Venerable Jiyan fled fast. Once he re-entered stabilized space, his flame-thread began blinking through it—but Xiaopeng was faster. Even with repeated space warps, Jiyan couldn't outpace him. Tens of trillions of miles out, Xiaopeng finally caught up and hammered the flame-thread again and again. Forced to a halt, the thread instantly re-formed into Venerable Jiyan—his aura hollow, far weaker than before. Though he had badly wounded Pan Sihai in their duel, he himself was grievously injured; now his combat power was under thirty percent of his peak. Xiaopeng couldn't match Jiyan at full strength, but against this Jiyan he could fight.
Following Lin Moyu's instructions, Xiaopeng only entangled him, not going all out—leaning on sheer speed to stick to Jiyan like a burr. No matter what Jiyan tried, he couldn't shake him. The longer it dragged on, the more anxious Jiyan grew—this was the Central Domain, not the East Extreme; if another top expert came, he was dead for sure.
"Out of my way!" he roared, knocking Xiaopeng back again and again, only for Xiaopeng to surge right back in. With that overwhelming speed, the current Jiyan had no answer. Auras approached from afar—Lin tore through the void, and with his formidable soul power he wasn't slow either, rapidly closing in. Seeing Lin, Jiyan's eyes blazed with killing intent. "You dare chase me?" He thought of the force he'd brought—ten thousand Chaos Great-Achievement, a hundred Perfection, the Dog-Rat Patriarch—all dead at Lin's hands. And his treasure—the war fortress he'd forged at such cost—also taken by Lin. Murder boiled in him, but reason said now was not the time to fight Lin; he had to escape. Xiaopeng's dogging made it hard—in this instant Lin also arrived.
Jiyan steeled himself. His body swelled, becoming a four-headed, eight-armed giant. A sea of fire roared out; innumerable fire dragons battered Xiaopeng away, buying space. He wasn't burning his life to fight—he was trying to run.
A faint breeze stirred. Jiyan, about to bolt, suddenly paused and turned toward Lin. "I'll kill you!" Madness flashed in his eyes; all four pairs gleamed red as if he beheld a mortal enemy. The Jiyan who had meant to flee abruptly pivoted—no longer running, but sweeping his arms and driving his treasures. Fire dragons poured from the sea of fire, pouncing at Lin.
Lin's face stayed cold. He threw a flurry of punches; titanic fists scythed the void, smashing the dragons. Several corpses materialized around him—bodies of Perfection experts. He pointed. "Corpse Burst."
Boom! The fire giant exploded on the spot; half his body was blasted away—four heads and eight arms became four heads and four arms. Jiyan screamed, as if jarred awake; the killing intent drained from his eyes. "How—? I was going to run—why did I suddenly change my mind and attack him?" He shouldn't have fought; he couldn't kill Lin now. His will had been twisted—Lin must have meddled. Terror washed over him. He had a hunch: he would die here. He didn't want to die—billions of years of cultivation, gone? Impossible!
But since he had already struck—then fight! He roared, kindling himself; the fire sea surged across the void. In that moment he pushed himself to the utmost, briefly recovering peak power. "Even if I die, I'm dragging you down with me!"
"You're overthinking it," Lin said. He didn't bother to trade blows—his finger tapped again and again, and the dozen corpses at his side turned to ash. Endless detonations rolled; Jiyan had no chance to act—mid-roar he was reduced to raw flesh and ruin. The fire giant collapsed; his soul-flame guttered and went out under the chain of blasts.
The void trembled; a low lament rippled through the chaos itself—the world's mourning for a fallen pinnacle. It meant Jiyan had brushed the limit of the Dao; one more step and he would have transcended it to reach quasi-Supreme. There were few like him; Heaven and Earth remembered them, and at their fall gave a sign—nothing more.
Pan Sihai, racing up, halted abruptly. He heard the world's lament—that sound only they could hear, and it made his heart quail. "Jiyan… has fallen." He whispered it, then sped on. As Jiyan died, the fire sea dwindled. Only a single flame-filament remained, less than a finger thick and under half a meter long—Jiyan's true body.
Little Tree said, "So that's what it was." Lin had already guessed on seeing the filament; Little Tree's words confirmed it: Venerable Jiyan had ties to an ancient existence. In truth, many top experts of today were linked to those of antiquity.
Chaoszi snorted. "That guy just doesn't stay dead, does he."
Lin cupped the filament in his palm. "Explain."
Little Tree: "He was 'Heaven-and-Earth Fire'—styled the Heaven-and-Earth Fire Ancestor. He once boasted that so long as there was flame between Heaven and Earth, he would be undying."
Chaoszi clicked his tongue, thick with disdain. "Undying my foot. Not long after spouting that, he died. Heaven-and-Earth Fire Ancestor? You think he could shoulder that karma? Arrogant fool. It's not like his was the only fire in existence. What right did he have to call himself the ancestor of all fire? If you ask me, your two flames beat him hands down."
Lin carried two special flames: Immortal Fire from the Immortality Dao, and the World-Scorching Flame. He had once asked Little Tree and Chaoszi about their origins; the answer was odd. In their era there had been several great flames, but they didn't know them all. Some gained spirit and became famous; some hid within Heaven and Earth, scarcely seen—only rumor. Immortal Fire was such: little renown, yet whispered of, and then vanished. As for the World-Scorching Flame, they hadn't even heard of it—yet its power was beyond doubt. In Chaoszi's eyes, both of Lin's fires surpassed the famed Heaven-and-Earth Fire of old.
Little Tree sketched the tale: Heaven-and-Earth Fire gained spirit and styled itself the ancestor of all flames; other powerhouses slew it. It claimed undying, and indeed did not die cleanly—after countless years it re-condensed in the world and became Venerable Jiyan. But to Lin, that ancestor was already dead. Reborn without any memory is a new being, not true rebirth. Memory marks identity; without it, you're someone else.
Lin studied the flame in his palm. "It seems to contain some special power."
Little Tree: "It's a flame from the dawn of Heaven and Earth—a primal fire-seed. A top-tier material. If you absorb and refine it, you'll never fear fire again. If you fuse it into your domain, it can strengthen the domain's foundation."
Lin didn't hesitate—he chose the latter. "Absorbing it isn't my path. I'll use it as material." The Heaven-and-Earth Fire's true body—a naturally evolved cosmic flame—worked like Ancient Ice: it could transform a domain's foundation. Once his domains reached perfection, he would compress their domain-force; at that time, this could reinforce their roots. Things like this were far rarer than ordinary materials. It was a good haul.
A powerful aura arrived from afar. Pan Sihai came striding on his blood sea. Lin stored the Fire Ancestor's true body, waiting. Pan stopped before Lin and bowed. "Pan Sihai greets Fellow Daoist."
Lin smiled. "No need to stand on ceremony, Sect Master. Lin Moyu, same as you—a member of the Central Domain's Alliance."
Pan's brows rose. "So you're Elder Lin. My apologies."
Lin was puzzled. "You know me?"
"Of course," Pan said. "First you repaired the cross-domain array returning from the East Extreme; then Vice-Alliance Master Mu sent word that a new Grand Elder had been added to the Alliance—Elder Lin. For now only a few of us old fossils know, but the news will spread soon."
Lin smiled. "I see."
"Elder Lin—young and accomplished," Pan praised freely. "At your age to reach this height—another step up is only a matter of time." In his eyes Lin was frighteningly young; in all his hundreds of millions of years, he'd never seen the like. "Genius, monster, prodigy"—compared to Lin, they were nothing.
After a few pleasantries, Pan asked, "Elder Lin—did you kill that old fox Jiyan?"
Lin nodded. "I did. You should have heard the world's lament."
Pan frowned slightly. "That old dog cherishes his life. If he can't win, he always flees. For you to kill him…" Realizing how that sounded, he hurried to explain. "I mean no offense—merely curious. To be honest, in the last two wars, several of us tried to surround and kill him—we all got shaken off. The moment he's in danger, he slips away. Vexing."
Lin smiled. "I have a little trick that can nudge his thoughts for a moment." Jiyan had indeed intended to run, but Lin moved first—Chaoszi used the Mind-Disrupting Bead's power to perturb his thinking. Jiyan's soul was strong; the influence was limited. It couldn't reverse his mind outright—only ride what was already there. Leveraging his hatred for Lin, it let killing intent sway his choice for an instant: instead of fleeing, he tried to kill Lin first. Subtle and unnoticed, it severed his only path to life. Lin, of course, didn't explain; Pan tactfully didn't pry.
"Elder Lin's methods are extraordinary," Pan said with a laugh. "Cutting Jiyan down is a great affair for our Central Domain. The East Extreme just lost a major pillar. If full war breaks out, the scales tip; at worst, the pressure on us will ease considerably."
"Fortune played its part," Lin said. "This was his destined calamity. As for what you said earlier—slaughtering Jiyan's whole clan—is that serious?"
Pan barked a laugh. "In my heart, yes—but doing it is not so easy. I don't even know where his clan is. Likely only that old Nine-Moon knows. I was venting."
Little Tree cut in, "Jiyan wouldn't have a clan. He's Heaven-and-Earth Fire—born of primal fire, no kin."
Lin: "I thought he might have kin—maybe useful scraps to salvage. Since not, forget it." A thought sprouted—perhaps he should seek out some ancient remnants; they might help with compressing domain-force. But Lin wasn't a butcher; unless someone was his enemy, he wouldn't kill them out of the blue.
"Earlier," Lin added, "I vowed during the fight with the Dog-Rat Patriarch to exterminate his entire race. I keep my word. Do you know their den?"
Pan shook his head. "He's good at hiding. Not like Jiyan, but his tribe's seat isn't easy to find. From what I know, even in the East Extreme the Dog-Rat clan is loathed; they probably nest in some corner. Since you've spoken, if we push into the East Extreme, I'll try to look—but don't hold out much hope."
Lin nodded. "I'll trouble you then."
Talking, they returned to Wang East Boundary. The battle over, the formations slowly folded; everyone filed out. In moments the place was bustling again. Lin collected ten thousand Chaos Great-Achievement corpses and tossed them into his storage space, raising a sea of fire to refine them—extracting what was useful, burning away the dross, turning bodies into materials. He also gathered every storage artifact from the dead—thousands in all. Unowned now, their contents were ready to take. He handed this work to Little Tree and Chaoszi to crack open one by one and sort; with thousands of Great-Achievement troves, there would be no shortage. The Silverlight Rabbits had one big advantage: high or low grade, good or bad—if it's "material," they could use it.
Pan lifted the blockade on the array. Lin needed to head for the North Extreme; he couldn't keep hogging the formation. Ironically, his face-saving move had ended up saving Wang East Boundary.
Pan personally escorted Lin to the array. "I'll report everything here to the Alliance in detail. I expect they'll grant you appropriate rewards."
"This wasn't mine alone," Lin said. "If you hadn't gravely injured Jiyan, I couldn't have slain him so easily."
Pan laughed. "Elder Lin is too modest. I wish you a smooth journey to the North Extreme—and a safe return."
Lin clasped his fists. "Many thanks."
The formation flared—Lin vanished. One calamity for Wang East Boundary had passed; what should have been a death-doom was dissolved by Lin's arrival. The bringers of doom, instead, met their doom. Fate turns so capriciously—no one knows what the future holds.
Qingyu clenched her pill tight; she knew it was priceless. Two days later, an aura of breakthrough rose within Wang East Boundary. Chaos power poured down. Someone advanced from Dao Lord to Chaos.