The Truth from a Hundred Years Ago

Qin Han felt like he woke up in pain.

Every bone felt crushed, his internal organs churned, and his Dou Qi circulation was sluggish.

"Hiss..."

A suppressed groan of pain squeezed out of Qin Han's throat as he struggled to lift his heavy eyelids.

His vision was blurry at first, just an endless expanse of dark red.

Air with a unique sulfurous smell flooded his nostrils, making him cough uncontrollably, and the movement sent another tearing pain through his chest.

Yun Qianhang had clearly held back his strike. He probably intended to keep him alive for slow torture, but a blow from a Peak Dou Huang was enough to severely injure Qin Han, no matter how much power was held back.

He took a few seconds to adjust before he could vaguely make out his surroundings.

This was an extremely vast underground space.

Far above, a dimly visible inverted... wok bottom could be seen.

Around him, a lake of dark red lava churned slowly, radiating intense heat.

The only solid ground was the black platform beneath him, which seemed to have formed from extremely condensed and cooled lava.

The fire poison didn't seem that strong?

Qin Han keenly sensed that the air was filled with terrifyingly pure fire attribute energy and sulfurous fumes, but the concentration of the strange fire poison, which could corrode Dou Qi, was actually very low.

He immediately realized that Yun Qianhang must have accumulated a large amount of fire poison at the cave entrance to plan this scheme.

During the previous battle outside, he had likely unleashed most of it above. This place beneath the furnace had, in turn, become a relatively clean space.

His gaze shifted to the other side of the platform.

A figure lay there quietly, only a few yards away from him.

It was Yun Qianhang, and he wasn't in his half-human, half-ghost state.

His hair and beard were white, his face withered, and he wore a dark red old robe that was almost tattered. His exposed skin was dry and wrinkled, and his aura was as weak as a candle in the wind.

Qin Han's tense nerves relaxed slightly, and he endured the pain of his body feeling like it was falling apart as he sat down cross-legged.

"Haa... cough..."

Yun Qianhang had woken up at some point, emitting a wheezing sound like a broken bellows from his throat.

His gaze towards Qin Han remained cold and venomous.

Their eyes met.

"How can we get out?"

Qin Han broke the silence first, though he knew it would be fruitless.

Yun Qianhang's voice held a malicious glee: "Don't bother wasting your efforts... This is deep within the earth veins of my Fallen Fire Sect.

The furnace above, even damaged, its sealing power remains. An ordinary Dou Emperor, no matter how much strength they exhaust, wouldn't be able to shake it in the slightest."

"Just wait obediently to die. By the time the fire poison above... is slowly dispersed and purified by the people of your Jia Nan Academy, enough for them to risk coming down to investigate..."

He bared his cracked lips: "You'll have long since dried up your last drop of Qi and Blood, turning into a pile of dry bones."

"Or... like my Fallen Fire Sect disciples, become something neither human nor ghost! Cough, cough, cough..."

Violent coughing interrupted his words.

Qin Han listened expressionlessly.

He adjusted his breathing for a moment, feeling a sliver of strength return, and struggled to get up.

With a thought, the Dou Qi in his body, which had just recovered a little, surged and poured entirely into his right arm.

The Fallen Heart Flame rose, mixed with the brute force of Qi and Blood brought by the Flame Demon Rage Phase. He leaped high and punched towards the top.

BOOM--!!!

A dull, heavy sound exploded in the enclosed space.

Qin Han felt a massive rebound force, his fist aching. He was sent flying back faster than he had risen, crashing heavily onto the black platform with a "bang."

"Pfft--"

A sweet sensation rose in his throat, and he spat out another mouthful of blood, his aura growing even more withered to the extreme.

Yun Qianhang let out a cackling laugh: "An ant trying to shake a tree, overestimating yourself."

Qin Han wiped away a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, offering no rebuttal.

Yun Qianhang was right. He didn't know what material the Myriad Fire Furnace was made of. Even when he had used his fused, compressed two-colored exotic flames to attack it from the outside before, it had only resulted in cracks and dents, not breaking through.

In his current state, it was impossible for him to break the Seal.

With this thought, Qin Han abandoned the idea of escaping immediately. He sat down cross-legged and popped two Healing Pills into his mouth.

The concentration of fire poison here wasn't high enough to threaten him anyway. He would deal with everything after returning to his peak state.

Seven to eight days passed slowly in this sunless underground.

Qin Han sat cross-legged in the center of the black platform, a faint green-white light lingering around him.

The Fallen Heart Flame continued to refine, expelling the fire poison within his body. The surrounding pure fire-attribute energy, so dense it was almost viscous, was greedily absorbed into his body, transforming into surging Dou Qi and filling his nearly depleted Qi Whirlpool.

Finally, as the last trace of hidden pain completely subsided and his Qi Whirlpool operated at full capacity, Qin Han slowly opened his eyes.

Yun Qianhang still lay there, but his appearance was even more tragic than seven or eight days prior.

The blood-colored spots on his face had expanded, his skin was as dry and cracked as tree bark, and the rise and fall of his chest was almost imperceptible.

Qin Han guessed that this old bastard must have used some secret technique outside, desperately pushing his strength to its peak.

The grand formation was broken, all efforts wasted, and the old fellow was also on his last breath.

"Old Thing," Qin Han stood up, stretching his fully recovered limbs, "You're quite tough to still be alive?"

"Sharp-tongued brat... When I was dominating the Black Corner Region, your grandfather was still wetting his bed..."

He gathered his strength, a flicker of malicious glee in his eyes: "However... it doesn't matter anymore. This broken body of mine... to take a promising genius from your Jia Nan Academy down with me... it's worth it."

He stared intently at Qin Han, a twisted sense of satisfaction in his tone: "The Fallen Heart Flame, in the end, still remained with my Fallen Fire Sect. It also settles matters from back then... Heh..."

Qin Han frowned.

"What do you mean by that?"

He took two steps forward, asking the biggest question in his heart: "A hundred years ago, your Fallen Fire Sect turned into a lava inferno overnight. Some said the Myriad Stars Flame went out of control. Now it seems that wasn't the case at all, was it?"

"Ha... Haha..."

Yun Qianhang heard this and seemed to hear the biggest joke in the world. The exertion of his injuries caused him to cough out more dark red, foul blood.

"Myriad Stars Flame out of control?"

"A bunch of idiots! How profound is my Fallen Fire Sect's Myriad Stars Flame Scripture? If we couldn't even handle a single Eighth Rank Flame, we wouldn't have been able to survive on the Dou Qi Continent!"

Qin Han was not surprised by this outcome. It was obvious that the Fallen Fire Sect had played with fire and destroyed themselves.

"So the reason the Fallen Fire Sect was destroyed... was this fire poison?"

Qin Han had a conjecture in his mind.

Yun Qianhang stared at Qin Han, a hint of struggle in his eyes. After a moment, he finally relented.

"Since you're going to die soon anyway, there's no harm in telling you."

"That's right, the thing that caused the destruction of my Fallen Fire Sect was the fire poison from the Underground Lava World."

Qin Han nodded slightly: "Then what does this have to do with the Fallen Heart Flame of my Jia Nan Academy?"

"Your Jia Nan Academy? Hmph!"

He spat out a mouthful of saliva mixed with ash, "Because that Fallen Heart Flame should have belonged to my Fallen Fire Sect!"