The emergence of the Fire Flood Saint's ruins stirred up nearly all the major powers in Central Plains. Even many long-established yet usually low-profile factions dispatched people to investigate, let alone the more active forces. For a time, the entire Central Plains became especially lively. After all, the tomb of a peak Dou Saint was incredibly attractive.
Among the Seven Ancient Clans, all but the Hun Clan sent younger members for training. Of course, just to be safe, they also arranged for several Dou Zun-level guards to accompany them inside the ruins. These guards held specially made space jade slips—should anything go wrong, they could crush them and escape instantly.
At that moment, inside the Starfall Pavilion, Yao Lao was looking at the intelligence reports in his hand and sighed helplessly. The appearance of the Fire Flood Saint's ruins was certainly a great opportunity, but unfortunately, they had no suitable candidate in the pavilion to take advantage of it.
Zi Yan and the others were at best Dou Huang-level, and sending them would be like sending them to their deaths. Venerable Feng had the strength, but was tied down by his duties managing the pavilion. As for the others, Yao Lao simply couldn't trust them. The most suitable person, of course, would have been Xiao Yan, but he was out training and unreachable during this crucial time, so the idea had to be shelved.
"Sigh… Hopefully that kid gets wind of this. It would be such a shame to miss this opportunity," Yao Lao murmured, having no idea where Xiao Yan was currently training. If he wasn't too far away, there might still be a chance to grab some treasures from the ruins. If Xiao Yan truly managed to acquire and refine the rumored number one Heavenly Flame, it could quite literally propel him to the top.
Unbeknownst to Yao Lao, Xiao Yan had actually arrived at the Fire Flood Saint's ruins long ago. At this very moment, he was hiding inside a temporary pocket space he had opened himself, using his Heaven-level soul power to observe the outside. With his current soul strength, unless someone at the Dou Sheng level was watching, there was no way anyone would detect his spying.
'So this is where the Fire Flood Saint's tomb lies? Doesn't look all that impressive…' The first group to enter Xiao Yan's perception field were a few men with pill gourd symbols on their foreheads. One glance was enough for him to identify them as members of the Yao Clan. Though their strength was only at the early Dou Zong level, their soul strength was notable—one of them had even reached the Spirit Rank.
Of course, their soul strength was nothing compared to Xiao Yan's, so they didn't notice his presence. Yet Xiao Yan clearly sensed Heavenly Flame energy fluctuations on them. 'The Turtle Spirit Ground Flame, ranked thirteenth, and the Nine Nether Wind Flame, ranked tenth… not too shabby.'
"You think everyone's flashy but useless like you?" While he was analyzing, a white-robed young man with a refined appearance arrived, accompanied by a veiled woman in red. A flame-shaped mark glowed on their foreheads—clearly members of the Yan Clan. On them, Xiao Yan detected far stronger flame auras than the Yao Clan members.
'Eight Desolation Annihilation Flame and Red Lotus Flame of Karma… heh, no wonder the Yan Clan's known for mastering fire. The quality of their flames is top-notch.' Xiao Yan grinned slightly. These two flames were ranked sixth and eighth respectively—both stronger than the Three Thousand Burning Flame controlled by the Pill Tower. If he could refine them all, the improvement to his strength would be staggering.
However, given their current strength, they obviously hadn't fully refined these flames either. It was likely a similar arrangement to what Yao Lao had done when passing the Bone Chilling Flame to Xiao Yan—using a soul imprint to store the flame temporarily for limited use until they were strong enough to truly refine it.
Besides the Yan and Yao clans, Xiao Yan also detected members of other ancient clans, though none carried Heavenly Flame auras. After briefly gauging their strengths, he turned his attention elsewhere. To his surprise, people from Blazing Flame Valley had also shown up.
Ordinarily, Blazing Flame Valley wouldn't have caught Xiao Yan's attention, but the Nine Dragons Thunder Flame within the body of its Valley Master was a different story. Although it wasn't Tang Zhen, the man Xiao Yan remembered, the current Valley Master's body did contain the signature fluctuations of the twelfth-ranked flame, suggesting he might be Tang Zhen's predecessor.
Counting everyone present, there were now five other Heavenly Flames gathered here, all ranked within the top fifteen—and two of them even in the top ten. Including himself, more than half of the entire Heavenly Flame Ranking was now present in one place.
The haul was enough to make Xiao Yan inwardly ecstatic. He knew very well that if he could capture all these people and extract their Heavenly Flames for refining, his strength would soar to unprecedented heights.
However, despite his excitement, Xiao Yan didn't act rashly. The targets were too spread out. Even if he ambushed them, at most he'd snatch one or two flames before the rest escaped.
Besides, each of these targets had powerful bodyguards, most of whom were at peak Dou Zun level or higher. Xiao Yan could handle any of them in a one-on-one fight, and even several together wouldn't trouble him much—but the problem lay in the special space jade slips they carried. With just a moment's delay, they could summon reinforcements, and that would be far more troublesome than fighting them directly.
So he forcibly suppressed his impulses and chose to wait—for the perfect moment.
And that moment came swiftly. A brilliant beam of light shot skyward, and the tomb of the Fire Flood Saint slowly began to open. As scorching heatwaves surged out, all the flame bearers turned pale, then ecstatic—the Heavenly Flames within them all showed signs of fear.
That could only mean one thing: there was indeed a Heavenly Flame inside! And judging by their reactions, it wouldn't be a weak one—possibly even the legendary top-ranked flame.
Seeing their reactions, Xiao Yan smiled faintly. 'Go ahead and enter… Once you're all inside, that's when I make my move.'
(End of Chapter)
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