17: Chapter 17 The Spirit Flame Appears! Lin Tian: I'm finally going to rise!

The dark red stone passage extended all the way downward, as if it were the entrance leading straight to the Nine Nether Hell.

The deeper he went, the more pungent the smell of sulfur permeating the air became.

The surrounding temperature was climbing at an exaggerated speed, and even the rough rock walls on both sides faintly revealed a dark red luster from being scorched excessively.

Lin Tian was like a dying wild dog in the desert, dragging his left leg stained with dark blue poisonous blood, struggling to move down the steep stone steps.

His originally tattered Outer Sect Disciple robe had long since turned into strands of charred black cloth hanging on his body.

His right arm hung at his side in a twisted posture; that was the price of having it shattered by the giant axe of the stone Puppet.

Every heavy breath tugged at his broken ribs, bringing a wave of heart-wrenching pain.

"Drip."

A drop of blood mixed with sweat and sludge slid down his chin and smashed onto the stone steps under his feet, instantly evaporated by the terrifying high temperature, emitting a faint "hiss" sound and turning into a wisp of blue smoke.

It was too hot.

This heat was not only scorching his flesh but also crazily evaporating the already exhausted Qi within his body.

Lin Tian bit his cracked, bleeding lips tightly, relying entirely on the obsession of unwillingness in his chest to support this broken shell.

He raised his intact left hand and, borrowing the faint red light emanating from the depths of the passage, glanced at the motionless mysterious black iron ring on his index finger.

"Senior, do you see it? I am almost at the end."

Lin Tian let out a hoarse murmur like a broken bellows from his dry throat, his bloodshot eyes bulging, revealing a sickly fanaticism, "No matter what ghosts are blocking the way ahead, I will bring out that cluster of heaven and earth spirit fire. As long as it can make you wake up, as long as it can let me take back the dignity that belongs to me... what do these injuries count for!"

He used the broken sword, which only had half a blade left, as a crutch, pressed it hard against the stone steps, and used the leverage to take heavy steps forward again.

He did not know how much time had passed.

When his vision suddenly opened up ahead, a heatwave capable of instantly burning a Mortal to ashes rushed toward him like a galloping fire Dragon.

Lin Tian was knocked staggering by this heatwave and fell onto the scorching ground.

He didn't care about the blisters being burned all over his body, suddenly raised his head, and stared blankly at the scene before him, his breathing completely stalling at this moment.

Presented before him was an underground cavern so huge it was immeasurable.

At the bottom of the cavern was a rolling, roaring lake of magma. The dark red magma was like boiling blood, constantly bubbling up with huge bubbles, splashing scorching sparks several feet high when they burst.

In the very center of this deadly magma lake stood an ancient altar built from pitch-black, unknown Ore. A narrow stone bridge, wide enough for only one person to pass, connected the edge of the cavern where Lin Tian stood to the altar in the center of the lake.

What attracted all of Lin Tian's attention was not this spectacular underground wonder, but the cluster of flames quietly floating directly above the altar.

It was a cluster of cyan flames.

It did not have the violent and rampant form of the magma; instead, it burned quietly, the edges of the flames outlining layers of phantoms, like a cyan lotus flower quietly blooming in the Void Realm.

Around the green lotus fire, even space produced subtle distortions due to the extremely pure energy. The cyan halo it emitted forcibly propped up a cool and holy Domain within this dark red magma world.

"earth heart green lotus fire..."

Lin Tian's Adam's apple rolled with difficulty, and his originally unfocused pupils contracted to the size of needle points in an instant.

He threw away the broken sword he had been relying on for support, braced his hands against the scorching ground, and stood up shakily. The violent heartbeat thundered in his eardrums, forcibly suppressing all exhaustion and sharp pain.

Found it! He had really found it!

"Haha... Hahahaha!"

A burst of hysterical laughter, suppressed to the extreme and then completely out of control, echoed through the empty underground cavern.

Lin Tian tilted his head back, letting the scorching hot wind from the magma blow against his blood-stained face. Physiological tears even spilled from the corners of his eyes due to excessive excitement, evaporating rapidly in the high temperature, leaving only two turbid tear stains.

"Heaven will not cut me off! The heavens are ultimately on my, Lin Tian's, side!"

He pointed to the dome above the cavern, his voice hoarse but filled with a feeling of triumph and madness, "Even if I, Lin Tian, am a Trash who had my engagement broken, even if I am looked down upon by everyone, I can still rely on my own tenacity to reach this step!"

He lowered his head to look at the ancient ring on his finger, his eyes burning with flames of greed and longing.

"Senior, you will wake up soon! As long as I swallow this cluster of heaven and earth spirit fire, not only will my Foundation be completely repaired, but my cultivation will surely advance by leaps and bounds! Whatever Xuantian Sect's inner sect assessment, whatever high and mighty Core Disciple, they will all be trampled under my feet!"

Lin Tian seemed to have fallen into a fanatical fantasy about the future; he even spat a mouthful of bloody saliva fiercely in the direction of Luoye Peak.

"Gu Yi! You hypocrite who only knows how to use your status to suppress people! I, Lin Tian, will keep in mind your ignoring and humiliation of me in the back mountain yesterday! When I refine the spirit fire and enter Foundation Establishment, I will definitely challenge you to a duel in this back mountain, and in front of the entire Xuantian Sect, I will break your spine and let you know who the real Genius is!"

Inside the underground cavern, only Lin Tian's manic declaration of revenge echoed endlessly between the rock walls, accompanied by the rolling sound of magma.

And in the shadows of the passage less than ten steps behind Lin Tian.

A layer of transparent concealment barrier, like water ripples, was quietly isolating the outside investigation and heatwaves.

Gu Yi stood with his hands behind his back, his slender figure set off by a set of white clothes, revealing a calmness untainted by dust.

He watched quietly the bloody person ahead, gesturing wildly and swearing fiercely at the air, his deep eyes without the slightest fluctuation, just like watching a funny monkey performing hard on a stage.

"Giggle, this little Trash is really a vengeful one."

Ji Meier's illusory, graceful body floated beside Gu Yi. She rested her cheek in one hand, while the fingers of her other hand were boredly drawing circles on Gu Yi's shoulder.

"Looking at his confident appearance, if his dream falls through later, I'm afraid even his Dao Heart will shatter into slag on the spot, right?"

Gu Yi turned his head slightly, his nose sniffing the faint fragrance emitted by the Soul Power on Ji Meier's body, and a faint smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"The higher one climbs, the harder one falls. Only when a person is kicked into the abyss at the moment they think they have touched the clouds, that kind of despair and collapse is the purest and sweetest."

Gu Yi transmitted his voice in his mind using Divine Sense, his voice so steady there wasn't a ripple, "This cluster of spirit fire is the hope he exchanged half his life for. If I don't let him blow this bubble of hope to its maximum, how could I have the heart to poke it myself?"

Upon hearing this, a strange brilliance flashed in Ji Meier's beautiful eyes.

She loved this belly-black streak in Gu Yi that played with people's hearts in the palm of his hand.

Compared to those Righteous Path Cultivators full of benevolence and morality, this kind of man who is openly evil and extremely patient is more to the taste of her, a ten-thousand-year-old demoness.

She moved her gaze away from Lin Tian's back, crossed the narrow stone bridge, and landed on the cyan fire lotus quietly burning above the altar.

A complex look of reminiscence emerged in the depths of her eyes.

"Back when I first entered the Central Plains, it was a near-death experience before I found the seed of this green lotus fire in the earth fire veins of the far west. In order to Seal it in this Xuantian Sect back mountain to nourish it, I even spent nearly a hundred years of my cultivation."

Ji Meier sighed softly, then smiled relievedly, her delicate body leaning into Gu Yi's embrace, "Oh well, anyway, I am now all yours. These worldly possessions from back then can just be considered a dowry to nourish your body, my little enemy."

Gu Yi reached out to wrap his arm around her illusory waist, his gaze also locking onto the earth heart green lotus fire that was emitting tempting fluctuations.

"I will not decline this generous gift from you, sister."

Just as the two were communicating via Divine Sense, Lin Tian ahead had stopped laughing wildly.

He wiped the blood and dirt off his face hard and took a deep breath of the scorching air. The stinging sensation that felt like his internal organs were about to be roasted actually made him more clear-headed.

Lin Tian dragged his crippled leg and stepped onto the narrow stone bridge leading to the altar in the center of the lake.

Below the stone bridge was rolling crimson magma; if he were slightly careless and fell down, it would be the end of having no bones left.

Every step Lin Tian took was extremely slow, yet incomparably firm. His eyes stared fixedly at the green lotus fire in the center of the altar, as if it were the only light in this world.

Ten steps. Five steps. Three steps.

Lin Tian finally finished walking across the stone bridge and stepped onto the edge of the pitch-black altar.

The cyan firelight rushing toward him illuminated his blood-stained, hideous, and terrifying face, making it flicker between light and dark. Feeling the vast energy contained in this cluster of heaven and earth spirit fire at close range, the blood all over Lin Tian's body seemed to boil.

He could feel that the mysterious black iron ring on his index finger seemed to have produced a trace of an extremely faint tremor because of this huge energy of the same origin.

"Senior, we have finally made it."

Lin Tian murmured softly, dragging his heavy steps, and stepped onto the last few stairs in the center of the altar.

The green lotus fire was close at hand.

The scorching temperature had even ignited his already tattered hem and messy hair. The smell of scorched flesh permeated the air, but Lin Tian seemed to have lost his sense of pain.

In his eyes, there was only pure greed and ecstasy left.

Lin Tian tremblingly extended his intact left hand, his five fingers slightly spread. As long as he touched the core of the fire seed and operated his Cultivation Technique to introduce it into his body, all this suffering would turn into stepping stones for him to reach the Peak of the cultivation world.

His fingertips were only the last inch away from the cyan fire lotus quietly blooming.

The cyan firelight was already reflected in his completely dilated pupils.