Chapter 9: The Ring and the Mysterious Flame Map

Wei Yang picked up the ring and examined it carefully.

It was a simple, ancient-looking black ring with some mysterious patterns on its surface.

He tried to sense it with his soul, and immediately felt a surge of excitement.

«It's a storage ring!»

«I knew it! For a strong fighter at least at the level of Dou Huang, it wouldn't make sense not to leave a storage ring behind.»

«So that's how it is!»

«The senior had even prepared the pit. After someone benefits from the treasures outside and thinks about burying the senior's bones, they would only need to carefully observe the cracks and stones under the chair in this stone chamber to find this ring.»

«Digging up the stone pit… naturally, they would find this storage ring. Then, when tidying up the bones for burial, if lucky, they might discover the fragment of the Pure Lotus Demonic Flame map inside the arm bones…»

«According to the original description, the arm bones are slightly heavier because of the map fragment. If one is careful, they can notice it!»

«This… is really a meticulous setup!»

Wei Yang couldn't help but be speechless, glancing at the pile of bones.

This senior must have been a seasoned strategist.

He had calculated everything, including human nature.

Really.

Sigh

Taking a deep breath, Wei Yang refocused his attention on the storage ring in his hand.

As he extended his soul power into the ring, he found no resistance within. Due to the passage of time and the original owner's death, it was now an ownerless ring.

So, Wei Yang's soul power easily entered the ring, exploring its space.

It was a space of about three hundred square meters with a height of about three stories.

As Wei Yang's senses swept through, he saw everything inside.

There weren't many items, just some jade bottles and boxes.

After checking, Wei Yang found most of them empty.

With a thought, he retrieved all the jade bottles and boxes that seemed to contain something, placing dozens of them on the ground.

He opened one jade bottle and found only some gray powder inside.

From this powder, he deduced that the bottle had once contained pills, but due to the long passage of time, the pills had lost their potency and turned to residue.

Wei Yang proceeded to open the rest of the bottles and boxes, finding similar results.

Whether pills or herbs, they had all lost their medicinal power over time, leaving only remnants.

«What a pity,» Wei Yang sighed, shaking his head.

But he quickly composed himself, not dwelling on it further.

He had already gained much and didn't want to be too greedy.

Wei Yang stored everything back in the ring, including the fragment of the Pure Lotus Demonic Flame map, and other items.

Wearing the ring on his index finger, Wei Yang continued to explore its contents, checking for anything he might have missed.

Soon, he discovered something new.

«What is this?»

With a thought, he retrieved an ancient-looking black scroll from the ring.

Unfurling it, he found it was a map.

A map that emitted a strange aura.

Wei Yang examined it carefully.

Quickly, he identified some locations based on the place names marked on the map.

«This is the Magic Beast Mountain Range, and this is the Tagore Desert?»

Following the map's route, Wei Yang realized it led deep into the uninhabited areas of the Tagore Desert.

Perhaps even deeper than he had imagined, as the route seemed to penetrate deep into the endless sea of sand.

That area had long surpassed the Serpent People's territory and continued into unknown depths, said to be an absolute life-forbidden zone.

Such places, even the Serpent People might not have ventured into, let alone explored.

Seeing this, Wei Yang couldn't help but take a deep breath, continuing to examine the map.

At the map's end, there was a red circle with a crimson skull symbol inside, looking eerie and chilling.

Beside the skull was a black flame symbol, seemingly flickering and burning.

This black flame appeared very lifelike, as if a black sun was burning, giving off an intense heat.

The strange aura emanating from the map was coming from this flame symbol.

«A flame that looks like a black sun? This doesn't resemble any flame on the Heavenly Flame Ranking.»

«A black sun-like flame… it's not Void Swallowing Flame, nor Nine Nether Ghost Flame, and certainly not Three Thousand Burning Flame… what is this flame?»

«Void Swallowing Flame can be ruled out first, as it's with the Soul Clan and already has a human form, comparable to the peak of Dou Sheng.»

«And Void Swallowing Flame ranks second, like the Pure Lotus Demonic Flame, unique in the world, with no duplicates in the Dou Qi continent.»

Wei Yang pondered over the twenty-three kinds of heavenly flames described in the original work, but none seemed to match.

«Could it be a completely new, unknown heavenly flame?» Wei Yang thought.

It's not entirely impossible.

Each heavenly flame requires an incredibly long time to form. The existence of an undiscovered one isn't out of the question.

Heavenly flames are formed by the forces of nature, taking hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of years to become complete.

After thinking for a long time without finding any clues, Wei Yang decided not to dwell on it and carefully stored the map depicting the unknown flame.

There was no point in overthinking it now. The area was deep within the endless sea of sand, in a life-forbidden zone.

He could explore it slowly once he had enough strength in the future.

…

Wei Yang carefully placed the bones into the stone pit, covering them with broken stones, creating a small burial mound.

After finishing this, he respectfully bowed to the simple grave, «Junior is deeply grateful for the senior's bestowed opportunity…»

Wei Yang's heart was indeed full of gratitude.

This chance encounter and its rewards would significantly smooth his future path.

Gaining the gifts of predecessors naturally required a heart of gratitude.

After paying his respects, Wei Yang stood up and began to collect the other items in the stone chamber.

First, he stored the three piles of gold coins and jewels into the ring.

Then he went to the corner flowerbed, taking out jade bottles, boxes, and a small jade shovel from the ring, carefully digging up and storing the dozens of herbs.

Sigh

After completing these tasks, Wei Yang let out a sigh of relief, then returned to the stone table, frowning slightly at the colorful poison scripture.

After some thought, he finally decided to take the poison scripture, along with the three stone boxes and the key, into the ring.

«Senior, I apologize for disturbing your rest. Junior will now leave… I will destroy the passageway outside to ensure no one else disturbs your eternal rest…»

After respectfully bowing again, Wei Yang turned and left.

Outside the stone chamber, he activated the mechanism.

Hiss

The stone door slowly descended, sealing the stone chamber behind.

Then Wei Yang's hands glowed with Dou Qi, his fingers like claws, he began to destroy the nearby cave walls.

As stones fell, the stone door gradually became buried.

…

It took three days for Wei Yang to completely destroy the entire passageway, burying it with endless stones.

The entrance to the cave also returned to its original state, covering all traces.

(End of Chapter)