Yang Qing was surrounded by raging fire. Flames swept in from every direction, ceaselessly searing his body and scorching his soul.
Countless times, Yang Qing thought those fierce flames were about to burn him to nothing, body and soul alike.
Yet countless times, he remembered the family and companions waiting beyond the flames.
And so, in the end, Yang Qing endured.
He let the flames envelop him without leaving the slightest gap, while the muscles and bones inside his body underwent earth-shaking changes.
Those changes filled Yang Qing with both agony and excitement.
He felt his body undergoing a transformation beyond anything he could imagine.
This transformation was utterly unfamiliar to Yang Qing.
He did not know whether he would make it out of the flames.
Nor did he know what he would become if he did.
Yang Qing's heart was like a lone skiff on the vast ocean, rising and falling, tossed about by a tangle of emotions.
Then, quite by chance, he glimpsed Bu Er and the others standing outside through layer upon layer of flames. His heart stirred, and he immediately tried to raise a hand to greet them.
At the same time, a trace of sorrow welled up within him.
Yang Qing knew all too well how much anguish this sudden calamity of his must have caused Bu Er and the others.
Now that he had recovered a little awareness, he wanted to put their minds at ease.
Though he did not know how this would end for him, he wanted to give Bu Er and the others some reassurance.
At least he had not immediately...
But he could only lift his arm a little before he could no longer move it.
Yang Qing was still enveloped in flames, as though invisible ropes had bound every