Anchored to the sheer wall of the chasm deep underground, Ye Qin channeled his magic into the Purple Blade. The few inches of the blade quickly swelled to a foot, blazing with a dazzling violet light, which he swung violently against a chunk of deep purple mineral crystal.

"Clang!" A crisp, metallic chime echoed as the Purple Blade bounced straight off; not even a scratch marred the surface of the violet crystal.

Ye Qin paused, surprised. He had intended to test the crystal's hardness, but the result showed it was simply too tough.

Unable to cleave the crystal directly, he had no choice but to carve away the pitch-black rock surrounding the purple mineral. However, using his magical tool, even a single strike chipped away only minute grains of the dark rock. He calculated it would take at least three to five days just to excavate a small piece of the purple crystal from the rock face.

He was a cultivator at the ninth layer of the Qi Refining stage, and even he was using a specialized tool. If a low-level Qi Refining cultivator were attempting this with a mining pick, the pick would likely shatter before a single speck of rock dust was removed.

Ye Qin clicked his tongue.

As expected of a top-grade Fire element crystal, even the act of mining it was this arduous. If he could refine it into a Fire element magical artifact later, the results should be exceptional.

He dismissed further thoughts and began to dig. Such supreme Fire element materials were not easy to find. Once cultivators from various sects arrived at this underground magma river, he might never get another chance to acquire a Fire element crystal like this.

"Clunk, clunk, clunk."

Somewhere high on the rock wall overlooking the ten-mile-long underground magma river within the cavern, the monotonous, crisp sound of mining echoed.

Three days later.

Ye Qin joyfully clutched a small piece of deep purple crystal. Although this shard was only three inches long and thick as a thumb, it possessed surprising weight and contained an intensely concentrated Fire spiritual energy. A faint, swirling violet light flowed within it, marking it as no ordinary item. Such a rare, supreme Fire element crystal was naturally not placed in the storage pouch at his waist, but was instead carefully sealed away within his Purple Mansion for safekeeping.

After excavating one deep purple crystal, he continued searching the rock face for more. Most of the crystals here were pale purple; the deep violet ones were extremely scarce. He traversed over a hundred zhang along the wall, laboring for quite some time before locating a second deep purple crystal on another section of the rock face.

Just as he was about to begin mining this piece of purple crystal,

Suddenly, ten zhang below him, the magma river stirred. Ripples began to form, and magma bubbles started to churn up.

Ye Qin glanced down but paid it little mind. Bubbles rose from this magma river roughly every half an hour; he had grown accustomed to it over the past few days. Occasionally, faint streams of Red Flame Earth Fire would erupt from the river, easily blocked by his magical artifact without posing any threat.

As he was about to turn back to focus on mining, an inexplicable, strange sense of alarm prickled him—something felt off. He looked back towards the magma at the riverbed once more. The area of disturbance spanned several tens of zhang, much larger than anything he had seen before.

It was likely a significant burst of Earth Fire was about to erupt. The resulting geyser of Earth Fire and the churning magma bubbles would surely be far more intense than anything previously witnessed.

Considering this possibility, Ye Qin hesitated no longer. He lightly tapped his foot against the rock wall and shot upward, preparing to retreat to higher ground above the wall to evade the imminent, surging blast of Earth Fire.

Indeed, the moment he moved, the surface of the magma river instantly changed.

"BOOM!"

A colossal pillar of magma, wielding immense power, shot skyward, striking precisely at Ye Qin, who was perched more than ten zhang above the river surface on the rock wall.

Sensing the danger, Ye Qin instantly shifted his trajectory. His body flickered, and he forcibly drifted several zhang to the side, attempting to evade the scalding stream of magma rocketing toward him. But the pillar of magma seemed sentient; it curved in response, continuing to pursue Ye Qin.

"A demonic beast is causing trouble at the bottom of the magma river!"

Ye Qin realized the anomaly behind him and was instantly startled, nearly cursing aloud. At this stage, even without seeing it, he knew this was no mere Earth Fire eruption; a beast was lurking beneath the magma, attempting to attack him. Otherwise, how would the rising magma pillar know how to turn?

Ye Qin abruptly spun around, whipping his hand back. The Purple Blade, saturated with magic power, transformed into a sharp violet streak, slicing towards the magma pillar, cleaving the chasing column head-on in two.

"Splash!" The magma column was split in half, losing its momentum, and fell back into the river, kicking up countless crimson-red splashes of magma.

Clinging to the wall, Ye Qin fixed his sharp gaze on the magma river's surface, trying to locate the beast and see what creature was stirring up trouble below. At that moment, however, he noticed that the surface of the river beneath his feet had returned to calm, completely still.

But a hundred zhang away, the river surface erupted in tumultuous, boiling waves of magma. The veiled maiden was locked in a fierce battle with a river-bottom beast. It turned out the beast had not targeted him primarily, but had set its sights on the veiled maiden instead.

Ye Qin thought for a moment and understood why. His aura was severely suppressed; the energy he emitted was incredibly faint, barely distinguishable from that of a first or second-layer Qi Refining cultivator. The subterranean beast naturally wouldn't spare much notice for such a weak opponent, merely "tossing" him a magma pillar before turning to attack the maiden, whose aura was much stronger.

A single magma pillar was certainly enough to eliminate a first or second-layer Qi Refining cultivator, but it posed absolutely no threat to Ye Qin.

Ye Qin scrutinized the river-bottom beast currently fighting the veiled maiden.

It was a massive, bulbous fireball of lava, towering over ten zhang high. Its body was composed of agglomerated red stones, shrouded entirely in crimson flames, utterly demonic. It was impossible to tell what sort of beast it was; calling it a Magma Stonefire Beast seemed quite fitting.

This Magma Stonefire Beast was issuing bursts of low, angry roars, perched atop a tens-of-zhang-high pillar of lava. It clamped down on countless fiery red magma fragments and ferociously charged toward the veiled maiden on the rock wall. A direct hit would surely reduce her to dust instantly.

Ye Qin, observing from a hundred zhang away, was secretly astonished.

The sheer size of the Magma Stonefire Beast was staggering. Compared to this ten-zhang giant, he resembled a three-year-old child standing before a colossus, unable to see its head even when looking up.

The Earth Fire in this magma river was incredibly potent. To survive within it, this Magma Stonefire Beast could not be a mere low-tier beast. It had to be, at minimum, a fourth or fifth-tier Fire element demonic beast, with strength comparable to a low-tier Foundation Establishment cultivator, perhaps even higher.

Realizing this, cold sweat immediately beaded on Ye Qin’s forehead, and he inwardly cursed the bad luck. He had never anticipated a Fire element beast of this caliber rising from the riverbed at this juncture.

He refrained from rashly intervening, choosing instead to observe the battle. The beast's rank was too high, its strength unknown; rushing in blindly would only be suicide. He had no intention of dying for no reason. Furthermore, he secretly wished to gauge the true strength of this Senior Sister Huangfu.

The Magma Stonefire Beast pressed in, carrying countless streams of magma and intense flames with overwhelming might toward the veiled maiden.

The maiden’s expression was grave. After exchanging blows with the beast using her Ruyi Ring earlier, she had gained a rough measure of its power—it was likely a fifth-tier Fire element demonic beast.

This finding horrified her.

"Strange. The texts of the Azure Pill Sect contain no records of Fire element beasts surviving within magma. If I knew what kind of beast it was, I could find its weakness. But this beast, resembling a burning stone, is entirely undocumented. Could it be endemic only to this Wan Ku Ling cavern?"

The veiled maiden moved swiftly along the rock wall, not daring to slacken. She formed a hand seal, and the Ice Soul Sword shot out, striking toward the Magma Stonefire Beast that pursued her, ensuring she wouldn't be directly impacted by its charge.

"Boom!"

A streak of icy light collided with the body of the Magma Stonefire Beast.

Unfortunately, even the mighty Ice Soul Sword only managed to carve a scratch several inches deep into the fiery beast's hide. Encased in incredibly thick rock, this ten-zhang-tall Magma Stonefire Beast was nearly impervious; inflicting a serious injury was practically impossible, let alone killing it.

A mere scratch barely counted as a superficial wound.

Unexpectedly, the Magma Stonefire Beast seemed timid. After being struck by the Ice Soul Sword, it let out a low roar of surprise and rapidly retreated, refusing to approach the veiled maiden any closer.

But its retreat did not mean it had abandoned its attack on the maiden.

On the contrary, enraged, its attacks grew fiercer. A fissure cracked open on the stone segments of its body, and it opened its massive mouth: "Haaak—haak—haak!"

It spat out clusters of unpredictable red flames. These surging flames immediately materialized in mid-air into ferocious, burning phantom beasts and phantom birds, each a zhang in size, relentlessly assaulting the veiled maiden.

"Mid-tier Fire element spells! This is a Magma Stonefire Beast proficient in Fire element illusory beast techniques!"

Ye Qin cried out in shock, nearly losing his footing and tumbling from the rock wall. Thankfully, he reacted instantly, slapping his storage pouch. A pair of snow-white giant wings instantly appeared on his back, beating rhythmically as he took flight, worrying no longer about falling into the magma river.

He cursed inwardly. This Magma Stonefire Beast was too shameless. Unable to withstand the Ice Soul Sword directly, it summoned swarms of Flame Phantom Beasts to attack—clearly intending to exhaust the veiled maiden to death using the beast's overwhelmingly vast magical power. A fifth-tier beast casting such powerful mid-tier spells was trivial work; a cultivator at the ninth layer of Qi Refining simply could not compete with its spiritual reserves.

The veiled maiden saw over a dozen Flame Phantom Beasts appear within a ten-zhang radius, surrounding her for an assault, and her delicate features paled. With a sharp cry, she pointed a finger, and the Ice Soul Sword transformed into streams of cold light, slicing down upon the nearest Flame Bird, splitting it in half; it vanished instantly.

She then moved with extreme swiftness, trying to break through the encirclement of phantom beasts and rush upwards.

The Magma Stonefire Beast paused momentarily, then roared in fury. Another crack split open the stones on its body: "Haaak—haak—haak!" It spewed out large and small clumps of red flames, which immediately morphed into the shapes of various demonic beasts on the spot.

Flame Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snakes, Flame Red Sand Wolves, Flame Twin-Headed Fiery Feather Vultures, Flame Violent Bears, Flame Three-Tailed Foxes—surrounding her from all directions, above and below, they besieged the veiled maiden.

These flame phantoms were exact replicas of the beasts found within the cavern.

The veiled maiden was horrified, her face icy. She exerted her full power, releasing all her Ice Soul Lesser Swords.

"Ice Soul Separation Art, Vast Star Array—Hurry!"

One Ice Soul Sword soared upward, splitting into two, two into four, four into eight, eight into sixteen. Sixteen one-foot-long beams of icy cold light formed a massive net of ice and cold light, shredding and crushing the incoming mid-tier Flame Phantoms in one sweeping blow.

Ye Qin, slowly flapping his Bat King Wings a hundred zhang away, was momentarily dazzled and overwhelmed by the blinding glare of the Ice Soul Sword’s cold light—it was breathtaking.

Sixteen Ice Soul Swords, in the hands of a Qi Refining disciple, were an unstoppable force, capable of slaying any demon or spirit they encountered. It was likely that few could withstand such a torrential assault.

Even a Foundation Establishment cultivator slightly weaker than average would likely retreat from this Ice Soul Sword Array rather than face it head-on.

This Ice Soul Separation Art sword technique was absurdly powerful. Against Qi Refining disciples, the veiled maiden, possessing this technique, could cut down anyone she targeted. Unfortunately, she was facing not a mere beast, but a shameless fifth-tier creature.

The battle between the Magma Stonefire Beast and the veiled maiden was too intense; Ye Qin could not insert himself into the fray.

However, Ye Qin was unaware that although the veiled maiden could execute such a domineering sword technique, it drained over ninety percent of her internal magic power in one go, leaving her incapable of casting the Ice Soul Separation Art again. It was precisely because of this limitation that she never dared to use it lightly.

She could only rely on her last remaining spiritual energy, pushing upward with all her might, desperate to escape the magma river. Once she left the river, the Magma Stonefire Beast might not pursue her relentlessly.

The Magma Stonefire Beast was also startled by the sixteen-sword array formed by the Ice Soul Swords and retreated several zhang. But what it lacked in subtlety, it made up for in near-inexhaustible magical power; for every Flame Phantom it destroyed, it manifested another. It opened its wide mouth: "Haaak—haak—haak!"

Ye Qin watched the spectacle, speechless.

"Shameless, but undeniably effective."

Just as Ye Qin expected, a new large group of Flame Phantom Beasts materialized in the sky, swarming down like a deluge to surround and attack the veiled maiden.

The veiled maiden had only managed to ascend fifty zhang up the rock wall, still halfway to the top, when she was trapped by over ten mid-tier Flame Phantoms, falling into desperation. A single strike from a mid-tier spell might not be fatal, but it would certainly be devastating.

The veiled maiden could only close her eyes and raise the Ice Soul Sword to defend herself against the assault of the flame phantoms. "Boom! Boom!" After blocking three Flame Phantoms head-on, her spiritual power was entirely depleted, and she could no longer maintain her position, beginning to fall towards the magma river.

Ye Qin decided to leave. He was no match for this powerful fifth-tier Magma Stonefire Beast, and even fighting alongside the veiled maiden would be futile suicide. This Senior Sister Huangfu had once told him that if he encountered a high-tier beast he couldn't handle, he should retreat immediately; she had her own means of self-preservation.

Logically, he should depart this place right now.

Yet, Ye Qin glanced back and saw the veiled maiden plummeting towards the magma river, sighing faintly. His thought was, could her method of self-preservation be the legendary, ethereal concept of reincarnation? That was not a good plan.

"Whoosh!"

The Snow Wings flapped once, and Ye Qin vanished from his spot. He reappeared just a few zhang above the churning magma river, catching the falling veiled maiden in his arms horizontally, his wings slowly beating.

He looked up, his gaze impassive, directed at the towering Magma Stonefire Beast suspended in the air. (To be continued. For the next developments, please visit wwwq**m for more chapters, support the author, and read the genuine edition!) First Release