102: Before the Furnace 1

Fragments of Xingyun Pavilion drifted slowly in the Void Realm, with the Chaos Furnace suspended at the center of the storm, its red and blue lights pulsing like a heartbeat.

Xiao Yan held Xiao Bing, standing shoulder to shoulder with Ling Xiao. Across from them, Dark Lingxiao was wreathed in Chaos energy, his dark eyes filled with madness. The ethereal figures of Flame Lord and Ice Lord floated on either side of the Furnace, their faces, formed of fire and ice, unreadable.

"Useless resistance," Dark Lingxiao spread his arms, two seeds of the plane spinning in his palms. "The Furnace has already activated; only the final step remains—the sacrifice of one of the Three Spirits!"

The dark vortex in Xiao Yan's right eye contracted slightly: "You won't succeed."

"Oh?" Dark Lingxiao sneered. "With you in your current state? The backlash from the Chaotic Black Flame must have already begun, hasn't it?" He pointed at Xiao Yan's face—black patterns had spread from his right eye to his neck, writhing like living things.

Ling Xiao's silver eyes flickered, transmitting a message to Xiao Yan through the nexus seed: "Flame Brother... Xiao Bing Ge just said..."

"I heard him," Xiao Yan interrupted, looking down at his brother in his arms. Though Xiao Bing was on his last breath, his eyes remained clear, his crystallized left hand pointing towards the Furnace, his lips silently repeating the word—transcend.

The Chaos Furnace suddenly hummed, and the ancient runes on its body lit up in sequence. Surprisingly, these runes were not merely energy markings but a form of writing—the Flame Lord's Fire in Xiao Yan's right eye automatically translated a section of it:

"Where the heart leads, the spirit follows; when the Three Spirits unite, the true Dao is revealed."

Ling Xiao also noticed the change: "The Spirit of the Plane is resonating... The Furnace is waiting for something..."

Dark Lingxiao impatiently waved his hand: "Enough! I don't have time for your guessing games!" He suddenly lunged at Xiao Bing. "Since you won't offer it willingly, I'll take the sacrifice myself!"

Xiao Yan and Ling Xiao simultaneously moved to block him, and three forces collided in the air! The shockwave completely shattered the remaining structure of Xingyun Pavilion, sending all three plummeting towards the Chaos Furnace.

As he fell, a tearing pain suddenly erupted in Xiao Yan's right eye—the black threads resisted approaching the Furnace! He gritted his teeth, suppressing a scream, and handed Xiao Bing to Ling Xiao: "Take him and go! I'll hold Dark Lingxiao back!"

"No!" A resolute glint flashed in Ling Xiao's silver eyes. "This time, we face it together!"

Xiao Bing suddenly struggled to raise his hand, his crystallized fingertips lightly touching the black patterns on Xiao Yan's face: "Ge... trust us..."

At that instant, the black threads in Xiao Yan's right eye actually calmed down for a moment! Simultaneously, the Chaos Furnace's light intensified, engulfing all three of them!

Dark Lingxiao roared as he charged, but was blocked by an invisible barrier: "No! The sacrifice is mine!"

Inside the Furnace was not the imagined sea of fire or ice cave, but a vast starry sky. The three floated within it, surrounded by twelve points of light—the location markers for all the seeds of the plane, three of which were exceptionally bright.

"This is..." Ling Xiao's silver eyes reflected the starlight. "The core space of the Furnace..."

Xiao Bing's weak voice sounded: "Look... at the center..."

At the center of the starry sky floated a mirror-like plane, reflecting not the trio's images, but three pure energy masses—a mass of azure-silver flame, a mass of deep blue ice crystal, and a mass of silver radiance.

"Our... essence..." Xiao Yan suddenly understood something.

Ripples spread across the mirror's surface, revealing a scene: Flame Lord and Ice Lord stood side by side, before the newly forged Chaos Furnace. The two argued incessantly, eventually parting ways... The scene fast-forwarded, showing them each repeatedly failing to activate the Furnace until the Chaos Devourer descended, forcing the two Lords to join forces to resist, yet due to insufficient preparation, both perished...

"They lacked the key..." Ling Xiao murmured.

Xiao Bing nodded with difficulty: "Humanity... They separated us... but forgot... the most important part..."

The mirror changed again, this time displaying snippets of the three brothers' lives from childhood—Elder Yao teaching the three to Cultivate, Xiao Zhan explaining the properties of medicinal ingredients in the courtyard, Ice Soul secretly watching their growth, every moment of the three fighting side by side...

"Emotions..." The black threads in Xiao Yan's right eye began to squirm restlessly. "This is what the Furnace needs..."

Dark Lingxiao's voice suddenly pierced through space: "Foolish! Power is the foundation!" His black shadow spread across the mirror's surface, attempting to contaminate those memory scenes. "Without power, you can protect nothing!"