BTTH : From Humble Beginnings to Dou Di

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Through the transparent barrier, Lin Feng ignored everything else and focused his gaze straight on the earthen-yellow flame tornado in the distance.

”Its color is earthen-yellow, and the flame contains an extremely strong wind attribute. Given its tornado shape, there’s no doubt about it—this should be the eighteenth-ranked Heavenly Flame on the Heavenly Flame Ranking... Wind and Thunder Fury Flame.”

Lin Feng stared intently at the flame tornado at the center of the plaza, his voice murmuring out a string of information.

Then, his eyes quickly swept over the crowd around him.

As expected, everyone here was also staring at the items within the plaza with burning desire in their eyes.

”This is going to be a problem,” Lin Feng frowned deeply, muttering to himself.

If this Heavenly Flame had been hidden away somewhere by this Dou Zun, he could have relied on the resonance between Heavenly Flames to quietly steal it.

But now, he could only compete with everyone else for it.

Letting out a quiet sigh in his heart, Lin Feng turned his gaze back toward the other parts of the plaza.

Soon after, through the spatial barrier, he noticed several high-quality transparent jade bottles floating in the air about a hundred meters away from the Wind and Thunder Fury Flame.

Each of them drifted slightly from time to time.

”These pills... they must be extremely close to eighth-tier quality. Every single one of them is incredibly valuable, and here there are five.”

Looking at those pills, which had already begun to exhibit signs of spiritual awareness, he couldn’t help but sigh.

As for Xiao Yixian, she didn’t appear the least bit surprised.

After all, even before Lin Feng arrived, several seventh-tier alchemists had already come here.

When they saw those pills, their reactions had been more or less the same.

Lin Feng’s gaze lingered on those jade bottles for quite a while before finally moving on.

Then, at the center of those bottles, he noticed a faint cyan-colored storage ring floating quietly in midair, glowing with a soft light.

”That must be the storage ring of this ruin’s master... I’d bet that aside from what’s already been placed on the stone platforms, the rest of this Dou Zun’s life’s collection is all stored within that ring.”

Staring at the ring, Lin Feng murmured under his breath.

”Right—Xiao Yixian, you got here earlier than me. Do you know anything about that spatial barrier covering the Black Stone Plaza?”

After glancing around and noticing that no one was making any attempts to attack the barrier, Lin Feng asked the question.

Upon hearing it, Xiao Yixian explained, ”I got lucky. After finding a few stone platforms, the Heavenly Flame in my body suddenly started to act up. I ended up stumbling upon this place purely by accident, and was among the first to arrive.

At the beginning, quite a few people tried to forcefully break through the spatial barrier, but they all failed. Later on, we discovered that this spatial barrier weakens on its own over time.”

”So basically, it’s like that outer layer we encountered before? Just wait a few days and it’ll open up on its own?” Lin Feng rubbed his chin, coming to a sudden realization.

”Not quite.”

Xiao Yixian shook her head and continued, ”At first, that’s what we thought too. But later, we discovered that the weakening isn’t tied to time. After repeated investigation, we eventually figured out that the barrier only weakens once whenever the number of people nearby reaches a certain threshold.”

Hearing this, Lin Feng furrowed his brows once again.

If the number of people present wasn’t enough, did that mean they’d have to just keep waiting here?

”By the way, Xiao Yixian, did you come across any kind of exit while exploring the ruins?”

Lin Feng glanced down at the beauty in his arms, frowning as he asked.

During his exploration, he had made a point to look for an exit—but hadn’t found even the slightest trace of one.

”No, not at all. I didn’t see anything resembling an exit along the way. I was actually hoping to ask you about it when we met up,” Xiao Yixian gently shook her head, her pink lips parting as she replied.

With that, both of them fell into a brief daze.

No exit?

Were they supposed to just stay here forever?

Surely that couldn’t be the case...

”Lin Feng, that Black Stone Plaza… there’s something seriously wrong with it!”

Just then, Tian Huo Zun Zhe’s voice suddenly echoed in Lin Feng’s mind.

”Elder Yao, what is it? What’s wrong with the plaza?”

Noticing how heavy his tone had become, Lin Feng’s expression immediately grew tense.

After a moment of silence, Tian Huo Zun Zhe continued solemnly: ”Lin Feng, from what I’ve observed, the grooves and patterns carved into the floor of this plaza, along with the arrangement of those black stone pillars… all of it strongly resembles a formation known as the Bloodthirsty Spirit Formation.”

”Bloodthirsty Spirit Formation…”

Lin Feng softly repeated the name, and his face darkened in an instant. A bad feeling rose in his chest.

”Elder Yao, what exactly is that formation’s origin?”

Though he didn’t know much about it, just from the name alone—which reeked of blood and slaughter—he could guess it wasn’t anything good.

Tian Huo Zun Zhe’s voice turned even graver.

”This formation… dates back to ancient times. It was something that some top-grade ninth-tier alchemists devised in order to extract more energy while refining pills. Their goal was to boost their success rate for forming high-tier pills.”

”Once activated, the formation would violently reduce every living creature within its range into pure flesh and blood. Then, through the formation, it would forcibly extract their energy!”

”Later, some people discovered that during this process of energy extraction, the formation would also draw in souls—albeit in fragments—because those residual soul remnants contained spiritual energy.”

”So, with a few modifications, the formation could redirect this energy into a soul that needed nourishment. That meant even souls who had lost their physical bodies could be preserved—preventing them from dissipating due to the exhaustion of their source.”

”Although over ninety percent of the harvested energy would be wasted, the mere fact that it could preserve soul consciousness made this formation infamous for a time!”

”Of course, the Bloodthirsty Spirit Formation comes with serious side effects.”

”Because it doesn’t completely obliterate soul consciousness, it cannot fully erase the residual awareness in those souls. For normal pill refining, where only a few beings are sacrificed, it’s still manageable—the residual awareness can be burned away during pill formation.”

”But if a large number of living beings are sacrificed, and their energy is absorbed by a soul… then that soul’s mind will be invaded by countless fragments of consciousness. If too much is absorbed, the result… is madness.”

”Due to how cruel the formation is—and because it has so few practical applications—it eventually faded into obscurity over the long passage of time.”

At this point, Tian Huo Zun Zhe paused briefly before adding: ”I honestly didn’t expect to see it here.”

His voice was filled with frustration. Clearly, he wasn’t pleased in the slightest.

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