A vast surge of True Essence erupted from He Yiming’s body. From his mouth, especially, burst forth an incomparable, scorching breath. Countless heatwaves converged before him, lingering in the air long after they materialized.
He Yiming’s focus sharpened to an absolute peak, all distracting thoughts swept away.
The power of the Wind propelled the flames swirling in the heavens; colossal waves of heat rolled toward him, creating a strange resonance with the heat surrounding He Yiming.
Had this natural heat been judged purely by temperature, it would have far surpassed the limits He Yiming could normally evoke. Yet, astonishingly, this immense thermal wave caused no perceptible impact on He Yiming’s physical form. Not only was his body unharmed, but even the clothes he wore seemed protected by some unseen force, untouched by the powerful surge of heat.
It was as if an invisible wall surrounded him, a barrier imbued with the might of both Wind and Fire, forming a potent protective layer that rejected everything harmful.
From afar, deep beneath the earth, He Yiming seemed to see the fiery dance of the magma. These earth fires pulsed according to some arcane rhythm, and within this process, every spark appeared to contain a profound universal truth, plunging He Yiming into deep contemplation.
Through the Wind acting as a medium, a connection formed between He Yiming and the Fire element. Slowly, a look of profound satisfaction dawned on his face, as if a master physician had finally grasped the most vital pulse of a patient. He drew a deep breath, his heart swelling with the exhilaration that follows true enlightenment regarding the cosmos.
The power of the Wind continued its descent, piercing through the flames to explore. The world it perceived and sensed was vividly spectacular.
He felt like an ordinary citizen stepping into the inner courts of an imperial palace for the first time, where everything seen and heard belonged to a realm he could never have previously imagined.
Only now did he truly understand. At this moment, in the path of martial arts, he was merely a toddler who had just learned to crawl and was now staggering through his first steps. The road ahead was incredibly vast and distant; if he wished to reach the limits of this path before his life ended, he needed to exert far greater effort—not merely walking slowly, but learning to stride, even to sprint forward.
Only by doing so would it be possible for him to achieve his ultimate aspiration in this lifetime.
From deep underground, a colossal force suddenly erupted. The endless earth fire converged rapidly toward a single point, instantly coalescing into a massive Fire Dragon.
The sliver of He Yiming’s Wind, facing this Dragon, was insignificant—like a microorganism beneath a human foot, incapable of even registering a proportional scale.
The Fire Dragon thrashed once, then exploded. The scorching breath of the entire earth fire instantly intensified violently. Before He Yiming could even process what had happened, the thread of Wind—the anchor for his spirit—was utterly scattered and extinguished.
He Yiming’s face immediately turned deathly pale. He lightly pressed a hand to his chest and violently spat out a mouthful of blood.
However, this blood was not expelled onto the ground, but rather onto the boundless, scorching aura hanging in the mid-air.
This mouthful of blood contained the insights He Yiming had gained from his connection below, even carrying a trace of that mysterious, potent energy that had suddenly erupted from the earth fire.
As this energy traveled via the blood into the air, the countless droplets began to spin rapidly, undergoing a subtle transformation.
Every drop of blood seemed saturated with potent True Essence, all of it the purest Fire element energy. In mere moments, petals of a deep, exquisite crimson gradually formed in the air.
These petals danced weightlessly, like falling snow, spiraling around He Yiming as if they were playful children clinging to their most beloved guardian. They possessed an indescribable liveliness and charm.
He Yiming opened his eyes. Gazing at the vivid, dew-kissed petals, his heart swelled with pride.
He extended one hand, raising his thumb high. As if understanding his intent, the petals surged toward him in unison. In an instant, centered around He Yiming’s thumb, the petals layered themselves around it, and in the blink of an eye, a beautiful, deep-red flower had fully formed.
Yet, upon closer inspection, one could easily discern that amidst the crimson hues, there was a faint thread of pale azure mixed in.
After He Yiming concluded his technique, the temperature surrounding him was significantly higher than at the start. The spread of the earth fire also seemed to have accelerated, influenced by some power.
He Yiming knew this must be connected to that mysterious force deep beneath the earth. But that force was too overwhelmingly vast; compared to it, he was less than an ant.
This, perhaps, was the power of Nature itself—only the force of the Great Natural World could possess such magnitude.
Though the surrounding temperature had risen drastically, causing the stone walls to quickly glow red, He Yiming felt that this heat, far from instilling the sense of danger he felt initially, instead brought a feeling of intimacy and eager anticipation.
He knew his Fire Flower had finally been successfully condensed.
However, because the process of condensing his Fire Flower differed from that of ordinary Xiantian experts, the petals before him were not a pure Fire Flower, but rather a Wind-Fire Flower.
Fire within Wind, Wind within Fire…
Thus, looking upon this strange Wind-Fire Flower, He Yiming’s own eyes held a flicker of indescribable strangeness.
Since learning of the concept of the Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, He Yiming had consulted records in the Hengshan Library.
As far as he knew, every tangible flower was condensed entirely from True Essence of a single elemental attribute. In his memory, he had never heard of any top master condensing a tangible flower composed of a mixture of different elemental attributes.
If True Essences of different attributes—even those that were mutually generating—were forced together, they could never form a tangible flower. This was because different attributes could not be mixed and compressed. Any attempt to force the condensation would inevitably result in the flower exploding and the cultivator perishing.
But before He Yiming’s eyes, this flower, crimson threaded with azure, was undeniably formed from the mixture and condensation of two distinct essences. If other experts of his level knew this, it would surely cause a massive uproar.
He Yiming contemplated this seriously for a long moment. His lips moved, and powerful True Essence surged out from his body. In the next instant, the flower upon his thumb dissolved, scattering completely.
The petals transformed back into strange, droplet-shaped tangible objects. These floating droplets were of distinct colors.
Unlike before, the two separate colors—red and azure—had completely separated.
Subsequently, these droplets reassembled. Slowly, around He Yiming’s body, they formed two tangible flowers of differing hues.
The azure Wind Flower, the crimson Fire Flower…
When the two energies condensed together, they formed the layered petals of the Wind-Fire Flower. But when the two different attributes were separated, they manifested as two completely distinct yet whole tangible flowers.
Watching this magical transformation, He Yiming felt more than just pride; his feeling was primarily one of curious uncertainty. He quickly resolved that upon returning to Hengshan, he would immediately seek counsel from Yu Jinglei on this matter.
Perhaps Yu Jinglei would have heard of things He Yiming did not know.
The Wind Flower spun lightly around him, stirring the surrounding heat, causing massive thermal waves to churn outward. The Fire Flower floated serenely above He Yiming’s head, drawing in the surrounding heat as if it were moths to a flame.
Nourished by the abundant heatwaves, the Fire Flower became increasingly vibrant and beautiful. Furthermore, under these conditions, He Yiming’s body actually felt a trace of coolness, allowing him to remain utterly unharmed amid the rampage of the earth fire.
Looking up, He Yiming oriented himself and headed toward a specific passage.
Now that the Fire Flower had been condensed, it was time for him to leave this place. While the environment here was incredibly beneficial for nurturing the Fire Flower, his thirst for vengeance against Suoge and the Red Wolf King made him unwilling to linger.
The surrounding environment was brutally hot, and the closer he moved toward the periphery, the more intense the searing sensation became.
From the ground, massive pillars of fire occasionally erupted, shooting toward the ceiling. The tops of these flames, like the tongues of monstrous beasts, licked the peaks of the cavern walls.
He Yiming studied them carefully for a moment and finally understood why these passages were so smooth—it was due to these very fire pillars.
He retracted his gaze, hesitated briefly, and then the Fire Flower above his head suddenly accelerated, diving directly into one of the raging fire pillars.
A strange event unfolded: when the Fire Flower entered the pillar, the pillar split down the middle, as if sliced by He Yiming’s great saber, flowing around the two sides of the flower before reconnecting at the cavern roof.
He Yiming was ecstatic. The Fire Flower truly possessed incomparable, immense power, just as legend claimed.
Even the Fire-Repelling Pearl, merely recorded in books, could not surpass this.
A strange thought suddenly struck him: perhaps the so-called Fire-Repelling Pearl was actually a tangible object similar to the Fire Flower?
Shaking his head, He Yiming dismissed the idea and walked forward boldly.
The place where he had condensed the Fire Flower was extremely close to the inner depths of the cave—the only location that still held safe zones untouched by the earth fire.
Once he moved outward, a blast of heat immediately washed over him. However, with the Fire Flower augmenting him, He Yiming proceeded without fear within this domain saturated with earth fire power. Along the way, he trod as if on level ground; all the power of the flames turned into illusory bubbles before him, unable to threaten his safety any longer.
But after walking some distance, He Yiming suddenly halted. His ears twitched rhythmically, and his expression shifted slightly.
He was detecting a peculiar sound from a great distance away, sounding as if someone were attacking the cavern walls.
The walls here were mostly immensely thick; even He Yiming, with his great saber, couldn't claim certainty in splitting them open. Yet, upon hearing the distant booming noise, a thought struck He Yiming: the person attacking the wall must possess immense power, perhaps enough to breach the stone he was attacking.
Just as he formed this thought, the sound of rolling stones reached his ears. He Yiming sighed internally. While he was highly satisfied with his predictive ability, he was also consumed by curiosity.
Could there be another person trapped inside this cavern, just like him?
After a moment of hesitation, He Yiming abandoned the idea of investigating this mystery.
In this harsh environment, anyone capable of surviving, let alone attacking so recklessly—or perhaps thoughtlessly—was someone He Yiming preferred not to engage with.
Briefly reorienting himself, He Yiming continued moving toward the exit of the cave.
However, moments later, He Yiming’s steps halted once more. His expression became intensely serious, and his gaze flashed with unfriendliness.
He was now certain: that unknown expert had discovered his presence and was approaching without any attempt to conceal their movements.
He snorted lightly and turned, moving in the same direction.
While he didn't seek trouble, it didn't mean he feared it.
Anyone capable of moving so freely in this place was undoubtedly a formidable, top-tier expert. Dealing with such an individual if they insisted on entanglement would be difficult to shake off. Rather than being harassed later while searching for Suoge and the Red Wolf King outside, it was better to resolve this potential problem here.
The only regret was that he did not have his great saber; otherwise, he would have feared no enemy, no matter how strong.
Soon, the distance between the two parties rapidly closed. He Yiming’s heart stirred. He opened his mouth slightly, and the Wind Flower drifting around him instantly shattered, inhaled into his dantian with a breath. The Fire Flower above his head dimmed significantly, appearing outwardly fragile, as if on the verge of collapse at any moment.
Since the opponent was acting so aggressively, he would feign weakness.
The sound of striking the rock wall grew closer, causing a restless anticipation within He Yiming. He paused, lowered his stance into a solid sitting posture, and concentrated powerful True Essence in his palm, tapping the wall lightly.
This tap appeared simple and light, but the underlying yielding force was extraordinary. While lacking the massive momentum of the other party, its potential destructive impact was by no means inferior.
However, the moment his palm connected with the wall, He Yiming's expression flickered.
From the force transmitted through his palm, He Yiming was able to roughly estimate the hardness and thickness of the wall. He shook his head slightly, finally abandoning the idea of breaking through.
But his expression grew gloomier. If even he, with his current strength, wasn't confident in breaching the wall, the fact that the person on the other side was attacking it so wantonly suggested that their strength surpassed his own.
Soon, the rumbling noise grew nearer, and the vibrating of He Yiming’s ears accelerated.
He was certain: the other person was standing directly on the other side of the stone, separated by only a thin wall.
Although he had just condensed his dual flowers and advanced his martial cultivation, facing this unknown strong practitioner left him feeling somewhat unsettled.
Yet, the expected sound of impact against the stone wall never came. After pausing for a breath on the opposite side, the person seemed to proceed down the passage along the wall.
He Yiming watched silently. The path this person took clearly led toward his current location.
His suspicion deepened: why did this person stop attacking the wall? Did they realize this particular stone section was exceptionally thick?
If so, this person was truly terrifying.
In the dark stone passage, aside from the sound of the earth fire burning, there was no other noise, settling into a strange stillness.
Finally, the person traversed several passages and entered the one where He Yiming waited.
He Yiming inhaled deeply. He made no attempt to conceal his presence, instead watching the front coolly.
Suddenly, his eyes widened. At the curve of the passage, the first thing to appear was a sword.
It was a dark, trident-like sword—if he wasn't mistaken, it was the very one he used to obscure his identity when ambushing the Totem tribesmen.
Following it, a great saber appeared before him.
The Great Saber—the weapon that had accompanied him through countless campaigns—could certainly not be mistaken.
Upon seeing these two weapons, He Yiming immediately deduced the identity of the approaching individual.
Number 108. Besides him, no one else would emerge carrying those two weapons.
Soon, a person fully emerged from the corner. It was indeed Number 108, but he had undergone a massive transformation.
The face was the same, but Number 108's physique seemed taller now, and he had gained considerable bulk. Most strikingly, both of his arms had been replaced by the trident-sword and the great saber.
He Yiming shivered profoundly and asked in astonishment, "108? Is that you?"
Number 108 looked at him silently, then his hands shifted, reforming back into the appearance of arms. "You’re no longer afraid of the earth fire?"
"Yes, I have condensed the Fire Flower," He Yiming replied with a touch of pride.
Number 108 nodded slightly, his expression remaining impassive.
He Yiming asked tentatively, "Brother Bai, how did you get in here?"
"I just thought of a way to safely bring you out," Number 108 stated calmly.
He Yiming’s eyebrows shot up. A surge of excitement washed over him, and Number 108’s impassive face suddenly appeared extremely pleasing to his eyes.
He finally understood that this outwardly cold, seemingly indifferent giant was actually quite reserved in expressing his true feelings.