Trials of the Abyss

Chapter 256: Rank Eight Flame Dragon

Morning mist lingered outside the stone forest as the silver-haired girl stood with a confident gaze. Her delicate, fair face seemed to glow with a mysterious radiance.

"I knew that all along, I've always known," Jiang Li said with a gentle smile. "You'll be the pride of our Third World. We all hope you'll bring glory to the younger generation of the Third World!"

Yang Rui was dead, and Xie Xiwen had turned into a skeleton.

Only she and Fang Boxuan remained among the geniuses of the new generation.

Fang Boxuan had achieved nothing noteworthy in Spirit Offering and the Primordial Wilderness.

Naturally, as a member of the Red Mountain Sect and a friend of Zhao Yuanqi, Jiang Li believed Zhao Yuanqi was far stronger than Fang Boxuan.

"Brother Pang, what're your plans after this?" Han Duping suddenly asked.

Slightly taken aback, Pang Jian instinctively looked up at the sky.

"The Sword Pavilion in the Second World, right?" Han Duping clicked his tongue in amazement. "Back when we met you in the Solitary Mountain Range, you were just a guide for the Ning Clan and the He Clan. Who could've imagined that you'd eventually enter the Second World as a personal disciple of the Sword Pavilion's Pavilion Master?"

Pang Jian remained silent.

For now, he planned to advance his cultivation realm and increase his strength in preparation for slaying the old Thunder Dragon in the Dragon Lair Sect.

After that, as the wielder of the Gate of the Abyss, he hoped one day to break free from the Abyss and see the world beyond.

He was not in any hurry to get to the Sword Pavilion.

"Everyone, wait here for a while. I'll summon someone from the Qi Clan in Snow Peak City to send a Cloud Sail over," Zhao Yuanqi said, taking out a sound-transmitting talisman. "Snow Peak City, where the Qi Clan is located, is quite a distance from here, so it might take a day or two."

Gao Yuan and Han Ting approached Pang Jian together.

"Little Brother Pang! It's been an honor to know someone like you, but..." Gao Yuan glanced at Han Ting before continuing, "We're not planning to go to Snow Peak City. We want to head to where rogue cultivators gather to collect information about the Dark Abyss Continent."

Han Ting gave a respectful bow. Complex emotions welled up in her watery eyes.

Every other woman connected to Pang Jian was an extraordinary figure—the high-ranking Outer God Luo Hongyan, the genius girl from the Li Family, and the talent of the Red Mountain Sect, Zhao Yuanqi.

Han Ting's sense of inferiority completely extinguished her hidden hopes.

Pang Jian nodded. "Gao Yuan, did your Cloud Sail crash?"

"It did." Gao Yuan smiled bitterly. "Even Miss Zhao's Scarlet Dawn Boat was destroyed in Spirit Offering. What hope was there for my Cloud Sail? I had intended to stay aboard and wait outside the restricted area, but Luo...she urged us to move quickly, so I took the risk and steered the Cloud Sail in."

"How much does a Cloud Sail cost?" Pang Jian asked.

"Little Brother Pang, I don't mean anything by this!" Gao Yuan hastily clarified.

Zhao Yuanqi cut in, "Around 150,000 spirit stones.".

"So, about 1,500 spirit jades." Pang Jian's brows twitched slightly as he retrieved Yang Rui's spatial bracelet, took out 2,000 spirit jades, and pushed them toward Gao Yuan. "Please, you must accept these."

Gao Yuan hesitated for a moment, but seeing Pang Jian's determined expression, he gratefully accepted the gift.

"We may never meet again after this, Pang Jian, but it's been a pleasure knowing you," Han Ting said before reluctantly leaving with Gao Yuan.

Zhao Yuanqi was surprised. "This spatial bracelet looks familiar. Is it...?"

"It's Yang Rui's," Pang Jian revealed.

He then openly summoned the Nine Suns Cauldron and channeled streams of solar energy into it. The dormant arrays within its walls awakened as new power surged through the cauldron.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Nine blazing suns floated on the cauldron's walls, radiating warm light.

"You..." Zhao Yuanqi and the others looked at him as if he were a monster.

The treasured spirit artifact of the Radiant Sun Sect appeared just as effective in Pang Jian's hands as it had been in Yang Rui's.

Ignoring their astonishment, Pang Jian channeled earthflame energy from his fiery pool into the Nine Suns Cauldron.

Boom!

The rim of the nine suns on the cauldron's walls ignited with scorching flames, further enhancing the power of the Nine Suns Cauldron.

"Not bad. This is a handy treasure." Pang Jian nodded in satisfaction.

Whoosh!

The Nine Suns Cauldron hovering in front of Pang Jian flew uncontrollably into the air.

Boom!

The cauldron rapidly expanded and the flames surrounding the nine suns grew fiercer.

It was like the flames had completely swallowed the nine suns!

Suddenly, a violent force overrode the energies Pang Jian infused into the cauldron, causing him to groan and cough up a trickle of blood.

A booming, arrogant laugh echoed. "A neat little trinket."

Blazing flames shot out from a distance and reached the Nine Suns Cauldron in an instant.

A towering middle-aged man with skin as red as boiled shrimp and two prominent crimson jade horns on his forehead grabbed the Nine Suns Cauldron with one hand and descended before the group.

The proximity was enough to feel a scorching heat radiating from the middle-aged man. It was like the entire area had turned into a volcanic area.

Zhao Yuanqi's expression grew serious.

"Which esteemed figure from the Dragon Lair Sect might Senior be?" She respectfully stepped forward and bowed. "We're from the Red Mountain Sect."

Zhou Qingchen and the others paled with fear. They were too terrified to even breathe as they continuously wiped the sweat beading on their foreheads.

The Dragon Lair Sect! Pang Jian inwardly snorted in disdain, but his expression remained calm as he quietly observed the dragon from the Dragon Lair Sect.

Only dragons and Spirit Beasts at Rank Eight or above could take human form.

That meant the dragon before him was at least at Rank Eight!

Rank Eight was equivalent to the Nirvana Realm among human cultivators!

"I'm Long Yan." The dragon from the Dragon Lair Sect chuckled. He did not acknowledge those from the Red Mountain Sect as he asked, "Are there still any Outer Gods lurking in Spirit Offering?"

"Long Yan..." Zhao Yuanqi seemed to recognize the name, and her demeanor grew even more cautious. Head lowered, she replied, "We're not sure, but we didn't encounter any more Outer Gods when we left."

"Ah, so they must've fled elsewhere."

Long Yan seemed lost in thought as he absentmindedly held the Nine Suns Cauldron.

"Lord Long Yan, the Nine Suns Cauldron belongs to Pang Jian. He's a personal disciple of the Sword Pavilion's Pavilion Master," Zhao Yuanqi said in a low voice.

Long Yan's expression instantly changed.

"A personal disciple of the Pavilion Master?" He did not even bother verifying the truth of the claim before casually flicking his finger to send the Nine Suns Cauldron back to Pang Jian. "I just cleaned out the lingering evil energy of the Outer Gods inside for you—no need to thank me.".

Despite being a Rank Eight Flame Dragon, the words "personal disciple of the Pavilion Master" were enough for Long Yan to hand off the Nine Suns Cauldron to Pang Jian like a hot potato.

Pang Jian simply stared at him in silence.

"I had no idea you were that guy's disciple. I thought you were just from the Red Mountain Sect," Long Yan explained with a forced smile, evidently wary of the Sword Pavilion's Pavilion Master. "I already returned the item to you. I even refined it a bit, so it should be easier to use now."

Pang Jian still said nothing, but he did notice the Nine Suns Cauldron now felt unusually warm to the touch and had gained strange dragon patterns.

"I'm a Flame Dragon from the Dragon Lair Sect. Refining small trinkets like this is second nature to me. Rest assured, I left no traces or imprints inside. It's completely clean!" Long Yan assured with an awkward grin.

It was obvious Long Yan was extremely fearful of the Sword Pavilion's Pavilion Master and was eager to avoid any trouble resulting from his reckless actions.

Pang Jian continued to remain silent.

He had never had a good impression of the Dragon Lair Sect, which dominated the Sacred Soul Continent in the Second World. This encounter only reinforced his view of how overbearing and arrogant the dragons were.

Fortunately, the words "personal disciple of the Pavilion Master" carried enough weight, or he would never have gotten the Nine Suns Cauldron back.

"Please give my regards to your master."

Long Yan flashed Pang Jian a bright smile, soared into the sky, and transformed into his true form in mid-air.

He turned into a massive dragon, over a thousand zhang long and covered in crimson crystal scales.

When Long Yan reverted to his dragon form, the searing heat of his dragon aura bathed the area where their group stood.

Many of the surrounding plants and trees burst into flames.

Long Yan let out a resounding roar before flying back over.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

His crimson dragon scales flared open, unleashing torrents of flames onto Spirit Offering.

Rumble! Boom!

The ground rumbled with violent explosions.

The crimson flames reduced the remaining altars, statues, wooden carvings, and heretical cultivators to ashes.

"A Rank Eight Flame Dragon like Long Yan relies not on spirit artifacts but on his own strength," Zhao Yuanqi said bitterly. Crimson clouds still lined the sky after Long Yan disappeared. "If only he had come earlier and joined forces with the girl from the Li Family, perhaps—"

Sensing her words were slightly inappropriate, she hastily changed the subject.

"Pang Jian, the dragons from the Dragon Lair Sect all have bad tempers—you'll get used to it. This time, we were only treated politely because of your identity as the Pavilion Master's personal disciple.

"The Red Mountain Sect doesn't have that kind of influence. Don't hold this against the Dragon Lair Sect. Long Yan simply didn't know your true identity."

She sensed that Pang Jian harbored deep animosity toward the Dragon Lair Sect and was particularly displeased with Long Yan.

Pang Jian suppressed his inner hostility.

"I won't."

Even without Long Yan, he already viewed the Dragon Lair Sect in the Sacred Soul Continent as his greatest threat.

After all, the ancient Thunder Dragon obstructing the Dao of Lightning rested deep within the Dragon Lair Sect.

Long Yan's forceful seizing of the Nine Suns Cauldron, including the overriding of Pang Jian's spiritual power and the light injury he incurred in the process, was a debt Pang Jian would remember.

He would settle that score in the future.