74: Separate search for medicine 1

The Soul Clan ruins, where a chilling wind howled.

Xiao Yan's light projection hovered over the dilapidated city walls, gazing at the ancient buildings below, eroded by time. This was once the Soul Clan's main base, now only shattered walls and crumbling ruins remained, but the air still permeated with suffocating resentment and curses. Ordinary powerhouses who approached would have their Soul dissipate and die within a short time.

"Though Soul Heaven Emperor is dead, the remaining defenses are still troublesome..." Xiao Yan felt the stinging pain of his energy body being corroded by the resentment, sighing inwardly. To save time, he and Xiao Bing decided to act separately—he would search for the Fire Seed in the Soul Clan, while Xiao Bing would go to the Tai Ling Ancient Clan to retrieve the Ice Crystal.

"I must act quickly." Xiao Yan looked at his palm, where the light projection was already a few shades fainter than before they set out. He no longer hesitated, drifting towards the most magnificent ruined palace in the center of the ruins—the location of the Soul Clan's treasury.

The closer he got to the center, the denser the resentment became. Invisible curses, like persistent bone gangrene, continuously corroded Xiao Yan's energy body. He tried to resist with the power of the Heart of Chaos, but found that this corrosion directly targeted the essence of the Soul, and even the power of the plane of origin could not completely isolate it.

"Ugh..." A sharp pain struck, and Xiao Yan's left leg suddenly became blurry, almost causing him to fall from the sky. He gritted his teeth, stabilized his body, and accelerated towards the treasury entrance.

The treasury gate had long since collapsed, but the cursed runes carved on the doorframe were still active. Xiao Yan stopped in front of the gate, carefully observing the twisted, snake-like patterns—touching any part would trigger a chain reaction.

"I can only use that..." Xiao Yan made up his mind, separating a wisp of green flame from the core of his energy body and carefully drifting it towards the runes. The moment the green flame touched the runes, a dazzling black light erupted!

"Boom!"

The explosion shockwave sent Xiao Yan flying dozens of feet, his energy body violently shaking, almost dissipating. When he painstakingly re-condensed, he found that the cursed runes at the treasury entrance had been neutralized by the green flame, but the cost was a nearly thirty percent loss of his core energy.

"No time to recover..." Xiao Yan drifted into the treasury. The interior space was much larger than its exterior, clearly utilizing spatial secret techniques. Countless rare and exotic treasures were scattered on the ground, most of them having lost their spiritual essence due to the erosion of time.

According to his memory, the Fire Seed should be hidden in the innermost "Soul Burning Chamber"—the place where the Soul Clan collected various strange flames. Passing through several collapsed corridors, Xiao Yan finally arrived in front of a pitch-black metal door. There was no lock on the door, but there was a hand-shaped groove.

"Bloodline verification..." Xiao Yan sneered, the Soul Clan never forgetting their exclusivity even in death. He tried to burn the lock with the green flame, but found that the metal door was completely unaffected.

Time passed minute by minute, and the state of his energy body became increasingly unstable. Xiao Yan looked around and suddenly noticed a skeleton covered in dust in the corner—the black robe embroidered with the Soul Clan Elder's emblem!

He drifted over, using his energy to blow away the dust from the skeleton. The deceased's right hand was tightly clenched, and something seemed to be sparkling within his finger bones. Xiao Yan carefully pried open the finger bones, and a blood-colored jade talisman rolled out.

"Soul Clan Elder Token!" Xiao Yan was overjoyed and immediately pressed the jade talisman into the groove on the door.

With a soft "click," the metal door slowly opened. A wave of heat rushed out, causing Xiao Yan's energy body to tremble—inside the Soul Burning Chamber, dozens of strange flames were still burning, as if time had stopped here!

In the center of the room was a black altar, and seven lamps of various colors floated above it. Xiao Yan's gaze was immediately drawn to the central lamp—a seemingly ordinary, yet Soul-shaking, green flame flickered within it.

"Nameless Fire Seed!" Xiao Yan excitedly drifted towards the altar, but was blocked by an invisible barrier three feet away. There was actually a defensive Formation around the altar!

Even worse, the energy source of the defensive Formation seemed to be... those imprisoned flames. To retrieve the Fire Seed, he had to release all the flames first!

Xiao Yan scrutinized the seven lamps and soon discovered that they were arranged in the Big Dipper constellation, with subtle energy threads connecting them. This was an ingenious balanced Formation; disturbing one lamp would disturb them all.

"I can only take a risk..." Xiao Yan condensed his remaining energy in his right hand, the green flame and the red light of the Heart of Chaos intertwined, forming an energy blade as thin as a cicada's wing. He aimed at the energy nodes connecting the seven lamps and precisely struck!

"Zheng—"

A crisp snapping sound rang out, and the seven lamps vibrated violently at the same time! Flames of various colors soared into the air, dancing wildly within the chamber. The central wisp of green flame seemed to hesitate for a moment, then slowly drifted towards Xiao Yan.

The moment the Fire Seed touched his energy body, Xiao Yan felt an unprecedented sense of completeness—as if a long-lost part had finally returned. The Fire Seed automatically merged into the green flame at the core, making it even more solid and pure.

"Success!" Just as Xiao Yan was about to leave, he found that the other six flames had surrounded him, trapping him in the center! These flames, imprisoned by the Soul Clan for many years, were full of hostility and could attack him as a group at any moment.