Long Chen was so happy that words alone could not describe how he felt.
After spending some time with Mo Xiaolang, he could guess what his intentions were by looking at his gestures. Even though it was difficult, Long Chen was happy that he could at least communicate with Mo Xiaolang.
After turning into the Sun Devouring Wolf, Mo Xiaolang had lost everything he had worked for as a human as well as his human identity and language. To the others, he was as good as dead. But he had obtained the body of the Sun Devouring Wolf, a beast with monstrous talent; he had even devoured one of the ancestral fires, the Nine Devils Ancestral Fire. It was up to him to decide which form was better.
While walking through the long corridor, Long Chen managed to get a grasp on Mo Xiaolang’s current strength. The Sun Devouring Wolf was a Category Three Earth-tier or so, but after Mo Xiaolang refined the Beast Soul, an accident occurred. Due to the injury, some of the Qi of the Sun Devouring Wolf was lost. Mo Xiaolang was roughly at Category Two Earth-tier, equal to a cultivator at the Second River Stage. If Long Chen were to fight Mo Xiaolang right now, he would be instantly obliterated even without Mo Xiaolang using the deadly Nine Devils Ancestral Fire.
The ability of the Sun Devouring Wolf allowed Mo Xiaolang to control the Nine Devils Ancestral Fire as he wished. Long Chen knew that Mo Xiaolang’s future opponents would meet a terrible demise.
Unfortunately, Mo Xiaolang still had a lot of growing to do. While he could control the Nine Devils Ancestral Fire, he didn’t have full mastery of it. Most of the fire was contained within his body and limbs. Though as he got stronger, he would be able to control more. The amount of fire he could control now was just a small part of it. Even then, the diluted fire was extremely deadly.
Mo Xiaolang’s condition was not as hopeless as they had thought. At least he had fun controlling the Sun Devouring Wolf’s body. But Long Chen was still sensitive enough to notice that Mo Xiaolang had a hint of pain and confusion in his eyes. Long Chen didn’t know how much pain he was feeling in his heart without personally experiencing turning into a beast himself.
“Xiaolang, let’s go. Let’s see how many items Yan Danqing has obtained. Hahaha …”
Disregarding Mo Xiaolang’s condition, Long Chen was the biggest winner. Unfortunately, he could not show everyone what he had obtained. To the others, Long Chen had lost a sworn brother and Yan Danqing had taken the time to snatch the mysterious steel plate, becoming the most promising individual amongst all of them.
Since he had recovered, Mo Xiaolang didn’t want Long Chen to carry him any further. Mo Xiaolang jumped down with his lithe body and matched Long Chen’s pace. He wasn’t used to using four limbs yet, so it took him a lot of energy to do so. Long Chen laughed at how uncoordinated Mo Xiaolang was.
Mo Xiaolang rolled his eyes and continued wobbling around.
Long Chen chuckled when he saw Mo Xiaolang ignore him. They eventually exited the corridor and found themselves in the sea of fire once again. Mo Xiaolang frowned and opened his mouth. The fire shuddered before flowing into his mouth like water. In just a few breaths, all the fire within hundreds of meters was almost completely swallowed by him.
“Mo Xiaolang, save some fire to block this entrance,” Long Chen told him cautiously.
Xiaolang stopped devouring the flames and left some fire near the entrance. He knew that Long Chen didn’t want others to know that they had obtained a bunch of treasures.
Mo Xiaolang burped after consuming all that fire, but his cultivation barely progressed. Long Chen was initially curious as to why the Sun Devouring Wolf had not eaten the flames here. It seemed that despite it looking like a large concentration of particularly hot fire, it was an insignificant amount for the wolf …
It seems that it might not be as easy as I thought to increase the strength of the Sun Devouring Wolf. The quality of the flames must be quite high to have a significant effect on his cultivation.
Everyone was shocked to see the sea of flames beside them reducing drastically.
Near the center of the plaza were three groups of people. Two of the groups appeared to be sad and lost. They were the six people from the Lingwu family and the five people from the Dawn Trading Alliance. The youths from the Lingwu family seemed to be in the worst condition, while the people from the Beast Soul Palace were laughing arrogantly. They surrounded Yan Danqing and were showering him with praise.
“From now onwards, Yuanling City’s most powerful faction will be the Beast Soul Palace and not the Lingwu family! Prince Yuan, it’s all thanks to your courage and wisdom that we’ve obtained the inheritance of the Burning Heaven Emperor!”
All of them praised non-stop, much to the dismay of the youths from the Lingwu family.
Just then, Dongfang Tianxuan and Ximen Xiaodie huddled together. They were the strongest ones in their team, at the mid Heavenly Core Realm. Ximen Xiaodie was especially strong with the White Tiger Blade, putting her on par with someone at the late Heavenly Core Realm.
“Tianxuan, they are too arrogant! I can’t stand it anymore!” Ximen Xiaodie was almost crying.
“Endure it. There are a few more days before the gates of the ancient ruins open again. Now that Yan Danqing has obtained the inheritance, they have every right to be arrogant, while we can only be shamed as losers …” Dongfang Tianxuan answered weakly.
“Why? Isn’t the Lingwu family the strongest? Why did we lose to them?” Ximen Xiaodie could not let it go.
“That’s just how fate is. Just like how Long Chen was weaker than us previously but is stronger than us now. If we stop improving, we will be surpassed by others. The Lingwu family might’ve been too complacent all this time.”
“Don’t talk to me about Long Chen and Mo Xiaolang again. They promised that they would get the inheritance, but they lost to Yan Danqing. They even went missing! To think that the Patriarchs would trust those two worthless idiots! Look at our situation now! We lost! We lost everything!” Ximen Xiaodie no longer had the face to return to the Lingwu family.
Dongfang Tianxuan was taken aback when she mentioned Long Chen. “I heard that Mo Xiaolang was killed by an Earth-tier wolf-type demonic beast and Yan Danqing managed to use that opportunity to slip past. Also, it seems Long Chen defeated Li Ziling. They are indeed strong, but they aren’t ruthless like Yan Danqing, so they ended up losing. Now Long Chen is missing and we don’t even know if he’s alive …”
In Dongfang Tianxuan’s eyes, Long Chen was a monstrous genius that would never lose. To think he had lost to Yan Danqing.
“I thought he would continue to show us miracles …” Dongfang Tianxuan sighed.
Just then, the sea of flames beside them grew smaller. All of them were alerted to the change and quickly got into battle positions.
“Who’s there?” Yan Danqing pushed away his underlings and looked at the shrinking sea of fire.
In front of everyone’s eyes, a man and a beast walked out of the flames. When they saw that it was Long Chen and the Sun Devouring Wolf, all of them took a few steps back, their faces pale from the shock.
They were only slightly shocked at Long Chen’s appearance, but why was the Sun Devouring Wolf by his side?
Everyone knew the strength of the Sun Devouring Wolf, so all of them were afraid when they saw it. Even the strongest person present, Yan Danqing, took a few steps back, his fighting spirit soaring.
Looking at his fearful stance, Long Chen chuckled secretly. “Xiaolang, step away. Don’t let them know that I’m with you.”
Xiaolang understood his intention. Long Chen would never let Yan Danqing take the inheritance just like that. Mo Xiaolang stopped and fell to the ground near the tomb, then he closed his eyes to sleep. He needed some time to digest some of the Nine Devils Ancient Fire that he had just obtained.
Everyone knew that the Sun Devouring Wolf had been injured by the Lingwu family. They now assumed that the wolf could not continue to fight and had transformed into its miniature version. Everyone sighed in relief, thinking that the Sun Devouring Wolf had been weakened.
It was rare for a demonic beast to be able to change its body size, but it was not impossible. Therefore, none of them were surprised to see that the Sun Devouring Wolf had become smaller.
Everyone finally looked to Long Chen after seeing that the Sun Devouring Wolf was no longer a threat to them. They were curious as to why Long Chen was fine even after spending so much time with the Sun Devouring Wolf.
They felt like Long Chen was shrouded in mystery.
As far as Yan Danqing knew, Mo Xiaolang was dead and Long Chen had defeated Li Ziling, so Long Chen was the strongest fighter here. Yan Danqing was naturally hostile to the person that could threaten him.
Long Chen walked over to the Lingwu family group. Dongfang Tianxuan and everyone else looked at him with unfriendly gazes because he had not obtained the inheritance.
“You boasted so much in the past, but you are nothing but a loser,” Ximen Xiaodie grumbled, but no one else dared to say anything. All of them still remembered how he had killed Dongfang Tianchen.
“Who said I’m a loser?” Long Chen chuckled. “The real fight hasn’t even begun.”
He then brandished the Azure Dragon Halberd and pointed at Yan Danqing. “Do you have the guts to fight me? So we can finally have the closure we need here in the ancient ruins?”
Yuanling City’s strongest youth smiled plainly at Long Chen’s taunt.
“You arrogant brat.”