by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
With the phoenix rapidly getting closer, Long Chen flipped through the primal chaos space to see if he had any trump cards he could use.
“Right, I still have this.”
Long Chen’s eyes suddenly lit up as he smashed a pitch-black object behind him.
“Fuck off!”
Chapter 1361 You Are You, You Are Not You
A black light suddenly whistled over at the chasing golden phoenix.
BOOM!
Huge ripples appeared in space as the world shook. The phoenix let out a mournful cry as it was sent flying into the distance. A black pot flew back, and Long Chen caught it.
The golden phoenix was tumbling through the air, seeming to have lost its balance. It smashed into a mountain, and that mountain was instantly ignited.
“As usual, the pot is mighty,” praised Long Chen. Even the Heaven Incinerating Flame couldn’t damage the pot. During their collision, Long Chen had seen some of the rust on its bottom isolate the flame energy.
Seeing that the pot couldn’t be damaged by the Heaven Incinerating Flame, Long Chen had an urge to chase after it to see if he could subdue it. But he saw that it wasn’t injured at all. It was like it really had just been struck by a pot.
After a moment’s hesitation, Long Chen didn’t go after it. Instead, he turned and fled. His brain told him that a greedy heart never had a good ending.
Long Chen didn’t have any assurance in subduing the golden phoenix. Even with the pot, his chances of victory were essentially zero.
Moreover, even if he could beat it, he wouldn’t be able to capture it. With Huo Long’s current power, there was no way for it to eat such a tough piece of meat. The difference between them was too great.
So Long Chen wisely chose to scram. This golden phoenix wasn’t something he could currently provoke.
As he rushed off, he heard furious bird cries from behind him. The phoenix was probably complaining about how he had gotten away.
Long Chen rushed off for several hours before finding a gorge to hide himself in and rest. He looked at Huo Long, who was a bit depressed.
The Heaven Incinerating Flame had exhausted a great deal of its core energy. Just seeing it like this distressed Long Chen.
“Don’t worry, I’ll help you recover. We can find some weaker Earth Flames to devour, and once you’re strong enough, we’ll go get revenge against it.” Long Chen summoned Huo Long and patted it on its head comfortingly.
Long Chen began to advance slower. Although he didn’t change his general direction, now he was constantly searching for Earth Flames for Huo Long to devour.
Fortunately, Huo Long had sharp senses and could easily sense the presence of Earth Flame Spirit Beasts. In just half a day, Huo Long had devoured four weaker Earth Flame Spirit Beasts, allowing it to recover the majority of its core energy.
In order to increase their efficiency, after recovering, Huo Long summoned three split bodies, which went off to search for even more Earth Flame Spirit Beasts.
Long Chen suddenly became ecstatic. Huo Long’s split bodies were all true bodies and possessed their own Spiritual Strength. They could handle danger and fight on their own.
Long Chen worked together with Huo Long for a whole day, allowing it to devour seven powerful Earth Flame Spirit Beasts. Two of them had decent rankings that allowed Huo Long to not only fully recover, but also grow stronger.
Long Chen had Huo Long release its eight split bodies. Those split bodies were to go out on their own and hunt Earth Flame Spirit Beasts while Huo Long’s true body stayed with Long Chen.
Huo Long’s split bodies had half the power of the true body, but their intelligence was the same. As long as they were careful, they could continuously devour Earth Flames and grow stronger.
During this time, Long Chen would go after the Nirvana Scripture. They couldn’t waste any time. Huo Long’s split bodies had sharp senses and could sense danger from a great distance.
Even if four of the split bodies were eliminated, as long as the other four returned after devouring Earth Flames, the gains would definitely make up for the losses.
Following Long Chen’s directions, eight small flame dragons split up, while Long Chen rushed into the depths of the Heaven Dragon Flame Region with Huo Long’s true body.
This time, Long Chen didn’t dare to randomly rush around. He had Huo Long go completely straight because he didn’t want to run into anything as monstrous as the Heaven Incinerating Flame again.
When they ran into weaker Earth Flame Spirit Beasts, Huo Long would conveniently devour them. If they were equally matched or stronger, they would go around them.
One month could be described as a long time or a short time. However, since Long Chen had to find the tablet within this period, he had to rush.
When Long Chen finally arrived at the place the Pill Fairy had marked, he saw that it was a land of red dirt, which emitted flame fluctuations.
There was a canyon ahead, and upon entering, he went through nine turns before seeing a huge stone tablet.
The tablet was so huge that there was no way to clearly see its complete body. Light revolved over it, while it emitted a primeval aura.
Seeing this tablet, Long Chen’s heart suddenly turned calm. Everything else in the world fell away, and the only thing left was this stone tablet.
He slowly walked over. His hand lightly touched its inscriptions. For some unknown reason, his hand was trembling, and he suddenly realized he was crying.
“Why does this tablet seem so familiar…” Long Chen lightly brushed against the inscriptions. It felt like there were some sealed memories in his head, but he couldn’t recall them.
“You’ve finally come.”
Just at this moment, a voice rang out in Long Chen’s mind. Light enveloped him from the tablet, and he suddenly appeared in a starry sky.
There were stars above and below him. He was standing within space. Here, it felt like the flow of time was constantly changing. He didn’t even know what exactly he was feeling.
“Can you turn around and give me a good look at you?” A voice rang out. It was a very gentle voice, and it sounded like heavenly music. However, it also sounded extremely distant, so distant that it was as if it came from a different spacetime.
Long Chen slowly turned. He saw an illusory figure behind him that he was able to see clearly. It was a peerless beauty. Ripples floated out of her in a mysterious and profound manner.
Even after seeing her clearly, he suddenly felt like he could no longer see her so clearly. He was unable to sense her existence.
The things that gave him the greatest impression were her limpid eyes. Her eyes were serene and kind, making him feel a burst of warmth.
“Senior, you…” Long Chen opened his mouth, but his voice was somewhat choked with sobs. His tears still continued flowing out of his control.
The woman sighed sadly. “You are you, you are not you. You are one, you are not one.”
The voice was transmitted into his ears, yet Long Chen found that it wasn’t a true voice, but a special kind of energy being read by his divine sense.
Although they were facing each other, Long Chen felt like they were isolated by a boundless space, or perhaps by boundless time. She didn’t come from the present. She came from the past, or perhaps the future.
Just what was going on? Why did this woman feel so intimate to him, yet also fill him with sorrow?
“You are…”
Long Chen suddenly recalled an image. Within the void, a peerless expert with nine stars in his eyes and a divine ring behind him fought fiercely against his opponent.
At that time, there had been a person behind him, but Long Chen had only gotten a glance. However, he felt that it was a woman.
For some reason, he connected this woman with that woman.
“Senior, can you hear my voice?” asked Long Chen.
“Nine stars against the heavens. The heavens collapse, gods fall, and blood dyes the sky red. The peak
of power? The peak of the Dao? To defy the heavens, is this the final result?” The woman muttered to herself as she looked at Long Chen.
The stars in the void suddenly began to shake. They started to rapidly move through the air as they trembled.
“Perhaps it’s right, perhaps it’s wrong. Whether it’s right or wrong, what harm is there in it? You will always have that unbending nature. I can only silently stand beside you.” The woman suddenly reached and held Long Chen’s cheeks.
However, her hands were unable to touch him. They simply floated above him as her body began to fade.
“Can I ask who…”
That woman didn’t seem to hear him. She vanished and Long Chen’s heart turned cold. He didn’t know what had just happened.
Just at this moment, countless runes lit up around him. One after another, they entered his head.
Chanting shook the starry sky. Long Chen’s heart jumped, as the voice of the person chanting was the voice of the woman just now.
Each syllable, each inflection, each bit of it was hallowed and profound. As the chanting continued, the world began to spin. The stars rose and fell. It was like the world was following the scripture.
The total scripture wasn’t long. It only had a few dozen syllables to it, but just this short scripture contained boundless profundities. It formed a never-ending cycle with no end or beginning.
Yet, despite how profound it was, Long Chen felt it to be very familiar, as if he had long since mastered it but simply forgotten it. Now that he heard it again, he immediately comprehended its essence.
Suddenly, the scene around him faded, and he once more appeared in the Heaven Dragon Flame Region.
Just as he reappeared, the huge stone tablet suddenly seemed to go through millions and millions of years of erosion. It crumbled.
The tablet fell to pieces, and the pieces then faded into dust, vanishing. It was like it had never existed.
Long Chen just stared, unable to calm himself. It seemed that he had touched one of the secrets of this world. An unprecedented feeling of crisis filled him. He found it hard to breathe.
“I can’t bother with this now. Since I’ve obtained the second volume of the Nirvana Scripture, it’s time to remove this damn curse.” Long Chen took a deep breath and slowly formed a hand seal.
Chapter 1362 Getting Rid of the Curse
Long Chen had just formed a hand seal when he suddenly felt danger. He hastily turned around and saw a figure rushing over.
“Hahaha, Long San, you’re here as expected. Now let’s see where you can run.” It was a flame-wrapped Jiang Zijun.
Long Chen was startled. He hadn’t expected Jiang Zijun to find him here.
“Are you surprised? Did you think Zhao Xiang was on your side? Hahaha, you can buy our people, but we can buy your people too,” laughed Jiang Zijun. “Did that idiot Kan Dongze think sending a few people disguised as you would manage to trick me? What a joke. Kan Dongze wanted to follow me, but he didn’t expect me to use a few body doubles as well. I knew you would come here. Tell me, where is the tablet? If you tell the truth, I’ll consider giving you an easy death.”
Long Chen came to a sudden comprehension. It seemed Zhao Xiang had been bribed by the other side. But Zhao Xiang had only been looking after him until he joined the Divine Pill Hall. Afterward, they hadn’t interacted at all.
For others to get a bit of information from Zhao Xiang wasn’t difficult. And Long Chen had truly mentioned the second volume of the Nirvana Scripture to Zhao Xiang.
Jiang Zijun had very likely deduced that Long Chen would come here based on that. It seemed it wasn’t just the Pill Fairy who knew about the tablet’s existence.
Jiang Zijun was surprised to see that the tablet had vanished, so he demanded to know what had happened.
“I’m not your father, so why do I have to answer you?” sneered Long Chen. This was the Heaven Dragon Flame Region. Here, he didn’t need to have any misgivings.
“Haha, hopefully once I capture you, you can still laugh.” Jiang Zijun laughed. Nine flowers appeared behind him, and the flames around him suddenly grew, seeming to want to burn down the heavens.
“I’ll let you experience the power of my new flame. This is a power someone like you wouldn’t be able to achieve in your lifetime!”
Jiang Zijun waved his hand, and a dark red spear appeared. This spear had plum blossom patterns on it.
“This is a peak existence, ranked thirteenth on the Earth Flame Ranking, the Scarlet Plum Explosive Flame! Has a country bumpkin like you even heard of it?”
Jiang Zijun didn’t immediately attack. Instead, he stood there, showing off his power, acting as if he were a god looking down on Long Chen.
This flame was something he had worked bitterly to subdue in the past few days. Amongst Earth Flames, those that contained the word Explosive in their names were all extremely berserk and hard to subdue.
Those were the kinds of flames that flame cultivators wanted to get, while alchemists would wisely choose a different one. That was because such violent flames would require even greater Spiritual Strength to control.
However, flame cultivators who pursued destructive power were different.
“Be careful! I wouldn’t want you to be killed in one blow, or it’d be boring!” With the Scarlet Plum Explosive Flame causing the void to quiver, Jiang Zijun stamped forward, his spear whistling toward Long Chen.
Long Chen waved his hand, and a flame blade condensed. He slashed it at the spear.
“Hmph, an insect really doesn’t know its power!” Jiang Zijun sneered and poured in even more energy to his spear.
BOOM!
Long Chen’s flame blade exploded. Huo Long’s current power wasn’t enough to handle Jiang Zijun’s Earth Flame. With its power divided between eight split bodies, its own power dropped.
However, Long Chen possessed his own power. He had long since expected this result, and as his flame blade exploded, he smashed his fist at Jiang Zijun.
Jiang Zijun was startled and suddenly recalled that Long San was famed for his strong physical body. He hastily blocked with his spear.
Flames exploded. Long Chen’s punch destroyed Jiang Zijun’s spear, and fist continued to strike his chest.
“Raging Flame Armor!” Jiang Zijun hastily shouted, and runes came out of the nine flowers behind him, forming a layer of armor.
BOOM!
Long Chen’s fist landed, and Jiang Zijun was sent flying. But Long Chen’s fist was also covered in blood.
The Raging Flame Armor was one of Pill Valley’s powerful magical arts. When Jiang Zijun used it with the Scarlet Plum Explosive Flame, its defensive power was extremely great, enough to cause Long Chen’s fist to be injured while Jiang Zijun escaped unscathed.
“Die!” Jiang Zijun was infuriated. Although the punch didn’t injure him, it had been unpleasant. Seeing Long San injured, he attacked.
“It really is annoying to not be able to use my power.”
Long Chen suddenly formed hand seals, a solemn expression on his face. He began to chant, and the same chanting began to appear in the air as if gods were chanting alongside him.
“The second volume of the Nirvana Scripture? Impossible!” Jiang Zijun’s expression changed.
It had to be known that the second volume of the Nirvana Scripture was something only given to supreme geniuses in Pill Valley. Only those who had reached the level of Tower Masters were qualified to learn in it.
Even rank eight Celestials weren’t qualified. As for Jiang Zijun, he had had to make an application to learn it, and this application had gone through the Grand Elders as well as the valley master before he had finally been approved. The whole process had taken half a year.
Long San had only been in Pill Valley for such a short amount of time. There was no way he was qualified to learn the second volume of the Nirvana Scripture. Unless…
Jiang Zijun suddenly thought of the scripture’s original tablet that had vanished from this lo
cation. A shocked expression crept over his face.
BOOM!
Jiang Zijun’s spear arrived and struck nothing but air. Long Chen had simply retreated.
Long Chen was surrounded by runes, and sacred chanting filled the air. But at this time, black qi was coming out of his body. That qi gave off an evil feeling.
Jiang Zijun was appalled. That black qi gave him a sensation of mortal danger, and he felt like he would die just from touching it. He involuntarily retreated into the distance, not daring to get close. His survival instincts told him that the current Long San was extremely dangerous.
More and more black qi appeared. It was like mist surrounding Long Chen. It was enveloped by flames and refused to scatter.
“Hehe, I can finally get rid of this damn curse.”
When he previously used the first volume of the Nirvana Scripture, Long Chen hadn’t felt anything particularly special. But now, all his immortal platforms linked up with some kind of energy in the world, forming a resonance.
Before, he could only feel the Nirvana Scripture gathering energy around him, but now he felt like he had merged with the world.
The world’s flame energy was merging with his body. It felt like he was boiling from the inside. The flame energy entered his Spirit Blood, his muscles, his skeleton, and even his soul. The curse was forced out.
Furthermore, when he felt this sensation of merging with the world, a new segment of words appeared in his mind. When those words appeared, Long Chen almost cried out in joy.
“The fifth star’s pill formula! It’s the fifth star’s pill formula!!!” Long Chen was ecstatic. He had finally obtained the pill formula for the fifth star.
As the curse was fully expelled from his body, his aura began to climb. The black mist was suddenly blown apart and vanished without a trace.
Jiang Zijun looked at Long Chen with shock. He didn’t know what had happened, but he felt like he was facing a dragon that had woken from hibernation.
With the curse lifted, Long Chen slowly circulated the power of his immortal platforms to nourish his body.
