Sacrifice?

Jing Hongchen, Xiao Hongchen, and Bao Liang had each been arguing their own point just moments ago. Now, Meng Hongchen's words brought them to their senses, and all three fell briefly silent.

Then Jing Hongchen slapped his thigh. "Meng's right! Little Bao Liang has Ultimate Flame, and Fire Sylphs are fire-attribute Soul Beasts to begin with. If he releases his Ultimate Attribute into the earth vein, he might actually lure those fellows out.

"That beats us foolishly knocking on every piece of ore one by one."

"What are we waiting for, then? Let's do it!" Bao Liang's eyes lit up.

Xiao Hongchen pulled out Red Dust Protection from inside his robes and handed it to Bao Liang. "Take it.

"The earth vein is dangerous. This thing can block a hit for you when it counts."

Bao Liang took Red Dust Protection and tucked it inside his robes. He took a deep breath. "Let's go!"

The three followed Jing Hongchen, slowly descending to the edge of the red fissure where waves of heat surged.

Beneath the fissure lay an abyss whose bottom was nowhere in sight.

Scarlet earthfire flowed between the rock walls like blazing blood vessels, carrying the pulse of the entire mountain range to the surface.

Heat rushed against their faces, baking even the air into a faint distortion. An ordinary person probably couldn't have stood there for long without being steamed alive.

Bao Liang stood beside the fissure, in no hurry to descend. Instead, he first approached the earth vein slowly, then released his Explosion Martial Soul.

He unleashed its Ultimate Flame attribute without holding anything back.

In an instant, the entire earth vein began to stir at the arrival of the Ultimate Flame.

The scarlet earthfire, which had been pulsing slowly, seemed to have been awakened by something of a higher order. It surged ever more fiercely, and even the temperature in the air climbed a few degrees.

Flame patterns lit up one after another on the rock walls, as though responding to this power from the same source, yet more pure.

"Would you look at that..." Xiao Hongchen watched from above and smacked his lips. "The earth vein's acting like it just saw its own father."

Bao Liang, however, didn't laugh.

He could clearly feel his Ultimate Flame seeping thread by thread into the depths through the cracks in the earth vein, spreading slowly like a drop of ink in clear water.

Deep underground, the slumbering scarlet flames gently rose and fell in time with him-as though two fires from the same source had begun the same dance, separated by thick layers of rock.

Meng Hongchen clutched the hem of her clothes nervously, staring down without blinking.

Just then-

Gleams of scarlet light lit up one after another within the earth vein.

At the same time, dozens of scarlet-flamed Fire Sylphs of varying sizes emerged from underground, drawn by the Ultimate Flame.

They didn't attack. They merely drifted lazily around Bao Liang, their pairs of scarlet-burning eyes sizing him up with curiosity-like a group of children from the mountains who had never seen an outsider, crowding around a curiosity to look at it from every angle.

A few mischievous ones even went "pfft," spitting wisps of scarlet flame at the ball of Explosion Martial Soul in Bao Liang's palm, as if testing it, or perhaps teasing it.

When the scarlet flames struck the orange-red Ultimate Flame, not only did they fail to extinguish the Martial Soul, but a wisp was assimilated. It circled halfway around his knuckles before reluctantly dissipating.

Bao Liang didn't move, letting them play.

He simply watched them quietly, but as he watched, he noticed something unusual.

These Fire Sylphs didn't all look the same.

Some were simply elemental forms resembling little dumplings-round and soft, like balls of blue flame warped slightly out of shape by the wind. They had no discernible features or bone structure, pure embryonic forms of "fire."

Others, however, already resembled dragon skulls.

The scarlet flames they formed traced clear outlines of jaws, foreheads, and horns on their heads. Though they had no flesh, they looked exactly like miniature dragon-bone masks, exuding an ancient, wild presence.

The dumpling-shaped ones were young Fire Sylphs; the dragon-bone-shaped ones were growing, or even had some years behind them. Bao Liang was beginning to form a judgment.

The Fire Sylphs in this earth vein look so different from one another... Could a real dragon have died down here too?

Without thinking, he walked slowly toward the center of the earth vein, where the scarlet flames burned brightest.

One step, then two.

As he drew closer, the Fire Sylphs drifting around him all stopped at once.

As if they had received some silent command, they retreated to either side, opening a narrow passage. At its end, the scarlet flames surged most fiercely, as though something were waiting for him there.

Bao Liang paused and looked up.

Just then-

A gleam of pure blue light appeared at the end of the passage.

It was a Blueflame Dragon Fire Sylph, sharing the same origin as the dragon-bone-shaped Fire Sylphs he had seen, but more solidly formed.

Its entire body was made of flickering blue flames, and its head was unmistakably shaped like a dragon's skull-jaw, forehead, and horns, all present. Outlined in blue fire, it looked lifelike, exuding an ancient, noble presence.

It floated slowly up to Bao Liang and tilted its dragon-skull-like head as it looked at him.

Its eyes, wreathed in blue flames, stared straight at Bao Liang, his startled face reflected in their pupils.

Bao Liang raised a hand instinctively, his fingertips hovering in front of it.

The Blueflame Dragon Fire Sylph tilted its head, then came forward of its own accord and gently rubbed its soft blue flames against the pad of his finger-like a little beast wary of strangers yet curious, checking the warmth of the person before it.

Bao Liang simply continued to stare at it.

Man and beast remained inches apart, neither moving.

Although Bao Liang was staring at the Blueflame Dragon Fire Sylph before him, he couldn't help letting his thoughts wander-

He kept feeling as though he had seen something like it somewhere before.

Was it in some illustrated guide Meng Hongchen mentioned? Or was it a familiar description from a novel I read before I transmigrated? The outline of that dragon skull, those pure blue flames... They were clearly unfamiliar, yet somehow familiar, like a hazy memory engraved deep within his soul.

Bao Liang was thinking, and so was the Blueflame Dragon Fire Sylph.

But what it looked at was not Bao Liang's appearance, but his flames and his heart.

It was a flame nurtured by the earth vein, instinctively drawn to all flames.

And Bao Liang's Ultimate Flame was the purest and fiercest of all fires. The moment it approached, it "saw" Bao Liang's soul.

It saw his destruction, and it also saw the color in his heart.

So, without the slightest hesitation-

The Blueflame Dragon Fire Sylph turned and burrowed back into the earth vein.

Bao Liang's expression froze. Thinking it had run away, he was just about to reach for it when, the very next second, the Blueflame Dragon Fire Sylph reappeared before him with a piece of Blue Flame Dragon Crystal Earth Vein Pith that bore a striking resemblance to a certain giant dragon.

The piece of pith stone was only the size of a fist, yet it contained liquid earth-vein energy of the utmost purity. It was blue and nearly transparent, with a layer of dragon-scale-like patterns on its surface.

In the next instant, the Blue Flame Dragon Crystal Earth Vein Pith burst apart with a boom, and all the liquid earth-vein energy within it gathered into the Blueflame Dragon Fire Sylph.

Its blue light suddenly blazed brighter, and its form grew somewhat more solid.

Then, under everyone's bewildered gazes, the Blueflame Dragon Fire Sylph abruptly twisted around and plunged into Bao Liang's right eye, where his External Soul Bone was.

Bao Liang's whole body shuddered, and a blinding blue light burst from his right eye. Immediately afterward, a beam of red light shot up from around him, piercing straight through the rock above the earth vein and staining the entire night sky with an eerie mingling of red and blue.

The sacrifice began!