Seeing Xi Yang’s genuine face and then glancing back at the uneven pool behind him, Ye Jingyu scratched his head sheepishly and nodded. After all, having eaten so much of her food, it would be truly unconscionable to deceive her now.

“Oh, then I wonder how far along your cultivation technique is now?”

“It’s alright, but it still needs a bit more refinement…” Ye Jingyu murmured, though inside he sighed silently. He had initially expected to fill one-third of the space in his Fire Eye Aperture, but it was currently only a sixth full. It seemed he would need at least six times the current number of Red Lotuses to successfully condense the Blazing Gold Elixir. However, he dared not mention this to her; he was well aware that the fire-attribute spiritual energy he had absorbed could cultivate hundreds of top-tier masters. If he claimed he had only improved a little, he would appear far too arrogant.

“Ah, still needs refinement, but that’s alright! Brother Ye, I still have a pot of my treasured ‘Drunken Red Dust’ that has been aged for a thousand years. My mother used a thousand years to brew this supreme liquor from those Blazing Red Lotuses. Its effect is far superior to the lotuses themselves. Let me invite Brother Ye over for a few cups!” As she spoke, she took Ye Jingyu’s hand and led him toward a cave entrance not far away…

“I shouldn’t impose,” Ye Jingyu said, yet his eyes were blazing with eagerness, showing not a hint of hesitation.

“Hehe, it’s no trouble at all. Brother Ye is my guest, so Xi Yang naturally must satisfy every request a guest might have, mustn’t I?” While saying ‘every request,’ Xi Yang deliberately emphasized the tone, but our little Ye simply stood there like a block of wood, completely missing the implicit meaning beneath her words, and merely offered a gentle smile.

The two stepped into the cave, and only then did Ye Jingyu truly feel the abundance of fire-attribute spiritual energy permeating the space. The stone walls of the cavern emitted a faint, fiery red glow, making the entire place feel like a chamber of flames. If it weren't for the constant absorption by the Fire Eye Aperture within his body, the ambient temperature here would have been enough to bake him into a dried corpse. Yet, looking at Xi Yang beside him, she showed no sign of feeling the heat at all…

Suddenly recalling her mention of the ‘Drunken Red Dust’ being a supreme liquor aged by her mother over a millennium, he realized that Xi Yang’s identity was seemingly far from ordinary.

“Miss Xi Yang…”

“Brother Ye, you’ve eaten so many of my Red Lotuses, why are you still calling me Miss Xi Yang? Call me Xi Xi or Yang Yang!” Upon hearing Ye Jingyu still address her formally, Xi Yang pouted.

Xi Xi? Yang Yang? Ye Jingyu felt a headache brewing. Wasn't that a bit too saccharine? But then again, if he still insisted on using her formal name now, it would indeed be too distant. Although they were clearly not intimate, given the entire pond of Blazing Red Lotuses, he couldn't be too formal…

“Yang Yang, if your mother spent a thousand years brewing that liquor, then where is your mother? Why don’t I see her?” After pondering for a moment, Ye Jingyu decided that ‘Yang Yang’ was a slightly more acceptable address.

“She flew away!” Xi Yang blurted out…

“Flew away?” Ye Jingyu started, surprised by the phrasing. People usually only ‘flew’ if they were birds. Or could her mother be an immortal being? Had she ascended?

“En, Mother flew away after giving birth to me. I don’t know where she went. Father raised me, but Father passed away when I was very young… Then, I met Brother Fang and Brother Xue Ming here!” Xi Yang said very casually, completely unaffected by these personal histories, as if growing up without both parents made no difference to her experience.

“Oh, so how old are you now?” The more Ye Jingyu asked, the stranger he found it; she didn’t seem sad at all…

“I don’t know. I met Brother Fang and Brother Xue Ming a few years ago, which was only a little over a thousand years after Father died, right?” Xi Yang replied dismissively.

A thousand years? Only a thousand years? Good heavens, what exactly was this girl? How had she lived for at least a millennium? And judging by her appearance, she looked exactly like a girl of seventeen or eighteen…

The thought of her saying her mother ‘flew away’ made Ye Jingyu increasingly certain she might truly not be human. The Lunar Wheel mark between his brows flickered with silver light, and his Eye of Primal Sight gazed upon Xi Yang. Yet, no matter how hard Ye Jingyu tried, all he perceived before him was a solid, mortal young woman.

But behind the girl, there seemed to be a blazing firebird…

Impossible? Ye Jingyu was momentarily stunned. His Eye of Reincarnation possessed the ability to see through origins. Unless someone’s cultivation realm was vastly superior to his own, they should never escape his gaze. Her strength was formidable, but she certainly hadn't reached the level of Du Gu Ba Chen. There was no reason he shouldn't be able to discern her true form! Could her original form truly be human?

Just as Ye Jingyu was reeling from this internal shock, the two arrived at an open area. It turned out to be yet another grand formation designed to guide the Earth’s Core Flames, one far more sophisticated than the array Ye Jingyu had seen at Xi Yang’s home in Gu Xu City.

The dense Earth’s Core Flames had coalesced here into a veritable sea of fire. Even Ye Jingyu found it almost unbearable upon entering, yet Xi Yang appeared completely at ease, even enjoying it…

Seeing the sweat beading on Ye Jingyu’s forehead, Xi Yang simply smiled faintly. “Brother Ye, you are the first person to ever reach this spot! Even Father couldn't enter here when he was young. He told me this is where Mother resides, and ordinary people simply cannot enter. But Brother Ye is perfectly fine—this truly must be fate!” As she uttered the word ‘fate,’ Xi Yang deliberately cast a flirtatious glance, which sent a chill down Ye Jingyu’s spine…

“Heh heh, fate, fate…” he mumbled awkwardly.

“Hehe, it must be fate. Li Di Yan Guang, Qi!” Xi Yang smiled contentedly, suddenly chanting an incantation. Immediately, a stream of white flame erupted from the front, and above the flame floated a wine flask, as if a fountain were perpetually spouting, elevating an object…

However, Ye Jingyu’s gaze was entirely captured by that white flame. His body involuntarily jumped, and he pointed a finger at the white fire, gasping out, “Li Fire! The legendary Li Fire! The Li Fire capable of incinerating everything! How can Li Fire be here? This is the Li Fire that only the Vermillion Bird can exhale…”

(Exhausted, brothers, please give me some more motivation! Gold Bricks! If you’re reading this on a computer, please vote, click, favorite, anything you can! Although we are in first place, we must keep pushing! Whether we can achieve six chapters released today depends entirely on your support!)