Alchemy Master

Chapter 1164, The Reincarnating Flame Ghost Staff

Translator: Silavin

Under ordinary circumstances, had anyone dared speak to Jin Mi in such a manner, they would not have needed Jin Mi himself to respond and any number of powerful experts, eager to curry favour, would have hurled themselves forward in righteous fury.

On this occasion, however, not a single Soul dared play the role of brave volunteer.

There was, after all, a figure standing before them who looked rather like a Demon who had bathed in blood for a week and decided he enjoyed it. Nobody was volunteering for anything near that.

Moreover, Qin Yichen’s words had caused the expressions of quite a few experts to shift, ever so slightly.

It was true. Their own greed had made them Jin Mi’s pawns. In the bitter battle just past, over a hundred young geniuses had already paid for that greed with their lives.

And Jin Mi, for his part, had not emerged until Qing Luan appeared. This left one wondering, with some discomfort, how many more would have had to die before Jin Mi finally deigned to show himself had Qing Luan not arrived when he did.

And at the end of it all, the lion’s share of any gains would, without question, have gone to Jin Mi.

*Hmph!* As though sensing the subtle shift in the gazes surrounding him, gazes which had heard one too many home truths, Jin Mi’s expression darkened.

His eyes settled upon Qin Yichen. A storm-like pressure erupted from his body without warning. It was vast and crushing. In an instant, the entire surrounding area was swallowed within it.

Beneath that pressure, many experts who had been encircling Qin Yichen scrambled back several paces all at once, clearing an enormous circle with impressive, unanimous speed. More than a few of them looked at Qin Yichen with something that could only be described as pity.

After all, he could have used Qing Luan to break through and flee. That would have been perfectly sensible. Instead, he had chosen to provoke Jin Mi.

“Brother Qin…” Qing Luan’s brow furrowed slightly, his expression puzzled. He had not taken Qin Yichen for the sort of person who acted on an impulse. Why, at a moment like this, was he conducting himself as though righteousness were more important than breathing?

“Brat, do not think that because you have endured until now, you have earned the right to stand against me!” Jin Mi’s eyes flickered with cold light. His voice, laced with a dread-inducing pressure that made several bystanders’ knees wobble slightly, roared. “Remember it in your next life, there are things which are simply not yours to possess!”

*Boom!*

Jin Mi’s robes billowed. He stamped down hard, and his figure flickered like a ghost, appearing before Qin Yichen in the next instant. A ferocious energy, strong enough to obliterate a Peak Stage Martial Ancestor, came crashing down toward Qin Yichen with no ceremony whatsoever.

As the most outstanding young prodigy of the Golden Flame Race, Jin Mi was accustomed to universal reverence wherever he went. The concept of someone having the audacity to speak to him as Qin Yichen had was truly novel.

And the repeated setbacks had already exhausted Jin Mi’s patience. Right now, he wished to crush this arrogant wretch with thunderous finality, so that everyone present would understand precisely what became of those who dared offend him.

*Thud!* In the span of a blink, that thunderous blow struck Qin Yichen squarely in the chest. A terrifying shockwave tore outwards, and Qin Yichen’s figure shot downward like a cannonball, raising a great billow of dust.

Watching this, quite a few onlookers’ eyes contracted sharply. Several hundred experts working in concert had failed to put Qin Yichen in this kind of state. This basically showed the magnitude of Jin Mi’s strength.

But even as the crowd marvelled at Jin Mi’s explosive power, a figure calmly stepped out from within the rolling dust.

“He…”

“He’s completely unharmed?!”

“Heavens…”

Watching that figure emerge, the assembled crowd felt a chill crawl through them that had nothing to do with the weather.

Jin Mi was a Peak Stage Martial Ancestor, and by all accounts he had been suppressing his breakthrough to the Saint Realm. He was restrained from advancing only because of this opportunity in becoming Lord Mo Sheng’s Disciple. In fact, even in his current realm, Jin Mi’s hands lay the life of no small number of Saints.

Within the Martial Ancestor Realm, Jin Mi was, without question, one of those that stood at the very top, and from that blow alone, it was clear that no ordinary Peak Stage Martial Ancestor would last a single exchange with him.

And yet here was Qin Yichen, who had already endured a devastating battle, tanking that blow directly, and looking precisely as he had before. It was as though the strike that had made the mountain range itself tremble had perhaps been just a mild inconvenience.

“He…” Even Qing Luan’s eyes narrowed slightly. He had not witnessed Qin Yichen fighting several hundred experts, but he understood Jin Mi’s strength very well. That blow could have injured him even if he was not careful. Yet, Qin Yichen appeared entirely unscathed.

“No wonder he managed to hold out against their siege for so long, he truly does possess a powerful defensive treasure of some kind.” Watching the figure walk out of the dust, Jin Mi’s eyes narrowed, then curved into a cold smile. “But if you believe that is enough to stand against me, you are being rather too naïve.”

“Is that so?” Qin Yichen smiled faintly. Within his eyes, a cold, sharp light flickered with quiet menace.

“You will regret your arrogance. I shall make you suffer every possible torment before I kill you,” Jin Mi declared, his voice utterly indifferent, as though discussing the weather. “Although, you’ll realise it is already too late for regret now.”

His palm closed, and a completely fire-red iron staff materialised in his grasp.

Along its length ran winding crimson Runes of profound mystery, flowing like veins of molten rock. It looked like someone had turned a pillar of magma into a weapon. An extreme scorching heat pulsed steadily outward from it.

“That is the Golden Flame Race’s Reincarnating Flame Ghost Staff!”

“I heard that several years ago, a Saint was beaten to death by Jin Mi with that very staff…”

“Damn… even if he has a defensive treasure, he cannot possibly withstand Jin Mi with that thing, right?”

The sight of the staff in Jin Mi’s hand caused countless faces to shift dramatically. The staff was clearly a weapon of considerable infamy.

*Boom!*

Staff in hand, Jin Mi stamped down and shot forward. The fire staff wheeled in his grip, sending out sweeping, ferocious, blindingly scorching staff shadows that spread through the air and descended upon Qin Yichen like a falling sky.

**Bang! Bang!**

The staff shadows spread. Before they had even made contact with Qin Yichen’s body, the sheer force of the violent wind already cracked the ground beneath them clean through. The momentum was shocking to the extreme.

Yet facing that ferocious assault, Qin Yichen’s face, streaked with dark crimson blood, showed not the slightest trace of panic.

“Is he trying to get himself killed?”

“Even with a top tier defensive treasure, he cannot negate the whole assault!”

“Exactly. Even the residual force would be enough to reduce a Peak Stage Martial Ancestor to a fine paste!”

Watching Qin Yichen’s expression remain unchanged, quite a few onlookers exchanged glances and smiled coldly to themselves.