33: Chapter 33 Lava Bath

*Plop.*

Without the slightest hesitation, Ye Feng jumped straight in.

He didn't even bother to activate the 'Fire-Warding Formation' at the edge of the pool.

The moment he entered the pool, the surface of his skin made a tooth-aching 'sizzle' sound, like a piece of raw meat being thrown into a red-hot iron pan.

Intense pain hit him like a tide; his skin instantly blackened and carbonized, emitting a faint smell of burnt flesh.

It really hurts.

Ye Feng's brow furrowed slightly, but he didn't even let out a grunt.

Compared to the time his bones were crushed and he was thrown into a mass grave, this level of pain was nothing.

*Buzz—*

The Chaos Devouring Sword Body within him was completely provoked by this destructive power and instantly began running at full capacity.

The violent fire poison that was originally destroying his body seemed to be seized by the throat by an invisible hand. It was forcibly dragged into his Meridians, crushed, purified, and transformed into the purest sword essence, which then frantically poured into the broken sword suspended before his chest.

This was no bath; it was clearly a plunder.

Ye Feng was like an insatiable black hole.

The boiling, churning magma pool actually grew eerily quiet at this moment. All the heat, fire poison, and even the trace amounts of metallic essence contained within the magma transformed into a visible crimson vortex, surging madly into his body.

Comfortable.

Ye Feng even felt like stretching.

Just then.

*Boom!*

The obsidian wall on the right, which was supposed to be indestructible, exploded without warning.

Amidst flying gravel, a strong burnt smell mixed with the stench of failed pills rushed toward him.

As the dust cleared, a young man wearing a purple-gold python robe stood disheveled at the opening of the hole.

His meticulously groomed hair bun had been blown into a mess, his face was covered in black ash, and he still held a fragment of an exploded Pill Furnace in his hand.

Looking at the pool of magma, which had turned somewhat dim because its heat had been sucked dry, the man's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"You bastard!"

The young man slammed the furnace fragment onto the ground and pointed at Ye Feng in the center of the magma, fuming with rage: "I was at a critical moment refining the 'Nine-Revolution Heart-Clearing Pill' next door, and you actually sucked the earth-vein fire energy dry? Do you have any idea how much this furnace of Medicinal Pills is worth? You couldn't pay for it even if you sold your worthless life!"

Ye Feng slowly opened his eyes.

In that instant, his pupils were no longer black, but a pale white, like dead ash.

That was a sign of overflowing Sword Intent.

He glanced at the jade pendant at the young man's waist—it was engraved with a complex 'Xia' character.

Someone from the Imperial Family?

"This is an unclaimed fire pool, and the fire energy is also an unclaimed resource," Ye Feng's voice was somewhat raspy, as if his throat contained grit. "If you blew up your furnace because your own skills were lacking, who can you blame?"

"You dare talk back?"

The young man was clearly accustomed to being arrogant and had never suffered such an affront.

He gave a sinister laugh and flicked his wrist. A crimson long whip shot out like a spirit snake leaving its burrow, heading straight for Ye Feng's face with a piercing whistle.

That was a second-grade High Grade Spiritual Artifact, the Red Snake Whip.

It was covered in barbs; if it landed a solid hit, it wouldn't just tear flesh—it could rip off a skull.

"Seeking death."

Sitting in the magma, Ye Feng didn't even move his backside.

At the very moment the tip of the whip was about to touch his nose, he suddenly reached out his right hand.

That hand was now covered in a black crust from the cooled magma, looking like a devil's claw as it steadily caught the tip of the whip.

"You..."

The young man pulled hard, but it didn't budge an inch.

In the next second, he discovered with horror that a gray, decaying aura—a hundred times more terrifying than the earth-vein fire poison—was surging back up along the whip.

That was the fire poison Impurities that Ye Feng had just devoured and hadn't had time to fully digest.

"Since you want fire so badly, I'll give it all to you."

A cruel curve curled at the corner of Ye Feng's mouth, and the hand holding the whip gave a sudden jolt.

*Whoosh!*

The violent fire poison backlashed through the Spiritual Artifact, instantly igniting the young man's protective spiritual light.

That priceless purple-gold dharma robe was like paper, instantly turning into flying ash.

"Ah! My hands! My hands!"

The young man screamed as he let go of the whip and stumbled back. Both his arms were burned to the point of splitting open, and his once-arrogant face was now distorted like a vengeful ghost.

At the same time, the broken sword suspended before Ye Feng's chest let out a clear sword chime.

The originally rusted blade was now pitch black, emitting a heart-palpitating cold light.

All the metallic essence in the magma had been completely devoured.

Divine Sea Realm, Second Stage. Breakthrough.

Ye Feng rose up from the magma.

He waved his hand casually, as if shooing away an annoying fly.

The magma pool beneath him was drawn by his aura, instantly whipping up a ten-meter-high crimson wave. Carrying the lingering high temperatures, it slammed hard toward the hole in the wall.

"Get out."

*Bang!*

Before the young man could even say a single threatening word, he was swatted like a fly, carried by the terrifying wave of magma, and sent screaming out of the stone room.

Having done all this, Ye Feng looked down at his newly grown skin.

It was bronze-colored, shimmering with a metallic luster and filled with an explosive sense of power.

He casually grabbed his clothes from the side of the pool, put them on, picked up the reborn broken sword, and walked out unhurriedly.

"I still need to find that Earth-Core Fire Lotus; I don't have time to waste on trash like him."

Ye Feng pushed open the Dragon-Severing Stone.

Outside the stone room was a long corridor leading to the outside world.

The loud explosion just now had clearly alerted many people.

The moment Ye Feng stepped out of the corridor, he happened to see that arrogant imperial youth lying on the ground, charred black and naked, twitching.

In front of the youth, a luxuriously decorated Cloud-Scent Wood carriage had just come to a stop. A boot embroidered with gold-thread cloud patterns happened to stop right next to the youth's unrecognizable face.