The roar of the fierce beast from the earth’s core shook Nie Tian to the point that he spat out blood, while his head rumbled continuously.

Terror started to appear in his eyes. Subconsciously, he took a few steps back, moving slightly further away from the huge hole. He stood there flabbergasted.

With merely one roar, it managed to cause slight damage to his physical body, even though he considered himself to be stronger than average. This had put a bit of fear in him.

He couldn’t imagine just how strong the blurry fierce beast was, which moved about under the magma.

He also noticed that when the fierce beast vaguely showed itself moments ago, the ancient magical symbols that flowed within the crystal-like ribbons, suddenly became dazzling and bright.

He remembered clearly that during the three times when the Flame Dragon Armor had attempted to dive into the magma, only a small part of the magical symbols within the ribbons had lit up.

He suddenly came to a realization that the real purpose of the ribbons was to stop the fierce beast from escaping and rushing out from the earth core.

ROOOOAR!

Once again, a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering roar burst out from the boiling magma within the earth’s core. This time, Nie Tian, who had prepared in advance, circulated his spiritual energy and tightly shielded his internal organs and eardrums. Only in that way did he manage to resist the damage.

He saw that within the magma in the huge hole, a giant blurry figure with three long tails seemed to have swam by.

“It lives in the earth’s core magma, and it has three tails!”

He tried his best to calm himself and recall the formidable spiritual beasts that his master had imparted to him. Suddenly, he had an epiphany.

“Earth Flame Beast! It's an Earth Flame Beast!”

Wu Ji had once told him that there was a unique kind of spiritual beast that resided in the middle of the magma of the earth’s core, and was therefore known as the Earth Flame Beast.

They were fire-attributed spiritual beasts that were by nature extremely vicious and violent. It was said that they possessed the bloodline of Flame Qilins.

Their growth, cultivation, and advancements all greatly relied on the magma in the earth’s core.

Once they had found a suitable magma lake in the earth's core, they would make it its habitat and spontaneously gather flame power from the surrounding areas, and merge it into the lake.

Whatever place Earth Flame Beasts inhabited, even if it were once damp and rainy, with their arrival, the place would slowly become hot and dry, with the formation of volcanoes that frequently erupted.

As long as they lived there, the flame energy nearby would be absorbed by them and slowly flow into the magma lake in the earth’s core where they resided.

Over a long period of time, the mountains within their habitat would turn into volcanoes one after another, and as they cultivated and condensed more flame power, the volcanoes would become more active and erupt more frequently.

“Can it be that… this Earth Flame Beast has made the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range what it is now?”

Looking at the numerous crystal-like ribbons, Nie Tian’s eyes flickered. Suddenly, he came to a realization that the most powerful experts of the Spiritual Treasure sect must have been aware of the existence of the Earth Flame Beast for a long time.

Otherwise, the crystal-like ribbons wouldn’t have extended so far that they covered the entire Scarlet Flame Mountain Range.

He assumed that a founding expert of the Spiritual Treasure sect must have only built their sect in the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range after discovering the Earth Flame Beast underneath it.

As long as the Earth Flame Beast was there, the magma lake deep within the earth's core would forever gather flame energy, causing the three volcanoes to never go extinct.

Qi warriors of the Spiritual school, who cultivated with the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth, and equipment forgers of the Treasure school, who refined spiritual tools, were mostly reliant on the blazing flame energy.

The existence of the Earth Flame Beast had caused the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth shrouding the Spiritual Treasure sect to carry rich flame power.

The fierce flame from the earth's core could be drawn out for many uses. Some of it would be used to form the grand Heaven Burning Earth Flame formation, while some would flow into the caves to allow the equipment forgers of the Treasure school to refine spiritual tools.

However, the flame power at earth’s core wasn’t infinite. Normally, the flame power on this land would have been completely used up after hundreds of years of consumption by the numerous Spiritual Treasure sect disciples.

But the Earth Flame Beast could change that!

It could unceasingly draw flame power from the vicinity of the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range and channel it into the magma lake.

Its existence would ensure that the Spiritual Treasure sect thrived among the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range, with an infinite supply of flame energy to be used for their cultivation and equipment forging.

ROOOOAR!

While Nie Tian was pondering such matters, the Earth Flame Beast within the magma once again let out mad roars. It seemed to be attempting to break away from the restriction of the crystal-like ribbons and burst forth from the magma lake in the earth’s core.

“It must have also noticed the damage to the grand Heaven Burning Earth Flame formation and want to seize the opportunity to get out. That’s probably the reason why it’s so violent and restless.”

Shortly after everything had started, the dome of the grand spell formation had been torn open. Later on, seeing the losing momentum couldn’t be reversed, Fang Hui deactivated the defense to give the mass disciples a chance to live.

Fang Hui’s decision had compromised the formation, which gave the Earth Flame Beast within the magma lake a sign of hope.

WHOOSH!

At that moment, the Flame Dragon Armor, which had remained silent for a while, once again flew out.

“Will you stop messing around?” With a bitter smile, Nie Tian said, “Even that beast can’t burst out of there, so please stop wasting your energy.”

From Nie Tian’s point of view, all the ancient magical symbols within the glittering ribbons had now turned dazzling and bright because of the frantic behaviors of the beast.

Compared to before, the restrictive force of the net of crystal-like ribbons must have also multiplied by who knew how many times.

If the Flame Dragon Armor were to give it a try now, not only would it not stand a chance, it could also use up its own flame power. It might as well wait quietly for the Earth Flame Beast to rush out of its bindings.

It seemed as if the Flame Dragon Armor had heard his call, and this time, it actually did not make another rash attempt, but rather floated motionlessly half a meter above the crystal-like ribbons.

At that moment, he faintly felt that an odd aura started to ripple outwards from within the Blood Core on the Flame Dragon Armor, quietly flowing downwards like a mist.

He realized that the Flame Dragon Armor was trying to determine a path with the help of its aura.

Even though Nie Tian could feel the aura, he still didn’t understand its true significance.

However, the Earth Flame Beast, that had previously swam away with its three tails, appeared to have noticed the strange aura that came from the Flame Dragon Armor.

It immediately stopped its frantic roaring and started to circle back towards the source of the aura.

Nie Tian looked over with rapt attention, and found that the Earth Flame Beast seemed to be concerned with the formidable power of the crystal-like ribbons sealing the magma lake, and didn’t dare to rise to the surface.

Therefore, Nie Tian could only see an enormous, vague shadow, but couldn’t get a clear look of its appearance.

He only saw the Earth Flame Beast swimming back deeply under the magma lake; then it stopped directly below the Flame Dragon Armor as if it was sensing the the aura of the Blood Core.

Cut off by the thin but giant crystal net, there was no way that Nie Tian’s psychic awareness could perceive what it was doing under there. But, he was aware that the Earth Flame Beast and the Flame Dragon Armor were communicating in a way that he could not understand.

Nie Tian stared blankly at them.

It seemed that the Blood Core in the Flame Dragon Armor and the Earth Flame Beast had come to some kind of agreement after communicating for a while.

In the next moment, Nie Tian saw a perilous, raging wave rising in the magma lake.

Apparently, some kind of strange magnetic field was forming inside the lake, changing the flow of the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in the surroundings.

The Earth Flame Beast was channeling flame energy into the magma lake, causing the magma in the earth's core to become even more vigorous.

By that point, the Earth Flame Beast appeared to have activated the talent that had been hidden in its bloodline.

Very quickly, Nie Tian noticed that pure and rich spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth, which contained copious flame power, started to flow down along the stone tunnel to where he was.

As soon as the threads of flame power reached the end of the tunnel, they swarmed into the Blood Core within the Flame Dragon Armor.

Although he couldn’t get a clear look, he was sure that the blood drop within the Blood Core must be gradually strengthening.

It had only been a short while, but a large amount of the pure spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth had already filled the space where Nie Tian was standing, and the rough stone walls around him started to gradually heat up.

The flame aura stored within the spiritual Qi was being absorbed by the Blood Core. However, there was an even larger amount of heaven and earth energy were floating in the stone tunnel, congealing into clusters of milky-white clouds.

Nie Tian was seized by the amazing scene. Then, he felt that every breath that he took made him increasingly comfortable and relaxed.

Without thinking, he sat down on the ground and started to practice the Qi Refining Incantation. Immediately, he felt his spiritual sea start to ripple and soon become violent and chaotic.

His expression flickered. “The excessively rich spiritual energy seems to be pushing me to break through the bottleneck and enter the Lesser Heaven stage!”

The extremely thick spiritual energy, the magnetic field formed by the Earth Flame Beast, and the changes occurring to the Flame Dragon Armor, coupled with Nie Tian’s special mental state, all seemed to be working together and causing Nie Tian’s spiritual sea to reform.

Just like his mental state, his spiritual sea could no longer stay calm, as if it was being warped by a strange magnetic field.

He immediately understood that the bottleneck that had been holding him back was being overcome with the help of an number of extremely unusual factors. Now, it had reached a point where he simply had to break through.

All these years of unyielding cultivation in the Qi Refining stage, accompanied by his accumulation of spiritual energy, were like a volcano that had been continuously storing flame power.

By the time it had reached a certain extent and met a perfect opportunity, the volcano would need to erupt.

If it couldn’t erupt from the top, it would explode underground, giving vent to the violent power surging inside of it.

Similarly, if he didn’t break through at that moment, then it was possible that his spiritual sea would explode!

After realizing that, even though Nie Tian knew that it was not an ideal time to break through, he had no other choice.

He forced himself to calm down, ignoring the increasingly hot stone tunnel, the changes occurring to the Flame Dragon Armor, as well as the existence of the Earth Flame Beast, going all out to break through his bottleneck.

Meanwhile...

Near the mouth of the stone cave, An Shiyi and the others were waiting anxiously. Suddenly, a look of amazement flashed across her eyes.

“Did you feel anything?” asked An Shiyi.

One after another, they all stopped their cultivation and nodded their heads. Pan Tao said, “The spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth of the entire Scarlet Flame Mountain Range seems to be converging towards us.”

“And the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth contains rich flame power.” An Shiyi practiced fire-attributed spiritual incantations, so she had a more acute perception of flame energy. “We all know that the reason why our sect chose the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range as our base was mostly because of the rich spiritual energy here and the intense flame aura in the spiritual energy.

“But it’s absolutely not normal for the flow of the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth to undergo such a big change.

“Now I can sense that the flame aura within the entire Scarlet Flame Mountain Range is mixed in the spiritual Qi, and madly rushing towards us!”

While speaking, they had also felt that the stones that they had been sitting on were slowly warming up.

If they were to walk out of the stone cave at that moment, they would have found that the short mountain that they were at was gradually turning red, as if someone was painting it.

After hearing An Shiyi’s words, Pan Tao focused his attention to feel the changes. A moment later, he asked with a puzzled face, “Where the hell is Nie Tian?”

“Could it be Nie Tian who triggered the changes to this place?” An Ying said in a low voice.

“It’s impossible!!” Pan Tao shook his head. “What stage is he in? He’s far from reaching the point where he can interact with the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth like this. If he already could trigger such a huge change to the flow of the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth while only being in the Qi Refining stage, wouldn’t the life-long cultivation of elder Fang Hui and his master Wu Ji have become a joke? Wouldn’t they have trained so long for nothing?”

Worried about Nie Tian’s safety, An Shiyi rose to her feet. “You guys stay here, I’ll head down there and take a quick look!” 

She practiced fire-attributed spiritual incantations, and had the highest cultivation base among everyone present. If they were to send out one person to get a clear grasp of the situation, she would be the best choice.

“Be careful, sis!” An Ying felt a bit worried. “My right eye usually twitches in response to omens (see note 1); I have the feeling something big is about to happen.”

“I also have the feeling that something isn’t right,” said Jiang Lingzhu. “My Qi and blood aren’t flowing smoothly, and my chest feels as if it’s being pressured by a big stone.”

“Keep your guard up. I’ll go take a look at what Nie Tian is doing, and urge him to leave!” With these words, An Shiyi went down the deep, gloomy stone tunnel, in an attempt to find Nie Tian.

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Note:

1. The following is a Chinese folk story related to eye twitching:

There was once a scholar who was heading to the Imperial City for an imperial examination. Upon arrival to the city, he found an inn where he could spend the night. He studied the whole night in his room, and was feeling confident about the exam. Before long, it was already dawn. The scholar quickly left the inn to join the other scholars at the exam site.

However, to his surprise, he realised that the questions were of a different topic than what he studied the night before. He became really worried. Due to the lack of sleep the night before, his right eye started to twitch. Even though he tried his best to finish his exam, he failed.

So he returned home disappointed. He wanted to have a few drinks, but he had no money. He decided to go to his father to borrow some money. Surprisingly, his father willingly gave him money for alcohol. At that moment, his left eye twitched.

After a year, he took the exam again. This time, he successfully passed the exam. He was given a government position, and he started to spread the story of his experience to the public.

Hence the saying, "The twitching of the left eye signals wealth; the twitching of the right eye signals hazards."