Burning Away the Origin

In the deepest reaches of the sea of Dou Qi, the remaining twenty percent lay quietly. Wrapped in four layers of Reverse Scales, it protected that tiny spark of the origin of fire. It was the last thing Xiao Yan had brought from the Dou Qi Continent, the last remnant of his roots, formed from all his cultivation, all his accumulated strength, all the blood and fire of his journey from Dou Qi to Dou Di. Before assimilation was complete, it was his root; afterward, it would become Spiritual Energy, his new root in this world.

But if he burned it now... Xiao Yan knew what would happen. That twenty percent of Dou Qi would release all its power in an instant. That power did not belong to this world and would not be bound by its rules. For that brief instant, he could reclaim a shadow of the Dou Di he had been on the Dou Qi Continent. Then his root would be gone.

He did not know what would happen to the assimilation. Perhaps it would stall, perhaps it would collapse entirely, or perhaps he would be reduced to a cripple, forced to start over in this world.

He had no time to think. Xue Li was already five zhang away. Xiao Yan closed his eyes, and his Soul Power settled gently on the remaining twenty percent of Dou Qi. Then he ignited it.

"Boom!!!"

An indescribably terrifying presence erupted from Xiao Yan and shot into the sky. It was unlike any power in the Great Thousand World: scorching, violent, and wild, bearing a domineering might that seemed to have come from the ancient wilderness to burn all eight reaches to ashes. As it burst forth, it forced the blood-red canopy shrouding the entire street to bulge upward.

Xue Ku stopped in his tracks. For the first time, surprise appeared in the dark red eyes sunk deep in his sockets.

Xiao Yan slowly opened his eyes. Two golden-red flames burned in his pupils, and within them lay a faint indifference that looked down upon all living beings from on high. Behind him, his pair of jade-colored bone wings had turned a blazing golden red, each beat stirring up waves of fire that filled the sky. That was the gaze of a Dou Di, a shadow of the Flame Emperor who had saved the entire Central Plains from Hun Tiandi on the Dou Qi Continent and sent countless mighty experts prostrating themselves to see him off.

"Old thing," Xiao Yan said, his voice calm, yet seemingly descending from the nine heavens. "You said rules were made for those who couldn't win? Then today, I'll make one for you."

He tightened his grip on the Heavy Xuan Ruler and vanished. Xue Ku's pupils abruptly contracted. His withered body shot backward at a speed entirely at odds with his hunched appearance, while a bony palm came up across his chest.

"Clang!"

With a deafening clash of metal, the Heavy Xuan Ruler struck his palm. Golden-red flames exploded along its length like an erupting volcano, and the blow sent Xue Ku's hunched body skidding backward more than ten zhang across the bluestone street, his feet plowing two deep furrows into the ground.

He lowered his head to look at his hand. A charred wound ran across his bony palm, golden-red flames still hissing within it. He circulated his Spiritual Energy to suppress the fire, but it took three attempts to put it out. Xue Ku slowly raised his head and looked at the young man standing amid the waves of fire. For the first time, the unhurried composure was gone from his shriveled old face. "Burning your origin... you're mad."

Xiao Yan did not answer. Once again, he vanished from where he stood.

The people of Luo Shen City spoke of that battle for many years afterward.

They said that on the street where the Luo Pill Pavilion stood that day, the sky was red and the ground was red, red with blood and red with fire. A young man covered in blood, dragging a gigantic black ruler, fought an old monster of the Blood God Clan from one end of the street to the other and back again. They said the young man's fire was golden red, hot enough to melt every bluestone slab on the street into magma and burn holes through the blood-red canopy. They said that every swing of the young man's ruler was like a volcano erupting in the middle of the street. The old monster of the Blood God Clan took a step back with every blow he received, retreating ten steps after ten blows.

They said that, at the end, the young man formed a Fire Lotus, more than twice the size of the one in the Luo River Abyss.

When the Fire Lotus exploded in front of Xue Ku, it blasted the roofs off every building on the street and tore a huge hole in the blood-red canopy. Sunlight shone through the opening.

The Fire Lotus struck Xue Ku head-on, burning away most of his loose blood-red robe and exposing the skeletal body beneath. His left arm was charred black from shoulder to fingertips, its flesh split open. He staggered back seven or eight steps and spat out a mouthful of dark red blood. It was the first time he had bled since emerging from sixty years of seclusion.

On both sides of the long street, the passersby huddled in corners and hid behind doors, their mouths hanging open as they stared at the slender figure standing in the sea of fire. Someone murmured, "That's... the man from the Lower Plane?" No one answered. Everyone simply watched.

Luo Yan, who had charged into the blood domain later, was locked in battle with Xue Li at the other end of the street. The Luo God Clan elder had once suffered under the Blood Fiend Palm for three whole months, nearly dying on his sickbed. Now his eyes were bloodshot, and spiritual light surged around his iron fists. Every punch carried rage that had been suppressed for far too long.

"Xue Li!" he roared, driving a fist into Xue Li's blood claw. "I lay in bed for three months, thinking of that face of yours day and night!"

Luo Yan drove Xue Li back again and again, his gaunt face full of shock and fury. He had never imagined that Luo Yan, whom he had once beaten half to death with a single palm strike, would now be even fiercer than before. He gritted his teeth. "That brat cured you of the Blood Fiend?"

"So what if he did?" Luo Yan threw another punch, smashing a mouthful of blood from Xue Li. "He gave me this life of mine. If you want to touch him, you'll have to ask my fists first!"

Before that, at the end of the long street, Luo Lan knelt before the blood-red curtain of light, driving one fist after another into the same spot. His fists were already a mangled mess, his knuckles exposed. Every blow left a bloody fist print on the curtain, but it still did not budge.

One hundred and twenty-seven punches, one hundred and twenty-eight... His vision had begun to darken, but he did not dare stop. Brother Xiao had told him to strike it a hundred times, to punch through it. He had already struck it one hundred and twenty-eight times.

"Break... for... me!"

The one hundred and twenty-ninth punch.

Crack.

A thin fissure finally appeared at the center of the fist prints. The instant it appeared, a silver spear and a silver longsword stabbed into that very spot from outside the curtain, almost at the same time.

"Boom!"

A gap taller than a man was torn in the curtain of light. Luo Xiao and Luo Feng stood outside it, their heads covered in sweat. Both were startled when they saw Luo Lan kneeling on the ground, his hands a bloody mess.

"Brother Xiao..." Luo Lan raised his head, tears mingling with blood as they streamed down his bloodstained face. "Brother Xiao is inside... save him..."

Hearing this, Luo Feng said no more. He pulled Luo Lan to his feet and handed him over to the Luo Shen Guard who had arrived behind him. Then he exchanged a glance with Luo Xiao, and the two charged through the gap together. Behind them, a burly figure swept in like a gale with several Luo God Clan elders. It was Luo Yan.

But Xiao Yan could no longer hold on. The twenty percent of Dou Qi had burned too quickly. One swing, two swings, ten swings, one Fire Lotus-the shadow of the Dou Di gradually faded from him. His golden-red bone wings faded back to jade, then turned transparent. Finally, with a snap, they shattered into motes of light that filled the sky. He fell from midair and crashed heavily onto the bluestone street, now burned into magma. He tried to rise, but his body no longer obeyed him.

The sea of Dou Qi was empty. Of the origin of fire protected by the four layers of Reverse Scales, only a spark the size of a grain of rice remained, flickering so faintly in the deepest reaches of the empty sea that it was almost invisible. Xiao Yan lay there, looking up at the blood-red sky with a hole burned through it, at the ray of sunlight shining through that hole. His vision began to blur.

A hunched figure blocked the ray of sunlight. Xue Ku stood before him, looking down at him, his charred, shriveled old face full of malice. His left arm hung at his side, blackened all over, but his right hand slowly rose. Bloody light gathered above his palm, forming a gigantic dark red blood palm. Countless twisted human faces screamed silently within it.

"Little brat," Xue Ku said, his voice hoarse and venomous. "You made me bleed. I'll make you die slowly."

In the distance, Luo Feng and Luo Xiao screamed, and Luo Yan shouted in fury. But they were too far away. Xiao Yan lay there, watching the blood palm descend slowly toward him, and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. He thought of Yao Lao. If the old man knew he had been beaten into such a state here, he would probably stamp his feet and call him a "stinking brat."

The blood palm descended.

Then, that palm did not come down.