Fire Supernatural Power Devouring

Wanting to watch the fire from across the river, he hadn't expected to get burned himself.

Wang Shiyi's Angry Dragon Slash only made the blaze flare higher. In an instant, tongues of fire had curled around his wrist.

The flames clung like maggots to bone. No matter how he beat at them, he couldn't extinguish them. They spread with terrifying speed, and in the blink of an eye, his chest was already ablaze.

"Is this also a Fire Supernatural Power?"

Hanyu could hardly believe it. This was far more terrifying than Xiao Shui's had been back then.

He didn't know that Young Master Xiao had been forcibly elevated with pills and lacked sufficient insight. Besides, even among fire-based abilities, each Supernatural Power had its own unique traits.

Mortal and Cousin were already covered in flames. They beat at each other, but to no avail.

"Try devouring the other person's flames!"

Little Glazed suddenly spoke in his mind.

"What?"

Hanyu looked astonished, as if afraid he'd misheard.

Little Glazed repeated, "Your fire shares the same origin as his. You can try swallowing his flames into your own."

That was practically no different from courting death.

Who knew how powerful it would be if the two Supernatural Powers collided and exploded?

"For anyone else, doing this would indeed be courting death. But you're different. In your mind—or, more precisely, your Sea of Consciousness—is the Glazed Bottle. After you devour the other person's flames, the Glazed Bottle can refine them away."

Hanyu furrowed his brow and thought it over. "Are you sure it can refine them?"

Little Glazed answered with certainty, "The Glazed Bottle can refine any kind of energy. The question is whether you can devour it."

"How do I do that?"

Hanyu asked urgently.

"Release your Fire Element Supernatural Power and control it to nibble away at the other person's flames."

At her words, Hanyu calmed himself. He opened his right hand, and a pitifully tiny flame appeared in his palm.

He tried to communicate with that little spark and extend it outward. It reached his arm first. When the two different flames met, they tangled together like beasts fighting.

"Bottle, hurry up and get to work!"

Little Glazed called out urgently.

In the Sea of Consciousness, the Glazed Bottle spun, then flew up and tipped upside down. The strange fire on Hanyu's body began streaming through the flame in his palm and into his Sea of Consciousness.

At that moment, the Glazed Bottle gave off a pull. As soon as the other person's flames entered his Sea of Consciousness, they were swiftly sucked into the bottle.

It was working!

Hanyu's eyes suddenly lit up. Then he charged into the sea of flames with even less restraint.

"Everyone, come over here! I have a way!"

At the same time, Hanyu shouted. Mortal and Cousin understood at once, stopped beating at the flames, and ran over as fast as they could.

With a flame in his palm, Hanyu looked like the God of Fire had descended. The raging blaze all around poured ceaselessly into his hand.

He sucked it in with all his might, while in his Sea of Consciousness, the Glazed Bottle refined it just as furiously.

Suddenly, Hanyu was astonished to find that the flame in his palm—the one that belonged to him—was growing larger.

A lotus was blooming!

"What's happening?"

Hanyu hurriedly asked the little Artifact Spirit.

The little Artifact Spirit seemed just as surprised. "Oh! The bottle is using the flames to absorb the other person's Supernatural Power Origin. Keep sucking them in. The bottle's made a huge profit again!"

Hanyu's heart stirred. He sucked up every source of fire around him, as well as all the flames on Mortal and Cousin. He didn't even spare the fire on Wang Shiyi.

As a result, the unlucky Wang Shiyi got his life back for nothing.

The Black Robe's face was impossible to make out, but his figure clearly stiffened. He gave a soft snort, and another sea of fire descended from the sky.

Good guy!

What a good guy!

Hanyu and Little Glazed said at the same time. Hanyu was delighted. The fire lotus grew larger and larger, until it was as big as a washbasin.

Flames kept falling from the sky, and the people below kept sucking them in with the fire lotus. In the end, the lotus began to rise into the air, greedily devouring the flames before they could even scatter.

The Black Robe's whole body shuddered. Only then did he realize that his sea of fire had been cut in half.

He hurriedly withdrew his Supernatural Power, staring at Hanyu below in disbelief.

The ability to devour a Supernatural Power Origin was simply too horrifying to imagine.

Below, after the fire lotus ate the last of the flames, it slowly descended. Hanyu held it aloft and asked expectantly, "Got any more?"

Though he couldn't see the Black Robe's expression, the man trembled in midair. Suddenly, he raised a hand and summoned True Essence, condensing a huge blade out of thin air.

He swung it horizontally. The great blade crashed down, and Hanyu, who had been gloating just a moment ago, was struck by disaster.

The blade slashed into his chest. His chest caved in, and he spat blood as he flew away.

The great blade continued its attack, slashing again as it tried to kill Hanyu in midair.

Just as the blade was closing in, Mortal suddenly shot past and scooped Hanyu up. He kicked twice in midair, leaping above the blade.

The Black Robe flicked his hand upward, and the blade cleaved up again. Mortal hurriedly turned back and took a third step.

But the blade seemed to have predicted him. It suddenly changed direction again.

Mortal gritted his teeth and took a fourth step, one he had never taken before. As soon as he did, his figure grew indistinct.

Then, like a bolt of lightning, he appeared a hundred meters away.

Pfft!

That step seemed to take an immense toll. As soon as Mortal landed, he spat a mouthful of blood onto Hanyu's face. Hanyu came around, only for Mortal to pass out instead.

The Black Robe was about to make a move when two figures appeared in the distance, already closing in. He hesitated for a moment, then summoned a Flying Sword and immediately fled through the air.

The commotion had been so great that it had finally alarmed Su Wanjun. Meanwhile, when Ou Mingdong discovered that his junior brother was missing, he had gone out in pursuit as well.

The two arrived one after the other.

They looked at the devastation everywhere and the people covered in soot.

Cousin was the first to play the victim. "Cousin, this time it really wasn't our fault."

Everyone gathered in the Prefectural Yamen, though most of them were in a sorry state, their faces all smudged with soot.

Ou Mingdong was scolding his junior brother.

After hearing the accounts from Hanyu, Mortal, and Cousin, one after another, they pieced together a rough picture of what had happened.

The general story was that Wang Shiyi had sneaked off to the inn to take revenge, where he'd run into a Black Robe. The Black Robe had attacked without any reason and tried to kill the three of them.

Wang Shiyi, it seemed, had just been caught in the crossfire.

That unlucky bastard, honestly...

Ou Mingdong had already decided to take him back as soon as dawn broke.

Su Wanjun, meanwhile, furrowed her brow in thought. A Black Robe... a Fire Element Supernatural Power... and the attack had been aimed at the three of them.

There seemed to be only one reason someone would target them. And the method was similar, too: the attackers were all cultivators skilled in fire.

Hanyu and the others had actually thought of it, too. As things stood, there was only one person in Shuzhou City who might want the three of them dead—the Mastermind.

"I thought we'd be safe staying in the city. I never expected him to dare come in and kill us."

Cousin sighed.

Su Wanjun's expression shifted for a moment before she said, "Could this be related to what I've been doing?"

She then explained what she had been working on recently.

Ever since the three of them had entered the city, Su Wanjun had never stopped investigating. Since she had no leads from the Zhu You Sect, she'd decided to look into the Corpse Refining lineage instead.

Since the Zhu You Sect had traveled thousands of miles to get here, could there be others in other places as well?

So she had not only reported her suspicions to the Imperial Court, but had also joined forces with the surrounding prefectures to conduct an investigation.

The results showed that after investigating across the northern regions, they found that many vast, sparsely populated areas had also seen small numbers of people go missing. If it had happened in a single prefecture, it wouldn't have seemed strange. But the same thing had happened across multiple prefectures.

Su Wanjun naturally reported this discovery and her suspicions to the Imperial Court again. Perhaps the Court had taken action, or perhaps the other prefectures were investigating thoroughly. Either way, they had undoubtedly struck at the people behind it.

"So the Black Robe wasn't here for revenge this time, but to retaliate, right?"

Hanyu held his chest. He still hadn't recovered, and pain kept lancing through him. He hadn't hurt this badly even when he fought that Half-step Divine Peeking cultivator.

"Idiot. Each realm is a chasm apart from the next. The slightest difference becomes a vast gulf. How can a Half-step Divine Peeking cultivator compare to someone in the Peeping God Realm?"

Little Glazed scolded him in his mind.

It seemed the three of them had suffered an undeserved calamity. Su Wanjun had been responsible for what happened afterward, but the blame had fallen on the three of them.

Ou Mingdong had heard the whole thing, and the sequence of events was clear to him as well. He interjected, "The Zhu You Sect alone couldn't possibly have the power to spread across the Northern Border, kidnap people, and refine corpses. They may have support behind the scenes—or someone pulling the strings."

"When I return, I'll report this to the sect so they're aware. The return of the Corpse Refining lineage can't be good news. This isn't just a matter for the Imperial Court; it concerns the cultivation world as well."

After he finished speaking, he prepared to take Wang Shiyi away. Before leaving, Ou Mingdong couldn't help asking Hanyu once more, "Are you really sure there's no antidote?"

Hanyu shook his head. "There really isn't. Most likely, from now on you'll just have to be careful when you go out. Don't stare at or sniff random things."

The little bit of gratitude Wang Shiyi had just felt vanished in an instant. That alone wouldn't be enough to settle his grudge, even if Hanyu saved him ten or eight times.

After the two left, Su Wanjun looked at the three of them helplessly.

"I thought staying inside the city would be the safest option for you. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore. You probably shouldn't stay in Shuzhou City. We don't know when the other side might attack you again."

After discussing it, Su Wanjun made a decision.

Cousin would be sent back to the Mo Family. This time there was no room for negotiation: either he obediently went back with Su Wanjun, or she would break his legs and take him home.

As for Hanyu and Mortal, a merchant caravan would be leaving the city tomorrow. She would give the order to slip the two of them in among its members. As long as they kept up their disguises along the way, once they were gone, they could scatter to the ends of the earth. It wouldn't be easy to find them again.

Cousin saw the two of them out of the Prefectural Yamen. Pouting pitifully, he said, "I really don't want to go back."

"Then what do you want to do?"

Hanyu glanced at him and asked with a smile.

"You could help me escape! I'll sneak out of the city with you."

Cousin's eyes lit up, and he immediately came up with a terrible idea.

"What realm is your cousin in?"

Hanyu asked.

"Peeping God Realm."

Cousin had barely finished speaking when the two of them walked away without looking back.

"We'll come visit you when we get the chance."

On the way, Hanyu and Mortal stayed on their guard. They took several cautious turns before finally finding a place to settle down again.

"A Peeping God Realm cultivator at twenty-five. The Three Yuan Nine Sects really are terrifying."

Mortal suddenly sighed.

Hanyu curiously asked Little Glazed in his mind, "Someone that powerful—why didn't you react? If Cousin hadn't said anything, I wouldn't have known she was so powerful. Does she lack good fortune, or are you just not interested?"

Little Glazed muttered, "I want her too! But the bottle's been doing all the work lately, so it gets to make the pills now."

Then Little Glazed didn't forget to encourage Hanyu. "It's fine. Just hang in there for a while. Once I find another down-and-out child of good fortune, I'll turn things around in one fell swoop and get my permissions back. Then I can come out whenever I want—or stay in whenever I want."

Well, who could have known that something like this existed? An Artifact Spirit and the object itself could actually be at odds.

The pills the bottle produced could have an absurdly high ceiling or an absurdly low one, and they came in all sorts of bizarre varieties.

The little Artifact Spirit seemed to produce pills specifically for certain people in order to siphon from them.

"I'm not planning to go with the caravan tomorrow. What are you planning to do?"

Mortal spoke again.

Hanyu was taken aback and began thinking about whether he should leave with the caravan...