Departure, Sky Flame Mountain Range

Because of the emergence of the Ancient Tomb Mansion, undercurrents began to stir in Flame City and even throughout Heavenly Capital County.

The tomb mansion of a Nirvana Realm expert was naturally incomparably alluring. Otherwise, the Four Great Clans would not have wanted a share of the spoils.

Even the Four Great Clans were acting this way, let alone the smaller factions of Heavenly Capital County.

As the saying went, people died for wealth, and birds died for food. To cultivators, resources were the wealth they sought. Especially since this was a tomb mansion left behind by a powerful Nirvana Realm expert—finding even a little of its resources would be of immense help to them.

As time passed, this restless atmosphere grew ever more feverish. Even many experts from outside Heavenly Capital County rushed over one after another!

Lin Family, within a small courtyard.

"Buzz!"

Lin Xuan slowly opened his eyes. An invisible Sword Qi burst forth from his gaze before gradually dissipating into the air.

Over the past half month, he had basically had Little Marten make a move once every two or three days. Lin Xuan had now made tremendous progress in the sword path, especially in the sword path of slaughter. As a result, a faint killing aura still lingered around him.

This was because his sword path had improved too quickly in too short a time, and his realm had yet to be fully stabilized, leaving him unable to completely conceal it.

After restraining the aura within his body as much as possible, Lin Xuan left the small courtyard where he had been staying. Today was the day they would set out for the Sky Flame Mountain Range.

The Sky Flame Mountain Range was the foremost mountain range in Heavenly Capital County. It covered an extremely vast area, practically stretching across the entire county, with its branches connecting all of Heavenly Capital County's major cities. Its main range lay between Flame City, Heavenly Capital City, and another major city.

With such a vast territory, the Sky Flame Mountain Range naturally concealed countless ferocious demonic beasts. Under normal circumstances, even some of Heavenly Capital County's experts who made their living hunting demonic beasts would not dare venture deeply into the Sky Flame Mountain Range.

The sprawling forests hid countless demonic beasts, including powerful ones from the Creation Three Realms, along with all manner of poisonous miasma and toxic swamps. Every one of them was a death trap.

But before a tomb mansion left behind by a Nirvana Realm expert, such deadly threats seemed somewhat insignificant.

Flame City was still quite a distance from the main range of the Sky Flame Mountain Range. After traveling for a full day, Lin Xuan and his group finally arrived at the foot of the mountains.

The next morning, as dawn pierced through the mist shrouding the mountain range and filtered through layers of leaves onto the Sky Flame Mountain Range, the Lin Clan's massive party slowly advanced forward.

Wu Tao glanced at Lin Xuan, who walked at the very front without speaking a word, his eyes carrying a hint of solemnity.

"Lin Dong, have the Fire Python Tiger scout the flanks. We'll advance slowly."

Although they had a highly detailed map from the Myriad Gold Commerce, Wu Tao did not dare let down his guard in the slightest. After all, they could only rely on themselves along the way, so they naturally could not afford to be careless.

Lin Dong did not object. After nodding, he patted the Fire Python Tiger walking beside him.

Little Flame now carried an extraordinary aura of his own, already comparable to an expert at the Great Perfection of Core Formation Realm. Of course, this was also thanks to the many demon cores and demonic beast corpses Lin Xuan had given him.

Over the past half month, Little Marten had gone all out several times. Lin Xuan had not let him work for nothing either, heading into the mountains to kill two Qi Creation Realm demonic beasts and one Creation Realm demonic beast to replenish him.

After all, without demon spirits to sacrifice, the demon spirit within Little Marten, which had already been drained dry, simply could not withstand the energy required to use those Sky Demon Marten Clan Secret Techniques.

As far as Little Marten was concerned, he only needed the demon spirits. The remaining demon cores and demonic beast corpses naturally all went to Little Flame.

With the aid of demon cores and the corpses of demonic beasts from the Creation Three Realms, Little Flame's strength had grown tremendously. He was already comparable to an expert at the Great Perfection of Core Formation Realm, and was not far from the first realm of the Creation Three Realms, the Shaping Realm.

Even the mutated bloodline within Little Flame's body had undergone some changes after absorbing the bloodlines of demonic beasts. A layer of dark black scales now covered his body, making him even harder to detect when moving through the forest.

That was also why Wu Tao had sent Little Flame to scout the sides. Little Flame's movements were sufficiently concealed, making him difficult to notice, and he was fast enough to travel swiftly.

Lin Xuan paid no attention to Wu Tao's arrangements. He merely walked at the front, as though everything else had nothing to do with him.

Suddenly, Lin Xuan's eyes narrowed slightly, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

At that moment, Lin Dong, who was walking near the front of the group, also sensed that something was off. Given Little Flame's speed, he should have finished scouting and returned by now.

Yet after so long, Lin Dong still had not sensed Little Flame's aura entering his detection range.

"Old Tao, something's wrong. Little Flame has been gone for so long and still hasn't returned!"

"Roar!!"

The moment Lin Dong finished speaking, a tiger's roar sounded from the distance, making his expression change slightly.

Even Wu Tao, standing at the very front, turned grim. After glancing at Lin Xuan, who showed no reaction at all, he waved his hand and gave the order.

"Go! Let's take a look!"

"No need. He'll be back soon."

But at that moment, Lin Xuan suddenly spoke.

Within the range of Lin Xuan's spiritual perception, a group was surrounding Little Flame ahead to their right. A young man among them was directing his subordinates to capture Little Flame.

Clearly, that young man had seen how majestic Little Flame looked now and wanted to take him as a mount.

But evidently, that group had greatly underestimated Little Flame's strength. Though his true form was a Fire Python Tiger, demonic beasts were inherently stronger than humans in certain respects. Moreover, Little Flame possessed a mutated bloodline, and a thick layer of scales covered his body, granting him extremely high defense.

At first, however, Little Flame clearly did not understand just how powerful the scales he had inherited from a Creation Realm demonic beast were, so he had remained somewhat cautious.

But soon, after discovering that even the only two experts at the Great Perfection of Core Formation Realm could not break through his defenses, Little Flame took advantage of their carelessness and launched a sneak attack, directly killing one of the Great Perfection of Core Formation Realm experts.

After losing one such expert, the sole remaining one was unable to hold out alone. Before long, he too was slapped to death by Little Flame's claw.

The remaining people were even less capable of resisting Little Flame's attacks. By the time Lin Xuan spoke, Little Flame was already pursuing and killing the last few survivors.

Not long afterward, Little Flame returned to the group, carrying a fierce killing aura.