Seeing the city ahead.
After Shen Shihuang landed, he was about to enter the city gate when the guards stopped him.
"Hey, kid."
"You trying to get into the city?"
The two guards were at the Dou Shi level.
Their eyes glinted with greed as they stared at Shen Shihuang. His clothes had been conjured entirely from the Taisui Flame, which was far more practical than other Heavenly Flames in that regard. They looked extremely expensive.
A rich man.
That was right. At first glance, the guards could tell Shen Shihuang was rich.
Watching the guards reach out toward him,
Shen Shihuang smiled faintly. "I don't have any money."
The guards' expressions changed at once.
"No money?"
"Heh, you want to enter the city without money?"
"Get lost!"
As one guard was about to make a move, a wisp of black flame appeared in Shen Shihuang's eyes and clung to him. In an instant, it burned away his flesh and blood.
Shen Shihuang turned his smiling gaze toward the other guard.
By then, the man had already backed all the way to the foot of the city wall in terror.
"Can I enter the city now?"
The remaining guard nodded frantically, bowing and scraping. "Yes, yes. Please, go ahead."
Shen Shihuang strode straight through the city gate.
In the Black-Corner Region,
killing people wasn't wrong. The only mistake was being weak.
The weak were prey to the strong.
That truth was played out to the fullest here.
In fact, there was no such thing as propriety, righteousness, integrity, or shame here. There was only the divide between the strong and the weak.
"Have you heard?"
"A spatial rift appeared in the east, and it's full of flames. The young master of the Black Emperor Sect was sucked inside, and now all the experts of the sect have gone over there."
"Heh, I heard about that too."
"People from other factions were sucked in as well. All the powers in the Black-Corner Region have brought their experts over by now."
"Tsk, a spatial rift appeared. Do you think it could be an Ancient Ruins site?"
"Oh? That's possible. Why don't we go take a look too?"
As he walked along the road,
Shen Shihuang heard the discussion and reached out, pulling over one of the men, a rather shifty-looking fellow.
"Where were you talking about?"
A spatial rift.
Flames.
Shen Shihuang found it suspicious. When his Taisui Flame had advanced, something just like this had happened.
The man's face had just darkened in anger at being grabbed when Shen Shihuang's aura swept over him. His anger instantly turned into a smile.
"Sir, we were talking about the eastern part of the Black-Corner Region. Just head east, and after about half a day, you'll see a gigantic spatial rift. It's full of flames. I heard those flames can even burn Dou Qi."
Shen Shihuang casually tossed the shifty-looking man aside.
With one step, he vanished into the air.
The shifty-looking man stared at Shen Shihuang's retreating figure, shock written across his face. "A... a Dou Zong expert?"
In the Black-Corner Region,
a Dou Zong
was an absolute powerhouse. All the first-rate factions in the Black-Corner Region had Dou Zong experts stationed at their helm, yet these experts were rarely seen.
Jade City.
A small city in the Black-Corner Region.
But at that moment, Jade City
had been reduced to a sea of flames.
Pink flames swayed throughout the city, their presence strange and eerie.
As for the people of Jade City?
They had all been burned to ashes when the spatial rift appeared. The rift had opened right in the middle of the city.
"What kind of flames are these?"
"Jade City has been burned to bare earth."
The experts who had just arrived
were all shaken when they saw what had become of Jade City.
Jade City might not have been very strong,
but it had a Dou Huang expert.
Now Jade City was no different from a desert. If there was one difference, it was that no yellow sand filled the air. Instead, there were only pink flames...
"Sect Master, judging from the situation, the young sect master may be in trouble!" An old man, whose aura was unmistakably that of a Dou Huang expert, spoke to the black-robed middle-aged man.
This black-robed middle-aged man was none other than Mo Tianxing, the leader of the Black Emperor Sect, one of the dominant powers in the Black-Corner Region.
He was a Four-Star Dou Zong.
"How did this spatial rift appear?" Mo Tianxing asked in a low voice. He seemed hardly concerned that his son had been sucked inside; what worried him more was the spatial rift itself.
"Sect Master, it appeared without warning. According to those who saw it, it suddenly opened and sucked in everyone nearby. Then the pink flames erupted."
"Since the pink flames erupted, no one has been able to get inside again."
At the center of the pink flames
was a gigantic spatial rift, just like a doorway.
The pink flames had come out of that doorway.
"However, Sect Master, our people suspect there's a ruin inside the spatial rift, and that the pink flames are protecting it. Perhaps these flames will disappear before long."
Mo Tianxing's eyes flickered.
It was much the same as what he had guessed.
But
these terrifying pink flames could even burn his Dou Qi, and had gone so far as to seep through it and attack him from within. They were fearsome indeed.
If they didn't disappear,
then no one would be able to enter.
"Why did Mo Ya come to Jade City?" Mo Tianxing asked again.
This time,
the Dou Huang elder replied, "The young sect master seems to have obtained an ancient staff a few days ago. It appeared to be connected to Jade City, so perhaps that's why he came here."
Mo Tianxing said, "I also heard that people from Jia Nan Academy are here?"
The Dou Huang elder shook his head. "This subordinate doesn't know. The elders who went with the young sect master were all sucked inside. But, Sect Master, the pink flames appeared only after the young sect master and the others were pulled in. Perhaps nothing serious has happened to the people who were sucked inside."
Whoosh!
A terrifying aura swept over from afar, making everyone present shudder. They looked over and saw an old man bringing two others toward them.
"A Dou Zong expert?"
When they saw the old man flying through the air, everyone immediately realized how powerful the newcomer was.
"Ha ha, Mo Tianxing! I heard your son was sucked inside. Is he dead yet?"
The old man had only just arrived,
and already he was calling Mo Tianxing by name and mocking him so openly.
Mo Tianxing's face twitched when he saw the old man.
"Earth Demon Old Ghost!"
"I didn't expect you to show up."
Hiss!
Everyone drew in a sharp breath when they heard Mo Tianxing's words.
If the Black Emperor Sect was a dominant power in this part of the Black-Corner Region, then the Demon Flame Valley, where Earth Demon Old Ghost resided, was a long-established powerhouse among the region's factions.
"I was just passing by. I didn't expect such a strange occurrence to happen in the Black-Corner Region."
As soon as Earth Demon Old Ghost finished speaking,
his gaze shifted.
"Su Qian?"
In the distance,
three figures appeared.
At their head was none other than Su Qian, the great elder of Jia Nan Academy.
"It seems this place has quite the pull for you lot!" Su Qian said coldly when he saw Earth Demon Old Ghost and Mo Tianxing.
"Heh heh."
Earth Demon Old Ghost looked at Su Qian. "Su Qian, I heard some of your students from Jia Nan Academy were sucked inside too. So, do you know how to get in?"
"If you're too late, your students from Jia Nan Academy might all be dead in there."