While the Spiritual Treasure sect was being baptized by unending, bloody battles, Nie Tian and his party were quietly sitting down at the peak of the stone mountain, waiting.
They had already used spirit stones to recover the spirit energy that they had lost earlier. Currently, they were gazing off in the direction of the Spiritual Treasure sect, unsure of what to do next.
The low-lying ground around the mountain had already been turned into a sea of boiling lava, and many mountains had collapsed.
Unless they could grow wings, there was no possibility that they could leave the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range, which had already turned into a purgatory of smoldering lava.
Fortunately, because of the food deficiency incident that they had endured in the Green Illusion dimension, Jiang Lingzhu and Pan Tao had both picked up the habit of storing large amounts of dried meat in their bracelets of holding. Therefore, no one was worried about food.
Time flew. The day passed and night descended.
When the cold crescent moon once again rose into the night sky, the entire Scarlet Flame Mountain Range had already become dazzling and bright due to the lava that was practically everywhere.
Pan Tao looked off into the distance. Face grim, he said, “After this battle, not only our sect, but the Ghost sect and Blood sect will also suffer great losses. They would never have thought that there was a terrifyingly strong Earth Flame Beast hidden within the earth’s core under the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range. God knows how long that Earth Flame Beast had been confined there, and for how many years it has been gathering enough flame energy to form enough lava to fill the entire Scarlet Flame Mountain Range.
“Admittedly, our sect will suffer disastrous losses after this battle. However, I believe that the Ghost sect and the Blood sect will also regret invading us.”
An Shiyi heaved a sigh and said, “If the Ghost sect, the Blood sect, and our sect all suffer great damages because of this incident, and the three Profound realm experts also sustain different degrees of injuries, this might cause a profound and lasting impact on the entire Realm of Flame Heaven.”
Upon hearing her words, Pan Tao seemed to have thought of something, and his expression slightly flickered.
Curious, Nie Tian asked, “What are you worrying about?”
“The nine realms of the Domain of the Falling Stars aren’t exactly getting along peacefully.” Pan Tao frowned. “If Lai Yi and his people can use the ancient inter-spacial teleportation portal to get to the Realm of Flame Heaven, so can others. If experts from the other eight realms learn about the ongoing turbulences in the Realm of Flame Heaven, and that the major sects have all taken heavy blows, perhaps they will come up with the idea of invading our realm.
“Although fights between realms are pretty rare, it doesn’t mean that they have never happened before.
“No matter how bitter and fierce the internal fights are in the Realm of Flame Heaven, they won’t be even comparable to inter-realm wars. If an inter-realm war were to break out, that would be the ultimate danger to the Realm of Flame Heaven. If that day actually comes, people will be plunged into an abyss of misery. Qi warriors, mortals, mountains and lakes, cultivation Blessed Lands, and spirit beasts could all disappear because of it.”
Nie Tian’s expression flickered. “An inter-realm war!”
He had also learned from his master Wu Ji that the nine realms hadn’t always maintained peaceful relations, and that wars would break out between them every now and then.
According to Wu Ji, even at present, two realms of the Domain of the Falling Stars were still engaged in a bloody war which had already dragged on for over a hundred years…
In inter-realm wars, whether it was the scale, or the number of experts that participated in them, or the damages that were caused to both realms, they would all far surpass the internal wars in the Realm of Flame Heaven.
Furthermore, according to Wu Ji, there seemed to have been more than nine realms within the Domain of the Falling Stars once upon a time.
Some realms had been plagued by never ending wars and ended up damaged to a point where they were no longer suitable for any living creature to inhabit. Now, those realms were no longer part of the Domain of the Falling Stars.
The most terrifying result of an inter-realm war would be an entire realm being completely destroyed and turned into a wasteland.
At that moment, An Ying pointed to a river of lava and joyfully said, “Sister! Look! Look what’s in the lava river!”
Everyone looked over with rapt attention, and noticed that there were shiny, crystal-like gems in the lava river. Even though they were within a river of flames, it was hard to cover up their radiance.
They were transparent, sparkling, and reflected red glares like shining stars within the burning river.
An Shiyi’s eyes lit up. “Flame Crystals! Those are level two Premium grade fire-attributed spirit materials!”
Surprised, Pan Tao said, “It seems that, with the eruption of the magma, the Flame Crystals, products of the condensation of the pure power of fire, were flooded out of the depths of the earth’s core. They are a true blessing. To any equipment forger, or fire-attributed cultivator, Flame Crystals can be considered as very rare and valuable items.
“What a waste. If only we could collect some of them. We would make a fortune out of them.
“Not only are Flame Crystals very hard to find in the Realm of Flame Heaven, they are also highly valued in the other eight realms, and can be traded for many treasures.”
Those who knew about how valuable the flame crystals were, all had greedy looks in their eyes, but their faces were filled with pity and disappointment.
“Over there!” Jiang Lingzhu extended her arm and pointed towards an enormous rock.
That rock came from a surrounding mountain that had recently collapsed. Following the collapse of the mountain, it had rolled out from the belly of the mountain.
Embedded in the huge rock, sparkling and brilliant strings of flame could be seen, which were very much resembled the crystal-like ribbons that Nie Tian had previously seen in the depths of the earth’s core. There were faint, mysterious patterns of flame within each of them, and those patterns… seemed to be constantly flowing, as if there was some kind of profound truth about the power of fire hidden within them.
“They have flame channels inside! They are… Earthflame Crystal Strings!” An Shiyi’s body shook with excitement, and a brilliant light flashed across her pupils. Eyes fixed on the glittering strings of flame, she excitedly said, “They are level seven Premium grade spirit materials! There are flame channels within the Earthflame Crystal Strings, within which lie the secrets of the flame power! They are indispensable materials if one wishes to forge Spirit Channeling grade fire-attributed spiritual tools!
“Even Qi warriors who don’t refine spiritual tools or practice fire incantations can use the crystal channels within the Earthflame Crystal Strings to gain enlightenment of the profundity of flame power hidden within them!
“The depths of the earth’s core under the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range has actually created the perfect environment to give birth to Earth Fire Crystal Strings! This is definitely thanks to the Earth Flame Beast!”
An Shiyi was endlessly excited, and she danced about as she shouted. Her appearance suggested that she wished that she could immediately charge down to collect those Earth Fire Crystal Strings.
“God damn!” Pan Tao cried out. “Feng Luo and that witch Yu Tong have made a move!”
Nie Tian looked over toward the other mountain peak, and discovered that Feng Luo and Yu Tong were sliding down from the top of the mountain.
At the foot of that mountain, there was also a long lava river, within which a large number of Flame Crystals were sparkling with bright light.
“Do they want to die?” After a moment of silent pondering, Jiang Lingzhu continued, “Wait a minute! There’s actually is a way that will allow us to collect the Flame Crystals! As long as we put big rocks in the lava river, we can step on them to gradually move closer to the side of that lava creek where we can then use our spiritual tools to fish up those Flame Crystals from the river!”
Upon hearing these words, everyone became thrilled and clamored to get down the mountain and collect the Flame Crystals.
As they knew, the Flame Crystals were considerably valuable, especially for disciples of the Spiritual Treasure sect, since their sect might not be there when the whole thing was over. If they could gain some Flame Crystals, they could still use them to exchange for the spirit stones and spirit materials needed for their cultivation.
If there was an opportunity, they could even leave the Realm of Flame Heaven and exchange them for high-ranked spiritual tools in other realms!
As the saying goes, birds die for food, people die for money. Despite the fact that they hadn’t truly escaped danger and their future was still full of uncertainty, every one of them was now seething with excitement due to the appearance of the Flame Crystals.
Nie Tian hadn’t expressed his stance in this, yet the group of people had already moved out, imitating Feng Luo and Yu Tong by descending from the mountaintop.
“These guys…” He whispered to himself.
However, he didn’t want to stay behind on the mountaintop by himself. Thus, he followed them down.
The mountain wasn’t high, and it took far less time to get down the mountain than to climb to the top. An hour later, they had all arrived at the foot of the mountain. An Shiyi and the others lifted up enormous rocks from the bank of the lava river and continuously hurled them into the lava.
The huge stones continued to pile up from the bottom of the river. When everyone saw that the rocks had piled to a point where they were protruding out of the lava’s surface, they all became high in spirits and excitement could be seen on their faces.
Before long, the rocks that had stuck out formed a line of stepping stones that led into the creek that contained sparkling Flame Crystals.
“Let’s go!”
An Shiyi lunged forward so quickly that she turned into a line of fiery light, and in the next moment, she gracefully landed on the rock that was the closest to the bank.
She only adjusted for a moment before continuing to jump to the next rock. Using the rocks as stepping stones, she headed towards the target creek.
Behind her, An Ying and Pan Tao followed suit and jumped forward, as they also longed for the Flame Crystals which they could make good use of in the future.
Nie Tian was about to move out when he suddenly sensed the aura of the Flame Dragon Armor. He couldn’t help but narrowed his eyes to sense it with rapt attention.
He found that the Flame Dragon Armor was still quite far away from him. Apparently, it had already flown out from the depths of the earth, and was now wandering about in the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range.
Just like them, it also seemed to be collecting something.
