The opportunity guided by I Have a Destiny Altar lies over thirty thousand miles to the southwest. Chen Yuan didn't know much about this so-called Fire Mountain, and even Nangong Lie's spies scattered across the Southern Border knew very little about it.

This was because the heaven and earth spiritual energy here was relatively thin compared to other regions, making it unsuitable for large-scale tribal settlement and survival. In fact, when Chen Yuan arrived, he rarely found any traces of demonic creatures.

Of course, even so, Chen Yuan didn't let his guard down.

The Southern Border was still the Demon Clan's Southern Border after all. If the demon gods of the Myriad Demon God Hall knew that he had ventured into the Southern Border, they would be overjoyed and would definitely try to keep him here forever.

In front of Fire Mountain, Chen Yuan stepped out of the void. He had sensed a scorching aura nearby, and with his speed, it only took a moment.

Standing in the void with his hands behind his back, Chen Yuan looked at the 'Fire Mountain' in front of him and couldn't help but feel a bit surprised and doubtful, wondering if he had come to the wrong place.

The last time he was on the Divine Dragon Island in the East Sea, the island's area was considerable, long and narrow, shaped like a divine dragon, and it was obvious that the place was extraordinary.

But now...

The Fire Mountain in front of him was really quite... ordinary.

The mountain was no more than a few dozen yards high, blackish-gray in color, barren of vegetation. At a glance, it wasn't much different from the surrounding mountains. It could even be described as unremarkable.

The only unique characteristic was that this mountain still radiated a warm feeling even in this frigid season...

Chen Yuan took out the map and carefully compared the distance and orientation, and no matter how he looked at it, this was the destination.

After pondering for a moment, Chen Yuan began to envelop the entire black hill with his divine sense. "Mountains are known for their immortals, and waters for their dragons."

Perhaps, inside this seemingly ordinary black hill was truly the dwelling place of the Vermillion Bird, one of the Four Symbols of the Heavens.

At first, Chen Yuan didn't find anything wrong, he was just probing. But as his divine sense enveloped the hill, Chen Yuan frowned because his divine sense could only penetrate a few yards, and then there was no way to go any further.

This alone made Chen Yuan realize that he hadn't come to the wrong place. This was definitely Fire Mountain!

When a martial artist shatters their Core and transforms into a nascent soul, they gain divine sense. After several tribulations and cultivating to the Yang God stage, the strength of their divine sense reaches a terrifying level.

At least for him now, even penetrating hundreds of yards underground was no problem at all.

Something that could block his divine sense must be extraordinary.

Sensing the abnormality here, Chen Yuan suppressed the joy in his heart. A flash of light appeared around him, and he quickly disappeared into Fire Mountain. This mountain was solid and integrated, capable of blocking divine sense, but in terms of solidity, it wasn't too formidable. Moreover, for him, it really wasn't a big deal.

The heaven and earth spiritual energy surrounding him instantly transformed into sharp qi, easily shattering the ground, and forcibly opening a passage in Fire Mountain with his power.

Deeper and deeper.

The further down he went, the higher the temperature...

Ten yards,

A hundred yards,

A thousand yards,

Ten thousand yards...

Chen Yuan traveled for a full quarter of an hour, reaching ten thousand yards deep. At this point, the temperature was already very high, not at all inferior to when he was under the Tangshan Great Buddha.

"Boom!"

Chen Yuan had already used his divine sense to detect what was ten thousand yards below. Unsurprisingly, it was a lava pool with extremely high temperatures, and the few yards of rock layer in front of him were the final obstacle.

He unleashed a punch, concentrating his powerful force on one point, directly shattering the rock layer. He immediately saw the surging lava below, and a powerful scorching aura instantly rushed towards him.

However...

Such a temperature would have been a problem for the Chen Yuan of the past, but for him now, it was no longer a danger at all.

Chen Yuan's expression was calm, neither happy nor sad, and he slowly stepped into the cave.

The underground was completely different from the surface. The Fire Mountain on the surface was only a few dozen yards high, barely even qualifying as a mountain.

But underground was a huge cave with a circumference of tens of thousands of yards.

The lava below surged endlessly, and a rolling scorching aura was constantly dissipating. Apart from that, there were no other noises, no rare treasures, just a bare expanse.

Chen Yuan opened his Heaven's Eye and looked into the depths of the lava. With his current cultivation, the Heaven's Eye's ability to detect opportunities had reached a terrifying level.

No longer limited to hundreds or thousands of yards.

The moment he opened his Heaven's Eye, a dense aura of destiny appeared in the depths of the lava.

...

Deep within the lava.

A huge body lay silently in the lava, radiating a dense red spiritual light, constantly resonating with the surrounding lava and exhaling fire energy on its own.

The giant beast was over a hundred yards tall, with a head resembling a rooster's, a chin like a swallow's, a neck like a snake's, a tail like a phoenix's wing, and a vermillion body. It was the divine beast, the Vermillion Bird.

The Vermillion Bird seemed to have been dead for a long time. Although its feathers were bright and the spiritual light remained, it was only the instinct of the body, with no trace of vitality leaking out.

All that remained was the pressure from its life.

This change was also noticed by Chen Yuan. He frowned slightly, revealing a pensive expression. This seemed to be the first time he had encountered such a situation.

He had thought he would have a great battle with the Vermillion Bird here, and only after winning could he devour its Vermillion Bird blood. But he never expected that the Vermillion Bird had already fallen here.

He was completely certain of this.

His divine sense swept over it, and apart from a remaining pressure, its aura had already been cut off...

Standing in front of the Vermillion Bird's corpse, Chen Yuan couldn't help but feel a hint of unease, as if a great terror was about to descend upon the world.

The Eastern Azure Dragon, shrouded in evil thoughts, was entangled in malevolence and lost its mind. Only in the brink of death was it completely awakened, using its body to fill the demonic abyss.

Chen Yuan and Moro had discussed that perhaps the changes in the world were due to the Immortal Realm corrupting the world and starting with the Four Symbols Divine Beasts, causing them to undergo changes.

But now, Chen Yuan somehow thought of a new possibility.

Perhaps, besides the Immortal Realm as a great enemy, there was another terrifying force eyeing the entire human world. And the Four Symbols Divine Beasts, born with the destiny of heaven and earth, were the first to be targeted.

Of course, this was just a guess.

He couldn't be completely sure.

Perhaps only when the opportunity pointed out the Western White Tiger and the Northern Black Tortoise would he have a basis for this guess.

As for now...

Thinking too much was useless.

The Vermillion Bird's fall, leaving behind a complete body, was indeed a bit strange. But for him now, it saved him a lot of trouble.

The last Azure Dragon Divine Beast had strength comparable to immortals and gods, and it was only with Moro's help that he had the strength to defeat the Azure Dragon Divine Beast.

As the Four Symbols Divine Beasts of equal fame, its strength must also be terrifying. In fact, with his current strength, he would only have a slight chance of victory against the Vermillion Bird.

But Moro couldn't leave Zhennan Pass at the moment, so he couldn't get away either. Chen Yuan could only venture deep into the Southern Border alone to seize the opportunity.

Letting out a breath, Chen Yuan stared at the Vermillion Bird's corpse for a while. It was a sacred beast of heaven and earth, born with the blessing of heaven and earth. Killing it was ominous, but Chen Yuan had no choice.

Because he was too impatient. There was the pressure from Xiang Qianqiu, the pressure from Mount Spirit, the pressure from the Demon Clan, and the pressure from the most terrifying Immortal Realm.

Before him stood mountain after mountain. Only by moving these mountains could he truly be free and unrestrained.

Before he succeeded, anyone and anything would become a stepping stone on his path to the peak.

Sitting cross-legged, with his five hearts facing the sky, a phantom barrier formed around Chen Yuan, firmly protecting him. After a while, he opened his eyes and looked at the Vermillion Bird...

...

Devouring was inevitable. Only by devouring the Vermillion Bird could he completely cultivate his physical body to the peak, in order to gain powerful combat power.

Chen Yuan's clothes were instantly torn apart and turned into nothingness, revealing a sturdy and powerful body, well-proportioned, powerful, and full of the beauty of strength.

Rolling qi and blood surged within his body, all the pores on his body opened wide, and his five viscera began to rumble. Several streams of five-element colored light reflected off the lava, creating a beautiful sight.

The Vermillion Bird's body was very powerful, definitely at the Sixth Realm level, and had reached the point where a drop of blood could bring it back to life. In terms of hardness, it was no less than an immortal weapon.

Chen Yuan used the Emperor Slaughter Saber to barely cut a crack. Under his powerful attraction, the essence blood within the Vermillion Bird's body was quickly extracted by him.

The Vermillion Bird essence blood was like red jade, very textured. At a glance, it could intoxicate ordinary people, and within each drop of essence blood was a powerful force.

The body had no vitality, but its essence blood contained a strong vitality. Such a body would not decay even after thousands of years.

Drops of essence blood turned into a thin river in the lava, swirling above Chen Yuan's head. Then, the deep red Vermillion Bird essence blood transformed into thumb-sized blood snakes, beginning to swim around Chen Yuan's body.

Looking at these Vermillion Bird essence blood containing extremely strong power, Chen Yuan's body instinctively produced a strong desire, wanting to devour and transform them...

With Chen Yuan's divine sense guiding them, the first blood snake quickly passed through his body's acupoints and drilled into his body. This warm, scorching current quickly filled his body.

Passing through the meridians, it was completely refined and integrated with Chen Yuan.

A drop of essence blood had no major impact on Chen Yuan's body. He also estimated how powerful the Vermillion Bird essence blood actually was.

In the next moment, hundreds of blood snakes around his body began to drill into his body's acupoints at the same time...

...

Time seemed to pass without end. Chen Yuan himself had forgotten the concept of time, because his mind was no longer focused on time at all.

But on the Vermillion Bird essence blood.

It had to be said that the power of this Vermillion Bird essence blood completely surpassed the Qilin divine blood that Chen Yuan had devoured in the past. It was like a new bloodline appearing in his body.

He guessed that perhaps it was because the strength of the Fire Qilin was too different from the strength of the Vermillion Bird.

The Fire Qilin had fetters, and no matter how strong it was, it could not enter the Sixth Realm. It could only be invincible in the Fifth Realm, and even Manjushri Bodhisattva had to grind it down for hundreds of years.

But the current Vermillion Bird was a genuine Immortal God.

Although he didn't know why the Vermillion Bird had fallen, Chen Yuan could judge through the essence blood that its death was definitely recent, at most a year or so.

Otherwise, the power and vitality within the essence blood would not be so active.

The huge Vermillion Bird's true form, because Chen Yuan had extracted its essence blood, had now begun to rapidly wither, and the luster on its fur was gradually dimming.

Of course, Chen Yuan's gains were even greater.

At this moment, his body was covered with blood-colored patterns, like countless miniaturized Vermillion Bird shapes, enveloping Chen Yuan's body.

His chest rose and fell, his heart beat, his five viscera roared, his qi and blood power expanded more than doubled, and even his body size increased slightly. At the same time, his aura was also rapidly increasing.

But it never reached its peak.

Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, another period of time passed.

Chen Yuan's original facial features could no longer be seen. At this moment, his appearance was completely shrouded in Vermillion Bird divine patterns, his nose began to rise, and the pupils of his eyes turned deep red.

His body size soared to more than three yards, somewhat... bloated.

And the Vermillion Bird's true form at this moment had completely withered, as thin as firewood. The essence blood in its body was completely extracted by Chen Yuan and contained in his body.

If an ordinary person dared to do this, they would definitely be courting death.

Because the physical body was a container, and when the container reached the peak of its capacity, it would burst like a water tank, collapse directly, and destroy its foundation.

But Chen Yuan dared to do this precisely because he was no ordinary person.

The Physical Furnace was the source of his confidence.

If he hadn't accidentally cultivated this supernatural power, the bloodlines in Chen Yuan's body would have been very mixed, including the Xiang family divine blood, Qilin divine blood, Azure Dragon power, and the current Vermillion Bird divine blood.

But once the Physical Furnace was opened, all the mixed divine blood would merge with his own bloodline, and his bloodline would be the most powerful bloodline.

When he felt that his physical body had reached its limit, a ray of extreme light shot out from Chen Yuan's eyes, and a terrifying, dark black hole appeared in his chest.

Physical Furnace, open!

Chen Yuan was refining himself, completely cultivating his physical body to the peak. The roaring sound of his five viscera became louder and louder, and the sound of qi and blood flowing in his body became more and more terrifying.

At the same time, the Vermillion Bird essence blood that Chen Yuan had devoured but not refined finally bloomed with true power under the grinding of the Furnace Cave, and a dense, almost inseparable terrifying blood light, like blood flames, completely enveloped Chen Yuan.

Wanting to... obliterate him!

————

In the blink of an eye, another year has passed. In two years, I have written more than five million words, without a day off. The results of this book are more than double that of the previous one.

Now it's almost five thousand average subscriptions.

It is inseparable from everyone's support.

Thank you, thank you!

The New Year is coming, and everything is renewed. Here, I also sincerely wish all the genuine readers of this book a happy New Year, and that they can live a better life in the coming year.

May your family be safe and your bodies healthy.

It is difficult to get rich, so I feel better if I can have a healthy body.

Thank you for your support!

Happy New Year!