He took a step forward, crushing a red-hot rock beneath his foot.
"Hey! You bald guy!"
"Hand over the bead on your head, and I'll spare your life!"
Yan's voice echoed through the empty underground cavern.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the magma lake.
The bald, burly man in a red robe slowly opened his eyes. A flash of displeasure gleamed in his pupils.
This was an underground fire vein in the Fire Burning Kingdom.
As an early Foundation Establishment elder of the War God Temple in the Fire Burning Kingdom, he was cultivating in seclusion here, refining fire spiritual energy.
He hadn't expected some ignorant mortal to barge in and shout his head off.
The bald, burly man looked Yan up and down.
Seeing the thick layer of magma armor covering Yan's body, the man furrowed his brow slightly.
"Some ordinary mortal from who knows where, whose body mutated after being tainted by a bit of earthly fire poison, dares disturb my cultivation?"
The bald man's voice was calm, but carried an air of lofty disdain.
At those words, Yan flew into a rage.
He was one of the mighty Spirit Hall Golden Generation, a heaven-blessed prodigy, yet an ordinary man without even Soul Power had called him a mutated mortal.
This was a disgrace beyond measure!
"You're asking for death!"
Yan roared as five Soul Rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, and black—rose from beneath his feet.
A powerful surge of Soul Power swept across the cavern's edge.
"Let me show you the strength of a Level 52 Battle Soul King!"
"Fourth Soul Skill, Magma Surge!"
Yan slammed both hands against the ground.
The magma at the edge of the cavern seemed to be caught by some powerful force and instantly began to boil.
A thick pillar of magma shot into the air, its terrifying heat transforming it into a raging fire dragon that lunged toward the bald man in the middle of the magma lake.
Across Douluo Continent, countless Spirit Hall Soul Masters clenched their fists and shouted in approval at the sight.
Yan's attack, aided by the terrain of the volcano, had already reached the might of a Soul Emperor.
That bald man, who didn't even have a Martial Soul, was sure to be burned to ash.
Yet, faced with this mighty attack.
The bald man didn't dodge. He didn't even shift his backside.
He merely raised his right hand, spread his fingers, and gently clenched them at the oncoming magma dragon.
"Absorb."
As the calm word left the man's lips.
The raging magma dragon stopped in midair, as if frozen by a spell.
Then, before Yan's disbelieving eyes.
The magma dragon, over ten meters long, began to shrink rapidly, until it turned into a wisp of pure red spiritual energy and slipped into the man's palm.
The man lowered his hand and even let out a satisfied burp.
"The quality of this earthly fire is too poor, with too many impurities. Still, it'll just about do to warm me up."
At that moment, all of Douluo Continent seemed to have been hit by a pause button.
Everyone stared at the Sky Screen, their minds blank and their ability to think utterly gone.
Yan's most prized Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Skill had been swallowed up by his opponent like a snack?
What kind of immortal technique was that!
Inside the cavern, Yan stood rooted to the spot, unable to believe his eyes.
"W-who exactly are you?" Yan's voice began to tremble, and he couldn't help swallowing.
At those words, the bald man lowered his right hand and snorted.
"Showing off before an expert."
"Since you're so interested in fire, I'll show you what real fire is."
With that, the bald man flicked a finger.
A flame no bigger than a fingernail, glowing purple-blue all over, drifted slowly from his fingertip.
It looked incredibly weak, as if a gust of wind could blow it out.
But the instant it left the man's fingertip.
The temperature throughout the cavern soared several times over!
Even the dark-red magma lake began bubbling up with white foam.
The purple-blue flame floated lightly through the air. It seemed slow, yet in the blink of an eye, it had reached Yan.
Yan tried to dodge, but discovered that the space around him seemed to be locked down by the scorching heat. His legs wouldn't obey him.
"First Soul Skill, Granite Rock!"
At the brink of life and death, Yan could only pour all his strength into his Soul Power, reinforcing the magma armor before him with every bit of defense he had in an attempt to block the fatal strike.
The purple-blue flame drifted lightly into the hard magma armor. As everyone on the continent watched, Yan's Granite Rock, hailed as invincible defense among those of the same level, melted away in an instant.
In the next moment, the flame burrowed straight into his chest...
Yan's charging body suddenly froze in place.
He opened his mouth wide, seemingly trying to scream, but not a sound came from his throat.
Only a thick plume of black smoke poured from his eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth.
The light vanished from his eyes. A dark-red glow began to shine from inside his body.
In the space of a single breath.
This member of the Spirit Hall Golden Generation, a mighty Level 52 Battle Soul King, didn't even leave behind an intact corpse. He turned directly into a pile of black ash, scattering across the scorching rocks.
A breeze stirred deep underground, sweeping the pile of ash into the magma lake below without raising so much as a bubble.
The screen in the middle instantly turned gray-white.
[Spirit Hall Golden Generation explorer Yan encountered a Foundation Establishment elder of the Fire Burning Kingdom's War God Temple.] [Burned to ashes by a strand of his Natal True Fire; exploration deemed a failure.]
Blood-red text slowly appeared in midair, painfully bright.
Spirit City, the open-air training grounds behind the Pope Palace.
The sunlight was still bright, glinting faintly across the hard granite ground.
But the atmosphere across the training grounds had turned ice-cold.
It was so quiet that only heavy breathing could be heard.
With a thud.
Hu Liena's legs gave way, and she collapsed onto the cold ground.
Her usually enchanting fox eyes were bloodshot, and fat tears streamed down her face.
"Yan..."
Hu Liena's voice was frighteningly hoarse. She clutched the stone slabs beneath her, her fingernails peeling back until they bled.
Just minutes ago, her companion had been full of confidence, thumping his chest and promising to bring her back an immortal treasure of longevity. Now he had vanished before her eyes, just like that.
He hadn't even had a chance to fight back.
Xie Yue stood nearby, his face as white as paper.
His hands trembled slightly. He couldn't even summon the strength to call forth his Martial Soul, the Moon Blade.
He stared at the line of blood-red text in midair, his mind filled with disbelief.
Yan had been the strongest in defense and the most explosive of the three.
Forget an ordinary man without a Martial Soul—even against a Soul Emperor, Yan might not win, but he could at least escape unharmed.
But now, his opponent had merely flicked a finger, and an inconspicuous little flame had instantly killed Yan.
"What was that thing..." Xie Yue swallowed, cold sweat rolling down his forehead in great drops.
At the front, Bibi Dong's beautiful face was so dark it seemed ready to drip with water.
As a Level 99 Peak Douluo, Bibi Dong naturally had much keener insight than Hu Liena and Xie Yue.
She had seen everything clearly.
The bald man hadn't used any Defensive Soul Tool. The bead above his head was, at most, an aid to cultivation.
He really had been sitting in the magma with nothing but his physical body, and he really had eaten Yan's Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Skill like a snack.
"The Fire Burning Kingdom, the War God Temple, an elder at the Foundation Establishment stage..."
Bibi Dong's red lips moved as she turned over those unfamiliar terms from the Sky Screen again and again.
She took a deep breath, then turned to Gui Mei and Yue Guan, standing behind her.
"What do you think?" Bibi Dong's voice carried an unprecedented gravity.
Yue Guan wiped the cold sweat from his face. Even his shrill voice had gone a little hoarse.
"Your Holiness, the bald man's way of attacking was far too strange."
"He had no Soul Rings, and there wasn't the slightest trace of Soul Power fluctuations in his body."
"But that purple-blue flame he released was absurdly hot. It was completely beyond Old Black's understanding of fire-elemental forces."
Gui Mei added hoarsely, "Your Holiness, I think the most terrifying thing wasn't the flame's temperature."
"That bald man's control over fire had reached the point where he could do as he pleased."
"He turned raging magma into mist and drew it into his body. That means his body's very structure has long since become different from a mortal's."
Bibi Dong gave a cold snort and looked up at the sky again.
"You're right."
"The cultivation system of this Renegade Immortal World completely overturns the common sense of Douluo Continent."
"They don't seem to need to hunt Soul Beasts for Soul Rings, nor do they need fixed Soul Skills to attack."
"As long as they master a certain method, they can directly make the natural forces of heaven and earth their own."
As she spoke, a deep wariness flashed through Bibi Dong's eyes.
A so-called elder casually meditating in an underground cavern could instantly kill Spirit Hall's greatest young prodigy.
Then what of the master of the Fire Burning Kingdom's War God Temple?
How terrifying was his strength?
Bibi Dong felt a chill run through her.
At the central plaza of Blazing Fire Academy in the Heaven Dou Empire.
The scorching sunlight beat down on the massive flame statue, and the plaza was already unusually hot.
Yet now, more than a hundred teachers and students in red uniforms were all shivering with cold.
Every one of them seemed utterly drained, staring blankly at the gray-white screen in midair.
Huo Wushuang's mouth hung open. He wanted to say something, but his throat felt painfully dry.
Just moments ago, he'd been confidently explaining that the bald man had relied on a treasure for protection.
Reality had slapped him hard across the face.
Not only had the man relied on no treasure, he had swallowed Yan's magma dragon like a tonic.
"Brother..."
Huo Wu stood beside him, her delicate body trembling uncontrollably.
The Repulsion Fire Ring she had always been proud of was, in her own mind, the perfect defensive skill.
But after seeing the scene of Yan's Granite Rock melting away in an instant beneath that purple-blue flame, Huo Wu's psychological defenses had completely crumbled.
"What kind of fire is that..."
"It can even melt magma. Is that even fire?" Huo Wu's voice broke with tears. Her legs gave out, and she fell to the ground.
The headmaster of Blazing Fire Academy, a usually well-respected Soul Saint above Level 70, now leaned against the base of the flame statue, his face desolate.
"On Douluo Continent, we've always thought that the limit of a fire-type Martial Soul was to raise its temperature to the extreme."
"But those people from the Renegade Immortal World aren't playing with temperature at all."
The students turned to look at the headmaster, their eyes bewildered.
The headmaster let out a long sigh and raised a trembling finger toward the sky.
"That purple-blue flame the bald man released contains a very pure aura of destruction."
"He didn't burn Yan to death with high heat."
"He used that destructive power to break down the very structure of Yan's body."
"True Fire isn't an ordinary flame like the ones we usually see."
"It's a higher form of energy, one that stands above every element on Douluo Continent."
The headmaster's words slammed into every Blazing Fire Academy student's heart like a heavy hammer.
They had always thought Blazing Fire Academy was among the best on the continent when it came to fire.
Now it seemed they were no more than frogs at the bottom of a well, brandishing torches before Guan Yu.
Quite a few young students burst into tears. The despair of their faith collapsing was more painful than death.
For a time, sorrow hung over the entire central plaza of Blazing Fire Academy.
Shrek Academy, Fasinuo Province.
The breeze over the dirt field had stopped, and the air felt heavy.
Ma Hongjun dropped onto the ground, the fat on his face trembling.
The instant his Evil Fire Phoenix Martial Soul saw that purple-blue flame, it had shrunk back into the depths of his dantian against his will.
It was a fear and submission that came from deep within his soul.
"That's terrifying..."
"My Evil Fire is afraid. It doesn't even dare to think of resisting." Ma Hongjun swallowed, his voice thick with tears.
Dai Mubai clenched his fists, veins bulging across his forehead.
He stared at the gray-white screen in the middle, fear lingering in his heart.
Yan was a fifty-second-level Soul King with a top-tier defensive skill, yet he hadn't lasted even one round.
Tang San stood where he was, the light in his Purple Demon Eye already fading.
His brows knitted tightly as the horrifying scene from moments ago replayed again and again in his mind.
"Teacher..."
Tang San turned and looked at Yu Xiaogang, who stood not far away.
"You said just now that the bald man was a fraud who relied on a treasure to put on an act."
"But he swallowed magma and unleashed true fire. He did all of that himself. That pearl didn't provide him with any power at all."
Tang San's tone was calm, but his words landed like a loud slap across Yu Xiaogang's face.
Yu Xiaogang's expression was a sight to behold.
His face turned from green to white and back again. His usually rigid, stern face now looked as ugly as a painter's palette.