Chen Jin exhaled.
A vast stream of warm information poured into his mind through his third soul ring.
It was the power of origin from the six-thousand-year-old Blazing Fire Azure Sparrow.
The information intertwined in his mind, finally condensing into four words.
Heaven-Burning Purgatory.
This was his third soul skill.
Once unleashed, a vast area around him would turn into a sea of fire, becoming a forbidden zone for life.
These flames were no ordinary fire, but Heaven-Burning Lie Yan fused with Divine Phoenix True Fire.
Their temperature was astonishingly high, enough to melt everything within range.
Chen Jin rose and looked at the clearing ahead, which had already been reduced to ruins.
His strengthened soul power surged through his body, stirring an urge to unleash it.
"Let's test its power."
Chen Jin spoke to himself.
He stepped half a pace forward with his right foot, instantly mobilizing the soul power within him.
The deep-purple third soul ring circling him blazed with light.
Gold-Red fire rose from his palm.
"Heaven-Burning Purgatory."
His calm words fell.
The ground across dozens of meters ahead began to shake violently.
Countless cracks spread through the dry earth, Gold-Red fire erupting from within them.
Boom!
A wall of fire dozens of meters high surged skyward, engulfing the area before him.
Heaven-Burning Lie Yan raged, and the space around it constantly distorted under the intense heat.
The charred trees and hard rocks could not last even a second upon touching those flames before turning to ash.
The ground began to melt, flowing as dark-red magma.
Heat waves swept outward, leaving not a blade of grass alive within a hundred-meter radius.
Huo Wu stood at the edge, forced to retreat again and again by the heat waves rushing toward her.
She shielded her face with her arm, staring in shock at the scene before her through the gaps between her fingers.
"What terrifying power."
Huo Wu murmured.
The Fire Shadow Martial Soul within her trembled violently, an instinctive fear of ultimate flames.
She could clearly sense that if she stood amid those flames, she would probably be vaporized before she even had time to react, without so much as ashes left behind.
Such destructive power had already exceeded the bounds of a Soul Elder.
Even a Power Attack System Soul Ancestor above level forty would not hold out against these flames.
Even...
If a Soul King above level fifty came, they would probably struggle to withstand Ultimate Fire of such purity.
Everything unfolding before her shattered Huo Wu's understanding of the soul master world.
How could a Soul Elder who had only just broken through level thirty and absorbed his third soul ring possess such heaven-destroying, earth-shattering power?
It made no sense at all.
Chen Jin swept his right hand.
The flames filling the air instantly drew inward, turning back into pure energy and slipping through his pores into his body.
The once-surging fluctuations of soul power settled into calm again.
The clearing ahead had become an enormous pool of magma, billowing with heat.
Chen Jin looked at his handiwork, a satisfied smile appearing on his face.
"This soul skill is rather good."
Huo Wu looked at Chen Jin's tall, straight back and drew a deep breath, steadying her wildly pounding heart.
She hurried forward and stood before Chen Jin.
Her delicate, pretty face was full of solemn seriousness.
"Chen Jin, join our Blazing Fire Academy."
Huo Wu looked into his eyes, her tone sincere.
"You're the most talented person I've ever seen."
"Staying out here fighting alone would be too much of a waste of your talent."
Chen Jin looked at the red-clad woman before him and did not refuse immediately.
As he was now, he was indeed alone.
Although he had awakened the powerful Nine Heavens Divine Phoenix Martial Soul, his current strength was still far from fully developed.
Level thirty-four soul power was still insufficient before truly powerful opponents.
Danger lurked on every side of the Douluo Continent, not only from soul beasts, but also from the schemes of human soul masters.
Without a sufficiently powerful faction backing him, he could face the danger of dying before his time at any moment before his strength fully developed.
Returning to Shrek Academy was out of the question.
Then finding a new place to belong was indeed a wise choice.
Seeing Chen Jin standing silently in place, Huo Wu thought he was still hesitating and continued.
"Our Blazing Fire Academy is one of the Heaven Dou Empire's Five Elemental Academies."
"And our academy has a unique rule: we only admit fire-attribute soul masters."
"When it comes to researching fire-attribute martial souls and cultivation methods, our academy has exceptionally deep expertise across the entire continent."
"With the quality of your martial soul, if you join Blazing Fire Academy, you'll definitely receive priority access to the very best resources."
"And the academy's teachers and senior staff will certainly be able to provide you with the best protection."
She said a great deal in one breath, her beautiful eyes filled with hopeful light.
Chen Jin listened to Huo Wu's introduction and nodded.
As one of the Five Elemental Academies, Blazing Fire Academy was indeed a good place.
More importantly, everyone there was a fire-attribute soul master, which could indeed complement his Nine Heavens Divine Phoenix Martial Soul.
And having an affiliation with an academy would make things much easier in the future.
"All right."
Chen Jin looked at Huo Wu and spoke softly.
"I agree to join Blazing Fire Academy."
"It's a deal!"
Huo Wu clapped her hands together, her face full of irrepressible joy.
"Chen Jin, you've made the rightest possible choice."
"My father is the dean of Blazing Fire Academy. Once we get back, I'll take you to see him right away."
"With your talent, Father will definitely devote the academy's finest resources to nurturing you."
"He might even let you join the core team and represent our academy in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Competition."
Chen Jin nodded, his expression as calm as ever, barely stirred by the "finest resources" Huo Wu mentioned.
"Then let's go."
Chen Jin replied evenly.
Leaving Shrek Academy had been the right choice.
In that run-down village, the so-called "monsters" were merely another name for squeezing out one's own potential.
In Chen Jin's eyes, Yu Xiaogang's theories were filled with prejudice and narrow-mindedness, even laughable.
Blazing Fire Academy, on the other hand, possessed a complete fire-attribute cultivation system as one of the Heaven Dou Empire's Five Elemental Academies.
For him, whose martial soul had only just transformed into the Nine Heavens Divine Phoenix Martial Soul, it was undoubtedly the best place to belong.
He no longer needed to accommodate those hypocritical companions or endure the so-called evil fire backlash.
Here, he could walk the path toward greater strength in the purest way.
The journey was not short, and the two traveled north toward the heartland of the Heaven Dou Empire.
Along the way, Chen Jin spoke little, spending most of his time silently circulating the Divine Phoenix True Fire within him.
After fusing with his third soul ring, the soul power within him surged ceaselessly like mighty rivers, widening his meridians with every circulation.
Warm energy traveled through his limbs and bones, and his internal organs, previously damaged by the evil fire backlash, had now healed completely.
Not only that, nourished by the Divine Phoenix True Fire, his meridians were far tougher than before.
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