Blazing Sun Valley

After class, Qin Ming did not go to the Soul Fighting Arena for battles as usual. Instead, he went out to purchase daily supplies such as water and dry rations.

After all, he would be staying there for more than twenty days. To be safe, he prepared thirty days' worth of water and dry rations in one go. Fortunately, his Storage Soul Tool was large enough to hold them all.

The next day, Qin Ming stood shoulder to shoulder with Ling Yuan outside Spirit City.

"Qin Ming, have you prepared everything you need?" Ling Yuan asked.

"I have, but how are we getting there?" Qin Ming looked around, but he did not see anything like a carriage.

"How else? I'll take you there," Ling Yuan said as if it were obvious.

"My Martial Soul is the Blazing Spirit Kite, a top-tier Fire Attribute Flight Type Beast Martial Soul. Flying with me carrying you will naturally be the fastest way."

As she spoke, fiery red Soul Power surged around Ling Yuan. A pair of broad wings wrapped in flames emerged from her back, their feathers layered distinctly, long and sharp.

Ling Yuan then placed a hand on Qin Ming's shoulder. He felt an incomparably powerful surge of Soul Power envelop his entire body, leaving him unable to resist in the slightest.

"Get ready."

"Wait—" Qin Ming had wanted her to wait, but before he could finish speaking, the wings behind Ling Yuan's back had already begun to flap.

A fiery-red streak shot into the sky from the open ground outside Spirit City, carrying a scorching wave of air as it flew straight toward the southwest.

Qin Ming felt the world spin around him. What he had eaten that morning churned violently in his stomach, while the scenery below changed at terrifying speed.

This continued for about a minute before stopping, and Ling Yuan landed beneath a towering wall.

The moment they touched down, Qin Ming bent over and dry-heaved several times. His first flying experience had truly been awful. That single minute had been sheer torment.

Once he had calmed down, Qin Ming examined his surroundings. This place resembled a military stronghold. Ahead stood a wall nearly a hundred meters tall, built entirely from white bricks, each one engraved with different runes.

Numerous armored soldiers ran beneath the wall. Judging from the Soul Power fluctuations they emitted, every one of them was likely a Spirit Master at the Soul Ancestor level or even the Soul King level.

There were also tent-like barracks in the distance.

What terrifying military strength. Qin Ming was deeply shaken. Spirit Hall had stationed such heavy forces here—what could possibly be inside?

Qin Ming closed his eyes and sensed the area. Before him lay the continent's finest Fire Attribute Mimicry Cultivation Environment. By all reason, this place should have been filled with dense Fire Elemental Power, yet everything felt perfectly normal to his senses.

Ling Yuan had said Spirit Hall had set up a grand formation around Blazing Sun Valley. Could the runes on those wall bricks be part of it?

"All right, stop looking. Blazing Sun Valley is covered by a formation, so you can't see anything from outside."

"Come with me and meet the person in charge here." Ling Yuan's urging pulled Qin Ming from his thoughts.

"Okay." Qin Ming answered, then followed Ling Yuan to a building that resembled a fortress.

After Ling Yuan presented her Identity Token, the guards allowed the two of them inside.

"Ling Yuan, instead of properly teaching your student, why have you come running to my place?" The moment they entered, a calm male voice reached their ears.

A lean man in black armor sat in the room's seat of honor, studying the two of them.

"Senior Brother Ghost Leopard, I came here precisely because of my student."

"Qin Ming, this is Ghost Leopard Douluo, a rank ninety-three Title Douluo, one of the Elders of the Elder Hall, and the person in charge here."

"Greetings, Elder Ghost Leopard!" Qin Ming hurriedly bowed. This was his first time facing a Title Douluo. Moreover, Ghost Leopard Douluo had already become a rank ninety-five Super Douluo during the Soul Hunting Operation in the original story.

"Oh? You're Qin Ming?" Ghost Leopard looked at Qin Ming curiously.

"Elder Ghost Leopard knows me?"

"Of course. You're quite famous now—a Millennium Second Ring, and you beat up that brat from the Two-Winged Angel family the moment you entered Spirit Hall Academy."

"Uh..." Qin Ming was momentarily speechless. He truly had not expected his affairs to reach the ears of a Title Douluo.

However, Ghost Leopard did not dwell on the matter. "I received notice from Pope Palace yesterday, permitting you to enter Blazing Sun Valley for cultivation."

Ghost Leopard then turned his gaze toward Ling Yuan. "Ling Yuan, you came here for this matter, didn't you?"

"Senior Brother Ghost Leopard, that is exactly why I came." Ling Yuan nodded.

"Fine, take these." Ghost Leopard took a palm-sized fiery-red token and a scroll from the Storage Soul Tool on his wrist.

Ghost Leopard then used Soul Power to float the two items before Qin Ming, who hurriedly accepted them with both hands.

"That scroll is a map of Blazing Sun Valley. It marks many dangerous areas within the valley."

"And that token is your proof of entry into Blazing Sun Valley. The guards at the entrance recognize the token, not the person."

"I understand." Qin Ming nodded to show that he had understood.

"Now that we have the token, we won't trouble you any longer, Senior Brother." Having achieved her purpose, Ling Yuan prepared to take Qin Ming away.

"All right, all right. Go handle your business." Seeing that the two were leaving, Ghost Leopard did not try to keep them. He merely waved them away.

After Qin Ming and Ling Yuan left the fortress-like building, they went directly to the gate in the wall.

After inspecting their tokens, the guards opened the gate.

Behind it was not the harsh valley Qin Ming had imagined, but a golden Light Barrier.

"This is your first time entering Blazing Sun Valley, so I'll accompany you inside for a while." After saying this to Qin Ming, Ling Yuan walked straight into the Light Barrier.

The golden Light Barrier rippled, then swallowed Ling Yuan's figure.

Qin Ming immediately stepped forward as well. The moment he passed through the Light Barrier, dense Fire Attribute Soul Power, so concentrated it seemed almost tangible, rushed toward him.

The dense Fire Attribute Soul Power seeped through Qin Ming's pores and into his vessels. When it lightly collided with the Soul Power inside him, his previously steady Soul Power circulation immediately accelerated.

And this was without him deliberately operating his Meditation Technique. Qin Ming felt that if he could cultivate here long-term, his cultivation speed could more than double.

Qin Ming looked around. He felt as though he had entered another world. Beneath his feet lay dark-red rock, warm and scorching to the touch. Countless visible crimson motes floated through the air like sparks filling the sky.

"Blazing Sun Valley is divided into the Outer Ring, Inner Ring, and Core Circle. They are all marked on the map Elder Ghost Leopard gave you."

"We are currently at the very edge of the valley floor. Remember, with your current strength, you can only move about in the Outer Ring."

"Do you understand?" Ling Yuan asked with a serious expression.

"I understand, Teacher Ling Yuan." Qin Ming nodded in agreement. He was fairly receptive to advice and did not like taking risks.

As the two spoke, the ground suddenly began to tremble. The next second, the air shook violently.

They looked up. An incomparably intense Soul Power fluctuation erupted from the Core Area at the center of the valley floor, and a pillar of flame soared into the sky from that direction.

Qin Ming suddenly remembered the intermittent disaster Hua Lian had told him about in Blazing Sun Valley—the Flame Tide.

This scene was exactly as Hua Lian had described it.

"Looks like we're quite lucky. We ran into a Flame Tide the moment we came in." Ling Yuan smiled as she watched the disaster at the valley's core, a sight as though it could burn the heavens and boil the seas.