142 Chapter 141: Sea of Fire (2/2)

However…

”There's something amiss about those paths.”

I closed my eyes and focused. Using my Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps, I began to pick out and unravel the currents of fiery qi that blazed across the formation. It seemed that those countless paths actually linked into an unending circle, confusing whoever followed them and throwing them off their sense of direction.

That was why Lei Yong Chun and the rest were unable to cross them – the formation had then walking in endless circles!

”That's right. None of those paths are the right ones. They are all fake. Lei Yong Chun and the rest have not realized that, which is why they are trapped inside the formation.”

”In other words, the real path is the one that's not visible.” Keeping my eyes closed, I continued to probe the formation with my Heaven and Earth senses. There was fiery qi billowing about everywhere, threatening to overpower them, and the paths continued to shift and change, putting the unfortunate group ahead of me in the wrong track.

”The only path is through the sea of flames,” I muttered. Qi Lin stared at me in shock.

”Not bad, kid! You actually figured that out before I can tell you! However, it's not that simple. Those flames are not mere illusions. If you carelessly walk into them, you'll still end up burned. The fiery currents continue to shift and change endlessly. So you can't just simply walk into it and go in a straight line. You'll have to…”

”Sense the flows of qi. Don't worry, that's my speciality. I may suck at fighting, but I'm good at running away.”

Taking a deep breath, I took a step forward and walked right into the flames.

A scorching blast of heat struck me, but it was within tolerable levels. A blast of fiery qi arced toward me, but I stepped to the side, just narrowly avoiding getting incinerated by the flames. Even though I was aware it was an illusion, the qi wasn't something as simple as brute force – it wasn't just fiery qi that burned its opponents. Otherwise Lei Yong Chun and the rest could just muster their strength and walk through the flames with their sheer power and large amounts of qi. They were illusionary qi that worked in mystical ways to confound the mind and convinced you to believe that your body was really being incinerated.

Ducking under a wave of fire that soared toward my head, I then nimbly weaved my way through the gaps I found in the flowing currents of blazing qi. Almost like an elegant dancer (or like Assassin in Fate/Zero), I advanced step by step, cartwheeling across a thread of fiery qi that sought to burn me off at my heels, ducking under another blade of flames, or sidestepping a massive wave of fire. Navigating my way through the inferno using my Heaven and Earth senses, I slowly but surely advanced through the blazing hell without taking much damage.

”Huff…”

Perspiration dripped down my face as I continued onward. Even though I was able to avoid the worst of the fiery qi that sent illusionary attacks directly at my mind, I knew how fine a line I was cutting. One small mistake, a tiny misstep and I would be incinerated. Even if I survived the flames, I would be left with severe injuries, third-degree burns at the minimum.

And I couldn't afford to get hurt inside the sea of fire. I needed to be at my peak condition to move through the flames without getting hit by any stray superheated torrents. Whether they were real or not didn't matter.

The effects they wrought were real enough.

”Hu…”

The flames intensified the deeper I ventured. At first they came in one wave at a time, but as I neared the middle, they increased in number. Two waves came at me from opposite direction, forcing me to dodge them simultaneously by jumping over the first and spinning away from the second. Then a third came from the top and a fourth from the front at the same time. Suppressing a curse, I threw out my hand and flipped myself over the fourth while cartwheeling to safety before the third could slam down on me. Getting back on my feet, I had barely recovered my breath when another two burst of flames surged at me from opposite directions.

”…!”

Using my senses, I dodged the incoming waves and staggered to the front, where I was greeted by another two waves trying to catch me off guard. One erupted from where my foot was a millisecond ago, which would have completely burned my leg off if I hadn't moved, and the other sliced toward my shoulder at a steep angle.

”Kuh!”

I succeeded in spinning away from both and then found myself stumbling into the deeper regions of the flames.

Whoosh!

Damn it, they were giving me any time to catch my breath. This time, three waves of flames blasted toward me from different directions. I had to execute three movements consecutively to evade them before I got caught in the literal crossfire.

”Not bad! That was a close one!”

Floating above, completely unaffected by the illusionary flames, Qi Lin laughed and clapped his hands.

Oh shut up, you ghost! You had it easy, being unaffected by all these tricks and traps! I wished the guy had a physical body, then he could see how annoying it was to have someone comment and laugh while he was doing his best to survive.

Another three struck me simultaneously from all angles, and I was forced to use my footwork techniques. Using Liu, I slipped through the tiny gaps that the illusionsary flames left, dodging them by the slimmest hair's breadth.

”Phew…”

Just when I exhaled, another three blades of fire hurtled toward me. Executing a combination of footwork and Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps, I literally danced through the flames, now clumsy instead of graceful.

I didn't care if anyone watching me was laughing at my awkward movements. My priority right now was to survive, not preserve my ego or self-esteem. Not that I ever had an ego to begin with, given how people love to insult and make fun of me, callng me trash and always telling me how terrible my stories were, that they were only worth 0.5 stars…

”Kuh!”

Jumping over another three arcs of fire and flipping myself over a simultaneous fourth one, I landed on the ground, only to hurl myself away just as a fifth blast of flames incinerated the spot where I crashed into.

And just like that, I tumbled out of the sea of fire, landing on clear, cool open ground. Rolling to my feet, I exhaled.

”You did it!” Qi Lin praised me. I scowled.

”No thanks to you.”

”Well, it's not as if I'm your master.”

”Good point.” I raised the golden amulet, preparing to chuck it into the sea of fire. ”There's no point keeping you around.”

”Wait! Wait!!!!”

It was funny watching Qi Lin drop to the ground and beg me tearfully, so I kept him tense for a few moments before I lowered my hand.

”I'm sorry!”

”Yeah, yeah…”

By now, I was less interested in Qi Lin's amusing reaction than I was in the progress of Lei Yong Chun and the rest. They were still desperately trying to resist the sudden flares of flames that burst out from the sea of fire and washed over their path, forcing them to retreat, or walking themselves into a deadend.

A few seconds later, they panicked when they found themselves within the spirit formation's attack range, being forced back into a defensive posture. They had to raise great walls of qi, expending huge amounts of energy just to stay alive.

”Hmm…”

Even though I was able to watch them from afar, it was clear that they hadn't spotted me. I couldn't blame them – they were occupied with more important things at the moment. And the sea of flames were actually shielding me from view, so there was that.

”Hmm?”

I blinked when I realized I had forgotten something. Staring at Lei Yong Chun's motley group, I did a headcount. There were Lei Yong Chun himself, Sui Sha Yu, Jiang Jun Hao, Nan Ke, and Li Chun Long. But there was no sign of the beautiful girl with the lotus technique…what was her name again? The one from the Incendiary Ifrit Sect if I remembered correctly.

”Oh…not bad, I guess?”

Pursing my lips, I explored the possibilities. After all, Li Xue Wu and Yan Qing Wu had chosen not to follow the other elite martial artists of the younger generation, and went on their own way to acquire their own treasures. It was entirely possible that the girl from the Incendiary Ifrit Sect had also chosen to go her separate path.

But if she hadn't, and had in fact followed Lei Yong Chun and the others up to this point, the fact that she was not with them meant that she had successfully crossed through this powerful spirit formation and its illusionary glames.

”If she did, then she's not bad at all.”

I nodded, impressed, before wiping the perspiration from my forehead. Even though the flames were illusionary, their effects were extremely real and my body had reacted to the perceived high heat they generated. As a result, I was perspiring profusely. Drinking some water, I glanced around, wondering if I would spot her.

It took me a lot of effort and energy to pass through the illusionary sea of flames, and that was only possible because I had learned Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps. If I hadn't mastered that, I would have been stuck wandering along the paths like Lei Yong Chun and his unfortunate party. Even someone as strong as him found themselves trapped, so it wasn't hard to imagine what would happen to average martial artists like me.

On the other hand, that girl had clearly overcome the spirit formation and all those lethal illusionary flames with her own strength. That meant she was clearly a cut above the rest. I couldn't help but feel a slight chill when I thought about it.

Surely her power and potential had to be boundless…

Well, it's none of my business. It just means she'll be another harem member for Zhu Jiao.

Remembering how Zhu Jiao ended up triggering a flag with the Six Star Constitution Yan Qing Wu, and even taking her virginity and giving his to her, I knew for sure that he would end up with all the super-beautiful and talented girls in the Great Zhou Empire. It was inevitable. Given how he was the protagonist, there was no doubt that he would have made it here through sheer luck, and was most likely having a fated encounter with the girl.

”Ugh…”

My expression turned sour at that, and I turned around to stare at the huge door in the clearing.

Having reached the cool, open ground, I found myself staring at a huge door that seemed to be made entirely out of bronze. In fact, it was already open, which was a clear indication that someone had already passed through here.

Most likely it was that girl from the Incendiary Ifrit Sect…or perhaps it was Zhu Jiao with his protagonist luck and plot armor. Or both. Would I be able to catch them in the act like I did when he and Yan Qing Wu had that ”lucky” accident?

”Only one way to find out…”

I could only cross my fingers and pray that whoever had gone inside hadn't emptied the vault of all its treasures already. At least leave something for me! After going through all that trouble of braving the illusionary flames and overcoming the formation, I wanted something for my efforts. Otherwise it would feel like a frustrating waste of my time.

The moment I stepped through the doors, the illusion of the scarlet sea of fire vanished, along with the faint, lingering heat. I found myself staring at a serene scene of an interior of a hall made out of marble.

To my surprise, there were many extravagant decorations or adornments in the interior of this grand hall, but instead it looked pretty simple and empty. There was a coffin in the center – which was obvious, given how the whole thing was an ancient tomb. But other than the coffin in the middle, there wasn't much in the hall.

Wait…

I gaped when I caught sight of a floating ball of light that emanated a powerful qi. It was hovering above the coffin, almost like an unidentified floating object in one of those alien abduction tabloid stories. Swallowing my excitement, I squinted at the ball of light and registered a deep crimson heart gently pulsing within the core. From my Heaven and Earth senses, I could tell that the crimson heart comprised totally of qi – qi so potent that it was making the surrounding natural qi that saturated the ancient hall reverberate.

”I see…so that's the Nascent Soul Heart,” Qi Lin whispered in awe. I glanced at him, bewildered.

”The…what now?”

”The legendary Nascent Soul Heart,” Qi Lin repeated. ”Come on, kid! Don't tell me you've never heard of it!”

I rubbed at my cheek absent-mindedly, vaguely feeling as if I had read about it somewhere before, but didn't bother to commit too much of my memory space to it because I wasn't interested in all the various stages and realms.

Shrugging, I glanced at the beating Nascent Soul Heart again.

”Well, it looks pretty cool…I guess?”

However, just as I took a single step forward, a cold voice that was infused with rich spiritual energy suddenly echoed across the quiet marble hall.

”Please leave. This is not a place you can enter.”

Freezing, I gulped and raised my head slowly and glanced at the source of the voice. As I expected, the extremely beautiful girl from the Incendiary Ifrit Sect was standing a few dozen meters away, staring at me with glacial eyes that seemed to be made from pure sapphire.