"What's the matter?" Shu Yuan discovered the commotion beside him and walked over briskly to take a look. He took one glance at the weak person lying in bed, with a dwindling aura. Then, he turned to face the disciple seated on the ground. "What happened?"
"Uncle-Master Shu Yuan..." The disciple stared blankly at him for several seconds before finally regaining his composure. Fearfully, he said, "The fire... The fire on this person's body is infectious. I was just adjusting my own spirit Qi when the fire transmitted to me."
"What!" Shu Yuan exclaimed. He thought of something and his expression darkened. Immediately, he turned to another disciple beside him and said, "Quick! Ask those disciples who are treating the burned disciples to stop work immediately!"
"Yes!" The disciple ran out to inform the other disciples at once.
It was a pity that he was too late. A total of 17 people had been burned by the remaining flames in the forest. Among them, six passed on before they could be treated. The others underwent treatment immediately. Yet, those disciples who helped to treat their burned counterparts became burned themselves. The wounds were serious. Thus, not only were they unable to save the disciples, ten more were dragged down as a result.
Shu Yuan was frowning deeply by now. He had not expected that the people who had been burned by the dark fires would harbor remnants of the flames in their bodies, much less that these flames would continue to spread to others. The disciples who went to treat the wounded were all Golden Core cultivators – the strongest in the sect. Now, knowing that he had lost 10 of them to the flames, how could his heart not hurt? All his insides were twisting up, yet they had no idea how to treat those disciples.
Lonemoon's expression darkened. That so-called Icy Deep Fire was clearly a dark fire. It came from the Underworld and brought with it the deviant flames that belonged to ghouls. These kinds of fires were extremely cold, and could cause even spirits to be reduced to dust, much less cultivators from the lower realm. Even immortals in the upper realm would have difficulty dealing with it. Yet, how did these fires get here? How did a fiendish cultivator manage to get his hands on it?
A familiar sound came from beside him.
[Ding! Analysis complete. Residue from a high-power source. Host, this comes from a different part of the plane. It can burn everything it touches, including souls.]
"That fire is so powerful!" Shu Yi exclaimed. "It really is a deviant fire."
[It's a pity that Host has only obtained such a small amount of it – it is not even enough to cause a spark. It would have been good if you collected more of it.]
"There are more than one injured persons here.," Shu Yi said gleefully. "We just have to collect them from different people's bodies."
[Even then, we'll only have enough to form a little flame. We'll still need to find the source of the fire before we can control it!]
"Don't worry. As long as we have a little flame, the deviant fire will not be able to hurt me. He will not be able to run away." Shu Yi had a determined expression on her face. "He injured my master. He has to pay the price. What's more, he's severely injured now. I don't think he got very far away. After all, I have my master's dharmic weapon to help me."
Lonemoon frowned. She came for that fiendish cultivator. From the sound of her voice, it seems that she had met that fiendish cultivator before?
[But we cannot leave the city. How are we going to find him?]
"They don't have any buffer time left. An hour and a half is not enough for them to deal with the deviant fire. We still have a lot of time. Tonight, we'll sneak out and gather the remnants of the fire from each person's body. Then, we'll find a chance to sneak out and look for him."
Shu Yi was clearly confident in her plan. Yet, Shu Yuan, who was standing next to her, looked extremely troubled. He anxiously paced back and forth in front of the injured disciples. He wanted so badly to help them, yet he could not do anything. All he could do was turn to the disciple beside him and say, "Have they eaten the pills?"
"They have," the disciple answered. "But... the Carcass Pill can only protect their primordial spirits from being injured by the flames. It will not do much to heal them."
"How is that..." Shu Yuan was getting more anxious now.
Lonemoon turned to the gleeful Shu Yi and could not stop himself from saying something to ruin her mood. He stepped forward and said, "Why not let Supremacy Yi Qing come and take a look?" He was only a Foundation Establishment disciple now. Of course he could not do anything to help. All he could do was push the responsibility to Chef.
Shu Yuan stared blankly at him for a couple of seconds before he finally recalled Yi Qing. His expression seemed to harden. "That's right. Supremacy will have a way!" He heaved a sigh of relief, but it was obvious he was still worried. After all, this was deviant fire they were talking about.
The demonic cultivator disappeared without a trace in the forest. Chef returned soon after. The moment he arrived back in the city, he was dragged to the injured disciples by an eager Shu Yuan. "Uncle-Master Yi Qing, please come and take a look at my disciples. They can't hang on much longer!"
Yi Qing paused. He turned to Lonemoon instinctively. Lonemoon mouthed two words, "Dark fire!"
Yi Qing immediately understood. He entered the house and saw that there were more than ten people whose bodies were covered in huge patches of black. It was almost as if something inside their bodies was attacking them. They looked to be in severe pain.
"Uncle-Master Yi Qing, they're being attacked by deviant-" Shu Yuan began to explain.
Yi Qing flicked his wrist and caused a bright red flame to appear in his hands. He surrounded the people in the house with it. There was a loud crash and a white flame seemed to explode from each of the disciples' bodies. Then, the white flame dissipated.
Yi Qing clenched his fist and caused the fire to be extinguished inside the house. It was almost as if it had not even appeared. Everybody in the house remained unhurt – not even a single strand of hair was charred as a result of Yi QIng's fire. The only difference was that their faces seemed to be flushed.
Shu Yuan stepped forward to feel one of the disciples' pulses and found that the deviant flame had completely disappeared from inside his body. "Uncle... Uncle-Master!" Shu Yuan was in a daze. What was that fire about? How could it extinguish the icy deep fire? "Uncle-Master, you have your own deviant fire?"
Yi Qing pursed his lips and nodded curtly. "Mm." What deviant fire? His was the True Phoenix Fire.
"That's great! Thank you for your help, Uncle-Master!" Shu Yuan heaved a huge sigh of relief. He was relaxed not only because his disciples had hope now but because Uncle-Master Yi Qing's deviant fire could subdue the formidable Icy Deep Fire from the Fiendish Cultivator, Zhong Yi. This meant that their Gui Yi Sect no longer had to worry about being frowned upon by the other sects now.
Everyone was visibly relieved. Yet, Shu Yi's expression seemed to darken.
"What's the matter? How come he can deal with the deviant fire?"
[The heat in that man's body is almost completely gone. Perhaps it is because those flames in the disciples' body encountered an even stronger source of heat.]
"An even stronger source! You mean to say that his deviant fire is even stronger?" She did not even get to collect the remnant flames before he extinguished all of it immediately.
[You can say that.]
Shu Yi's face turned green. The opportunity had been right before her, and now it was gone. Yet, there was nothing at all that she could do about it.
"I wonder if Uncle-Master managed to track Zhong Yi down outside the city?" Shu Yuan asked, recalling the urgent matters they had on hand.
"I did not!" Yi Qing shook his head. "He's no longer in that forest." All that he left behind was some deviant flames.
"I don't know what the fiendish cultivator is after." He suddenly turned up near Gui Yi Sect and even killed one of the Nascent Soul elders. Now, he was even gone without a trace.
Shu Yuan frowned and began to worry once again. He had no choice but to hasten the disciples' healing process, so that they could return to Gui Yi Sect as soon as possible. After all, only the Foundation Establishment and Golden Core disciples remained. If anything were to happen to them, they would definitely not be able to hold the fort.