Chapter 568: Solar Fire
This time, Long Chen believed that he had passed his test faster than the others. Finding the snake’s location while dealing with its powerful gigantic form was difficult even for a Third Earthly Martial Stage cultivator, so the others would take some time to defeat it.
Cultivators at the First Earthly Martial Stage would not even have been able to pass the first test, and cultivators at the second Earthly Martial Stage would not have passed the second. These two tests were clearly set up to filter off people below the Third Earthly Martial Stage. However, although Long Chen was only at the Ninth Heavenly Passage Stage, he had miraculously passed.
After the Golden Thread Kingsnake died, Long Chen put away its carcass. He saw that the bronze door on the other end of the cave had opened.
Was there going to be another test?
If there was, it could end in tragedy for him. He had gotten very lucky to survive this long.
If he had to go through a more difficult test, he would likely die.
After cleaning up, Long Chen exited through the door without hesitation. It led to a bright space, and he realized that it was another hall that was also divided into five sections. Each section could see the other side, but there were transparent walls dividing them.
Long Chen could tell who had passed when he looked at the other lanes. He did, and this time, he discovered that none of the other four bronze doors were open. This meant that the four Third Earthly Martial Stage masters had not killed their respective Golden Thread Kingsnakes yet.
Without a technique like the Soul Swallowing Gaze, they had no way of knowing the location of the Golden Thread Kingsnake, so it would indeed be difficult. Long Chen pushed them out of his mind and looked forward. He saw a light array not far away from the door. It was not large; its radius was only about one meter, so it was far smaller than a universe transporter. However, there were several times more symbols on it, and they were both beautiful and complex.
“This is a Mini Transporter, which only allows one person to pass, and it only goes in one direction. It is also transboundary,” said Little Cat when he saw how confused Long Chen was.
“Transboundary? What do you mean?” Long Chen understood the first part, but not the last part.
“The transporter you went through in the Cangyang Kingdom is not transboundary because it transports people within the same universe. This transporter can send you from the Divine Fire Realm to the outside world, so it is transboundary,” Little Cat lazily explained, looking at him with disgust as if Long Chen was a hillbilly.
Long Chen turned his gaze from the mini transporter to other places.
“This means that this is the exit leading out of the Divine Fire Realm. Then the item that I want must be here.” Long Chen looked ahead for the first time.
“It’s really hot …” Long Chen sensed that the temperature was very high, much higher than in the other sections.
When he looked closely, he saw that the space in front of the passage was filled with flames, and they blocked him from walking any further. Xiaolang grew very excited when he sensed the presence of the flames.
“Big Brother, those are not ordinary flames!” Xiaolang said hurriedly.
“Not ordinary?” Long Chen looked closely and saw that other than having abnormally high temperatures, they were a little different from normal flames. Wasn’t that solar fire? There was more of it here than what Xiaolang had absorbed!
Solar fire was the most common type of fire found on the sun. It would sometimes fall and land on the ground, but it was very rare to see so much of it concentrated in one place. Although Long Chen could not see all of it, he estimated that there was ten times more solar fire than what Xiaolang had received!
This meant that Xiaolang would likely achieve a breakthrough to become a true King-tier beast just by consuming the solar fire in this room!
Xiaolang was not the only one who was excited—Long Chen was too.
The next step was to obviously let Xiaolang swallow the flames.
It was time to let Xiaolang out, but one of the bronze doors suddenly burst open behind him. A red, feminine silhouette appeared—it was Long Yue! There were many black, burnt patches on her body, likely injuries sustained from the battle with the Golden Thread Kingsnake.
The first to appear out of the others was Long Yue.
Then again, it did not mean that she was the strongest. It only meant that she was the fastest to defeat her opponent.
Since she was out, that meant the others would soon follow. Long Chen initially wanted to let Xiaolang out, but looking at the current situation, he would have to wait.
When Long Yue emerged, she instantly spotted Long Chen. Her initially sorrowful expression turned into shock when she saw him, and disbelief filled her eyes.
“Long … Long Chen, you’re here?!”
Long Chen knew that the reason she was so shocked was because under normal circumstances, he should not have been able to pass the first level with his First Earthly Martial Stage strength.
“If I said it was due to luck, would you believe me?” Long Chen chuckled.
Long Yue gave him a strange sense of closeness.
She eyed the shocking teenager once more, and in the end, she had to believe that her eyes weren’t playing tricks. She shook her head with resignation and said, “It’s as if you’ve been creating miracles since the beginning. We’ll talk later. Since you arrived first, what have you found here?”
Long Chen pointed at the mini transporter and said, “That is likely the exit of the Divine Fire Realm. But I think the Red Emperor Seal is in the flames.”
He pointed at the solar fire.
The front of Long Yue’s section was also filled with solar fire.
As he spoke, a small flame leaped out of the solar fire, and the same happened on Long Yue’s side. The golden flame shook and a row of characters took shape in front of them.
“The Red Emperor Seal is in the solar fire, which stretches over a hundred meters. Whoever traverses fifty meters first will get the seal. Anyone who can complete a hundred meters will get a mystery gift.”
That was the message from the flame.
Long Chen and Long Yue locked eyes, and he saw the exhaustion in her eyes. She said, “The solar fire is extremely hot, so I need to wrap myself in essence to pass through it. And if I exhaust my essence, I might even be burned to death inside. With my capabilities, I can only walk forty meters at most. The rest of them likely cannot make it past thirty meters either. This means that no one below the Fourth Earthly Martial Stage can get the Red Emperor Seal!”
Long Yue’s analysis was surely accurate.
However, Long Chen was not stressed. Instead, he was pleasantly surprised, because he had Xiaolang with him. Xiaolang could swallow the solar fire, guaranteeing Long Chen’s ability to enter. However, Long Yue was still here, so Long Chen was not in a hurry.
“I can only hold on for forty meters at most. Even if I could get to the Red Emperor Seal, I would need to have enough essence to make it back here. Since merely going there would exhaust all my essence, I’d die on the way back. As for the mystery gift, it’s impossible to get it without reaching the Fifth or Sixth Earthly Martial Stage!” Long Yue said solemnly.
This meant that there was still a huge gap between the other four and the Red Emperor Seal.
The other three doors burst open consecutively. Yang Ningfeng, Huangfu Fengchen, and the Demon Emperor all emerged, and all of them looked ashy and disheveled. They were all in a worse state than Long Yue.
When they emerged, they studied their surroundings carefully, understanding the situation in the hall. Of course, what shocked them the most was Long Chen. They all assumed Long Chen was long dead, as even they had to put in some effort to pass the two tests. How had Long Chen made it here unscathed?
“How is that possible? How did you survive that, brat? Putting the golden snake aside, even one of the fiery men could have easily killed you,” blurted the Demon Emperor.
Yang Ningfeng and Huangfu Fengchen were wondering the same thing.
Huangfu Fengchen was pleasantly surprised to see that Long Chen had survived. He studied the teenager with a grin. The look of disbelief on his face turned into praise.
It looks like this brat has many secrets. Since Qiqi likes him so much, when she’s older … Hehe … he thought creepily.
Long Chen ignored the Demon Emperor. Since there were transparent walls, the Demon King could not touch him. He looked at Long Yue and asked, “Big Sister, what’s your plan?”
“I must still try. Wait for me outside. The solar fire is extremely hot; do not go in.” Then Long Yue wrapped her whole body with essence. Without even looking at the other three, she entered and was instantly swallowed by the flames.
Long Yue had always been a decisive person.
When she made her move, the others ignored Long Chen and quickly approached. Flames also popped out to give them the instructions.
“Fifty meters? Is that a joke? Doesn’t that mean we need to walk a hundred meters in the solar fire?” Jiang Wuxie’s expression changed. The other two were also torn because their capabilities were all similar.
“I absolutely must try. Even that woman Long Yue went in!” Huangfu Fengchen laughed, then, like Long Yue, he wrapped himself in essence and entered.
Yang Ningfeng and Jiang Wuxie locked eyes and scrambled to enter too. Very soon, only Long Chen remained.