The Source Recedes

The stone door of the secret chamber finally creaked open.

A lean figure emerged from the darkness that had held him for an entire month.

There was no astonishing release of aura, nor any flowing radiance of Dou Qi.

Su Chen simply stood there quietly, yet the feeling he projected had undergone a heaven-shaking transformation.

If he had been a sharp blade hidden within its sheath before his seclusion, his edge restrained, then he was now that very blade unsheathed.

Calm, steady, yet possessing a tangible sharpness capable of slicing through the air itself.

Dou Practitioner.

This realm represented not merely the liquefaction of Dou Qi, but a subtle leap in the hierarchy of life.

He clenched his fist.

Within his Dantian vortex, those droplets of tempered liquid Dou Qi moved at his will, instantly surging into his limbs and bones.

An unprecedented sense of fullness gave him an illusion.

It felt as if a single punch could blast a hole straight through the thick black rock wall before him.

This was power truly held within his own grasp.

Ya Fei had long been waiting outside the door.

Today, she was still dressed in a fiery red cheongsam, which outlined her heart-stirring curves to perfection.

The moment Su Chen stepped out, her charming peach-blossom eyes contracted almost imperceptibly.

As a Dou Master, her perception of energy was far keener than that of an ordinary person.

She could clearly sense that the power contained within the man before her was more than ten times more refined than it had been a month ago.

"Congratulations."

Ya Fei's red lips curled into a sincere smile.

She handed over an exquisite storage bag.

"This is the Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill you commissioned. Master Otto personally opened the furnace and used the finest materials. He said this was the most satisfying batch of pills he has ever refined in his life."

The storage bag felt slightly heavy in his hand.

Su Chen's spiritual power probed inside, seeing the pill resting quietly in a jade bottle, glowing with a purple luster and overflowing with medicinal fragrance.

This pill was enough to increase the success rate of any nine-star Dou Practitioner breaking through their bottleneck by thirty percent out of thin air.

Its value was no less than three hundred thousand gold coins.

And this was merely one part of the payment for the Purple-Cyan Dual-Effect Fire he had customized for Master Otto.

"Thank Master Otto on my behalf."

Su Chen put away the storage bag, his voice steady.

Ya Fei looked at him, about to say something.

At that very moment, Su Chen's figure paused without warning.

His movements came to a standstill.

Beneath the shadow of his worn bamboo hat, an invisible ripple seemed to flash and vanish.

Ya Fei's willow brows furrowed slightly.

"What is it?"

She did not ask aloud, merely observing quietly.

Su Chen did not answer, nor could he.

Because, just a moment ago.

A violent, unprecedented tremor had erupted from the absolute void of darkness deep within his consciousness.

It was not an attack.

It was a warning.

A high-level tracking alert he had set for a specific flame imprint!

Su Chen's body did not move.

Yet, in an instant, his entire focus sank into that void space.

He stood upon the ancient Stone Platform, his will transforming into invisible tentacles that extended infinitely toward the entirety of Wutan City and even further territories.

In his world of perception, the entire reality had transformed into a vast star map composed of countless points of energy light.

Wutan City was the center of this star map, the area where the points of light were most dense.

Thousands of faint points of light represented the ordinary residents of the city.

Hundreds of slightly brighter points were the guards and mercenaries within the city.

Within this ocean of light, several clusters stood out with striking prominence.

Those were the powerhouses from the City Lord's Mansion, the Miteer Auction House, the Aoba Clan, and other such factions.

Su Chen's perception swept past these familiar points of light, finally locking onto the west side of the city, in the direction of the Xiao Clan.

There, he had once marked two distinct energy sources.

One was faint and dim, like a candle flickering in the wind, yet it possessed a resilience that refused to be broken.

That was Xiao Yan.

The other lay hidden in the deepest depths of that faint light, like a ten-thousand-year-old iceberg in slumber, radiating a bone-chilling cold capable of freezing the soul.

That was Yao Lao, and the Strange Fire he controlled—the Bone Chilling Flame.

For a long time, this bone-chilling cold had been Su Chen's most vital "data source" for analysis and simulation.

He was like a barnacle clinging to a great whale, silently absorbing one ten-thousandth of the information from the power the other leaked.

However, at this moment.

He "saw" it.

The bone-white cluster representing the Bone Chilling Flame moved.

It was no longer dormant.

Instead, with a pace that was neither hurried nor slow, yet undeniably resolute, it departed the area of the Xiao Clan.

It traversed the streets, crossed the city walls, and completely exited the dense cluster of light that was Wutan City.

Its destination was clear.

The Magical Beast Mountain Range.

That was an energy region on his perceptual star map that appeared chaotic, violent, and filled with the scent of blood and primal instinct.

Su Chen's consciousness, like a god, hovered high above.

He quietly "watched" that bone-white point of light drift further and further away, until it finally submerged completely into that sea of chaotic energy, like a single drop of water merging into a rushing river.

It had vanished.

His most stable data source was severed.

In the real world.

Before Ya Fei, Su Chen's body had paused for less than three breaths of time.

Yet, she keenly sensed that within those brief three breaths, the aura of the man before her had undergone an indescribable change.

It was as if something important had departed from him.

Su Chen slowly raised his head.

He did not head toward the secret chamber, nor did he pay any mind to the priceless medicinal pill.

He strode directly to the end of the corridor and pushed open the window leading to the outer balcony.

The cool afternoon breeze stirred the brim of his bamboo hat.

His gaze crossed the bustling streets below, passed over the towering dome of the Miteer Auction House, and cast itself directly toward the distant, undulating mountain range that resembled the spine of a giant beast.

The Magical Beast Mountain Range.

Ya Fei followed him, looking in the direction of his gaze, but she saw only a vast expanse of verdant green.

She did not understand what he was looking at.

Su Chen, of course, was not looking at the scenery.

The annulment of the engagement.

The three-year agreement.

The mysterious teacher.

The journey for training.

All the familiar plot nodes strung together in his mind, forming a perfectly clear line.

He had always known that this day would come sooner or later.

Xiao Yan, the "Child of Destiny" of this world, could not remain holed up in the small Wutan City forever.

His journey was toward the stars and the sea.

And he himself, the observer lurking in the shadows of the plot, would eventually lose his greatest reliance because of Xiao Yan's departure.

A sense of loss inevitably welled up in the depths of his heart.

But, it lasted only for an instant.

That sense of loss was completely washed away and replaced by a more intense, more scorching emotion.

It was a sense of urgency.

It was, more than anything, a surge of passion finally unshackled!

Simulation, in the end, was merely simulation.

Copying, in the end, was merely copying.

Relying on the strength of others would never allow one to touch the true pinnacle.

He had always been like a child hiding in a safe house, peering through a one-way mirror at the real and dangerous world outside.

And now, that "window" which had provided him with a view was gone.

It was time for him, too, to step out of this safe house.

Su Chen slowly withdrew his gaze.

He turned around and looked at Ya Fei once more.

"I need a piece of intelligence."

His voice was calmer than it had ever been, yet it contained a sense of unquestionable resolve.

"The most dangerous and most likely information regarding the words 'Strange Fire' throughout the entire Jia Ma Empire."

Ya Fei's heart gave a violent jolt.

She looked at that bamboo hat, as if seeing clearly for the first time what kind of astonishing ambition lay beneath that shadow.

Su Chen offered no further explanation.

He simply cast his gaze back out the window.

Wutan City, which had once seemed prosperous and vast in his eyes, now appeared so insignificant.

Too small.

This pond could no longer contain a hidden dragon.

Nor could it contain the... dragon slayer, who was about to enter the sea himself to hunt the true dragon.