Chapter 26: Searching for the Heavenly Flames

In the vast desert, the wind and sand raged ceaselessly.

During the day, the Tageer Desert was always accompanied by scorching sunlight and relentless sandstorms. But when night fell, the temperature plummeted, with many places dropping below freezing.

A streak of black and red light sped across the sky, heading eastward. Within half an hour, the streak finally arrived over a stretch of desert about a hundred miles from Stone Desert City and came to a slow stop.

Wei Yang, holding Ye Xian'er in his arms, gently flapped the black wings on his back, hovering high in the sky, overlooking the terrain below. The landscape appeared no different from other places in the desert, possessing the same monotonous appearance.

Looking down at the map in his hand, it was drawn with meticulous clarity, marking the distribution of cities, water sources, oases, and even areas frequently haunted by the Snake-people tribe.

Wei Yang compared it to the original story, where Xiao Yan had found the underground passage about a hundred miles east of the city. But looking at the vast stretch of yellow sand below, finding a passage to the underground seemed an enormous challenge.

Wei Yang closed his eyes, carefully sensing the fire attribute energy around him. Soon, he opened his eyes and softly said, "The fire attribute energy here is no different, just like other places."

Then, he flapped his wings and left, moving to another area to continue sensing. After half a day, he finally stopped for a short rest, having not sensed any unusual fire attribute energy in numerous regions.

Ye Xian'er, in his arms, took out a water pouch and handed it over, "Brother Yang, have some water first."

"Okay." Wei Yang smiled, took the water pouch, and drank several gulps.

"Brother Yang, I checked carefully. We've almost explored the areas nearby." Xian'er held a map with a jade-like hand, pointing in a direction, "We haven't checked over there yet."

"Okay, Xian'er is great." Wei Yang put away the water pouch and kissed Xianer's forehead, then flapped his wings and flew towards the direction she pointed.

As dusk fell, Wei Yang and Xian'er returned to Stone Desert City empty-handed. The following three days yielded no results.

Until the fifth day, near the afternoon, Wei Yang finally had a discovery. "The fire attribute energy here is somewhat unusual, slightly denser than in other places and a bit more violent."

Just stepping into this area, Wei Yang's strong spiritual perception sharply detected a slight difference without much careful sensing.

"Xian'er, we might have found something," Wei Yang said with a smile.

"Hmm." Ye Xian'er, hanging onto Wei Yang, snuggled closer in his arms, slowly nodded her head upon hearing the words.

Holding Xian'er, Wei Yang swooped down, slowing down as he neared the ground and ultimately landed steadily on a sand dune. He retracted his black wings, closed his eyes, and carefully confirmed that there was indeed some anomaly here.

"Brother Yang, how do you know there must be a strange flame near Stone Desert City?" Ye Xian'er, still clinging to Wei Yang, asked curiously, not wanting to come down.

"Someone told me." Wei Yang smiled mysteriously, without explaining further. 

Ye Xian'er pouted in slight dissatisfaction, her small face puffing up like a bun. "Don't stick around, come down now." Wei Yang chuckled and kissed her puffed cheek, then patted her gently on her small bottom.

With time, the little girl became increasingly attached to him, especially here in the unfamiliar Tageer Desert. After she got down, Wei Yang ruffled her face and tidied her somewhat messy hair. Ye Xian'er's eyes squinted, enjoying Wei Yang's attentive actions with a smile.

Then, Wei Yang moved to the side, closed his eyes slightly, and his clothes and long hair moved without any breeze. A powerful soul force surged from between his brows and spread toward the surroundings.

At this moment, Wei Yang seemed to have opened a god-like perspective; everything around him, within the scope of his soul power, could be 'seen' clearly in a way completely different from with naked eyes.

Opening this perspective, he seemed to have 'seen' another world. On the surface and in the air, there was fire-red fire attribute energy everywhere.

And underneath the ground, there was earthy yellow earth attribute energy, vast and expansive, like an endless sea of sand. Majestic and boundless!

The energy was never-ending. Next, Wei Yang channeled his soul power, condensing it and then boring into the yellow sand beneath his feet.

As the soul force, now narrowed into a line, drilled underground, Wei Yang finally 'saw' an earthy yellow world, where his soul power was distinctly suppressed. As his soul strength continued penetrating further, the suppression intensified, causing rapid consumption of his soul power.

Penetrating ten meters, twenty meters... fifty meters, and then a hundred meters... moments later, Wei Yang retracted his extended soul power and rubbed his brow in some fatigue. The soul power had gone nearly two hundred meters deep underground, yet all it saw was an earthy yellow world with nothing else uncovered.

Moreover, this depth had reached the current limit of Wei Yang's soul power penetration. "Looks like it's not here," Wei Yang shook his head.

"Brother Yang," Ye Xian'er walked over, her face full of concern.

"I'm fine." Wei Yang smiled and ruffled her hair. 

"Let's move to another place." After resting for a while, Wei Yang took her small hand and led her forward. 

The Green Lotus Core Flame resided deep within the earth's magma. Born from the depths of molten lava and tempered by countless refinements, fusions, compression, and sculpting by the earth's fire... it takes ten years to become sentient, a hundred years to take shape, and a thousand years to form into a lotus. At its culmination, its color turns blue with a blossom of green flame at its lotus heart, named the Green Lotus Flame, also known as the Green Lotus Core Flame.

Therefore, Wei Yang now sought a place filled with fire attribute energy within the earth's magma. Just earlier, his soul power penetrated over two hundred meters underground, yet he only encountered an earthy yellow energy world without abundant fire attribute energy.

Such a place certainly did not meet what he sought. Taking Ye Xian'er to relocate, Wei Yang once again used his soul power to delve underground. Having identified a rough area, now was the time to conduct meticulous inch-by-inch exploration.

Time slowly slipped away. Near dusk, as Wei Yang retrieved his soul force from beneath the ground once more, his mind was plagued by bouts of dizziness, leaving his body unstable and nearly toppling over.

Seeing this, the ever-watching Ye Xian'er rushed to support him, anxiously asking, "Brother Yang, are you alright?"

Wei Yang shook his head and closed his eyes to rest before opening them again. Despite the evident fatigue in his eyes, he placed one hand on Xian'er's shoulder and rubbed his brow with the other, his voice somewhat hoarse as he said, "I'm fine, just a bit exhausted from overusing soul power."

Reflecting internally, he realized that even knowing the plot and the target, locating it wasn't as easy as expected.

Moreover, another thought crossed his mind. His current soul power strength shouldn't trail Medusa's by much, right? While he had a predefined goal and clues, it was still tough to track down.

So how had Medusa found it? Considering this place was merely a hundred miles from Stone Desert City, categorizing it within the Jia Ma Empire's sphere of influence and a buffer zone between the Snake-people tribe and humans, could Medusa have explored the entire desert inch by inch?

If so... that crazy woman!

Thinking about Medusa possibly wandering the desert at this moment, like him, constantly sensing changes in fire attribute energy, occasionally using soul power to explore underground, he found himself wordless. Of course, it didn't rule out her having pieces of information.

After all, even Hai Bodong had a clue regarding the Green Lotus Core Flame, so Medusa having one too wasn't surprising.