The Blazing Purgatory.
A holy ground for those who practiced fire methods!
Here, fire-method cultivators could perform far beyond their usual limits, their dharmic power flowing endlessly, their courage multiplying. Even Cave Master Moyun had once eagerly wanted to challenge Luo Chen, which served as clear proof.
Meanwhile, cultivators practicing other disciplines suffered tremendous suppression within the Blazing Purgatory, particularly those of the metal, water, and ice elements.
Beyond this, another major feature of the Blazing Purgatory was that it concealed numerous sourceless fires.
These sourceless fires might not all be high in rank, but their varieties were diverse.
Moreover, the vast majority had begun to gradually develop spirituality due to the unique environment of the Blazing Purgatory.
For instance, Luo Chen's Wither-Bloom True Fire had barely gained a sliver of sapience back in the Yan Alliance's Incense Valley when it advanced to Tier 4.
Yet within the Blazing Purgatory, even some Tier 3 sourceless fires already possessed awareness.
Those Tier 4 sourceless fires, in particular, were brimming with spirituality, capable of taking ethereal form to become fire spirits!
Fire spirits of this kind posed an immense threat to immortal cultivators.
Unlike ordinary wood and stone spirits whose means were limited and combat prowess feeble, fire spirits possessed innate, terrifying destructive power.
What was more!
The Blazing Purgatory was like their home; fighting on their home turf gave them an enormous boost in power!
Luo Chen had already realized this when he devoured that Tier 4 Sky-Burning Fire.
During that battle, he had even briefly assumed his Heavenly Peng True Form, which went to show how formidable Tier 4 fire spirits were. Even if not quite equal to an orthodox Nascent Soul Zhenren, they were not far off.
And such existences were not limited to the Sky-Burning Fire alone in the Blazing Purgatory.
Along the way, Luo Chen had been searching out the habitats of those powerful fire spirits.
Originally, finding them had required immense effort. But as the Wither-Bloom True Fire's spirituality grew, perhaps due to the principle of like attracting like, he had detected several locations suspected to harbor Tier 4 fire spirits in a short time.
Had Han Zhan not spoken up to warn him back then, Luo Chen might well have remained lost in the pleasure of seeking, capturing, devouring, and refining fire spirits.
Now...
Those unfinished pursuits had instead become an extra trump card in Luo Chen's hand.
Bang!
An explosion echoed in midair.
A figure abruptly appeared above an erupting volcano.
Beneath his feet, black smoke billowed and flames filled the sky.
In the distance, the generation's demon sovereign was struggling to hold his ground under the pincer attack of two fire spirits.
Luo Chen took a deep breath, his single hand forming several hand seals in rapid succession before pressing a palm downward.
The Landslide Art, which he had once relied upon to dominate the Foundation Establishment stage, had gradually been shelved after he formed his core. Yet in this battle, it shone with brilliant splendor.
There were no useless spells in this world!
At the right time and in the right place, even the most mundane Cleansing Art could radiate an unexpected brilliance.
At this moment, Landslide manifested once again!
"Come forth!"
With a low roar from Luo Chen, the mountain collapsed and the earth cracked open. A black tiger-like fire spirit slowly opened its eyes.
Its sharp gaze immediately locked onto the culprit, Luo Chen.
Yet a moment later, it shifted its gaze toward Merfolk Sovereign Liu Jun, who was locked in fierce battle with two fire spirits in the distance.
In silence, the tiger fire spirit strode forth with vigorous steps, wreathed in mysterious black flames as it soared toward that battlefield.
Seeing this, Luo Chen could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Han Zhan truly did not deceive me!
Devouring large quantities of sourceless fires here strengthened the Wither-Bloom True Fire, but it also gradually attuned me to the Blazing Purgatory, nearly assimilating me.
What was originally a bad thing has turned out to be a blessing at this moment!
He carried a dense aura of the Wither-Bloom True Fire. To these powerful fire spirits, which possessed spirituality but lacked high intelligence, he appeared like a sibling.
In normal times, siblings might squabble and bicker endlessly.
Yet when an intruder invaded their home, brothers quarreling within the walls would unite to resist outside aggression!
Another Tier 4 fire spirit had joined the fray!
Merfolk Sovereign Liu Jun's heart ran cold, especially looking at the black tiger treading through the void in pursuit. The flames enveloping it were bizarre and immensely powerful.
Even the silver python and the azure fire tree fell slightly short in comparison.
A single fire spirit, he feared not.
Two fire spirits, he could still fight.
Yet against three fire spirits whose prowess rivaled the Nascent Soul realm, possessing home-court advantage and countering his water arts to boot, he had to carefully weigh his own limits.
Four figures moved like streaks of light through the Blazing Purgatory.
With every clash, powerful shockwaves erupted, sweeping across hundreds, even thousands of li.
Vast mountain ranges were shattered, and low-tier sourceless fires innocently surged forth.
The azure radiance radiating outward from time to time grew increasingly faint.
Suddenly, Merfolk Sovereign Liu Jun glared toward the ground, his eyes nearly splitting at the corners.
The black-armored man stood quietly before a rolling river of magma.
Watching the bubbles rising and bursting one after another, the man seemed to be pondering, yet also hesitating.
As if sensing Liu Jun's gaze, he turned and looked up, flashing Liu Jun a faint smile.
That smile was savage and deranged!
The next instant, the black-armored man raised both hands high. Behind him, countless torrents of magma surged into the sky, forming a crimson curtain of fire.
From within that fiery curtain, a bright red swimming fish drifted out in confusion.
As the fish swam, the river of magma began to follow in its wake.
"Madman!"
Merfolk Sovereign Liu Jun cursed through gritted teeth, and the oil lamp appeared in his hand once more.
A liquid that resembled both blood and oil dripped from his fingertips, igniting the blue flame instantly.
This time, Liu Jun's face grew several shades paler.
Activating this true artifact evidently placed an enormous toll on him as well.
Once the flame caught, a glimmer of hope finally returned to his eyes.
With a flick of his finger, the blue flame split into four, flying toward the four fire spirits.
Finally, shooting Luo Chen a venomous glare, he transformed into a blue streak of light and sped away into the distance.
By the river's edge, Luo Chen watched him flee without any reaction.
In his ear, Han Zhan's voice sounded once more.
"He took several of your punches head-on earlier, damaging his physique, and activated the merfolk inheritance true artifact twice in succession, draining his dharmic power heavily. On top of his prior injuries, he is now like a candle flickering in the wind. Are you not going to pursue and strike him down while you have the upper hand?"
"No."
"Oh? You've had a change of heart? Weren't you screaming for his death earlier?"
"Mere fierce words spoken in the heat of battle; you shouldn't take them seriously. Besides, how could a Nascent Soul Zhenren be so easily hunted down and exterminated?"
Standing where he was, Luo Chen regulated the turbulent dharmic power within him, the earlier madness completely vanished from his eyes.
He had underestimated Nascent Soul Zhenren!
He had originally thought that reaching Desolate Ancient Tier 4 in his physical body would give him the capital to contend with a Nascent Soul Zhenren, resulting in at least a fifty-fifty split.
He had not expected this battle to turn out as a forty-sixty split!
Forty for him, sixty for the Merfolk Sovereign.
And that was while enjoying the home-court advantage and having Han Zhan's assistance.
Were it outside the Blazing Purgatory, the odds would likely have been even worse.
Thirty-seventy?
Of course, neither side had fought to the death yet, nor had their full foundations been revealed.
Luo Chen's physique possessed profound depth; in a true battle of attrition, who would emerge victorious remained uncertain.
The Land of the Fallen Demon was simply not the right place for a fight to the death.
Within the Soul Nourishing Wood, Han Zhan gave a silent nod of approval.
It seemed Luo Chen truly had taken his words to heart.
Though wild on the surface, his mind remained remarkably composed. Even when facing a Nascent Soul powerhouse, he kept a clear head and exploited the environmental advantage to its fullest.
The fires of battle gradually subsided.
Yet loose ends remained.
Before fleeing, Merfolk Sovereign Liu Jun had split the blue flame into four wisps, striking at the four fire spirits.
Each of the four spirits dealt with it differently.
The fish, upon being touched, leaped directly into the river of magma; after a few dips, the blue light vanished.
As for the black tiger, the black flames on its body blazed intensely, grinding away the blue wisp in just a few pulses.
Seeing this, Luo Chen's eyelids twitched violently.
Just what sourceless fire gave birth to this fire spirit?
To be so formidable and overbearing!
Had he recklessly attempted to devour this flame earlier, he would have suffered grievous self-inflicted wounds even if he managed to survive.
As for the remaining two fire spirits, the Wither-Bloom True Fire displayed a different flair this time. As its branches swayed, it was actually slowly devouring the blue flame!
"It can even devour this?"
Luo Chen was stunned.
"Then why earlier... Ah, of course. The four of them faced a divided wisp of blue flame, while my left hand faced the entire mass."
"In that case, my Wither-Bloom True Fire isn't necessarily weaker than that blue fire—I merely utilized it improperly?"
Muttering to himself, Luo Chen shifted his gaze toward the silver-white fire python.
Among the four spirits, it was the most pathetic.
It thrashed endlessly on the ground, spitting silvery flames, yet could not shake off the corrosion of the blue fire; even its aura was steadily waning.
"Go help it!"
After the Wither-Bloom True Fire devoured its blue flame, Luo Chen sent a thought, and the azure fire tree loomed above the silver-white fire python.
Azure flames cascaded down in wisps and strands, gentle as spring rain, gradually teasing apart and drawing away the quarter-wisp of blue flame.
Luo Chen then inhaled deeply.
The Wither-Bloom fire tree flew back into his sea of qi, joyfully stretching its branches.
Hiss, hiss, hiss...
The silver fire python slithered up before Luo Chen, circling him three times before plunging into the depths of the earth.
Luo Chen watched with astonishment, only gradually understanding.
"It's showing goodwill?"
At this, Luo Chen found the situation rather absurd. He had destroyed the creature's cultivation site, yet here it was showing gratitude.
In the distance, the black tiger cast a glance at Luo Chen before leaping straight into a small erupting volcano.
That glance seemed to carry a hint of warning.
"This fire spirit is truly extraordinary, something I have never seen nor heard of. The aura it radiates far surpasses the demonic qi on He Yuan of the Yuan Demon Sect—it must be some form of demonic fire."
Taking a deep breath, Luo Chen gave up any designs on these Tier 4 fire spirits.
At his current stage, he could not afford to provoke them, nor did he wish to.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Three streaks of light descended beside Luo Chen.
"Master!"
"Master!"
Black King and Tianxuan were the first to call out.
"Are you two all right?"
His very first words were asking after their safety, causing a warm current to rise in the two beasts' hearts.
"We are fine, Master. Forgive us for worrying you."
"What of that Sea-Absorbing Golden Toad?"
"Tianxuan failed in her duties and allowed it to escape. Please punish me, Master!" Tianxuan said guiltily.
Coiled beside her, Black King also looked thoroughly aggrieved.
"That fellow was too bizarre. Clearly a water-attributed demon beast just like us, yet it could actually conceal itself within the magma."
That wasn't a demon beast, but a genuine desolate beast!
Luo Chen shook his head, his gaze shifting to Taisui.
With a single glance, he fell silent.
Taisui's body had returned from his previous skin-and-bones bamboo-pole frame back to his pot-bellied fat man form.
What did that signify?
Taisui had no intention of explaining either, simply tossing what he held onto the ground.
"I killed the giant squid."
"The cave master took Dao Lan's strongest blow head-on and fell into a coma."
The one thrown onto the ground was none other than the unconscious Cave Master Moyun, his robes in tatters and a massive, bone-deep slash running across his chest and abdomen.
Just a fraction more and he would have been cleaved diagonally in two!
"As for Dao Lan, he perished inside the crater; I fear not even his bones remain."
Luo Chen nodded. "For him, that is something of a release as well."
Enslaved, devoid of free will, forced to draw a blade against an old friend—no powerhouse who had cultivated for hundreds of years could accept such a fate.
Dao Lan's death most likely stemmed in part from a desire to free himself.
Taisui grunted in acknowledgment, his gaze suddenly falling upon Luo Chen's left arm.
"Your hand?"
"How could driving back a generation's demon sovereign come without paying a price?"
Luo Chen gave a faint smile and gestured toward a certain direction.
A streak of light pierced through the air.
It was none other than his severed left hand, cut clean at the wrist. The azure and blue flames were still clashing, yet the flesh on the hand had completely vanished, leaving only stark white bone.
A touch of gravity entered Taisui's eyes.
Not because of the two-colored flames.
Rather, it was due to the formidable combat power Luo Chen had unleashed in that short span!
Enough to contend with a Nascent Soul cultivator!
As expected, the powerful aura Ding Yi sensed by the shores of Penghu Lake back then was by no means a coincidence, nor was it caused by the Penghu Grand Formation.
Thinking this to himself, Taisui offered vocal comfort:
"This severed hand is already ruined, but there are plenty of methods among our kind to reattach limbs. Once we return, I can..."
His words cut off abruptly.
Before his eyes, Luo Chen's right hand repeatedly formed seals and waved.
The Dragon Slaying Art was cast again and again.
The blue glow steadily dimmed until, with a final brush, it completely vanished.
Then, the man before him pressed the stark-white, fleshless skeletal left hand against his severed wrist.
Blood-red light surged across his body, a film of crimson radiance coating the pale white bones and gradually soaking in.
A red membrane emerged, connecting the hand and the arm.
A rustling sound arose.
Strands of flesh and blood spread across the white bone, meridians and blood vessels faintly visible beneath. In the mere blink of an eye, Luo Chen's left hand was fully restored.
Seeing this, Taisui involuntarily swallowed hard.
His gaze slowly drifted up to the man's handsome face, brimming with disbelief.
"You..."
Luo Chen twitched the corner of his lips. "I still have business to attend to. Fellow Daoist Taisui, please watch over the cave master here for a moment. I shall return shortly."
With that, he vaulted into the air and set foot once more upon Vermilion Bird Mountain.
After a brief blur, his silhouette vanished.
After he departed, Taisui stood silently in place.
Suddenly, his body began to tremble uncontrollably.
"That was... Source Blood!"
"A desolate beast physique! He actually forged a desolate beast physique from a human body!"
"If such a physique could be seized by my true form, it would surely shatter the True Monarch's restriction and help me force my way into the inheritance grounds!"
...
Vermilion Bird Mountain.
Above the great magma lake.
The familiar figure reappeared.
Feeling the strange, tingling numbness in his newly formed left hand, Luo Chen rolled his wrist continuously.
A technique specifically designed against powerful desolate beasts... Legends say that in ancient times, the merfolk were weak and once enslaved by the desolate beast Kun. Later, when the war between humans and demons broke out, the desolate beast Kun vanished without a trace, and the merfolk attained independence, becoming one of the great demon races of the Northern Sea.
To think they actually developed such a formidable method against desolate beasts using their own blood and oil.
Had I not possessed the enhanced Wither-Bloom True Fire and severed my own hand, he might truly have succeeded.
Thinking back now, that blue flame had not been consuming his life force at all.
Rather, it burned using the residual source power in his arm, thereby overpowering the Wither-Bloom True Fire.
At this, Luo Chen could only marvel at how vast the world was, and how no person or race could ever be underestimated.
Especially Merfolk Sovereign Liu Jun, a powerhouse who had survived the Demon-Fiend War!
Shaking his head, Luo Chen cast these thoughts aside and looked down at the bubbling magma lake below.
"Is the Five Elements Lotus Platform still inside?"
"Still there. My avatar has been tailing it from a distance."
"Then all is well!"
Luo Chen's suspended heart finally settled.
During the prior battle at Vermilion Bird Mountain, Han Zhan had seemed inconspicuous, but he had contributed immensely.
First, he freed Luo Chen from the Merfolk Sovereign's enchanting melody, then used the Seven Fiends Sword Formation to shatter the unknown bead treasure the opponent brought out, and finally, when Luo Chen departed, released a corpse refining avatar to track the Five Elements Lotus Platform.
While complex to describe, it had all progressed as smoothly as flowing water.
Through years of camaraderie, the cooperation between the two had grown increasingly seamless.
Often, neither needed to speak to understand the other's intent.
Suddenly, Han Zhan said in a solemn voice, "That Five Elements Lotus Platform was captured by Merfolk Sovereign Liu Jun earlier and is already a bird startled by the mere twang of a bow. Where it hides right now is exceedingly perilous—you must proceed with utmost caution!"
"Hm?"
"If you are careless, both of us will perish here! For where it lingers at this moment is perilously close to the fabled Vermilion Bird Fire Spirit!"
Luo Chen's entire body tensed, his heart leaping once more into his throat.
Chapter 672