Another Soul Imprint

"One, two, three... there are actually twelve of them!"

Xiao Yan instinctively swallowed. There were a full twelve flame magical beasts surrounding him!

From the palm strike he had exchanged with the giant eagle formed from flames, Xiao Yan could tell that its strength was roughly that of a One-Star Great Dou Master.

Although Xiao Yan was now a Three-Star Da Dou Shi, and his awakened divine pattern raised his combat strength to Five-Star, taking on twelve One-Star Great Dou Masters would still be incredibly difficult.

"Are these all heavenly flames? Or is only one of them the real thing?"

Xiao Yan dared not act rashly. The flame magical beasts did not attack immediately either, seemingly waiting for him to expose an opening.

Yet they gave Xiao Yan little time to react. A few breaths later, all the flame magical beasts attacked together, converging straight on him.

Xiao Yan immediately spread his Eagle Wings and shot upward, stopping a hundred meters above the canyon floor, still below the reach of the astral gale.

The advantage was that the magical beasts on the ground would have trouble surrounding him. The drawback was that spreading his Eagle Wings also sent his Dou Qi consumption soaring.

Even up in the air, he was far from safe. Two of the flame magical beasts could fly.

One was the flame giant eagle Xiao Yan had driven back earlier. The other was a flame giant fish that seemed to swim through the air.

The two flame magical beasts attacked Xiao Yan from either side. The flame giant eagle let out a piercing cry, beating its wings to whip up scorching winds.

The flame giant fish swung its tail, sending a flame tide surging forth.

Even the air overhead was churned into searing heat. Every breath an ordinary person took would have burned unbearably.

Xiao Yan dared not linger in battle. He immediately dropped lower and shot off in one direction, evading the two flame magical beasts' pincer attack.

Above him, the wave of heated air collided with the flame tide. The tide shattered instantly, turning into a skyful of fiery rain that fell toward the ground!

Fortunately, there was hardly anything combustible on the canyon floor. Otherwise, it would surely have sparked a raging forest fire.

But flying low had its drawbacks too. The ten flightless flame magical beasts on the ground began opening their enormous mouths and spitting fireballs.

They themselves were formed from flames, and could launch portions of their own fire as fireballs.

These fireballs had a range of a hundred meters. Whenever Xiao Yan lowered his altitude, wave after wave of fireball bombardment awaited him.

"These damned things are way too hard to deal with."

Xiao Yan flew at top speed, constantly dodging the fireballs coming from below.

But with ten fireballs in every volley, and the flame giant eagle and flame giant fish pursuing him, he dared not pause for even a moment to catch his breath.

Occasionally, a fireball from below still struck him. Once its flames clung to him, they immediately began burning without end.

They were actually using Xiao Yan's own Dou Qi as fuel!

Fortunately, his divine pattern flickered, and after he expended some additional Dou Qi, he managed to extinguish the flames.

However, compared with the purple beast flame the Little Amethyst Winged Lion had spat out earlier, these blood-red flames consumed several times more Dou Qi.

Forget fighting back-Xiao Yan could barely even flee for his life now.

He picked a direction and flew straight ahead without looking back. He no longer hoped to subdue the heavenly flame. If he could just escape, he would thank heaven and earth.

The flame magical beasts pursued him relentlessly, but none could match his speed.

Xiao Yan flew all the way through the Magical Beast Graveyard, and the temperature around him dropped slightly.

The pursuing flame magical beasts all dissipated in an instant.

"So that's it. Looks like these things still have a limit on how far they can roam."

Xiao Yan let out a long breath of relief, retracted his wings, and slowly landed.

The disappearance of these flame magical beasts also proved that none of them was the heavenly flame itself.

Xiao Yan guessed that they were most likely portions split off from the heavenly flame, unable to stray too far from its main body.

"It really lives up to the name Myriad Beast Spirit Flame. Given enough time to grow, couldn't it summon thousands upon thousands of flame beasts?"

Xiao Yan considered retreating, but he could not quite accept it.

If he had been utterly powerless against them, that would have been one thing. Yet each of these flame magical beasts was only at the Da Dou Shi level.

That meant the heavenly flame itself had not grown too powerful yet. He still had a sliver of a chance.

And it was precisely that sliver of a chance that made Xiao Yan unwilling to give up for nothing.

"Ah, if only Yun Zhi were here."

Xiao Yan sighed helplessly. With a Dou Emperor like Yun Zhi here, all these flame beasts would crumble at a single blow, and she could easily find the heavenly flame's main body.

But reality left Xiao Yan no room for what-ifs. He had to decide whether to stay or leave.

"I'll recover my Dou Qi first."

Xiao Yan walked along the edge of the canyon and found a large rock in a relatively safe spot with an open view, then began recovering his Dou Qi.

Perhaps the surrounding heat kept his divine pattern highly active. It was also helping Xiao Yan absorb Dou Qi, making his recovery particularly fast this time.

He recovered completely in just twenty minutes. Of course, spiritual energy could not be restored so quickly through cultivation.

"Even the flame beasts created by this heavenly flame are at the Da Dou Shi level. Its main body might already be at the Dou Ling level. Looks like I can't claim this opportunity right now. Time to go."

After weighing his options, Xiao Yan chose to give up, planning to return in search of the heavenly flame once he had grown stronger.

Just as he turned to leave, he happened to catch sight of a black speck on the opposite canyon wall.

A closer look revealed a cave at the foot of the cliff. At the same time, the parchment in his Storage Ring, whose soul power had already been exhausted, unexpectedly stirred again.

Xiao Yan took out the parchment. Another, much fainter soul imprint emerged, condensing into one final guiding marker that pointed toward the cave opposite him!

Xiao Yan was startled. He had never expected the Heavenly Flames Coordinate Map to contain another soul imprint.

This soul imprint was extremely faint, however, and could only condense a single guiding marker.

Still, the marker's presence made Xiao Yan realize that there might well be something inside that cave.

Xiao Yan put away the Heavenly Flames Coordinate Map and headed toward the cave.

When he reached the cave entrance, the final soul marker exhausted its power and dissipated completely.

The canyon was not particularly wide, measuring about three hundred meters across. It had taken Xiao Yan less than a minute to reach the other side.

He did not recklessly enter the cave, however. Instead, he took an Illumination Stone from his Storage Ring and tossed it inside.

The Illumination Stone rolled and bounced along the ground before finally coming to rest deep inside the cave, lighting up a small patch of space.

After confirming that there was no danger, Xiao Yan stepped inside. The cave was not very large; only twenty or thirty meters separated its entrance from its deepest point.

At the end of the cave sat a skeleton dressed in ragged clothes.

The skeleton leaned against the cave's stone wall. Before him lay a scroll buried beneath a thick accumulation of dust.