Heaven and Earth Furnace

At dawn the next day, Xu Yan was woken by footsteps outside.

He rose slowly from his meditation cushion and pushed open the door.

Directly opposite was Tushan Jiuyuan's cave dwelling. As it happened, she stepped out at the same moment he did.

"Fellow Daoist Tushan." Xu Yan cupped his hands to her.

Tushan Jiuyuan stopped and looked at him with her slit-pupiled demon eyes. Her scarlet fur robe snapped in the wind, and her Dao body radiated formidable power. Xu Yan could feel dense Mystic Qi bearing down on him.

"You..." Tushan Jiuyuan was about to say something.

The door to the cave dwelling on the left had opened at some point. A purple-robed figure walked straight between them, neither fast nor slow, as though no one in the world was worth a sideways glance from her.

Murong Ziyao's expression was cold. She passed between them as if they were not there.

Tushan Jiuyuan's gaze darkened slightly. A trace of killing intent seemed to flash through the corner of her eye, then vanished.

"Brother Xu!"

From the other side, Qin Yiren strolled toward them, her silver robe billowing and the faintest hint of a smile on her cool face.

At the sight of her, Tushan Jiuyuan swallowed whatever she had been about to say and headed out alone.

"Fellow Daoist Qin," Xu Yan replied.

Qin Yiren watched Tushan Jiuyuan's retreating back, a thoughtful look in her beautiful eyes. "Brother Xu, do you know that Heavenly Fox disciple?"

"We've met once, but I don't know her well." Xu Yan shook his head.

Qin Yiren murmured an acknowledgment and asked no more.

They chatted as they left the palace hall.

Outside, morning light spilled down. The wide, empty streets of Spirit-Sealing City looked especially bleak and deserted.

Scattered cultivators made their way silently toward the west side of the city, their expressions varied. Naturally, they were bound for the Heaven and Earth Furnace.

Xu Yan and Qin Yiren left the city as well. Riding their Mystic Qi, they followed the others westward through the air.

Whoosh—

A fierce wind howled past their cheeks. The farther they went, the hotter the world seemed to grow.

The forests below changed from lush green to withered yellow. Farther on, even the trees and grasses disappeared.

The earth looked as though it had been roasted. An invisible heat haze seemed to rise from it, leaving only a cracked, crimson expanse. Fissures stretched into the distance like a spiderweb, dry as bone.

Xu Yan could feel the spiritual energy of heaven and earth growing restless, like a pot of water on the verge of boiling.

Xu Yan and Qin Yiren flew nine hundred li at full speed.

"What a strong fire-aspected aura." Qin Yiren surveyed the landscape and frowned slightly.

"It isn't just fire." Xu Yan, deep in thought, activated his Edict Script to sense the world around them. "All five elements are here, but fire is suppressing the rest. It's as if... something beneath the ground is smelting all things."

In his perception, the energies beneath the earth were a mottled chaos.

In the distance, the Heaven and Earth Furnace had come into view.

It resembled a mountain, yet not quite. It stood about fifty zhang high but spanned a full three hundred zhang. Seen from above, it looked like a vast mouth rising from the earth.

It seemed to breathe in and out the energies of heaven and earth without pause. The whole of Furnace Mountain was dark red, its surface covered in crisscrossing lines like dried-up veins or the patterns of an ancient array. Scarlet magma flowed through the cracks.

Xu Yan could make out quite a few disciples who had already climbed the furnace. They stood at its rim, peering inside.

Jiang Qingcheng stroked his chin as he looked down. "Heaven and earth as the furnace, creation as the craftsman. What a marvelous place."

"According to the Divine Sect's ancient records, the Patriarch brought this Heaven and Earth Furnace here from overseas," someone said.

"Its fire has burned for countless ages without going out. Why leave such a divine treasure in the Immortal Treasury?"

A disciple voiced the question.

Why not move a furnace like this into the Divine Land? If the sect's mighty cultivators used it to refine pills and artifacts, who knew how many precious pills and magical artifacts the Divine Sect might have amassed over the ages!

Xu Yan and Qin Yiren arrived as well.

They landed on a crimson rock at the rim and, like the others, looked down into it.

An abyss!

Inside was a chasm whose bottom they could not see. Even so, they could faintly make out the glow of many spiritual pills deep below, as though they might emerge from the furnace at any moment.

But a thin barrier of magical power sealed the opening. Dense Edict Script flowed across it, plainly forming an exceedingly intricate ancient array.

Xu Yan considered it, then used his spiritual sense to guide the [Miaoyuan] Edict Script into tentative contact with the array.

[Taiyi God-Lock Array: An ancient Mystic Gate array with the power to seal off the energies of heaven and earth.]

As Xu Yan studied it, someone spoke nearby.

Tuoba Ke, a disciple of Nine Star Kui Island, held an array disc and declared, "This is the Taiyi God-Lock Array. It has only one eye. If we join forces and attack the Dragon Gate at due north, we can break it!"

Jiang Qingcheng nodded and looked around. Narrowing his eyes, he called out, "Everyone, let's agree on this first. If any ancient pills emerge, don't fight over them. Hand them to Fellow Daoist Jiang, then bid for them at auction!"

Jiang Beixuan was well known among the prodigies of this generation.

He kept a low profile, though. Despite belonging to the Patriarch's lineage, no tales of misconduct had ever circulated about him. He was also the strongest cultivator present, with his Pulse Opening nearly complete, so the disciples generally respected him.

"Enough talk. Let's do it!"

Tushan Jiuyuan spoke sharply.

She struck first. Her scarlet Daoist robe shook, and a vast surge of Mystic Qi roared from her Dao body, crashing toward the array's eye like mountains toppling and seas overturning.

"Fairy Jiuyuan, what domineering Mystic Qi!"

Jiang Qingcheng smiled. The more Tushan Jiuyuan treated him like this, the more fired up he seemed to become.

As he spoke, a green sword shot from his sleeve. It swelled to five zhang and buzzed toward the array's eye.

The disciples attacked one after another, none holding anything back.

They had reached an agreement. No one would be foolish enough to start a fight or launch a sneak attack now, unless some blood feud between them could never be settled.

Xu Yan, for instance, kept farther from the Nine Star Kui Island disciples than anyone else.

Earlier, in the middle reaches of the Immortal Treasury, Murong Yan had loudly spread word that Xu Yan had killed Huangfu Ziyang. The news apparently had not reached this latter half, though; none of the Nine Star Kui Island disciples here paid Xu Yan any mind.

Then again, given Murong Ziyao's nature, she probably would not care in the slightest even if she knew he had killed Huangfu Ziyang. From what Xu Yan had seen of her these past few days, she hardly seemed a person of the mortal world.

Hum!

Xu Yan did not bring out the Wenjin Shuttle. Instead, he drove the Green Pattern Dharma Sword toward the array's eye.

Beside him, Qin Yiren attacked without hesitation.

Jiang Beixuan drew the most attention. His white robe billowed, and the Spirit Meridian within him blazed like the sun. Yet his was not a fire-aspected Spirit Meridian. What shone around him was searing white Mystic Qi.

Mystic Qi surged through him like a mighty river, every strand of his magical power keen as a blade!

"What kind of Spirit Meridian does he have...?" Xu Yan muttered.

"White Heroic Steel Body, Mist-type Spirit Vein." Jiang Qingcheng stood not far away on a fiery red rock. Apparently hearing Xu Yan, he raised an eyebrow and looked over with narrowed eyes. "Fellow Daoist Xu, your Primordial Spirit Vein is rare too."

"I can't compare with you, Brother Jiang. You rose into the ranks of this generation's prodigies with nothing but a green sword." Xu Yan shook his head and spoke offhandedly.

Jiang Qingcheng was an unusual man. His Spirit Meridian was only an ordinary wood-aspected one of the five elements, he had no special physique, and the green sword in his hand was merely an ordinary high-grade dharma sword.

But his foundations were exceptionally solid. There was not the slightest weakness in his magical power, and he had reached the eighth level of Pulse Opening.

"Hahaha! That's what I like to hear." Laughing, Jiang Qingcheng thrust out his palm. The green sword attacking the array's eye grew sharper still, buzzing fiercely!

After the group had attacked together for half a day, fine cracks seemed to appear across the ancient array.

They withdrew their techniques and rested for an hour. Once their strength had fully recovered, they rose and resumed their assault.

After another day and night, a sudden crack rang from the ancient array patterns like a clap of thunder, echoing across the land.