Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The space distorted around him before An Lin found himself on a crimson continent.
The white spatial gate slowly shrank behind him, before completely disappearing.
There were crimson clouds in the sky as far as the eye could see, with the occasional plume of scorching flames blasting through the clouds, or exploding in the air, or falling down to the ground like a meteor shower bearing its fangs to the world.
The temperatures were extremely high here and heat waves rippled throughout the crimson continent, making the air itself shimmer and warp. If a Dao Body Stage cultivator was to appear here, they probably wouldn’t even be able to last fifteen minutes.
“Looks like Ji Yongfang, Shangguan Yi, and Yang Yuan have already set off to look for projections of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing.” Mo Hai stood beside An Lin and observed with a smile.
“New projections of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing only materialize once every few years and are exceedingly rare. Therefore, we’re technically all competing against one another, so it’s no surprise that they’ve set off straight away instead of wasting time,” Lu Jiazhi replied slowly.
An Lin cast his eyes toward the boundless expanse of mountain ranges and crimson earth and was a little bit overwhelmed. “I’ve heard there’s a chance that powerful mutant beasts have projections of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing within their bodies, while the rest of the projections would appear in the perilous mystic realms as well as in the clouds above.
“However, the projections in the clouds are the most difficult to find, and you’ll be constantly bombarded by the scorching power of flames during your search, thereby making it the hardest method available to find the projections. So, which method do you guys intend to pursue?”
Mo Hai looked up into the air and heaved a resigned sigh. “I can’t attract the projections like Sister Xu Xiaolan, so I think I’ll pass on the projections in the sky. I’m gonna go fight some mutant beast! It seems to be the most simple and direct method!”
“I’m going to go explore the mystic realms in the west. After all, combat is not my forte, but my self-preservation skills are passable,” Lu Jiazhi chimed in.
There were all sorts of unstable mystic realms littered throughout the western region of the Vermilion Bird Trial Grounds, while powerful ancient mutant beasts roamed the northern region. The eastern region was said to be an endless sea of flames, and apparently, there were many extremely valuable treasures in the southern region, but most sect disciples refrained from venturing there as the probability of death in the trials there were all in excess of ninety percent.
“I think I’ll go look for some mutant beasts as well, I don’t have any other strong traits, but I sure can fight.” An Lin decided after a momentary pause.
“Hahaha… that sounds great, I knew Mr. An Lin would rather be in the company of a prodigy like me.” Mo Hai slapped An Lin’s shoulder as he laughed heartily. “I made a promise to Elder Zhu so I’ll definitely protect you. Let’s go together, and you can have the first projection of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing we encounter!”
An Lin was quite touched by Mo Hai’s gesture, and he nodded with a solemn expression. “Alright, we’ll go together, and we’ll strive to find the high-grade projections of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing!”
“Of course, I’m the number one young prodigy of the sect, I might as well not go back if I can’t even find a high-grade projection of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing.”
The projections of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing were split into three grades; inferior-grade, medial-grade, and high-grade. If one was able to get a higher grade projection of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing, they would be able to obtain a more pure and vast holy flame when accepting the power of the Holy Vermilion Flame.
“I’ll be taking my leave then, good luck to you both!”
Lu Jiazhi smiled at both of them before flying away toward the west atop his sword.
Mo Hai turned toward An Lin. “Let’s set off as well.”
“Sure!” An Lin nodded before flying into the air atop his black brick.
Mo Hai used a crimson, antique saber as his transportation device and followed along behind An Lin.
The two of them transformed into two streaks of light hurtling toward the north.
An Lin looked down on the ground below, searching for signs of mutant beasts.
There wasn’t really a system of cultivation bases for the mutant beasts here, the only way to roughly gauge their strength was to assess the purity of their powers of fire.
All these mutant beasts were fire-type beasts, and they’re divided into four categories; normal fire mutant beasts, spirit fire mutant beasts, earth fire mutant beasts, and heavenly fire mutant beasts.
Normal fire mutant beasts were the weakest and most common mutant beast here, and none of them yielded projections of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing; spirit fire mutant beasts had a certain probability of yielding inferior-grade projections of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing; earth fire mutant beasts had a certain probability of yielding medial-grade projections of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing; and heavenly fire mutant beasts had a probability of yielding high-grade projections of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing.
Mo Hai’s target was none other than a heavenly fire mutant beast. Although they were only at Soul Formation Initial Stage, they had the sect mystic treasure with them, which gave them a much greater chance of hunting down a heavenly fire mutant beast.
An Lin wanted to maximize the power of holy flames he could manifest within his sea of vital energy in order to provide enough food for An Kirin, so he too was trying to obtain a high-grade projection of the Vermillion Bird Flame Wing.
Boom…
A short while later, the ground below the two of them suddenly trembled and what appeared to be a wave of fire swept toward them from below.
An Lin looked down onto the ground to find a vast expanse of yellow flames sweeping toward them with overwhelming power.
“Those are Explosive Fire Rats. They consume earth fire and are only normal fire mutant beast, so we can just ignore them.”
Mo Hai glanced at the Explosive Fire Rats below before turning his gaze elsewhere.
However, An Lin was surveying the wave of flames below with intrigue.
These were hundreds of flaming purple rats, each of them bigger than a cow. They were all racing along the ground at high speed, and from afar, it looked like a moving carpet of flames, thereby creating quite an interesting spectacle to behold.
An Lin and Mo Hai flew further and further, passing through perilous phenomena like dark fire winds and heavenly meteor flames as well as encountering an attack from a group of Flying Flame Birds, but all of those were minor threats which were easily brushed aside.
Two hours later, they arrived at a series of imposing mountain ranges.
Each of the mountains here was several kilometers tall; some had even stretched into the flaming clouds above, so it was impossible to tell just how tall they were.
Boom!
A resounding boom suddenly erupted between heaven and earth.
A huge amount of crimson lava suddenly began to pour forth from a mountain in the distance while countless gigantic blobs of magma crashed to the ground, creating a lethal crimson fireworks display and turning an area of several kilometers in radius into no man’s land.
“There are usually powerful mutant beasts in areas where volcanoes are particularly active, let’s go have a look!” Mo Hai’s eyes instantly lit up, and he led the way toward the volcano atop his crimson saber.
An Lin followed along behind Mo Hai, appreciating the doomsday spectacle along the way.
The two of them drew closer and closer to the volcanic crater until they were less than ten thousand feet away.
“Slow down! I can see a Black Crystal Flame Python!”
Mo Hai suddenly came to a stop and ushered for An Lin to do the same.
The volcano was still erupting in a thunderous display as the two of them silently descended from the sky.
“See that? There’s a huge rock on the side of the mountain there that greatly resembles the shape of a python.” Mo Hai pointed toward something in the northeast with an excited expression.
An Lin was initially quite confused, but then he looked in the direction Mo Hai was pointing to discover a black python over a thousand feet in length looking up at the erupting volcano as it tried to obscure its presence.
Only Mo Hai’s sensitivity to flame power fluctuations allowed him to discover the python. Otherwise, the python’s camouflage was near-perfect as it blended in with the dark mountain around it extremely well.
The two of them erased their presences and gradually drew closer.
“This Black Crystal Flame Python is an earth fire mutant beast with combat prowess comparable to a Soul Formation Stage cultivator, so don’t let down your guard. We need to look for the perfect opportunity before we strike,” Mo Hai instructed in a low voice.
An Lin nodded with a solemn expression. “Alright!”
Mo Hai was just about to devise a plan when An Lin suddenly disappeared in a rush of wind.
Thump!
The earsplitting sound of a sonic boom suddenly erupted.
A figure with white Wings of Wind sprouting from its back tore through the air at unimaginable speed while wielding a black longsword, which also had streaks of white wind revolving around its blade.
The distance of several thousand feet was covered in an instant!
The Black Crystal Flame Python opened its eyes and looked into a certain direction with a fearful expression. Black, crystalline flames had just begun to materialize on its body when the streak of white light flashed past in a lethal trajectory.
Boom!
The python’s gigantic head detached from its body while the rest of its body fell to the ground amid a shower of fiery blood.
Mo Hai stared at the figure in the distance with his mouth hanging wide open while being at a complete loss for words.
Weren’t they supposed to wait patiently for an opportunity before striking?
An Lin turned to him with a smile. “How did you like my blitzkrieg tactic?”
Mo Hai’s lips twitched as he nodded in admiration. “Mr. An Lin, your flexing skills are surely the best under the heavens!”