Chapter 518: Fire Spirit

The man at the fifth level of that law cultivation was a man who appeared to be in his thirties. The item he took out stunned Ye Feng—it was a black chess piece. More precisely, it was a black Go stone.
White Yiyi and the other magical beasts naturally didn’t recognize such an object. Shi Tou thought the man was still trying to deceive them and swung his stick to strike, but Ye Feng stopped him.
“How come I didn’t see anything special about this little black stone?” Jin also didn’t know what Go was and thought it was just a small black stone. “You say this thing can break formations—show us how!”
“But here…” The man holding the stone looked around but saw no restriction formations.
Ye Feng then formed several hand seals, and a thin barrier of restrictions quickly formed at a speed visible to everyone, leaving them in awe. Even Long Tian silently gave a thumbs up.
“Use it on us!” Ye Feng said expressionlessly. Even at this point, he was still skeptical.
The man, nervously holding the black stone, walked toward the barrier Ye Feng had set up. After touching it, his pace didn’t slow at all. Then, Ye Feng and the others witnessed a surprising scene: the barrier automatically created an opening for the man to pass through before slowly closing again.
Ye Feng and Long Tian were the least able to understand what was happening.
“Where did you get this?” Jin was the first to recover his senses and asked immediately.
“Many years ago, from a strange secret realm… It was a very strange realm that suddenly appeared in the Divine Realm and then vanished suddenly.”
“Was it the one that suddenly appeared in the sky above the border between the Divine Realm Continent and the Endless Abyssal Sea 13.7 million years ago?” Jin couldn’t help but ask.
“That’s the one!”
“I’ve heard of it too. It’s said that the realm appeared suddenly, opened on its own, attracting many powerful beings. It stayed in place for three years before disappearing, and all those powerful beings were transported out. But everyone said that despite its vastness, it contained no treasures at all.” Jin recounted what he had heard back then. “It’s said that the realm accepted people of any cultivation level; anyone could go in and take a look. I wanted to go too, but my cultivation was too weak, and I’d be an easy target, so I gave up on the idea.”
“Was there really no treasure inside?” Ye Feng looked at the man holding the stone.

“It’s true. That secret realm is so vast that it has no boundaries. In three years, someone who flew in a straight line still didn’t reach the end. There are no magical beasts that attack people, no pills, no weapons or armor, and no cultivation techniques. Only piles of small black and white stones, incredibly hard—no matter what you do, you can’t scratch them at all. I just picked one up casually, wanting to see if it had any special properties besides its hardness. That’s when I accidentally discovered this function.”

“Are there any white ones?” Ye Feng raised his eyebrows. He was even more convinced that these must be the black and white stones used in Go.

“Yes, but I only picked one. Because aside from color, there’s no difference between the white and black ones,” the man nodded.

“Let me see!” Ye Feng stretched out his hand. Though the idea of killing to seize treasure flashed through his mind, he suppressed it.

“Actually, these stones aren’t very useful to me. I can give them to you, but without them, we won’t be able to get down the mountain,” the man said awkwardly.

“I just want to take a look. If they’re really useful to me, I’ll ensure you can leave the mountain safely.” As he said this, Ye Feng also felt ashamed inwardly—his actions weren’t much different from forceful seizure.

Reluctantly, the man handed the stone to Ye Feng.

The first thing Ye Feng felt was its icy coldness. Although he hadn’t been deeply involved in Go on Earth, he had played it with others before. So as soon as he held the stone, he realized it seemed no different from those on Earth. He even suspected their size and weight were exactly the same as Earth’s Go stones.

He squeezed it hard and found that the man was right—this thing was truly incredibly hard. With the force he used, even top-grade divine artifacts could be deformed, let alone a small stone. But in reality, the stone didn’t change at all.

He tried probing it with his mental energy but found nothing. Finally, he gave up and returned the stone to the man. “You can go now!”

The three of them looked at Ye Feng in disbelief. The leader, who was at the sixth level of the Law cultivation, was the first to rush toward the door. The other two quickly followed suit and left.

In less than one-tenth of a breath’s time, the three had reached the door. But then they heard a beast’s roar. A streak of white circled around them, and the three collapsed to their knees before turning into piles of ashes. Even their storage rings turned to dust, leaving only the black stone on the ground, still intact.

Ye Feng and the others glanced warily toward the door, which seemed to be pushed shut by some invisible force. A scorching heat swept in from behind them. Turning around, they saw white flames surging up from the ground before slowly taking shape…

“Is this a Fire Spirit?” Long Tian frowned deeply. He knew that they were truly in trouble now.

Fire Spirits were a type of spirit creature, born naturally from the power of heaven and earth. These creatures lacked intelligence but had a strong sense of territory. Anyone who entered their domain would be attacked. Such spirit creatures were often targets for those with great powers—for example, Fire Spirits were highly sought-after treasures by alchemists and blacksmiths. Adding one to a furnace could elevate the quality of the products produced by one level. Moreover, the Fire Spirit and the furnace could nourish each other, further enhancing their power. The flames of a Fire Spirit also belonged to the extreme attribute category, capable of helping practitioners understand the laws of fire. While they were treasures to those who could control them, they were deadly threats to those lacking strength. The flames of a Fire Spirit could reduce even a god-tier warrior to ashes, so its rank was undoubtedly at least Saint level. Even ordinary flames of Saint level could injure them, let alone the extreme attribute flames produced by a Fire Spirit. If they were touched, no matter their mastery of the laws, their fate would likely be no better than that of the three people earlier.

“Damn it, those idiots from the Danquan Sect…” Jin couldn’t help cursing. “No wonder the fire veins haven’t erupted. Those fools led us here. After thousands of years with such concentrated fire elements, it’s strange no Fire Spirit has formed. They’re really killing us!”

“Don’t resist. Hide in the Liuluan Hall. I’ll be there soon!” Ye Feng said, bringing Long Tian and the others inside the Liuluan Hall to eliminate any threats behind them.

He refused to leave because he wanted to see just how powerful this creature really was.

Seeing that only one person remained from the group before, even if the Fire Spirit had the intelligence of a three-year-old, it knew this guy must be responsible. With another roar, the beast-like form, still not fully formed, charged at Ye Feng.

Ye Feng’s Lightning Speed Law and Lightning Movement Technique were not to be underestimated. He dodged the Fire Spirit’s attack in an instant. He knew that if he were touched, his fate would likely be the same as those three people earlier.

With its attack failing, the Fire Spirit accelerated even more and rushed at Ye Feng again.

Ye Feng dodged again as several Sky-Splitting Fingers were shot out with all his might, but they had no effect at all when plunging into the white flames of the Fire Spirit. “The attack is ineffective?”
The Sky-Splitting Fingers were Ye Feng’s most powerful attack technique, yet hitting the opponent didn’t even cause the slightest ripple, which left him somewhat frustrated.
Just then, Ye Feng’s communication talisman rang. He looked down and saw it was Long Tian. While dodging, he curiously opened Long Tian’s message.
“There’s a cauldron in the Flowing Crown Hall. To deal with the Fire Spirit, aside from using soul attacks to destroy it, the only way is to use the cauldron to subdue it!” That was all Long Tian’s message, but it brought great joy to Ye Feng.
As a Pseudo-Imperial Treasure cauldron, Jiu Fang wouldn’t need to exert any effort at all to subdue this Fire Spirit.
Ye Feng immediately summoned Jiu Fang. A huge black cauldron appeared in front of him, stopping the Fire Spirit from pursuing him.
Although the Fire Spirit wasn’t very intelligent, it could naturally tell the quality of a cauldron. The aura emitted by Jiu Fang made it extremely excited; it only glanced at Ye Feng warily.
Ye Feng slowly stepped back, signaling that he had no intention of competing with it for the cauldron.
Only then did the Fire Spirit circle Jiu Fang once before jumping into the cauldron.
Ye Feng watched quietly from a distance. The white flames churned inside the cauldron for a while before completely calming down.
“Little master, I’ve made that little guy obedient,” came Jiu Fang’s deep voice, filled with joy.
“Jiu Fang, given your rank, this Fire Spirit isn’t very useful, is it?” Ye Feng couldn’t help but ask.
“To advance, we cauldrons usually rely on our master’s forging. The more we forge, the more significant the transformation, allowing us to advance. But with a Fire Spirit, it’s different. Even without forging, we can slowly improve through it. The Fire Spirit and the cauldron complement each other—I can help it advance by nurturing it. Once its rank rises, it can also help me advance. So, its rank isn’t that important to us. However, if I start nurturing a Fire Spirit, I can only forge pills and weapons that this one can handle. Fortunately, since this little thing is already at the Saint rank, I can still forge Saint-rank items for you. But for Divine Treasure-level items, I can only wait until it breaks through,” Jiu Fang explained.

“It’s okay. Then start preparing for pregnancy. Anyway, at this stage, I can use sacred artifacts and sacred-grade pills at most.” Ye Feng nodded, but then suddenly remembered something. “Wait a moment. Could you ask that Fire Spirit to give me some flame? Its flame should help me comprehend new fire-related laws.”
“No problem. I’ll make it appear,” said Jiu Fang. The white flame slowly rose from the mouth of the cauldron, took a look at Ye Feng, then slowly extended a column of fire in front of him, spreading out like a palm. A white flame slowly rose and hovered in the air before the column of fire retracted.
Ye Feng reached out and caught the white flame in his palm. A black energy rose from his palm like smoke, enveloping the flame…