Yanzhen's group finally got back to where Cao Yun had supposedly been waiting. Of course, they didn't know that he had been observing them to make sure they were safe. That being said, they had doubts about it. After all, they knew how talented Cao Yun was. In their eyes, he was an ancient monster who had taken human form. His abilities were mysterious and completely foreign to them. Ironically, their mastery of the Dao of Fire felt the same way for him.
Anyway, they returned with the prize. Jinyang was clearly trying to hide her injury, but Cao Yun would have seen it even if he had not witnessed the fight.
"Good. I will warn you. I might not be able to protect you in the depths of the Weeping Summits. If you sense real danger, fly back to the surface as fast as you can, without worrying about me. I will not repeat myself. Abandon me and fly back, no matter what."
His words were stern and very clear.
"If we're facing a threat that I cannot handle on my own, you have absolutely no chance whatsoever. Besides, you might hinder me more than anything. That being said, I'll give you this."
From his spatial ring, he took out three pill bottles and a small array formation plate.
"These pills are able to heal most injuries unless they're lethal. Even then, they will keep you stable for quite some time, hopefully enough for me to help you. And this array formation plate is a simple 4-star Human array formation called the Shadow Curtains. If you pour in your fire, it will trigger it. The plate will create an unbreakable barrier around you. How long it lasts depends on the attacks you're facing, but it will buy you more time nonetheless."
Then, Cao Yun talked to the twins in particular.
"I made a promise to your father to bring you back alive, so I forbid you from dying."
Finally, he looked at Yanzhen.
"If there is danger, protect them, but don't be a hero. You can't die either. Do everything you can to survive, everything. If you have to throw me away, do not hesitate. If you have to throw away your dignity, do not hesitate. Remember that other people depend on you, your life isn't your own."
Yanzhen didn't really like this. He would rather die than be humiliated. However, he had the twins to protect as well. In a sense, Cao Yun was right. But Yanzhen wouldn't accept all his words as truth. However, he bowed slightly and acted as though he had accepted everything.
"No matter what, I will protect Jinyang and Jinyue, Senior."
"Good. Against my better judgment, I'll take you with me into the depths of the Weeping Summits. Do not make me regret it. I don't want to have to announce a tragic piece of news to your Ancient Obsidian tribe."
Cao Yun had chosen this spot because his compass had shown him that it was a perfect place to enter the depths of the Weeping Summits. Ironically, the most important part of the Weeping Summits was underground, in its depths, not in the summits themselves.
Once the three Flameborns had the bottles and the plate, Cao Yun jumped into a rift, and they followed. They let themselves fall. As they got deeper and deeper, the air created intense pressure on them. The temperature was slowly rising, but it suddenly changed several times. It was as if they went through different realms or layers. Cao Yun also noticed that space itself was distorted. They slowed down, accelerated again, and then slowed down even more. It was incredibly bizarre. Of course, the pressure on them was also strange and varied several times. In fact, the atmosphere itself changed as there was barely any oxygen left in the air at some points, and too much in other layers.
At first, everything was darkness, but then, they saw a bright light shining from down below. Cao Yun immediately recognized what this was. For a moment, Cao Yun hesitated, unsure whether they should stop there or not, and it was an ocean of pure flames. By that time, they had been falling for almost the entire time of an incense stick. It was difficult to gauge their depth, but based on their average speed, they had probably fallen thirty li down below. This was a huge distance. Honestly, Cao Yun was worried that the Flameborns might not be able to make it back to the surface in time if an emergency occurred. They would need to keep that in mind.
With the light from the ocean of flames, they saw a very complex maze of caves and caverns. Here and there, they could see shadows moving in those exposed tunnels. Some were Flameborns who had decided not to descend too far, while others were clearly fire beasts. For a moment, Cao Yun hesitated whether they should stop there or not. Honestly, he was curious to see the very bottom of the Weeping Summits, but it occurred to him that there might literally be no bottom. As space was getting stranger, they might end up falling forever, or they might reach the very center of the Broken Fire World.
The idea appeared in Cao Yun's mind that they might reach the Pillar of the End of the World. Or at least, they would reach the interesting part of the Pillar of the End of the World, according to Emperor Nuwa.
Looking around, Cao Yun saw that the three Flameborns didn't seem to be worried or affected by the fall, so he decided to go deeper.
At last, they went through the ocean of pure flames. Although it was impressive, the heat wasn't enough to damage either Cao Yun or the Flameborns. In fact, they found it warm and pleasant. Cao Yun was still in a bit of pain while fighting off the heat, but the Flameborns felt an intimate sensation with those flames. Although they were born from the dao of Fire, they didn't sense this intimacy with just any flame. This was almost a religious experience for them.
After a few breaths, they left the ocean of flames and finally saw the ground. Less than five li below the ocean of flames, there was solid ground. It seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see with no visible rift to go any deeper into the Weeping Summits. Finally, the group reached the ground. They slowed down their fall at the last moment to prevent Cao Yun from sinking into the ground and the three Flameborns, whose bodies weren't as resistant as Cao Yun's flesh, from crushing their legs.
Honestly, this felt a bit strange. Indeed, they had a bright sky above their heads, the ocean of flames. Although the color and brightness were different, this reminded Cao Yun of an actual sky, not a perpetual cloud cover hiding any natural light. After all, the Sun itself was supposed to be an ocean of flames, it was just closer to them now.
In those depths, they could find the best ingredients of the Weeping Summits, but there was also a lot of danger. In fact, before they could even recover, they heard thunder.
The very next moment, a claw as long and large as a human body fell upon them. Its shadow was monstrous. Without any hesitation, Cao Yun took out his spear and stabbed upward. His spear completely shattered the claw, sending shards flying all over the place. The fire beast was gigantic. However, it was suddenly afraid of Cao Yun. The human let his killing intent pour out. The fire beast looked like a mole with scales and fur at the same time. Cao Yun couldn't even see its eyes, if it had eyes. Maybe it simply didn't have any eyes and was perceiving through other senses.
For an instant, the terrifying fire beast hesitated. It stayed immobile in front of Cao Yun. Somehow, Cao Yun could tell that it was sizing him up, but that it also paid attention to the other three meat bags behind him. Maybe it decided that the effort wasn't worth it. The fire beast jumped backward and flipped onto the ground. The moment its large frame touched the ground, it turned into magma. The enormous body disappeared into the liquid ground as it solidified behind it. As fast as it had appeared, the impressive creature disappeared.
To be honest, Cao Yun wasn't reassured at all. Indeed, it could come back at any moment. When he tried to send his spiritual senses through the ground, he realized that he could barely get in. His spiritual senses were blocked by fragments of Void Nurtured Platinum all over the place. In fact, the entire cave had Void Nurtured Platinum in the natural walls. In other words, it was almost impossible to spread spiritual senses through the walls of the cave. Sadly, it meant that Cao Yun's 'Ancient Veins in the Void' compass wouldn't be as effective as on the surface. In fact, this might be why it had been difficult to find Xianglao.
Anyway, Cao Yun's senses were still better than anyone else's on the Broken Fire World. However, Xianglao's sensation of the Dao of Fire was most likely better, so he would have an easier time finding treasures in this maze. Indeed, it was a gigantic maze fully open to the ocean of flames above. At the very least, they could easily fly back to the surface even if it took time. However, they decided not to explore the maze by flying. After all, they didn't know what kinds of threats were present, and they didn't want to show themselves as targets unless it was necessary.
Although his 'Ancient Veins in the Void' compass was less useful, it didn't mean that Cao Yun couldn't get anything out of it. Thus, he used it and tried to find the best direction to find precious materials while avoiding threats. The group walked for quite some time.
They found the dead roots of a tree. The roots alone suggested that the tree had been as tall as the maze, maybe even taller. It had probably reached the ocean of flames five li above. For Cao Yun, this wasn't that impressive because he had seen a world tree, but for the Flameborns, this was incredible. They rested there for some time while Cao Yun studied the roots. It was difficult to tell what had destroyed the tree, but he felt something familiar.
Studying the roots, Cao Yun was shocked. This was only a fragment of a root. In reality, the tree was much bigger than that, and Cao Yun realized that this wasn't just any tree. Most likely, this was the Withering Fusang Tree. Or, at the very least, it was a similar tree, maybe from the same kind. What truly amazed Cao Yun was that he couldn't tell how those roots had died. Obviously, if he could find a way to harm or even kill the Withering Fusang Tree, Cao Yun had to seize it.
While the three Flameborns were resting, he took out an axe he had obtained from Ren Chao and tried to hack at the roots. Despite all of his strength, he barely left a dent. In fact, the axe seemed to have suffered more than the root itself. Honestly, this was genuinely terrifying. If even a dead part of the Withering Fusang Tree was so resistant, he could imagine the threat of the actual tree. Nonetheless, he kept on striking and striking. It made a lot of noise, so Cao Yun used a small array formation to make the air still. Barely any noise could echo from Cao Yun's surroundings.
After a lot of effort, Cao Yun was finally able to extract a splinter from the root. This wasn't much, but this was still something. Even Cao Yun was physically exhausted after this work, but he was quite happy to have at least obtained something. Although it wasn't much, it was still something. Afterward, he wanted to experiment a little. From deep within himself, he summoned his Black Heart Flame. With little hesitation, he poured some of the Black Heart Flame into the root. The flames licked the surface of the root but couldn't actually set it on fire. Using the small hole he had dug in the root, Cao Yun tried to focus his Black Heart Flame while using all of his knowledge of the Dao of Fire.
For several hours, Cao Yun remained immobile, focusing solely on the Black Heart Flame. Since his Dao of Fire was not enough, he turned to his Dao of Death. Most of his soul had been converted into Death Energy. The Flameborns who were now awake were terrified by the sight. Their senior looked dead. He was as pale as a corpse, and perfectly still. In fact, he wasn't even breathing. If they hadn't seen his manipulation of the Black Heart Flame, they would have believed him to be dead.
As he was focusing his Black Heart Flame, Cao Yun circulated his knowledge of the Dao of Death. Hymns from the 'Death Verses' were flooding his mind. Slowly, he felt a faint sensation. However, it didn't seem to come directly from the root itself.
Since Cao Yun couldn't penetrate the root, he decided to focus on that other sensation. It felt extremely familiar, but he couldn't place it at all. Sadly, as he focused his mind, the sensation faded.
He wasn't completely sure, but it felt as though the root was another kind of portal. Maybe someone had used it some time ago. That being said, it wasn't Demon God Da Mo. It was another sensation, and Cao Yun wasn't even sure where that portal led. To be fair, he wasn't even sure of his interpretation. He simply couldn't imagine anything else.
Unfortunately, the sensation was gone, so he had no way of figuring out the truth. Besides, time was extremely strange between the realms, so he couldn't even tell how long ago it had been used. In other words, he knew nothing.
Afterward, Cao Yun decided to focus on the root once more. He was a bit stubborn and hoped to understand something, anything at all. His Black Heart Flame was slowly piercing the root, but it was so slow that Cao Yun would have had to keep on going for years to actually do any damage to the root.
No matter how much he focused, Cao Yun couldn't pierce the root faster. He was unsure what to do as he didn't have all the time in the world. Suddenly, he felt something behind him.