Minor Divine Abilities - Li Fire Bright Void Pupil and Crimson Li Karma Fire

Minor Divine Abilities—Li Fire Bright Void Pupil and Crimson Li Karma Fire. "You brat, you're rather good at acting. Come to the City Lord's Mansion!"

This sudden voice transmission did not alarm anyone else, yet it exploded directly inside Zhao Hao's mind.

A Golden Core old ancestor!

Only a mighty one of the Golden Core Realm could possess such force!

Zhao Hao reined in all his emotions, not daring to hesitate in the slightest. He tucked away the sixty thousand spirit stones he had just obtained, and under countless complicated gazes in the Ten Thousand Immortal Gambling House, he headed uneasily toward the center of the city.

The center of Ten Thousand Immortal City.

A vast palace complex stood halfway up the mountain, white-jade steps stretching from the mountain gate all the way down to the foot of the mountain, its grandeur extraordinary.

This was the City Lord's Mansion.

Zhao Hao climbed the steps, and every step felt as if he were treading on the edge of a blade.

Before the mansion gates, two cultivators clad in dark-gold heavy armor stood like statues, the long halberds in their hands giving off an icy killing intent.

They were shockingly two Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators!

Foundation Establishment cultivators who would have been enough to serve as executive elders in the Extreme Yin Sect were, here, merely two gatekeepers.

Zhao Hao stepped forward and handed over his identity token. The guard on the left swept it with a spell disk and spat out a few hard words: "Wait here."

A moment later, a cultivator in green robes walked out from within the mansion, his steps soundless, his aura long and steady.

"Fellow Daoist Zhao? I am Fan Qingfeng." The green-robed cultivator cupped his hands politely. "Old Ancestor Guo invites you in. Please follow me."

Zhao Hao cupped his fists in return and followed him across that heavy threshold.

With one step inside, heaven and earth spun.

The surrounding air seemed to turn into viscous liquid in an instant. Spiritual energy of heaven and earth, so dense it was almost tangible, went mad as it burrowed into him through his pores!

The fire spiritual root in his body, strengthened to the finest grade, was like a ferocious beast that had starved for ten days catching the scent of blood. It instantly throbbed and greedily devoured this ownerless, pure energy.

Beneath his feet, every bluestone slab was carved with intricate array patterns, flowing with brilliant light and color.

Fan Qingfeng walked ahead and introduced without turning his head, "The City Lord's Mansion is laid with the Heavenly Cycle Star Rotation Array. It draws the power of the nine heavens' stars and transforms it into pure spiritual energy. Fellow Daoist, this is your first time here—how does it feel?"

"As expected of the City Lord's Mansion. This is absolutely a grand undertaking," Zhao Hao replied briefly, suppressing the shock in his heart.

How was this any ordinary City Lord's Mansion? This was clearly a man-made paradise grotto!

After passing through three corridors, Fan Qingfeng stopped outside a side hall.

"Go in."

The hall doors slowly opened, and Zhao Hao stepped inside.

The hall was spacious and empty. The back of a middle-aged scholar stood there with his hands clasped behind him, appreciating an ink painting on the wall.

The instant Zhao Hao's foot fully stepped onto the hall's bluestone tiles—

An invisible, terrifying pressure came crashing down like the sky collapsing and the earth overturning!

It was not the oppression of spiritual energy, but pure crushing divine sense.

Zhao Hao felt as if his soul had been seized tightly by an invisible giant hand. Every bone in his body let out an overburdened groan under that crushing weight. His knees went weak, and he was about to fall to the ground.

He did not circulate spiritual energy to resist. That would be no different from a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

He simply followed that force and abruptly bent at the waist, bowing all the way down, his voice hoarse.

"Junior Zhao Hao pays respects to Old Ancestor Guo."

The middle-aged scholar ahead did not turn around, yet the pressure that had almost crushed him to pieces instantly vanished without a trace.

Zhao Hao slowly straightened. The mage robe on his back was already soaked through, clinging coldly to his skin.

Too strong!

If this old monster wanted to kill him, it would probably truly be a matter of a single thought.

If everyone encounters ads like "Are you a real person?", there is no need to pay them any mind. Just close them, and absolutely do not scan any codes or send any text messages!

"That play you put on today in the Ten Thousand Immortal Pavilion was quite well acted."

Old Ancestor Guo's voice was not loud, yet it seemed to carry an echo, reverberating through the empty hall.

"Toying with the entire city's alchemists like monkeys—was it amusing?"

Zhao Hao lowered his head, his mind racing rapidly, while his mouth answered steadily, "This junior would not dare. In truth, this junior has only just felt out the threshold of second-tier medicinal pills, and my technique is unfamiliar. Forming the pill was entirely due to luck. I absolutely did not intentionally deceive Old Ancestor."

Lying was a demonic cultivator's instinct. Forget opening his mouth—even if he were made to swear a heart-devil great oath right now, his eyelids would not so much as twitch.

"Luck?"

The middle-aged scholar turned around.

His face was like crowned jade, his temples lightly frosted, yet his eyes seemed to contain stars, deep beyond fathoming.

Those eyes merely swept lightly over Zhao Hao, and Zhao Hao felt a naked sensation of being seen through completely, from inside to out.

"Interesting."

A faint, playful smile curled at the corner of Old Ancestor Guo's mouth.

"Using blood essence to stimulate flesh and forcefully alter your physique?" he said, each word deliberate, each one like a heavy hammer smashing into Zhao Hao's heart. "Your bone age can't fool anyone. Foundation Establishment Realm before twenty—youths are truly to be feared!"

The qi and blood inside Zhao Hao surged, and the muscles in his arms instantly went taut.

It was over!

This was the greatest trump card he had used to sever himself from the past and hide his identity! Before this old monster, it was not even worth a sheet of window paper!

Before he could react, Old Ancestor Guo took another step forward, his voice turning faint and eerie.

"What surprised me even more was the karmic burden all over you. It was so thick it could barely disperse, yet the art you cultivated was a proper, orthodox righteous-path technique."

He circled Zhao Hao once, as though admiring a rare treasure without equal.

"To accumulate karmic sin to this degree, wouldn't you have had to slaughter a hundred thousand people with your own hands? But the strange thing is, there isn't the slightest blood Baleful Intent clinging to you. Truly bizarre."

Cold sweat slid down Zhao Hao's chin, drop by drop, striking the smooth green bricks.

Even his underpants had been stripped clean!

Run? The thought had only just risen before he strangled it himself.

"Enough."

Old Ancestor Guo waved his sleeve and sat down in the great chair at the main seat, as though those words just now had merely been casual chatter.

"Ten Thousand Immortal City does not ask where one comes from, nor does it care whether one is righteous or demonic. This Venerable is not interested in your secrets. Rather, that alchemy method of yours—my Li Fire Bright Void Pupil could not see through it. That is the truly rare matter."

His tone changed. "Do you know why Ten Thousand Immortal City would spend such a great price to hold this Alchemy Grand Assembly?"

Zhao Hao forcefully suppressed all stray thoughts and replied dryly, "This junior does not know."

The old ancestor did not answer. Instead, he dragged the topic back again.

"The cultivation method you practice—is it the ancient Li Fire Sect's Li Fire Imperial Spirit Canon?"

Zhao Hao's heart shook violently. Just what was there that this old monster did not know! He could only nod stiffly.

"Then it matches." Old Ancestor Guo tapped the armrest. "What you're cultivating now is only the Foundation Establishment chapter. The road after that is cut off, isn't it? This Venerable will tell you: the Golden Core chapter of this technique is in the City Lord's Mansion. As for where the Nascent Soul chapter and Spirit Transformation chapter are, the City Lord also knows perfectly well."

The first bargaining chip smashed down heavily.

Zhao Hao stayed silent. He knew very well that behind this great painted cake, there had to be a hook quenched in deadly poison.

"You are covered in karmic sin. If you do not remove it, when you face your Golden Core tribulation in the future, inner demons will sprout in clusters, heavenly lightning will descend upon you, and you will die without a doubt."

Old Ancestor Guo leaned forward slightly, a hint of temptation entering his tone.

"But since you cultivate the Li Fire Imperial Spirit Canon, that is rather convenient. Within this technique, there happens to be a supreme secret art long since lost."

"This secret art can draw out the power of all things in the world and refine it into a divine ability seed. Karmic sin, which ordinary people avoid as though it were a snake or scorpion, is for you an enormous stroke of fortune!"

He paused, then spoke word by word, like a devil's whisper exploding beside Zhao Hao's ear.

"If you use this method, perhaps you can condense a top-tier minor divine ability that would make even Nascent Soul True Lords green-eyed with envy—Crimson Li Karma Fire!

"It might even grow in the future into a true divine ability—Red Lotus Karmic Fire."