Spirit Realm

Tong Ying was very astonished to see the Flame Emperor. She thought that his arrival most likely had something to do with the odd change that was happening across the entire Vermillion Bird Realm right now.

She had met the Flame Emperor right here in the Vermillion Bird Realm in the past…

Many years ago, when she was at measly rank eight bloodline, the Flame Emperor used to come to the Vermillion Bird Realm to cultivate.

In fact, the Flame Emperor had even come this exact same volcano and ventured into its depths before.

At the time, no Vermillion Bird had managed to cultivate to rank ten bloodline yet. After the Flame Emperor had arrived, every rank nine Vermillion Bird had gathered here in attempt to flush him out of this volcano.

However, they had failed to stop the Flame Emperor even though he was only an early stage Genesis Realm expert with a seven-level Soul Altar expert at the time.

It was because the Flame Emperor had sunk to a depth where none of the rank nine Vermillion Birds was able to reach him.

The volcano was that hot…

In the end, the rank nine Vermillion Birds had no choice but to wait next to the volcano for the Flame Emperor to emerge on his own.

The wait lasted for seven years straight.

Seven years after his first arrival at Vermillion Bird Realm, the Flame Emperor finally walked out of the volcano and let out a long laugh of satisfaction. After that, he had left the Vermillion Bird Realm.

The Vermillion Birds of Vermillion Bird Realm then paid close attention to any news related to the Flame Emperor, and they soon learned that his strength and comprehension of laws of fire had seemingly reached a completely new level.

The entire Vermillion Bird Race was shocked by his transformation.

In the following years after that, every powerful Vermillion Bird had tried to reach the heart of the volcano.

They were certain that a great secret was hidden in the heart of the volcano. It was the only thing that could explain why the Flame Emperor had improved so drastically.

Unfortunately for the Vermillion Bird Race, no one was truly able to reach the heart of the volcano even after a rank ten Vermillion Bird had come to be.

As a result, they weren’t able to excavate that secret for themselves.

By the time Six Ways Alliance invaded Vermillion Bird Realm and took it over for themselves, the Vermillion Bird Race still hadn’t solved the mystery of the volcano.

After Cai Can of Blue Flame Manor had heard that the Flame Emperor had once visited the Vermillion Bird Realm, he thought that the Flame Emperor must have left behind his secrets and inheritance in this world.

Cai Can had scoured through the entire Vermillion Bird Realm to obtain the Flame Emperor’s secrets and inheritance for himself, but in the end he wasn’t able to find anything noteworthy.

Cai Can wasn’t yet in the Genesis Realm at the time, so even if he knew that the Flame Emperor had gone down that particular volcano before, he wouldn’t have been able to search it anyway.

After that, circumstances had forced him to abandon his search.

Many years had passed since, and today a human boy had abandoned his body and became the second person ever after the Flame Emperor to venture into the heart of the volcano.

Just like the Flame Emperor, he seemed to have reached the bottom of the Vermillion Bird Realm and triggered a change across the entire world.

Even the Flame Emperor himself had returned as a result.

This series of events caused Tong Ying to feel a sense of trepidation on the inside.

“Have you come to meet Qin Lie, Tang Yan?” Crimson Blood Ape King asked loudly.

The Beast King knew the Flame Emperor. He knew that his surname was Tang, and that his full name was Tang Yan.

“Qin Lie isn’t why I’m here.” The Flame Emperor shook his head while smiling. “I came here because I noticed that the Vermillion Bird Realm’s world laws are changing in subtle ways. I wanted to know what was going on.”

“I heard that you’d ventured down to the depths, hadn’t you? What on Spirit Realm is down there?” Crimson Blood Ape King asked.

Tong Zhenzhen, Tong Ying, and Tong Yan all stared expectantly at the Flame Emperor in unison.

Speaking of which, Tong Zhenzhen’s husband, Xu Ran was also waiting outside just like Lin Liang’er because he wasn’t a member of the Vermillion Bird Race.

“To be honest, not even I had seen what that object is back then.” The Flame Emperor smiled bitterly as he explained, “At the time, I was an early stage Genesis Realm expert with a seven-level Soul Altar. Just like Qin Lie, I’d unleashed my Soul Altar once the heat became too much for my body. However…”

The Flame Emperor looked down the volcano meaningfully before continuing, “Even my seven-level Soul Altar was forced to a stop after a moment.”

“Why is that?” Tong Zhenzhen asked in a small voice.

The Flame Emperor didn’t try to hide his past. He answered honestly, “It’s because my seven-level Soul Altar would’ve been burned away if I had continued any further.”

“Ah! How is that possible?” Tong Zhenzhen was stunned by his admission. “Qin Lie’s Soul Altar is only a one-level Soul Altar! And his Soul Altar had been there for a very long time already!”

“If my guess is correct, Qin Lie’s one-level Soul Altar should’ve sunk all the way to the bottom already. He must have seen what even I haven’t seen all these years ago,” the Flame Emperor said seriously.

“How is that possible?!” Tong Yan and Tong Ying were speechless with shock.

“You aren’t serious, are you?” Even Crimson Blood Ape King couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing.

Both the Flame Emperor and Qin Lie had chosen the same course of action. They had both tried to sink down into the volcano in Soul Altar form. However, the Flame Emperor’s Soul Altar was seven levels high, while Qin Lie’s only had a single level.

They all knew that a Soul Altar was reforged every time a new level was added to it, so logically speaking, a two-level Soul Altar was tougher than a one-level Soul Altar, and so on!

The Flame Emperor’s Soul Altar was seven levels high. Not only had it been reforged seven times, his main spirit power was the power of fire!

Qin Lie’s Soul Altar had one level, and he wasn’t famed for his powerful fire spirit arts either.

Therefore, how could Qin Lie possibly succeed where the Flame Emperor had failed?

It was completely illogical!

“This is Qin Lie we’re talking about. If he’s involved, I don’t think I’ll be surprised no matter how unbelievable some things are,” the Flame Emperor said after pondering for a moment. “There has been too many impossible things happening around Qin Lie that none of you are able to understand. For example, I was curious to know who was the person who was changing the Vermillion Bird Realm before I came here. But after you told me it was Qin Lie… I’ll be honest. Even I think that he’s the only other person who could venture into the heart of Vermillion Bird Realm and see what even I hadn’t seen back in those years.”

“I didn’t know what the object residing inside this volcano is, but I could sense its laws of fire reaching me even when it was still a ways away from my seven-level Soul Altar!”

“One by one, I refined each level of my Soul Altar by studying the laws and truths emanating from that object for a year.”

“That is why I had stayed there for seven years.”

“The reason I was able to become the Flame Emperor, construct a nine-level Soul Altar and have my current achievements almost entirely due to those seven years I spent at the bottom of this volcano.”

“Originally, I was planning to head down and discover the truth once and for all on my way back to Spirit Realm, and after I had completed my nine-level Soul Altar.”

“But since Qin Lie has reached that place and found that secret before me, I guess there’s no need anymore.” The Flame Emperor ended with a smile.

Crimson Blood Ape King and the three Vermillion Birds were stunned beyond words by his explanation.

At the same time, their understanding of Qin Lie had deepened even further.

From the Flame Emperor’s words and expression, they could see that Qin Lie was extremely valuable to him, one of the Three Emperors of the human race.

Connecting that to the fact that the Ice Emperor was staying at Sky Bearing City and interacting on friendly terms with the Qin Family, they knew that the Three Emperors must be very close to Qin Lie.

“I’ll wait for him to come out with all of you. Personally, I’m very curious as to the true identity of the object lying beneath this volcano myself. I’d like to hear his first person account of his exploration,” the Flame Emperor added.

The Flame Emperor didn’t look like he was planning to head down, and the three Vermillion Birds were powerless to try even if they wanted to. Therefore, they could do nothing but wait patiently.

While they were waiting, the Flame Emperor smiled at Crimson Blood Ape King before saying, “You and the rest of the Beast Kings sure are wise. I didn’t expect you lot to invest in Qin Lie.”

He was expressing his agreement and praise towards the Ancient Beast Race’s close relationship with Qin Lie.

Crimson Blood Ape King let out a chuckle. “Well, the Qin boy told us that he could unlock the mysteries of our bloodline and open the Abyss to us. Besides that, we all found him to be quite likeable, not even counting the fact that he had saved the Heavenly Blue Snake King’s sons and built quite a strong friendship with my nephew, Teng Yuan. Honestly, it’s harder to find a reason not to like him.”

“You’d made the right decision.” The Flame Emperor paused for a moment before saying seriously, “He is the key behind Spirit Realm’s true incorporation with the outer realms.”

Crimson Blood Ape King trembled when he heard this.

Tong Ying was just as astonished as the Beast King. The old lady shot Tong Yan and Tong Zhenzhen a glance, and suddenly she had a feeling that her decision to surrender her seat of power to Tong Yan was probably the wisest decision she had ever made in her life.

“Boom!”

It was at this moment a great tremor suddenly came from the bottom of the Vermillion Bird Realm.

A rich amount of fire spirit energy suddenly gushed out of the active volcano Qin Lie was in and spread out to the entire Vermillion Bird Realm.

“Such dense fire energy!” Even the Flame Emperor was surprised by the phenomenon.

Excitement bubbled in the hearts of the three Vermillion Birds and the elders guarding the ancestral altars some distance away.

By now, they could sense clearly the very laws of fire of the entire Vermillion Bird Realm changing in subtle ways due to the tremor from below.

The fire energy that was gushing from the volcano kept growing in richness.

It meant that any living being who cultivated the power of fire or used fire energy as a power source would be able to cultivate their spirits art or bloodline much faster than before!