The saber-image was like blood cutting through the air. A sensation of death caused all of Dan Chu’s hair to stand on end.

“Raging Flame Heaven Raising Shield!” roared Dan Chu, a violet flame shield condensing before him.

BOOM! A heaven-shaking explosion erupted, and flame waves spread in every direction. Long Chen was actually sent flying.

Long Chen was shocked. What terrifying flame energy, what a powerful flame magical art, and what refined control! There were rapid fluctuations coming from the shield that had caused him to rebound.

“Be suppressed!” Dan Chu’s expression was dark. Upon forming hand seals, the surrounding flame prison unleashed countless flame serpents.

Those flame serpents shot toward Long Chen, but just as he unleashed this move, Dan Chu’s expression changed. In his fury, he had forgotten that Long Chen still had his powerful flame dragon.

The huge flame dragon roared and devoured tens of thousands of the flame serpents in one gulp.

Those flame serpents were all three thousand meters long, while the flame dragon was thirty thousand meters long. But Huo Long had awakened an innate ability, and its mouth was like a black hole, twisting space, allowing it to devour all those flame serpents in one gulp.

“You really are courting death!” Dan Chu’s expression sank. He was just about to control the devoured flame serpents to attack the flame dragon from the inside when he suddenly sensed that they had disappeared.

At the same time, he was infuriated to find that yet another portion of his flame energy had been consumed. He was unable to sense it.

Then when he thought about it, it was completely bizarre that this flame dragon was capable of devouring his energy. Those flame serpents contained his Spiritual Strength. They should have exploded and destroyed the flame dragon once they were consumed.

But once something was devoured by Huo Long, Long Chen could instantly draw it into the primal chaos space. And the primal chaos space had never disappointed him.

The flame serpents had all of Dan Chu’s Spiritual Strength erased from them when they entered the primal chaos space. Becoming ownerless objects, they were easily devoured by Huo Long.

But these flames were too powerful, and Huo Long was unable to instantly refine them. It returned to Long Chen’s arm.

Long Chen sensed his spiritual yuan rising once more. Huo Long’s gulp hadn’t just devoured the flame energy, it had also devoured a large amount of spiritual yuan, allowing Long Chen to recover even more.

“As expected, you have to have some treasure on you! Hand it over!” Dan Chu suddenly spread his hands, and a golden spear appeared between them.

Shockingly, this golden spear was not a true martial item, but formed of flames. Dan Chu was actually in control of a kind of golden flame as well.

The spear pierced toward Long Chen, causing space to release explosive sounds. Heaven and earth shook.

BOOM! Blooddrinker slashed onto the spear, surprisingly causing a metallic clashing sound. Then space exploded.

“Bastard, you actually stole my spiritual yuan as well!” This attack caused both sides to be blown back. Dan Chu was shocked and infuriated. He sensed his own aura within the spiritual yuan Long Chen was releasing. He was shocked that Long Chen had such a bizarre technique and furious that he had actually been duped. If he had gone all-out at the beginning, he’d have easily handled him.

But after Long Chen’s stalling tactic, a great deal of his spiritual yuan had been stolen. Moreover, after Huo Long had devoured his flame serpents, he had forty percent of his spiritual yuan stolen by it.

For Long Chen to use his own spiritual yuan against him made him want to explode. Thinking of Long Chen’s act and how he had fallen for it, he knew Long Chen had to have been laughing at him inside for being an idiot.

“DIE!” Dan Chu roared, runes lighting up all over his body. The manifestation of a rank eight Celestial appeared, and raging flames wrapped around him, turning him into a flaming battle god.

“Divine ring, Battle Armor, Flame Support!”

Long Chen also unleashed his power. His divine ring manifested and four stars appeared in his eyes. At the same time, flames also wrapped around Long Chen. This was a flame technique he had learned from the Xuantian Catalog.

When fighting against normal people, it didn’t have too much use. But it was a must-have technique for fighting alchemists. Without the protection of his own flames, there was no way to fight in close range without being roasted.

Seeing the flames around Long Chen, Dan Chu almost coughed up blood. Those were violet flames that looked almost identical to his own flame. The fluctuations were just somewhat weaker.

Long Chen hadn’t just stolen his spiritual yuan, he had also stolen the power of his Earth Flame. Previously, Long Chen’s Earth Flame had been trash in Dan Chu’s eyes, but now, it was only somewhat weaker than his. He felt like he was about to go crazy.

“You shameless little thief!” Dan Chu could no longer remain calm. His expression was twisted in anger.

“Idiot, if I’m a little thief, then you’re a big thief. What’s the difference? You’re allowed to forcibly take what’s mine, but I can’t sneakily take what’s yours? Is your head only full of shit?” taunted Long Chen.

Although Long Chen was insulting him, inside, he was extremely shocked. This Soul Devouring Violet Flame was truly worthy of being ranked thirty-sixth on the Earth Flame Rankings. It was incredibly powerful. While this Earth Flame raged, Long Chen could sense it burning at the very heavens. He felt the world’s energy being extracted by the flame and converted to his spiritual yuan.

With the divine ring and the Soul Devouring Violet Flame’s power, he would be able to recover his spiritual yuan at a shocking pace. He estimated that instead of taking several days like before, he would only need a few hours to fully recover.

What Long Chen didn’t know was that this Soul Devouring Violet Flame was a treasure countless alchemists would long for. Other than just its immense power, it also had an innate ability to devour heaven and earth’s energy, allowing alchemists to recover their spiritual yuan and Spiritual Strength very quickly.

With the Soul Devouring Violet Flame, alchemists wouldn’t need to worry about running out of spiritual yuan or Spiritual Strength for alchemy. Furthermore, they wouldn’t need to be afraid of a long fight if they had it.

“Shameless little thief, die!” Dan Chu was growing insane from anger. He was the one most aware of the Soul Devouring Violet Flame’s power. Long Chen’s almost exhausted spiritual yuan was growing stronger and stronger. This had all been stolen from Dan Chu.

BOOM!

Dan Chu’s golden spear smashed toward Long Chen. Violet flames appeared on Blooddrinker as Long Chen slashed it at the spear.

Space exploded and wildly twisted. Their weapons were tightly locked against each other.

“This is your true core flame? It’s not bad.” Blocking the golden spear and unleashing all his power, Long Chen could sense a mountain-toppling power coming from it.

This golden spear was like real metal, yet also not. It was a kind of flame that had been condensed to the pinnacle. It was extremely strange.

This spear seemed to be hiding a volcano. Endless power was pouring out of it.

With Long Chen’s immense power, to not be able to send an alchemist flying showed that this golden flame was definitely not ordinary.

“You despicable little thief, you have no qualification to ask what it is!” roared Dan Chu. He suddenly sent a kick at Long Chen’s stomach. Flames formed a sharp point on his foot. If struck, Long Chen would be left with a hole in his abdomen.

Long Chen sneered. With just a glance, he could tell that this fellow had no combat experience. Just as Dan Chu’s foot was about to touch him, he fiercely pushed his saber forward.

Originally they were equally matched, but because Dan Chu had sent out a kick, it caused his upper body to lose strength. As a result, Long Chen could push him away, and his kick missed.

“Idiot, I admire your courage to fight close range against me.” As Dan Chu’s foot flew by Long Chen’s chest, Long Chen’s foot made a graceful arc through the air to land almost perfectly on Dan Chu’s exposed crotch.

Bang!

The sound of something like an egg exploding rang out. Dan Chu shot back like a shooting star. At the same time, he let out a mournful shriek. Slamming into his own prison, an explosive sound rang out.

That place was the root of carrying on a cultivator’s ancestral line. This place could not be strengthened through cultivation unless you no longer cared about having progeny.

Human cultivation allowed one to escape from old age and death, to become a god or immortal. In itself, cultivation was fundamentally a way to change the restrictions of the world.

Reproduction was the essence of the Human Dao, while cultivation was fundamentally a process of comprehending the Heavenly Daos and escaping the Human Dao.

During this process, the only thing maintained of the Human Dao was the root of reproduction. Unless someone felt that they were just on the verge of becoming a god or immortal, they wouldn’t abandon that reproductive ability.

Doing such a thing would require the courage of cutting off all the paths of retreat. But if they failed in the end, they would never get another son capable of carrying on their inheritance.

As for cultivators who didn’t become a god or immortal, once they reached their limit, they could continue leaving behind future generations, passing on their own powerful bloodlines. Then their descendants would be essentially standing on their shoulders as they cultivated.

Those descendants would have better starting points than others and would reach the peak of the martial path easier. Their accomplishments could surpass their ancestors before they once more passed on their bloodlines. In the end, someone might be able to become a god or immortal.

That was why basically all cultivators would keep their reproductive abilities in contrast to their cultivation, which was why that spot was a fatal weak point for almost all male cultivators.

This kick caused Dan Chu to lose the chicken and lose his eggs[1]. Even his pubic bone was almost broken by this kick. Without his Pill Flame protecting himself, he would have exploded from the impact.

Long Chen couldn’t help being shocked that he hadn’t killed him. Just now, he had even used his King item boots.

But then seeing Dan Chu’s broken robes had exposed a golden soft armor on his body, he suddenly realized that he wasn’t the only one who possessed special King items.

Without giving him any time to breathe, Long Chen shot after Dan Chu.

[1] This is an expression 雞飛蛋打, literally meaning the chicken flies away and the eggs are broken. It means to lose everything. But in this case, the eggs are his testicles, and the chicken is his penis, as it’s slang for penis.