Chapter 65 – Who Said The Flame Was At The Center?

Yang Chen was able to determine that the huge net was knitted from silk of the Profound Ice Silkworm and had been refined many times at a single glance, it was incomparably tenacious and it couldn’t be damaged by water or by fire neither could it be cut by sword. If he became tangled within it, then he would be just like a pig ready for slaughter. The thing which Yang Chen found most dangerous, was that that the silk net had clearly been refined by a JieDan expert, even in the dim illumination of the luminous gems one could tell that the silk net was extraordinary.

All of the magic weapons that Yang Chen currently had, whether it was the sword box or the flying swords within it, all of them were incapable of cutting through the silk net. Even if he tried to burn it using fire, it would be a waste of time, because ordinary fire wouldn’t be able to deal with the silk of a Profound Ice Silkworm and right then he didn’t have any strong flame, so for now he could only flee.

The reason why he was fleeing and hadn’t used the killing intent, that was emitted by the red colored long river within his spirit sea, to intimidate his enemy, was because Yang Chen had discovered the presence of a few other people following him. Although the killing intent released by Yang Chen with full strength was sufficient to intimidate people in a large area, Yang Chen was afraid of one person, and that was Elder Wu. In case Elder Wu discovered that Yang Chen was the source of the killing intent at that time, then he feared he wouldn’t be able to survive the consequences.

There was also the reason that, once people knew about that terrible killing intent, he would be unable to give a clear explanation. Before starting with cultivation he could say that it was because he was an executioner, so it was the murderous spirit he gained from killing people, but for the time after he started cultivating he was unable to explain the reason behind it. Though he could say that it was because of killing the underground spirit beasts, but haven’t the other people also killed spirit beasts? So apart from Yang Chen establishing his reputation as a fearful devil, it had no advantages.

Therefore, Yang Chen could only use the red colored river within his spirit sea as a last resort for surviving and couldn’t use it frequently. Usually, using a slight trace of it to intimidate a spirit beast was not bad, but trying to intimidate all living things, moreover cultivators was absolutely out of question.

After the huge net missed its aim, the enemy immediately collected it and chased after Yang Chen at high speed within the magma. By this time, the people who were chasing after Yang Chen had nearly arrived there and sensed that something strange had been happening there, so they hurried to see the situation. But when they came over, it was already too late, they only found an absolutely empty magma river and not even a single shadow.

This time, everyone discovered everyone else, but they had expected it. Those with hostility among each other also discovered their enemies at a glance, when suddenly one person yelled:

“He will belong to the first person who catches him!”

This was clearly an agreement to share the booty, apparently they already treated Yang Chen like an object which they wanted to gain.

“Good!”

Someone responded, suddenly his figure flashed and he directly rushed towards the magma river, vanishing in an instant. Upon seeing this, the others didn’t dare to be neglectful and the figures of those people flashed like streamers, launching themselves towards the magma river and disappearing in an instant.

The magma river was very long, fire from the earth bubbled forth from it at various points and it covered an area of at least several hundred meters to the sides. Furthermore, the magma river was not neat and straight but rather broken and disorganized, with exits for magma to rush forth nearly everywhere. Naturally the magma river was divided into a huge net of magma.

At the center of the huge magma net was a huge magma lake. It had the largest magma exit, which belched with most blazing magma. The magma here was not dark red colored, rather it was bright red colored, so much so that the center of the magma lake was burning brightly white.

The enemy chasing him knew that Yang Chen was seeking the Geocentric Flame, but he didn’t dare to be sure that the Geocentric Flame was definitely located within this magma net, therefore he was unable to determine Yang Chen’s final destination. Naturally, Yang Chen would also not be so foolish as to lead him directly to the position of the Geocentric Flame, instead he would have him chase around in circles.

Yang Chen didn’t know at all that the people following behind him, all had a compass which was pointing them in his direction. As long as he was within a radius of five hundred li, these compasses would point towards his location.

Within the magma, Yang Chen’s speed was not slowed even one bit, on the contrary, it was increased by much. Although Yang Chen had a low cultivation, his fire evasion technique was being used to the point of perfection; inside of this magma network, he was like a fish in water.

The more this enemy chased after Yang Chen, the more irritated he became. This magma network was a place inhabited by fire attributed spirit beasts, so from time to time a flock of them would appear. Yang Chen was not obstructed in the slightest, the enemy on the other hand had to deal with these flocks of violent spirit beast and during the time he was killing spirit beasts, Yang Chen would pull ahead a by great distance again. This kind of thing happened many times, so he had no way to keep up with Yang Chen’s pace.

The most annoying thing for him was that the spirit beasts which were coming to attack him had received some kind of provocation, each of them was extremely berserk, which made the enemy pursuing Yang Chen complain endlessly. Could it be that he had entered into a long standing nest of spirit beasts? Otherwise what was happening here? Nobody knew that the real reason was, that these spirit beasts had been scared by the faint killing intent emitted by Yang Chen, and while fleeing they would ruthlessly attack everything which that dared to obstruct them.

Very quickly, Yang Chen’s figure couldn’t be seen anymore. The very first person to chase after him had no other way to find him and could only come out of the magma river and groan while lamenting. But he immediately discovered that people who seemed to be chasing after Yang Chen kept on rushing, without stopping. The even stranger thing was that those people were all chasing in a particular direction, as if they were able to sense Yang Chen’s direction.

“Eh?”

In the hand of these people was a compass which caught his attention. He immediately rushed back again and shot towards the nearest person holding a compass. That person hadn’t thought that anybody would move towards him, so he only shouted from that place:

“Haven’t we agreed that he will belong to the first person who captures him? What do you want to do?”

These words had barely come out when the compass within his hand was snatched by the former. After struggling for few moments, when he still could not find any way to take it back he sincerely backed down, not daring to say anything more. He had already sensed that this person’s strength was extremely high, and moreover he was not one of the people who had acknowledged that earlier agreement. He understood very clearly that this person could not be offended in any case or he would be a dead man walking.

“What is this?”

Raising the compass within his hand, the person arrogantly asked the other one, from whom he had just taken the compass.

“This compass can trace the location of the qiankun pouch which that youngster holds.”

The person within the magma net sincerely replied.

“If Senior wants it, you can take it.”

Just as he finished speaking, he sensed a huge net coiling around his body and tightening, on top of that, a trace of extreme strength started to push down on him, as if devouring him. It actually appeared as if it would extract all of the blood from his body. He was scared stiff and started shouting:

“Please spare my life, Senior! Please spare my life!”

The person holding the compass noticed that the pointer of the compass was pointing towards a direction in the front, seeing this, he coldly smiled without saying anything. Within a moment the person within the net seemed as if he was already incapable of supporting himself. After a hissing sound, the person within the net was turned into a pool of blood, everything else was absorbed by the huge net. The qiankun pouch and magic weapons which he had, all conveniently went to the master of the net.

After having broken away from that troublesome person with great difficulty, Yang Chen once again discovered the silhouettes of some people. These people were like glue, tenaciously following after Yang Chen regardless of which direction he turned to. They were all seemingly capable of discovering his presence wherever he went. Fortunately these people were not as troublesome as the person at the beginning, Yang Chen was always able to escape from them.

Soon, the actions of the people who had suddenly appeared within the magma river caught Yang Chen’s eye. The compass within their hands also caught Yang Chen’s attention. After pondering for a moment, Yang Chen realized that surely there had to be an object on his body which was allowing them to track his presence. Yang Chen, who had ample experience, immediately checked all of the magic weapons on his body and immediately concluded that it had to be his own qiankun pouch.

All of the qiankun pouches provided by the sects have a tracking spell formation inscribed on them, moreover there was Chu Heng within the Pure Yang Palace. Yang Chen had no problem figuring out how these people could keep on chasing him and what the compasses within their hands were.

Yang Chen merely wore the qiankun pouch hanging on his body for decoration, all of the important things were within the Achievements Ring. Resolving this problem was very easy, he only had to put the qiankun pouch into his Achievement Ring. But Yang Chen did not want to resolve this so easily, he had thought of an even better plan.

The people pursuing soon discovered that Yang Chen had run off towards the huge magma lake at the center. As the owner of the huge net discovered this, he could not help but slap his forehead in regret. He had already known from the beginning that Yang Chen had come here to look for the Geocentric Flame, and the place which was most likely of having the geocentric fire was precisely the most brightly glowing region within the magma lake. It was such an easy problem, but he surprisingly hadn’t thought of it. If he had noticed this earlier, then he would have guarded the tree-stump to wait for the rabbit, wouldn’t that be much better?

The group of people divided into a few directions, surrounding, and moving towards the magma lake from all sides. That person from the beginning was also included among them. Merely with presence of so many people, it was not easy to kill them all, so he only stuck to one direction. People on top of the magma lake were calmly checking their compass, enduring the burning heat.

Yang Chen was clearly moving towards the centermost region of the magma lake, that was also the hottest and most frightening region. Even the people who had already arrived there did not dare to proceed recklessly. Common fire evasion techniques could allow them to move through the magma unobstructed at all times, but this was not the case at that one opening, there they would need special body protecting magic armor or perhaps magic techniques to save themselves. They didn’t know whether Yang Chen knew of this point or not, but in any case everyone looked at the pointer of the compass and started moving towards that direction.

Suddenly, the pointer started shaking and immediately began to spin round and round in all directions, unable to point in any specific direction. Everyone was totally stunned, what was meaning of this? Someone managed to react very quickly, this clearly meant that the Presence of the qiankun pouch had disappeared. Did this mean that Yang Chen, the youngster who did not know the immensity of heaven and earth, who wanted to absorb the Geocentric Flame while still at the qi layer, had instead been burned to death?

In general, all of the cultivators carried qiankun pouches and kept all of their possessions inside of them. When the Presence of a qiankun pouch disappeared, it usually implied that the qiankun pouch had been destroyed. In these circumstances this could only mean one thing and that was that Yang Chen had been killed by the underground magma.

The group of people immediately felt their enthusiasm waning, if they had known earlier that it would turn out this way, then they would not have come to scare him, instead they would have allowed Yang Chen to slowly find out about the difficulties of this magma lake and then, when he would have returned after failing, they could have surrounded and captured him at any time they wished. But currently, because he had been forced by them, Yang Chen had panicked and chosen the wrong path, knocking himself into the vortex of death. Since this had happened, it was already a complete loss, all the things which Yang Chen owned had already turned into a pile of magma.

Fortunately, even if Yang Chen had died, they had accomplished the task entrusted to them by their good friend, so this trip hadn’t been a total waste. But it was still a little unfortunate.

Everyone there was a cultivator so they were patiently waiting on the side of the big lake, on one hand killing the spirit beasts and on the other observing the movements in the lake below. Only when they didn’t find anything abnormal after waiting for several days did they start departing one by one. At last, only that first person, the owner of the huge net, was left, still waiting.

“Humph, a group of idiots, a person who could become a second grade pill concocting master at the initial qi layer, how could he not be familiar with the nature of fire?”

The remaining person concealed himself properly and spied out at the activities of those other people, feeling disdain at them within his heart.

“How is it possible that the more they cultivate, the more foolish they become? How can a minor diversion tactic fool all of these people?”

The expert was sneering here, not even realizing that those few departing people were also sneering at him at a distance away from there.

“Hiding so close to mark your claim, Yang Chen isn’t stupid, do you really think he would die so easily?”

Everyone already knew what Yang Chen was doing here from what he said earlier about becoming a third grade pill concocting expert after coming out of the Immortal Falling Well and collecting a flame. The most plausible case was that the Geocentric Flame was located here, as long as they were able to get hold of that Geocentric Flame, they wouldn’t have to worry about Yang Chen not appearing, if he wanted that flame, this was the only possibility.

Every person was having their own thoughts, but no one was aware that just at this time Yang Chen was laughing at them in another region. At the time when he was approaching the center of the huge lake, where it became impossible for him to endure, he placed the qiankun pouch into his Achievement Ring and immediately fled in another direction.

Having followed the trail of the qiankun pouch, these people immediately lost their target and could only wait for a chance to catch him at one side of the river. After all, this place had the highest probability of the Geocentric Flame appearing, as long as Yang Chen was able to obtain the Geocentric Flame, he would definitely appear in the vicinity.

When Yang Chen was observing those people making foolish plans to catch him, he started laughing so hard that he had to clutch his belly. If he had enough strength to appear honorably in front of these people, he would definitely ask them laughingly:

“Who says that the Geocentric Flame is here for sure?”

That’s right, the Geocentric Flame was not at the center of the magma lake, where everyone had guessed. Normally, these people would take it for granted that the most brightly glowing region was the region which had the highest probability for the Geocentric Flame to be there, but in reality it was not at all like that.

The Geocentric Flame was the Fourth Fire, that was a Yin fire. It was completely different from the Real Sun Fire, which burned fiercely. The characteristics of the Geocentric Flame was continuously burning, the nature of it was moderate, so the region where it existed was definitely not an opening in the magma, instead it was another direction entirely.

So, at this moment Yang Chen was moving along a very small tributary of the magma river. Normally if you moved towards the end of this kind of tributary, the magma would start cooling and freeze into stone. But this tributary was different, although the magma did not have that same high temperature compared to center region like this, the magma was still very fluid. Yang Chen had spent a good amount of time to find this area.

The reason which allowed the freezing magma retain its unusually good fluidity was precisely the Geocentric Flame lying underneath it.