Forest of Ten Thousand Beasts.
Not long after Qin Jiang left, a staggering figure appeared once again in the stone house.
“Qin Jiang, Ye Ling’er… just you wait!!!”
The voice brimmed with hatred.
It was naturally Xiao Fan.
After being thrown from the mountain by Hei Long, he was luckily caught by a tree and didn’t die from the fall. Even so, he suffered serious injuries to his bones and tendons.
After resting for a while, he spotted Qin Jiang and the others flying away. Unwilling to let things end there, he struggled back up the mountain and returned to the cave.
As soon as he entered the stone house, a wave of fiery heat rushed toward him. Xiao Fan took a deep breath, a look of relief spreading across his face.
This was the perfect environment for someone with the Fire God Body.
And what surprised him even more was that many spiritual herbs still remained in the stone house—all fire-attribute.
“Qin Jiang didn’t take everything?”
Xiao Fan was stunned.
He rushed over and carefully examined each herb, growing increasingly overjoyed. But soon, he noticed some disturbed soil and damaged spots, and his face instantly darkened.
“These must be the ones he didn’t care for… damn it, the ones he took must’ve been the truly valuable ones!!!”
Clenching his fists, Xiao Fan’s face twisted in unwillingness.
He took a deep breath, calmed his emotions, and sneered coldly, “Qin Jiang would never expect I’d return. These herbs… in my hands, they’ll be worth even more!”
“Hehe… Qin Jiang, just wait. I’ll definitely take my revenge! And as for Ye Ling’er, you betrayed me… one day, I’ll make you regret it. I’ll make you kneel and beg before me…”
Xiao Fan growled, venting for a long while.
After calming down, he looked at the herbs around him and muttered, “I need to take them quickly—Qin Jiang might return.”
Just thinking of Qin Jiang made him shudder. Without realizing it, a sliver of fear had crept into his heart.
Not daring to waste time, he immediately began digging.
He worked through the night, finally collecting all the herbs. Then he walked over to the hot spring at the center of the stone house and frowned slightly. For some reason, he felt as though something vital had been lost. This story is hosted at novelping . com.
He crouched and touched the water. It was now ice cold, with no unusual signs.
Shaking his head, he didn’t linger. Quietly, he left the stone house.
…
Qingcheng Town.
Qin Jiang and Ye Ling’er…
…
Elsewhere, far from the treasure-hiding ground, Xiao Fan had found a secluded cave.
Excited, he took out the herbs. The fire-attribute aura surged out, and Xiao Fan revealed a look of sheer bliss.
“These herbs were made for me.”
He muttered, then his expression twisted with resentment.
“If not for Qin Jiang, I would’ve gotten even more. My strength would’ve skyrocketed. Damn it! It’s all Qin Jiang’s fault!”
His hatred toward Qin Jiang grew stronger and stronger.
After a while, he managed to calm himself. Looking at the herbs before him, a wisp of flame flared up from his body, engulfing the spiritual herbs.
Gradually, the herbs began to open up more vibrantly. Their age seemed to increase, and then, as they reached their peak, they dissolved into pure energy, fusing into the flame.
Once the herbs were completely absorbed, Xiao Fan drew back the flame.
“That felt amazing! This cultivation method is incredible!”
He smiled. With just one herb, his cultivation had advanced a bit—equivalent to half a month of hard training.
“I need more. This power still doesn’t compare to Qin Jiang’s.”
He took a deep breath and directly pulled out ten herbs.
Right now, he didn’t care whether his foundation was stable or not—he only wanted to surpass Qin Jiang as fast as possible.
“Keep refining!”
All ten herbs were wrapped in flame at once. Xiao Fan’s face paled slightly, and in the glow of the firelight, his expression looked increasingly twisted.
The immense energy surged into his body. Even his physical form began to struggle, and faint cracks appeared on his skin.
But he gritted his teeth and kept refining the energy.
Just as he thought he was about to successfully absorb everything, a wave of bone-chilling cold suddenly surged up from within.
“What?! Cold qi? Why is there cold qi in my body?!”
Xiao Fan panicked.
He possessed the Fire God Body—supremely yang and blazing in nature. What kind of cold energy could possibly invade him?
His face turned deathly pale. The sudden cold aura disrupted his Fire God Body, making it restless. And the vast energy still flooding his body hadn’t been fully refined.
Chaos erupted within him.
“Damn it! What the hell is going on?!”
Xiao Fan’s hands trembled. The Fire God Body almost lost control. Feeling the threat, it instinctively began resisting the cold qi.
Sensing this, Xiao Fan finally let out a breath. He decided to ignore the cold for now and focus on refining the chaotic energy, hoping to stabilize the situation.
But then—he discovered that the more energy he refined, the stronger the cold qi became.
“No… something’s wrong… this cold qi…”
His face twisted in shock and horror.
“It’s coming from these spiritual herbs!!!”
“It must be Qin Jiang! This was all his doing. He purposely left these herbs to trap me! Aaaahhh!!! Qin Jiang, you bastard!”
“Ye Ling’er must’ve helped too! Only she knows me well enough to guess I’d come back! She must’ve planned this with him… That bitch… she deserves to die!!!”
Xiao Fan’s face contorted with rage, completely losing his mind.
The searing pain within, combined with the mental breakdown, pushed him to the brink of collapse.
As his condition worsened, the power of the Fire God Body suddenly erupted.
Like a raging blade cutting through the chaos, a torrent of violent flames surged out—engulfing Xiao Fan entirely.
It didn’t just burn away the cold qi…
It began to burn Xiao Fan himself.