Beast Taming Immortal Clan

Chapter 593 Insect Pill! Heavenly Fire Sect [8,000-word long chapter, please subscribe]

In the far west, in the Kingdom of Huoluo.

When Zhou Chun entered the fiery sand sea covered with red sand, he knew that he had arrived in the Kingdom of Huoluo.

Looking down from the sky, the red sand sea under the blazing sun resembles a sea of ​​red fire, with the flowing sand like flames—hence the name "Flowing Fire Sand Sea."

Even in the vast, desertified western regions of the cultivation world, the Fire Luo Kingdom, located amidst the Fiery Sands, remains one of the most arduous places.

However, hardship does not mean poverty, or rather, it does not mean that the cultivation world is barren.

Although this fiery sand sea is unfriendly to mortals and even low-level cultivators, it contains abundant mineral resources beneath it, and the fire-attribute spiritual energy is also very rich.

Therefore, the strength of the cultivation world in Huoluo Kingdom is actually much stronger than that of countries like Shayan Kingdom.

Zhou Chun had naturally gathered information about the Fire Luo Kingdom and the True Man Yan Cang beforehand, as he was coming to seek their help in refining a treasure.

According to the intelligence he gathered, the overall strength of Huoluo Kingdom should rank among the top five in the cultivation world of the far west. Although there are no late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators in the country, there are several mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivators, and its strength is slightly better than that of Jing Kingdom.

As a grandmaster of weapon crafting, Yan Cang Zhenren was naturally very famous in the cultivation world of the far west.

After all, there are only two known Grandmasters of Weapon Forging in the entire cultivation world of the far west!

However, the Heavenly Fire Sect, from which True Person Yan Cang originated, is not the largest cultivation force in the Fire Luo Kingdom, nor even the second largest.

Before Yan Cang Zhenren became a Grandmaster of weapon refining, the Heavenly Fire Sect was just an ordinary large sect, and the inheritance of Nascent Soul stage cultivators was intermittent.

It wasn't until the emergence of a weapon-refining genius like True Person Yan Cang that the Heavenly Fire Sect rose to prominence in the Fire Luo Kingdom, becoming a powerful force whose reputation resounded throughout the cultivation world of the far west.

Currently, the Heavenly Fire Sect has two Nascent Soul stage cultivators. In addition to Yan Cang, there is another Nascent Soul stage cultivator who was supported and nurtured by him.

Yan Cang Zhenren himself has been famous for over a thousand years, and it seems that his lifespan is running out.

Speaking of which, the disappearance of True Immortal Yancang for nearly two hundred years had also caused quite a stir among high-level cultivators in the cultivation world of the far west.

If the Heavenly Fire Sect hadn't insisted that the soul lamp left behind by this person was not faulty, almost everyone would have thought that this grandmaster of weapon crafting had perished.

It wasn't until a few years ago, when Master Yancang returned, that all the rumors were dispelled, and people flocked to the Heavenly Fire Sect to see this grandmaster of weapon crafting once again.

However, those who could actually meet True Person Yan Cang were all Nascent Soul stage cultivators.

These people could all see that Master Yancang was not in a good state, so none of them mentioned anything about refining weapons.

Anyway, as long as True Person Yan Cang is still alive, given the recovery speed of a Nascent Soul stage True Person, they will have plenty of opportunities to ask him for help in refining treasures in the future.

For Zhou Chun, the fact that the Heavenly Fire Sect wasn't a particularly powerful sect was undoubtedly a good thing.

This means that the probability of danger arising from his request for Master Yancang to refine the treasure is much lower.

"Although it's not yet the ten-year deadline agreed upon with True Person Yancang, it wouldn't hurt for me to go to the Heavenly Fire Sect to pay my respects first, at least to give True Person Yancang some time to prepare!"

Thinking of this, Zhou Chun immediately ordered the Golden-Winged Tiger to travel along the edge of the sand sea towards a certain place.

The Fiery Sand Sea is extremely vast, even larger than the Great Zhou Kingdom, and cultivators can easily get lost while traveling through it.

Therefore, when visiting cultivators, they usually seek out merchant caravans to travel with them to the Fire Luo Kingdom.

Zhou Chun didn't try to be brave and charged in headfirst, relying on his high cultivation level.

His previous experience on the ice field told him that having a guide would definitely save a lot of trouble in this kind of situation.

Besides, he himself wasn't in a hurry.

In this way, Zhou Chun, disguised as a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, easily boarded a merchant caravan heading to the Fire Luo Kingdom in a cultivator's stronghold on the edge of the Fiery Sand Sea and became one of its guards.

In the vast sea of ​​sand, a caravan of merchants, braving the scorching sun, slowly made its way into the depths of the desert in a long, serpentine pattern.

As night deepened, the caravan stopped behind a sand dune, and the camels formed a circle and lay down to rest. Soon, tents appeared in the center of the circle.

"Fellow Daoist Zhang, I'll trouble you and Fellow Daoist Cen to keep watch for the rest of the night. Since this is your first time entering the Flowing Fire Sand Sea, you may not be familiar with the situation here. When you have free time, you can talk to Fellow Daoist Cen more often, and he will be happy to tell you."

Beside a campfire, after giving instructions to Zhou Chun, who had come to relieve him on guard duty, one of the Foundation Establishment cultivators from the caravan who had been on night watch quickly returned to his tent to rest.

Meanwhile, by the campfire, another middle-aged man with a dark complexion nodded to Zhou Chun in a friendly manner, and the two exchanged greetings.

"Fellow Daoist Cen, I am new to the Blazing Sands and have only heard of the three great dangers here: sand bandits, sand beasts, and sandstorms. I don't know much more about them. Could you tell me more about them?"

As Zhou Chun gently poked at the wood on the campfire, he looked at the middle-aged man opposite him with a curious expression and asked.

"Then I, Cen, will speak with Fellow Daoist Zhang."

The middle-aged man nodded and readily agreed.

Then he slowly said, "Sand bandits are bandit cultivators within the Blazing Sands. Their main targets are various merchant caravans, so they usually gather in large groups, often appearing in numbers of dozens. Their strength varies, and small teams of just a few people are rare in the Sands, and they are often more difficult to deal with!"

"The sand beasts are the demonic beasts that inhabit the Fiery Sand Sea. Because food is scarce, these beasts have a very wide range of activity. There are also several kinds of social demonic beasts and poisonous insects, which are difficult to get rid of once encountered. However, third-tier demonic beasts are not common and generally do not want to attack caravans with Purple Mansion stage cultivators stationed there!"

"Sandstorms are a natural disaster within the desert. Once you encounter a sandstorm, unless you have the cultivation level of a Golden Core cultivator, it's best to stay on the ground and wait for it to pass. Otherwise, you'll exhaust your magical power and find it difficult to escape the sandstorm's range!"

At this point, the man glanced at Zhou Chun and continued, "We've only recently entered the Sand Sea. Aside from a few low-level sand beasts possibly being attracted by the scent of the Sand Beasts, we're unlikely to encounter sand bandits or sandstorms at night. So, Fellow Daoist Zhang, you don't need to worry too much. Just maintain normal vigilance!"

"I see, I've learned something."

Zhou Chun nodded, bowed to the middle-aged man to express his gratitude, and then stared at the campfire in front of him, lost in thought.

Zhou Chun was very clear about the strength of this caravan.

It consists of a large merchant and many small merchants. The strongest protector among the large merchants is a mid-stage Purple Mansion cultivator who hides in a carriage pulled by a sand beast during the day and is never seen.

There were about eleven or twelve other Foundation Establishment stage guards, and four other Foundation Establishment cultivators like Zhou Chun who wanted to use the caravan to travel to the Huo Luo Kingdom.

As for the other Qi Refining stage cultivators, although there are over a hundred of them, their actual combat strength is negligible.

Based on this calculation, the overall strength of the caravan is far greater than that of an ordinary major cultivation clan.

Most bandit groups in the Blazing Desert couldn't take down a caravan of this strength; only the most elite bandit groups could pose a threat to it.

Therefore, the caravan leaders dared to let Zhou Chun, a cultivator who had only recently joined, participate in such an important duty as night watch.

According to the information Zhou Chun had previously learned from the caravan leader, if everything went smoothly, they would arrive at the oasis where the Heavenly Fire Sect was located in about two months.

Although this period of time was not short, it was still within Zhou Chun's acceptable range, which is why he chose to join the caravan.

As predicted by the cultivator surnamed Cen, nothing particularly noteworthy happened during the rest of the night except for the occasional approach of low-level demonic beasts that caused the sand beasts to howl.

Speaking of those sand beasts, they are indeed a very good kind of spirit beast for transportation.

These sand-like beasts can be described as unique monsters from the far west. They resemble dromedary camels, but are several times larger than camels, and possess extremely strong endurance and load-bearing capacity.

When traversing desert regions like the Blazing Sands, this beast is an indispensable mount.

Zhou Chun's caravan had twenty-seven sand beasts. During the day, when traveling, most of the cultivators sat in the wooden frames carried by the sand beasts or in the carriages they pulled.

The carriages in the desert have no wheels; they have a smooth, skateboard-like structure underneath.

Most of the caravan's goods were packed in storage bags and then piled up in the wagons, where they were guarded by specially trained monks.

These sand beasts can serve as mounts during the day and act as windbreaks and guards at night, making them multi-purpose and highly valuable.

Naturally, this beast was extremely expensive, even comparable to the dragon-scaled horse sold by the Zhou family.

If Zhou Chun hadn't known that this beast was only suited to the environment of the far west, and that it would easily suffer from acclimatization problems in places like Jingguo with abundant rainfall, and that it wasn't good at traversing mountains and rivers, he would have wanted to take some back with him to keep in his family.

For the next two weeks, Zhou Chun followed the caravan steadily forward through the desert, traveling about a thousand miles each day.

However, they did not travel in a straight line; instead, they needed to bypass some dangerous areas.

Those places are either the habitat of some powerful monsters and poisonous insects, or they are full of quicksand traps, or they are far away from the main oases of the Fire Luo Kingdom.

Because of this, the caravan took many detours through dangerous areas. Even after traveling more than 10,000 miles, they finally arrived at the real country of Huo Luo and reached an oasis to resupply.

This oasis is not large, only about two or three hundred miles in size, and it has a small market town where caravans can resupply and sell some of their goods.

Some small caravans would often clear out their goods upon arrival here and then purchase some special products and spiritual items from the Kingdom of Huoluo to take back with them.

For example, after Zhou Chun and his caravan arrived at this place, two small merchants gave up on continuing their journey and decided not to go any further.

However, some cultivators who wanted to travel to the oases in the heart of the Fire Kingdom intended to join their caravan.

However, all of these people were rejected by the caravan leader, who was worried that there might be spies from the sand bandits among them.

After resting for a day on the oasis, Zhou Chun and his group continued their journey into the heart of the Huo Luo Kingdom.

After traveling for several more days, a sudden sandstorm trapped the caravan in place.

Compared to the blizzards Zhou Chun experienced on the icy plains, the sandstorms in the Blazing Sand Sea were far more difficult to withstand.

The sand and dust in a sandstorm, amplified by strong winds, can easily turn ordinary mortals into sieves!

The Qi Refining stage cultivators in the caravan could only hide under the sand beasts or cover themselves completely with hides made of demon beast skin in order to block the sandstorm attacks without consuming their magic power.

However, compared to blizzards that can last for a month or even several months, sandstorms are usually very short-lived, lasting only half a day or a day in most cases, and at most only three or four days.

Today's sudden sandstorm was no exception.

After lasting for most of the day, the sandstorm gradually subsided around midnight.

Just as everyone was relieved that the sandstorm had finally passed, the caravan leader began to direct everyone to check the camels and animals, preparing to set up camp on the spot.

Zhou Chun's expression suddenly changed as he noticed a group of bandits approaching the caravan from dozens of miles away.

This group of bandits clearly didn't just happen to run into the caravan; they came prepared.

The leader of the team was a late-stage Purple Mansion cultivator, and there were seven Foundation Establishment cultivators in the team, as well as two second-tier demonic beast battle pets.

This level of strength is already enough to pose a devastating threat to the now weakened caravans.

Should we remind that Purple Mansion stage cultivator in the caravan?

Zhou Chun frowned, hesitated for a moment, then sighed softly and chose to make a direct move.

"roll!!"

Dozens of miles away, a scarred giant with late-stage Purple Mansion cultivation was riding a second-tier demon wolf, leading a group of underlings as they sped toward the caravan. Suddenly, a majestic shout rang in his mind, shaking his very soul.

Ah!

Suddenly, the scarred man let out a scream and couldn't help but clutch his head as he fell off the wolf demon's back.

This scene stunned the followers behind them, and even the wolf demon hurriedly stopped and turned to look at its master, not understanding what had gotten into him.

"Boss, what's wrong?"

One of the scarred giant's trusted Foundation Establishment cultivators mustered his courage and stepped forward to ask a question.

But the scarred man glanced fearfully in the direction of the caravan ahead, then shouted, "Let's go back! We need to head home immediately!"

"Why...why is this happening?"

The bandits looked at each other in bewilderment, but one of them couldn't help but ask the reason.

But these words immediately made the scarred man's eyes widen, and he glared at him with a fierce look, saying, "What? You want to question my orders?"

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare, I absolutely had no such intention!"

The man shook his head repeatedly in fright, fearing that if he answered too late, the scarred giant would kill him on the spot to establish his authority.

In bandit gangs, it's all too common for bandit leaders to kill to establish their authority; this guy doesn't want to be that chicken.

Seeing this, the other bandits, though still full of doubts, could only obediently follow the scarred man and turn back home.

After traveling over a hundred miles, the group saw the scarred-faced man spit angrily and curse, "Damn it, our Yellow Wind Bandits almost all perished today! That caravan actually had a Golden Core cultivator hidden inside, and most likely not just at the early Golden Core stage!!"

What? A Golden Core cultivator!

The bandits' expressions changed drastically as they realized why their leader had suddenly ordered a retreat. They all couldn't help but show expressions of relief at having survived a disaster.

"These guys are actually quite sensible! If they didn't want to cause trouble, they would definitely act on behalf of Heaven today and slaughter all these bandits!"

Inside the caravan, a cold glint flashed in Zhou Chun's eyes, but he quickly pretended nothing had happened and followed them into a pitched tent to rest.

The monks in the caravan were unaware that a catastrophic disaster was quietly slipping away from them.

For the next two weeks, the caravan was no longer targeted by sand bandits and successfully passed through two more oases, getting close to the heart of the Kingdom of Huoluo.

But just when Zhou Chun thought the caravan would reach its destination smoothly, the caravan encountered another crisis.

The crisis the caravan encountered this time came from sand beasts, and it was the most terrifying insect plague in the Blazing Sands!

That night, Zhou Chun was resting in his tent when he suddenly sensed a dense hum coming from under the sand. When he used his full sense to investigate, he immediately discovered that the ground around the camp was already surrounded by swarms of insects!

These ant-like insects surrounding the camp are called "Quicksand Fire Ants," a type of insect native to the Fiery Desert.

The characteristic of this kind of demonic insect is that it approaches its target silently from underground and then engulfs it like quicksand.

When Zhou Chun discovered these demonic insects, they were already preparing to attack.

Therefore, he didn't have time to notify the caravan to retreat. He immediately took to the air and shouted in a deep voice, "Everyone take to the air immediately! The ground is surrounded by quicksand fire ants!"

As he spoke, Zhou Chun unleashed a sword aura that struck a spot on the sand.

The sand sea was torn open by the sword energy, and many thumb-sized quicksand fire ants were pulverized by the sword energy.

This was like throwing a match into an oil drum, immediately igniting the fury of the entire ant colony. Soon, countless fire ants emerged from the ground.

Those sand beasts immediately became the first to suffer, their bodies quickly covered by these quicksand fire ants, howling in agony as they collapsed and became food for the ant swarm.

Some Qi Refining stage cultivators who didn't have time to react or didn't have the means to levitate were also caught off guard when the quicksand fire ants crawled onto their bodies, screaming as they experienced the torture of being devoured by thousands of ants!

However, the Foundation Establishment cultivators and the Purple Mansion cultivator hiding in the carriage reacted very quickly. The moment Zhou Chun spoke, they immediately came to their senses and took off.

The monks guarding the goods even used magic to float the carriages to prevent them from being eaten by quicksand fire ants.

"Fellow Daoist Zhang, no, Senior Zhang, please help protect these goods. The Zixia Chamber of Commerce will reward you handsomely!"

After watching the sand beasts being devoured by the quicksand fire ants and reduced to skeletons, the caravan leader, while heartbroken by the loss, also seemed to realize something and hurriedly asked Zhou Chun, whose aura he sensed was unfathomable, for help.

Zhou Chun knew what he was worried about, so he nodded and said, "For the sake of our past collaboration, you should leave first. I will cover your retreat!"

Upon hearing this, the caravan leader breathed a sigh of relief and repeatedly expressed his gratitude: "Thank you so much, Senior Zhang! Please take good care of yourself!"

Then, together with that mid-stage Purple Mansion cultivator, they escorted several cargo-laden carriages as they flew away into the distance.

At this moment, a series of faint flapping sounds suddenly rang out, as some winged flying ants in the ant colony prepared to chase after these people.

However, since Zhou Chun had agreed to help cover their retreat, he would not let these insects have their way.

He raised his hand and patted the spirit beast pouch at his waist. The golden-winged tiger flew out and created a gust of wind that blew the flying ants to the ground, their wings broken off everywhere.

But this action clearly angered the ant colony.

Soon, countless flying ants rose into the air and swept towards the Golden-Winged Tiger and Zhou Chun.

Seeing this, Zhou Chun decided not to tolerate the insects and released the Fiery Phoenix.

Places like the Fiery Sand Sea are precisely the kind of environment the Fiery Phoenix prefers, because the fire-attribute spiritual energy is extremely abundant.

Moreover, insects such as quicksand fire ants are also within its diet.

As soon as it appeared, it opened its mouth wide and sucked in hundreds of flying ants to taste them.

Then it flapped its wings, and seven-colored flames surged forth, transforming into a seven-colored fire cloud that swept towards the flying ants, easily burning a large number of them to ashes.

Lacking such large-scale enemy-annihilation methods, Zhou Chun did not deal with the flying ants, but instead used his divine sense to search for the queen ant within the ant colony.

His decision to stay behind to cover the retreat wasn't simply out of kindness, but because he had heard that the queen of the quicksand fire ants might contain something called "insect pills."

This item is somewhat similar to a demon core, but it is much rarer. It is only produced in the bodies of the king and queen of a few demon insect groups, and it is a treasure that many insect cultivators are willing to risk their entire fortune to fight for.

It is said that "Insect Pills" not only have a high probability of causing other demonic insects to mutate and evolve, but can also greatly accelerate the growth rate of certain slow-growing demonic insects.

Zhou Chun originally planned to wait until he reached the heart of the Fire Luo Kingdom to see if he could acquire the insect pills.

Now that he has the opportunity to obtain this item himself, he naturally wants to give it a try.

Got you!

With his powerful divine sense, and the fact that the Golden-Winged Tiger and the Fiery Phoenix had wiped out a large number of quicksand fire ants, which aroused the queen ant's intense anger, Zhou Chun soon discovered the queen ant hiding deep underground.

This queen ant is indeed very good at hiding; she hides herself deep in the sand sea, dozens of feet deep, and never shows herself.

If Zhou Chun's divine sense hadn't been so powerful, and if the sandy ground hadn't been less effective at blocking divine sense than the muddy ground, it would have been really difficult to find it!

Having found his target, Zhou Chun did not hesitate to unleash the [Moon Toad Pearl] spiritual treasure in order to deliver a fatal blow, directly striking the location of the ant queen with a "Taiyin Extinction Divine Light".

A beam of white icy light fell to the ground, instantly freezing an area of ​​hundreds of feet in radius, and even the red sand dozens of feet below was frozen into ice pillars.

The queen ant, along with the many quicksand fire ants guarding her side, were all turned into ice sculptures, like specimens inside amber.

Then Zhou Chun unleashed a sword light, easily digging out the queen ant and dissecting the five-foot-long giant insect on the spot.

Inside the dissected queen ant, Zhou Chun indeed found a peanut-sized insect pill.

This object, though called a cinnabar, is actually more like a crystal, irregularly round in shape, emitting a dark red luster.

Zhou Chun could sense a pure energy contained within it, somewhat similar to a demon core, which might be why it was called an insect core.

After carefully storing the insect pill in a jade bottle, he ignored the scattered ant swarm that had fallen into disarray after losing its queen, put away the Fiery Phoenix, and rode the Golden-Winged Tiger away from the place.

Soon after, Zhou Chun reunited with the caravan members who had previously evacuated.

This time, however, he did not travel with the others. Instead, after requesting a detailed map drawn by the caravan, he rode away alone on his tiger.

In the past month or so, Zhou Chun had been mingling with caravans and had already learned how to orient himself in the desert.

With the map in hand, he arrived at the Fire Basin Oasis where the Heavenly Fire Sect was located in less than three days.

The Fire Basin Oasis is roughly shaped like a round basin, with a diameter of nearly two thousand miles. It is the third largest oasis in the Fire Luo Kingdom, and more than ten million mortals live on it!

The Heavenly Fire Sect is the largest cultivator force in the Fire Basin Oasis, and is undoubtedly the dominant force in the area.

This sect's mountain gate is located on Tianhuo Peak, north of the Fire Basin Oasis, in the edge of the oasis.

When Zhou Chun arrived at this place, he was immediately stunned by what he saw.

The once flat oasis suddenly rose up near Tianhuo Peak, forming a majestic peak thousands of feet high!

That's not the most shocking thing. The most shocking thing is that this majestic peak is also an active volcano!

Even though the protective array of the Heavenly Fire Sect makes it impossible to see the entire Heavenly Fire Peak from the outside, the thick sulfurous smoke drifting and emanating from the sky above the Heavenly Fire Peak still tells us that it is a very active volcano!

Zhou Chun wondered what the founder of the Heavenly Fire Sect was thinking, daring to establish his sect on a live volcano.

Isn't he afraid that if this active volcano erupts, it will destroy the entire Tianhuomen Mountain Gate?

Aren't those disciples of the Heavenly Fire Sect afraid that one day while they are in seclusion for cultivation, they will suddenly be engulfed by lava?

Zhou Chun was instantly filled with intense curiosity, wanting to enter Tianhuo Peak to see the truth and find out what methods Tianhuo Sect had that dared to so disregard the power of heaven and earth!

At the same time, he also seemed to know why there was a spiritual spring fire eye in Yan Cang Zhenren's cave that led directly to the core area of ​​the underground fire vein.

"Halt! This is the sacred grounds of the Heavenly Fire Sect. No one is permitted to approach without permission!"

As Zhou Chunfei approached within 300 miles of Tianhuo Peak, a fiery red flying boat immediately came from the direction of Tianhuo Peak to greet him. The leader of the boat, a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, was not afraid of his Golden Core stage cultivator status and directly and solemnly told him the rules of Tianhuo Sect.

Zhou Chun knew these people were patrolling cultivators near the mountain gate, and didn't want to argue with them. He immediately flipped his palm and showed them an item, saying, "Do you recognize this?"

"Hmm, this seems to be..."

The late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator's expression changed slightly. After carefully examining the Heavenly Fire Token in Zhou Chun's hand for a while, he hurriedly bowed and said, "Pang Feng, a disciple of the Heavenly Fire Sect, greets Senior. Since Senior possesses the Heavenly Fire Token, this junior will immediately inform the Sect Leader for you!"

"Yes, thank you for your trouble, fellow Daoist."

Zhou Chun nodded slightly and immediately took back the token.

Then, led by this junior named Pang Feng, they first flew slowly towards Tianhuo Peak, and then watched as he sent out a thousand-mile communication talisman to notify the Tianhuo Sect leader.

Just as they flew halfway, a streak of crimson fire shot out from Heavenly Fire Peak and quickly arrived in front of Zhou Chun, revealing the figure of a dignified old man in purple robes.

This purple-robed elder possessed the cultivation level of the late Golden Core stage, but his full head of white hair indicated that he seemed to have no energy left to break through to the Nascent Soul stage.

Upon seeing the purple-robed elder, Pang Feng and the others hurriedly bowed and paid their respects, saying, "Disciples greet the Sect Leader."

"Alright, you all continue your patrol. I'll take care of this fellow Daoist."

The old man in purple robes waved his hand, dismissing these people.

Then, with a look of curiosity in his eyes, he looked at Zhou Chun and said, "Fellow Daoist, could you be the Fellow Daoist Zhang of the Great Zhou Kingdom whom Ancestor Yan Cang previously mentioned? I am Jin Xinglie, the current Sect Leader of the Heavenly Fire Sect."

"It is indeed me, Zhang. I have long admired the name of Master Jin."

Zhou Chun nodded slightly and offered a polite compliment.

Then, without waiting for Jin Xinglie to make a suggestion, he took out the Heavenly Fire Token and handed it to the other party.

"It really is the Heavenly Fire Token in the hands of Ancestor Yan Cang!"

Jin Xinglie took the Heavenly Fire Token from Zhou Chun and looked at it. Immediately, he had no more doubts.

He returned the token to Zhou Chun, then gestured and said, "Since Fellow Daoist Zhang is an old friend of Ancestor Yan Cang, then he is an honored guest of our sect. Please come with me to our sect for tea and rest. I will inform the Ancestor on your behalf shortly."

"Then thank you in advance for your hospitality, Master Jin."

Zhou Chun responded and then entered the Tianhuo Sect's mountain gate together.

After passing through the protective mountain formation, Zhou Chun finally saw the true scenery of Tianhuo Peak.

Surprisingly, Tianhuo Peak was not desolate at all; instead, it was planted with many spiritual trees and herbs.

Golden yang wood, fire maple wood, fire jujube wood, fire pear wood...

All sorts of fire-attribute spirit trees, whether Zhou Chun recognized them or not, were planted on Tianhuo Peak, and they had all formed forests.

This surprised him, and he seemed to vaguely understand what the Heavenly Fire Sect's method was for resolving volcanic eruptions.

However, this matter concerned the secrets of the Heavenly Fire Sect, so even though he was curious, he couldn't ask Jin Xinglie about it.

He looked up at the mountaintop again, but it was still shrouded in mist, obscured by the power of the formation, making it impossible to see what was on top.

Before he could take a closer look, he had already followed Jin Xinglie to the mountainside and then entered a large hall built of purplish-red stone.

"Come, come, Fellow Daoist Zhang, try our Heavenly Fire Sect's Fire Dragon Spirit Wine. This is a unique spiritual wine recipe passed down from our sect's founder, a spirit wine that Ancestor Yan Cang and the others often drank!"

Inside the main hall, after Jin Xinglie and Zhou Chun took their seats as host and guest, he did not have any servants serve tea. Instead, he personally took out a wine gourd from his storage bag and poured a cup of dark red spiritual wine, which looked like lava, for both of them.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun's expression shifted, and he immediately smiled and said, "Then I, Zhang, really must have a good taste!"

He then took the wine glass and drank it all in one gulp.

However, he seemed to underestimate the power of this cup of nectar.

As soon as the spirit wine entered his stomach, his face turned red. He felt as if he had drunk a cup of magma, and an extremely hot power was burning fiercely in his body.

Just as he was about to use his magic to suppress it, he heard Jin Xinglie suddenly laugh and say, "It's best to let the Fire Dragon Wine take effect on its own. The first time you take it, it has a good body-tempering effect. Fellow Daoist Zhang, don't waste this opportunity."

(End of this chapter)