When Chen Ping stepped first into the light curtain burning with golden flames, a scorching energy far more dense and pure than that in the outer Crimson Flame Valley, a hundred times over, and carrying an ancient, primordial aura, enveloped and devoured him completely, like a awakened prehistoric beast opening its blazing maw.
“Buzz.”
After a brief sensation of spatial displacement and dizziness, the scene before his eyes suddenly opened up.
Even with Chen Ping’s composure, he could not help but feel a slight stir at the sight before him.
This was no ordinary cultivator’s abode or small secret realm. It was a true, independent flame origin world, complete and vast, existing beyond the Ten Heavens.
The sky was an eternally burning dome of flames, ever-changing and infinite.
There were no sun, moon, or stars, only endless flowing, viscous liquid-like divine fires of every colour.
Near the eastern horizon was a reddish-gold hue like the rising dawn, radiating warm yet domineering flames of vitality.
The west was suffused with orange-red like molten sunset gold, containing the serene and majestic return of all things to silence.
The southern sky roiled with dazzling white-hot brilliance, the phantom of the solar true fire that purified everything.
The north drifted with deep, mysterious purple-black flame clouds, as if capable of swallowing light, heat, and souls.
These flames were not still. They flowed slowly like living beings, intertwining and colliding.
At times they formed fire phoenixes spreading their wings and crying out, at times coiled fire dragons roaring in circles.
They painted the entire vault of heaven in flowing radiance and overflowing colour, magnificent to the point of breathtaking, yet dangerous enough to make one’s soul tremble.
The earth was dark red crystalline rock soil, tempered over billions of years, incomparably hard yet covered in dense, web-like profound fissures.
From the depths of each fissure, pure fire pillars dozens of feet high, or even hundreds, sporadically erupted in varied colours.
Some were deep blue like ice yet unbearably hot, others black as ink yet blazing with great light.
The fire pillars shot skyward, connecting with the flame tassels hanging from the heavens, forming cascades of flame linking earth and sky, with roaring sounds never ceasing.
Magma did not exist merely in crevices but flowed freely across this land like rivers, lakes, and seas.
Crimson, golden, and dark purple magma rivers crisscrossed, slowly surging onward.
On their surfaces floated unsinkable flame lotuses and burning pumice stones.
The air was filled with a complex scent mixing sulphur and some peculiar fragrance.
In the distance, enormous mountain ranges composed purely of flame crystals stood majestically.
These peaks were not stone but naturally formed from the purest “Crimson Flame Crystal Marrow”, “Solar Fire Crystals”, “Core Flame Jade”, and other top-tier fire materials that would cause bloodshed in the outside world.
They were translucent throughout, as if sealing flowing flames within. Under the reflection of external skylight and internal firelight, they refracted dreamlike, entrancing halos.
Atop the summits burned “eternal flames” of varied forms.
Some condensed into gigantic flame red lotuses covering half a peak, slowly rotating, with each petal flowing with great dao runes.
Others formed the phantom of a prostrate yet proud flame qilin, silently roaring with overwhelming might.
Some even appeared as the outline of a blazing flame palace, with upturned eaves and faint gates, as if an ancient fire god resided within.
In the air, fire-attribute spiritual energy so dense it was extreme no longer gaseous but formed drifting spiritual mists interwoven with pale red, gold, and purple, flowing gently like light gauze.
A single breath brought scorching heat to the lungs.
Yet for fire cultivators, this was undoubtedly a supreme holy land for cultivation.
More wondrous still, this flame origin realm had birthed unique flame beings.
There were fist-sized “fire spirits” shaped like flickering candle flames but with lively little eyes, flitting and playing in groups through the flames.
There were several-feet-long “flame-scaled dragon carp” with scales like forged rubies, swimming freely in magma rivers, occasionally leaping out and scattering sparks across the sky.
There were also majestic “Li Fire Sparrows” with wingspans over a zhang, trailing gorgeous seven-coloured flame tail feathers, gliding elegantly through the air and emitting clear cries like phoenix song.
One could even see towering “magma giants” several zhang high, pieced together from burning boulders, moving slowly yet with boundless strength, pacing at distant mountain feet, each step causing the earth to tremble slightly.
Everything here embodied the violent, gorgeous, creative, and destructive nature of flame, forming a primitive, savage yet vibrant scroll of magnificent life.
The completeness of its fire laws and the high level of its energy far surpassed any known perilous or blessed land in the Ten Heavens.
“Cough… cough cough…”
Those who followed Chen Ping in, Lie Tian, Shi Yan, Ying Wu, and the dozens of surviving Ten Thousand Beasts Sect disciples, the moment their feet touched the dark red crystalline ground, sudden change erupted.
The omnipresent, inescapably dense terrifying high temperature and violent fire spiritual qi, as if finding a vent, no longer gently enveloped them but turned into countless red-hot, barbed steel needles madly drilling into every pore of their bodies.
Their skin felt the searing pain of branding irons.
The air inhaled through mouth and nose was no longer air but scalding magma steam, directly burning their windpipes and lungs.
Even with eyes tightly shut, they felt the piercing pain and dizziness from the extreme intense light and heat penetrating their eyelids.
“Urgh ah!”
A Qinghu clan disciple with merely second-grade Heavenly Immortal cultivation could not endure first. He let out a short scream.
Blisters instantly swelled densely on his exposed skin, then burst, oozing yellowish pus.
He curled up and collapsed, his aura rapidly weakening.
“Hold on! Circulate your techniques to protect your heart veins!” Lie Tian roared hoarsely.
He himself was far from comfortable.
As a Silver Moon Heavenly Wolf, he leaned towards wind and moon attributes, naturally clashing with this extreme fire environment.
Now he felt his internal organs roasting over flames, his originally smooth demon power in his meridians turning sluggish and scalding.
His wounds flared, a surge of reverse blood rising to his throat. He forcibly swallowed it, yet his face turned purple-red from stifling it.
Shi Yan, being a Ground-Splitting Demon Ape with strong earth attributes, had slightly higher fire resistance but was still roasted until his whole body glowed red.
Sweat evaporated the instant it emerged, leaving white salt stains.
He gritted his teeth, shielding the nearly fainting Ying Wu behind him.
