Wei Zhenyu looked displeased: "You dare claim you know how with your mediocre skills?"
"You think you're better?" Song Qianji deliberately provoked, "How many times have you done it?"
"Never!" Wei Zhenyu coldly spat out two words before angrily gripping his sword hilt, "Stop making wild assumptions. Let's go!"
Song Qianji chuckled and leisurely descended the steps.
From then on, the path was filled with endless mechanical traps, secret passages, maze formations, and guardian beasts. At times golden eagles screeched, at other times ten thousand arrows rained down simultaneously.
When scouting ahead, Song Qianji walked at the front. If he triggered any mechanisms, he would immediately retreat, leaving the fighting opportunities to others.
He ran swiftly, like a slippery fish. Unable to catch him, Wei Zhenyu had to take the lead, drawing his long sword against the overwhelming talisman arrows and boosting morale: "For the Northern Desert, for the new era!"
The Silver Armor Squad burned with fighting spirit, slashing with their blades and shouting in unison: "For the new era!"
Song Qianji had to admit, these young people fighting with faith in a new world created quite an inspiring scene.
Just like when he previously witnessed Ji Chen and Li Ciquan facing off—well-matched opponents refusing to yield, their battle fervor blazing.
Though he himself lacked such faith, he suddenly felt it wouldn't be so bad if there were still someone in this world who could play a serious game with him.
Song Qianji decided that after Xian Jianchen's matters were settled, he would visit Purple Cloud Temple to properly play another game with the old man, telling him he'd inherited the Dragon Slaying Formation and taught it to others to kill a two-thousand-year flood dragon.
With no dragons left in the world, using the Dragon Slaying Formation against a flood dragon wasn't exactly wasting its potential.
After each battle left the surroundings in disarray, before Wei Zhenyu could turn back to catch the "fish," Song Qianji would already have returned to the front.
"You certainly run fast," Wei Zhenyu remarked.
"I've specially practiced escape skills," Song Qianji looked back and asked, "Still letting me choose this time?"
"You choose," Wei Zhenyu said.
You're leading this large group, all listening to an "assassin"—your team is bound to collapse sooner or later.
But collapse was impossible.
Despite numerous hardships, with Song Qianji's subtle guidance, they always managed to turn danger into safety.
Even Song Qianji felt his luck had improved, encountering only traps he'd either experienced in his previous life or heard analyzed in detail by working spirits.
They finally reached the deepest part of the Underground Palace.
The descending stairs ended here, leaving them seemingly suspended at a cliff's edge.
Forty zhang below was a large jade pool, as vast as the square maze formation at the entrance, its boundaries invisible at a glance.
What flowed in the pool wasn't water, but rather a purple-red flame.
Sparks flew while waves of heat rolled forth.
Even with spiritual energy protection, the rising heat scorched the cultivators' skin painfully.
Wei Wang's close aides seemed impervious to the pain, their expressions filled with excitement:
"Wei Wang is chosen by heaven!"
"Congratulations to Wei Wang for achieving his wish!"
Only Wei Zhenyu himself wore a grave expression: "It's still too early."
This thing was savage and violent—if unable to tame it, one would be burned to ashes without even a remnant of soul remaining.
But having come this far, from the day he left Thousand Canals, there had been no turning back.
Wei Zhenyu scanned the surrounding walls, seeing densely packed runes glowing faintly. Closing his eyes, he calculated positions. Though the fire pool lay at the Underground Palace's center, it wasn't heavily protected but rather resembled a prisoner confined in an underground prison, prevented from breaking out to harm the world.
Wei Zhenyu separated a strand of Divine Sense, attempting to communicate with it."Wei Wang has come to Blood River Valley for this, I presume." Song Qianji pointed toward the center of the fire pool. "The Inexhaustible Fire."
A purple lotus bloomed there, resembling a springhead from which endless flames surged forth, yet were confined by runes along the cold jade pool’s edge.
Wei Zhenyu declared arrogantly, "If you intend to compete with me, let’s each rely on our own abilities."
"I have no such intention." Song Qianji shook his head.
In his past life, faced with such a supreme treasure, he would have naturally contended for it. But now, no matter how beautifully the Inexhaustible Fire bloomed, it paled in comparison to the real lotus flowers in the large vat of Song Courtyard—complete in color and fragrance.
Along the pool’s edge, winding runes formed an ancient inscription:
Those who tame fire shall be consumed by its flames.
It was clear that if this "flower" was not properly nurtured, it could easily turn on its master.
Wei Zhenyu’s eyes snapped open. "Step back!"
His voice was stern. The crowd hastily retreated, clearing the area for him to act.
Wei Zhenyu gripped his longsword and leaped into the air.
At the same time, a figure dashed past him, charging straight for the center of the fire pool.
It was none other than Song Xun, who had just claimed he "had no such intention"!
Wei Zhenyu snorted coldly and redirected his sword toward Song Xun. "Draw your sword!"
He had long disliked the other’s light, thin, transparent, and dull sword—a weapon he deemed treacherous and sinister.
As the Silver Armor Squad moved to assist, the staircase let out a deafening roar, bending and collapsing backward like a retracting door, instantly isolating everyone outside the fire pool.
The Underground Palace’s mechanisms, sensing someone rushing toward the fire pool, had expelled the others.
The Inexhaustible Fire was the core inheritance of the Underground Palace, meant for only one successor.
Song Qianji and Wei Zhenyu moved simultaneously, both suspended mid-air, with Wei Zhenyu’s sword light aimed straight at Song Qianji’s back.
Song Qianji flicked his sleeve to block the attack, having no time to explain to Wei Zhenyu—
His Purple Palace already housed the Fountain of Immortality, which possessed the strongest vitality. Water and fire were inherently incompatible; there was no room for the all-consuming "Inexhaustible Fire."
The Pure Bottle trembled incessantly, urging him to leave quickly.
Within his Domain, the laboring souls, feeling the temperature of the wheat fields rise, cursed him for whatever he was doing.
Water benefits all things without contention. The Fountain of Immortality was willing to yield.
But the Inexhaustible Fire, as if provoked, could no longer restrain the rage accumulated over millennia, erupting like a volcano.
The fire pool churned violently, tongues of flame shooting toward Song Qianji like a colossal dragon.
To an observer, it seemed as though the Inexhaustible Fire had chosen him of its own accord.
Wei Zhenyu’s attacks grew more frantic.
With purple flames ahead, sword light behind, and laboring souls cursing in his Domain, Song Qianji, in the midst of the chaos, found a moment to retort inwardly, "Don’t blame me—blame Xian Jianchen!"
Just as Wei Zhenyu had leaped, the spirit pearl in Song Qianji’s sleeve had flickered briefly before dimming again.
Startled awake, he released his Divine Sense to investigate.
Beneath the pool was carved a random teleportation array, likely intended to help the inheritor leave after obtaining the inheritance.
Having encountered no one else along the way, the person he needed to kill could only be on the other side of the teleportation array beneath the pool.
The landing point of a random teleportation array was unpredictable. This was an opportunity not to be missed. He had no choice but to leap into the fiery pit immediately.
The realization both shocked and enraged him.
That bastard Xian Jianchen—exactly how many people did he want him to kill? Without even offering extra pay?
"Song Xun, you should know that the Inexhaustible Fire is meant for only one successor!" Wei Zhenyu’s sword light was blocked, but he felt no anger—rather, it seemed only natural.
This person had concealed his cultivation and followed him all this way; he must have had an ulterior motive. Since it wasn’t an assassination attempt, seeking a supreme treasure seemed the only plausible explanation."I know." Song Qianji simply stopped.
The Inexhaustible Fire, provoked by his Fountain of Immortality, was now in its most violent state.
Attempting to pluck it from the pool at this moment would invite a fierce attack.
He had the Fountain of Immortality to protect him, but Wei Zhenyu did not.
The two stood facing each other, the purple double-layered lotus burning between them, a beautiful sight.
Song Qianji sighed inwardly, thinking I owe you one, but smiled and said, "There are only two of us here. It'll either choose me or you—fifty-fifty odds. Care to gamble?"
"Gamble on what?" Wei Zhenyu asked.
"Our lives. I've been your vanguard all this way. This time, let me scout ahead."
"Fine." Wei Zhenyu nodded slowly, like a proud monarch. "You go first."
As Song Xun reached out to touch the lotus, his face shifted between red and pale, sweat beading on his forehead like rain, as if enduring great pain.
Wei Zhenyu stared fixedly at his face, expecting him to be reduced to ashes at any moment.
But it didn't happen.
Song Xun's slender fingers finally brushed against the stem of the Inexhaustible Fire. With a gentle snap, he plucked it from the fiery pool as if picking an ordinary lotus flower.
The Inexhaustible Fire struggled furiously in Song Qianji's grasp, sparks crackling and popping, but was suppressed by the Fountain of Immortality covering his palm.
In his Purple Palace, the roar of the Inexhaustible Fire echoed, while the Fountain of Immortality surged defiantly, eager to burst from the Pure Bottle and douse its opponent completely.
Wei Zhenyu watched Song Xun effortlessly pluck the flower, his expression instantly blank, his gaze deepening. "I lost the bet."
The other had taken the flower, his face deathly pale, yet instead of fleeing, he smiled at Wei Zhenyu. "You've never lost."
With that, the man casually tossed the Inexhaustible Fire toward him.
Wei Zhenyu felt as if struck by lightning, instinctively catching the lotus without even looking at it.
Memories surged like a rain of fire, scattering vividly before his eyes.
On a stormy night, someone had once told him, "You've never lost."
The very same words.
How could it be the same?
A flash of insight split Wei Zhenyu's mind. He reached out, straining forward, trying to grasp the hem of that person's robe.
But the Inexhaustible Fire blazed in his hand, burning from his chest into his Purple Palace, paralyzing him. Everything before him twisted and distorted.
That figure grew hazy, swallowed by the sea of flames in the blink of an eye.
"Ah—"
※※※
Cursing Xian Jianchen inwardly, Song Qianji passed through the teleportation array at the pool's bottom and landed on the snow.
Deep within the ice cave, the walls were smooth as mirrors. The abrupt shift from extreme heat to extreme cold made Song Qianji sneeze.
"Who's there?!" a loud shout rang out.
Soon, three or four young cultivators hurried over. They looked wary, their robes tattered and somewhat disheveled, but their attire was unmistakably that of Green Cliff scholars.
"You've got to be kidding me," Song Qianji muttered, peering toward the cave entrance.
Everything had changed—surely Ziye Wenshu couldn't still be trapped in this ice cave from his past life.
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