A Chance Encounter at the Bottom of the Cliff—Mysterious Yellow Flame!

The icy mountain wind howled past his ears, and the sensation of weightlessness engulfed his entire body.

Xiao Yan's consciousness had long since blurred under the impact of Han Feng's Soul Power. He could only feel himself plummeting at terrifying speed.

Who knew how long passed? The bone-shattering impact he had expected never came. Instead, he was met with a scorching heat tinged with the smell of earth.

He felt as though he had crashed into a thick, boiling swamp. His organs seemed to have shifted out of place, and his last shred of consciousness sank completely into darkness.

When Xiao Yan regained a little awareness, the first things he felt were pain everywhere and a crushing weakness.

He barely forced open his heavy eyelids. What entered his sight was not the jagged rubble he had expected, but the bottom of a dim, narrow fissure within the mountain.

From deep within the fissure, a faint dark-yellow glow seeped out, accompanied by a suffocating, scorching aura.

The air was saturated with dense earth-attributed energy and a peculiar ripple of flame.

"Cough, cough..."

He struggled to move, but the motion tugged at the injuries across his body. He could not help coughing up several mouthfuls of black blood mixed with fragments of his organs.

"Kid, if you're not dead, wake up already!"

Han Feng's cold voice rang out in his mind, carrying suppressed excitement.

"Teacher, where are we?"

Xiao Yan asked weakly, his gaze involuntarily drawn toward the dark-yellow glow deep in the fissure.

The glow was not dazzling, yet it carried a heavy, ancient aura, as though it bore the weight of the earth itself.

"Hehe, I never expected this. I really never expected this!" Han Feng's voice held a trace of disbelief. "You little brat have heaven-defying luck! You jumped off a cliff and still stumbled into an opportunity like this!"

"An opportunity?" Xiao Yan froze.

"Feel that light carefully!" Han Feng urged. "That's the aura of a Heavenly Flame! Though it ranks low, it is a genuine Heavenly Flame—the Mysterious Yellow Flame!"

"A Heavenly Flame?! The Mysterious Yellow Flame?!"

Xiao Yan's heart jolted, and he could scarcely believe his ears!

The Heavenly Flame he had dreamed of was actually beneath this deadly abyss?

Suppressing the agonizing pain, he focused his mind and carefully sensed the dark-yellow glow.

Sure enough, the aura of a flame—heavy and steady, yet containing violent power—came through clearly!

The Mysterious Yellow Flame's aura was dense and ancient, as though it were connected to the earth itself.

"The Mysterious Yellow Flame ranks twenty-third on the Heavenly Flame Ranking. It is born deep within Earth Veins and contains a trace of the mysterious yellow energy of the earth. Its nature is heavy and solid.

"Its destructive power may not be as violent as that of some higher-ranked Heavenly Flames, but the earth-attributed source energy it contains has remarkable effects on tempering the body and stabilizing one's foundation!"

Han Feng explained quickly, unable to hide the greed in his tone.

"Quick! Before you pass out again, circulate the Flame Mantra and try to communicate with it! This is your only hope of surviving and turning things around!"

A fierce desire to live and a burning hunger flared in Xiao Yan's eyes!

A Heavenly Flame!

If he devoured it, the Flame Mantra could evolve! His strength would soar!

All his injuries, all his humiliation—he would have a chance to wash them away!

He hesitated no longer. Ignoring the searing agony in his body and his meridians on the verge of collapse, he forcibly sat cross-legged and formed the Flame Mantra's cultivation seal with difficulty.

A wisp of dark-red Dou Qi, so weak it seemed ready to extinguish at any moment, trembled as it reached toward the Mysterious Yellow Flame deep within the fissure, guided by his incomplete Flame Mantra cultivation method.

However, the process was exceedingly dangerous.

His condition was already terrible beyond measure. His meridians were like cracked glass, liable to shatter completely at any moment.

Circulating the Flame Mantra was even more arduous. Trying to follow the incomplete cultivation route in such a weakened state brought pain far beyond anything he had experienced before.

Yet he clenched his teeth and persevered. Blood continuously spilled from the corners of his mouth, his face was white as paper, and his body trembled uncontrollably.

Perhaps sensing that weak Dou Qi of the Flame Mantra, which carried a devouring attribute, the Mysterious Yellow Flame deep in the fissure flickered faintly.

The dark-yellow light flowed, and an even hotter, heavier aura spread through the air.

"It reacted! Keep going! Guide it with your will!"

Han Feng barked in his mind. At the same time, he separated a thread of Soul Power to cautiously protect Xiao Yan's most vital heart meridians, preventing him from dying on the spot.

Throughout the process, Xiao Yan's consciousness struggled amid the pain.

Driven by his ultimate thirst for power and his hatred for Gu Long and Nalan Yanran, he forcibly gathered his focus and circulated the incomplete Flame Mantra again and again, trying to establish a connection with that steady mass of Mysterious Yellow Flame.

Time became incomparably long at that moment.

After an unknown length of time, perhaps Xiao Yan's unyielding will had finally taken effect, or perhaps the incomplete Flame Mantra still possessed a trace of the ability to attract Heavenly Flames.

The dark-yellow Mysterious Yellow Flame finally drifted slowly out from the depths of the fissure and hovered before Xiao Yan.

It was only the size of a fist, its shape ever-changing. It resembled leaping dark-yellow mud, yet also looked like solidified fire, radiating a heart-palpitating energy ripple and the weight of the earth.

At such close range, Xiao Yan could feel the terrifying power within it even more clearly.

This was absolutely incomparable to a beast flame!

"Now! Swallow it!"

Han Feng's voice was urgent and excited.

A flash of madness crossed Xiao Yan's eyes. He opened his mouth, gathered the last of his strength, and inhaled sharply!

The Mysterious Yellow Flame turned into a streak of dark-yellow light and shot into his mouth!

Boom—!!

The instant the Heavenly Flame entered his body, indescribable agony swept through every inch of Xiao Yan's nerves!

It was as though hundreds of millions of red-hot steel needles were wildly piercing him from within, as though he had been thrown into molten lava at the earth's core!

He felt as if his body and soul were about to be burst apart and burned to ashes by the heavy, violent flame energy!

"Aaaah—!!!"

He let out an incomparably miserable scream. His body instantly turned crimson, his skin split open, and the blood seeping out was immediately evaporated by the intense heat!

His already cracked meridians began to rupture inch by inch beneath the impact of that violent energy!

"Guard your mind! Circulate the Flame Mantra! Guide it! This is pain you must endure!"

Han Feng's sharp shout exploded in his mind. At the same time, even more immense Soul Power surged forth, desperately protecting Xiao Yan's core regions.

He also forcibly guided part of the Mysterious Yellow Flame's energy along the incomplete circulation route of the Flame Mantra.

Devouring a Heavenly Flame had always been a near-certain death sentence.

And Xiao Yan was forcibly doing so while severely injured and with an incomplete cultivation method!

At that moment, his body became the most brutal battlefield.

The Mysterious Yellow Flame's heavy, violent energy wreaked havoc without restraint. Han Feng's Soul Power desperately maintained and guided it, while Xiao Yan's own will struggled to hold on within a hell of pain.

His consciousness constantly hovered between destruction and rebirth. Countless scenes flashed through his mind: the mockery in Wutan City, Nalan Yanran breaking off the engagement, Gu Long's cold gaze, the pursuit through the Monster Mountain Range...

I can't die... I absolutely cannot die!!

That powerful obsession became his final pillar of support.

With Han Feng intervening at the cost of his own Soul Power source, the rampaging energy of the Mysterious Yellow Flame was finally forced into the incomplete circulation route of the Flame Mantra. It began to be refined and absorbed bit by bit.

Xiao Yan's aura began to rise again from its devastating low point, slowly and with immense difficulty...

At the bottom of the fissure, dark-yellow light enveloped Xiao Yan's pain-twisted figure.

An extraordinarily dangerous Heavenly Flame devouring process was quietly unfolding in this uncharted deadly place.

Far away at Jia Nan Academy, Gu Long seemed to sense something and lifted his eyes toward the Monster Mountain Range. An imperceptible curve touched his lips.

"The Mysterious Yellow Flame? So his life was not yet meant to end. Han Feng, it seems you're about to make another 'great contribution.'"