980 Gamble

Su Ming stared at the fifth kiln one hundred thousand feet away. At first glance, the kiln seemed like it was made of bronze, and it exuded an ancient and primitive presence. But at the same time, when he looked closely at it, he could see layers of blood!

The bloodstained appearance seemed to bear witness to how this item had traveled through space to come to this place from the Fifth True World. The process had to have been filled with horrors, and it was likely that Su Xuan Yi and his wife had forced their way out thought one encirclement after another.

Numerous months had passed since then, and plenty of things had disappeared in the long river of history. However, the blood on the fifth kiln surpassed the power of time and continued telling its tale, causing all those who saw it for the first time to shudder.

At that moment, once the purple flames disappeared, a short period of tranquility appeared around the fifth kiln. Su Ming did not know for how long this period of tranquility would last, but based on the other's actions, it would pass in the blink of an eye.

The first to cross the one hundred thousand feet wide galaxy was the yellow-browed man. He was so fast that he closed in on the fifth kiln in the blink of an eye. As the two yellow dragons roared while surrounding him, he did not slow down in the slightest. With a bang, he came into contact with the fifth kiln. He stuck himself tightly onto it, and a rarely seen expression of pain appeared on his face. However, he kept his hands fixed tightly on the kiln, not loosening his grip in the slightest.

The fifth kiln was so great that the yellow-browed man looked incredibly insignificant before it. As Su Ming charged forth and approached the kiln, it continued growing bigger and bigger in his field of vision. Right then, he saw that there was a faint crack near the yellow-browed man.

The second to approach the kiln was Reverend Zi Long. His body turned into a purple long arc, and when he closed in on the kiln with a bang like a purple dragon, he fixed his right hand on the kiln. The spot which he approached was also the edge of the crack.

At the instant he touched the kiln, sizzling sounds could be heard. Clearly, the heat of the kiln made even Zi Long frown. His expression of pain might not be as evident as that of the yellow-browed man, but it was clear that he was enduring something painful. He knew the level of difficulty in this, and so did the yellow-browed man.

They were followed by the white-robed teenager, Zhu You Cai, and Flame Fiends' Progenitor. The three of them approached the kiln almost at the same time. The place they approached was similarly part of the crack. When Su Ming looked over, he could see all of them fixing their hands tightly on the kiln, next to the crack, but they did not do much after that, as if waiting.

Su Ming was the final person to approach the place. When he closed in on the fifth kiln, he lifted his right hand and seized the crack to the side of the kiln's walls. At the instant he did so, he sensed a powerful wave of heat surge through his right hand into his body with a bang.

Once the black horse brought Su Ming to the fifth kiln, the two dragon heads immediately opened their mouths and bit down on the kiln with their teeth. Like human fingers, they took hold of the kiln.

Almost at the instant Su Ming arrived, a powerful tremor shook the fifth kiln. Su Ming felt the heat of the kiln rise up. Almost in the blink of an eye, he reached the limit of what his current body could endure, but it was also the moment that the black flames of destruction erupted with loud bangs from within the crack.

The flames of destruction spread out from the kiln. At that moment, Su Ming saw endless cracks on the fifth kiln. Those flames came out from them and swept through the entire Divine Essence Star Ocean.

At the instant the black flames of destruction erupted forth, the yellow-browed man let out a low roar and let go, then lifted his hands to provide protection in front of himself. With large strides, he brought forth a wave of impact that shook the surrounding air, and with a single move, he rushed inside the crack through which the black flames were gushing forth.

Once he rushed in, the black flames of destruction instantly submerged him, but it could be seen that there was a gigantic ball of fire that was charging forth with an incredibly speed within them.

The yellow-browed man was naturally in that ball of fire. The two yellow dragons around him were rotating swiftly, forming a tight defense and allowing him to rush into the distance. He disappeared without a trace.

Reverend Zi Long flew up almost at the same time. With an expressionless face, he released his grip on the kiln. He then turned into a dragon to charge forward, allowing himself to be devoured by the black flames. Yet those flames could not make him falter for even a single moment. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared into the black flames.

There was no sky and earth in the fifth kiln. There was only a platform that was about ten thousand feet tall. This platform was made of bronze, and there was an incredibly great heat spreading out from it. Everywhere around the platform was endless space that was filled with a boundless sea of fire tumbling about. It exuded an incredibly dense heat. The flames there would sometimes be red, sometimes blue, at other times purple, and once in a while black. There were even times when these flames mixed together to form a multi-colored sea of fire.

As it tumbled about, some flames suddenly seethed and let out booming sounds. The yellow-browed man rushed out from the sea of fire. His entire body was like a burning ball of fire. When he landed on the platform, he stomped his feet, and the flames on his body were immediately extinguished.

Only then did he let out a sigh of relief. He lowered his head and looked at his body, noticing that the corners of his sleeves had turned into ashes. His expression immediately turned slightly sour. When he raised his head, an expression of lingering fear appeared briefly on his face.

'The flames of destruction are so powerful. I've only been here for a small amount of time, and they've already burned my sleeves. If I remain for a while longer, even my life might be in danger.

'It's a pity that the period of time when the purple flames disappear and the black flames erupt is the moment when the barrier is at its weakest, or else it would have been great if I could have stepped in when the flames were purple.' The man shook his head. When he sighed, the sea of fire above him suddenly tumbled furiously once more, and a purple figure rushed out.

That purple figure was so quick that it instantly landed on the platform. When the flames were extinguished, the long arc turned into Reverend Zi Long. There were a few strands of his hair that had turned into ashes and scattered into the air the moment he stepped on the platform.

The yellow-browed man looked at Zi Long, and Zi Long looked back at him. Their gazes met for a moment before they both averted them. Yet even so, they had once again made a general guess towards the other's level of cultivation.

"Fellow Daoist Zi Long, I am Huang Mei. I've heard of your great name a long time ago. Now that I met you today, it's just as the rumors say, your power is extraordinary. You are already half a step away from Fate Realm." The yellow-browed man let out a loud bark of laughter, then wrapped his fist in his palm towards Reverend Zi Long.

"Fellow Daoist Huang Mei, you have a similarly great reputation in Divine Essence Star Ocean. Even if I am from the galaxy beyond this place, I've also heard about your liking for the bodies of Ancestral Spirits. Compared to me who is half a step away from Fate Realm, you might already be close to attaining completion of Mastery Realm," Zi Long said faintly. When he turned his body towards Huang Mei, he swept his gaze across the gourd behind his back in a seemingly casual manner, then wrapped his fist in his palm to return the greeting.

"Haha! Fellow Daoist Zi Long, you are too polite. I wonder what sort of treasure are you aiming for by coming here this time?" Huang Mei asked while smiling.

"I don't have anything that I am set on getting. I'll just leave it to chance. I'm more curious at the moment about who will be the third person who will step out of the black flames," Zi Long said while lifting his head to look at the sea of fire above him.

Huang Mei's expression remained calm. When he looked towards the flames above his head, he asked with a smile, "Oh? Fellow Daoist Zi Long, would you like to make a bet?"

"What's the bet?" Zi Long averted his gaze and looked at Huang Mei. His previous words were precisely so that he could bring up the issue of a gamble. The both of them were scheming and farsighted people. They were both slightly wary of each other and needed to find a solution to resolve the effect and threat the other would bring.

Almighties who had reached their level always found it best to not attack if they could choose to not attack.

"Let's make the bet on one-time abnegation!" Huang Mei immediately said.

"The person who loses will have to choose to give up on a piece of treasure the winner wants, hmm? Very well!" Zi Long nodded.

"Alright, then I will choose first. I choose… Flame Fiends' Progenitor! I wonder who you will choose, Fellow Daoist Zi Long? Is it Sir Wu?" A glint appeared in Huang Mei's eyes while he spoke with a smile.

Reverend Zi Long fell into a period of contemplative silence before he suddenly said, "I will choose… the cultivator riding that black horse."

Huang Mei's gaze focused. He did not expect that he would choose the person on the black horse. In his eyes, that man was the weakest among them. The black horse of his was slightly strange, but from his previous performance, he was still the weakest among them.

"Alright, then let's see who among the people we chose will be the third to show up." Huang Mei pondered it over for a moment, then lifted his head and looked at the sea of fire in space. With a glint in his eyes, he started waiting.

Within the sea of fire in the fifth kiln were Zhu You Cai and Flame Fiends' Progenitor. At that moment, both of them were charging forward. The power of the black flames was incredibly terrifying. Even if the both of them were Almighties and old Flame Fiend identified himself as the Emperor of Flames, he still felt a powerful sense of danger.

This pushed them to be even faster. Next to them was the teenager in white. His body had already changed. While he retained the upper half of the human, the lower half of his body had become that of a centipede, and he was so quick that his speed was on equal grounds with that of Zhu You Cai and the Flame Fiends' Progenitor.

Behind them was Su Ming sitting cross-legged on the Resentful Wei's body. With a will screaming to destroy all lives, the black flames burned in all directions. The Resentful Wei could withstand it, but Su Ming's heart faced the fear from Xuan Shang, Yun You, Nian Yin, and Hua Yu.

The black flames would cause people to feel as if they were placed in the kiln of the universe. Their whole bodies would burn in their minds. And in fact, even their cultivation bases would seem to melt in these flames.

Su Ming's hair was burning. The brows of the body he controlled had already turned into ashes. In fact, he even had a feeling that the body he controlled was about to melt.

"Since the four of you dared to place your ambitions on the fifth kiln, then hurry up and bring out the methods you've hidden for this purpose!" Su Ming immediately ordered them by sending his thought to their minds. Since Xuan Shang and his group had been planning for this for years, it was impossible for them to not have prepared anything.