Lou Hongyan, the Divine Daughter of the fire element sect, also perceived the unusually intense spatial fluctuations that were coming from below them. 

Confusion filled her face as she exclaimed, “What’s happening?”

Peng Yan and the other elders of the fire element sect went blank for a few seconds before their expressions suddenly flickered.

One of the elders couldn’t help but exclaim, “Pang Chicheng! He must have been back here some time!”

Perhaps because he was overly shocked by his own realization and was fairly close to the mouth of the volcano, he sent a wisp of his soul awareness down into it without much thought.

WHOOSH!

The complicated, exquisite fiery spell formations that had been carved on the crimson inside of the crater were suddenly activated.

A terrifying blazing aura that could burn anything and everything burst forth from within the spell formations.

RUMBLE!

That elder let out a pained cry before he was pushed thousands of meters away by some unknown great power.

He struggled to steady himself in midair, a strange shade of red appearing on his face, and tiny sparks flying from the corners of his eyes.

Astonished, Peng Yan exclaimed, “Li Yu!”

After quickly calming himself, he ordered the other elders to refrain from making more attempts.

Then, he turned to Huang Jinnan, Hou Chulan, and the other Divine Sons and Daughters, and said with a stern expression, “The volcano below us is a treasured cultivation location of our sect. Don’t attempt to probe into its wonders! Even you, Nie Tian. Don’t make any rash attempts. Just let the Flame Dragon Armor do what it has to do.”

WHOOSH!

Golden light burst forth from within Huang Jinnan’s body as he let out a muffled groan and stepped backwards.

“What did I tell you?!” Peng Yan thundered.

After holding himself steady, Huang Jinnan smiled bitterly and said, “Your warning came too late, Elder Peng. I sent a wisp of metal power into the crater as you spoke.”

“Alright, no more probing from now on!” After exclaiming these words, Peng Yan cast his eyes down in sorrow. “This place was where Pang Chicheng practiced cultivation. However, it belonged to another someone else before him.”

Nie Tian came to a sudden enlightenment. “Pang Bo!” 

He had long since sensed anomalies from the aura emanated by the mysterious and complicated spell formations that had been carved on the inside of the crater.

It was true that only peak God domain experts who practiced flame power incantations could vest them with such strong flame aura.

However, he had met Shao Tianyang, the current sectmaster of the fire element sect, in the Shatter Battlefield. Thanks to the flame spark inside of him, he had been able to sense a surging flame aura inside of him, which was different from the flame aura he was sensing from the spell formations below.

Coupling that with what Peng Yan had just said, how could he not derive the truth?

“You’re right,” Peng Yan admitted. “This volcano belonged to our former sectmaster at first. Before he died, he demanded that it should be passed on to Pang Chicheng, his only child, as his private cultivation location. Of course Sectmaster Shao agreed to it. He rarely came here after that.

“This place is blessed with numerous wondrous fiery spell formations he created in his lifetime.

“Many of them carry the ultimate mysteries of flame power, which mark the peak of humanity’s understanding of flame power. Even Sectmaster Shao may not be able to solve all of them.”

As Shao Tianyang’s master, Pang Bo had been the most powerful human expert who practiced fire incantations during his time.

“So,” Peng Yan said with all seriousness, “don’t try to solve the mysteries down there anymore, at least not with your spiritual or soul power. I suppose it’ll be fine if you just observe from here.”

After he finished, Nie Tian let out a loud harrumph. “You must know what spatial fluctuations mean, right?” 

Peng Yan fell silent.

“The fact that such noticeable spatial fluctuations are coming from down there indicates that there’s either a teleportation portal or a spatial rift down there,” Hou Chulan analyzed. “Whichever it is, it suggests that something down there connects to somewhere else. And people can enter and exit the Realm of Fire Spirit through it.”

The elders of the fire element sect fell silent after hearing these words.

They had also thought of this possibility.

“Even I can’t go down there?” Lou Hongyan suddenly asked.

Peng Yan hesitated for a brief moment before saying, “You’d better not. It’s too risky to touch the spell formations left by our former sectmaster.”

“Then how do we know what’s hidden down there?” Lou Hongyan asked reluctantly.

She had been killed by Pang Chicheng once. How could she not hold a grudge against him?

Now, she had suddenly learned that not only was the man alive, but he might have snuck back to the Realm of Fire Spirit to practice cultivation right under her nose. Her anger was understandable.

While her master had issued a Flame God Warrant for Pang Chicheng’s arrest, she herself had searched everywhere for him as well. She had even ordered her subordinates to do everything within their power to find the man.

She had never expected that the man she had been trying so hard to find might have snuck back into her turf repeatedly over the years.

She felt deeply frustrated that she had been fooled. She even felt that Pang Chicheng was sneering at her somewhere in the dark at this very moment.

Nie Tian laughed. “This is absurd. Pang Chicheng is a traitor of your sect, yet he can enter and exit the Realm of Fire Spirit freely through this volcano. And you can’t enter it to conduct an investigation? Let me put it this way, even if Pang Chicheng were practicing cultivation inside this volcano with the earthflame of the Realm of Fire Spirit right now, you wouldn’t know about it. Right?”

Peng Yan and the other elders of the fire element sect, along with Lou Hongyan, all looked very grim after they heard these words.

What Nie Tian said was actually a possibility.

Throughout the entire fire element sect, Sectmaster Shao Tianyang was the only one who had the ability to enter the volcano and see what was inside of it.

However, he wouldn’t do such a thing out of respect for his late master.

No one else was strong enough to enter the volcano themselves, or send their soul awareness into it.

Because of this, if Pang Chicheng had snuck back here to practice cultivation in secret, who could find out about it?

Even if he was hiding in there right now, there didn’t seem to be anything they could do about it.

“Pang Chicheng isn’t really hiding down there, is he?” Huang Jinnan asked, his voice growing strange. “Nie Tian, your Flame Dragon Armor flew down there by itself. If it runs into Pang Chicheng, its former master, will it end up in his possession again?

“The Flame Dragon Armor was a Spirit Channeling grade treasure before, nothing too special. But now, with Agaz coming back to life, I have feeling that it’s transforming into an Immortal grade divine tool. If Pang Chicheng actually takes it back, I’m afraid it’ll improve his strength to a large extent!”

After hearing his words, Lou Hongyan was so angry that she nearly puked blood.

“I’ll try to communicate with it!” Nie Tian exclaimed softly.

“What?!” Peng Yan exclaimed.

“It’ll be fine. I’m sure our soul connection is still there. It’s only unstable at the moment.” With a stern expression, Nie Tian focused on the profound connection between his bloodline and the Flame Dragon Armor.

After a while, his face grew grim, as he felt that the Flame Dragon Armor was like a stone that had been dropped into the sea. The flesh aura connection between it and him seemed to have been completely cut off.

At the same time, the spatial fluctuations coming from under there grew stronger and stronger.