heavenly Flame?" the Golden Snake Tribe leader asked.

"Yes! It definitely does!" Zhong Bang replied immediately. Although he wanted to say that he wasn't sure either, he was afraid that if he said it, he would lose his life the next second.

"Good, then we go down from here; bring the ropes."

The Golden Snake Tribe leader took Zhong Bang down first, and the Snake-People behind followed one by one.

"Strange, why is there a foul smell?"

"Boss, look here, it seems there are traces of humans here!"

………………

"My Lord, you have returned!" Finally, seeing Xiao Yan returning from the right-hand passage while carrying Little Doctor Fairy, Sun Shan, who had been waiting anxiously at the fork in the road, greeted him excitedly: "My Lord! You don't know how worried I was during the time you were gone! I..."

"Alright, alright, I know it all. It is getting late, let us hurry back." Xiao Yan interrupted Sun Shan's rambling: "Xian'er is a bit tired, keep your voice down and don't disturb her." The loss of essence blood was a significant drain on Little Doctor Fairy, and Xiao Yan had already fed the Earth Fire Lotus Seed he had pried off to Little Doctor Fairy.

At this moment, the Earth Fire Lotus Seed was not only recovering the vital energy Little Doctor Fairy had lost, but also tempering her meridians, nourishing her flesh and blood, and evolving her toxins. Presumably, after completely digesting this Earth Fire Lotus Seed, Little Doctor Fairy would not only be fully restored, but her cultivation might even increase a little. But not too much, as Little Doctor Fairy's constitution still primarily relied on toxic energy to progress.

"Oh." Sun Shan immediately stopped his emotional outburst, looking cautiously at Xiao Yan who was walking in front: "Um, My Lord, did you find the Heavenly Flame this time?"

"If I had found it, why would I come back instead of refining it on the spot? Is it for fun?" Xiao Yan deliberately said with annoyance. You can know a person's face but not their heart; he would not easily speak of the Heavenly Flame.

"Yes! This lowly one spoke too much!" Sun Shan hurriedly apologized.

Sigh, to be honest, Xiao Yan was actually quite unaccustomed to having someone act servile in front of him, but on the Dou Qi Continent, this was the norm for the weak facing the strong. But Xiao Yan had no intention of telling Sun Shan to change; it wasn't as if he had demanded it anyway.

………………

"Quick, hurry, someone has already been to this place; we must find them before this group finds the Heavenly Flame!" The Golden Snake Tribe leader urged the Snake-People under his command to move quickly along the passage.

"Boss! There is a fork in the road ahead!"

The Golden Snake Tribe leader gave a look, and several Snake-People immediately stepped forward voluntarily to investigate each fork.

"Boss, there are human footprints here, from just a short while ago!"

In front of the rightmost passage, a Snake-Person shouted.

"Pursue!"

Under the leader's command, all the Snake-People swarmed into the rightmost passage.

The Snake-Person responsible for guarding the human captives like Zhong Bang lagged behind with a look of regret; there was no help for it, dragging a dead weight made it impossible to run fast.

Just as this Snake-Person was lamenting, a massive force suddenly struck the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.

By the time the other Snake-People noticed the commotion behind them, they only saw a figure wearing a black cloth mask leading Zhong Bang and the other human captives away leisurely, and before leaving, he had punched the top of the passage, causing a large amount of falling rubble to block the path of their pursuit.