193: The Great Sun Burns the Celestial Body

The swallowing force of the crimson-gold vortex was extremely powerful. Chen Linsheng felt the world spinning around him, his entire body enveloped in a scorching yet gentle spatial force.

After three to five breaths, his feet suddenly found solid ground.

He steadied his stance and looked around.

It was a scorched and shattered wasteland. The sky was still the eternal dark red hue of the Secret Realm, but the fiery clouds were much thinner, allowing faint glimpses of normal sunlight from outside to filter through the cracks in the Secret Realm's barrier.

In the distance, the volcano at the center of the Fentian Secret Realm was collapsing. Magma gushed from the mountain's fissures like blood, thick black smoke billowed, and the roar was clearly audible even from over ten miles away.

They had been teleported to the edge of the Secret Realm; the exit shouldn't be far.

Light flickered consecutively beside him as Yan Chen, Xiao Zhan, Mu Qingxue, the cyan-robed student from Tingtao Academy, and the Northern Desert Shaman appeared one after another. Everyone looked disheveled, their auras fluctuating, and they were all wounded.

Yan Chen spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, looking towards the collapsing volcano with a complex gaze. "Damn, almost got myself buried in there."

Xiao Zhan silently took out a Military-grade Healing Pill and swallowed it, beginning to regulate his breathing, but his eyes vigilantly scanned the surroundings. With the Secret Realm collapsing and the rules in chaos, no one knew what other dangers might appear.

Mu Qingxue's face was still pale, the bandage on her shoulder soaked through with blood, but she forced herself to stand upright, her autumn water sword already sheathed. She looked at Chen Linsheng and gave a slight nod in greeting.

The cyan-robed student clasped his hands towards the group. "I am Li Muyan of Tingtao Academy. Thank you all for your indirect assistance back in the hall. The Secret Realm is about to be destroyed; it would be wise for us to quickly find a way out."

The Northern Desert Shaman remained silent, only staring fixedly at Chen Linsheng, his eyes brimming with unwillingness and venomous hatred. However, he ultimately dared not act. He turned and stumbled away in a certain direction—he seemed to recognize the way.

No one had the heart to stop him, each preparing to find their own way out.

At that very moment—

The crimson flame great peng feather in Chen Linsheng's embrace, which had been quietly warm all along, suddenly and without warning grew intensely hot!

No, it wasn't just hot.

It actually flew out on its own from Chen Linsheng's inner pocket, hovering in mid-air, its entire body radiating an unprecedented crimson-gold brilliance!

The light swirled, and the feather-like patterns inside seemed to come alive, transforming into burning runes that traced and extended in the air!

"What is this?" Chen Linsheng's pupils contracted. He reached out to grab it, but the feather deftly evaded him. Instead, it circled around Chen Linsheng once, then abruptly changed direction, shooting swiftly towards an area opposite to where everyone planned to leave—the deeper, more desolate part of the Secret Realm, densely packed with spatial rifts!

After flying a distance, it stopped again, hanging in mid-air, its light flickering as if waiting, as if guiding.

"The feather is pointing the way?" Yan Chen raised an eyebrow, puzzled. "That area is where the Secret Realm's collapse is most severe. The space is extremely unstable. Are we going there to die?"

Xiao Zhan also frowned. "Brother Chen, does this object possess a spirit? Why is it acting up now?"

Chen Linsheng's thoughts raced. The crimson flame great peng feather was connected to his heart's blood. What it conveyed now was not a warning of danger, but an urgent, yearning sensation, like the stirring of a wanderer returning home. Recalling the vision of "Fentian Valley" from the stone stele illusion and the resonance between the ancient totem and the feather... an astonishing speculation surfaced in his mind.

"Perhaps... the Fentian Secret Realm is not the entirety of the Crimson Flame Great Peng's Legacy," Chen Linsheng spoke slowly, his gaze following the lively crimson-gold light point in the air. "That stone gate, that Inheritance Hall, might just be the outer screening and trials. The true core Legacy requires this feather, or a power of the same Origin, to open a passage."

He looked in the direction the feather indicated. There, spatial rifts spread like spiderwebs, chaotic currents howled—it was indeed dangerous. But the feather's stirring was so intense, as if telling him there was something there more important than the 'Great Sun Burning Heaven Physique' Legacy.

Was it a Legacy directly related to the Crimson Flame Great Peng itself? Or... clues to the truth of its fall?

Opportunity often coexists with risk.

Chen Linsheng made his decision almost instantly.

"I'm going to take a look," he said firmly, looking at Yan Chen, Xiao Zhan, and Mu Qingxue. "The feather's intention to guide is clear. This is my Opportunity, but it could also be a great danger. You may all leave on your own; there's no need to take the risk."

Yan Chen grinned, his eyes a mix of Battle Intent and curiosity. "We've come this far, even braved the Secret Realm's core. Why fear a few spatial rifts now? I want to see what treasure could get this damn feather so excited. I'm coming with you!"

Xiao Zhan was silent for a moment before saying, "The collapse is imminent; time is short. Having faced life and death together, we shall journey together. The Army Breaker Manor also has a duty to investigate ancient mysteries."

Mu Qingxue only uttered two words softly: "I'll go." Her injuries were severe, but her gaze was clear and resolute.

Li Muyan hesitated, then smiled bitterly. "My strength is insufficient, and my injuries are not yet healed. I fear I would only be a burden. I shall wish you all success in obtaining your Opportunities and a safe return here." With that, he clasped his hands in farewell and hurried off in the direction the Northern Desert Shaman had left—likely the relatively safe exit.

Chen Linsheng said no more, nodding his thanks to the three, then moved, chasing after the hovering crimson flame great peng feather.

Seeing Chen Linsheng follow, the feather's light grew even brighter, and with a *whoosh*, it shot forward.

The four of them followed closely, dashing across the scorched earth wasteland.

The deeper they went, the harsher the environment became. The ground was riddled with bottomless fissures, with scorching earth fire occasionally erupting; the air was filled with spatial rifts of all sizes, some stable, others opening and closing like breathing, devouring everything around them with a teeth-grating tearing sound. Violent spatial turbulence swept up rubble and dust, forming deadly whirlwinds.

If not for the crimson-gold halo radiating from the feather ahead, which smoothed out some of the finer spatial wrinkles and indicated a relatively safe path, the four would have likely been shredded by the turbulence or fallen into the earth fire abyss long ago.

Even so, peril was ever-present.

Once, a hidden spatial rift suddenly expanded, nearly sucking Yan Chen in. It was Xiao Zhan who timely slashed at the rift's edge with his blade, using the recoil to pull him back.

Another time, Mu Qingxue's Movement Technique lagged slightly due to her injuries, causing the rock layer beneath her feet to collapse. Chen Linsheng instantly executed the 'Crane Ape Illusory Wind Steps' to turn back, grabbing her wrist and pulling her away from danger.

After dashing for about a quarter of an hour, nearly twenty miles into the collapsing zone, the feather ahead suddenly stopped.

This was the center of a massive circular collapse zone. Below was a churning dark-red magma lake, steaming with heat. In the surrounding Void Realm, densely packed were thousands of spatial rifts of varying sizes, flickering uncertainly, like a giant, shattered honeycomb.

The feather hovered directly above the magma lake. Its crimson-gold light surged violently, and all the runes inside detached, intertwining and spinning in the air, finally coalescing into a palm-sized, lifelike phantom of the Crimson Flame Great Peng!

Though small, the phantom exuded a vast, ancient, and noble pressure. It spread its wings, raised its head, and let out a silent, clear cry!

"Cry——!"

An intangible sound wave spread out.

A miracle occurred.

The countless chaotic spatial rifts around them, under the vibration of this sound wave infused with the Crimson Flame Great Peng's Origin aura, began to tremble and shift in a patterned manner!

Some rifts vanished, some expanded, and more connected and combined with each other... In just a few breaths, right above the magma lake, those spatial rifts actually outlined the contour of a 'gate'—thirty feet tall and about ten feet wide!

The gate's frame was formed by the now-stabilized spatial rifts, its edges flowing with rainbow-colored light. The 'door' within the frame was a deep, slowly rotating dark-gold vortex, at the center of which faintly visible were crimson-red light spots like scattered stars.

An aura, older, more primitive, and more intensely pure than that of the Fentian Secret Realm, faintly emanated from within the gate.

That aura shared the same Origin as the crimson flame great peng feather, yet was a thousandfold more vast!

"Void Realm rifts... No, this is a true passageway hidden within the Secret Realm's spatial layers, activated by the feather!" Xiao Zhan gripped his saber hilt and said gravely.

"The aura beyond the gate... so powerful!" Yan Chen's eyes blazed with crimson-gold light, a resonance stirred within him as his Golden Crow Bloodline reacted to the aura of this fellow avian Supreme.

Mu Qingxue also focused her senses, murmuring softly, "Very pure fire-attribute Origin Qi, and also... a lingering will of sorrow and resentment."

After completing the 'gate-opening', the Crimson Flame Great Peng phantom dimmed considerably, transforming back into individual runes that flew back into the feather. The feather also seemed to have exhausted its power, its radiance retracting inward, appearing somewhat listless as it slowly drifted back into Chen Linsheng's palm.

Chen Linsheng caught the feather, able to sense the faint weariness it transmitted, along with a trace of longing and sorrow.

It had found the entrance to its 'home', and within that 'home', only remnants and a lingering will remained.

Chen Linsheng took a deep breath and carefully stored the feather away. He looked at the illusory gate formed from spatial rifts, then at the three behind him.

Yan Chen grinned, showing his white teeth. "Let's go. What are we waiting for?"

Xiao Zhan nodded, his Yanling Saber already half-drawn, prepared for any sudden danger.

Mu Qingxue gently tightened her grip on her sword hilt.

Without further words, Chen Linsheng took the lead, stepping into the dark-gold vortex gate.

The sensations of scorching heat, weightlessness, and spatial-temporal disorientation assailed him again, but this time, it lasted longer and felt clearer. He seemed to pass through a long tunnel constructed of flame and starlight. On the tunnel walls, countless blurred images flashed by—a vast crimson divine bird soaring through the starry cosmos, shattered earth, a long trail of fire dragged during its fall, unwilling cries of grief... He didn't know how long it lasted, perhaps an instant, perhaps a long time.

Solid ground was felt underfoot once more.

Chen Linsheng opened his eyes and looked at the world before him.

Then, he froze.

Not just him; Yan Chen, Xiao Zhan, and Mu Qingxue, who had stepped through the gate right after him, also stood dumbfounded, deeply shocked by the sight before them.

This was no longer a man-made or naturally formed cavern within the Secret Realm.

But a piece of... real, vast, yet deceased starry cosmos wreckage!

They stood on an immense dark-red meteorite platform. The platform's edges were jagged, as if torn from some even larger celestial body.

Looking up was the boundless dark Void Realm, without sun or moon, but with faintly twinkling starlights in the extreme distance—those were the stars of the real Universe, not Secret Realm illusions.

And within the Void Realm, the most shocking sight occupied their entire field of vision—

A bird skeleton of unimaginable size, floating in the starry cosmos!

The skeleton was entirely dark gold. Even after who knows how many tens of thousands of years of erosion, it still gleamed with a metallic, cold luster. It maintained a posture of lunging forward, its wing bones spread out, likely hundreds of miles in length!

Each rib was like a pillar holding up the sky. Its chest cavity was hollow, save for the very center where a millstone-sized, faintly pulsating crimson-gold halo remained, like the dying embers of a heart about to extinguish.

The skeleton's head was held high, its beak sharp, its eye sockets holding two eternally burning, vastly diminished crimson flames—

That was the Crimson Flame Great Peng's residual, undying Origin Divine Flame!

The entire skeleton was entangled and pierced by countless thick, semi-transparent crimson energy chains, massive as mountain ranges.

The other ends of those chains connected to nine slowly rotating, black vortices deep in the Void Realm, covered in strange runes. The vortices emitted a heart-palpitating power of sealing and annihilation, constantly draining the skeleton's remaining essence, injecting it into the Void Realm, flowing to an unknown destination.

And below the skeleton, further ahead on the meteorite platform, lay scattered some relatively 'smaller' objects: a few tattered, dull feathers larger than houses; some broken, yet still sharp claw bones; and several puddles of long-congealed, dark-gold bloodstains that still emitted terrifying energy fluctuations... The entire scene was filled with an indescribable tragic grandeur, desolation, and a deep-seated resentment and unwillingness from being imprisoned and stripped for countless eons.

"This is... the Crimson Flame Great Peng?" Yan Chen's voice was somewhat hoarse. The Golden Crow Bloodline within him trembled, feeling both reverence for this superior kin and a sorrowful empathy, like the grief of a fox for the death of a hare.

"It... was sealed here? Drained slowly to death?" Xiao Zhan's gaze was sharp, fixed on those black vortices and energy chains. "What kind of method could Seal and kill such a divine avian?"

Mu Qingxue murmured softly, "The aura from those black vortices... is very sinister. It's different from the White Lotus Sect's evil, but another level of... order and deprivation."

Chen Linsheng did not speak. His mind was completely captivated by the giant bird skeleton in the starry cosmos.

The feather in his embrace trembled violently, transmitting endless sorrow, rage, and a faint, seemingly Bloodline-deep call.

He understood.

The Fentian Secret Realm might be the outer space naturally evolved from the Crimson Flame Great Peng's residual power and will upon its fall, screening inheritors.

And here, this starry cosmos wreckage, was its true place of demise, the prison where its corpse was sealed and plundered!

The 'Great Sun Burning Heaven Physique' Legacy was perhaps just a thread of hope it left behind, unwilling for its own Dao lineage to be completely extinguished.

And the true Legacy, the greatest secret, and the truth of its fall might be hidden within this sealed skeleton and those nine black vortices.

Chen Linsheng looked up, gazing at the faint crimson-gold halo at the heart of the starry giant skeleton, then at those black vortices exuding an ominous aura.

The danger was self-evident.

But the Opportunity might also be beyond imagination.

He slowly clenched his fists. The newborn 'Hunyuan Qi and Blood' surged within him. The 'Great Sun True Flame' spark in his Heart Fire Qi Vortex flickered slightly, seeming to resonate with the distant residual Origin Divine Flame.