With his artifact refining at a critical bottleneck, Shen Xian’s mind raced through possible solutions.

The true fire of the [Sky-Burning Cauldron] was fixed; to increase its intensity, he would first need to upgrade the cauldron itself—a True Spirit Treasure. However, the sheer volume of rare materials required for such a feat was far beyond his current reserves. His other option lay in the [Li Fire True Seal]. If he could reach a perfect, ten-tenths fusion with the seal, the heat he could manifest would skyrocket. But hunting more fire-attribute beasts was a slow, diminishing return.

He had only one path left: he had to find a superior heat source.

Based on his observations of the earth veins, these underground spiritual fires weren’t spontaneous; they were merely the shallowest runoff of a much more powerful, primordial source. If he could trace the heat to its root, his furnace would never run cold.

Shen Xian focused on the [Li Fire True Seal] between his eyebrows. Since his arrival, the mark had hummed with a strange, magnetic resonance toward the depths of the Fire Pass. Using the seal as a compass, he projected his Divine Sense downward.

Amplified by the [Taixu Mirror of Divine Reflection], his Soul Formation-level perception surged through the crust like a golden dragon. He bypassed layers of basalt and rivers of slag until, deep within the world’s mantle, he found it.

It was a wisp of source fire, drifting in the dark. Its outer sheath was a deep, translucent blue—a glassy, ethereal flame—while its core glowed with the brilliance of liquid crimson gold.

Found you.

However, the divine spark remained indifferent to his presence. Whether held by ancient prohibitions or simply lacking a reason to move, it didn’t budge. Shen Xian sank into a deep contemplative state. He could see the fire, but he couldn’t see the environment around it; his perception was filtered entirely through the elemental lens of the True Seal.

If the fire wouldn’t come to him, he would have to lure it.

Shen Xian spun the power of the [Li Fire True Seal] into gossamer-thin golden threads, spreading them along the natural drift of the blue flame. A marvelous resonance occurred. As the threads overlapped with the flame’s trajectory, the divine spark shivered.

A sharp light erupted in Shen Xian’s eyes. This flame and his seal were of the same lineage—manifestations of the fundamental laws of fire. He bit the tip of his tongue and sprayed a mist of essence blood onto his brow. The golden threads turned a dark, vibrant red, forming a sensory net that perfectly mimicked the flame’s own rhythm.

“Come!”

With a mental tug, the net contracted. Like a summoned spirit, the glassy golden flame surged upward, flowing along the network toward the [Li Fire True Seal].

On the second layer of the [Sword Asking Pavilion], within the depths of the [Ten Thousand Corpses Tomb], the air was thick with the stench of scorched earth and ancient malice.

Xiao Jin, the Saint Son of the [Li Fire Sect], stood suspended in the roiling heat. Before him sat an ancient altar of dark-red crystal, wrapped in nine layers of shimmering, chain-like prohibitions. Each rune on those chains hummed with enough power to incinerate a lesser cultivator in an instant.

“Paltry prohibitions,” Xiao Jin sneered, his battle armor flaring with arrogance. He was a favored son of heaven, and he had come for the prize within this altar: the [Primordial Divine Fire].

He unleashed nine fire dragons from his aura, their bodies white-hot as they slammed into the barrier. Boom! The altar didn’t break; instead, it vomited a wave of backfire that swallowed his dragons whole. Xiao Jin staggered back, the chest piece of his armor blackened.

“Interesting.” His gaze turned heavy as he summoned the [Li Fire Mirror], a Sect-guarding treasure refined from thousand-year fire marrow. He channeled his Qi, and the mirror fired a beam of golden light, searching for a flaw in the formation’s eye.

The runes on the altar twisted like living serpents, rebounding the beam. The shock nearly shattered Xiao Jin’s grip, and a trickle of blood escaped his lips. His arrogance turned to cold fury.

“If brute force won’t do, then let my blood decide.” He sprayed essence blood onto the mirror. “Sky-Burning Reflection—Break!”

The mirror erupted in a sanguine light, finally exposing a hair-thin crack in the southeast corner. Behind Xiao Jin, a hundred-foot-tall Fire God phantom coalesced, its arms wrapped in burning chains.

“OPEN!”

The phantom’s fists fell like meteors. The altar groaned. Prohibitions shattered like ice under a hammer. From the center of the ruin, a wisp of pure,glass-like flame rose—the [Primordial Divine Fire].

It was a master-tool of the heavens. Its blue outer flame—the Yin fire—could strip the dross from any ore, while its golden heart—the Yang fire—could breathe life into a [Treasure Spirit Embryo]. This was the key to forging a top-tier True Spirit Treasure.

Xiao Jin’s greed was palpable. “Mine. It belongs to me!”

He reached for it, but the flame shivered and fractured into ten thousand threads, slicing through his protective light as if it were thin paper. Bloody gashes opened across his face and arms, the blood evaporating before it could even pool.

“Vile thing! Submit!” Xiao Jin crushed a [Li Fire Heaven-Sealing Talisman], casting a massive net of suppression over the spark. He gritted his teeth as his armor shattered and his skin began to char, forcing the divine fire into a compressed seed at his fingertips.

He moved to pull it into the flame pattern on his brow, but just as victory was within his grasp, the spark trembled violently. Guided by an unseen, distant force, it simply… vanished. It slipped through his fingers and into the void.

“WHAT?!”

Xiao Jin’s roar shook the cavern. The rocks beneath him melted into a lake of slag as his Divine Sense swept out in a raging tide. He caught a faint, receding trace—the fire had been pulled down to the first layer.

“Seeking death!”

His face contorted into a demonic mask. He transformed into a crimson lightning bolt, tearing through the earth in a blind, murderous pursuit. Everywhere he passed, the ground cracked and the air ignited, leaving nothing but a trail of scorched earth in the wake of his fury.