The stone door to the secret chamber finally opened.
A lean figure stepped out of a month-long darkness.
No astonishing aura surged from him, and no radiance of Dou Qi swirled around his body.
Su Chen simply stood there, quiet and still, yet the feeling he gave off had changed beyond recognition.
Before his seclusion, he had been a sharp blade hidden in its sheath, its edge concealed.
Now, he was the blade itself, drawn from its sheath.
Calm and steady, yet carrying a tangible sharpness that could slice through the air.
Dou Zhe.
This realm represented more than the liquefaction of Dou Qi. It was also a small leap in the level of one's life.
He clenched his fist.
In the vortex of his dantian, droplets of liquid Dou Qi, tempered through countless refinements, stirred at his will and surged through every limb in an instant.
A sense of fullness unlike anything he had felt before gave him an illusion.
It was as if one punch would blast a hole straight through the thick black-rock wall in front of him.
This was what it meant to truly hold power in his own hands.
Ya Fei had been waiting outside for some time.
Today, she was once again dressed in a fiery-red qipao that outlined her breathtaking curves to perfection.
The moment Su Chen stepped out, her alluring peach-blossom eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.
As a Dou Shi, her ability to sense energy was far sharper than an ordinary person's.
She could clearly tell that the power contained within this man was more than ten times as concentrated as it had been a month ago.
"Congratulations."
Ya Fei's red lips curved into a sincere smile.
She handed him an exquisite storage pouch.
"This is the Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill you commissioned. Master Otto personally oversaw the refining and used the finest ingredients. He said it was the smoothest batch of pills he'd ever refined."
The storage pouch felt slightly heavy in Su Chen's hand.
His spiritual power entered it, revealing a pill resting quietly in a jade bottle. Its entire surface glimmered purple, and its fragrance wafted out in all directions.
This pill could increase any Nine-Star Dou Zhe's chances of breaking through a bottleneck by a full thirty percent.
It was worth no less than three hundred thousand gold coins.
And this was only part of the payment for the Purple-Cyan Dual-Effect Fire he had commissioned for Master Otto.
"Please thank Master Otto for me."
Su Chen put away the storage pouch, his voice even.
Ya Fei looked at him, about to say something.
At that very moment, Su Chen's figure abruptly froze.
His movements stopped.
Beneath the shadow of his battered bamboo hat, an invisible ripple seemed to flicker and vanish.
Ya Fei's brows drew together.
"What is it?"
She did not ask aloud. She simply watched him in silence.
Su Chen did not answer. Nor could he have.
Because in that instant, the absolute-control Void Space, hidden in the deepest reaches of his consciousness, had shuddered with an unprecedented intensity.
It was not an attack.
It was an alarm.
A highest-level tracking alert, triggered by the specific flame mark he had placed!
Su Chen's body did not move.
But in the blink of an eye, his entire mind had sunk into that Void Space.
He stood upon the ancient Stone Platform, his will extending outward as invisible tendrils, reaching across all of Wutan City and into lands far beyond.
In his perception, the entire real world became a vast star chart composed of countless points of energy.
Wutan City occupied the chart's center, an area dense with points of light.
Tens of thousands of faint points represented the city's ordinary residents.
Hundreds of brighter points represented the city's guards and mercenaries.
And among that sea of lights, a few clusters stood out distinctly.
They were the strong fighters of the City Lord's Mansion, the Miteer Auction House, the Aoba Clan, and other factions.
Su Chen's perception swept past those familiar points of light and finally locked onto the Xiao Clan's residence in the western part of the city.
There, he had once marked two utterly different sources of energy.
One was faint and dim, like a candle guttering in the wind, yet possessed of a resilience that refused to break.
That was Xiao Yan.
The other lay hidden in the deepest part of that faint point of light, like a ten-thousand-year-old iceberg slumbering beneath the surface, radiating a bone-white chill that could freeze the soul.
That was Yao Lao, along with the Heavenly Flame he controlled—Bone Spirit Cold Flame.
All this time, that bone-white chill had been Su Chen's most important "data source" for analysis and simulation.
He had been like a barnacle clinging to a giant whale, silently siphoning off one ten-thousandth of the information carried by the power it shed.
But now—
He "saw" it.
The bone-white cluster representing Bone Spirit Cold Flame had moved.
It was no longer lying dormant.
Instead, at an unhurried yet utterly resolute pace, it was leaving the area around the Xiao Clan.
It passed through the streets, crossed the city walls, and left behind Wutan City's dense cluster of lights.
Its destination was unmistakable.
The Magical Beast Mountain Range.
On the star chart of his perception, that region appeared as a vast expanse of chaotic, violent energy, rife with bloodshed and a raw, primal aura.
Su Chen's consciousness hovered in the heights like a god.
He quietly "watched" the bone-white point of light recede, then disappear completely into that sea of chaotic energy, like a drop of water joining a surging river.
It was gone.
His most stable data source had been cut off.
The real world.
Before Ya Fei, Su Chen's body had been still for less than three breaths.
Yet she keenly sensed that during those brief three breaths, something about his aura had changed in a way she could not describe.
It was as if something important had left him.
Su Chen slowly raised his head.
He did not return to the secret chamber, nor did he pay any attention to the priceless pill.
He started walking, went straight to the end of the corridor, and pushed open the window leading to the outdoor terrace.
The cool afternoon breeze stirred the brim of his bamboo hat.
His gaze passed over the bustling streets below and the towering dome of the Miteer Auction House, settling on the distant mountain range whose ridgeline rose and fell like the back of a colossal beast.
The Magical Beast Mountain Range.
Ya Fei followed him and looked in the same direction, but all she saw was an endless stretch of green.
She could not understand what he was looking at.
Su Chen was certainly not admiring the scenery.
The broken engagement.
The Three-Year Agreement.
The mysterious teacher.
The journey of cultivation beyond home.
All the familiar turning points in the story formed a crystal-clear line in his mind.
He had always known this day would come sooner or later.
Xiao Yan, the "Child of Destiny" of this world, could not stay cooped up in tiny Wutan City forever.
His journey led to the sea of stars.
And he, an observer lurking in the shadows of the story, would lose his greatest support when Xiao Yan left.
A sense of loss inevitably rose in his heart.
But it lasted only an instant.
A stronger, hotter emotion swept it away and took its place.
Urgency.
And a fierce exhilaration, as if he had finally broken free of his restraints!
Simulation was still only simulation.
Copying was still only copying.
Relying on someone else's power would never let him reach the true peak.
He had always been like a child hiding in a safe house, peering through a one-way window at the real and dangerous world outside.
And now, the "window" that had given him a view had left.
It was time for him to step out of that safe house.
Su Chen slowly drew his gaze back.
He turned and looked at Ya Fei again.
"I need a report."
His voice was calmer than ever, yet held an unshakable resolve.
"Every piece of information across the Jia Ma Empire related to the words 'Heavenly Flame'—the most dangerous leads, and the ones most likely to be real."
Ya Fei's heart gave a sudden leap.
As she looked at that bamboo hat, it was as if she were seeing for the first time the astonishing ambition hidden beneath its shadow.
Su Chen offered no further explanation.
He simply turned his gaze back to the window.
The Wutan City that had once seemed grand and prosperous to him now looked so small.
Far too small.
This pond could no longer contain a hidden dragon.
Nor could it contain the dragon-slayer who was about to venture into the sea himself and hunt a true dragon...
Before you continue