Xianxia Online

The second heat section of the Flaming Sands Field was just as hot as the first one, if not hotter.

Xuan couldn't really tell since he had his Frost Stone, but he expected this artifact to stop working once he reached the third heat area or so.

After the conversation with the mysterious world master of the Flaming Sands Field, he'd been sent directly to this zone. He assumed the others who got sucked in with him also received the same treatment, minus the talk.

Naturally, the Flame Beasts he found in this area were also stronger and higher level. Unfortunately, they really couldn't do much against Xuan, who pretty much just cut them in half with his ridiculously strong Sword Qi. All Flame Beasts were made of raw fire, meaning their defense wasn't really that great—they just excelled at power, that's all.

Before long, however, Xuan came across somewhat of an interesting terrain—it was a ravine. Peering over the edge of the cliff, Xuan analyzed the landscape.

'Hm… it's quite deep. But… there seems to be something… that way.'

Looking back up, Xuan turned to his left. At the bottom of the ravine was a river of lava, and that river seemed to be heading towards the left, down into a pit. Curious, he decided to see what that was all about. Sure, he had a mission now, but that didn't mean he didn't have the time to explore a little bit.

And if his guess wasn't wrong… there should be a high-grade treasure in that direction. It wasn't the Traveler's Compass ringing a bell—but rather simply a combination of instinct and common sense.

Each year, the Flaming Sands Field changed—but only the location of certain key places. The places themselves did not change. Xuan distinctly remembered that the last time he was here, there had been a river of lava as well. After following it out of curiosity, he'd arrived at a fallen coliseum-like structure, with a guard stationed at its doors.

And why station a guard if there was nothing to protect, assuming that no one had taken the treasure within already?

If his guess was right, this should be the same place he hadn't been able to enter in his previous life, due to being too weak. But this time, things were different.

He was someone new.

*****

Soon, Xuan arrived at the end of the lava river. Standing high above the ravine, he peered down, and spotted the same coliseum he'd once seen many, many years ago. Of course, the details were something he couldn't possibly remember, but he recognized the general shape.

Reminiscent of the ancient Rome empire from Earth, the structure was like a broken coliseum half-submerged in lava. There were many tunnels and openings on the various rows of the fractured building, leading deeper in. What was odd, however, was the peculiar angle of the structure. It wasn't completely straight, but rather slightly tilted. Fighting inside it was going to be a pain, but thankfully, Xuan had enough experience to be able to adapt to that. In his mind, he was already making plans, and envisioning what a fight in there would be like.

Using the Rooster's Wings Zodiac Technique, Xuan jumped off the edge of the cliff, and slowly levitated downwards into the lava pit where the tilted coliseum lay.

Upon landing on a half-sunken stone surface in the lava, Xuan slowly jumped across from platform to platform, like one would do in a parkour game. Before long, he reached the main part of the coliseum, and stepped inside. Thankfully, the tilt wasn't too much, so he could still walk around inside it just fine—albeit it felt a bit unnatural.

Now that he was this close, he could feel a powerful presence coming from somewhere deeper within the coliseum. The qi fluctuations in the air felt like the fire attribute, which was only natural given the environment of this small world. However, he didn't think this guard was going to be a normal flame beast, with a body made of fire. This seemed like… something more.

Closing his eyes, Xuan reached into his knowledge sea in an attempt to figure out what this entity was. He couldn't quite pinpoint what it was using his Divine Sense, but he could tell that it was a beast. Nearby the beast's energy signature, however, he could feel something else—and intrigued, he tilted his head slightly without opening his eyes.

'… Humans?'

There seemed be two human cultivators in combat with the beast. Their presences were quite powerful, signaling that they were considerably strong, but Xuan gauged that he'd be able to beat them one on one. If both of them came at him together, though… that would be somewhat troublesome.

After some consideration, Xuan decided to go check it out either way. As a cultivator, it was basic respect to not steal another's prey, and if those two defeated the guard with their own powers, then Xuan would not intervene. However, the last time that he had been here, the beast that guarded this place had been especially difficult to take down. There was a good chance those two wouldn't be able to pinpoint its weakness.

When he quietly arrived before the place of the battle and saw who the two human cultivators were, however, his eyes sparkled with excitement.

'Oho… now this is interesting.'

There, inside the room, were two incredibly famous figures that everyone ought to show respect to. One was Zi Xinruo, the aloof young lady of the Zi family, while the other was the young man who seemed to have a crush on her—a feeling she didn't seem to reciprocate, but just went along with the flow probably due to family agreements. Both were heirs of the Eight Great Families of Upper Asphodel, and as it would seem, they were separated from their respective entourages when they entered the small world due to the randomized teleportation effect.

But the most interesting part yet… was that Xuan had been right.

Only… there was just one of them fighting.