Battle Through the Heavens: Reap the Red Lotus Karmic Flame at the Start

Xiao Yan didn't understand the Void Devouring Flame well enough. He always thought that it was a hidden powerhouse of the Soul Clan, whose combat strength was only exceptionally strong because it had absorbed the Void Devouring Flame.

It wasn't until Xiao Xuan revealed his identity that the student truly realized what kind of strange being had been watching him all along.

Unlike Xiao Yan, Void Devouring Flame had noticed Xiao Yan long ago. In fact, it could be said that he knew almost all the major events that had happened during Xiao Yan's growth.

He made many preparations during this process, and today's move is actually the moment when his true intentions are finally revealed.

When Xiao Yan first fully activated the remaining Void Power in his arm in the distant Northwest Beast Space, the Void Devouring Flame had already sensed it. It was a fire spirit created from the Void Devouring Flame's original form, possessing an exceptional understanding of its own power. The Void Power that Xiao Yan released was identical to its own.

At that moment, however, the Void Devouring Flame could clearly sense that the power Xiao Yan was wielding was definitely not any of the sub-flames it had created.

This completely unexpected power aroused his considerable interest, and even the reminder from the Soul Emperor could not completely extinguish the restlessness in his heart.

However, as the second member of the Soul Clan, he could not simply ignore the matter and rush to the Northwest Region. He assigned the task of investigating this matter to the Soul Palace.

Meanwhile, the protectors of the Soul Palace also saw Xiao Yan by chance in the Jia Ma Empire and learned of his methods. In fact, the Soul Palace was unaware of the whole story, but in order to satisfy Void Devouring Flame, a figure of immense importance to the Soul Clan, they did not hesitate to break with convention and use spies within the Flame Clan to forcibly send out Dou Shengs within the spatial passage to intercept and kill Xiao Yan, Huo Zhi, and Yan Jin.

This was supposed to be a sure thing, but it ended in failure. Not only did they fail to intercept and kill Xiao Yan, but he also escaped unscathed, and the Yan Clan's spies were exposed, their days numbered. The impact of this event was beyond imagination, and it even directly contributed significantly to the current chaos in Zhongzhou.

The situation of the spies that the Soul Clan had planted in the Flame Clan at great cost was not optimistic. The good news was that Xiao Yan finally entered the Central Continent because of the interception incident.

The Soul Palace's network spanned the entire Central Continent, and Void Devouring Flame soon regained knowledge of Xiao Yan's existence. This time, he didn't choose to have someone else do it for him, but went there himself.

When Void Devouring Flame first met Xiao Yan, he was still very weak. To Void Devouring Flame, a nine-star Dou Sheng, he was easily annihilated. He had originally intended to do the same, but upon seeing Xiao Yan, he understood that while Xiao Yan's arm did possess power of the same origin as his own, it was insignificant. Logically, Void Devouring Flame should have taken the opportunity to kill Xiao Yan to avert the potential exposure of a Yan Clan spy.

However, after seeing Xiao Yan with his own eyes and sensing the specific situation within his body, the thought of killing Xiao Yan on the spot immediately disappeared.

Because Xiao Yan possessed a number of things he was extremely familiar with—different flames. Each different flame was a rare treasure of heaven and earth on this continent. As the second-ranked being on the Different Flame Ranking, Void Devouring Flame's understanding of different flames was arguably the greatest among all those currently existing on the Dou Qi Continent. He knew better than anyone else that different flames were not merely for assisting in the refining of pills.

He even knew how Xiao Yan was able to contain multiple different flames, which came from the technique rooted in his mind, but he didn't know the details of it—the Burning Technique!

Knowing this, he was completely certain that keeping Xiao Yan alive might generate more value than simply killing him.

Thus, Xiao Yan became one of his little moles. During his more than ten thousand years of life in the Void Devouring Flame, he would often find interesting people on the continent and do things he found quite interesting. Very few of these people were able to achieve his expected goals, while most were completely unable to.

Initially, Void Devouring Flame felt a bit of a pity because Xiao Yan had appeared too late. His plan with Soul Emperor to seize the Tuoshe Ancient Emperor Jade was about to begin. He couldn't wait for Xiao Yan to improve his strength, so he had to resort to a method similar to raising a Gu poison, constantly applying pressure beyond Xiao Yan's limits to promote his growth. If Xiao Yan made any mistakes during this process, he would be killed!

Xiao Yan's excellence far exceeded the expectations of the Void Devouring Flame!

Initially, the Void Devouring Flame sent Elder Mu Gu through the Soul Palace. To enhance his combat power, the Void Devouring Flame even made an exception and gifted Elder Mu Gu a portion of its Void Devouring Flame Sub-Flame. This was the first trial the Void Devouring Flame had given to Xiao Yan, and the result satisfied him greatly. Xiao Yan swiftly and decisively killed Elder Mu Gu, successfully obtaining the Void Devouring Flame Sub-Flame.

Because Xiao Yan successfully passed the test, the Void Devouring Flame was not stingy with its rewards. The Void Devouring Flame Sub-Flame was a rare item even within the Soul Clan, and it fell directly into Xiao Yan's hands.

The Spirit Clan's ambush on the Pill Tower was kept secret from many, but not from the Soul Clan. The Soul Clan's original first target should have been the Spirit Clan, but because their plan to ambush Xiao Yan failed, and Huo Zhi subsequently returned to the Flame Clan, the Soul Clan's mole within the Flame Clan was about to be exposed. After discussing it, the Soul Emperor and the Void Devouring Flame decided to launch a surprise attack on the Flame Clan before anything happened on the continent!

In this matter, the Soul Emperor even expressed his dissatisfaction with the Void Devouring Flame, after all, they were originally quite confident that they could take down the Spirit Clan without anyone noticing. After changing their target to the Flame Clan, the difficulty increased dramatically. Even though the Soul Clan temporarily increased their combat power, Gu Yuan still managed to find out the situation. Sensing the commotion, Gu Yuan did not hesitate and directly intervened to restrain the Soul Emperor. The plan to completely annihilate the Flame Clan failed, and a group of Flame Clan members, led by Yan Jin, successfully escaped.

The only consolation for the Void Devouring Flame was that Xiao Yan performed exceptionally well at the Pill Gathering. With the help of the Void Devouring Flame's sub-flame, Xiao Yan not only devoured the bloodline of the Spirit Clan, but also successfully thwarted the Spirit Clan's plan to seize the Pill Tower.

After Xiao Yan returned three years later, Void Devouring Flame no longer treated Xiao Yan as just an idle person, but began to truly value him, because he found that Xiao Yan's growth rate was much faster than he had thought.

During his trip to the Heavenly Tomb, he used Tang Qiying to set a new test for Xiao Yan.

As a result, Xiao Yan once again passed the test perfectly, successfully killing Tang Qiying, who had possessed Huo Xuan's body. It's worth noting that the Void Devouring Flame had been allocating considerable resources to Tang Qiying, even teaching him how to deal with the Void Devouring Flame's sub-flame, but Xiao Yan managed to overcome all of this. Furthermore, with Xiao Xuan's help, Xiao Yan successfully severed the connection between the Void Devouring Flame's sub-flame and its master, successfully capturing the sub-flame.