Chapter 91 The Final Layer

With the old senior having spoken, everyone agreed to the ceasefire. There were more important things to worry about than the deaths of a few worthless individuals. The consequences were going to be large for Yang Tze and the other Eight Great Families, but they could not afford to lose sight of their purpose in coming here in the first place. With so much on the stake, they couldn't give in now.

Beyond the barrier lay the next layer of the Flaming Sands Field. Just like the others, it was incredibly hot—the hottest one yet, which only made sense considering it was the innermost layer. After this was only the final treasure area left, which would be incredibly small compared to the other zones given that it was the very epicenter of the entire realm.

But even for the final heat area… this was exceptionally hot.

The moment the group stepped out of the cave connecting the previous treasure layer and this place, a devastating heat wave took them by storm. Red sand from the floor was swept up by the wind, but the worst part was, this wind was not cool. Instead, it was scorching hot, and was creating blisters on the skins of lower level cultivators despite their protective artifacts.

Xuan was alright thanks to the strong artifact the powerful master of this small world granted him during their brief encounter before, but Zi Xiruo didn't seem fine. She was sweating and panting softly, adjusting and fidgeting with her clothes from time to time to bear with the heat. Xuan, noticing this, stepped closer to her and lowered his voice.

"… Are you alright?"

Zi Xiruo, noticing his care, forced a smile. "What is it to you? We are in a business relationship, nothing more. Don't tell me, you've fallen in love?"

"No," Xuan replied bluntly without batting an eye. "I was merely curious—someone from the Zi Family should not be lacking in terms of defensive artifacts. Surely you are more than well-prepared for this level of heat, judging from how breezily the other Eight Great Family heirs are traversing through this field."

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"… Don't worry about it," Zi Xiruo replied, looking away.

But she misunderstood. Xuan wasn't exactly 'worried'—it was more accurate to describe the emotion he was feeling as 'suspicion'. Something had happened during the fight earlier, and he intended to find out what. Zi Xiruo wasn't weak—since she had only been fighting a few small fry earlier, there was no reason for her to have gotten injured by any means.

That is… unless someone else intervened in secret.

After observing her for a while, Xuan realized what was happening through the help of his Divine Asura Eye.

'This energy radiating from her body… is she using her Qi to keep herself cool? Why?'

There was only one explanation—her protective artifact was broken.

"… It's broken, isn't it?" Xuan pointed out, voice low and quiet. "From the fight earlier."

"… You're quite observant," she replied, not denying the fact since she knew it was pointless.

"Not as much as you. Who did it? With your strength, those weaklings should not have been able to hurt you at all."

Following a brief silence, the two slowed down their pace, allowing the others to walk on ahead for a bit. Once they were out of earshot, Zi Xiruo spoke softly.

"… It's him. The old senior who everyone else seems to be scared of."

'… The High Elf? Interesting.'

"What did he do?"

"When I was busy taking care of the Yang Family's guards, a sudden thorn of concentrated light shot towards me and broke the defensive pendant I carried around my waist. I could tell it was meant to kill me—had that pendant not been there, hidden underneath my robes, I may very well have died."

"…"

Xuan, hearing this, fell into thought. Why would the old senior specifically target Zi Xiruo? Was it because she was the weakest one amongst the three of them, and therefore the easiest target? But that still doesn't explain why he would do it in the first place…

'But then again. Peng Gong's death did trigger the barrier to open, didn't it?'

Thinking about it that way, it made sense for the old senior to kill someone amongst the group to activate the barrier—it just turns out that Fu Mei did something for him. From that perspective, perhaps her sudden and unexpected killing of Peng Gong was a good thing in the long run. Xuan reconsidered the lecture he was going to give her later.

But at the same time, if that were really the case, then it would mean the old senior had already known that the trigger to drop the barrier was to kill someone. He must've noticed a clue somewhere and chose not to inform everyone else… instead choosing to act on his own, secretively. Despite his assassination having failed, he still managed to keep up a peaceful, mediator-like smile on the surface that even Xuan had trouble seeing through.

A dangerous character indeed.

"Take this," Xuan said, handing her a talisman. "It should help with the heat."

This talisman was originally what Xuan brought to the realm to cope with the heat, but since receiving the world master's special stone, the talisman became useless to him. To Zi Xiruo, however, even a little bit of help would be great.

"Thank you," she murmured, refusing to meet his gaze. "You're… nicer than you let on."

Nicer? Xuan didn't particularly think that of himself. She had shown loyalty towards him earlier, and was now suffering as a result. Naturally, it was within his responsibility to help out where he could.

"Be careful," the old senior said mindfully at that moment. "A powerful presence lays ahead—I can feel it."

'A powerful presence?' Xuan thought. 'Could it be…?'

He could feel it as well with his Divine Sense—the energy signature radiating from the volcano up ahead seemed to belong to a powerful beast—a mythical creature spoken only of in legends. The information lined up with what the world master of the Flaming Sands Field had told him not long ago—that the phoenix who had taken hospitality inside this realm lay within its innermost parts, and had driven all the Fire Beasts that originally lived there out as a result.

But apart from that, there was something else. A faint, tingling feeling coming from his chest area, where the golden Traveler's Compass he wore dangled beneath his clothes.

Whatever lay inside that volcano, it wasn't as simple as a phoenix—and Xuan was determined to find out what.