Fire Thunder Seeds and the Flame Ji Ring

[After realizing the limits of your talent, you weighed your options and decided to venture out into the world!]

[To you, this was only a life in the simulator. Whether you lived or died would have no effect on your real self. Besides, you had already obtained two of your most important goals for this simulation: the Foundation Building Spirit Liquid and a cultivation technique. You might as well head out and try your luck.]

[You told Cao Ying you wanted to venture out. She was clearly reluctant, but when she saw the resolve in your eyes, she left without a word. Xuan Kongzi, by contrast, wholeheartedly supported you. He said a true powerhouse could never emerge from an ivory tower.]

[Seizing the opportunity, you asked Xuan Kongzi to make good on the reward he had promised you and give you something that could save your life. After pondering for a while, he took a metal case from his Storage Ring and handed it to you.]

[You opened the case. Inside were three crimson beads that gave off a faint but searing, violent aura. According to Xuan Kongzi, they were called Fire Thunder Seeds. They were made by using special means to compress a single kind of flame to its limit, sealing it with Soul Force, and finally shaping it into a bead.]

[To use one, you only needed to activate it with Soul Force and disrupt the balance of the seal, triggering an explosion. Its power depended on the strength of the flame used to make it. Xuan Kongzi had made these three in his younger days, and each packed the force of a mid-level Dou Emperor's strike.]

[In Xuan Kongzi's eyes, three Fire Thunder Seeds were more than enough as a last resort for someone at your level of Da Dou Shi. If they were any stronger, he feared you might not get clear after throwing one.]

[Overjoyed to learn what the Fire Thunder Seeds could do, you thanked your teacher while silently resolving never to use them in the simulation. Instead, you would take them back to reality as a last resort.]

[You did not know what rank a mid-level Dou Emperor would be on the Douluo Continent, but judging by the feats in the original story, one should be no weaker than a Titled Douluo. With three Fire Thunder Seeds and the element of surprise, you could definitely take down a powerhouse or two!]

[With that thought, you thanked Xuan Kongzi respectfully and bid your teacher farewell. You were ready to leave the Pill Tower, Saint Pill City, and even the Pill Region to begin your adventure across the Dou Qi Continent.]

[But before you could even step out of the Pill Tower, you spotted a familiar figure standing by the entrance. It was Cao Ying!]

[Cao Ying's face was expressionless, her icy demeanor keeping everyone several paces away. When she saw you, she tossed something at you, then turned and left without a word.]

[You stood there stunned for a moment before looking down. In your hand was a pink High-Rank Storage Ring!]

[The ring was called Flame Princess. Sky Thunderzi, one of the Pill Tower's leaders, had given it to his old friend's beloved disciple when Cao Ying became Xuan Kongzi's student. It was top-tier even among High-Rank Storage Rings, with nearly a thousand cubic meters of space inside.]

[Cao Ying had treasured the ring and worn it every day. You never expected her to give it to you, much less erase her Soul Force imprint first. The space inside was packed full: pills, changes of clothes, and every daily necessity you could think of. You even found an expensive flying technique scroll.]

[You gave a wry smile. Holding the Flame Ji Ring, you felt warmth spread from your fingertips to your heart. In the end, you accepted Cao Ying's kindness and put it on. After checking the Fire Thunder Seeds Xuan Kongzi had given you, you finally stepped out of the Pill Tower.]

[The Central Plains were vast. Traveling through Saint Pill City's spatial wormhole, you reached the northern region of the Central Plains a month and a half later.]

[This was the edge of the Central Plains, an ideal place to begin your journey. You believed your standing as a Fourth-Rank High-Grade Alchemist would be enough to keep you safe along the way.]

[You had planned to take the local spatial wormhole to Tianya City in the Sky Pillar Mountains, then travel onward to the Northwest Continent to satisfy your curiosity about Xiao Yan, the favored son of this world.]

[But misfortune struck without warning. You had made a modest name for yourself in Saint Pill City, and now that you were beyond the Pill Tower's protection, malicious eyes soon settled on you.]

[Half a month later, you arrived in Tianya City through a spatial wormhole and hired a flying magical beast to take you to the Black-Corner Great Plains. You wanted to see Jia Nan Academy and, if possible, cultivate in the Heavenly Flame Refining Qi Tower.]

[But you had barely entered the Black-Corner Great Plains when your flying magical beast came under attack. Your assailant wore black robes, bore wings formed from battle qi, and laughed strangely as he called himself Land Soul Envoy.]

[You knew the man was a rat from the Hall of Souls, and one of its lowest-ranking expendable members at that. Even so, his cultivation was at least at the Dou Wang level. A Da Dou Shi like you stood no chance against him.]

[You knew you were in trouble, but waiting to die had never been your style. Faced with the cackling envoy, you activated the flying technique Cao Ying had given you and fled for your life.]

[The envoy seemed utterly confident in his strength. Treating the chase like a cat toying with a mouse, he stayed a few hundred meters behind you, occasionally lashing out with black battle qi. You dodged again and again, your body covered in wounds, but he never dealt the killing blow.]

[After a long pursuit, you fled into the Sunset Mountains of the Black-Corner Region. Before you knew it, he had driven you deep into the mountains, where you came upon an enormous rift whose bottom you could not see!]

[Jagged rocks lined the rift's edge, and black mist filled the depths. The faint, mingled roars of countless magical beasts rose from below, sending chills down your spine.]

[With nowhere else to go, you plunged into the bottomless rift, hoping it might offer a way to escape.]

[But the rift was too deep. Even after draining the last trace of battle qi from your body, you had not reached the bottom. Unable to sustain your flying technique, you plummeted helplessly into the depths. Fortunately, the fall did not kill you. Instead, you tumbled through another fissure at the bottom and into a vast underground chamber.]

[Unlike the cold rift above, the air in this chamber was unbearably hot. You struggled to your feet and looked toward the source of the heat. What you saw took your breath away.]

[This was no mere cavern floor. It was a towering mountain built from pale bones!]

[Bones from countless unknown giant beasts rose like pillars. Tiny shards of bone carpeted the ground, and at the heart of the mountain, a flame burned quietly, its shape constantly changing.]

["Reddish-brown flame, ever-changing form, the bearing of a Ferocious Beast."]

[You murmured as you stared at the distant red flame.]

[It was the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame, ranked twenty-second on the Heavenly Flame Ranking!]