17: Don’t look for treasure in front of Ye Jing

Fire appeared in the distance, in an area away from the central flow region.

Yan Zhaoge hurriedly stabilized the Internal Crystal Furnace, after which, another Broad Creed Mountain disciple spoke out: “Brother Yan, is that the seed of Li Flame True Fire that you’re looking for?”

“While you are stabilizing the Internal Crystal Furnace, we’ll help you collect it.”

Yan Zhaoge shook his head: “For you, the surroundings can be considered to be pretty dangerous. Don’t act blindly without thinking, I’ll have other people go instead.”

The youth looked around curiously, wondering at the identities of the “other people” Yan Zhaoge spoke of.

In the next moment, an enormous wind sound erupted from behind the crowd of disciples. A silhouette appeared, which rapidly made its way across the crowd of disciples and through the chaotic streams of baleful qi towards the blue flame that had appeared earlier.

The group of disciples shivered in their hearts. Up to this point, none of them had been aware of the other people following them this whole time.

And from what they could make out of the others’ movements, these were not practitioners of an ordinary background. None of them seemed to be below the Martial Scholar realm.

Moreover, these experts of the Martial Scholar realm were willing to silently follow Yan Zhaoge this whole time without appearing a single time until now, just to carry out his orders.

Unlike the blatantly visible Ah Hu, these experts were hidden in the shadows acting as an escort for Yan Zhaoge, but would not appear easily. Only under explicit instructions from Yan Zhaoge would they reveal themselves.

This scene caused all of the young disciples present to feel shocked, and as if they were dreaming.

Only now did they understand that with the imminent threat of the Crimson Spirit Flags, in these circumstances, following Yan Zhaoge into the Sealing Dragon Abyss—rather than any other Martial Scholar, was assuring their safety.

Several black shadows simultaneously pounced towards the blue flame. Chaotic streams of baleful qi billowed in the surroundings, while a phosphorescent azure nucleus of lightning hung in midair, surrounded by a shell of blue flames.

This was just the seed of Li Flame True Fire that Yan Zhaoge had been looking for.

However, just at this moment, a torrent of crimson light emerged from the black mists. Resembling a river of blood flowing towards the sea, the red light floated in the direction of the azure fire seed.

Under the influence of the red light, the chaotic streams of baleful qi began to emit a tyrannical and brutal presence as they began to roil.

The black-clothed men who had been sent to collect the fire seed began to be forced towards the fire seed, brushing against the wall of fire.

Yan Zhaoge wrinkled his brows and slapped the Internal Crystal Furnace, temporarily halting the refinement. He flew out of the central flow region and shot towards the red glow around the blue fire.

With a flick of his sleeve, the flying Yan Zhaoge sent a green light flying out of his cuff and immediately cut off the source of the crimson light.

Flying directly towards the seed of Li Flame True Fire, Yan Zhaoge put a specially prepared glove onto his right hand and reached out to grab the fire seed.

However, the crimson glow which had been previously cut off suddenly sent out multiple sinister shadows. These shadows sped out into the black mist and congealed the mist into an enormous corporeal body that resembled a giant demon god. Its glowing eyes revealed sentience as it reached out to grab Yan Zhaoge.

Yan Zhaoge let out a chuckle, shook his right sleeve, and sent another green light towards the giant. The green light flew into the gigantic demon god formed from the black mist and directly cleaved it in two!

Following the extermination of the giant, the black mist in the surroundings began to undulate with even greater intensity than before, causing it to seem as if the very heavens were trembling. It momentarily gave the onlookers a sense of the earth shaking while the heavens spun and the earth rotated*.

*TL Note: Idiom literally meaning the sky spins, the earth goes round. However, it can also be taken to mean that you get dizzy, but I kept the idiom for flavor.

Once again, the initial phantoms rushed out of the crimson light, though this time they seemed to be fainter than before. They shot away from the area as they sought to escape.

The blue glow emitted from the fire fluctuated again, hanging in the air like before,

The chaotic streams of baleful qi in the Sealing Dragon Abyss seemed to become more disorderly, yet also more violent. The previously orderly central flow region seemed as if the safe region there would dissipate as well.

Yan Zhaoge wrinkled his brows and made a split decision: “Those monsters definitely are related to the transformation of the Sealing Dragon Abyss. I’ll go deal with them. All of you here should watch the Internal Crystal Furnace and take the li true fire seed.”

“As for the other disciples, this place’s transformation is quite dangerous. Don’t wait within the periphery of the central flow region—retreat further inwards.”

Having spoken, Yan Zhaoge shot away in pursuit of the red phantoms.

Ye Jing, Sikong Qing, and the others complied with Yan Zhaoge’s instructions and retreated further back. The black-clothed men once again threw themselves at the seed of Li Flame True Fire.

The crimson glow that had previously been shattered by Yan Zhaoge was now scattered throughout the black mist. The black mist interspersed with red began to rotate around the azure fire seed.

Ye Jing was partly concentrating on retreating with the others, while also partly staring fixedly at the azure fire seed. “It truly is the Li Flame True Fire. Staying in the Dragon Sealing Abyss really was the right decision.”

“Li Flame True Fire, it contains fire elemental energy of the highest quality. What’s more, this fire seed can continuously produce True Fire—if I were to possess it, perhaps I would be able to open the ring’s next restriction even earlier.”

Though he had previously thought about obtaining the Li Flame True Fire, he had never thought that it would be so easy to come in contact with it.

“If it falls into the hands of Yan Zhaoge, and I demand it in the sect, then it will only invite suspicion onto me and might cause the secret of the ring to be revealed.”

“If I obtain it first, I can open the restriction on the ring, and then give the fire seed to Yan Zhaoge. At that time, it will be him who owes me a favor.”

“Or, I can directly hand to a higher-up in the sect, since it directly relates to the Internal Crystal Furnace. At this time, the Internal Crystal Furnace is already known throughout the sect, and anyone who can contribute the Li Flame True Fire will have earned a great merit within the sect.”

“Why should I consider this Li Flame True Fire to already belong to Yan Zhaoge?”

“The fire seed isn’t in his possession yet. After all, the treasures of this world, regardless of their origin, are originally ownerless. If it falls into my hands, then it can be considered fate!”

“Only… how can I obtain the fire seed?”

Numerous plans flashed through his mind, when suddenly, a bright light exploded in front of Ye Jing. The blue flame was floating around, when suddenly, it appeared right in front of Ye Jing!

Ye Jing was stupefied momentarily before he regained his senses. He clenched his teeth, then reached out and grabbed hold of the fire seed!

The surrounding people were all shocked, and were quiet for a moment.

Those black-clothed people, after getting over their initial astonishment, quickly became expressionless once again. They landed on the cliff face, and started rapidly approaching Ye Jing.

A group of Martial Scholars, together pressuring a mid qi-directing Martial Artist, just their gazes alone was almost sufficient to shatter their opponent, let alone their pressure as they strode towards Ye Jing.

Ye Jing grit his teeth and did not show the slightest cowardice or trepidation as he turned to face the incoming Martial Scholars.

Sikong Qing seemed slightly confused, as she slightly creased her brows.

The other young disciples were even more at a loss. The atmosphere seemed to become more and more oppressive, making them feel as if they would suffocate.

At this time, a greenish light flashed in the distance as the black mist was split apart once again, revealing Yan Zhaoge…

“What’s the issue?” Yan Zhaoge asked as he landed. With a sweeping gaze, he immediately noticed the azure fire seed in Ye Jing’s possession, and couldn’t help but become momentarily dumbfounded.

At this time, Yan Zhaoge was not sure how to describe his own reaction to the events that had unfolded.

Leading the novel’s main character on a treasure hunt—that was pure idiocy. The creed of the main character rested in four main ideals—“eat everything, take everything, steal everything, and with the halo of the main character, it might also be one last kill everything…”

Like this, was it really a flood of good fortune flooding the heavens?

Your Main Character halo can really be so bright as to blind other people. Going somewhere to explore, you think that all the good stuff belongs to you?

The idea should be that when I look for treasure in front of you, it belongs to me right?

I don’t know if I should say that made emotional preparations for this a long time ago… Yan Zhaoge let his xianxia imagination run wild: “Grabbing the fire seed barehanded, without any fear of being burned to ash, is it thanks to that ring on your finger?”

Ye Jing resolvedly kept his grip on the seed of Li Flame True Fire, while glaring at Yan Zhaoge with an unyielding expression.

Before anyone else could react, Yan Zhaoge shot a supercilious look at Ye Jing: “Here we go again, it is this state of affairs again.”