A Fragmented Map Enters the Black-Corner Region, a Heavenly Flame Stirs Hearts

The morning mist had yet to disperse over Qingshan Town when Meng Chen was already standing in the inn courtyard.

Qinglin stood beside him, her little hand clutching the corner of his robe and refusing to let go. Her emerald eyes brimmed with reluctance, yet she stubbornly kept silent.

Meng Chen had told her the day before that taking her along would be inconvenient from now on. She needed to stay in Qingshan Town and wait for him with Xiao Yixian.

Meng Chen lowered his head and gently patted the little snake beauty's hair, feeling her body tremble faintly.

"Qinglin, stay close to Sister Xiao Yixian. Once I'm done, I'll definitely come back for you."

Xiao Yixian stood by the door, her white dress gleaming in the morning light. She nodded slightly. "Rest assured, Little Divine King. Qinglin will be under my care."

Over the past few days, she had been studying the Seven-Colored Poison Scripture. The gloom between her brows had faded considerably, and she seemed more composed, as though a stone weighing on her for years had finally loosened.

Meng Chen said nothing more and turned to leave the courtyard.

Hai Bodong had long been waiting outside the inn. The ice-blue wings on his back opened and closed slightly, casting a pale blue shadow across the ground beneath the sunlight.

When he saw Meng Chen emerge, he stepped closer and lowered his voice. "Little Divine King, everything has been arranged. The fragmented map will travel through the Mittel Clan's covert route into the Black-Corner Region today and be delivered to Maple City."

Meng Chen stopped and looked at him from the side. "Did you clean up everything?"

"Thoroughly." Hai Bodong bent slightly lower, his voice dropping further. "The one delivering the map is an old mercenary who has worked in the Black-Corner Region for years. He thinks it's an ordinary job. He doesn't know where the item came from, and he has never seen you. Even if Han Feng investigates, he won't trace it back to us."

Meng Chen gave a soft grunt as he looked toward the brightening horizon. "The moment Han Feng gets the fragmented map, he'll know it's genuine. With his suspicious nature, even if he only believes it thirty percent, he'll still come in person."

Hai Bodong nodded, then added, "Little Divine King, Han Feng has been in the Black-Corner Region for a long time and has plenty of capable fighters around him. That place is chaotic and full of powerful experts. With his status as a sixth-tier alchemist, he may bring quite a few people..."

Meng Chen's lips curved into a faint smile. "The more people who come, the better. It'll save me the trouble of dealing with them separately. Let's go first and set up the formation in the Tager Desert. We'll deal with the rest once they walk into the trap."

Hai Bodong asked no further questions. Ice-blue battle qi surged from his palm and enveloped Meng Chen. With a beat of his wings, the two rose into the sky, transforming into a streak of blue light that crossed the Magic Beast Mountains and headed straight for the Tagor Great Desert.

Clouds rushed backward beneath their feet, while the wind lashed painfully against their faces.

After flying for more than half a day, the two landed on a flat stretch of sand deep within the Tagor Great Desert. As far as the eye could see, endless yellow sand stretched ahead. Heat waves rolled upward, and the whole world was a scorching gold, churned together by the hot wind.

Hai Bodong stepped forward, condensing icy battle qi in his palm before slamming it fiercely onto the sand below.

Boom!

The sand split apart. Cold air poured down through the crack, following the old passage they had excavated before all the way underground, freezing the loose sand and soil into solid ice walls.

Meng Chen immediately jumped down, flashing into the deep tunnel leading underground. Hai Bodong followed behind to finish up, reinforcing the passage as they walked to prevent the sand and rocks from collapsing.

Before long, the two arrived once more at that vast underground world of magma.

The instant they entered the cavern, a scorching heat wave crashed into them. Before them lay a boundless lake of magma. Crimson lava rolled sluggishly, and bubbles occasionally rose from the lakebed, swelling on the surface before bursting with a pop, scattering sparks like flowers that withered in the blink of an eye.

Standing on the shore, Meng Chen swept his gaze around and muttered, "It's much quieter than last time. Without the Heavenly Flame suppressing it, a lot of the fire-attributed energy has dispersed."

As soon as he finished speaking, the Small Pagoda gave a gentle shake, and Qing Yanjing slowly appeared amid golden radiance.

Today, she wore a moon-white dress. Her black hair was gathered behind her head with a jade hairpin, exposing her slender, fair neck. A veil covered her face, leaving only her violet eyes shimmering with spiritual light in the dim cavern.

She looked around and nodded. "The Heavenly Flame aura here can still last for around half a month, enough to lure Han Feng in. But to set up the Eight Desolations Burning Flame Formation, the formation foundations must be buried at the bottom of the magma lake and sustained by the underground fire veins. Spiritual seals alone won't last long."

Meng Chen turned toward the magma lake. "Won't the formation foundations melt if they're buried down there?"

"I'll use a spiritual formation seal to protect the core. The magma can't damage it." Qing Yanjing raised a hand, and four wood-attributed Magic Cores glowing green floated slowly through the air.

With a light touch of her fingertip, spiritual energy shot forth and linked the four Magic Cores into formation patterns. "As long as no one forcefully destroys them, they can last three days."

Her gaze settled on the center of the lake. With a lift of her delicate hand, the four Magic Cores, wrapped in spiritual energy, shot into the magma. Spiritual light tore open a gap in the crimson lava, and the Magic Cores sank to the lakebed, embedding themselves into the earth veins under Qing Yanjing's precise control and gradually connecting with the underground fire veins.

"Once Han Feng steps into this magma world, the Eight Desolations Burning Flame Formation will fully activate! The entire cavern will become a fire-attributed prison. No matter how many helpers he brings, they'll all be left here."

Meng Chen nodded in satisfaction. "With you here, I can rest easy."

The corners of Qing Yanjing's mouth seemed to move beneath her veil, but she did not reply. She simply continued quietly burying spiritual seals underground.

While the formation was being set up here, undercurrents were also stirring in Maple City of the Black-Corner Region, thousands of miles away.

Maple City stood at the heart of the Black-Corner Region, built against the mountains.

Inside a tall tower at the city center, Han Feng sat in his study, idly playing with a fragmented map that had just been delivered.

A tall, thin attendant stood beside him, bending at the waist as he reported, "Master, the old mercenary said he dug this map out from some ruins exposed after a sandstorm in the Tager Desert. There was even a dried corpse in those ruins, and the map had been clutched in its hand. He thought the material was unusual, so he brought it to sell."

Han Feng remained silent. He brought the fragmented map to his nose and sniffed it, one brow lifting slightly.

The trace of heat on the map was faint, but it carried a familiar sensation that made his heart suddenly tighten.

A Heavenly Flame!

And an exceptionally pure lingering aura of a Heavenly Flame!

Han Feng set down the map and tapped his fingers against the tabletop.

After a moment, he narrowed his eyes and said calmly, "Invite the Gold and Silver Elders, along with the Blood Sect Master."

The attendant accepted the order and withdrew.

Once the door shut, Han Feng sat alone behind his desk, his gaze returning to the fragmented map. A slow smile rose on his lips.

"The Tager Desert, a Heavenly Flame? Interesting."

Naturally, he would not fully believe the old mercenary's nonsense, but the Heavenly Flame aura on the fragmented map could not be faked.

He had been stuck at the Battle Emperor realm for many years. Since Yao Lao's disappearance, he had no longer obtained any worthwhile pill formulas or cultivation techniques to help him break through.

If the place indicated by this fragmented map truly contained a Heavenly Flame, then it would be his opportunity to advance further.

Even if it was a trap, with the forces currently at his side, he did not believe anyone in the Jia Ma Empire would dare make a move against him.

Meanwhile, in Jia Ma Sacred City.

Inside a secret chamber of the Mittel Clan, a chamber of commerce manager arranged in advance by Hai Bodong was chatting casually with an Alchemist Association deacon. In the course of their conversation, he let slip that "a Heavenly Flame may be about to appear deep within the Tager Desert," his tone restrained yet certain.

The deacon nodded after hearing this and departed.

Near a Snake-People Tribe border outpost on the Tager Desert side, several wandering mercenaries were loudly chatting in a teahouse, claiming that powerful experts had discovered traces of a Heavenly Flame in the desert. They spoke so loudly that the Snake-People Tribe spies at the next table would have found it impossible not to hear.