141: Ironclad flesh body braving a sea of ​​fire and the nightmare of the Nascent Soul.

Reverse Star Pagoda, Third Floor Exit.

Time seemed to stretch at this moment.

Behind was the roar drawing closer; ahead was the Water Moon Pool leading to a land of death.

"Quick! Don't worry about the Materials!"

Zhou Wannian (Old Man Han) was like a madman, his hands moving like afterimages as he wrapped layers of priceless Fourth-Tier Demonic Beast skins around Tie Zhu.

"Red Hou skin for the outermost layer, it's fire-resistant!"

"Poison Flood Dragon skin for the middle layer, it's heat-insulating!"

"Wrap the water cloud gauze on the innermost layer and cover it with Cold Ice Talismans!"

"Tie Zhu! Open the chest armor! Squeeze the internal components together to make room for three people!"

"Clack, clack, clack—"

Tie Zhu faithfully executed the command. Its chest armor slid open to both sides, revealing the narrow space originally used for the power core. To make room, it even proactively removed several non-essential rib supports.

"Get in!"

Zhou Wannian kicked the dazed Ling Yunxiao inside, then grabbed Li Feiyu and stuffed him in as well.

Finally, he squeezed himself into the gap between the two like a slippery loach.

"Close the door! Seal it! Activate internal circulation!"

Bang!

The heavy Star Iron armor closed shut.

At that very instant.

Boom!

The Mirror Maze behind them completely collapsed.

The Grand Elder emerged, covered in blood, leading two other Nascent Soul Cultivators who were equally disheveled.

"Trying to run?!"

The Grand Elder immediately spotted Tie Zhu standing by the pool, wrapped up like a giant meat zongzi.

"Shatter for me!"

He violently threw the mountain severing ruler, which turned into a black rainbow, heading straight for Tie Zhu's head.

However.

Tie Zhu did not dodge.

Its star-blue eyes flickered, and a burst of Qi shot out from the thrusters on its back.

Splash!

A split second before the mountain severing ruler could hit, the giant "meat zongzi" jumped into the Water Moon Pool without hesitation.

Water splashed everywhere.

The mountain severing ruler hit nothing, smashing the white jade railing by the pool into powder.

"Bastard!!!"

The Grand Elder rushed to the poolside, looking at the rippling water, fuming with rage.

"Chase them! Keep chasing!"

The Red-Haired Ancestor clutched his severed arm, his face pale: "Senior Brother... below is the fourth floor, the 'Star Core Furnace'! According to ancient records, that's the place where True Starfire is harnessed for Artifact Refining... In our current state..."

"What are you afraid of!"

The Grand Elder's eyes were ferocious. "If those three ants dare to go down relying on a broken Puppet, are we, dignified Nascent Soul Cultivators, afraid of being burned to death?!"

"Don't forget! That Old Man Han has the complete Legacy of the Reverse Star Alliance! And those three keys!"

"As long as we catch him, what do these injuries matter? Even if our Physical Body is incinerated, as long as the Nascent Soul remains, we can just undergo Possession and Rebirth!"

It must be said that greed and hatred are the best medicine for overcoming fear.

"Go down!"

The Grand Elder propped up a thick layer of protective spiritual light and was the first to jump into the pool.

The other two looked at each other and could only grit their teeth and follow... Reverse Star Pagoda, Fourth Floor.

There was no sky, no earth.

Only boundless, liquid-flowing gold-red flames—[True Starfire].

This was the interior of the star core, and also a giant furnace.

"Sizzle, sizzle—"

As soon as Tie Zhu dropped from the teleportation channel, the incredibly tough "Red Hou skin" on the outermost layer began to smoke and curl, emitting a foul, scorched odor.

Inside the cockpit.

"Hot! It's so hot!"

Ling Yunxiao was squeezed into the innermost part, his face pressed against Tie Zhu's cold inner wall, but that wall was now heating up at an alarming rate.

"Shut up! A calm mind keeps you cool!"

Zhou Wannian was drenched in sweat, his hand gripping the Heavenly Secret Dao Disk tightly.

In this sea of fire, the dao disk had become their only navigator.

"Tie Zhu! Turn left thirty degrees! Avoid that 'solar prominence'!"

"Activate the gravity field! Suppress the flow rate of the surrounding flames!"

At this moment, Tie Zhu was like a submarine navigating through magma.

Its outer Red Hou skin was burned to ashes within a mere ten breaths.

Next was the Poison Flood Dragon skin.

This skin from a Fourth-Tier Demonic Beast lasted a bit longer, but it also began to crack and peel off.

High temperatures were conducted through the layers of armor.

Fei Yu felt like his eyebrows were about to be scorched: "Old Man Han! The water cloud gauze is about to dry up! The Cold Ice Talismans are all burned out!"

"Hold on!"

Zhou Wannian looked at the green light on the dao disk representing the "path to life."

"Another three thousand feet!"

"Tie Zhu! Full speed ahead! Forget about defense! Use all energy for the thrusters!"

Boom!

The thrusters on Tie Zhu's back spat out two trails of blue fire, carving a path through the gold-red world.

Just then.

"Roar—"

A shrill scream came from behind.

Zhou Wannian looked through Tie Zhu's rear-view Formation.

He saw that the three Nascent Soul Old Monsters had also come down.

But they didn't have "spacesuits."

They were relying entirely on their own magic power and Magic Treasures to endure.

The Nascent Soul Cultivator whose Divine Soul was already injured was hit by a stray "starfire" as soon as he arrived.

His protective spiritual light shattered like paper.

"Save me..."

He only had time to let out a scream before his Physical Body vaporized instantly, leaving nothing behind.

Only a palm-sized "Nascent Soul" figure with a terrified expression, clutching its Lifebound Treasure, screamed as it teleported into the Grand Elder's shield.

"Third Brother!"

The Grand Elder's face turned ashen.

The power of this True Starfire far exceeded his imagination! The flames here were no ordinary fire, but physical flames carrying the Law of Gravity! Every wisp of flame weighed a thousand catties!

"Senior Brother! That Puppet is about to escape!"

The Red-Haired Ancestor pointed at the crazy-accelerating hunk of iron ahead.

"Chase! We can't let him get away!"

The Grand Elder stuffed the Nascent Soul figure into his sleeve and sacrificed a blue pearl—it was the "Sea-Settling Bead," the treasure of the Six-Link Palace.

The pearl emitted a soft circle of water light, barely blocking the surrounding intense heat.

The two turned into streaks of light, pursuing relentlessly through the sea of fire... Ahead.

Tie Zhu's condition had reached its limit.

"Warning! Outer armor 90% damaged!"

"Warning! Internal temperature exceeds critical value! Power core about to overheat and melt!"

Mechanical and cold warning tones echoed in the narrow cockpit.

"Old Man Han... I'm cooked... I'm really cooked..." Ling Yunxiao's eyes were starting to roll back, and his skin was covered in blisters from the heat.

"We're here! Just ahead!"

Zhou Wannian looked through the observation port and saw a floating black stone platform in the center of the sea of fire.

That was the only foothold on this floor—the [Star Tempering Platform].

There was an invisible force field around the stone platform, isolating those terrifying True Starfires outside.

"Charge through! Crash into it!"

Zhou Wannian roared.

By now, the Grand Elder behind them was less than a hundred feet away.

"Die!"

The Grand Elder struck with a palm from a distance.

A golden palm print tore through the sea of fire and slammed heavily onto Tie Zhu's back.

Thud!

This palm strike became the final push.

Tie Zhu, which was already on the verge of falling apart, was like a kicked meteorite. Using this force, it whistled as it crashed into the invisible force field.

Bang!

A massive sound.

Tie Zhu slammed heavily onto the black stone platform, rolling over a dozen times before coming to a stop.

Its outer shell had completely melted, its limbs were broken, and the chest armor was twisted and deformed.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

After a series of ear-grating metal grinding sounds.

The twisted hatch was kicked open.

Three "acquaintances" who looked like they had just been pulled out of a steamer crawled out stumbling.

"Alive... still alive..."

Ling Yunxiao lay on the cold stone platform, greedily breathing the slightly cooler air, tears and snot running down his face.

"Don't just lie there like a corpse! Get up!"

Although Zhou Wannian was also in immense pain, he immediately jumped up and looked warily at the edge of the stone platform.

There, the light barrier flickered.

The Grand Elder and the Red-Haired Ancestor had also rushed in.

However, they weren't faring much better.

The Grand Elder's Sea-Settling Bead was covered in cracks, its spiritual nature clearly severely damaged. The Red-Haired Ancestor's hair and eyebrows were completely burned off, leaving him bald and emitting black smoke.

"Keep running..."

The Grand Elder panted, his eyes looking at them as if they were dead.

"This is a dead end."

"I want to see where else you can run."

This was indeed a dead end.

The Star Tempering Platform was only a hundred feet wide, surrounded by the sea of fire. There were no stairs going up, and no teleportation Formations.

Only in the center of the stone platform was a sword stabbed into it.

A rusty, broken sword with only half its blade remaining.

Beneath the broken sword was a golden page.

"That is..."

The Grand Elder's gaze was instantly drawn to that golden page.

[Reverse Star Art · Nascent Soul Chapter].

As a Nascent Soul Cultivator, he was most sensitive to the aura of a Cultivation Technique of this level.

"The core Legacy of the Reverse Star Alliance!"

The greed in the Grand Elder's eyes instantly outweighed his killing intent.

"Old Man Han, hand over the keys and that Puppet's core, and I can give you a swift death."

He approached step by step.

Zhou Wannian had nowhere to retreat.

He leaned against that broken sword and suddenly laughed.

The laugh was somewhat desolate, yet somewhat crazed.

"Give me a swift death?"

"Old Ghost Gu, do you really think this is a dead end?"

Zhou Wannian suddenly turned around and gripped the rusty hilt of the broken sword with both hands.

"Don't move! That's the Formation eye!" The Grand Elder's expression changed, instinctively sensing danger.

"Too late."

The Cloud Seal Heavenly Scripture within Zhou Wannian's body circulated wildly. All his spiritual power, including all the true essence he had just gained from breaking through to the Late Foundation Establishment Stage, was poured into the broken sword without reservation.

"Using my body as a sacrifice, let the starfire set the fields ablaze!"

"Rise!"

Hum—!!!

That broken sword, which looked like scrap metal, suddenly erupted with a terrifying Sword Intent that changed the very color of the sky and earth.

It wasn't just a sword.

It was the fire control valve for the entire fourth floor, the "Star Core Furnace."

Rumble!

The True Starfire around the stone platform, which had been isolated by the force field, suddenly surged onto the platform like a bursting dam.

But they didn't burn toward Zhou Wannian.

Instead, following the guidance of the broken sword, they transformed into nine giant fire Dragons, roaring as they charged toward the Grand Elder and the Red-Haired Ancestor.

"This is... borrowing momentum?!"

The Grand Elder screamed in terror.

In this Star Core Furnace, whoever controlled the fire was a god.

And Zhou Wannian, using that broken sword, had temporarily stolen the authority of a "god."

"Ah!!!"

The Red-Haired Ancestor bore the brunt of it, instantly swallowed by two fire Dragons. His battered Physical Body could no longer hold on and collapsed instantly.

Whoosh!

Another tiny Nascent Soul screamed and flew out, ducking into the Grand Elder's sleeve.

Now, the Grand Elder had two Nascent Souls in his sleeve, a nearly shattered Sea-Settling Bead in his hand, and was facing a sky full of fire and that old man holding a broken sword like a demon.

"Madman! You're a total madman!"

The Grand Elder was afraid.

He felt the crisis of his own fall.

"Old Man Han! The mountains will not change, and the green waters will flow forever! I will remember today's grudge!"

The Grand Elder was also a decisive person.

He suddenly bit his tongue and spat a mouthful of essence blood onto the Sea-Settling Bead.

"Water Escape: Ten Thousand Miles Without a Trace!"

Boom!

The Sea-Settling Bead exploded, turning into a ball of dazzling blue light that enveloped him, forcibly tearing a spatial rift in the sea of fire. He instantly dove in and disappeared.

He fled.

A dignified Nascent Soul Great Cultivator was forced by a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator to self-destruct his Lifebound Treasure and flee.

"Whew..."

Seeing the Grand Elder disappear, the madness in Zhou Wannian's eyes instantly faded.

His hands loosened.

Clang.

His whole body collapsed onto the ground, and the broken sword lost its luster, turning back into scrap metal.

"I won the gamble..."

Zhou Wannian looked at the sea of fire still churning above him, a trace of black blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.

"But this time, I'm truly... at the end of my rope."

Tie Zhu was ruined.

All trump cards played.

His body was hollowed out.

But his hand was deathly tight around that golden page that had been pressed under the broken sword.

And... that sword which looked like scrap metal but was actually the key to opening the fifth floor's "Heaven-Reaching Ladder"—[Star-Scarred Broken Sword].

"Ling Yunxiao, Li Feiyu..."

Zhou Wannian called out weakly.

"Stop playing dead."

"Collect the spoils."

"We're... going to the top floor."

"To see that legendary thing that can make someone ascend in a single step... the Reverse Star Disk."