Shi Yan's body shimmered with crystalline light, his meridians brimming with Jingyuan, which nourished them, causing every single vessel to widen and grow more resilient.

The Jingyuan flowed through these meridians at an ever-increasing speed, and after traversing them, a wisp would invariably split off to feed the orb of Jingyuan in his lower abdomen.

In his lower abdomen, the orb of Jingyuan was being continuously compressed, becoming increasingly refined, yet the energy it contained was escalating rather than diminishing.

This was the effect of the strange power!

The peculiar force emanating from the acupoints exerted a miraculous influence within the Jingyuan orb. Due to the mysterious action of this strange power, the orb constantly condensed, causing the profoundness of the Jingyuan to increase by more than threefold.

The thorough saturation and toughness of his meridians caused a faint, swelling pain in Shi Yan's flesh, yet compared to cultivating the Extreme Refining Martial Technique, this ache was trivial.

Holding his breath and focusing his mind, beneath the dunes, Shi Yan devoted himself entirely to the transformation of his entire meridian system by the Jingyuan orb.

"Eh!" the Profound Ice Cold Flame suddenly transmitted a message from within the Blood Vein Ring, "You are about to break through to the Earthly Rank, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Excellent, excellent!" the Profound Ice Cold Flame’s message held a slightly sinister tone, "You should add more fuel to the fire! At this moment, if you practice Extreme Refining, using the flame power of the Earth Core Fire to temper your meridians, it will make the toughness of your vessels even superior! As long as you can endure it, the speed at which your Jingyuan circulates through your meridians afterward will be far greater than that of ordinary Earthly Rank martial artists. For the same martial skill, this means you can execute it faster than they can! How about it?"

Shi Yan's eyes instantly brightened.

"No problem, I'll communicate with the Earth Core Fire right now. Hmm, I won't need your help this time; after all, you are currently bound by the Blood Vein Ring, and the exchange between me and the Earth Core Fire isn't as difficult as it used to be."

"That's fine. Since I cannot exert any power now, I naturally cannot assist you. Hmm, after tempering your body with the power of the Earth Core Fire, you must remain vigilant and not push yourself too far. After all, the Earth Core Fire is equivalent to a Celestial Fire right now. Its released flame power could easily incinerate you to ash. Remember, you must proceed step by step."

"Understood."

Shi Yan shifted his divine sense, moving from the Profound Ice Cold Flame's location within the Blood Vein Ring to the area where the Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Core Fire resided, clearly releasing the thought that he needed to borrow some flame power to temper his physical body. The Earth Core Fire could not directly form explicit language, but it expressed clear pleasure. As soon as its emotion surfaced, Shi Yan immediately perceived wisps of scorching flame power flying out from the Blood Vein Ring, surging along his fingers toward the meridians within his body.

The agony of the burning flame spread throughout his body. He, who had maintained a relatively calm expression, instantly became contorted.

Gritting his teeth, he took a deep breath, urging the flames to dissipate throughout the meridians of his flesh. His entire meridian system, which had been shining with crystalline light, suddenly turned the color of fire crystal stone upon the ingress of the Earth Core Fire's flame power—it was extraordinarily gorgeous.

Simultaneously, as the flame power of the Earth Core Fire was injected, his entire set of meridians, under the scorching of this force, began to shed thin streaks of black impurities, which the flame power of the Earth Core Fire forcefully burned into dust and which he then expelled through the pores of his body.

When meridians expand, they inevitably absorb some impurities. The presence of these impurities affects the toughness of the vessels. Generally, martial artists who break through to the Earthly Rank are so consumed by joy that they never spare a thought for the impurities that surface during meridian expansion.

Even if they knew impurities appeared during meridian expansion, they possessed no effective remedy.

However, Extreme Refining, this peculiar body-tempering martial technique, could effortlessly utilize the power of Celestial Fire to refine away the residual impurities within his body, while simultaneously enhancing the toughness of his meridians.

After all, the Extreme Refining martial technique was originally designed for refining divine weapons; every divine weapon must undergo thousands of hammerings and temperings, purifying all impurities and strengthening through repeated cycles of enhancement and washing before it can truly be indestructible.

"Enough!"

Feeling the influx of flame power from the Earth Core Fire growing stronger, Shi Yan had the sensation that even his meridians might be incinerated. He urgently transmitted a stopping thought to it.

The flame power emanating from the Earth Core Fire ceased abruptly.

Sighing slightly with relief, Shi Yan dismissed other thoughts. He calmed his mind into a state of emptiness, guarding the clarity of his spiritual platform, enduring the pain of the flame flowing through his meridians, biting his jaw silently, remaining vigilant at all times.

The meridians gradually widened, and thin streams of Jingyuan were injected into them. Under the control of his divine sense, they surged rapidly like tides. As the Jingyuan flowed, it gradually diminished, being quietly absorbed by the meridians.

Mixed within this Jingyuan were the strange powers purified by the mysterious Martial Soul. This surge of unique force permeated his meridians, making Shi Yan's almost splitting pain slightly more bearable.

He clearly felt the existence of this peculiar power, which seemed to be making his meridians increasingly tough. Wherever those strange forces passed, they gave him the miraculous illusion that his meridians could never break.

The mysterious Martial Soul truly possessed infinite marvels!

Time sped by.

After an unknown period, the expansion of the meridians stopped. The fire crystal stone-like vessels pulsed with captivating red light, but as the flame power gradually subsided, the red glow slowly weakened, and his entire meridian system began to revert to normal.

In his lower abdomen, the Jingyuan orb had shrunk to the size of a peach, glittering brilliantly, holding an extremely potent energy fluctuation.

His entire store of Jingyuan, after this round of refinement, had its power increased by about five times!

Shifting his consciousness, the Jingyuan surged abruptly into his meridians. The speed at which the Jingyuan flowed through them was nearly three times faster than before, and the strength of Jingyuan his meridians could accommodate had also greatly increased.

He casually executed the Birth Seal.

Seven hand seals, shimmering with light, which used to be the size of normal palms, were now the size of washbasins, blasting fiercely towards the ceiling above.

Like a sharp weapon, this Birth Seal tore through the sand dune a dozen meters above his head, instantly revealing the red sky outside.

The red sky, the scorching air—everything was as it had been.

Shi Yan smiled, suddenly employing the Electric Escape technique. Without any hesitation, a roar erupted from the crossed meridians in his legs, and his body shot forward like a streak of electrical light.

Standing on the dune, he glanced down at the sand hole, where only an illusion of himself remained, which then gradually vanished.

After breaking through to the Earthly Rank, the speed of executing any martial technique was several times faster than before, and his power had surged accordingly.

The previously somewhat clumsy Phantom Form Technique had also become effortless after the breakthrough to the Earthly Rank.

Looking up at the sky, Shi Yan slowly contained the joy in his heart. He touched the Void Ring, took out a Sound Stone, and attempted to transmit a message, hoping to communicate with Yang Mu and the others.

The sound entered the Sound Stone, but the stone remained silent for a long time, as if it had lost its function.

Frowning, Shi Yan transmitted his message to the Sound Stone again, hoping to hear a reply, but it was in vain. Perhaps due to the environment or some other reason, there was still no reaction from the Sound Stone.

Shi Yan finally confirmed that he had likely lost contact with the martial artists of the Yang Family.

In the vast, deep abyss battlefield, without the mutual communication of Sound Stones, as an outsider, he had no way to find Yang Mu and the others. This was an immense, boundless desert. When he released his divine sense, he could not detect any trace of life; there were no sun, moon, or stars; he could not see a direction; he did not know where the path ahead lay.

Shi Yan suddenly felt a sense of bewilderment.

A wisp of crimson flame quietly floated out of his Blood Vein Ring, gathering into a ball of fire near his chest, leaping quite cheerfully.

"You're out again?" Shi Yan smiled, momentarily forgetting about direction, and used his divine sense to transmit his emotional query: "What is it? Do you perhaps have a direction? Hmm, I happen to not know where to go. If you have any good suggestions, I can listen to you."

The Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Core Fire swayed gracefully in the void, resembling a flame spirit, yet it very thoughtfully concealed most of its scorching heat to prevent Shi Yan from being overwhelmed.

After Shi Yan's emotional transmission, the Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Core Fire did not hesitate for long. It proactively took the lead in guiding the way ahead.

Without the sun, moon, or stars, Shi Yan could not discern direction. He only vaguely felt that the direction the Earth Core Fire was heading seemed to be the hottest region here.

"Good, I'll go with you."

Shi Yan nodded with a smile, quite content not to overthink it. He simply followed behind the Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Core Fire in the direction it led. There was still plenty of time; since he had to remain in the Abyss Battlefield for three years anyway, losing direction temporarily was not a dreadful matter; he was not in a hurry.

Beneath the fiery red sky.

In this boundless stretch of desert, at the same time, in different areas, streaks of light flashed.

Nearly a hundred martial artists who had followed Shi Yan—Cao Zhilan, Pan Zhe, Gu Linglong, Xie Kui, Qu Yanqing, He Qingman, and others—had all entered the ancient formation, only to be scattered by it into different regions.

Pan Zhe and Cao Zhilan found themselves grouped with about a dozen martial artists who did not entirely belong to their faction. Gu Linglong and Qu Yanqing were in another area. Xie Kui and He Qingman, who had been together all along, were transmitted to a nearby region and quickly gathered.

More Earthly Rank martial artists were also dispersed, scattered across the vast, boundless desert where they could not see the sun, moon, or stars, nor find any direction.

Like Shi Yan, those who arrived in this strange space could not use Sound Stones to communicate. Here, even the sensitivity of divine sense was greatly diminished, and the perception of spiritual power was even more negligible.

Consequently, any martial artist who fell into this place, upon finding their Sound Stones and spiritual senses failing, and unable to locate any companions, felt a sense of blank confusion, much like Shi Yan—they did not know the direction or where to proceed in this desert.

The feeling of losing one's objective was deeply disheartening.

Every pursuer, upon arriving here and realizing how difficult it was to find their targets while simultaneously being unable to find their way back, displayed expressions of extreme dismay.