The Restless Nether Poison Flame

Great Elder Su smiled and shook his head at Xiao Ming's modest remark, not taking it to heart.

After chatting for a while longer, Xiao Ming left Su Qian's office.

Watching Xiao Ming's departing figure, Su Qian felt a mix of emotions.

"Xiao Ming, this young man, possesses such formidable strength at such a young age, and having been essentially raised by the Jia Nan Academy, is someone we know intimately. He is the best candidate to succeed as the Great Elder of the Jia Nan Academy. I believe the Dean will be extremely pleased to know that the academy has such an outstanding junior. However, Xiao Ming is still too young; he may not be willing to take over my position. I also wish to retire like Qian Bai and the other two."

Towards the end, Su Qian's tone became somewhat resentful.

"Those two, Qian Bai and Qian, hide away to cultivate, and you can't even find them all year round. And the Dean is the same; he's like a dragon whose head is seen but not its tail. All these years, I've been left to struggle alone to keep the academy afloat."

"This is infuriating!"

"Fortunately, Xiao Ming is here. With the pills he refines, my old buddies Hu Gan will all be able to break through to the Dou Zong soon. Then, the pressure on me will be much less."

The next day, Xiao Ming pulled the still-sleepy Zi Yan out of bed early in the morning.

After breakfast, the group left the Inner Academy aboard the Amethyst Winged Lion King, leaving Qing Lin with a reluctant gaze.

An endless expanse of azure sky stretches out, lazily dotted with clouds that only shift slightly when a gentle breeze stirs them. Sunlight streams through the clouds, bathing the towering mountains below in a warm glow. →

Suddenly, the sound of gusts of wind swept across the desolate sky. Then, a small black dot appeared on the edge of the sky. A moment later, the black dot came with the wind and finally transformed into a Purple Crystal Magical Beast exuding a ferocious Aura. With a low growl, it roared past.

On the massive head of the Purple Crystal Magical Beast, a white-robed youth sat cross-legged, a faint, fiery red battle Dou Qi emanating from his body, deflecting the oncoming gale.

Xiao Ming glanced at the extremely small ground below, and then heard Zi Yan's clear voice behind him.

"Xiao Ming, we've already left the Inner Academy forest. Where are we going to find the Heavenly Flames this time?"

Upon hearing this question, Xiao Ming stood up from the head of the Amethyst Winged Lion King and jumped onto its back, which was next to Zi Yan.

He glanced at Zi Yan and Xiao Yi Xian, then took out a scroll from his Na Ring and handed it over.

"You're all going to find out sooner or later anyway, so just take a look."

Zi Yan reached out her small hand, took the map from Xiao Ming, and then slowly unfolded it.

An extremely large map was displayed.

The map is predominantly yellow-green. Once unfolded, the first thing you see at the top is the large text: "Detailed Map of the Netherworld Marsh".

What followed were some extremely complex routes, as well as some illustrations of plants and animals.

Next to each illustration of a plant or animal, there are some special markings.

In addition to symbols representing plants and animals, there were even symbols representing Snake-People Tribe.

After staring at it for a while, Zi Yan was dumbfounded and realized that she couldn't understand it, so she turned her gaze to Xiao Ming.

Seeing this, Xiao Ming could only explain, "This map is of the Netherworld Marsh. See that flame-shaped symbol in the upper left and upper right corners of the map? That's the location of the Nether Poison Flame." Zi Yan looked at the upper left corner that Xiao Ming, but didn't see the flame symbol. After thinking carefully, she moved her left hand down a little and finally saw the flame symbol.

"The fire is marked so clearly, Xiao Ming, does that mean we can easily find that Heavenly Flames this time?"

"No, this is really not easy." Xiao Ming shook his head upon hearing this.

Hearing this, Xiao Yi Xian was a little confused. The map was marked in such detail, so why did she say it was difficult to find?

Wasn't it quite easy to find that Green Lotus Core Flame before?

In response, Xiao Ming explained, "The Nether Poison Flame is Heavenly Flames Heavenly Flame Ranking, ranking twentieth. It generally only appears in ancient swamps containing highly poisonous substances. After being imbued with the overwhelming Poison Miasma of the Poison Marsh millions of years, the flame consumes the endless Poison Miasma. It takes a hundred years to become a spirit and a thousand years to take shape. When it reaches its full potential, it will move through the miasma of the Poison Marsh like a will-o'-the-wisp, and will not just stay obediently in one place."

"Furthermore, judging from the timeline on the map, this Heavenly Flames we're looking for might have already developed sentience. Do you think it's possible to keep it in one place indefinitely?"

Is it possible? Of course not.

Although most Heavenly Flames, once formed, do not wander around, but stay in their place of birth.

But this is also because they did not develop intelligence.

Once you have intelligence, who can sit still? Staying in one place all the time is no different from being in prison.

Zi Yan and Xiao Yi Xian understood this principle and immediately frowned.

"Does that mean we'll be searching for a long time?" Zi Yan wrinkled her nose. Zi Yan would be very motivated to find medicinal herbs, but finding Heavenly Flames was a bit of a challenge for her.

"It depends on luck. Heavenly Flames can sense each other. If we're lucky, I might sense it as soon as we arrive. That way, we'll still have time to loot the treasures in the Netherworld Marsh. You know, this map marks more than just the Nether Poison Flame," Xiao Ming said, shaking his head.

He was quite confident about finding the Nether Poison Flame, after all, he had successfully found this Heavenly Flames many times in the Simulator.

Unlike the Wind Fury Dragon Flame that appears in Tagore, that thing only appears a few times in the Simulator, and each time we didn't even see a hair of it.

The Wind Fury Dragon Flame, a fire with such a short appearance cycle, had given up on Xiao Ming entirely, if he had any ideas about it before.

Whoever finds this Heavenly Flames is incredibly lucky.

Zi Yan's eyes lit up when Xiao Ming mentioned searching for medicinal herbs, and she nodded repeatedly.

"Great! I love finding medicinal herbs; none of them can escape my grasp."

Seeing Zi Yan's adorable head-shaking and swaying, Xiao Ming patted her head.

"Don't get too excited yet. I forgot to tell you earlier, the Dark Swamp we're going to is in the Extreme Western Lands of the Chu Yun Empire. Even at Lion Purple's flying speed, it will take two months to fly there. During these two months, you better behave yourself and don't run around, understand?"

"Ah?" Zi Yan's face fell upon hearing this, because she, like the unruly Nether Poison Flame, liked to run around.

Xiao Yi Xian, standing nearby, couldn't help but laugh as she watched Zi Yan's changing expression.

Xiao Ming didn't really expect Zi Yan to stay on the back of the Amethyst Winged Lion King forever, but he still had to say what needed to be said.