The first thing Seth saw after passing through the vortex was the reddish sky. Different from the light blue skies of the outside world, here the only color reflected was red. It was a given that it would take that color, since right below him there was a sea of flames wildly dancing.
Seth hovered through the air still protected by the unharming fire, until he safely landed on the ground. The terrain was completely scorched and the soil was eroded. There were multiple fissures on the floor, from where fire walls were erected.
Those fire walls were dividing the paths, serving as hurdles if a practitioner wanted to go from a path to the other.
Seth tried to use his sealed cultivation base at the Qi Gathering late-stage realm to gauge the power of those fire walls. Just as his hand touched the jet of fire, his protective layer of Qi dissipated and his hand was instantly burned.
He swiftly retracted his hand and observed with amazement. If his body wasn't strengthened by the Seed of Tyranny, he could have lost his hand there.
Seth didn't give up on trying to test the strength of those walls. He released his entire cultivation and coated his hand with a protective layer of Mana, formed by his Mana Perception middle-stage realm.
This time, after putting his hand inside the jet of fire, he resisted for five whole seconds until all the Mana wrapping his hand was consumed.
He had an expression of pure amazement on his face.
"This actually poses a threat even to Mana realm cultivators." He voiced his thoughts.
"Seth, this place is incredible! I can feel the huge amount of spiritual energy here. Actually, even the quality of the energy around here is way greater than the places on the outside world. I suspect that with the quality of the Qi and Mana energies around, this should be considered a cultivation heaven." Lexi lively told him about her observations.
"Sigh... It's a pity that it will be opened for seven days only."
"Do not worry, hehe... While you search for what you need, I will make sure to absorb the spiritual energy and get some progress with my strength and memories." Lexi had a snobbish pose while thinking she would be able to enjoy all this for herself.
Now that Seth can also cultivate with spiritual energy, Lexi would have to split the resources with him, however, he was full of unfinished business to do, before even thinking of cultivating.
"Alright, I guess I'll try to feel where have Lilian gone to, with the mark I left on her."
Seth concentrated his soul, trying to find the signals from the mark and after long ten minutes he finally found a really thin trace. His sweat was covering his entire forehead and it was unknown if it was because of the heat or because of the amount of soul energy he had to use.
"What is this? It's so hard to trace her here. Actually, with the signals I received, I can only much tell which direction she went to, I can't point out her exact location."
"It should be expected, the laws within this place are way stronger than the laws of the outside world." Lexi was keeping her eye on every possible detail of this place.
"Laws? What are those?"
"Well... It doesn't matter for you right now, so it would be better for you to concentrate on your task. I'll close my senses now, so I can completely focus on absorbing this pure spiritual energy. Try to not bother me if it's not something serious." Lexi quickly sealed her perceptions, focusing on what was important.
"Now, I'm on my own again."
Seth parted towards the direction Lilian has gone to.
.
.
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Sect Master Huo, was leading that entourage of strong practitioners directly to the place where he found the special chamber.
He had the charted area and did not waste any time, moving straight to the place.
"Are we already there? Sect Master Huo?"
Every once in a while, some other important figure came forward to ask him if they were already at their destination. They were like a bunch of kids traveling with their parents, they were so impatient that they would ask if they had arrived at the destination every single minute.
'I guess they must be anxious about the divine treasure. Greed can invoke some desperate feelings inside the heart.'
"We are almost there." Sect Master Huo was not lying. They have traveled with their top speed for some hours already, they were getting close to the place.
In front of them, the jet of fire coming from the fissures, started to move in a different style. The fire swiftly converged, forming a huge ball of fire, that slowly took the shape of a golem.
"Another Fire Elemental! Get ready to fight!"
There were so many Mana Perception cultivators on the group, that it didn't take much time for them to quickly dispose of the Fire Elemental. They were relatively weak around here, so the group advanced smoothly while destroying them all.
After advancing for more one hour, following a complex path inside this labyrinth, where the walls were made of pure fire, the group saw a huge gate made of metal, standing hundred meters in front of them.
The gate was really exquisite. There were many phoenixes' pattern drawn in the metal gate. The building itself, was majestic like a palace hall and considering how luxurious the gate was, whatever was inside would be worth the travel.
"We arrived!" Sect Master Huo signaled for everyone to stop.
People looked towards the building, mesmerized by the style and the greed inside their hearts spiked up, thinking about the treasures inside.
Huo Shikai's aura almost went out of control, but he swiftly hid the fluctuations, not exposing his nature.
Sect Master Huo went a bit ahead and started to gather his strength for an attack.
"This is why I invited each one of you, esteemed guests."
His full strength gathered on his right hand, as he created a huge fire ball. With a quick motion of his hand, he sent it towards the gate.
About ten meters away from the exquisite gate, a huge explosion occurred, as the fireball was blocked by a red semi-transparent wall.
Boom!
There was a red shield covering the entire building. It didn't let anything trespass the area limit.
The practitioners gathered looked towards the seal and finally realized why they were invited to take part on this expedition. They finally understood that there would be no free lunch for them.
"I need your strength so we could enter that chamber and loot whatever is inside. I promise that my Blazing Phoenix sect won't treat anyone unjustly. If you come across a good treasure inside the chamber, we will not covet it. Even if it is the divine treasure!"
A commotion spread between the guests.
"Oh!"
"Sect Master Huo is really magnanimous!"
"As expected of our great leader!"
"Calm down! I do not deserve such words!" Huo Shihong appeased their emotions.
"This year, I took a bit of my precious time to study the information we gathered about this chamber until today. I realized that every attempt we had made before, was in vain. The shield won't even waver with the Mana Perception realm attacks done on it. So, for this time I decided to study about one of our sect ancient attack formations. It can hold a huge quantity of Mana and compress it for a greater power and effectiveness." Huo Shihong paused for a bit, letting the people digest the information.
"What kind of formation are you taking about?"
"It is a formation left behind by the ancestors of our sect. It's called Hellfire Cannon!"
"Never heard of it!"
"Do not worry, I will draw the formation and use every single resource needed to activate it. I will just need the cooperation of every single one of you, to help me on powering it up."
"Alright, we can do it!"
"I can only thank you for your cooperation then. Without further ado, I will start to prepare the formation. You can rest for the time."
Huo Shihong acted like a leader and directed their interests towards the formation that he would be drawing. He didn't waste any more time and started to place blue Skystones on the ground, scattering them around the area.
After that, he took a magical construct out of his spatial ring and placed it at the center. It seemed to be a robust cannon made of some special metals. He placed a red Skystone atop the cannon and started to chant some words.
"A red Skystone? That Skystone is really rare, Sect Master Huo should have paid a fortune to acquire one."
Skystones were recognized by their compatibility with Qi or Mana, making their value really high. Outside gold and silver, they were used to exchange things as well. Although, their value was astronomical.
In just a few seconds, the red Skystone started to vibrate drawing the energy of the other stones.
"t's time. Please, channel your energy and transfer it to the stones scattered around."
Each person went to a place and started to transfer their energies to the Skystones, while the red Skystone absorbed the huge flux of energy, gathering it inside the cannon.
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