STNS: Chapter 368 (Patreon)

Stepping through the portal of the Flame Sanctum, Wu Jian and Huo Yulie emerged from the other side in short order, yet during the brief stint, Wu Jian felt the principals of the Dao of Space surrounding him far more keenly than the last time he had used such a portal. Either the gateway to this realm was stronger than the one used by the Saintly Sword Sect, or he was more perceptive thanks to reaching the Deva Realm.

“So this… is the Realm of Sacred Flames,” Wu Jian muttered to himself.

“Yes, it is. I have never been here myself, but my chest is fluttering and it feels familiar, as though my heart recognizes this place.” Huo Yulie paused, tilted her head, then continued. “There is a legend that Lord Phoenix was born from the volcano in the center of this realm.”

“And was he?”

“Indeed, he was. Lord Phoenix told me so himself.”

The Realm of Sacred Flames was quite unlike anywhere he had been to before. A sweltering heat washed over his face and clothes, causing him to break out in sweat. Small tendrils of red energy invaded his body, further causing an uncomfortable heat to billow from within and without, as though the realm was trying to burn him from both sides. He had already realized the cause. The intense yang chi within this realm was burning impurities and helping him refine his body. Just stepping foot inside was already bringing benefits.

I see why this place is considered sacred. If merely stepping in here can help refine a cultivator’s body, then traveling further in will yield unspeakable treasures.

“We should get moving,” Wu Jian said.

“Are we not going to wait for the others?” asked Huo Yulie.

He shook his head. “I wouldn’t mind waiting for Huo Schuchang, but I don’t want to wait for everyone else. This world is survival of the fittest. We should take the opportunity of being the first to enter to explore deeper before anyone else.”

“You bring up a good point. Very well.”

“And I should put this armor on.”

“I would avoid doing that for now.”

“Oh? Really?”

“Mmm. That armor protects you from all manner of flames.”

“I know. What is your… oh.”

“I see you understand.”

“Yeah, I do. Okay. I’ll leave it off for now.”

Wu Jian quickly stashed his armor into his storage ring. He would only wear it if he found himself in dire need of protection, but until then, he would let the flames from this realm refine his body.

“Well, let’s go.”

“Yes, let us be off.”

The outer layer was a landscape of fluctuating temperature and dynamic flames. Vast expanses of scorched earth stretched under a perpetually burning sky, where fierce solar flares sent streaks of brilliant light dancing across the horizon. The air was thick with a smokey haze. Wu jian wrinkled his nose at the faint scent of singed wood and the distant crackling of fire.

Volcanic mountains rose proudly in the distance, their peaks wreathed in fiery veils of smoke, black and acrid. Molten rivers of lava meandered through the land. The strands of crimson yang chi that were currently invading their bodies came from this lava, casting an otherworldly glow. These rivers would occasionally erupt with geysers of searing steam and flames. The result was often more crimson yang chi being released.

Wu Jian and Huo Yulie picked their way across the land. It almost didn’t matter where they went since this first area was so open, but they had spotted a forest off in the distance--not the usual kind filled with lush greenery and an abundance of plants. This forest was made of stone. Deep black stones rose from the ground like an army ready to sweep over the earth.

“This must be the Inferno Crystallith Grove,” Huo Yulie muttered after they reached it. The stones were even taller than Wu Jian had first assumed. “Lord Phoenix told me about it when I was younger. It is home to several magical beasts, including the Blaze Lion. There was also a rumor that a Pyrostral Unicorn existed within, but it was never confirmed.”

“Well… let’s see if we can find those magical beasts. I hear Blaze Lion’s are highly valued for their valuable parts.”

“Indeed. You can harvest many parts from them: their mane, their magical core, their claws, their scales, their blood, and even their ashes are valuable.”

They entered the forest and spoke casually. It might have seemed careless, but Wu Jian was paying careful attention to everything. He had already felt the presence of something prowling around.

“You sense it too?”

Huo Yulie nodded. “Above us.”

“Should we try talking to it first?”

She shook her head. “There is no need to bother. These magical beasts might have gained the ability to speak our language, but gaining the ability to speak does not mean they can or will. Many people have gone into this realm and all have said the magical beasts inside never spoke.”

“All right. That actually makes things easier.”

Wu Jian carefully practiced circulating his chi through his meridians. It was harder than normal. His chi felt like it was being restrained, which he guessed was caused by the flames inside of this realm. That would make fighting more difficult, but that was fine; he liked a challenge.

Spinning around on the balls of his feet, Wu Jian slammed his fist into the nearest ‘tree.’ the stone shattered, fragments spraying everywhere, and the tree quickly toppled. A loud growl from above caused him to look up as a shadow leapt down from the tree. He took a single step back to avoid the swiping claw, then swiftly brought his leg up in a powerful kick that caught the magical beast in the chin. It flipped through the air and landed on all fours.

“So that’s a Blaze Lion.”

The Blaze Lion resembled a lion in most of the ways that mattered. However, its fur was blazing red and its man a fiery orange. If he didn’t know any better, he would have said its mane was made from flames. Crimson claws burned red hot, the ground melting wherever it tread, a testament to the power it wielded. Unleashing a mighty roar, the Blaze Lion launched a gout of flames at him.

Wu Jian did not move from the spot.

[Spatial Severing]

Yet the flames were split in half all the same. He had activated one of his abilities without moving a muscle. It was so much easier to do that now that his previous struggles almost felt absurd. Not only did his flames split the fireball, they split the Blaze Lion too.

“I can’t afford to become arrogant…”

Wu Jian felt almost too powerful, but he knew that was just an illusion. He had only taken the first step. If he wanted to accomplish his goals, far more power would be required.

“There are more Blaze Lions coming,” Huo Yulie announced.

“Let them come,” Wu Jian said, cracking his neck. “I need to stabilize my cultivation soon, but I’d like to see where my current limits lie first.”

***

Ever since his loss at Wu Jian’s hands, Huǒ Pànguó had been livid and filled with shame. His father refused to acknowledge him, his siblings didn’t respect him, and his younger sister was the only person anyone in the clan seemed to care about. But what about him? He worked hard every day. Was all the work he had put into his cultivation for nothing?

Most of his siblings disliked him because he was always hard on them. Huǒ Schuchang was the biggest recipient of harsh words. That man’s lackadaisical attitude got on Huǒ Pànguó’s nerves like nothing else. However, the person who Huǒ Pànguó was hardest on was not his siblings but himself. They never saw how diligently he cultivated every day. He had purposefully held back his cultivation so he could enter the White Tiger Sect Ruins, then broke through to the Deva Realm only when he was unable to withstand the burden on his body. He had received three strikes of tribulation lightning, more than anyone else in his family save Huo Yulie. Yet despite all that, he received no acknowledgement. His father continued to ignore him.

Huǒ Pànguó looked up to and admired his father, the man who had created the most powerful nation in the entire world. Huǒ Huangdi was both the Phoenix Clan’s head and the man who founded the Xia Dynasty over a thousand years ago. That was also why they did not have an ancestor. Huǒ Huangdi was the first and only head of the Phoenix Clan.

But all that admiration amounted to nothing. The person he strove to reach never even looked in his direction. The person he wanted to be like didn’t care about his existence. That was why he had grown to resent Huǒ Yulie. His sister had everything he wanted and didn’t seem to understand how fortunate she was.

Huǒ Pànguó had left Phoenix Palace shortly after speaking with his father and found a bar to drown his sorrows in. Alcohol sadly had no effect on him. Even the strongest baijiu did nothing to him, but he wanted something to take his mind off his problems.

That was when he approached him.

In most cases, Huǒ Pànguó would not have listened to someone like him, but he had still been in the throes of depression after realizing that his father would never acknowledge him no matter how hard he worked. This man was also someone of high standing. Surely someone like this man could understand how he felt. He had needed someone to talk to. And he had listened and empathized with him. He said he understood where Huǒ Pànguó was coming from, and he had also offered a solution.

“It seems to me that your biggest problem is Huǒ Yulie. The reason your father refuses to acknowledge you is because she exists. In that case, you just need to make her disappear.”

Huǒ Pànguó had been appalled at first; he might have hated his siblings, but he was still a proud member of the Phoenix Clan and would never betray it. Yet the more he listened to the man, the more he became convinced that making Huǒ Yulie disappear was the best option.

Everything he said was true. Huǒ Yulie’s very presence had overshadowed all of Huǒ Pànguó’s achievements. It didn’t matter how hard he worked. Just by existing, Huǒ Yulie was more important to the clan than he would ever be simply because she had received more drops of Phoenix Blood. It was also true that Huǒ Huangdi did not care about Huǒ Pànguó’s success or future. He wondered if his father’s inaction toward acknowledging him was a deliberate act to maintain Huǒ Yulie’s status within the clan.

Huǒ Pànguó had still been on the fence despite everything he said making sense. What had driven the final nail into the coffin of his decision was when he began talking about how the world was changing. The Yuan Peninsula was all but destroyed, someone had summoned magical beasts all across the continent to wreak havoc, and the Heavenly Sword Sect had been forced to use a lot of resources and manpower to contain the situation. Despite this, his father had done nothing to capitalize on the situation.

“Your father is stuck in the past, unable to look forward. He has no ambitions. It is natural. He is old, after all, and the older someone gets, the less ambitious they become. It becomes more imperative for them to maintain the status quo than it does to increase their power. You are different. You’re young, ambitious, and you have goals of making the Xia Dynasty even more powerful  than the Three Celestial Sects. I believe you are destined to bring about great change in the Xia Dynasty--no, the entire Xaio Continent. However, to do that, you need to succeed your father, which won’t happen so long as Huǒ Yulie is around.”

The words he said had made so much sense. Huǒ Pànguó didn’t even question how that man had known about his ambitions. He was obviously an intelligent man who could see through to the heart of someone’s intentions. That was when he decided to go along with his schemes, and that brought Huǒ Pànguó to now.

He stepped through the portal and surveyed the area around him. There was nobody there. Jian Wu and Huǒ Yulie were already long gone. Those two were together, just as he said they would be. Huǒ Yulie really was a disgrace for allowing herself to be so taken in with someone who wasn’t part of the clan.

Huǒ Pànguó quickly raced off, flying low to the ground in search of a good place that would be hidden from other people. This open plain was too visible. However, there were several hilly areas with caves that past cultivators had been to when they entered the Realm of Sacred Flames. He found one such cave after several hours of searching.

The cave was wide and spacious enough for his needs. The low-hanging ceiling might be a problem, but he didn’t think so. Nodding to himself once, he summoned a stake from his storage ring, twirled it between his fingers, and impaled it into the ground. Huǒ Pànguó knew nothing of sealing arrays, but even he could tell the one before him was complex. The stake began glowing soon after it was impaled. Then a black gash opened in the air before him, widening with each passing second, until it was the same size and shape of an adult human.

“Whew. It’s about time. I don’t know how long I could have remained in there. What took so long?”

The man who emerged from the tear didn’t look all that special. His features were plain, his hair was bland, and nothing about him stood out. Huǒ Pànguó would have wondered whether or not this man could really help him if he was to judge someone on looks alone. Good thing he was no fool.

This man… is strong.

He did not know how strong, for he could not see this man’s cultivation, but that alone was a sign that he was stronger than Huǒ Pànguó. At the very least, this man had to be a Seeker Realm cultivator. He might have been even stronger.

“So you’re the kid I’m working with, huh?” The man observed him. “What happened to the other one?”

“Other one? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Huǒ Pànguó scowled.

“No, I suppose you don’t. Well, it doesn’t matter who I’m working with so long as I get paid.” The man suddenly grinned, and within that grin was a cold bloodthirst that chilled even Huǒ Pànguó to the bone. “So, tell me, youngin, where are the people I’m killing today?”