The Heaven-Earth Furnace and the Oasis of Peril

No one could say how many ancient tribes were scattered across the endless wilderness and forests—countless beyond measure. This was a mysterious land teeming with unknown secrets and legends from the most distant ages. The Ancestral Gods Suiren, Youchao, Fuxi—all had left their ephemeral shadows upon this earth. These tens of thousands of square miles in the northwest were not only the sacred soil of the Forest Tribe and the Savage Tribe, but also a land that many cultivators from the Central Plains yearned to explore. Year after year, adventuring parties ventured into this ancient, perilous realm steeped in legend, though most who entered were never seen again.

The Forest and Savage tribes bore no great enmity toward outsiders, but neither did they hold any goodwill. Many ancient lineages had been passed down for so long that their true mysteries were forbidden to strangers. In truth, most explorers barely circled the periphery and were already astounded by the wonders of this land.

The Sacred Mountain of the Savage Tribe, which Xiao Chen and Niu Ren were heading toward, was without question one of the most fearsome and mysterious sites within these thousands of miles.

Two days had passed since they set out. The Sacred Mountain lay nearly two thousand li from the Pure Land. For an ordinary man, that journey would be immense, but for Xiao Chen, who commanded the Undying Wings, and Niu Ren, who rode the Black Dragon King, it was nothing.

If they had not stopped to visit a number of ancient tribes along the way, and spent over half a day with the elders who had returned from Dragon Island, they would surely have reached the Sacred Mountain already.

The Black Dragon King still remembered Xiao Chen clearly. Though proud by nature, it allowed him to stand upon its back. Carrying both him and the plump young man, it sprang forward like a streak of black light, skimming the treetops at astonishing speed.

It was a breathtaking sight. Even many of the strongest human cultivators would be hard-pressed to match such power—leaping from leaf to blossom, soaring through the air.

The Black Dragon King of the chubby Niu Ren and the Purple Dragon King of Lan Nuo were the first two Dragon Kings born on Dragon Island, and naturally the most powerful. They had accumulated a deep foundation of Ancestral Dragon essence. Even if they ultimately failed to contend for the Ancestral Dragon's throne, they might survive like the two ancient Savage Dragon Kings that had escaped the Dragon Island seal in primordial times.

Within this vast territory, desolate plains and primal forests stretched beyond counting.

At this moment, Xiao Chen and his companions were crossing a plain the color of fresh blood. It stretched as far as the eye could see, utterly barren—not even a blade of grass grew there. Legend held that a terrible god-war had taken place here, and that divine blood had soaked the earth, imbuing it with endless baleful energy that would never fade. No vegetation could ever grow again.

"Whether that legend is true or not, I don't know," the chubby Niu Ren explained, "but Xiao Hei and I ran into a Blood Corpse here once. If Xiao Hei hadn't been fast enough, we brothers would never have met again."

"Is it really that terrifying?" Xiao Chen asked, a little surprised. "Should we be careful passing through now?"

"Don't worry, it's safe during the day. The Savage Tribe's high priest once told me never to barge in here at night. I didn't listen, and sure enough, we met a Blood Corpse at midnight. I saw the bleeding ground split open, and there were so many corpses inside—you wouldn't believe how horrifying it was! They were all dressed like ancient people: ancestors with wings, antiques with horns. My hair stood on end. It was like hell itself had opened up! Even though we fled fast enough, we were almost caught by a blood light. One of my divine wolf souls was ripped out of my body by some demonic force—it shattered apart just so the rest of us could barely escape this Crimson Blood Plain."

As they spoke, they had already crossed a hundred li of that bloody wasteland. Ahead, blue mist coiled, blurring the outlines of faint mountain shadows.

Xiao Chen could not help but frown. The ancient tribes of the Savage and Forest clans truly were lands shrouded in mystery. They had already seen countless unknown and bizarre sights along the way, each hiding unfathomable dangers.

Niu Ren shrank his neck. "We'll have to go around. This is Blue Mist Mountain. They say it's cursed, day or night. Legend has it that many ancestors with blue blood died here long ago. The killing aura is too heavy—it's been restless since ancient times. The old folks say it's a horribly fierce place."

Thus, on the third day, Xiao Chen and Niu Ren finally drew near the Savage Sacred Mountain. Though still a hundred li away, they could already sense its abnormality.

Yet the scene before them was utterly unlike what Xiao Chen had imagined. He had thought that since the Sacred Mountain was, in the distant past, a Heaven-Earth Furnace refined by the Ancestral God—capable of smelting all things under heaven—even if the furnace fires had long gone cold, there might still be billowing black smoke rising to the sky. Moreover, it had become a dwelling place for the world's most powerful saintly souls. He expected demonic vapor churning, eerie mists shrieking—at the very least, wisps of black fog coiling around it.

But what he saw was completely different. Thousands of rainbow rays and auspicious lights cascaded—dazzling streams of brilliance shot through the air like meteors trailing long tails of beauty across the night sky. And faintly, like the sound of celestial music, a gentle chime drifted on the wind, as if a lovelorn maiden were playing her heart out from afar.

"Don't be fooled by what you see," the chubby Niu Ren warned.

Xiao Chen nodded his understanding. The boy had been here before and knew it well. Though Niu Ren looked simple, he was unmistakably shrewd—otherwise, how could the old men of the Pure Land have taken such a liking to him?

The Black Dragon King grew noticeably more cautious as they entered this region. No longer sprinting at full speed, it slowed its pace.

When they were still fifty li away, the legendary Heaven-Earth Furnace could be dimly made out. After advancing another dozen li, it came into clear view.

Xiao Chen was profoundly shaken. Was this truly a mountain? It was boundless, vast as a continent piled up to the heavens. The majestic Sacred Mountain filled all the space ahead. If one had to describe it, the body of the mountain was "boundlessly broad," and its height had long since pierced the clouds.

Before it, one felt utterly insignificant—like an ant gazing at the firmament. An individual life, faced with such an oppressive primeval giant of stone, seemed far too small.

"Such a strange feeling," Xiao Chen mused. "It's clearly a giant mountain, but I feel it's even larger than heaven and earth."

The Black Dragon King stopped warily. Niu Ren jumped down from its back, looked up at the endless mountain, and said, "I heard from Old Man Turtle in the Pure Land that this is a Heaven-Earth Furnace. Not only can it smelt all things, it can even smelt the whole of heaven and earth."

"Such legends exist?" Xiao Chen felt a twinge of awe. He didn't dismiss them entirely—there might be some truth hidden within.

They were now less than twenty li from the Sacred Mountain. They could see everything clearly: streams of rainbow light spiraling outward, painting the foreground in brilliant hues, the air thick with luminous mist.

Of course, by concentrating their spiritual senses and staring intently, they could still make out the mountain's true form.

Towering and majestic, its sheer scale was overwhelming. Many parts were bare, utterly stripped of life. On the gray-brown rock faces, great patches were mottled with blood-like stains. From afar, those crimson zones looked like splatters of dried blood, wreathed in wisps of shadowy mist. Other areas blazed with golden light, as if molten copper were boiling, sending up waves of searing radiance. Still others were pitch black, like bottomless pits that absorbed all external light—these regions had no rainbow clouds around them, only endless shadow.

Of course, the cloud-piercing giant was not entirely without color. If one looked closely, a few green belts stood like oases of life, isolated on the vast, barren slopes.

"Fatty, you should wait for me here," Xiao Chen said, unwilling to let Niu Ren take the risk.

"What kind of talk is that? Now that I'm here, how could I not go up? Don't worry about me—I'm not weaker than you. With Xiao Hei too, we can handle ourselves."

Niu Ren's strength had indeed advanced by leaps and bounds. On Dragon Island, he might have been a bit behind Xiao Chen, but after escaping, his fortunes had turned extraordinarily deep. A high priest of a major tribe had taken a liking to him and bestowed two powerful beast souls upon him. Added to his own original beast soul and the Divine Wolf and Tyrant Tiger souls he had taken from the Savage youth Kailuo on Dragon Island, he now possessed a total of five beast souls. Unfortunately, he had ignored warnings and nearly died on the Crimson Blood Plain. Though he escaped, the Divine Wolf soul perished in his stead. Half a year ago, he was on the verge of breaking into the Spirit-Treasury realm but could not find the way. He came to the Sacred Mountain and reaped great rewards, obtaining an ancient beast soul. Fusing five souls into one, he finally broke into the Spirit-Treasury realm. All in all, the chubby Niu Ren was now no weaker than Xiao Chen.

After learning Niu Ren's cultivation history, Xiao Chen sighed. No one was heaven's only favored child. In these desolate mountains lived a Spirit-Treasury realm cultivator like him, yet he was unknown outside. Within the tens of thousands of miles of Forest and Savage territory, who knew how many other monsters like Niu Ren lurked?

"You came here months ago and got what you needed. There's no need to accompany me into danger. I understand your intentions, and I'm grateful."

Niu Ren shook his head. "Even without you, I would have come back to the Sacred Mountain myself. The Savage cultivation method is different from yours—I have to find a destined beast soul with limitless potential if I want to reach the highest level. I've fused five souls into one, but only the ancient beast soul I got from the Sacred Mountain is really worth anything. It's still not a top-tier potential soul. It works well with me now, but it might hold me back in the future. So I want to come here and find a true destined beast soul that belongs to me."

Xiao Chen did not waste words trying to dissuade him. That was the way of men—a single sentence was enough.

They reached the foot of the mountain. Here, the feeling was one of oppression and trembling. From afar, the rainbow clouds seemed beautiful, but up close, the view was entirely different. The rainbow clouds were all high above, orbiting at a distance. Near the Sacred Mountain, there was only boundless desolation and ruin, not a trace of beauty.

Niu Ren said, "The high priests of some major tribes say that back then, the Ancestral God Suiren failed to fully refine the Heaven-Earth Furnace and abandoned it here. If he had succeeded, this world might have undergone earth-shattering changes. After all, legend says the Ancestral God's furnace could smelt the whole universe. Afterward, for unknown reasons, many powerful saint souls—if they did not die out—would fly into this place like moths to a flame. Even now, no one can explain why."

Shadowy mist drifted. At the desolate foot of the Sacred Mountain, strands of black vapor rose from the gray-brown earth. Xiao Chen and his companions had to release protective true qi to shield themselves.

They climbed about three hundred meters up the giant mountain. It didn't feel like scaling a peak so much as walking a gentle slope on open ground, simply because the Sacred Mountain was so vast, so broad, so immense.

Soon, they reached a height of a thousand meters. Here, they entered a truly dangerous zone. Patches of blood-red mist began to drift by, casting great shadows and reeking of fresh gore.

"Ahead is very dangerous. Last time, I stopped here."

In this Heaven-Earth Furnace, fierce battles sometimes erupted. The defeated powerful souls would flee in all directions. Last time, the young man had hidden here and used the method taught by the high priest to capture a powerful beast soul that had lost its way.

"Quiet!"

Xiao Chen heard a strange rumbling sound. He quickly signaled Niu Ren, and the Black Dragon King was already on full alert.

At first, the sound was faint, then it grew louder and louder, like the thunder of galloping horses. Finally, it became as deafening as an avalanche or a tsunami—a mighty roar like a breached dam sweeping mud and stone down the giant mountain.

"Curses! Run!" the chubby man shouted, grabbing Xiao Chen and leaping onto the Black Dragon's back, turning to flee.

From the mountain above, a black tide cascaded down, covering the sky and blotting out the sun. Endless baleful energy surged, demonic flames billowed as if a world-destroying demon were stirring up a monstrous storm.

"Damnation! This has to be an ultimate saint-soul battle!" Niu Ren's voice was almost tearful. "Not just us—even the old masters of the Pure Land might not be able to withstand this!" He wailed, "Why are we so unlucky!"

The boundless black tide engulfed half the sky, sweeping away all obstacles. Vaguely, one could see several enormous, hideous silhouettes roaring and battling within.

What terrifying power that was! Even this region of the Sacred Mountain shook violently. And this was the Heaven-Earth Furnace refined by the Ancestral God Suiren—ordinary force could hardly budge it in the slightest.

"Fast! Turn!" Xiao Chen shouted. If they fled straight down the mountain, they could never outrun that mighty tide like a flood engulfing everything from above.

The Black Dragon King moved like a bolt of lightning, leaving a long streak of black light as it veered to the right. The speed of a dragon was the ultimate speed in the world. Though the Black Dragon King was still young, that speed was not to be underestimated.

By a hair's breadth, the endless black tide roared past just beside them. Several enormous spectral silhouettes, like giants, fought on within the black energy waves.

"Heavens!" Niu Ren cried out in shock. "I saw a Tyrant Dragon in there! A dragon soul—unbelievable! And several other equally powerful saint souls! If... if I could refine a king soul like that as my own... aah, my future would be limitless!"

The Black Dragon King's eyes were fixed unblinkingly on the boundless black energy tide that had just surged past. Clearly, it too had seen the Tyrant Dragon soul.

"With your current strength, you can't handle a freakish king soul like that. Just finding a potential beast king soul will be enough. Cultivation ultimately depends on yourself."

"I know that. I'm just lamenting my luck." As he spoke, Niu Ren's face changed sharply. "Not good! They're coming back!"

The path down was cut off. The unimaginable saint souls, stirring up endless black energy waves, were rolling toward their direction.

Xiao Chen wanted to take the chubby man and fly up, but found it impossible. The streams of rainbow light spinning down from the summit, though separated from the mountain by some distance, truly sealed the space. They could not break into the sky.

"No choice. Let's charge up the mountain for a while!"

"Good! Xiao Hei, faster!"

Rushing up the Sacred Mountain was undoubtedly dangerous—the higher they went, the more powerful saint souls would appear.

Suddenly, Xiao Chen spotted a patch of green ahead. "There's an oasis of life up ahead! Let's hide there!"

This life-oasis on the desolate ancient mountain was certainly no haven of safety—the fact that it hadn't been destroyed by the black tide already proved it was extraordinary.

But with the situation dire, Xiao Chen and his friends had no other choice. They could only take shelter from the danger first and worry about everything else later.

This was an eerily quiet forest. Ancient trees towered to the heavens; each one would take over twenty men to encircle. It was impossible to know how many years they had grown.

It was terrifyingly silent. Though the black waves thundered behind them, here one could hear the drop of a needle. The solitude was oppressive.

Once Xiao Chen and his party rushed inside, they found that the endless black energy tide seemed to detour around the oasis, not daring to encroach.

"This place is cursed! Those top-tier big souls didn't dare enter. We'd better leave quickly," Niu Ren said, his face pale. In this place of utter stillness, he felt as if he could hear his very soul trembling.

"Right. Let's go now!" Xiao Chen also had a bad premonition.

But at that moment, for some unknown reason, the Black Dragon King's entire body burst with black light, its reversed scales spread open, and twin beams of fierce light shot from its eyes. It plunged headlong into the depths of the ancient forest.