"No, Flame Emperor, you have misunderstood me. It is not that I, the Clan Leader, am unwilling to give it to you; it is simply impossible. It is not unwillingness, but inability."
The Fire Spirit Clan Leader explained with righteous conviction.
"No matter. Since Clan Leader cannot do it, I shall retrieve it myself."
"Very well, Flame Emperor, please do as you wish."
The Fire Spirit Clan Leader's gaze flickered rapidly, and he immediately let out a sinister smile.
The Fire Spirit Clan's Ancestral Shrine Hall was not located within their territory at all, but hidden within an Ancient Realm deep inside their lands.
Leaving aside whether the Flame Emperor could find the superbly concealed Ancestral Shrine Hall, even if he truly found it, the Clan Leader could return at once and join the two Clan Elders in using their heaven-shaking killing formation to besiege the Flame Emperor, leaving him permanently within the Fire Spirit Clan and washing away today's humiliation in one stroke.
"No need. The time is about right."
The figure on the throne suddenly glanced at the Fire Spirit Clan Leader below and smiled meaningfully.
Buzz!
As his words fell, the flames beneath the Crimson Flame Throne writhed frantically. A black-robed figure wrapped entirely in eerie black flames abruptly took shape. The instant he appeared, an incomparably ancient and bizarre aura slowly spread throughout the surrounding world.
"That is..."
The Fire Spirit Clan Leader keenly sensed the strange fluctuation, and his gaze abruptly sharpened as he tried to see the face hidden beneath the eerie black flames. Yet the moment a trace of his Spirit Soul Realm power approached, it was swallowed cleanly by the black flames and vanished without a trace, frightening him into immediately withdrawing all his Spirit Soul Realm power.
As if sensing something,