The Treasure His Father Left Behind Was the Three Thousand Burning Flame!

"Shenghe,"

Chen Xin's voice echoed through the silent passage, carrying a metallic edge,

"Do you know why Fengzhi entrusted you to me instead of simply letting you grow up safely within the sect?"

Xiao Shenghe shook his head.

"Uncle Ning has treated me like a son, and Grandpa Sword and Grandpa Bone have taught me with all their hearts. I've only ever been grateful. I never thought to ask why."

Chen Xin's steps faltered. He turned to look at him, his gaze sharp as a sword, as though it could pierce the depths of his soul.

"Because the blood in your veins, and the 'gift' your mother left you, mean you cannot follow the ordinary path of a Soul Master. The resources of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, even the entire known system of Soul Beasts and Soul Rings on the Douluo Continent, may be shackles to you rather than steps upward."

At last, they stopped before a heavy metal door. It had no keyhole, only a deep sword scar that still radiated a chilling sword intent undiminished by the years.

Chen Xin pressed two fingers together like a sword and channeled Soul Power, concentrated to its limit, into the scar.

A hum sounded, and the door slid silently inward, revealing a stone chamber. It was not spacious, but an ancient, boundless aura filled it.

At the center of the chamber stood a simple stone pedestal.

On it rested a dark treasure box made of neither metal nor jade, its material unknown.

The box's surface was smooth as a mirror, yet faint, starlike lights moved across it. Stranger still, several energy chains, seemingly both real and illusory, wound around it. Their ends vanished into the walls and floor, as though linked to the power of the entire forbidden ground.

"Your father gave this to Fengzhi when he lay gravely wounded and near death. Fengzhi then entrusted it to me for safekeeping."

Chen Xin walked up to the pedestal. His gaze settled on the box, and an uncommon complexity entered his expression.

"Your father said it came from beyond the heavens. Its power shares an origin with your mother's, yet is utterly different."

"It is extremely dangerous, but it also holds possibilities beyond the laws of this world."

"He instructed us to give it to you only after your Martial Soul Awakening, once your temperament had begun to settle and the power within you had truly begun to stir."

Xiao Shenghe's heart began to race despite himself.

I can feel the red cord around my wrist growing faintly warm. The dormant crimson egg and energy sphere inside me are sending out wave after wave of strange resonance and... longing.

"This treasure box bears an extraordinarily powerful seal. Brute force cannot break it. It requires a special spiritual sense, or..."

"Power of the same origin to stir it and open it."

Chen Xin looked at Xiao Shenghe.

"Fengzhi and I have studied it for years, yet we have never seen all its secrets. We know only that what it holds is utterly unlike Soul Power—fierce beyond measure, yet brimming with boundless vitality."

"Today on the back mountain, you showed no Soul Ring, yet the aura of your Martial Soul Origin alone overwhelmed Ning Qing and the other two. That tells me the dormant power within you has begun to merge with you and awaken."

"Perhaps the time has come."

Xiao Shenghe took a deep breath and, at a look from Chen Xin, stepped forward.

He reached out. Before his fingertips touched the box, the starlike glimmers on its surface suddenly brightened, and the energy chains began to hum softly.

The phoenix power his mother had left within him seemed to answer a summons. A trace of warm, noble energy flowed from his palm and slowly wrapped around the box.

The instant his energy touched it—click.

The sound did not come from the box's lock. It seemed to rise from the depths of his soul, a resonance from the distant stars.

The intricate energy chains around the box snapped link by link, dissolving into points of light.

The lid slowly opened on its own. There was no earth-shaking spectacle, but the light in the chamber abruptly dimmed, as though day had become deep night in an instant.

Within that "darkness," countless tiny purplish-black points of light appeared inside the box. They slowly spun and gathered.

At last, a fist-sized flame of ever-shifting form hovered silently above the box.

The flame was a deep purplish-black, but within its core, countless stars seemed to flare into being and die.

It gave off no scorching heat. Instead, it radiated an unfathomable, icy, immeasurably vast aura.

The moment it appeared, the surrounding air seemed to thicken, and space warped slightly.

Soul Power was driven from the stone chamber, replaced by pulses of energy foreign to Xiao Shenghe, yet stirring something deep in his blood.

"This is..."

Xiao Shenghe's pupils contracted. Fragments of memory from another world surged wildly through his mind.

His inherited knowledge from the Flame Emperor Xiao Yan had grown hazy through transmigration and childhood, but the descriptions of those wondrous treasures of heaven and earth suddenly matched what stood before him!

Chen Xin's expression also turned grave. As a Peak Douluo, he could sense the terrifying level of power within the flame even more clearly. It was a primal force surpassing nearly every Soul Power attribute he knew.

"This is no ordinary thing. It seems to be absorbing the surrounding light, even... the power of the stars?"

He had keenly noticed the anomaly.

Xiao Shenghe's voice trembled with disbelief as he spoke its name, word by word:

"The Three. Thousand. Burning. Flame!"

Ranked ninth on the Heavenly Flame Ranking, it had formed in the endless starry sky and could absorb starlight to grow ever stronger. Its terrifying regenerative power had earned it the name "Undying Body." It was a treasure of heaven and earth coveted even by the mightiest experts of the Dou Qi Continent!

How could it be here?

Here on the Douluo Continent?

And sealed inside the treasure box his father had left behind?

Countless questions flooded Xiao Shenghe's mind.

But the next moment, the purplish-black flame seemed to recognize the faint trace of the Flame Emperor in his blood—or perhaps it resonated with the power of the Nine Revolutions Heavenly Phoenix within him.

It swayed gently, then became a streak of light. Before Xiao Shenghe could react, it plunged straight into his forehead!

"Shenghe!"

Chen Xin started, his sword intent erupting instantly, but he forced it back down.

He saw no pain on Xiao Shenghe's face. Instead, the boy closed his eyes, and a faint purplish-black halo appeared around him, flecked with starlight.

An ancient, majestic aura carrying both destruction and rebirth slowly rose from him.

At that moment, Xiao Shenghe's consciousness seemed to be drawn into a purplish-black starfield.

Endless darkness was studded with eternal stars. At the heart of his consciousness, the source of the Three Thousand Burning Flame hovered silently, beginning a slow, strange fusion with the phoenix power deep in his soul and his Martial Soul Origin, which had yet to fully manifest.

He did not know where the Three Thousand Burning Flame had come from. Had his father found it during his travels?

Was it a secret treasure of his mother's clan?

Or was it... a gift sent across endless time and space by his ancestor Xiao Yan?

I'll absorb the Heavenly Flame first. Good thing I already learned the Flame Mantra in my previous life!

"Oh, you're going to start devouring this formidable flame already?"