When Long Chen and Huo Linger flew out of Yu Qingxuan’s barrier, countless Flame Evil Spirits immediately attacked them.

With a white flame sword, Huo Linger sliced one Flame Evil Spirit and turned it into frozen fragments. The Ice Soul Divine Flame’s power was truly terrifying; it even affected these Flame Evil Spirits.

“How is it?” asked Long Chen.

Huo Linger shook her head in disappointment. “They’re filled with a berserk flame will. When they die, their power instantly scatters. I didn’t even get to absorb a tenth of its power. Furthermore, this bit of energy I absorbed is full of berserk will and flame poison. If I were to erase those parts, I basically got nothing. Wasting so much energy to purify this little bit is not worth it.”

The Earth Cauldron had said that these Flame Evil Spirits would be worthless, but Huo Linger still wanted to give it a try. After all, she was a flame spirit and could absorb all kinds of flame energy.

However, these Flame Evil Spirits were beyond her understanding. When she killed them, this world directly reabsorbed most of their energy.

Just as the Earth Cauldron said, in this place, no one could kill them. Even if someone did “kill” them, their energy would return to the world, and a new one would be born soon.

“Then we’ll ignore them. Let’s go to the Yan Xu Divine Lotus.” If there was nothing good to get from them, Long Chen’s principle was to not waste time on them.

Huo Linger blasted a way through with her Ice Soul Sword, leading the way for Long Chen.

It took them several hours to reach the end of a flame passageway.

Now, they could see an enormous flame lake before them and a black flame lotus floating high above it. With black flames swirling around it, it was filled with a sinister and destructive aura that shook both of their souls.

“Big Brother Long Chen, it seems to be in some kind of special state. It’s like… it’s sleeping,” stated Huo Linger.

Long Chen also noticed that. Indeed, the lotus didn’t react at all as they approached. It didn’t quite make sense.

Moreover, when Long Chen and Huo Linger approached the flame lake, those wild Flame Evil Spirits instantly became calm. They didn’t dare to get closer to this lake and only bared their fangs at Long Chen.

Long Chen and Huo Linger proceeded with caution, inching closer to the Yan Xu Divine Lotus. With each step, its aura intensified, sending tremors through their hearts.

When they stood atop its leaves, they felt like they were standing atop a volcano that might explode at any moment. The power within this leaf could destroy them at any moment.

Huo Linger urgently pressed a hand against one of its veins and started to chant the Nirvana Scripture. Runes appeared on her palm and spread down the leaf’s veins.

“Big Brother Long Chen, I can absorb its energy!” Huo Linger was pleasantly surprised by this revelation.

“Be careful. We’re like a mosquito sucking its blood. Don’t wake it up,” whispered Long Chen.

Huo Linger obediently nodded. Black runes started to appear on top of her hand. That was the Yan Xu Flame’s core energy.

Huo Linger had previously absorbed the Yan Xu Flame. However, back then, it had been too little for her to use it in combat. Fortunately, that small trace of flame allowed her to absorb the power of the Yan Xu Divine Lotus without experiencing any repulsion.

“Slowly absorb its energy. Don’t rush. I’m going up to the flower,” said Long Chen as he stealthily slipped closer to the black flower.

The Yan Xu Divine Lotus was so enormous that the flower alone was hundreds of thousands of miles wide. Long Chen was smaller than an ant compared to it.

It was precisely due to its enormous size that it didn’t react at all when Long Chen got close. Perhaps Long Chen’s existence was wholly insignificant to it.

Long Chen arrived at a petal. Sensing its apocalyptic power, he was shocked. He had never seen such a terrifying lifeform before. However, to his surprise, he sensed a familiar aura from it, and the Devil Eye Water Lily’s image appeared in his mind.

“Are they connected?” murmured Long Chen.

Long Chen walked through a crack in the petals as he wanted to get to the center. Once he was past the petals, he saw that there were countless chains connecting the petals.

When Long Chen got to the chains, a wild force directly sent him flying, causing him to almost cough up blood. Stars spun in his eyes.

“It won’t let me through?” Long Chen was startled. There was actually a barrier here.

Long Chen suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He took out a seed of the Devil Eye Water Lily and threw it onto the barrier. Astonishingly, upon impact, the seed ignited, causing the barrier to weaken and loosen its hold.

“There is a way!”

Long Chen was delighted. He actually slowly managed to get closer without being sent flying.

“They really are from the same source!”

Long Chen took out more seeds. At the price of letting them burn, he created a path for himself through the barrier.

However, this barrier was extremely thick. It was fortunate that Long Chen had plenty of Devil Eye Water Lilies in the primal chaos space.

Long Chen quickly managed to pass through the barrier between the two petals. Once he was inside, he felt that the Yan Xu energy here was even purer, and he hastily called Huo Linger over to this place.

When Huo Linger entered, Long Chen saw that her pure face now had black lines on top of it. It was a bit frightening.

Long Chen knew that this was a normal reaction to absorbing Yan Xu energy. Now, Huo Linger could absorb even purer Yan Xu energy here.

After that, Long Chen continued onward. When he saw another barrier up ahead, he used Devil Eye Water Lily seeds to open a path for himself again.

Long Chen asked the Earth Cauldron, and it told him that the Devil Eye Water Lily could be considered a branch of the Yan Xu Divine Lotus. That was why burning the seeds caused the Yan Xu Divine Lotus’s guard to go down.

Long Chen passed through nine barriers. As he breached the ninth barrier, a red world appeared before him.

Within this scarlet expanse lay a mass of red flower stamens, amidst which rested a figure. At the sight of this figure, Long Chen’s eyes widened in disbelief, nearly popping out of their sockets.