Evil Fire: Purification

Inner Courtyard.

Confinement Room.

Xuan Zi pushed open the door.

Quan Cangtian followed him inside.

Quan Cangyue stood at the entrance and did not enter.

The temperature inside was absurdly high.

The stone slabs were burning.

The air was distorted.

Ma Xiaotao was curled up on the ground.

Black-red flames seeped out through the cracks in her skin.

Her lips trembled, her eyes were bloodshot, and her consciousness had already blurred.

Xuan Zi spread a barrier with Taotie Power, sweat beading on his forehead.

"This is an Evil Fire rampage."

He said.

"Once every month. It's getting worse."

Quan Cangtian walked over.

Xuan Zi reached out, intending to stop him.

Quan Cangtian ignored him.

He raised his right hand.

Black-red Destruction Aura erupted from within him.

It was not fire.

It was something even more violent than fire.

All the heat in the air was instantly drained away.

The Evil Fire within Ma Xiaotao seemed to have its throat seized and abruptly contracted.

Xuan Zi's pupils shrank.

"This is..."

Quan Cangtian did not answer.

The Evil Fire was still struggling.

The Destruction Aura pressed down another layer.

The Evil Fire finally became obedient.

"Ice water pool. Now."

Quan Cangtian turned his head.

Xuan Zi froze for a moment.

"Are you deaf?"

Xuan Zi took a bite of his chicken leg.

He said nothing.

He raised his hand.

With a sweep of Taotie Power, an ice pool formed.

Quan Cangtian lifted Ma Xiaotao with one hand and pressed her into the ice water.

The ice water hissed when it touched the Evil Fire.

White mist billowed upward.

Ma Xiaotao arched her body, trying to break free.

Quan Cangtian held down her shoulder with his other hand and did not move.

Destruction Aura seeped from his palm, continuously suppressing the Evil Fire within her.

Green light flared.

White Flower Bloom.

The Abundance Domain spread across a radius of fifteen meters.

All the Abundance Power poured into Ma Xiaotao's body.

Thirtyfold recovery speed.

At full power.

Emerald light surged into her like a flood.

It did not filter gently.

It crashed through her violently.

Layer by layer, it washed the black impurities from the Evil Fire.

Ma Xiaotao's pores opened.

Black impurities poured out.

Black smoke. A fetid stench.

The ice water turned black.

The flames were changing color.

Black-red → pure red → golden-red.

Ma Xiaotao's breathing steadied.

The skin on the hand Quan Cangtian used to hold Ma Xiaotao down was repeatedly burned.

It blistered. Split open. Healed. Then blistered again.

The emerald light repaired it automatically, the healing speed nearly matching the burn rate.

His hand looked as though it were repeatedly being charred and reborn.

Quan Cangtian's expression did not change.

Ma Xiaotao's purification was complete.

The pure energy of the Fire Phoenix overflowed from within her. Golden-red radiance condensed above the ice pool like a cloud of fire about to disperse.

Then the dark-red patterns on Quan Cangtian's arm moved.

They began at his wrist.

They climbed upward like snakes.

He was not controlling them.

They moved on their own.

The patterns crawled to his shoulder, chest, and neck.

At his right shoulder, the patterns opened a "mouth."

There were no teeth.

Only darkness.

Pure darkness that devoured everything.

The golden-red Fire Phoenix energy was sucked inside.

Like a whale swallowing its prey.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.

The fire cloud vanished.

The patterns closed.

Then—

They fed back.

A scorching energy poured from the depths of the patterns back into Quan Cangtian's body.

His Soul Power surged explosively.

The barrier of Level 13 was pierced like paper.

Level 14.

Level 15.

Quan Cangtian's body shuddered.

His pupils instantly became slits. Then they returned to normal.

His nails sharpened for an instant. Then they retracted.

There was a faint sensation of scales along his spine, gone in a flash.

Then blue-white flames burst from his entire body.

Not black-red. Not emerald-green.

Blue-white.

The color of ice and fire mixed together.

Piercingly cold, yet searingly hot.

Three seconds later.

The flames went out.

Quan Cangtian suppressed them.

But everyone had seen it.

Xuan Zi's chicken leg fell.

His wine gourd fell too.

His scarlet eyes widened round.

"What the fuck is that thing on you?!"

Quan Cangtian lowered his head and glanced at his hand.

The dark-red patterns had already retreated, as if nothing had happened.

"It's nothing."

He said.

"I just ate too much."

Golden light shot over from the Golden Ancient Tree.

It pierced through the walls of the Confinement Room.

A phantom stood before Quan Cangtian.

An old man.

His features were lean, his hair and beard white, and his eyes golden.

The aura of the Bright Holy Dragon flooded the area.

Mu En.

Sea God Pavilion Master.

A Level 99 Limit Douluo.

Quan Cangyue's expression changed, and he retreated half a step.

They were both Level 99, but the gap between them was plain to see.

Quan Cangtian stood where he was.

His knees bent slightly, then straightened again.

He lowered his head slightly, but did not kneel.

Mu En watched him for three seconds.

"You remained standing."

It was not a question. It was a statement.

"Six years old, yet you stand before this old man without kneeling."

Mu En's voice was soft, but every word struck like a hammer.

"You are qualified to enter that tree."

Quan Cangtian raised his head.

Mu En's golden eyes stared at him.

"The power on your body does not belong to Douluo."

"Where it belongs doesn't matter."

Quan Cangtian said.

"What matters is that it can heal her."

Mu En fell silent for several seconds.

"Enter the tree."

He said.

"But this old man will be watching you."

"If you harm that tree—"

"I won't."

Quan Cangtian said.

"I only need it once."

Mu En's phantom looked at him.

Within those golden eyes were scrutiny, curiosity, and something else that could not be named.

"Go."

The phantom dispersed.

Golden Ancient Tree.

Quan Cangtian walked over.

The trunk was so thick that even ten people linking arms could not encircle it.

Golden light seeped from the bark, soft and warm.

He reached out and touched the trunk.

The light swallowed everything.

Beneath his feet was a path woven from roots.

Above his head was a dome formed of branches and leaves.

The air was filled with the scent of life.

Not floral fragrance, but something more primordial, like the soil after spring's first rain.

Quan Cangtian took three steps.

Emerald light spilled from his body.

Abundance Power.

The ancient tree responded.

Golden light and emerald light intertwined like two snakes coiling around each other.

There was no conversation.

Only the pulse of the ancient tree.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Like a heartbeat.

Quan Cangtian closed his eyes.

He could feel the ancient tree "watching" him.

"Reading" him.

Judging what he was.

Then—

A beam of golden light shot from the ancient tree's core and poured into Quan Cangtian's brow.

A golden tree-shaped mark appeared between his brows, then vanished in a flash.

Quan Cangtian opened his eyes.

He could feel every plant on this continent greeting him.

Child of Nature.

At the deepest point of the resonance.

Quan Cangtian sensed a "hollow" beneath the ancient tree's roots.

The origin of life was leaking away.

Something was siphoning it off.

He frowned slightly.

Blue Silver Emperor. Ah Yin. Tang San's mother.

She was drawing on the origin beneath the Golden Ancient Tree's roots.

A transmigrator knew that.

But now was not the time to deal with it.

He withdrew his senses and did not investigate further.

Quan Cangtian walked out of the Golden Ancient Tree.

Mu En's divine-sense projection was still there.

"Kid."

Mu En said.

"That tree gave you something."

"Since you can sense it, don't pretend you don't know."

Quan Cangtian did not answer.

He knew.

But now was not the time to make a move against Ah Yin.

Mu En's phantom faded away.

Xuan Zi was waiting outside.

He had picked up the chicken leg.

He had picked up the wine gourd too.

But his expression was complicated.

Ma Xiaotao had already regained consciousness and was sitting nearby.

The way she looked at Quan Cangtian had changed.

Quan Cangtian walked up to Xuan Zi.

"The deal is complete."

He said.

"If you need anything in the future, you can seek out the Quan Family."

Xuan Zi chewed on the chicken leg.

He said nothing.

After quite a while.

"That blue-white fire of yours..."

"It ate too much."

Quan Cangtian said.

Xuan Zi glanced at him.

His crimson eyes were full of question marks.

But he did not ask again.

Quan Cangtian walked out of the Inner Courtyard.

Xiao Xiao was waiting for him at the gate.

"You... healed her?"

"Mm."

"That blue-white fire on you just now..."

"It's fine. It ate too much."

Xiao Xiao opened her mouth, not knowing what to say.

Quan Cangtian looked up at the sky.

"Time to go back."

The Quan Family still had a pile of matters waiting.