Chapter 568

The maid walked into the room with a leisurely gait and placed the plate of fire-colored crystals on the table.

The maid looked at Chen Yan with a pair of pitch-black eyes, licked her lips, and revealed an extremely friendly smile:

"This honored guest, you have already stayed in the Counter-Fire Castle for a full hour."

"To praise you for having no discriminatory heart toward us as Ancient Divine Beasts, the Castle Master specially asked me to bring you a specialty of our Counter-Fire Castle."

"Counter-Fire Crystals."

Chen Yan looked at the fire-colored crystals on the plate and asked:

"What is the use of these?"

"They can be used to forge weapons, but you need the Counter-Fire Furnace in our Castle Master's room; weapons forged through the Counter-Fire Furnace have their quality greatly improved."

As the maid spoke, she revealed a proud expression, and at the same time, she licked her lips while looking at Chen Yan.

Chen Yan raised his eyebrows slightly; he could tell that this Ancient Divine Beast wanted to eat him.

But she was struggling to restrain herself.

Including just now, when Ji Chuxi and the others searched the entire castle, although the Ancient Divine Beasts in these castles wanted to eat them, they did not make a move and even let these people leave.

"Since the honored guest has no other business, I will take my leave first."

The maid blinked playfully and held up two fingers:

"If you can continue to stay for another hour, our castle will definitely be grateful to you and will present you with two Counter-Fire Crystals."

Chen Yan frowned slightly:

"You want me to stay longer?"

The maid nodded:

"Of course, when the human race encounters us Ancient Divine Beasts, they either fear us and avoid us, or they directly attack us."

"You are willing to live in a castle built by us Ancient Divine Beasts, which shows your friendship completely."

Chen Yan tilted his head slightly and said indifferently:

"Wipe your drool."

"Ah!"

The maid let out a flustered sound and hurriedly wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth.

"But I'm afraid you will eat me," Chen Yan continued.

"How could that be?" The maid revealed a puzzled expression:

"We would never eat humans."

Chen Yan was speechless; apart from the sentence the other party said just now—"As long as you stay for another hour, the Castle Master will send two Counter-Fire Crystals"—the other party had not said a single truthful word.

"You can't eat me right now?" Chen Yan continued to ask.

"Guest, please rest assured, we never eat humans," the maid said, with friendliness.

A lie.

"As long as I stay for a long time, you will attack me?" Chen Yan changed his angle.

"Not at all," the maid laughed:

"We will never attack an honored guest."

A lie.

"Do you have a time limit for attacking me?" Chen Yan continued to ask.

"Not at all, we will never attack an honored guest," the maid's words never changed.

"Does the Purple Universe World-Fixing Mirror restrict you, and as soon as the time is up, you will attack me?" Chen Yan's expression remained unchanged.

"Not at all," the maid smiled, the drool at the corner of her mouth already flowing down like a waterfall:

"We will never attack an honored guest."

"Are you a pig?"

The maid instantly opened her mouth wide and roared in exasperation:

"I already said, we will never attack an honored guest, are you fucking deaf!"

Her mouth tore open, pieces of rotten flesh flew everywhere, her entire face turned into a patch of rotten flesh, and her eyes and nose were stuck onto the rotten flesh in a chaotic mess.

Her mouth was still roaring, but her eyes had already split open, and like her mouth, they kept muttering:

"Sooner or later I'll eat you, sooner or later I'll eat you, sooner or later I'll eat you..."

The next moment, the maid froze.

"Noble guest, I am not a pig, I am..."

"Take me to see the Castle Master."

Chen Yan replied.

"Hmm?" The maid was stunned.

"Take me to see your Castle Master," Chen Yan spoke again.

"Alright then," the maid smiled gently and walked out of the room with graceful steps, then suddenly turned her head to look at Chen Yan:

"Guest, why aren't you walking?"

"Come and support me, I am ill," Chen Yan extended his arm.

"You should have said so earlier," the maid grabbed Chen Yan's arm.

"Turn your head away," Chen Yan spoke again.

"Why?"

"Because you have bad breath," Chen Yan smiled.

Immediately.

Every Ancient God Beast within the entire castle witnessed this scene.

Chen Yan was supported downstairs by a headless maid, while the maid's other hand clutched a rotting head.

The eyes embedded in the head split open, constantly muttering something in a low voice, but there was no sound at all.

Chen Yan, however, had a calm expression.

The malice within his physical body was being slowly expelled, and the speed at which Chen Yan devoured and extinguished the malice suddenly became faster and faster.

In about four or five hours, Chen Yan's combat power could recover to half.

At that time, Chen Yan's physical body would still have major problems, but his Qi and blood would be able to circulate.

Once his Qi and blood could circulate, Chen Yan would be able to execute the 【Calamity Corpse Thousand Shadow Kill】.

The 【Calamity Corpse Thousand Shadow Kill】 would not suffer a loss in its own combat power due to Chen Yan's damaged combat power.

The combat power that could be erupted by the three Qi and blood clones was absolutely terrifying.

As for what had just flown away, it was the Myriad Prison Nether Thunder and the Heavenly God Armor.

As the Heavenly God Armor could transform into any form, it was not difficult to completely wrap around the Myriad Prison Nether Thunder.

At the same time, the Heavenly God Armor could isolate malice of the Eighth Rank and below.

Holding that malice crystal of the Dream Ancient God Beast in his hand, the Myriad Prison Nether Thunder within it would also not be affected.

Constantly crushing malice crystals to create malice could delay the speed of Chen Yitong and those few others.

Drag it out as long as possible.

The Heavenly God Armor was destined to be chased down.

But wanting to destroy a God-level combat armor by relying on a few at the Peak of the Creation Realm was absolutely impossible.

Chen Yan also did not intend to leave the Backfire Castle; the most dangerous place is the safest.

He currently did not have the ability to flee far away either.

This was the darkness under the lamp.

But staying in the castle room was still too risky.

It was inevitable that after Chen Yitong and the others returned, they would push open the door to take a look.

Even if they only used Qi and blood to push the door, Chen Yan would be exposed to extreme danger.

At that time, what would Chen Yan do?

Therefore, the room where the Castle Master resided was the most dangerous, yet in another aspect, it was also the safest.

Moreover, Chen Yan also wanted to see how the Backfire Crystal gifted by the Backfire Castle could strengthen weapons.

To use the Backfire Crystal, one had to use the Backfire Furnace in the Castle Master's room.

The Castle Master's room was a place that had to be visited.

The struggle of the Five Clans was essentially a crucible for the strong, containing immense opportunities within it.

If one were eaten by an Ancient God Beast the moment they entered, then what would be the meaning of this opportunity?

Furthermore, the initial difficulty would definitely not be great.

At least for Chen Yan, it would definitely not be great.

This Backfire Castle was clearly also one of the opportunities.

The Backfire Castle was huge, surrounded by winding gray-black walls.

Three castles were enclosed within it.

The castle Chen Yan was currently in was specifically built for guests.

The Castle Master occupied the central castle alone.

Meanwhile, the butler, maids, advisors, Guard Captain, and guards lived in a castle set against the city gate.

Along the way, all the Ancient God Beasts that saw Chen Yan wore gentle smiles, yet they uncontrollably drooled.

A middle-aged man wearing a suit and a top hat bowed slightly to Chen Yan; that was the castle butler.

"Respected guest, I hope you can have a wonderful vacation in Backfire Castle."

The butler smiled, and Chen Yan nodded.

After Chen Yan left, the Guard Captain, who had a scarred face and had been training the guards not far away, walked to the butler's side and looked at Chen Yan's back with covetous eyes:

"I... I want to eat his head."

The butler glanced sideways at the Guard Captain and barked coldly:

"The head belongs to the Castle Master, you lowly dog!"

The Guard Captain nodded sullenly and fidgeted:

"Then I'll eat his heart."

Slap!

The butler slapped the Guard Captain on the forehead:

"The heart is mine, you stupid, disgusting pig!"

Soon.

Chen Yan was led to the top floor of the central fortress.

A kindly old man wearing a pitch-black formal suit came before Chen Yan and spoke enthusiastically:

"Respected guest, please sit."

This was the Castle Master.

Chen Yan sat down, and the Castle Master smiled at the maid:

"It seems you did well to earn the guest's friendship."

The maid, carrying her own rotting head, fidgeted and smiled:

"This is what I should do, and... can I eat... a bit better tonight?"

The severed head dripped sticky saliva, instantly polluting the carpet.

The Fortress Master narrowed his eyes, but after glancing at Chen Yan, he immediately spoke to the maid:

"Of course you can, I'll add an extra portion of bread for you tonight."

The maid trembled instantly, then became extremely excited, and just as she was about to speak.

Chen Yan swept a glance at the maid, then said:

"I wanted to come to you, Fortress Master, from the very beginning, but she kept blocking me, saying you would eat me.

I don't believe it."

As Chen Yan's voice fell, the maid screamed instantly:

"You are slandering me, you..."

Crack!

Her head was grabbed by the Fortress Master, and the next moment the Fortress Master opened his mouth, his huge, pitch-black mouth swallowing the maid's head directly into his belly.

"Pardon... pardon my rudeness... do you mind if I..." The Fortress Master looked at Chen Yan, pitch-black juices flowing from the corners of his mouth, pressing down hard on the maid's still-struggling headless corpse.

"I don't mind," Chen Yan smiled.

Immediately, the Fortress Master ate the maid clean not far from Chen Yan, even licking the carpet once.

"Disgusting!" the Fortress Master growled: "I knew she was no good, she really is disgusting, ptooey!"

Chen Yan looked at the Fortress Master:

"I would like to stay in your castle for a few days."

"A few days!!!" the Fortress Master exclaimed.

"Yes," Chen Yan said:

"But as you can see, there are some very bad humans hunting me, don't let them find me."

The Fortress Master's eyes were eerie as he said:

"I definitely won't let them find you."

Chen Yan and the Fortress Master looked at each other and smiled, understanding each other perfectly.

"Can you give me more Backfire Crystals?" Chen Yan asked.

"No, absolutely not!" The Fortress Master waved his hands hurriedly: "The guest only needs to stay for another..."

He looked at his watch:

"Stay for another fifty-five minutes, and you can obtain two Backfire Crystals."

"What about staying for another two hours?"

"Four!"

"What about three hours?" Chen Yan asked again.

"Eight!"

"What about four hours?"

The Fortress Master drooled, his eyes flickering for a brief moment:

"Sixteen!"

Chen Yan nodded.

Just in that brief moment, the Fortress Master's emotions fluctuated rapidly.

Chen Yan could roughly judge that after four hours, the entire castle would move against him.

And the longer Chen Yan stayed, the more Backfire Crystals he would obtain.

By the tenth hour, Chen Yan could directly obtain one thousand and twenty-four.

This was a test of human greed.

And four hours ago, no matter how much the Ancient God Beast inside this castle wanted to move against Chen Yan, it had no way to do so.

This was the rule restriction of the Purple Ring World-Fixing Mirror.

"May I use your Backfire Furnace?"

Chen Yan asked again.

The Fortress Master's eyes flickered:

"Of course you can!"

He understood clearly that only after these humans used the Backfire Crystals would they truly understand the value of the Backfire Crystals, and only then would they truly be bound by greed.

Then, these foolish humans who thought they could resist temptation would automatically deliver themselves into his mouth.

He had originally wanted to slowly exert malice to confuse this human's mind, making them lose their senses so they would be better bound by greed.

But after sensing the malice on Chen Yan, the Fortress Master withdrew this thought.

So, he was a fool who had long been captured by malice and had no mind left.

Soon, Chen Yan was led by the Fortress Master into a stone room.

Inside the stone room, an iron-smelting furnace occupied the center, the furnace body built from thick stones, its surface smoked pitch-black.

"Guest, please use it..." The Fortress Master revealed a kind smile, then closed the room door.

Chen Yan observed the Backfire Furnace, which had no flames, then tossed the Backfire Crystal in his hand into it.

Whoosh.

The Backfire Crystal instantly transformed into a cluster of orange flames, within which billions of golden secret runes circled, containing some kind of Martial Dao truth, licking the void wantonly and illuminating the surroundings with intense heat.

Chen Yan took out the Ember Memory Spear and pressed the spear tip into the flames.

Sss, sss, sss!

The Ember Memory Spear instantly turned bright red, scalding Chen Yan's palm and leaving a white mark.

"Hmm?" Chen Yan glanced at his palm, his expression changing slightly; just a moment ago, it seemed as if some kind of Dao aura had flowed into his body.

The malice within Chen Yan's body seemed to be pushed out by the heat.

Meanwhile, the Ember Memory Spear seemed to be quietly reforged at this moment, with wisps of pitch-black impurities overflowing from within it.

Hum!

The spear soul dispersed, and Xia Weimin's blood-colored spear soul circled around the long spear, appearing to become increasingly turbulent.

Chen Yan's eyes flickered; the Ember Memory Spear was slowly rising in grade, and its connection with Xia Weimin's spear soul was becoming tighter and tighter.

One must know, the Ember Memory Spear was already Sun-Radiance Grade, First Class.

If it were to rise in grade again...

In an instant, Chen Yan seemed to understand the difficulty of this trial at Backfire Castle.

No one could resist the temptation of having their own weapon continuously strengthened.

Following this, Chen Yan grabbed the already red-hot handle of the Ember Memory Spear.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!!!

Wisps of black smoke diffused outward, and Chen Yan's palm was turning incredibly red, his flesh and blood being scorched charred black.

The pain was incomparable.

This was an almost irresistible agony; even Chen Yan only persisted for less than ten seconds before withdrawing his hand.

But Chen Yan clearly felt that his palm seemed to be undergoing strengthening.

Moreover, the malice within his body was being continuously tempered out.

Within the flames of the Backfire Furnace.

Chen Yan's physical body was also being treated as a weapon.

And the Backfire Furnace considered the malice within Chen Yan's body to be an impurity, so it would forge the malice out of Chen Yan's body just as it would refine fine iron.

Chen Yan revealed a smile.

He had intended to hide for a while longer, but he had not expected a new path to suddenly appear beneath his feet.