Chapter Eighty-Nine: Flamewind City, Part One

Two years slipped by in the blink of an eye. With just over a month left before the day the Flame Clan tournament began, Ji Mo’s cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds after she obtained the Five-Element Spirit Vein. In those two years, all five elements within her had broken through to the sixth rank at the same time. The Five-Element Spirit Vein she had found in Clear Wind Ridge that day was only a miniature high-grade vein; if nurtured for a while longer, it might even rise another tier.

Back then, the three of them had joined forces and, after a struggle that brought them to the brink of death, finally slain that Five-Element Beast and seized the vein. In the two years since, in order to give her the best possible cultivation environment, Geng Xiao and Bai Ze had nearly halted their exploration of the Flame Domain and remained constantly at her side.

Whenever Ji Mo thought back to the time she brought the vein out, and learned from others that the Clear Phoenix Ridge secret realm was filled with treasures that even cultivators at the Divine Transformation realm coveted, she could not help feeling that Geng Xiao and Bai Ze had gained nothing while helping her seize the Five-Element Spirit Vein.

Three people from different places, after only a little over a year together, had gone to such lengths for her. That weighty friendship left Ji Mo unable to find words worthy of it. The only thing she could do was cultivate earnestly and strive to raise her strength as soon as possible, so she would no longer hold them back.

A miniature high-grade Five-Element Spirit Vein might be of little use to a high-level Five-Element cultivator above the Nascent Soul stage, but for Ji Mo at her present stage, it was enough to carry her all the way to the Nascent Soul realm. With that vein, in just two short years, she had forced her cultivation from the fourth level of Qi Refinement to the sixth.

As for the Heaven-Demon Body Tempering Art, Ji Mo had originally worried that she might accidentally break through to the sixth rank of the Transcendent realm, only to later realize she had been overthinking it completely. For body cultivators, the leap from the fifth to the sixth rank of the Transcendent realm was a true threshold, and the Heaven-Demon Body Tempering Art was no different.

Ji Mo was now precisely at the peak of the second layer of the Heaven-Demon Body Tempering Art. Breaking through from the second layer to the third was far less simple than advancing a single minor realm. Between the two lay a thick barrier, and Ji Mo felt that without some special external stimulus, let alone three years, even another three years might not be enough to break through.

In a way, being unable to reach the sixth rank of the Transcendent realm was actually a good thing for Ji Mo, after all she was about to take part in the Flame Descendants Clan’s arena competition. Against cultivators at the Qi Refinement stage, Ji Mo was already certain she would not lose to anyone of any race. But if she truly broke through to the sixth rank of the Transcendent realm, the arena she would need to enter would be the Foundation Establishment arena, and with her current cultivation, jumping onto that stage would be nothing short of suicide.

“Big Brother Bai, Big Brother Geng, the tournament is almost here. I’m sure the two of you will also be taking part in the arena contest for Core Formation cultivators. How confident are you about winning?” One day, after the three of them had finished a whole black-skin demon boar, Ji Mo looked up at Bai Ze and Geng Xiao and asked.

“Thirty percent, maybe,” Bai Ze said after a rare silence. He was usually the talkative one.

“Thirty percent? With the two of you absurdly strong, you only have a thirty percent chance?” Ji Mo’s expression changed slightly.

“He’s already flattering himself a little too much by saying thirty percent. Among the thousand Core Formation prodigies from the Ten Thousand Cultivation Great World who entered this place, our battle strength can barely rank in the top fifty. As for the people of the Flame Descendants Clan, so long as their bloodline awakening puts them in the upper-middle range, if their cultivation realm matches ours, their battle strength can stand toe-to-toe with the top ten geniuses among us,” Geng Xiao said, taking over the explanation.

“The Flame Descendants Clan is actually that strong?” Ji Mo was shocked. She had long heard Bai Ze praise their battle strength, but she still had not imagined they would be this formidable.

“Little Ji Mo, don’t let this guy scare you. So long as we’re not up against the Flame Descendants Clan’s top-tier geniuses, our chances of winning are still quite high. The Flame Descendants Clan is indeed very strong, and that has everything to do with the inheritance of their bloodline. We can’t envy that. But no matter how difficult it is, since we’ve entered this place, we absolutely will not retreat because of their strength. Even if we die, we’ll die on the arena,” Bai Ze said.

“Big Brother Bai, you say the Flame Descendants Clan is so powerful mainly because of their bloodline?” Ji Mo blinked, then asked again.

“That’s right. We’ve already explained this to you in brief before. The people of the Flame Descendants Clan aren’t fully human, strictly speaking. According to legend, many of them possess the bloodlines of both the demon and shaman races. In a sense, they are a race of demons and humans with shaman bloodline,” Geng Xiao said with a slight curl of his lip.

A demon race or human race with shaman bloodline? Ji Mo’s heart stirred. Unable to help herself, she once more asked the Peony Immortal in her sea of consciousness, “Immortal, do you know anything about the Flame Descendants Clan?” The last time Bai Ze mentioned this, she had already asked the Peony Immortal the same question, but the immortal had ignored her.

“I heard some things in Heaven, but I do not know them well. I only know that they are a small world that is both resented by the Heavenly Realm and abandoned by it. Many in the Heavenly Realm dislike them, but none dare come and provoke them without cause.” Rather rarely, the Peony Immortal, who had remained silent for a long time, finally deigned to speak.

“So formidable? A small world below, yet even the Heavenly Realm fears it?” Ji Mo was slightly stunned.

“Hmph. There are countless secrets in heaven and earth; what is there to find strange? It is said that the sovereign of the demon race, the Nine Profound Demon Emperor, came from the Flame Descendants Clan. Which world would dare casually trouble a place capable of nurturing the ruler of the demon race? What is strange, however, is that after the Flame Descendants Clan produced a Nine Profound Demon Emperor, there has been no word of any other heaven-defying figure arising from them,” the Peony Immortal said.

“Little girl, why have you gone quiet? Could it be that the two of us have frightened you so badly that you no longer dare to take part in the arena contest?” Seeing Ji Mo sitting there in a daze, not even blinking for a long while, Bai Ze could not help reaching out and tapping her on the head, teasing her.

“Whether the two of you have a great chance of winning or not, I don’t know. But I do not believe I am any worse than anyone at the Qi Refinement stage, even if that person is from the Flame Descendants Clan,” Ji Mo said, coming back to herself and batting Bai Ze’s hand away.

“Haha, what spirit, little girl!” Bai Ze burst out laughing.

Through three years of companionship, Geng Xiao and Bai Ze had already formed a fairly clear understanding of Ji Mo’s battle strength. Coupled with the fact that they knew she was a Five-Element Spirit Body, neither of them thought her words were boastful. No matter how powerful the Flame Descendants were, they believed that among Qi Refinement cultivators, finding someone who could defeat Ji Mo, even from the Flame Descendants Clan, would likely not be easy.

“Good. Since the little girl is so ambitious, the two of us can’t let down the reputation of our trio of storm and clouds. I not only aim to survive this tournament, but also to fight with all my strength for victory,” Bai Ze said with a laugh, his confidence soaring.

“Let’s set out. The place where we are is not close to the competition grounds, and getting there in two months is no easy matter.” With Ji Mo’s interruption, the atmosphere instantly lightened. Bai Ze and Geng Xiao had both received detailed maps sent by their respective sects through secret methods a few days earlier. Though the Flame Domain was boundless, they were not worried about failing to find the place.

Along the way, the three of them passed through three teleportation arrays and then traveled day and night. At last, three days before the tournament began, they arrived at Flame Wind City. When they reached the city gates, Ji Mo lifted her head to study the imposing, almost absurdly towering gate before her, and the first thought that rose in her mind was: was Flame Wind City a city, or a mountain?

What appeared before her eyes was not a city in the usual sense, but a majestic, cloud-piercing peak. At first, she had assumed they would need to pass through this mountain before reaching Flame Wind City’s territory, only for Bai Ze and Geng Xiao to tell her directly that this precipitous peak itself was the city gate of Flame Wind City. What a grand undertaking indeed: a city gate served by an entire mountain peak. Ji Mo could only marvel in secret.

The summit of the peak thrust straight into the clouds, making its height impossible to measure. Midway up the mountain there was a natural gorge, over ten zhang high, its origin impossible to tell—whether carved out by human power or formed by nature itself. That gorge was the entrance passage into Flame Wind City.

“Brother Su, tell me—if such a steep peak stands here as the city gate, what happens if some master starts fighting and brings the whole thing crashing down?” On the way into the city, Ji Mo could not help asking her question in a low voice.

“You’re overthinking it. The city-gate peak of Flame Wind City can withstand a full-force strike from a Golden Immortal. In our world, there shouldn’t be anyone who can collapse it,” Bai Ze said, unable to restrain an eye roll. Ji Mo immediately shut her mouth. Indeed, when it came to things she did not understand, she should not speak recklessly.

After passing through the gorge corridor of about a dozen li, the city finally appeared. The buildings before Ji Mo differed little from what she had seen before, except that the materials used were mostly red stone. In that respect they resembled Lei Wei’s palace quite a bit, only on a far grander scale. Thus, looking at the cluster of buildings before her, Ji Mo inexplicably felt a sense of familiarity.

The whole city was laid out in neat ranks, orderly and well arranged. Streets stretched in all directions, and all kinds of people appeared from time to time upon them. Some were a little taller and sturdier than ordinary humans; the eyes of some were different in color from Ji Mo’s group’s, some blue, some gray; and some had red or white hair.

Aside from these differences in appearance, there was nothing else of note. Ji Mo’s gaze wandered over those people for a long while before she finally could not help asking again, “Are these people the Flame Descendants Clan? Aside from being taller, and some having different eye and hair colors from us, they don’t seem all that different.”

“Yes. They only differ from us somewhat in bloodline. Since everyone takes human form, there naturally won’t be too many differences in outward appearance. As for strength, you can’t tell by looks alone. Only once you get onto the arena will you see how terrifying they really are,” Geng Xiao, cold and sparing with words, was not one for explanations. That task could only fall to the chatterbox Bai Ze.