The Realm of Fire Spirit was baking hot year-round.
As the base of the fire element sect, it naturally had a large number of volcanoes. Surging underneath the winding mountain ranges was raging earthflame and boiling magma.
They had made the volcanoes and the Realm of Fire Spirit.
Most cultivators who practiced fire incantations would choose to cultivate in realms with rich earthflame, where they could better refine their spiritual cores, temper their inner domains, and forge spiritual tools.
The same went for the disciples of the fire element sect.
Truly powerful experts from the fire element sect would get to choose a volcano of their own in the Realm of Fire Spirit as their personal cultivation location. As a former expert of the fire element sect, Pang Chicheng had had his own volcano as well.
It was a blessed land.
WHOOSH!
The Flame Dragon Armor morphed into a streak of fiery light that flew into the mouth of the volcano. Glancing down, one could see violently boiling lava. Even after hundreds of thousands of years, it was still emanating intense flame power.
Nie Tian also came to a stop above the mouth of the volcano, and gazed down standing on his Star Boat.
“You…” He attempted to communicate with Agaz with a wisp of his soul will.
However, Agaz assumed his flame dragon form once again. A glorious blazing aura flowed through its enormous body, which was hundreds of meters long, as it suddenly dove into the crater.
SPLASH!
Agaz dove into the lava lake at the bottom of the crater, making a huge splash in the boiling lava.
Nie Tian could sense his excitement and elation, along with a hint of uneasiness.
However, as soon as Agaz dove into the lava lake, his soul connection with him became unstable. He looked down with rapt attention, and discovered that the dark red inside of the volcano was actually carved with countless complicated fiery spell formations, which were too profound and mysterious for him to understand.
Those spell formations exuded a special aura that only an expert at the peak of the God domain would possess.
“Strange… such an aura, it feels…” Eyes narrowed, Nie Tian examined the aura with rapt attention, and felt that only Shao Tianyang, the head of the fire element sect, had the divine ability to fill the inside of this volcano with such exquisite fiery spell formations, and vest them with such an immense godlike aura.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Divine Sons and Daughters arrived one after another.
Looking down at the volcano, Pu Yangbai, the Divine Son of the earth element sect, said, “This seems to be the volcano where Senior Martial Brother Pang Chicheng used to practice cultivation.”
Everyone’s expressions flickered as soon as they heard these words.
“What?!” Huang Jinnan exclaimed in shock, his eyes glittering with golden light. “Are you sure you’re not mistaken, Senior Martial Brother? Is this volcano really the place where Pang Chicheng used to practice cultivation?”
“Pang Chicheng!” Nie Tian exclaimed softly.
He had heard this name on various occasions. Lou Hongyan had mentioned him, and so had many others from the Five Elements Sect.
However, all of them had been vague about who he was and what he had done. This had made him very curious about this mysterious man.
Hou Chulan also found this surprising. “Is this really the place where Pang Chicheng used to practice cultivation?”
Of all that were present, Pu Yangbai had joined the Five Elements Sect the earliest. Therefore, he knew many things that the others didn’t.
“That’s right,” Pu Yangbai said simply, scratching his head. “Senior Martial Brother Pang Chicheng used to practice cultivation here. I’d come to visit him before. But that was a long time ago. I never saw him again after he was expelled from our sect. And since Martial Uncle Shao didn’t give an explanation, I don’t know why exactly he was expelled.”
The seemingly-simple man looked confused as he said these words. He even seemed to feel sorry about Pang Chicheng’s expulsion.
Nie Tian finally couldn’t help but ask. “What status did Pang Chicheng hold in the Five Elements Sect?”
All four Divine Sons and Daughters fell silent.
That was when Lou Hongyan, Peng Yan, and the other fire element sect elders arrived.
Upon arriving, Peng Yan finally decided to bring out the truth. “I’ll tell you about it. Even though Pang Chicheng was a traitor of the fire element sect, he had a very special status. Our former sectmaster, Pang Bo, was Pang Chicheng’s father. Our current sectmaster is his father’s disciple.”
“Not only Sectmaster Shao, but many of us here were discovered by his father as he traveled across the human domains in search of those with special talent with fire incantations, and brought back to the fire element sect.”
Reverence was written across Peng Yan’s face as he talked about the former sectmaster of the fire element sect, Pang Bo.
All of the other fire element sect elders and even the Divine Sons and Daughters also felt deep veneration upon hearing this name. Apparently, they all had great respect for the man.
“Pang Bo… I seem to have heard the name before,” Nie Tian muttered.
He then remembered that Mo Heng and Wei Lai had mentioned Pang Bo when they had talked about the truly remarkable experts humanity had seen. Both of them had spoken very highly of him.
“Pang Chicheng showed his outstanding cultivation talent and attracted wide attention at a young age,” Peng Yan continued. “Our former sectmaster had him in his late years. He reached the end of his lifespan and passed away soon after he was born. So Pang Chicheng was in fact raised by Sectmaster Shao.
“Out of respect and gratitude towards our former sectmaster, Sectmaster Shao treated him as his own son, and doted on him.
“As a matter of fact, Sectmaster Shao had always cultivated him as the Divine Son of the fire element sect. He hadn’t even considered other candidates.
“For one thing, he was the former sectmaster’s son. For another, he had outstanding cultivation talent. It would make perfect sense if he became the next sectmaster of the fire element sect.
“However, because he was spoiled, he gradually developed a ruthless and tyrannical temperament, and would often go to extremes.
“Because of that, he had conflicts with people from the Void Spirit Society, the Heaven Span Pavilion, and the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace. Not only was he ruthless when facing outsiders, but he also showed absolutely no mercy when he fought his own kind. This put our sect in a lot of trouble.
“The damage his actions cost to our sect was beyond measure. Even Sectmaster Shao himself paid heavy prices for his actions.”
All of the fire element sect elders fell silent, as if his words brought back memories of the major trouble Pang Chicheng had put the fire element sect in before his expulsion.
“Is that why he was expelled from the fire element sect?” Nie Tian asked.
“That was actually because of something else.” Frowning, Peng Yan hesitated for a long while before saying, “It was a scandal of our sect, and I didn’t want to tell anyone about it. However, since…”
Lin Yaoyao from the water element sect suddenly jumped in and said, “Was it because of that big sister before me?”
Peng Yan’s expression flickered with astonishment. “How do you know that?”
“My master mentioned it, but very vaguely. It appears that the water element sect had another Divine Daughter before me.” With these words, Lin Yaoyao shot a glance at Lou Hongyan. “That sister seemed to have a complicated relationship with Pang Chicheng. She seemed to have died because of him. Her death resulted in Pang Chicheng being expelled from the Five Elements Sect. Martial Uncle Shao even issued a worldwide Flame God Warrant for his arrest.”
Peng Yan sighed and said, “Yes, that was the main reason.”
Even though he didn’t elaborate, Nie Tian guessed that this had something to do with their romantic relationship. Perhaps the former Divine Daughter of the water element sect had fallen in love with Pang Chicheng, and later died because of his unjustified actions. That incident had been the last straw. The fire element sect had finally run out of patience. They had expelled him and sent people after him across the human domains.
“Hmm?!” Nie Tian’s expression suddenly flickered. The others were also stirred by something, and jerked their heads down.
Intense spatial fluctuations were coming from the lava lake where Agaz had disappeared.
