Refining the Mountains and Rivers

After getting beaten to a pulp by Qin Yu, Li Zhouyi had revived to his full power once again. This gave him hope that he might be able to change the playing field.

Of course, he had the third prince to thank, who had been absent all this while. With the third prince's power, he could send Li Zhouyi back to the West Desolate with just a command. Without the third prince here to obstruct him, in the southwest fragmented area, Li Zhouyi was the first-in-command, with the highest amount of power. This also meant that as long as he did not give up, he could continue to push on for however long he wanted.

While Li Zhouyi's fighting spirit was reinvigorated, Qin Yu's mood was lifted as well. Things were going better than he had expected.

They were already rushing towards the Inextinguishable Flame now. If things went according to plan, he just had to find an opportunity to light the furnace once they reached their destination. Then, he would have fulfilled the goal of his journey here in Bounded Zero Place.

Swish -

The teleportation ended and the cultivators from the World of Darkness appeared in a barren small world fragment.

Qin Yu quickly glanced over the scene in front of him and knitted his eyebrows uncontrollably. Could the Inextinguishable Flame really be here? He could not sense its aura at all. Even though he was unsure, he could not let it show. He had to put on a calm expression.

He needed to play the part of a Saint from the West Desolate. If he wanted to put on an act, he needed to be considerate of every detail. He could not afford to make a mistake.

Fortunately, time was tight. Li Zhouyi was constantly worried that his third brother would suddenly arrive at Bounded Zero Place. Thus, Li Zhouyi got straight into business the moment he reached this barren place.

Li Zhouyi waved his hands and they started to glow. He conjured a four-sided mark, and the barren land started to roll violently, as if a gust of strong wind blew it over, creating waves.

The mark spread out towards all four corners, releasing a constraining aura. The turbulent space waves surrounding the area disappeared. Simply put, the mark prevented anyone from entering the place via turbulent space waves.

Buzz -

The array continued to radiate light and spread out. It became brighter and brighter, warping the space around it.

The light rays separated, creating a tear in space in the form of a large door, and Qin Yu could feel the strong and terrifying aura of the chaotic energy on the other side of the door. It was ten times stronger than the aura of the turbulent space waves in Bounded Zero Place. Even though Qin Yu had dialed down his senses, the aura given off by the chaotic energy made him feel stifled and suffocated.

"Let's go!" Li Zhouyi led the forces forward.

Together with the two Saints from the West Desolate, Qin Yu flew towards the door without any hesitation.

He felt a strong force pulling him apart while he teleported to the place beyond the door, which made it hard to breathe. Luckily, the sensation only lasted for a while. In a flash, new scenery appeared in front of him.

Qin Yu squinted his eyes. He had many ideas about where the Inextinguishable Flame would be found, but never once would he have imagined that it was not in Bounded Zero Place to begin with. If he were to use the traditional method of searching for the flame, he would never have found it!

On the horizon, there it was - the Mountain of Flames. Its dancing flames burnt defiantly and flickered violently, giving off an intimidating aura. It burnt ceaselessly, never to be extinguished!

It was exactly how the Spring Master had described it, and it was also the Inextinguishable Flame that Qin Yu had been looking so tirelessly for. Today, he had finally seen it for himself!

The turbulent space waves…who would have thought that the Inextinguishable Flame would be hidden within? Even if someone had suspected that it would be found here, they would not have been able to access it.

Although Qin Yu was excited at first, he quickly realized that he had been too optimistic. Even though the Inextinguishable Flame was right in front of him, it was being trapped by the turbulent space waves. It was clear to him that this Inextinguishable Flame was the source of the chaotic energy that he felt just now.

Now that he was standing closer to the source than ever before, he was able to more acutely feel its aura. He was even more aware of the terrifying extent of this Inextinguishable Flame's power.

The furnace was extremely excited and almost went mad on the spot. If it were not for Qin Yu who stopped it from acting out, it would have rushed out on its own.

Internally, Qin Yu laughed to himself. He could understand the furnace's reaction. The temptation of the Inextinguishable Flame to the furnace was probably a hundred times stronger than the temptation of a man to hit on a pretty woman.

Yet, he had to control the furnace. "Calm down! Do you see the turbulent space waves? I don't think I am powerful enough to withstand their aura, so what makes you think that you would be able to break through them? Please, let's not be hasty, there must be another way."

It wasn't easy to coax the furnace through giving it a scare, but at least he had prevented it from rushing out on its own. However, the furnace implored Qin Yu to come up with an idea quickly, otherwise it would rush out to try and seize the Inextinguishable Flame, regardless of the dangers.

Qin Yu stopped to observe his surroundings. On either side of the Mountain of Flames were two small world fragments. The terrifying aura of the chaotic energy and the extremely high air temperature created a harsh environment, so there were definitely no signs of life on the fragments. They were both charred black.

The two small world fragments were separated by some distance. In the middle of this empty space, slightly above the fragments, there was a ship that floated in the air. The ship was not big, and its hull seemed to have been painted black originally. However, because it had been stationary for a long time, the power of its surroundings had engulfed it, causing its surface to become mottled. It also had red streaks on it.

When Li Zhouyi's gaze landed on the ship, his heart started to race and his eyes lit up. He was too rash before, because he was too fixated on trying to get the Inextinguishable Flame back. However, if he could obtain this ship, then despite losing the Inextinguishable Flame, he knew that he would not be punished too harshly.

Apart from this, he was still uncertain…if this had been the Desolate King's intention from the start, the third prince could have made his appearance when the Fire of Eternal Night was being extinguished. The third prince could have achieved two things - 'retrieving' the Inextinguishable Flame, and completely destroying any chance of Li Zhouyi ever rising to power again.

Therefore it was strange that there had been no trace of the third prince at all. Li Zhouyi had gathered his forces here, waiting for the perfect opportunity to 'retrieve' the Inextinguishable Flame, preventing the third prince from having a chance to steal his limelight.

What was the king trying to do? Li Zhouyi was unable to discern the king's intentions, and he was even starting to wonder if he was overthinking everything. Perhaps the king had never intended to steal the Inextinguishable Flame from the beginning.

However, Li Zhouyi calmed his thoughts immediately. Regardless of whether he was right or not, it wasn't important anymore. What was important was that he needed to retrieve the Inextinguishable Flame in order to stay alive. Otherwise, he would definitely be sentenced to a gruesome death.

The cultivators from the World of Darkness flew to the small world fragments to guard the people in this place.

"Greetings, Your Highness!" The cultivators bowed to Li Zhouyi.

"Did you catch anyone trespassing?" Li Zhouyi asked.

"No."

Li Zhouyi relaxed, and turned to give orders. "Stay alert. Do not even let a fly come through!"

Just at this moment, the space around them started to vibrate. A large group of cultivators descended upon them - it was the Mysterious Clan. They also wanted to catch the perfect opportunity to seize the Inextinguishable Flame, and they would not give this opportunity up so easily to the World of Darkness.

Qin Yu tried to hide his unhappiness. When he saw the two small world fragments beside the ship, he had his suspicions. It seemed that his suspicions were right. The Mysterious Clan and the World of Darkness were aware of where the Inextinguishable Flame was all along, and had always been trying to get access to this place. However, the World of Darkness had been a step ahead.

Both clans wanted to enter the Mountain of Flames… but they needed the ship. Getting in and out of this place required an array formation, which meant that this ship could only be used within this place - to access the Mountain of Flames that was surrounded by extremely strong turbulent space waves.

However, there were two large clans, but only one ship. What was the meaning of this?

Li Zhouyi glared at the Mysterious Clan for a while before entering his encampment to recuperate, getting ready for the upcoming battle with them. In this encampment, of course the West Desolate Saints held the most respected positions. Qin Yu was going to make full use of the advantages that came with this position.

More importantly, Qin Yu had seen a few figures flying out from the small world fragments and entering the ship for a few moments before leaving. Meanwhile, the cultivators from the World of Darkness that were standing by on duty noticed this, but did not have any reaction whatsoever. It was as if entering and leaving this ship was a normal occurrence.

After pondering for a few moments, Qin Yu walked over to these cultivators.

"Greetings, Saint!" They all bowed hastily towards him.

Qin Yu waved his arm. "At ease. I saw a few cultivators from the other clan entering the ship just now, so I'm going to check on the situation."

One cultivator responded in a respectful tone, "Please do not worry. The ship is in a state of induction; the other clan would not dare to make any rash moves."

Qin Yu knitted his eyebrows, not saying a word.

Another cultivator quickly added on, "Of course, it does not hurt to be cautious in such a situation. If you are free now, I can escort you there."

Qin Yu nodded his head, "Lead the way."

The second cultivator who spoke turned around and gave some instructions to his comrades before walking to Qin Yu and bowing respectfully, "Please follow me. This way."

They flew towards the skies, and the cultivators from the Mysterious Clan glanced at them for a while before looking away.

When they were near the exterior of the ship, Qin Yu could immediately smell the scent of blood.

He frowned, finally understanding what those red streaks on the ship were. Dried blood!

There was so much of it that it covered a big portion of the ship. The most terrifying thing was that these dried blood marks seemed to have come from the inside of the ship, and had permeated through the exterior.

If the smell of blood was so strong from the outside already, he wondered what the inside of the ship would look like.

Qin Yu wondered how many massacres had to occur for such a massive amount of blood to spill.

'Border Cliff Saint's' expression seemed to have fallen a little bit. The cultivator who had escorted him smiled politely and said, "It's normal to be a bit shocked since it's your first time here. We have been here for many years, so we're used to it."

Qin Yu pointed at the blood stains and asked, "How did these…"

The cultivator hesitated for a little while before replying, "It's actually a secret, but since Your Honor has asked me for an answer, I hope you will not tell others what I am about to tell you."

When Qin Yu nodded, the cultivator continued, "You must know by now that the turbulent space waves are especially strong around the Mountain of Flames. We created an alliance with the Mysterious Clan, and can only rely on this ship to shuttle back and forth to the Mountain of Flames. However, this ship is not perfect. Activating it requires a huge amount of energy…and the fragmented area is unable to supply this amount of energy, so we rely on the West Desolate to provide it.

"To minimize the consumption of energy, we found out about the Blood Sacrifice method. By carving a seal on the ship, we used this method to draw energy from the Blood Demon which then drives the ship. This is why there are so many blood stains."

Qin Yu frowned, "Blood Sacrifice? Whose blood…"

"To prevent the Ruler of the fragmented area from being alerted, which might bring us unnecessary trouble, we were unable to target powerful cultivators. We could only hunt some insignificant living beings within the fragmented area to harvest their blood. It was necessary for us to meet the demands of the Blood Demon."

The cultivator coughed lightly and continued explaining, "It's not honorable, and people would definitely protest if they knew about this and the West Desolate's reputation would be damaged, which was why I asked Your Honor not to let word of this spread."