“Senior, what just went inside?” Lin Tian was dumbfounded.
“It was too fast—I didn’t see clearly either!” The remnant soul was equally shocked.
RUMBLE…
The next moment, the crack in the mountain rapidly sealed shut.
“Senior, what’s going on? Why did the fissure close?” Lin Tian felt a sense of dread creeping in.
The remnant soul said, “There’s only one explanation. The two things that entered just now were actually two people.”
The fissure would only close automatically when someone entered.
Lin Tian’s mental state completely collapsed. “Didn’t you say only one person could enter each time the crack opens?”
The remnant soul replied, “That’s no longer the point. The point is—the heaven-defying opportunity we worked so hard to unlock may have just been handed over to those two!”
…
Inside the mountain was a vast underground palace. Luminous pearls of high grade floated along the walls, their radiant glow lighting up the space like broad daylight.
Earlier, when the crack had opened, Ye Chen had already noticed that apart from the illusion array and the Seven Star Array around the mountain, there was also a powerful restriction formation. It was set so the mountain could only be opened once every ten years, and only one person could enter at a time.
Ye Chen had considered that Qing’er’s Immortal Vein might allow her to bypass the rules, so he tried entering with her—and to his surprise, they succeeded easily.
Soon, Ye Chen was drawn to a mysterious black cauldron at the center of the underground palace. Inside it blazed a fierce fire.
“Beast aura raging… flames roaring… This is… Beast Flame?” Ye Chen was startled.
There were three main types of flames used in alchemy: spiritual flames formed from one’s own spiritual Qi, beast flames extracted from fire-type profound beasts, and heavenly flames—born from the condensed essence of heaven and earth over countless years.
Heavenly flames were the most terrifying and produced the best alchemy results, but they were extremely rare. Across the entire Profound Sky Continent, only 300 heavenly flames existed, each with its own name and ranking.
Beast flames, while inferior to heavenly flames, were vastly superior to spiritual flames. Especially those extracted from high-tier fire-type profound beasts—they were priceless treasures.
From what he could sense, the fire’s aura and fire attribute intensity were terrifying. Ye Chen judged it must’ve been extracted from at least an 8th grade fire-type profound beast. If auctioned, the starting price alone would exceed 300 million taels of gold.
Once refined into the body, it would greatly enhance alchemy, smithing, and refining abilities—producing twice the result with half the effort. Moreover, immediately after refining it, it would feed back into one’s cultivation, allowing for rapid breakthroughs.
“So this is the beast flame that Lin Tian relied on as one of his ultimate trump cards in the previous life.” Ye Chen recalled that in his past life, he had fled and never had the chance to enter the Doomsday Forest. He’d only heard that Lin Tian had made a huge splash there, acquiring countless heavenly treasures and greatly increasing his strength due to a massive opportunity.
Now it was clear: that so-called massive opportunity was this beast flame.
“This life, this beast flame will be mine.” Ye Chen muttered to himself and took the entire flame, along with the mysterious black cauldron, into his storage.
“Something’s not right. While this beast flame is indeed high-grade and its beast aura is strong, there’s another fire attribute present in this palace—one that the beast flame alone couldn’t possibly emit.” Ye Chen released his spiritual power and soon discovered that a much stronger fire attribute aura was coming from beneath the cauldron.
Ye Chen drew his spiritual sword and began digging downward.
The deeper he dug, the stronger the fire attribute became.
After digging several dozen meters, the fire attribute energy reached an extreme. Before him appeared another cauldron.
Within it, a flame no bigger than a palm glowed. Yet the fire attribute it released far surpassed that of any beast flame.
“It’s… a Heavenly Flame!” Ye Chen exclaimed. The flame’s eerie black color shocked him even more. “If I’m not mistaken, this is the 66th-ranked Blackcloud Heavenly Flame on the Heavenly Flame Ranking.”
On the Profound Sky Continent, there were only 300 heavenly flames but nearly 3,000 Great Emperors. Statistically, only one in ten Great Emperors possessed a heavenly flame.
Ye Chen, still just at the Earth Martial Realm, had discovered a heavenly flame—and not just any one, but one ranked in the top 100.
His luck was beyond belief.
He also suddenly realized that this Blackcloud Heavenly Flame was the true heaven-defying opportunity hidden within the secret realm. That beast flame earlier had merely served to conceal the heavenly flame’s aura.
Unfortunately for Lin Tian, in his past life, even after entering this palace, he never found the Blackcloud Heavenly Flame.
After collecting the heavenly flame along with the cauldron, Ye Chen was just about to leave in triumph.
Suddenly, Qing’er spoke, “Brother, I feel there’s something else down below. I want to keep digging!”