Book 2: The Golden Lock of the Eight Gates
Chapter 6: Hongluan Flame
“Hu, hu, hu.”
In mid air, Tianling-er’s breath quickened.
She began to struggle and surprisingly, was able to free herself.
On the other side, the old man’s face had turned red all of sudden. He looked at Zhong Shan incredulously.
Tianling-er rushed towards Zhong Shan since he was still frozen in place.
When she reached Zhong Shan, she felt the surrounding temperature had risen much higher than before. Why, why did it suddenly become so hot? It was burning hot; it was so hot that she felt like taking off her clothes. It was scorching!
As he absorbed more and more Hongluan Mist, old man’s face kept contorting. Confusion? A little, yet it was mostly an expression of fear, extreme fear. How could he feel such a thing in his current state? How could it be?
The old man was frozen inside the black ice and he knew the great danger he was in now.
He stared fiercely at Zhong Shan.
“Pu~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~”
Zhong Shan’s body flipped over and flew into the wall of the cave, almost crushing his chest inwards. Blood gushed out of his mouth and flew against the wall.
The old man had simply used his divine sense to crush Zhong Shan. If Zhong Shan was an ordinary fourth level Xiantian pract.i.tioner, he would have died by now.
Zhong Shan raised his head with great difficulty and started to laugh hysterically.
“Hahahaha”
The more he laughed, the more Hongluan Mist he created. More and more pink energy rushed towards the old man’s direction. Zhong Shan knew that as long as the old man still had a clear mind, he still was in danger. He had to make sure the old man was totally confused before he could have a chance of surviving.
He’d already reach the limit of using Meixin Telekinesis. But he kept trying to forcibly use it.
“Ka”
There was a crackling sound in between Zhong Shan’s eyebrows the moment he completely depleted his Telekinesis.
He couldn’t use Telekinesis anymore.
Yet, a strange expression rested on Zhong Shan’s face.
It was because he could sense a tiny pink glow at the opening right between his eyebrows.
A flame? An endless, tiny flame?
“No depletion no breakthrough, no breakthrough no growth, no growth no flame”
Zhong Shan suddenly remembered a sentence in the Hongluan Manual. The third level? Was it the third level?
Zhong Shan couldn’t believe the change he was feeling between his eyebrows. The third level? Wasn’t this a bit much? Both Hongluan Manual and the Demonic Body Toning Method had twelve levels. While he still lingered on the first level of the Demonic Body Toning Method, he had broken through to the third level right after reaching the second level not too long ago.
Was this a joke? Though he had inferior innate talent, maybe he did have some talent for refining elixirs.
Zhong Shan couldn’t move and had exhausted the Hongluan Manual. Though he had reached the third level, he knew he was too weak to try anything now. Besides, the glare from the old man, he was now severely injured. He was suffering as he had never suffered before, the bones all over his body felt as if they had broken. His ribs were fractured. It was a terrifying, tremendous power.
Tianling-er chased after Zhong Shan in fright when she saw him tossed away. When she arrived next to Zhong Shan, Zhong Shan had just begun using the Hongluan Manual. Tianling-er was caught in the technique and tightly held onto Zhongshan in confusion.
Zhong Shan at this point couldn’t move an inch, so he could only let Tianling-er do whatever she wanted.
Across the cavern, the old man was finally losing the last of his senses.
Even though the old man had attained such mighty power, he couldn’t resist the best elixir of the world, the Hongluan Mist. His eyes were already bloodshot.
He moved his hair frantically.
“Ah~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~”
The old man uncontrollably twisted his body and accidentally pulled his hair out of the lava. The black ice instantly began to grow and rose up to the old man’s chest in the blink of an eye. He was in tremendous pain and gradually lost all rational thought. His hair rushed into the lava again and started to absorb the heat out of control.
A large amount of Fire Poison had entered the old man’s body.
“Ah~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~”
The old man screamed. The black ice had totally dissipated and his whole body was engulfed in flames.
The old man flew up in pain.
“Bang~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~”
His body crashed into the ceiling of the cavern.
There was a huge boom and shook the entire cavern. It even generated large waves inside the lava.
After the first crash, the old man’s body changed direction.
“Bang~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~”
Zhong Shan watched the scene in horror.
Was the cave going to collapse? The old man was going to collapse the cave?
However, Zhong Shan was strewn about on the ground, with little strength to do anything about it. He could only hold onto Tianling-er and made sure she was keeping still.
Tianling-er was in a complete daze between Zhong Shan’s arms. She didn’t know what had happened to her and what to do about it. She was about to cry again.
The old man kept bouncing about the surrounding walls. Rocks began to fall. It was as if the whole mountain was going to collapse any moment.
Zhong Shan was in a awkward position unable to move and Tianling-er was still confused. He wished he had been affected by the Mist so he would be too confused to worry about the situation. The problem was that he was the producer of the Mist and thus immune to it.
He could still feel blood in his mouth and could only try his best to keep Tianling-er still with his trembling arms.
Once he had secured Tianling-er, Zhong Shan watched the ceiling of the cave collapse ontop of them. He had noticed that the cave had been poorly supported and now, with the old man impacting against the walls, the walls of the cave had finally given way.
Zhong Shan, with Tianling-er in his arms, crawled back a small distance with much difficulty.
He had no choice but to move back as far as possible to avoid the falling rocks. The corner was the safest place to hide.
“Putong~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~”
With a great splash, it quieted down. All was quiet now.
Zhong Shan watched the old man fall into the center of the poll of lava.
Such a strong man had just fallen into the lava.
Zhong Shan watched with his mouth open. The old man still struggled a bit after falling in, then there was silence.
Zhong Shan was finally certain that they were safe now.
He lowered his head and saw that both his and Tinaling-er’s clothes had been torn open.
He smiled bitterly.
He quickly moved his Hongluan Flame between his eyebrows to absorb the remaining Hongluan Mist around and inside Tianling-er’s body. This was the second time for her now.
Zhong Shan had developed some unusual feeling for her, yet it was far from the firm conviction in his mind.
He had absorbed all the remaining Hongluan Mist in no time.
The flame between his eyebrows had expanded quite a bit as well.
Tianling-er fell asleep from exhaustion. Zhong Shan looked at her; what had he gotten himself into?