Eternal Azure Sky, a Single Lotus

Zhang Tian went looking for Yun Yun, only to learn that she needed two days to make arrangements before she could leave. So he simply found a few maps and crammed the distribution of the Snake-People Race's forces.

If the Azure Lotus Core Flame was still there, that would naturally be best. If Medusa Queen had taken it, then he would have to snatch it back.

Three days later, Yun Yun and Zhang Tian spread Dou Qi wings in pairs and shot through the air. After hurrying for a full day and a half, they finally reached a small frontier town on the edge of the Tagor Desert.

Many mercenaries and merchants traveling to and fro replenished their supplies in this little town, making it rather bustling.

But Zhang Tian knew that beneath this seemingly peaceful town lurked no telling how much evil. Light withdrew during the day, and darkness bred beneath the moonlit night.

Aside from traveling merchants who sold goods to other empires for profit, there were also countless fierce desert bandits lying low here, as well as innumerable mercenaries who wanted to capture Snake-People slaves for human trafficking. Evil and order filled every corner of the town.

"Humans feed on all living things, and all living things do not regard humans as human." The meaning of those words was that humans did not treat all things as living beings equal to themselves, while tigers, leopards, jackals, and wolves would not look upon humans as "people" either.

Survival was the bottom line and desire that no intelligent race could yield on.

Shaking his head, Zhang Tian knew that with his strength, wiping out this small town would be effortless. Even destroying an empire would not be difficult. But to alter the sun, moon, and heavenly light, rewrite human ethics and order, and make the continent free of darkness—even a Dou Di could not do that.

The prejudice in people's hearts was a mountain.

Even if it could not be seen, it was still there.

"I think I can sense it. The purpose of our trip is over there." Zhang Tian's eyes lit up. The Flame Emperor Mantra belonging to Tou She Ancient God had produced a faint reaction, as if something were pulling him along.

"Over there!" After sensing carefully for a while, Zhang Tian's eyes brightened, and he led Yun Yun as they broke through the air.

Half a month later.

After killing a fourth-rank Desert Magic Lizard, Zhang Tian looked up at the scorching sky. It was a stretch of azure blue, filled with drifting white clouds, while yellow sand raged through the Tagor Desert below. Quite a bit of the sand reflected the light, burning hot.

"Mm, it seems to be right beneath our feet." This time, Zhang Tian sensed for a full quarter of an hour before slowly speaking, though his tone carried a trace of uncertainty.

"This is the fiftieth-plus time you've said that, isn't it?" Yun Yun rolled her eyes. These days, Zhang Tian had sensed it nearly sixty times. Each time lasted anywhere from the time it took an incense stick to burn to half an hour, but they had always come up empty-handed.

"The auras are too similar." Zhang Tian shook his head. At present, he had yet to subdue even a single Heavenly Flame, so some errors in his sensing of this aura were unavoidable.

Yun Yun smoothed the hair beside her ear and lightly pursed her red lips.

She furrowed her pretty brows and could not help complaining.

"Are we done yet? Leaving the Yun Lan Sect for half a month for no reason—this has never happened before. I'm worried about Yanran too. I asked you to help me train her, and in the end you just left her in the sect..."

Zhang Tian rubbed his brow. This kind of thing really was not Yun Yun's style. As for Nalan Yanran, he was not too concerned. As long as she cultivated diligently, even if she did not reach Dou Shi by the time they returned, she should at least become a Nine Star Dou Zhe.

This Heavenly Flame was still rather important to Xiao Yan. It was a tremendous boost for Xiao Yan's breakthrough to Dou Ling. To be honest, Zhang Tian did not want to give it up.

After all, Zhang Tian's target for the next Heavenly Flame was the Fallen Heart Flame, and without the realm of a Dou Zun, there was simply no way to obtain that thing.

Zhang Tian could not possibly go to Canaan Academy as a student, and the Inner Academy's First Elder Su Qian and the Thousand-Hundred Two Elders were also fairly steady in strength.

"Looks like I still have to make Xiao Yan join the Yun Lan Sect. When the time comes, I'll work with Yao Lao and take down the Fallen Heart Flame in one go." Zhang Tian sighed. Not letting Xiao Yan join the Yun Lan Sect had indeed been a wise move.

"Or I could let Xiao Yan and Yao Lao go take the Fallen Heart Flame, while I go scheme for something else." Another thought rose in Zhang Tian's mind. Yao Lao possessed a Bone Spirit Cold Flame, so it was relatively reliable. Once Xiao Yan reached Dou Wang, he could more or less devour it.

"All right, let's not talk about anything else. We'll go down and take a look." Although he did not hold much hope, Zhang Tian still landed on the ground.

"Hm? Isn't the sand here a little too hard?" Zhang Tian's expression brightened. How could there be hard sand in the great desert? Logically speaking, it should generally be rather loose.

A Wave Splitting Seal struck the ground, and the earth split open at once into a large hole. A long tunnel entrance appeared, with a great deal of sand and soil falling inside.

"As expected." Only ground with a cave opening beneath it could possibly be firm land, because if it were loose sand, it would pour into the entrance and seal it shut.

After entering the cave entrance and walking several dozen steps, Zhang Tian sensed an aura even hotter and more stifling than the great desert outside.

"Looks like this is it."

Zhang Tian slowly entered the cave opening. At the end was a massive underground lava cavern, filled with flowing rivers of magma. A magma lake came into view.

It was a magma lake several thousand meters across. Magma churned within it, erupting and surging from time to time, splashing up countless bubbles and streams of lava.

The cave was filled with dense fire-attribute energy. Even taking a breath made one feel as if their lungs were burning.

"I probably should've brought Yao Lao. Forget it. My own Dou Qi will do." Shaking his head, Zhang Tian was still quite confident in the Flame Emperor Mantra. With a leap, he jumped straight into the magma lake.

"I'll go down and take a look. Stay up here. I'm afraid we may run into Medusa Queen. If that happens, I'll hold her off, and you find a chance to take the Azure Lotus Core Flame." Zhang Tian, who had leapt into the magma lake, turned back and spoke to Yun Yun.

"Azure Lotus Core Flame? So that Heavenly Flame is the purpose of our trip." Yun Yun nodded, indicating that she understood. She herself had no means to subdue a Heavenly Flame, so she was not tempted.

Heavenly Flames were mostly the supreme treasures of alchemists. Even someone as powerful as Gu Yuan had not mastered any Heavenly Flame other than the Golden Emperor Sky Burning Flame, and that was only because the Golden Emperor Sky Burning Flame was the inherited flame of the Gu clan.

After entering the magma pool, Zhang Tian still felt a slight heat. However, the barrier raised by the Flame Emperor Mantra protected him very well, and it even continuously refined the fire-attribute energy in the surrounding magma, turning it into strands of Dou Qi that replenished his body.

"Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snake?" At the bottom of the magma lake, Zhang Tian discovered a fire snake coiled up and resting. Its two enormous snake heads swallowed and spat out molten rock. This was how it usually fed.

"It didn't notice me?" Zhang Tian stretched out his hands and looked at them. It was as if he had merged into one with the surrounding magma.

Zhang Tian arrived before the Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snake. Only then did this fourth-rank Magic Beast discover him. It gave a soft growl and revealed a very human-like, strange expression.

"What is this little thing that looks like a pastry?" The Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snake was somewhat curious. Zhang Tian's current aura was indeed extremely similar to the magma it usually swallowed.

"Little fellow, stay quiet for a while." Zhang Tian smiled faintly. A giant magma hand seized the Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snake's two huge snake heads, lifting it up so it could not struggle.

Hiss, hiss, hiss.

The Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snake felt an immense pressure, as if it were facing an emperor within fire.

It frantically twisted its body, its snake heads letting out hiss after hiss, but in the end, Zhang Tian still tossed it to the shore.

"Let me see. It's quite far." After entering the magma lake, Zhang Tian's sensing ability became increasingly clear. He had already locked onto the unique Heavenly Flame aura belonging to the Azure Lotus Core Flame.

Dou Emperor-level Dou Qi erupted, pushing back layer after layer of magma as he swam deeper down. The farther he went, the higher the temperature became, and by the time he reached the deepest point, it was already about as warm as water at forty to fifty degrees.

At that moment, Zhang Tian stared in shock at a swaying azure lotus platform several meters tall. On the seedpod, ten thousand flowers bloomed, Lotus Seeds floated one after another, and a roaring azure flame burned above the lotus.

Unlike the fierce body of the Amethyst Winged Lion King, the Azure Lotus Core Flame was crystalline and beautiful, like a flawless piece of jade, as if carved as a work of art. Even Zhang Tian could not help but feel the wonder of nature.

Who had ever seen a lotus several meters tall freely unfurling and swaying? Who could have imagined that such a marvel could exist beneath the earth?

Though it was only a single Azure Lotus Core Flame, the energy contained within it surpassed even that of a Dou Zong. Its might was terrifying.

"An Azure Lotus Core Flame like this has taken a full thousand years to nurture." Zhang Tian shook his head and prepared to pluck it.

Yet the Flame Emperor Mantra began circulating wildly on its own, and the Strange Fire Plaza also trembled faintly.

"This is..." The scene shifted, and Zhang Tian seemed to cross time and space, arriving in an ancient era. A massive azure lotus, dozens of meters tall, grew continuously until it finally reached several hundred meters in height.

Around it was a lava space several thousand meters wide. As time flowed ceaselessly by, at some unknown point, a deep-red flame blazing fiercely barged in.

Wherever the flame passed, it burned space and distorted light. The moment it appeared, the Azure Lotus Core Flame felt an immense pressure. This was a difference in level.

In the end, to avoid being devoured, the two instinctively fought a great battle. Magma surged, and lava erupted.

In that battle, the underground space was shattered. In the end, the source of the Azure Lotus Core Flame was devoured. Unwilling to accept this, a colossal azure fire lotus thousands of meters across erupted with a thunderous crash, blotting out heaven and earth. As it withered and drew the curtain in an instant, an endless might burst forth, turning the fertile land within dozens of miles into scorched desert, where not a blade of grass had grown for nearly ten thousand years.

The image froze on the instant before the Azure Lotus Core Flame erupted. A thousands-meter-wide azure lotus spun round and round, strands of flame coiling around it and twisting the void. It seemed to contain immense vitality—yet when a single flame withered, all that remained was destruction.

Beneath the eternal blue sky, a single lotus stood.