The descending stone staircase twisted deep into the belly of the earth, leading away from the overgrown Botanical Ruins. With every hundred steps Gu Chen and Su Yan took, the damp subterranean chill vanished, replaced by a suffocating, dry heat that grew thicker by the second.
As they walked down the dark granite steps, Gu Chen kept his hands tucked casually inside his wide dark sleeves. His hollow violet eyes stared into the shimmering heat haze ahead, while his mind turned inward.
‘This parasite bound to my soul...’ Gu Chen evaluated silently. ‘So far, it has done nothing of actual significance. It squeaks about virtue, drops low-grade pills, and reacts to crude self-defense loopholes. With my ancient Sovereign memories and the furnace dual-cultivation method using Su Yan and Ye Hanling, my return to the apex is already guaranteed. I don't need this useless entity at all.’
Focusing his soul force, Gu Chen opened a cold, direct mental link to the blue interface floating in his dantian.
‘Parasite,’ Gu Chen sneered mentally, his soul voice dripping with dismissive arrogance. ‘Speak. Are you truly good for nothing beyond handing out basic pills when I trick your crude array? Or is your existence genuinely this useless?’
A sharp, surprisingly frantic notification box popped up in his vision, flashing bright magenta and blue.
[DING!]
[System Notice: Host! That is deeply, deeply hurtful! I am a cosmic artifact of the highest order, designed by the cosmic heavens! I am NOT useless! I even possess the Inter-Dimensional World Traverse Protocol!]
Gu Chen froze mid-step on the stone stairs.
Su Yan paused beside him, her ruby eyes filled with gentle concern. "Gu Chen? Is something wrong?"
"Nothing," Gu Chen replied smoothly, resuming his step without breaking rhythm. "Simply observing the thermal array fluctuations below."
Inside his mind, however, a storm of dark, exhilarating ambition erupted!
Inter-Dimensional World Traversal?!
In his past life, even as a supreme Demonic Sovereign who commanded vast star domains, he had been bound by the fundamental laws of the Higher Realms. Inter-dimensional travel across distant multiverses, parallel planes, and isolated lower/higher worlds was an ancient power reserved for legendary myth!
If he could freely cross dimensions into untamed multiverses, he could harvest infinite, untouched cosmic resources, comprehend wild laws, and forge a cultivation foundation infinitely stronger than his previous incarnation! He wouldn't just reclaim his former Demonic Sovereign throne—he would transcend the realm of gods entirely!
Gu Chen narrowed his eyes in his mental space. ‘If you possessed such a function, why didn't you inform me earlier?’
[System Notice: Hmph! You never asked, Host! You just kept calling me a parasite and threatening to turn me into lamp oil! Sparkle... pout!]
Gu Chen let out a soft, silent sigh. ‘...Fine. How do I activate this realm traversal function?’
[DING!]
[System Notice: To unlock the Inter-Dimensional World Traverse Protocol, Host must earn the prestigious Title: [Herald of Universal Compassion] by performing 10 Acts of Benevolent Salvation!]
[Current Progress: 2/10!]
[Record of Salvation: 1. Cleansed Fairy Su Yan's paralytic Sun-Phoenix Fire Curse. 2. Rescued Disciple Zhao Kai from lethal Blood-Thorn Vines.]
[Remaining Requirements: Perform 8 more acts of selfless salvation to permanently unlock Multiverse Traversal!]
Gu Chen’s lips curled into a cold, dark smirk beneath the shadows of his collar.
Two down... eight more to go.
It seems I will actually have to go out of my way to "help" eight more foolish insects inside this world.
By the time they reached the bottom of the staircase, the cavern walls had turned from dull basalt to glowing, heat-scorched granite.
This was Level 2 of the Crimson-Cavern Secret Realm, the Burning Maze.
Before them stretched a vast subterranean labyrinth of red-hot stone corridors, suspended basalt bridges, and churning rivers of liquid magma. The air reeked of sulfur and volatile fire Qi, shimmering with intense thermal distortion. Waves of ambient heat crashed against the entering cultivators, forcing everyone to instantly circulate their spiritual energy just to keep their lungs from searing.
"What intense fire Qi..." Su Yan murmured, a soft sigh of relief escaping her lips.
For ordinary cultivators, this stifling heat was an exhausting nightmare. But for Su Yan, whose meridians were forged with the Sun-Phoenix physique, the dense fire Qi in the air was like a fish returning to water. Her ruby eyes glowed with golden light as her body naturally absorbed the ambient heat, her skin flushing with a healthy, radiant warmth.
Gu Chen stood beside her, his hands tucked inside his wide sleeves. His divine perception swept across the cavern, instantly detecting the ancient array mechanisms embedded within the stone walls.
A dynamic, elemental shifting maze, Gu Chen observed silently. The Blood-Flame Sovereign constructed this level to filter out low-grade cultivators and force visitors into separate, isolated channels.
RUMBLE!
Right on cue, a violent tremor shuddered through the maze. Massive slabs of glowing obsidian rose and fell like giant stone pistons, while rivers of lava rerouted through hidden subterranean sluice gates.
BOOM!
Without warning, an ancient basalt gate slammed down directly between Gu Chen and Su Yan with a deafening crash! The sudden separation was so absolute that even their spiritual senses were temporarily severed by the array's warding runes.
"Gu Chen!" Su Yan’s anxious voice echoed muffledly from behind the solid stone wall. "The array separated us! Are you alright?!"
"I am fine," Gu Chen replied calmly, his voice passing cleanly through a tiny spatial seam in the wall. "Do not waste energy trying to breach the gate. Continue forward toward the central core. I will navigate this sector alone."
"Alright... please be careful!" Su Yan reluctantly agreed, her golden flame aura flaring as she turned to forge her own path through the eastern corridors.
Gu Chen turned away from the wall, standing entirely alone in the quiet, heat-shimmering corridor.
Farther to the east, he could sense Huo Tian’s noisy group shouting as they fought off magma beasts, while Lin Feng’s sharp sword intent surged toward the northern sword vault. Gu Chen ignored them all. With his divine soul sense, he effortlessly tracked the array's energy flows, stepping down a narrow, winding tunnel carved through a ridge of solid obsidian.
As he ventured deeper into the isolated passage, the temperature spiked even higher. Rivers of bubbling orange magma ran parallel to the narrow stone ledge, casting deep, flickering red shadows along the dark walls.
Suddenly, a violent wave of elemental instability rippled through the air ahead!
BOOM!
A harsh clash of conflicting energies echoed from a large, open cavern just fifty yards down the path. The air vibrated with a chaotic, dangerous mixture of blistering dragon-fire heat and absolute, bone-chilling frost.
Hiss...!
Dense clouds of white, scalding steam erupted from the cavern entrance, billowing out into the corridor like a roaring dragon's breath.
Gu Chen’s dark lips curled into a slow, predatory smirk as his ancient soul identified the icy aura.
Fairy Ye... and her Cold Absolute Yin Physique.
He stepped through the vaporous veil and entered the cavern alone.
The chamber was massive, surrounded on three sides by cascading waterfalls of liquid magma. In the center of the room stood a single, round stone platform. Standing on the platform was Ye Hanling.
Her two Celestial Frost Sect maidservants were nowhere to be seen, trapped behind an array gate thirty yards back after a stone barrier had slammed down during the maze's shift. She stood entirely alone, her slender frame clad in her luxurious classic Ruqun dress of deep midnight sapphire blue and shimmering frost-silver silk. The low-cut fitted moxiong chest-wrap outlined her full, elegant bust, while her sheer, translucent blue sleeves fluttered wildly in the thermal updrafts.
However, her usual proud, untouchable demeanor was completely gone.
"Nngh...!"
A sharp, agonizing gasp escaped Ye Hanling’s lips as she collapsed onto her knees, her fair hands clutching tightly at her chest.
Her long, cascading silver-white hair hung in disheveled strands over her pale shoulders. Her clear, icy sapphire eyes were wide with shock and pain, her long eyelashes trembling as beads of cold sweat rolled down her flushed cheeks.
Her Cold Absolute Yin Physique was undergoing a catastrophic crisis!
Under normal circumstances, her body produced an endless stream of primordial, frozen Yin energy. But inside Level 2, surrounded by millions of gallons of ancient subterranean magma, the intense ambient fire Qi had invaded her open pores.
The extreme external heat was clashing violently with the internal arctic frost locked inside her meridians!
Instead of neutralizing the heat, her blocked meridians had locked up in an explosive feedback loop. Internally, her blood was freezing into razor-sharp ice needles that shredded her veins from the inside, while her outer skin burned as if being dipped in liquid fire!
"Ah... huff...!" Ye Hanling gasped for air, her slender shoulders shuddering uncontrollably.
She tried to mobilize her Late Foundation spiritual energy to suppress the turmoil, but the moment her frost Qi touched the cavern's ambient fire, her meridians spasmed violently. A thin trickle of bright crimson blood leaked from the corner of her soft, pale lips, staining her frost-silver collar.
For the first time in her twenty years of life, the peerless beauty felt completely helpless, trapped in an agonizing purgatory between freezing to death and burning alive.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Clear, unhurried footsteps echoed through the misty, steam-filled cavern.
Ye Hanling’s long eyelashes fluttered open with great difficulty. Through her blurred, pain-filled vision, she saw a single figure step out of the shadows.
Gu Chen walked onto the platform alone.
His hands remained tucked inside his wide dark sleeves, his posture straight and unbothered. He didn't rush forward like a chivalrous hero, nor did he express a single shred of panic. Instead, he stopped mere feet away, looking down at the kneeling, shuddering fairy with hollow, deadpan violet eyes.
A cold, dark smirk played on Gu Chen's handsome face as he savored the sight of the proudest beauty in the kingdom broken at his feet without any witnesses around to save her.
"How pathetic," Gu Chen said softly, his deep voice carrying clearly over the bubbling roar of the magma. "The proud Fairy Ye of the Celestial Frost Sect... reduced to a helpless bird gasping in the mud."
Ye Hanling’s chest heaved as she looked up at him, her sapphire eyes trembling with a mixture of intense humiliation, agonizing pain, and unyielding pride. She tried to speak, to yell at him to back away, but another sharp surge of frozen agony tore through her core, forcing a soft, breathless moan from her throat.
"You... 9th-Stage... worm..." Ye Hanling gasped, her teeth gritted so hard her jaw trembled. "Don't... look at me... like that..."
Right on cue, a translucent blue notification box flashed sharply before Gu Chen’s vision:
[DING!]
[QUEST DETECTED: A Fellow Cultivator in Dire Agony!]
[Objective: Save Ye Hanling from her elemental meridian collapse before her core detonates!]
[Virtuous Reward: 1x Earth-Grade Foundation-Refining Pill (Flawless Grade)!]
Gu Chen closed his eyes, a dark, silent sneer curling inside his mind.
A third act of salvation toward my title... and another Foundation-Refining Pill.
Gu Chen opened his violet eyes, looking down at the trembling, ice-bound fairy kneeling before him in the steam.
"You have two choices, Fairy Ye," Gu Chen said coldly, stepping closer until his dark boots stopped mere inches from her delicate, exposed knees. "You can keep your useless, fragile pride and let your frozen meridians shred your dantian into pieces... or you can surrender your body and soul to me."