A pale flame hovered quietly in his palm.
The temperature throughout the dilapidated little house had already fallen below freezing. A thick layer of white frost had formed on the surface of the water jar in the corner, visible to the naked eye. Even the dust floating in the air seemed frozen by that unseen chill, its descent slowed.
Yet Su Chen felt not the slightest cold in his palm.
He could clearly sense that beneath that icy, pale shell lay a core of flame—pure beyond compare, scorching beyond compare.
This was the first true trump card in his hands.
"Pale Flame."
Su Chen murmured, giving a name to the miracle he had created with his own hands.
He flicked a finger, and the flame silently slipped back into his body, vanishing without a trace. The chill in the room quickly faded, and everything returned to normal.
But Su Chen's heart would not settle.
He walked over and sat at the only battered wooden table. His fingertips began tapping lightly, rhythmically, against its rough surface.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
It was a habit of his when he was thinking.
How could he maximize the value of this "Pale Flame"?
Sell it outright?
The moment the thought arose, he dismissed it without hesitation.
No.
This flame was worth far more than the Rock Fire Seed. It contained a trace of the true essence of a Heavenly Flame. If it ever saw the light of day, it would stir up a storm in Wutan City, perhaps even throughout the entire Jia Ma Empire.
And the people who came knocking would be far more than the likes of the Jialie Clan and the Aoba Clan.
The Alchemist Guild, the great clans of the Imperial Capital, even... the Misty Cloud Sect.
Before those true behemoths, his current meager strength was no different from an ant's.
More importantly, this would be a one-time deal.
Selling it might bring him a fortune, but it would also expose his secret: that he could "create" flames.
Killing the goose that laid the golden eggs was no wise man's game.
He needed a cleverer method.
One that could turn this value into profit while perfectly concealing his core secret—and even cloak him in a more mysterious guise, one that no one would dare provoke lightly.
Su Chen's tapping fingers paused.
His mind sank once more into that Void Space.
This time, he did not investigate the "Lighthouse" located within the Xiao Clan.
Instead, he carefully focused his spiritual energy into an invisible probe and slowly guided it toward the "Lighthouse."
Bzzz.
The instant his spiritual probe reached a certain threshold distance,
the "Pale Flame" he had just drawn back into his body trembled faintly, without warning!
The tremor was so slight that, had Su Chen's spiritual energy not been connected to its very essence, he might never have noticed it.
But that single tremor...
Was like a bolt of lightning tearing through the dark, cleaving away every last haze in Su Chen's mind!
He abruptly lifted his head, his gaze piercing the shabby walls toward the distant Xiao Clan residence.
Resonance!
Because the essence of the "Pale Flame" had been extracted from a trace of the Bone Spirit Cold Flame's properties,
the two would produce this strange, same-source resonance once they came within a certain distance of each other!
The rhythmic tapping on the tabletop stopped abruptly.
An ingenious, even downright mad business scheme took shape in his mind with a thunderous crash.
He wouldn't sell the flame.
He would sell a... map to find the flame!
No.
Something better than a map.
He would sell a key to open the door to the treasure!
* * *
For the next two days, Su Chen did not train at all.
He devoted all his energy to this new plan.
First, he visited every materials shop, large and small, in Wutan City and spent nearly a hundred gold coins on more than a dozen fist-sized pieces of the hardest premium Obsidian.
The stone was pitch-black and extremely dense. It naturally blocked energy, making it an excellent material for crafting special containers.
Back at the dilapidated little courtyard,
Su Chen locked the door and placed one piece of Obsidian on the table.
He used no tools.
He merely extended his right index finger. A wisp of pure spiritual energy at its tip, like an invisible carving knife, began to move slowly across the surface of the iron-hard Obsidian.
Sss... sss...
Fine powder steadily flaked off the Obsidian.
Su Chen's expression was utterly focused.
Inside the stone, he was carving out an incredibly complex runic channel, finer than a strand of hair.
The control this demanded of his spiritual energy was almost absurdly precise.
A fraction too much, and the stone would shatter outright.
A fraction too little, and it would leave no mark.
A full hour passed.
By the time fine beads of sweat had appeared on Su Chen's forehead, the internal modifications to the first piece of Obsidian were finally complete.
He did not pause.
With utmost care, he drew a flame out of his body.
It was no bigger than a grain of rice—the "Pale Flame" he had just created.
Holding his breath, he used his spiritual energy to wrap the tiny flame into a perfect sphere. Then, following the runic channel he had carved, he pushed it painstakingly, bit by bit, into the very heart of the Obsidian.
The final step: sealing it!
Su Chen slammed his hands together. His powerful spiritual energy surged forth, completely sealing the entrance to the runic channel!
Bzzzt—!
The Obsidian on the table trembled violently.
A layer of white frost, visible to the naked eye, flashed across its surface, then disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. It returned to normal.
It lay there quietly, pitch-black and cold to the touch. From the outside, it was indistinguishable from an ordinary stone.
Success!
Su Chen let out a long breath. His face showed fatigue, but beneath it, excitement he could barely contain.
He picked up the unremarkable-looking Obsidian and held it in his palm.
He focused his thoughts.
Once more, he extended his spiritual energy toward the Xiao Clan, simulating an approach.
A miracle happened.
The instant his spiritual probe crossed a certain threshold,
the temperature of the cold Obsidian in his palm plummeted!
A bone-piercing chill erupted from inside the stone!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
A thick layer of clear white frost rapidly formed across the palm holding the stone, spreading before his eyes!
In just two or three breaths, his entire right hand was encased in solid ice, as if he had donned a menacing gauntlet forged from frozen water!
But when Su Chen cut off his spiritual probe and simulated moving "away,"
the chill receded like a tide. The ice on his hand melted rapidly, and the Obsidian returned to its harmless, ordinary appearance.
Su Chen looked at his right hand, numb with cold, and finally smiled from the heart.
This thing had no offensive power whatsoever.
It could not even be considered a weapon.
But its strategic value was enough to drive every alchemist and every treasure hunter across the Dou Qi Continent into a frenzy!
It was not the treasure.
It was the compass that found the treasure!
It was not a flame.
It was the kindling that would set alight the flame called "greed" in everyone's heart!
Su Chen gazed at the cold stone in his hand for a long while before naming the masterpiece that would soon upend the entire Jia Ma Empire's balance of wealth.
"Exotic Flame Sensing Stone."
He knew that once this thing came to light, the uproar it caused would far surpass that of the "Rock Fire Seed."
The "Rock Fire Seed" satisfied alchemists' pursuit of "efficiency."
But this "Exotic Flame Sensing Stone" sold something as intangible as it was deadly... hope!
Hope that countless people would spend their entire lives pursuing: the chance to rise to the heavens in a single leap and become someone far above the rest!
Su Chen slowly clenched his fist.
The cold Obsidian pressed tightly against his palm.
This was the real bombshell he planned to drop when he met Aoba Pa three days from now.
It would firmly establish his reputation as a "mysterious master."
It would make all the powerful figures in Wutan City—and, in time, across the entire Jia Ma Empire—regard him with awe instead of coveting what he had.
After all, no one would be foolish enough to kill the only canary that could show them the way to treasure.
Beneath the shadow of his bamboo hat, the corner of Su Chen's mouth twitched.
Aoba Pa.
Ya Fei.
And Xiao Yan, undergoing a frantic transformation in the back mountains.
The board was set.
At last, he had moved the piece that could truly stir up a storm.
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