Both Yi Qing and Lonemoon were surprised at her sudden question. Cultivators, having Spirit Qi to protect their bodies, rarely paid attention to the changes in the surrounding temperature. “Now that you mentioned it, it feels really hot…”
Before Lonemoon could finish speaking, a ball of fire suddenly shot out from the ground.
“Be careful!” Turning swiftly around, Yi Qing hurriedly retreated a few feet and barely avoided the flames. Looking back, he saw huge flames leaping out from the ground, spreading in all directions. Within moments, everything before him was covered in a sea of flames.
Lonemoon immediately tore off the part of his sleeves that had been ignited by the flames. He looked with shocked eyes at the fiery inferno before him—the flames were so powerful that they could even set his clothes alight.
“It’s Deviant Fire!” cried out Yi Qing. He finally realised what was wrong with the Spirit Qi here. The Spirit Qi in the air was too dense and seemed too violent; it must have been be affected by this fire.
“What should we do?” Trapped in the middle, they could neither advance nor retreat.
“What’s that?” Shen Ying pointed at something ahead.
The two looked in the direction she had pointed to but could only see a sea of flames; nothing special caught their eye.
No, something was not right. Stilling their minds, they used their senses to probe their surroundings and discovered that at a certain spot, where the fire was most intense, swirled a miasma of Spirit Qi that was so dense as to be almost palpable. It was… Immortal Qi!
“There may be a way out over there!” Lonemoon said in a low voice. “But…” They were trapped by the flames and couldn’t go over. This was Deviant Fire. Ordinary defensive Dharmic vests would offer no protection whatsoever against it.
“Let’s use our Sword Qi to hack a path through the wall of fire and dash over.” Yi Qing suggested, thrusting his sword forwards. Immediately, his formidable Sword Qi transformed into a stream of air which rushed directly towards the sea of fire, instantly forming a path in its wake. However, within seconds, this path was swallowed up by the flames.
It worked!
A delighted Lonemoon at once realized Yi Qing’s intentions. “You take the front, I’ll guard the back!”
“Alright.” Yi Qing nodded in agreement. Swinging his sword once again, he flew through the newly created path. Seeing that flames were leaping up once again, Lonemoon followed closely behind, hacking open a path with his sword once again.
Coordinating in this fashion, the two men headed towards the place swirling with Immortal Qi. They had made their way into the heart of the inferno within a short period of time. It was then that they saw an array formation shining in the centre. Around it shimmered some ancient script.
“What is this array formation?” asked Yi Qing as he wielded his sword to ward off the fire which was growing increasingly fiercer.
“This… I don’t know.” Looking baffled, Lonemoon said, “You hang on here for a while. I’m going to take a closer look.” He flew nearer to the formation and gave it a thorough once over. But try as he might, he could not make out what kind of formation it was.
“I have never seen this kind of array formation before, but these Dharmic talismans… seem to be a kind of encapsulation seal?” He tried to recall all the array formations he had heard of or seen before, but none of them fitted the bill. “Let me try attacking this array.”
Forming a hand seal, he swung down the weapon in his hand forcefully, striking the array using ninety percent of the power of his Dharmic spells. Bang! A thunderous sound echoed through heaven and earth. The sound was so loud that it seemed to reverberate throughout the mystic realm but the array itself was untouched; there were no signs of damage anywhere.
“Sh*t, what kind of array is this? How can it be so incredibly strong?” cursed Lonemoon.
“It’s too late, the Deviant Fire is heading this way,” warned Yi Qing as he retreated from the flames. With the temperature around them rising steadily, his Sword Qi was losing the battle against the flames. The Deviant Fire was now almost upon the three of them. If they could not find a way out soon, they would be engulfed by this sea of flames.
“Move aside!” Shen Ying stepped forward and pushed Lonemoon, who was blocking her, to one side. Raising her leg, she directed a powerful kick at the array.
Bang! The array immediately darkened and the surrounding air suddenly seemed to collapse inwards. Following a clanging sound, a square, door-like gap appeared, and the scent of a rich and refreshing Immortal Qi wafted towards them.
Holy sh*t, this method actually works!
(⊙_⊙)
“Go!” Pulling the chef behind her, Shen Ying burrowed straight into the gap. The other two quickly followed behind.
In an instant, the burning sensation they were feeling faded away and all at once, a new world appeared in front of them—a green pasture filled with the fresh scent of flowers and plants. Immortal Qi swirled around them like a multi-colored afterglow.
Looking up, Lonemoon saw a towering temple appearing in front of him a short distance away. The entire temple was as white as jade, emanating a faint fluorescent glow.
This was… an Immortal Pavilion!
Lonemoon widened his eyes in disbelief. So an Immortal Pavilion from the Upper World was actually hidden inside this ancient mystic realm!
“Master, look behind you!” Yi Qing suddenly cried out. “The place where we came out from…”
Quickly turning his head to take a look, Lonemoon could not help but suck in his breath in surprise.
Holy sh*t!
The opening they had come out from was still there, but now it was not a gap, but a door. Measuring four by six meters, it was the door of an elixir-refining cauldron.
“We… we were in this cauldron just now!” No wonder the ground was covered with Deviant Fire. It was actually the fire for refining elixirs. So it appeared that this elixir-refining cauldron was also an immortal artifact and there was a whole new world inside it.
“But… what happened to the forest?” Lonemoon couldn’t figure it out. If the entrance to the ancient mystic realm was all along at the elixir-refining cauldron, how could it contain a forest inside as well?
“It’s probably the medicine storage compartment in the cauldron.” Yi Qing pointed at the right side of the elixir-refining cauldron. There was indeed an open compartment there.
They walked over and saw that it was indeed a huge storage compartment. Using their Spirit Qi to probe inside, they found that it was so vast that its boundaries could not be detected. However, they could detect trees and shrubs inside and endless greenery.
It seemed that this immortal residence had been empty for a long time. The objects originally placed in the storage compartment had been left unattended and so it had begun to grow, developing into that patch of forest. It was no wonder there were so many exotic plants in the forest. It had even spawned many Vegetation Spirits.
So it turned out that for more than a month, they had all been running circles inside that elixir-refining cauldron.
“Going in?” Shen Ying pointed to the Immortal Pavilion behind her.
Lonemoon nodded, looking at the towering Immortal Pavilion. If just that one elixir-refining cauldron could transform into such an amazing world, then heaven knew how many other things were hidden inside this pavilion that they had never seen before.
“Let’s go!”
The three of them turned and headed straight to the Immortal Pavilion. But before they even got to the entrance, they heard the sound of three sets of footsteps coming from the elixir-refining cauldron behind them.
“Hahahaha… I didn’t expect an Immortal Pavilion to be hidden inside this mystic realm!”
They heard the sound of a familiar voice coming from behind.
Lonemoon’s heart sank. He felt like cursing.
Holy sh*t!
Of all times, these three stooges chose to appear at this very moment!
“This ancient immortal residence is really amazing. It’s just a tiny cauldron, yet an entire world is hidden inside.” Qing Lan looked back at the elixir-refining cauldron, then turned to look at the three people in front. “My thanks to this Supremacy for leaving us this entrance which enabled us to track your aura to this Immortal Pavilion.”
This increased Lonemoon’s desire to curse at him. He should have blocked the entrance to the elixir-refining cauldron.
“Luck seems to favor you.” Sneering, Qing Yin looked disdainfully at the people in front of him. “You actually managed to arrive before us… Huh? That’s…” He suddenly widened his eyes, staring fixedly at Lonemoon’s leg. “You actually found the Thousand Leaves Vegetation Spirit!”
The other two immediately looked in Lonemoon’s direction, their expressions changing at what they saw.
“Oh, you mean this.” Chuckling, Lonemoon picked up the radish pendant on his leg. With a cocky expression on his face, he said, “I’m sorry, but this little thing seems to have an affinity with us. We met immediately on entering the mystic realm. Can’t be helped, it’s fate.”
The expressions of the other group of three suddenly darkened.
However, the uncooperative radish pendant twitched and let out a familiar sound.
Pui!
Who’s your little thing?!
Lonemoon’s mouth twitched. He hurriedly moved to pass the radish over to Shen Ying.
The pendant happily extended two large leaves in a hugging motion and rushed over to Shen Ying. But it had not even managed to touch her clothes when Shen Ying suddenly turned her head away in rejection!