Fentukuangge’s eyes instantly lit up, and without another word, he leaped into the pit. If he still couldn't grasp the meaning of Qian Jin's words after this, he might as well smash his head against a rock and die. The geothermal heat here was equivalent to the fierce fire that melted metal; if fire could melt metal, then the heat rising here could melt the Great True Gold Qi absorbed into the body.

Hone, refine! Absorb the purest metallic essence right from the start! Expel all impurities within the body!

Qian Jin experienced what it felt like to be buried alive. He turned and looked at the pit that was now his, then retrieved the Iron Arm Mantis Bloodline combat skill from the Dou World again.

The Wind and Cloud Dou Qi could simulate the Iron Arm Mantis Bloodline, but it could only exert about eighty percent of its true power. With the Dou Heart Consciousness, it seemed capable of reaching nearly ninety percent, and under Enlack's immense pressure, that singular, extraordinary experience had nearly brought it to a full one hundred percent.

One viewing was not enough; he had to see it again! Qian Jin vaguely felt that even if the Wind and Cloud Dou Qi couldn't truly unleash the full might of the Iron Arm Mantis Bloodline techniques, it could at least imitate them to ninety-nine percent. He must have missed something.

The moment the scroll unfurled, the scorching, fierce sunlight struck it. Qian Jin noticed that the image on the scroll seemed to writhe, and the intense heat in the air for a moment... This was...

Qian Jin stared at the light emanating from the scroll. The painting depicted on the very front—the record of the Iron Arm Mantis Bloodline warriors on the Human-Demon Battlefield—was actually projecting itself onto the sky not far before him.

A mirage! Qian Jin stared blankly at the image forming in the sky, which was gradually... gradually...

As the image twisted, it suddenly became perfectly clear. The howling of the fierce wind sounded like the roars of countless humans and demons hacking at each other on the battlefield. The static illustration that had been within the scroll transformed, due to the distortion of the air in the mirage, into a moving picture.

Over thirty Iron Arm Mantis Bloodline warriors, surrounded by the battlefield teeming with the Nightmarish Race and the Demon Race. In the far distance, there was a gigantic canopy—a special symbol recognized by every warrior student who had ever entered the War Academy: the canopy belonging to the Great Demon King!

Thirty men against a million demons! The Demon King's Canopy!

These very thirty men launched a ferocious charge toward the Great Demon King's Canopy! Thirty men facing a million demons, not one retreating. They brandished their arms, harder than broadswords, pressing forward, fighting their way onward, onward, onward!

Thirty... twenty-nine... twenty-eight... eighteen... eight... seven... three... one! The Iron Arm Mantis Bloodline warriors rapidly dwindled under the crushing pressure of the million demons. For every Iron Arm Mantis warrior that fell, a large number of demons were certain to be buried with them.

No surrender! No retreat! No submission!

Only when the small squad of thirty had truly fought their way near the Great Demon King's Canopy did they finally all fall.

Fighting until the very last man, without a single step back! Nor a single surrender! Never retreating! Never yielding! Always pressing forward! Within the rolling spectacle, the scroll of the Iron Arm Mantis Bloodline family’s tragically brutal war history unfolded.

Qian Jin felt his breath grow ragged. The accumulated soul of the Iron Arm Mantis Bloodline warriors, gathered over thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years, seemed to surge into his mind with the raging wind, carried by the image.

In that instant, Qian Jin felt as if he were thrust into that bloody, cruel war, a conflict where victory was long gone, where surrender meant survival, and fighting to the death meant annihilation!

The contempt he once held for the Iron Arm Mantis Bloodline family's history of submitting to the Demon Race vanished completely, replaced only by a respect, an indescribable awe and shock.

In a flash, Qian Jin felt the Dou Heart in his chest throb! It was as if the Dou Heart, too, had memorized this entire sequence of events deep within its soul.

The mirage did not last long, but it carried an overwhelmingly tragic aura of invincibility that deeply shook Qian Jin’s soul.

Who says the Iron Arm Mantis Bloodline warriors only produce cowards? What was this? This was the true soul of the Iron Arm Mantis Bloodline! Its soul was already etched into the stars themselves!

Fight to the death, never retreat! Never surrender! Forward, forward, and forward again! Never look back!

Qian Jin stared blankly at the sky, now devoid of the mirage. Only the lingering impression left by the Iron Arm Mantis Bloodline warriors remained in his mind. Before, even when using the Fen Jin Lian Zhan technique, he would subconsciously carry a trace of disdain—what could a bloodline without backbone, one that knelt to the Demon Race, possibly amount to?

Now, the charge depicted in the vision completely overturned what was written in the history textbooks.

That certainly wasn't something a painter could conjure from mere imagination. Such reality could only be captured by someone who had truly experienced that great war. It even carried the faint flavor of Demon Race artistry, perhaps even painted by a demon based on memory, later obtained by the Iron Arm Mantis Bloodline family who then transcribed their bloodline techniques onto the back of the scroll.

Qian Jin instinctively raised his arm. The sand around him stirred without wind, forming a massive vortex cyclone centered on him... a diameter of... one meter!

He succeeded! The Dou Heart was no longer just an empty shell. The soul of the Iron Arm Mantis family had merged into the Dou Heart Consciousness—that was Qian Jin's world.

The world he had sought so desperately, which he thought would take a long, long time to find, had arrived much sooner than expected.

Qian Jin looked down at the scroll in his hand: "Do you wish for me to display your glory to the world once more?"

There was no reply, only the roaring wind of the Ancient Barren Sand Sea, seemingly answering on behalf of the Iron Arm Mantis Bloodline family.

Qian Jin quietly put away the scroll and buried himself in the sand pit. The surrounding sand, agitated by the heat current stirred by the Dou Heart Consciousness, slowly pulled itself into the pit to cover him.

Since the Wind and Cloud Golden Body stage of the Iron Body Realm couldn't withstand a single strike from Qian Zhuanxuan, he would refine further! The Steel Body Realm, perhaps? And if the Steel Body Realm wasn't enough? Then the Silver Body Realm! If even that failed, then the Golden Body Realm!

Qian Wushuang? No! Qian Jin adjusted the arrangement of the Dou Qi within him. The genius of the Qian family, Qian Wushuang, was currently not a worthy target, unless he could achieve ultimate awakening! Currently, Qian Zhuanxuan was the strongest in the Qian family, so he would challenge Qian Zhuanxuan! He would force the Qian family to respectfully hand over his father, and he would reclaim all the humiliation his father suffered in the Qian family!

Rolling heat currents poured into Qian Jin’s body. The Wind and Cloud Golden Body seemed to melt instantly. While the heat here might not match the core of the lake in the Four Seasons Valley, it was a level of heat Qian Jin had never endured before.

Burn, bake! Roasting! Burning!

Fentukuangge felt like his bones were dissolving. When he burst out of the sand for the fifth time, he found that the bronze longsword in his hand had vanished. Driven by the intense heat, the Dou Qi within his body absorbed the Gold Qi much faster than before. In just five cycles, the two bronze longswords, which should have taken several days to fully absorb and dissolve, were consumed in less time than half a day.

"Eighteen... nineteen... twenty..."

Fentukuangge sat on the scorching sand, quietly counting the Dou Apertures within his body. This growth-type Dou Qi secret method was no longer as simple as the twelve apertures he started with; it had now grown to twenty apertures.

Fast! Unimaginably fast! Fentukuangge looked at his hands. The speed of cultivating the Great True Gold Dou Qi here far exceeded his imagination. Work that took several days outside took very little time here.

The only drawback... Fentukuangge raised his arm and sniffed hard with his nose. He could faintly smell something like roasted chicken wings. The temperature of this sand was terrifying, and as the sun rose higher, the heat flow in the sand grew stronger. He worried that before he could refine the Great True Gold Dou Qi, he might just end up cooked himself.

Fentukuangge hurried back to the cave to fetch new bronze swords, spotting Duanfeng Bu'er playing with a fist-sized stone.

"Is this the magic core of the Sand Python?" Fentukuangge bent down to pick up the bronze sword Qian Jin had discarded earlier. "Does it still have power?"

"It does!" Duanfeng Bu'er grinned widely. "It seems the power hasn't dissipated. When Qian Jin returns, we should ask him if he can study the magical array inside."

Fentukuangge nodded. Every magic core contained its own unique magical array; this was why magical beasts could use magic. Inscribers often referenced these natural arrays found in magic cores when designing their own inscriptions.

However, extracting the magical array from a magic core was no easy feat. Many Inscribers couldn't even perceive the array, let alone extract it.

"Princess..."

"Raphall, what is it? Have they left?" Lucifer Liushuibei bit her dry, cracked red lips, looking up in bitter resentment at the Blood Bat Bloodline Martial Artist, Raphall. The empty black socket where her eye had been seemed to radiate even more hatred than her single bright eye, appearing more savage.

"No..." Raphall looked up, his gray eyes, seemingly blind to the world, shaking his head slightly toward Lucifer Liushui. "Princess, the response I heard on the wind just now was that the warrior has grown stronger; his control over the Dou Heart Consciousness is smoother."

"What?" Lucifer Liushui suddenly shot to her feet, her black hair whipping wildly in the strong wind. "Stronger? Did he obtain the Dark Demon Armor?"

"No," Raphall shook his head gently. "They shouldn't have found the Dark Demon Armor."

"We can't just let it go," Lucifer Liushui gazed toward the deeper reaches of the Ancient Barren Sand Sea. "Since they refuse to leave, we'll borrow some power to drive them out, or better yet, borrow the power to kill them!"

"Princess..." Raphall stared at Lucifer Liushui in alarm. "You... you cannot take such a risk! No one knows what exists deeper within the Ancient Barren Sand Sea. One wrong step..."

"I can't wait any longer!" Lucifer Liushui raised her hand to cover the eye socket that was beginning to ache again from her rage. "Every time I think of the one who gouged out my eye still living, I want to kill him! Rumor has it, at the end of the Ancient Barren Sand Sea, a powerful Demon God resides! I may not be able to meet the Demon God, but luring a few high-level magical beasts to kill Qian Jin is certainly achievable!"

P: Please vote for next month's ticket... Q

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