Fire Domain

Lu Zhou left the palace and rode a rainbow into the high sky.

He felt invigorated, his spiritual awareness exceptionally keen.

Standing high in the air, a gentle breeze made his white robes flap while his black hair streamed behind him. Slowly, he closed his eyes.

Yet his field of vision remained incomparably vast, and every sight within Yan Capital was exceptionally clear.

Lu Zhou carefully experienced these changes.

He saw armored soldiers standing with halberds in the imperial palace and countless figures walking the streets of Yan Capital.

He saw every blade of grass and tree in the imperial garden, and heard the sounds of ants and insects crawling among the flowers and trees.

Wherever his Divine Sense reached, he could perceive everything nearby without needing his eyes or ears.

At that moment, Lu Zhou felt as though his entire world had become vivid and vibrant.

Suddenly, he saw Little Nannan. She was chasing several colorful butterflies in the imperial garden, accompanied by the Yan Emperor's empress and several consorts, who were playing with Nannan.

Yet just as Lu Zhou's Divine Sense spread over her, Nannan seemed to sense it. She abruptly stopped, allowing the butterflies to flutter away from before her.

She raised her head, confusion filling her jewel-like, sparkling eyes as she looked toward the sky where Lu Zhou stood.

Lu Zhou withdrew the Divine Sense he had directed at Little Nannan. Dao patterns of the Xingzi Secret flickered beneath his feet, and like a bolt of lightning or a wisp of green smoke, he returned to the palace where he was staying without alerting anyone.

He sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion. The next instant, a tiny golden sword roughly an inch long flew from between his brows, carrying terrifying golden divine radiance as it shot forward.

The tiny golden sword had been condensed from his Divine Sense. It was not a physical object, yet it possessed extraordinarily powerful killing force.

Seeing that he could now accomplish this as well, and that he finally had a Divine Sense-based offensive technique, however rudimentary, a smile crept across Lu Zhou's face.

Over the following days, Lu Zhou continued cultivating within the Yan Emperor's palace.

Before he knew it, he had cultivated in the Yan Emperor's palace for a full two months.

By then, he had reached the great completion of the Other Shore. To achieve this, he had used up all ten jin of Source he had obtained from signing in.

Such consumption exceeded that of some ordinary Other Shore cultivators, yet it was still far inferior to that of a Sacred Body.

Lu Zhou believed it was related to the improvement of his physique.

He was pleased by this development. If he remained forever no different from the masses, he would only seem ordinary.

During those two months, Lu Zhou had already heard news of the Demon Emperor's Tomb opening.

This matter had not only shaken the Eastern Wasteland and drawn all its major powers to the Demon Emperor's Tomb, but even the imperial dynasties of the Central Continent had reportedly begun preparing to send people over.

Seeing this, Lu Zhou no longer wished to remain in the Yan Kingdom.

He came before Little Nannan and told her that he was leaving, as he had matters to attend to.

The moment Little Nannan heard this, panic appeared in her eyes. She clung to Lu Zhou's arm before he could even ask whether she wished to leave with him.

Little Nannan took the initiative to ask Lu Zhou to take her with him.

"I can't bear to leave Brother Lu. Wherever Brother Lu goes, Nannan will go. Nannan is very good. I can wash clothes, cook, and mop the floor."

She seemed terribly afraid that Lu Zhou would leave her behind.

Lu Zhou smiled, stroked her head, and told her,

"Alright, Brother Lu will take you with him!"

They did not leave immediately. Lu Zhou summoned the Yan Emperor, told him they were leaving, and asked him to prepare some things.

Nearly all of them were for Nannan.

Things such as food and clothes.

The Yan Emperor did not dare disobey. He promptly led people to prepare them himself.

Besides that, Lu Zhou also told the Yan Emperor that he wished to take some things from the imperial garden.

The Yan Emperor was somewhat puzzled, unable to understand what in his imperial garden could possibly catch Lu Zhou's eye.

Still, he immediately said that Lu Zhou could decide as he pleased.

While the Yan Emperor went to prepare those items, Lu Zhou brought Little Nannan to the imperial garden.

Then, the flowers, plants, fruit trees, artificial hills, and spring pools that Little Nannan had often wandered through these days, along with some of the pavilions and towers in the imperial garden—

As well as some pleasing and gentle little animals, and some ornamental fish kept in the spring pools, were all collected by Lu Zhou into his Qiankun Pearl.

This was the new home he had created for Little Nannan.

With time limited, this was all he could make do with for now.

After he finished, the things the Yan Emperor had prepared for Little Nannan were ready as well. Lu Zhou stored them away, then directly took Nannan's hand and vanished before the Yan Emperor and the others.

After leaving Yan Capital, Lu Zhou casually found an uninhabited barren mountain to land on, then entered the Qiankun Pearl with Little Nannan.

"Nannan, Brother Lu will be going to some places that may be dangerous. Can you stay inside the Qiankun Pearl most of the time?"

"If you miss Brother Lu, call for me. Brother Lu will sense it and appear before you then!"

"Alright, Brother Lu. You have to be careful!"

Little Nannan was not only very sensible and understood that Lu Zhou had important matters to handle, but she also did not cling to him.

Nor was she picky. Although Qiankun Heaven and Earth was small, every scene before her was one she had become intimately familiar with over these past days.

Thus, she quickly adapted to the environment within Qiankun Heaven and Earth.

Seeing that Nannan had already begun playing with some of the little animals, Lu Zhou left the Qiankun Pearl and took out the map he had received from the Yan Emperor.

He soon found the location of the Jin Kingdom on the map, then headed straight for it.

The Jin Kingdom, located in the Southern Territory of the Eastern Wasteland, possessed a certain degree of renown.

That was entirely because there was a Fire Domain within the Jin Kingdom.

No grass or trees grew upon the ground of the Fire Domain, and no magma lay beneath it. There was nothing at all that could burn.

Yet the flames of the Fire Domain had burned continuously, never once going out.

No one knew why the Fire Domain's flames never extinguished, nor how many years they had burned from the ancient desolation era until now.

There were many legends concerning the Fire Domain. Ancient records had mentioned that it was related to immortals, and that it had once burned an immortal to death.

Other records had mentioned that the Desolate Pagoda had floated and sunk within the Fire Domain for several thousand years.

All of these accounts were mentioned only briefly. They were exceedingly vague and unclear, and there was no conclusion as to what was true or false, or whether such events had truly happened.

Yet one thing was certain: the Fire Domain was an exceptionally suitable place for cultivators to refine weapons.

The Fire Domain's flames possessed an extraordinarily mysterious power. They could help a weapon take shape and make it easier to imprint "Dao" and "principles" upon it!

The reason Lu Zhou had crossed several kingdoms in a long journey after leaving Yan Capital was not only because he believed the Fire Domain had to be a place where he could sign in, but also because he wanted to refine his Qiankun Pearl here.

Because of the system, the Qiankun Pearl had been bound to him from the beginning.

This meant that in the process of refining the Qiankun Pearl into his own vital weapon, he did not need to be like those cultivators who pursued One Weapon Breaks Ten Thousand Techniques, constantly tempering and nurturing their weapon within their bodies.

They had to refine the weapon within their bodies so it could merge and harmonize with them, allowing it to unleash its greatest power.

But Lu Zhou had already reached the great completion of the Other Shore. Although the Qiankun Pearl was powerful, it was still merely an ordinary weapon.

Lu Zhou wanted to try in the Fire Domain and see whether he could completely imprint the nine Emperor characters from the Dao Sutra upon the Qiankun Pearl!

If successful, perhaps it would allow the Qiankun Pearl to evolve "Dao" and "principles," give rise to Dao patterns, and grant it the foundation to one day become an ultimate Dao weapon.