Chapter Eleven: The Mysterious Man

  "This stone gate is actually on fire..."

  Ling Qingyan looked at the stone gate in front of him, which was burning fiercely, and couldn't help but feel extremely incredulous. "Could it be that this stone gate has been doused with gasoline? But I don't smell any unusual odor, it's as if...the flames just ignited on their own."

  And regardless of how surprised Ling Qingyan was, under his gaze, the entire stone gate that was burning had already let out a "rumbling" sound as it slowly rose upwards.

  After the stone gate rose, what was reflected in Ling Qingyan's eyes was a piece of fiery red, the scorched earth behind which seemed to have a boiling lake of magma. In the instant when the stone gate rose, Ling Qingyan could clearly feel a wave of scorching heat rushing towards him.

  "What is this place?" Ling Qingyan's heart trembled slightly, and he turned his head to ask the white-robed old man who had brought him here, but found that the old man had already left. Looking at the scene that appeared in front of him after the stone gate rose, Ling Qingyan only thought for a moment before stepping inside.

  One, he felt that the white-robed old man didn't need to harm himself, and two, Ling Qingyan was also interested in this place. He hadn't expected that behind the cold and desolate Heavenly Line Peak, there would be such a scorching existence. Such a scorching place, probably nothing could compare to the magma caves of those volcanoes from his past life.

  As soon as he stepped into the stone gate, Ling Qingyan clearly felt that his skin all over his body began to sweat, apparently due to the extremely high temperature here. Feeling the tranquility of this space, Ling Qingyan tread on the fiery red scorched earth and slowly entered it, looking up and down at this fiery hot space.

  "Cuckoo..."

  Just after crossing the front ten steps, Ling Qingyan had already arrived at the lava lake that he had seen from afar earlier. Looking at the constantly boiling and rolling lava in the lava lake, even though Ling Qingyan was a person with extraordinary courage and bravery, he couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart.

  This scorching magma, if stepped into, would leave no bones behind. Ling Qingyan casually picked up a hot stone from the ground and threw it into the magma lake. As soon as the stone touched the magma, it was completely vaporized with a "hiss".

  Looking at the rising mist in front of him, Ling Qingyan was taken aback for a moment, and then he took a step back and left this lava lake far away, fearing that he would be affected. "The temperature of this lava lake is probably enough to melt even refined iron!"

  ………

  "This is..."

  The scorching air that filled the sky, had already made Ling Qingyan's forehead covered in big sweat, and he was somewhat breathless. Ling Qingyan looked at the many unsheathed long swords inserted into the ground in front of him, as well as the hot air emanating from between these long swords arranged in a circular shape facing inward, and for a moment, he was also stunned.

  He involuntarily stopped in his tracks, not because he had snapped out of it, but because the already somewhat oppressive temperature forced him to subconsciously come to a halt when he was still about five meters away from the sword group.

  Looking at the extraordinary long swords in front of him, Ling Qing's heart was shocked. "What kind of place is this? Any one of these swords would be considered a rare and precious divine weapon if taken out."

  Although Ling Qingyan didn't delve deeply into the study of swords in his previous life, he still had some understanding of the materials used in ordinary swords. From this distance, Ling Qingyan could sense that the hardness of any one of these long swords was far superior to even the specially crafted alloy swords of his previous life.

  Ling Qing was deeply convinced that any long sword here was absolutely incomparable to those hanging on the iron chains outside.

  "What is this place, anyway? And these swords... I'm afraid that even if I were to randomly pull out one of them, it would be far stronger than the so-called 'Heavenly Sword' or 'Dragon Slaying Knife' from my previous life as a martial artist." Ling Qingyan looked at the hundred or so long swords surrounding him and couldn't help but feel puzzled. "That white-robed old man, who is also the master of the Tianjian Sect, said that he would be able to dispel his doubts after coming here... But for some reason, I feel like my doubts have only grown more numerous since entering this place."

  He shook his somewhat dizzy head, and Ling Qingyan walked away from this place, continuing to move forward. The fiery red cave, the scorching hot air that filled the sky, at this moment, Ling Qingyan only felt that his nerves were a bit numb, everything he had encountered today was too much for him to digest all at once.

  As she turned a corner, Ling Qingyan seemed to sense something, her entire body suddenly stopping, her slightly immature face flashing with surprise, and then her head slightly turning to the right.

  In an inconspicuous corner, a figure sitting on the ground appeared before Ling Qingyan. Ling Qingyan looked at the man in front of him, who seemed to be only in his thirties, with slender black hair, and his eyes flashed brightly for an instant. He never expected that he could still see such a young person here. Moreover, looking at the slender man's forehead without a single sweat stain, it was clear that the scorching heat here had no effect on him.

  Mysterious!

  This was Ling Qingyan's first impression of the lean man in front of him.

  Taking a few steps forward, he came to the front of the lean man sitting cross-legged. Ling Qingyan only then discovered that in front of the lean man was inserted a dark, unformed long sword made of an unknown material. The more Ling Qingyan looked at this unformed long sword, the more astonished he felt. This dark, unformed long sword, inserted into this scorching space, did not have even a hint of heat on it.

  Moreover, Ling Qingyan could clearly feel the eerie chill between this unformed long sword.

  This material is by no means ordinary. As he thought about it, his subconscious mind led Ling Qingyan's right hand to slowly reach out towards the unformed long sword in front of him, and now he was filled with curiosity towards this unformed long sword.

  The scorching air-filled space was still quiet, and Ling Qingyan's right hand, which had been stretching out to touch the unformed long sword, suddenly stopped. Because of the vigilance cultivated in his previous life, Ling Qingyan clearly felt a strange pressure at this moment. As his right hand stopped, Ling Qingyan slightly tilted his head to look at the thin man sitting on the ground.

  In a strange and eerie way, the moment Ling Qingyan looked at the thin man, the thin man's eyes, which seemed to have been sealed for a long time, suddenly opened and met Ling Qingyan's gaze.

  It was as if a boundless whirlpool of profound depth had suddenly appeared, and when their eyes met those of the lean man, Ling Qingyan only felt a violent commotion in his sea of consciousness, followed by a feeling of the sky spinning and the earth turning, before he directly lost consciousness.

  In the scorching hot space that was quieter than quiet, Ling Qingyan's body "thudded" and fell to the ground, his outstretched right hand also landing beside the unfinished long sword.

  As for Ling Qingyan's fall, the lean man didn't feel a hint of surprise. Even after Ling Qingyan lost consciousness, a fiery flame suddenly rose in the lean man's eyes, which were originally as calm as a deep pool, and his gaze directly converged on Ling Qingyan's head.

  A moment.

  "Heavenly Twin Totems, indeed Heavenly Twin Totems. However, that white totem is a kind of demon beast that has never been seen or heard before."

  A low, muffled voice seemed to emanate directly from the chest and abdomen, coming out of the thin man's mouth. At the same time, the fiery red flames in the thin man's eyes also dissipated into nothingness, his dimly glowing eyes slowly closing.

  This space, filled with a scorching atmosphere that seemed to cover the sky and earth, returned to its calm state. If it weren't for the young man's body lying in front of the lean man, it would seem as if nothing had happened before.