Chu Tianle searched along the cliff face in silence.
The stone mountain was bare; a single glance could take in everything, yet he still looked over it several times.
When he reached the bottom of the cliff, he found their Vice Dean standing in a spot with a grave expression.
He hurried over, "Vice Dean, do you have news of Sheng Yi?"
"Mm, you all take Sun Lixing back first."
Qin Si's complexion was extremely unpleasant.
He never would have imagined that the fluctuations of the barrier had already spread near Qianlian City. If he hadn't been here today, wouldn't he have overlooked it?
What in the world were those people doing? Did they want to destroy the entire Shenqi Continent!
"I want to go too," Chu Tianle frowned.
Qin Si said coldly, "You can't go."
Chu Tianle was about to retort when Qin Si vanished in a flicker.
He didn't specialize in space, but that didn't mean he lacked common sense. Could a Golden Core stage cultivator also teleport?
Chu Tianle went up in a daze.
"Chu Tianle! Why are you alone? Where's the Vice Dean? Did you find Bai Sheng Yi?" Luo Feihua asked anxiously. Feng Wuya and the others had already searched the surrounding area and found no trace of Bai Sheng Yi. They all guessed that the person should still be at the bottom of the cliff.
Chu Tianle opened his mouth but couldn't make a sound.
"Hey! What use are you!"
Luo Feihua had Zhu Wu and Chen Qiyang watch Sun Lixing, then called Feng Wuya to go down the cliff again. Upon discovering that the Vice Dean was also gone, they hurried back, "Where did the Vice Dean go? Did he know Sheng Yi's whereabouts."
"...Yes..."
Chu Tianle was out of sorts. After squeezing out a word, he squatted by the edge of the cliff. Luo Feihua frowned deeply upon seeing this.
Feng Wuya nudged her, "What's going on? Did he have a conflict with Sheng Yi?"
Luo Feihua didn't know, "No, he's been acting strange all along."
Luo Feihua looked at Feng Wuya suspiciously. Could this guy have accidentally said it right?
Feng Wuya touched his nose, feeling a chill down his spine.
"I'll go search the surroundings again."
In the endless darkness, Qin Si followed the faint aura of the barrier he had previously detected, moving forward. With just two or three steps, his figure instantly moved hundreds of meters.
The darkness was ethereal, with no road and no people. Qin Si's expression gradually became solemn, and his steps grew slower, but he still stepped steadily in mid-air.
"Bai Sheng Yi?" Qin Si called out tentatively, frowning.
The heavens and earth were silent.
This feeling made him very uncomfortable. He continued forward with a dark face.
"Did someone call me?"
Bai Sheng Yi suddenly stopped and tilted her ear to listen, only to find the surroundings completely quiet. The voice seemed like an illusion.
Reincarnation Brush: "You're definitely hallucinating! This is not an ordinary place, and ordinary people wouldn't come in."
"Do you know where this is?"
"Of course. This is the space of the Ten Directions Nether Fire. It's quite clever to hide itself within the mustard seed layer of the continent's barrier..."
"Pfft!"
Bai Sheng Yi wanted to hear more from the Reincarnation Brush, but the Nine Nether Desolate Fire that was leading the way suddenly extinguished.
"Alas, so useless." The Reincarnation Brush was frustrated with its lack of progress.
Bai Sheng Yi felt indignant on behalf of the Nine Nether Desolate Fire, "What do we do now?"
She could already feel the pain of her skin being burned. Coupled with the injuries she had sustained earlier, some of her wounds were scorched. "Hiss..."
Bai Sheng Yi's expression contorted, and she hurriedly used her mental power to cover herself, her spiritual power manifesting in her hands to resist the heat of the flames.
"See, you have a way yourself," the Reincarnation Brush nodded with satisfaction. "Just like this, keep moving forward."
Bai Sheng Yi suddenly realized, "What you meant by helping me was to have the Nine Nether Desolate Fire lead me for a bit?" Then she was in a dilemma, with no choice but to push forward.
It had to be said that the Reincarnation Brush had indeed made a good plan.
Bai Sheng Yi had also trusted the Reincarnation Brush too much and hadn't guarded against it, falling right into its trap.
The Reincarnation Brush felt guilty and tried to appease her with a smile, "Hehe... Brush brush still has other uses, my dear master, don't be angry, look!"
The Reincarnation Brush swiped through the air, and Bai Sheng Yi felt a portion of the spiritual power in her body being drawn out and forming a barrier in front of her.
"Stealing from Peter to pay Paul, what's the use?" Bai Sheng Yi sneered, catching the Reincarnation Brush in her hand and habitually twirling it.
The Reincarnation Brush felt guilty and dared not struggle.
Not knowing how much time had passed, Bai Sheng Yi felt that she couldn't perceive the passage of time or any fatigue. Everything here, except for the scorching heat of the flames, seemed just right, but Bai Sheng Yi knew it was abnormal.
So, every so often, she would prick herself with her hairpin to stay a bit more alert.
She had already reached the innermost part of the cave. The surrounding flames had turned from blue to a dark ink blue, flickering faintly.
"So cold!"
The temperature suddenly dropped drastically, as if from a fiery mountain to an Antarctic ice mountain!
"Little Reincarnation, what's happening?"
Bai Sheng Yi's scalp tingled. She hurriedly mobilized the spiritual power in her body to resist the biting cold, only to find it completely useless. The bone-chilling cold seemed to have targeted her, surging from all directions.
The Reincarnation Brush was completely silent at this moment.
Cold!
Bai Sheng Yi's eyelashes were covered in frost, and ice quickly formed beneath her feet, still spreading upwards inch by inch...
Sleep, let it be this way. It's warm and peaceful here, without danger or worries...
Ethereal words echoed faintly in Bai Sheng Yi's ears. Bai Sheng Yi's five senses seemed to be blocked, and she couldn't feel any pain.
The frost grew heavier, and the dark mist in her dantian seemed to be frozen. With a distressed expression, she exhaled clumps of wood spirit, and the Qingmeng Teng looked like a dejected eggplant, limp and listless.
And in Bai Sheng Yi's consciousness, she was in the Federation's largest shopping mall. Maglev cars came and went, and familiar close friends stood beside her, smiling at her.
"Ayi, you've finally returned from the battlefield. Colonel Jierui invited you to dinner. For my sake, grace him with your presence... please..."
Before her friend could finish speaking, Bai Sheng Yi expressionlessly slit "her" throat.
"You're not a convincing imitation." Bai Sheng Yi said coldly, "Scram!"
What a waste of effort to refine it!
This damned thing dared to spy on her memories!
Bai Sheng Yi was furious!
The spiritual power in her dantian circulated rapidly, and the mental power in her body spontaneously assisted the wood spirit power to surge forth.
"Scram!"
Bai Sheng Yi suddenly roared. Inside her dantian, there was a "zi" sound, and sparse flames suddenly erupted. Then, the flames grew brighter and brighter, emanating from Bai Sheng Yi's hand!
The fire spirit root had been activated!
If Bai Sheng Yi opened her eyes, she would see that the red spiritual light gradually turned into a deep, ethereal blue. The surrounding flames faintly connected with the spiritual power in Bai Sheng Yi's hand.
The experience of ice and fire turned into even greater torment. The newly born fire spiritual power was extremely domineering and forceful, madly devouring Bai Sheng Yi's wood spirit power. The two spiritual powers were already unbalanced, and now they churned within her like a tempest.
Fortunately, Bai Sheng Yi was prepared for this. She threw her mental power at the fire spirit root without restraint, gritting her teeth and determined to subdue the fire spirit root completely...
"Do you submit?" Bai Sheng Yi, suppressing the ethereal blue fire spiritual power, said angrily.
The Ten Directions Nether Fire naturally refused to submit. As a rare flame, it considered choosing a human as its host to be a gift, and it would never surrender.
However, the Ten Directions Nether Fire was horrified to discover that its innate fire source was decreasing!
"Awooo!" The dark mist approached it.
What kind of thing was this? The thing next to this human's dantian could eat fire!
The Ten Directions Nether Fire suddenly felt it had made a wrong decision, but it was too eager to get out. Such a good opportunity...
"Ah! Stop eating! I submit! I submit!"
It had only just realized that it had been completely confined by Bai Sheng Yi without its knowledge and could not escape at all. It could only let that ghost-like thing eat it. How could this be allowed!
The Ten Directions Nether Fire hurriedly and fearfully contacted Bai Sheng Yi.
The ethereal blue fire spiritual power gradually turned back to the common fiery red. Bai Sheng Yi nodded with immense satisfaction, "Isn't it better to be obedient from the start?"
Ten Directions Nether Fire: ...
Bai Sheng Yi ignored the alien fire's emotions. She warned the dark mist not to eat anymore and then began to heal her body with her mental power.
"Hiss... It hurts so much!"
Bai Sheng Yi's face contorted in pain, but she had no choice but to accept her fate and repair it bit by bit. The alien fire entering her body not only froze her but also caused most of her meridians to rupture and break. Even her dantian, if not for the dark mist, would have been destroyed.
"Grass!"
"Sheng Yi! Master, wake up quickly! Something is about to break in from outside!"
The Reincarnation Brush's panicked voice reached her mind. Bai Sheng Yi wearily opened her eyes and was immediately startled by the dense mass of things before her.