Subduing the Fallen Heart Flame

"Roar!"

As the saying went, enemies' eyes turned red the moment they met. Though the two had never encountered each other before, that did not stop the Fallen Heart Flame from hating Xiao Xian. Any humanoid creature fell within the Fallen Heart Flame's range of hatred.

It let out an ear-splitting roar, then opened its mouth and spat out a blazing crimson flame. The surrounding space trembled, faint cracks appearing as fierce astral winds gushed from within them.

Wind fed the fire, and fire borrowed the wind's strength.

Wind-attributed and fire-attributed energy intertwined, forming an even more destructive force. The entire Magma Lake instantly boiled as dense fire-attributed energy surged madly forth, turning the whole world of magma into a Flame God Kingdom.

"Naughty!"

Xiao Xian stretched out his hand and clenched at the void. In an instant, it was as though the entire world had been seized. Both the astral winds and the flames vanished at once, as if everything that had happened before had merely been an illusion.

Yet the Fallen Heart Flame knew perfectly well that its attack had been casually erased. That indifferent, offhanded manner made it seem as though Xiao Xian had done something utterly trivial.

Danger! Danger!

An intense sense of crisis flooded the Fallen Heart Flame's mind. Its soul felt as if countless steel needles had pierced through it, the stabbing pain constantly reminding it that the man before it was monstrously powerful—far beyond anything it could resist.

Run!

There was nothing else to say. Facing such an inhuman existence, continuing to resist would undoubtedly be the stupidest choice. Its top priority was to flee at once.

Unfortunately, just as the Fallen Heart Flame was about to move, it discovered that its body was already beyond its control. Other than its thoughts, every part of its body had slipped from its command.

The Fallen Heart Flame regretted it so badly its intestines would have turned green—if it had intestines. It swore that if heaven gave it another chance, it would never leap out so eagerly again. It would do everything it could to pretend it did not exist.

Only then did it remember that the man before it seemed to have torn through space and appeared here directly. That meant this fellow was at least a Dou Saint—and no ordinary Dou Saint at that.

Although Dou Saints could tear through space and create their own realms, low-level Dou Saints did not possess such strength. At most, they could break space to a limited degree; they absolutely could not freely travel through spatial rifts.

Only high-level Dou Saints possessed such power. Only beings like them could treat the power of space as nothing, doing whatever they pleased without restriction.

At the thought that its very first encounter had been with such a freak, the Fallen Heart Flame felt like dying.

"Flames should act like flames. What's the point of developing intelligence?" Xiao Xian said with a smile, but his five fingers suddenly clenched.

"Roar!"

The Fallen Heart Flame let out a heart-rending shriek. It felt that disaster was upon it, yet it could not make any move. It could only watch helplessly as it marched toward death.

Then its body, dozens of zhang long, abruptly contracted until it finally shrank into a dense crimson flame the size of a fist.

This was the Fallen Heart Flame's true body. The fire serpent dozens of zhang long from before had merely been condensed flame energy. Only this fist-sized flame counted as its origin.

At that moment, the Fallen Heart Flame's origin flame floated quietly in Xiao Xian's hand. The intelligence born within it had already been erased. So long as one's soul was strong enough, anyone could merge with this flame without suffering any resistance.

Just as Xiao Xian had said, flames should simply be flames. Intelligence had no need to exist at all. Only things that could be used by humans were good things, so he erased the Fallen Heart Flame's intelligence without hesitation.

Xiao Xian casually stored the Fallen Heart Flame in his Small World. The flame was of no use to him at all; when he encountered Xiao Yan in the future, he would give it to him as a gift.

As Xiao Xian put away the Fallen Heart Flame, the temperature within the Sky Burning Qi Refining Tower suddenly plummeted. The pale crimson flame energy slowly dissipated, waking countless people from their secluded cultivation.

"What's going on? Why is the Fallen Heart Flame's power weakening?" In a room on the lowest level of the Sky Burning Qi Refining Tower, a middle-aged man with the cultivation of a Dou Zong, apparently an elder of Canaan Academy, frowned and muttered to himself.

Dense flame energy had originally filled the area around him. With every breath, he could feel his cultivation improving.

But as the flame energy continued to weaken, that progress came to an abrupt halt, forcibly pulling him out of his cultivation state.

It was not only this Canaan Academy elder who sensed something amiss. Several other vice heads of Canaan Academy also noticed the changes in the Sky Burning Qi Refining Tower and appeared in midair one after another.

Soon after, more and more experts gathered around the Sky Burning Qi Refining Tower, all staring at it with grave expressions.

"First Elder, what is going on? Why is the Sky Burning Qi Refining Tower's energy continuously weakening? Could it be..." A troubled look flashed across the elder's face. He seemed to have thought of something, but stopped abruptly at the crucial moment.

"I don't know either. By all reason, this shouldn't be happening! Its power has grown stronger and stronger over these past few years, and its attempts to break through the seal we set have become increasingly frequent. We can barely suppress it for a few more years. There's no reason for anything to go wrong at a time like this." First Elder Su Qian, dressed in black robes, wore a deeply puzzled expression.

Since other students were present, they did not directly name what they were discussing. Still, both sides knew exactly what the other meant.

"All of you little ones, leave at once. The Sky Burning Qi Refining Tower is temporarily closed. We will notify you once we find the cause." First Elder Su Qian suddenly said to the surrounding students.

Not only that, he dispatched several other elders to drive the students away. These were extraordinary circumstances. If the students stayed here to watch the excitement, they would be unable to act freely, so it was better to clear them out first.

As for being a little rough, desperate times called for desperate measures. Something had happened to the Fallen Heart Flame; how could they waste time arguing with the students?

Though the students did not know what had happened, they knew they could not defy the elders' orders. Despite their curiosity, they obeyed and withdrew.

"The elders and vice heads with the highest cultivation will come inside with me. The rest of you will remain here and be ready to support us at any time." After seeing the students driven away, First Elder Su Qian gave another order.

He then took the lead, directly breaking open the Sky Burning Qi Refining Tower's seal as several figures filed in behind him.

No one knew what had happened to the Fallen Heart Flame. It seemed to have died, and First Elder Su Qian did not believe it was merely putting on an act. Thus, he immediately removed the Sky Burning Qi Refining Tower's seal and rushed toward the core space at top speed.