Fire Spirit Giant

Shi Yu traveled in one direction across the crimson expanse, hoping to walk out of the range of the storm's aftermath and sense the location of the spiritual fire as soon as possible.

Inside the secret realm, there were no sunrises, sunsets, or distinctions between day and night, making it difficult to judge the passage of time. Fortunately, her perception of time remained largely unaffected; by counting the cycles of inner Qi circulation within her body, she could roughly estimate how much time had passed.

“It must have been about five days by now,” she sighed softly.

Although Shi Yu had claimed first place in the exchange conference's tournament, granting her the maximum amount of time inside the secret realm, that only amounted to a single month in total.

Now that five days had slipped by without her even catching a glimpse of the spiritual fire's location, observing and comprehending Intent seemed like a distant dream.

Shaking her head, she noticed her spiritual Qi had drained by half. She swallowed two Qi-Restoring Pills and held a medium-grade spirit stone, beginning to cultivate and restore her strength.

In the Yanyang Spiritual Realm, fire spiritual Qi was more than four or five times denser than in the outside world. However, the spiritual Qi was riddled with volatile, active fire poison. Having to carefully refine and filter out this fire poison while absorbing it made her cultivation efficiency even lower than outside.

Shi Yu did not know where she was and feared running into Pei Yanji again. Whenever her spiritual Qi dropped by half, she immediately paused to recover. To avoid wasting time filtering out fire poison, she relied entirely on pills and spirit stones to restore her spiritual Qi.

Fortunately, she had ample reserves stored inside her Fate-Tapping Bell, so she did not have to worry about running out anytime soon.

...

When her spiritual Qi had recovered to seventy or eighty percent, Shi Yu suddenly felt a faint vibration beneath her feet.

She quickly snapped out of her meditative state and looked down. On the blood-red earth, countless tiny dust particles were shaken into the air, scattering like wisps of smoke.

She couldn't help but frown, thinking to herself, An earthquake?

Rising to her feet on guard, Shi Yu scanned her surroundings, fearing that another disaster like the flame storm was bearing down on her.

The vibration beneath her feet gradually intensified from a subtle tremor to a heavy quake. Fine cracks spread across the ground as an extraordinarily powerful aura approached from the distance.

Shi Yu's face paled slightly as a wave of unease rose in her heart. This aura did not seem to be spiritual Qi, but rather a more ancient, primordial force.

Then, she saw a colossal figure appear on the horizon, walking forward with slow steps.

The figure was composed of massive, fire-engulfed boulders. Tall as a mountain, it connected the heavens and the earth, radiating an ancient and boundless aura.

With every step the Fire Spirit Giant took, the earth trembled and the mountains shook. A single stride covered several miles. The flames blazing across its body illuminated half the sky, and its eyes hung high like two crimson suns.

Looking at its stature, Shi Yu was filled with utter shock. She had never seen such a terrifying entity in this world—it seemed less like a living creature and more like the incarnation of an ancient law.

It's heading... in my direction... Shi Yu gazed up at the approaching Fire Spirit Giant. She knew that against a creature of such titanic proportions that crossed miles in a single stride, running away at her speed was entirely out of the question.

She could only hope that the Fire Spirit Giant had no intention of harming her.

Afraid of drawing its attention, Shi Yu did not dare move even an inch, standing frozen in place.

Fortunately, it seemed to have no interest in her whatsoever, regarding her as nothing more than an insect before striding right past.

Seeing its massive body cast a vast shadow as it stepped over her and continued forward, Shi Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

However, before she could fully relax, she heard the Fire Spirit Giant utter a deep, ancient voice.

“Hmm?”

That single sound, imbued with a hint of curiosity, echoed across heaven and earth, sending chills down Shi Yu's spine and making her hair stand on end. Without time to think or look back to check if she was the source of its interest, she turned and fled immediately.

Before she could take more than two steps, Shi Yu found herself trapped by an invisible force field, unable to move a muscle.

Her heart sank as she thought, Am I going to die here today?

Immediately after, another violent tremor shook the earth, creating cracks as wide as bowl rims in the ground around her. The giant had turned back, taken a step forward, and squatted right in front of Shi Yu.

Its body loomed before her like a massive mountain. Even straining her neck to look up, Shi Yu could barely make out its face.

Realizing the vast gap in strength between them, Shi Yu's mind gradually calmed down instead. She was no different from an ant before it. If it truly wanted her dead, it could crush her like a bug; there was no need to go through any trouble.

The Fire Spirit Giant lowered its mountain-sized face, its dancing flame eyes looking down at Shi Yu. “Little fellow.”

Its voice boomed with majestic thunder, echoing with overwhelming power. The vibration shattered Shi Yu's eardrums, causing blood to seep from her nose and mouth as she collapsed to the ground.

Just as she tried to push herself back up, her legs buckled, causing her to fall again. Pressing a hand to her forehead, Shi Yu felt her head spinning wildly while her blood churned uncontrollably within her.

It took her a long moment to recover. Shi Yu pressed her palms against the ground to push herself up, wrapping her ears in spiritual Qi before looking up at it again.

At the same time, the Void Fissure Spiritual Flame within her body began to churn uncontrollably, threatening to burst out of her. Startled, Shi Yu hurriedly suppressed it, locking into a metaphorical tug-of-war to prevent the Void Fissure Spiritual Flame from leaving her body. The flame itself conveyed a sense of resistance, clinging stubbornly to her interior and refusing to exit.

However, it was clearly under the sway of the Fire Spirit Giant's will. How could Shi Yu possibly win a tug-of-war against such an entity? In a split second, the Void Fissure Spiritual Flame was reduced to a tiny flicker of fire, pulled right into the Fire Spirit Giant's palm.

The Fire Spirit Giant examined the Void Fissure Spiritual Flame in its palm, which looked like a tiny speck of dust relative to its size.

Only then did Shi Yu realize that when it had called out “little fellow,” it hadn't been talking to her, but to the Void Fissure Spiritual Flame inside her body.

She clenched her fists and stared intently up at the Fire Spirit Giant, a bad premonition rising within her.

“You were imprisoned by a human,” the Fire Spirit Giant said to the tiny flame, its voice resounding like a bronze bell as it slowly straightened up. “I will take you away.”

As it stood up, the ground quaked once again.

Completely ignoring Shi Yu, the Fire Spirit Giant closed its palm, turned around, and began to leave.

Shi Yu was horrified to discover that as the Fire Spirit Giant closed its hand, her connection with the Void Fissure Spiritual Flame was gradually being severed.

The invisible force field was still pinning her down. Struggling to her feet, Shi Yu shouted, “Let it go! Give it back to me!”

The Void Fissure Spiritual Flame thrashing violently in its grasp as well. While the Fire Spirit Giant paid no mind to Shi Yu's cries, it was quite attentive to the feelings of the tiny flame in its palm.

Seeing the flame's protest, the Fire Spirit Giant seemed slightly puzzled. “You chose her voluntarily? Little fellow, you have been bewitched by a human.”

“You are a darling of heaven and earth. Why yield to a human?”

Shaking its head slowly, it disregarded the wishes of both human and flame, striding forward once more.

Grit her teeth, Shi Yu forced her spiritual Qi to boil throughout her body, finally breaking free from the force field. However, the severe backlash caused her to spit out a mouthful of blood.

Without stopping to wipe the blood, Shi Yu slapped two Speed-Enhancing Talismans onto herself and sprinted after it with all her strength. “Give it back!”

The Fire Spirit Giant paid her no heed, completely indifferent.

Infuriated by its absolute disregard, Shi Yu ignored her injuries and charged at full speed.

As the Void Fissure Spiritual Flame was pulled away, the first of the nine chains sealing her bloodline—the one that had been slightly loosening—began to re-tighten. Deep within her bloodline, an unwilling spark of fire suddenly blazed to life.

At that moment, the Fire Spirit Giant finally halted its steps.

It turned back to look at Shi Yu, as if sensing something unbelievable, and murmured in an extremely faint, muffled voice, “...Pure Fire?”

Gasping for breath as she caught up, Shi Yu narrowed her eyes. Light gathered, and the Yinhuang Bow materialized out of thin air.

Grasping the bow with one hand, she drew the string without hesitation. Golden light erupted from the bow, forming an arrow pointed directly between the Fire Spirit Giant's eyebrows. “Give it back to me!”

“Hmph, the strength of a mayfly...” the Fire Spirit Giant boomed, though it showed no sign of anger.

Facing such a colossal entity, Shi Yu was understandably terrified, but under no circumstances was she willing to abandon the Void Fissure Spiritual Flame that had accompanied her for so long.

To her, the flame was no less important than her arms or legs—it was a part of her body.

The Fire Spirit Giant stared at Shi Yu with its two sun-like eyes. After a long moment, it spoke, “I see...”

Under Shi Yu's watchful gaze, it slowly extended its hand and opened its palm.

With a swish, the Void Fissure Spiritual Flame eagerly shot back into Shi Yu's body. An overwhelming sense of attachment and lingering dread washed over from the flame, like a frightened child returning home.

Sensing its emotions, Shi Yu felt a pang of heartache and quickly wrapped it in spiritual Qi, gently soothing it.

Before her relief could fully settle, the yellow sprout in Shi Yu's dantian suddenly trembled. An extraordinarily pure surge of fire spiritual Qi spread from the Void Fissure Spiritual Flame throughout her entire body.

Her cultivation, which had been stuck at the eighth layer of the Qi Refining Realm, suddenly surged straight into the ninth layer of the Qi Refining Realm!

Only then did she realize that when the Void Fissure Spiritual Flame left the Fire Spirit Giant's hand, it had actually pinched a wisp of pure fire spiritual Qi from the giant's palm.

Feeling a bit guilty, Shi Yu glanced at the Fire Spirit Giant and said with slight embarrassment, “Senior...”

“Slick little fellow,” the Fire Spirit Giant remarked, shaking its head. It had no intention of holding a grudge over a wisp of spiritual Qi that meant nothing to it; instead, it found the gesture rather amusing.

Disinclined to speak further, the Fire Spirit Giant glanced at Shi Yu once more, turned around, and walked away, causing another wave of earth-shaking quakes.

Shi Yu watched its departing back until, long after, the tremors of heaven and earth finally subsided completely.