In the Dark Forest, within the valley of the Fire-Extreme Land where the Flame Emperor had once dwelled.
Many years had passed, but the rocks in this valley where a volcano had erupted remained the same reddish brown. In the center of the valley, there seemed to be none of the Dark Forest's cool shade, nor any lush vegetation covering the ground. There was only barren, exhausted red earth and abnormally high temperatures.
Traces of the great battle several years earlier remained. The fractured cliff faces and torn ravines seemed to tell of what had once happened here.
Today, the valley was no longer peaceful. Rumbling came from deep within the earth, as though some ancient savage beast were about to burst out of the ground. The ravines widened as if invisible hands were tearing them apart. The Fire Essence in the Fire-Extreme Land below also seemed to have been ignited, and the temperature in the valley gradually soared.
A blurred figure darted through the valley. Brilliant streaks of light shot from his body, smashing rocks as hard as iron into dust and leaving marks across the ground.
The figure resembled an artist drawing a blueprint. As he darted about, astonishing changes took place in the valley almost imperceptibly. Had someone looked down from the air, they would have discovered that the ravines, caves, and stones within the valley had startlingly formed a gigantic image with a deeper significance-the Dragon Soaring Diagram!
Amid flashing streaks of light, unknown substances became materials filling the gigantic image, falling into the Dragon Soaring Diagram at the center of the valley.
The earth continued to rumble. After completing a series of steps, the blurred figure darting back and forth across the valley finally brought one foot down with tremendous force on a boulder at