Xiao Yan was no longer the ignorant youngster he had once been. How could he fail to recognize Burning Flame Valley's sect-protecting flame? It was precisely the thing every alchemist dreamed of—Heavenly Flames!
As everyone knew, alchemists favored powerful flames, and Heavenly Flames were the finest among them!
No one knew when it began or how it spread, but the Dou Qi Continent came to have a Heavenly Flame Ranking that recorded twenty-three types of Heavenly Flames.
These twenty-three flames differed from all other flames. They were kings among fire, each exceptional in its own way, naturally drawing alchemists and fire-attributed cultivators from across the land.
But flames were not easy things to handle, much less Heavenly Flames. Dying from playing with fire had never been anything new, and the souls lost to Heavenly Flames were beyond counting.
There was a joking saying among alchemists:
An alchemist who does not seek Heavenly Flames has no guts; an alchemist who pursues Heavenly Flames loses his life.
This showed that even to alchemists, experts at wielding fire, Heavenly Flames were an absolute danger!
Yet even so, their allure for alchemists was far beyond what outsiders could imagine.
And the Nine Dragons Lightning Flame before Xiao Yan, ranked twelfth on the Heavenly Flame Ranking, was Burning Flame Valley's inherited Heavenly Flame, something known to all in the Central Plains.
Seeing the burning look in Xiao Yan's eyes, Tang Zhen smiled faintly without taking offense. Naturally, he understood an alchemist's yearning for Heavenly Flames, and merely teased, "Hey! Boy, do you want this Nine Dragons Lightning Flame?"
Only after Tang Zhen pointed it out did Xiao Yan come back to his senses. He smiled wryly and said, "Valley Master Tang, please do not mock this junior. This is Burning Flame Valley's treasure. How would