The ghostly green flame dancing on Xiao Yan's fingertips looked like the strangest mockery in the Lizardmen's eyes. The air around the sand pit seemed to freeze. Every Lizardman was stunned by this unbelievable sight, their hands trembling slightly around their bone spears.
"Sorcery! This human knows sorcery!" a timid lizardman shrieked, instinctively taking half a step back.
The elderly chief's pupils contracted sharply. He slammed his serpent-headed staff into the sand, savage fury flaring in his clouded eyes. "Parlor tricks! The Soul-Burning Flame was born of our tribe's secret art. How dare a human like you control it!"
Before his words had faded, the serpent head atop his staff suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a dense cloud of black mist. The instant it touched the ground, the mist transformed into dozens of black vines that writhed toward Xiao Yan like living creatures. Sharp thorns covered the vines, gleaming with deadly poison.
Xiao Yan lightly pushed off the ground, drifting several feet backward like willow fluff and narrowly escaping the vines. The ghostly green flame on his fingertips suddenly swelled. Rather than attacking, it flew toward the rim of the sand pit above and landed beside the feet of the Lizardmen blocking his way.
Hiss, hiss—
White smoke rose from the sand the instant the flames landed. The scales on the Lizardmen's feet burned, drawing agonized hisses from them and opening a gap in their formation.
"Go!" Xiao Yan barked. Seizing the opening, he shot out of the sand pit like an arrow loosed from its bow and sprinted toward the cave concealing the Lizardmen's tribe. He knew he had to destroy the altar as quickly as possible. Otherwise, once these Lizardmen recovered their wits, he would only find himself trapped in an even more troublesome encirclement.
"Stop him!" the elder roared. As he swung his staff, the black vines surged again, lashing like long whips toward Xiao Yan's retreating back.
Xiao Yan did not even turn his head. His Emperor Realm Soul had already locked onto the attacks behind him. With a seemingly awkward sideways roll, he narrowly avoided the whipping vines while sending a thread of soul power into the sand beneath his feet. That thread was exceedingly faint, yet it precisely stirred the geothermal energy hidden underground.
Boom!
The sand several dozen feet behind Xiao Yan suddenly burst apart. Scalding steam mixed with broken stones erupted into a natural barrier. Caught off guard, the pursuing Lizardmen screamed as the steam burned them, their pace immediately slowing.
What a chance! Delight stirred in Xiao Yan's heart, and he ran even faster. He deliberately steered toward the entrance of the cave housing the altar. Though Lizardmen kept rushing out to intercept him along the way, he shook them all off with similar "coincidences"—sometimes a sand pit suddenly collapsed beneath their feet, sometimes a boulder tumbled down a rock wall. Each incident seemed accidental, yet precisely obstructed his pursuers.
Yao Lao's voice sounded in his mind, carrying a trace of doubt. "These incidents... seem a little too convenient."
Dodging a bone spear hurled at him, Xiao Yan said quietly, "Just good luck." Naturally, he would not reveal that all of this was the result of geological disturbances triggered by his soul power. To these Lizardmen, it probably looked like punishment unleashed by their sacred land's wrath.
Sure enough, as the "accidents" continued along the way, fear appeared on many Lizardmen's faces, and their pursuit grew far more hesitant. In their understanding, every disturbance around the sacred land was a warning from the gods. Could this human before them be a messenger sent by the gods?
Once that thought took root, it grew wildly like a vine. Even the elder's gaze became somewhat conflicted.
Taking advantage of their brief hesitation, Xiao Yan reached the cave entrance. A huge rock blocked the opening, leaving only a gap wide enough for one person to pass through. Runes identical to those on the altar were carved on either side of the gap, giving off faint fluctuations of energy.
This is it! Xiao Yan's gaze sharpened. No longer concealing his speed, he became a blur and slipped through the gap in an instant, entering the cave.
The cave was dark and damp, its air thick with the smells of blood and sulfur. Ghostly green torches mounted on the rock walls illuminated a passage winding downward ahead. Cells lined both sides, holding all manner of creatures, from human mercenaries to desert magical beasts. Clearly, they were all "offerings" for the altar.
"Let me out! I'm the son of Black Rock City's lord!" a boy covered in wounds shouted hoarsely as Xiao Yan rushed past.
Xiao Yan did not stop. He knew this was not the time to rescue anyone. The energy fluctuations coming from the end of the passage grew increasingly distinct—a sign that the altar was drawing out geothermal energy and the energy of living beings. They were far more violent than what he had sensed before.
Beyond the passage, the space abruptly opened into an enormous underground cavern. At its center stood the altar built from yellow sand and stone. Its ghostly green flames had grown exceptionally fierce. Most of the magical beasts bound around it were already on their last breaths, their life energy being drawn ceaselessly through the rune formation into the dark red crystal at its center.
Dozens of Lizardmen priests surrounded the altar, chanting as they performed some kind of ritual. The elder stood atop the altar with both hands pressed against the dark red crystal, fanatical light flickering in his clouded eyes.
"Human, you really dared to come in!" The elder's eyes snapped open as he looked at Xiao Yan rushing inside. "Since you wish to die, I'll grant your wish. You shall become the final offering to awaken the 'sacred relic'!"
He abruptly exerted force with both hands. The runes on the altar lit up instantly, and the dark red crystal burst with dazzling light. An exceedingly violent surge of fire energy poured out of it and swept toward Xiao Yan. Mingled with dark power, this energy was several times more domineering than the earlier Soul-Burning Flame. Even the rocks began melting wherever it passed.
Xiao Yan's pupils contracted sharply. Though this energy was violent, he sensed something familiar within it—the aura of the Green Lotus Core Flame! Clearly, what this crystal held was the power of Heavenly Flames that had been forcibly extracted!
"You think you can kill me with the Earth Core Flame's power?" A cold smile curled Xiao Yan's lips. "You're not worthy!"
Instead of dodging, he charged straight toward the energy. The instant he approached the torrent, his Emperor Realm Soul surged into full operation, and a faint, pure aura of the Green Lotus Core Flame quietly emerged from his body. It was the Heavenly Flame Origin he had happened to comprehend earlier outside. Though weak, it acted like a key, instantly stirring the power of the Heavenly Flames stored within the crystal.
Hum—
The raging torrent of energy suddenly faltered, as though answering some summons. The elder's expression changed atop the altar. Sensing his loss of control over the energy, he shouted sharply, "Impossible! How could you..."
Before he could finish, Xiao Yan had reached the foot of the altar. He attacked no one. Instead, he pressed both hands against its base, sending his Emperor Realm Soul pouring into the rune formation there like a surging tide. Strange as these runes were, they were still, in essence, pathways through which energy flowed. Before his soul power, every flaw lay exposed.
"Break—apart!"
With a low shout, Xiao Yan used his soul power to detonate the three most critical nodes in the rune formation with pinpoint precision.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Three deafening explosions echoed through the cavern. The altar's base burst apart in an instant, and its carved runes went dark like a shattered spiderweb. With the rune formation's restraints gone, the power of the Heavenly Flames stored within the crystal could no longer be controlled. It erupted violently like a volcano.
"This is bad!" The elder's face turned deathly pale. He tried to withdraw his power, but the backlash hurled him backward, and he spat out a mouthful of dark green blood.
The priests surrounding him were caught in the torrent of energy and burned to ashes in an instant.
The uncontrolled power of the Heavenly Flames battered the cavern walls. The entire underground space began shaking violently, rocks falling ceaselessly from the ceiling as though it might collapse at any moment.
Now! Xiao Yan's gaze hardened. Amid the chaos, his soul power once again stirred the lava deep underground.
Vast reserves of geothermal energy and subterranean lava rivers already lay beneath the Tagor Desert. He had long since surveyed them with his soul power and discovered that this cavern sat directly above one such river. Now that the altar had collapsed and its energy had run wild, this was the perfect moment to stir the lava.
Rather than attacking the remaining Lizardmen directly, he shaped his soul power into an invisible blade and severed the final layer of rock between the cavern floor and the underground lava river.
Crack—
A faint cracking sound rang out. Then web-like fissures began spreading across the entire cavern floor, and scalding lava gushed from them, carrying an aura that threatened to destroy everything.
"Lava! It's lava!" The surviving Lizardmen screamed in despair. They tried to flee, only to find their escape blocked by the continually collapsing rocks.
Watching the lava erupt, the elder's eyes filled with terror and unwillingness. At last, he understood that those "accidents" outside had never been warnings from the sacred land. They had been the work of this human before him! He tried to say something, but a torrent of lava swallowed him before he could even scream.
Lava spread through the cavern like a rising tide, completely submerging the Lizardmen's tribe. Before it reached the offerings in the cells, however, Xiao Yan shattered their cell doors with his soul power, giving them a slim chance of survival. Whether they could escape would depend on their own fortunes.
Once this was done, Xiao Yan lingered no longer. Using a falling rock as cover, he rushed out of the crumbling cavern and returned to the surface.
By then, the disturbances underground had thrown the surface into chaos as well. Dunes collapsed and steam erupted, as though the entire desert were roaring. The surviving Lizardmen fled in panic from the various cave entrances, only to be swiftly swallowed by the sandstorms and cave-ins that followed.
No one noticed a figure quietly leaving the area under cover of this "natural disaster."
Behind a dune several miles away, Xiao Yan stopped and looked back at the region shrouded in sandstorms and lava, slowly exhaling a breath of stale air. The Lizardmen's tribe, a threat hidden in the desert, had been wiped out just like that in a "natural disaster."
Yao Lao's voice carried a hint of amazement. "You brat... you really do dare to gamble. Stirring up underground lava—one careless move, and you could have buried yourself too."
Xiao Yan smiled and wiped the sand from his face. "Fortune is won amid danger. How else could I deal with them without a soul knowing?" He paused, sensing the now clearer trace of the Green Lotus aura within him. "Besides, this has made me even more certain that the Green Lotus Earth Core Flame lies deeper in the Tagor Desert."
The distant "natural disaster" continued. Like a colossal yellow dragon, the sandstorm devoured every trace. Xiao Yan turned away and headed into the heart of the desert without looking back.
The sunlight was still scorching, but his gaze held a resolve fiercer than the sun. He knew he was drawing ever closer to his goal.
Before you continue