Soaring the Heavens

Miao Yi and Xue'Er couldn't see Yao Ruoxian's expression from their angle, and they simply thought that Qian'Er's reaction was a little funny. It seemed she was a little agitated.

Originally, Qian'Er had placed those lion statues in front of Miao Yi's sleeping quarters. She seemed to think that they looked mighty and impressive. However, not only did Charcoal feel annoyed at these stone statues for taking up his sleeping spot, even Miao Yi himself complained that they looked terrible. Of course, he didn't know that it was Qian'Er who placed them there at first, and as he walked in and out of his sleeping quarters, he casually commented: "It looks like all these butt-kissers in Raincloud Manor have a problem with their taste as well. I can't believe they don't feel ashamed about sending me something that looks so lousy."

As such, Qian'Er hurriedly, but quietly shifted those lion statues away. After which, Xue'Er secretly informed Miao Yi that it was actually Qian'Er who bought them. Realizing that he had misspoken, Miao Yi hastily praised the lion statues in an effort to get Qian'Er to place them back, but she never did. He never thought that she had actually shifted them to Yao Ruoxian's front door.

She was probably trying to regain some dignity through Yao Ruoxian. Unexpectedly, Yao Ruoxian also complained that it looked terrible. If even a slovenly old man like Yao Ruoxian said it looked lousy, then evidently everyone shared the same belief that Qian'Er's tastes were bad. Charcoal the animal thought it looked bad, Miao Yi also thought it looked horrible, and now even the slovenly old man Yao Ruoxian was complaining. How did they expect a woman to feel about this? Of course, she would be agitated!

Yao Ruoxian didn't notice this at all. He simply walked over to the lion statue with widened eyes, touching the crystalline Qilin head on top of it. He even climbed on top and took a few whiffs. Astonished, he asked, "My daughter, where did you get this from? Was it a gift from a subordinate?"

Qian'Er simply looked at the clouds and kept quiet.

Seeing how concerned Yao Ruoxian was, Miao Yi seemed to realize that this could be something serious. He walked over and explained, "I was the one who gave it to her. Is something wrong?"

Among the massive heap of stuff he brought back from the Subjugation Crusade, he gave all those that were inconvenient to carry around to the two young ladies, like the several thousand storage rings. Besides those, there was also the unbelievably plentiful stash of living necessities, which he had Qian'Er and Xue'Er pass to Yan Xiu to distribute to the impoverished civilians of his vassal city.

"It's from you?" Yao Ruoxian turned to Miao Yi and asked, "Kid, don't you know what this thing is?"

Miao Yi touched the crystal Qilin head and said, "This thing is actually pretty amazing because it can repel fire. I had Qian'Er take it to some artisans and got them to make a few fire-repelling accessories to carry around. After all, you never know when you might need something like this. At least this way, the girls will be safer."

Yao Ruoxian waited for Miao Yi to continue explaining. However, that was already the extent of his knowledge. There was no further explanation. Hearing the casualness in the other party's tone, Yao Ruoxian's expression twitched slightly, and he asked, "Where did you get it from?"

"From the Sea of Constellations." Miao Yi stopped for a moment, before continuing, "It was from a decoration in front of the Supreme Fire Palace's gates. I chopped its head off and brought it back."

"Supreme Fire Palace?" Yao Ruoxian asked curiously, "What kind of place is that?"

"Even you don't know about the Supreme Fire Palace?" Miao Yi was surprised.

Yao Ruoxian rolled his eyes and retorted, "Do you think I know every little thing there is to know? The world is a big place. There are plenty of things that I have no knowledge about. Cut the chatter. Where did you get it from exactly? This is just the head of the statue. After this, I'll figure out a way to bring back the whole thing."

Miao Yi suddenly sized up the old man with a surprised look on his face. He clicked his tongue and said, "Old man, are you sure you can bring the whole statue back?"

Yao Ruoxian scoffed, "If it's somewhere even you can venture into, then obviously I can do it too. Judging by the size of the head, it shouldn't be too difficult to carry the whole statue back."

"That's true. Your cultivation is much higher than mine, after all." Miao Yi nodded repeatedly, then egged on the other party as he fervently continued, "Go then! The Western Constellations Master Fu Qing has nine Supreme Yao Lords under his command, one of which is called Lie Huan, who stays in Skyfire Mountain. Within Skyfire Mountain, there's a place called the Supreme Fire Palace. That's where Supreme Yao Lord Lie Huan resides. I'll let you in on a little something as well. He has more than one Qilin statue. It's actually one half of a pair that's placed in front of the palace gates of Lie Huan's private residence. Oh also, the entire Supreme Fire Palace is made out of this material. It'll be too easy for you to just carry one or two Qilin statues back. You should just take the entire Supreme Fire Palace with you instead."

"..." Yao Ruoxian was a little dazed by what he heard, and his mouth had involuntarily fallen agape for quite a while. He mumbled, "Supreme Yao Lord Lie Huan…" His body inadvertently shivered as he said the name. Clearly, he was quaking from fear. It seemed he had heard stories of Lie Huan's might as well.

As he snapped back to reality, Yao Ruoxian looked a little embarrassed, and he barked at Miao Yi, "Are you kidding me, brat? Supreme Yao Lord Lie Huan is someone who can cross fists with Ghost Sage Situ Xiao and still be able to retreat in one piece. He's a genuine Golden Lotus cultivator! You're asking me to go steal from his palace? Any one of his subordinates can utterly destroy me. Are you trying to kill me?!"

Miao Yi teased, "You were the one who said you wanted to bring the whole statue back. Why are you blaming me now?"

"..." Yao Ruoxian had no words to refute. He waved his hand and continued, "Stop talking nonsense. How did you manage to enter Supreme Yao Lord Lie Huan's palace?"

Miao Yi sighed and answered, "Through the Subjugation Crusade, of course!"

Yao Ruoxian was stupefied. However, realization soon struck as he said, "Of course! They had to be shifted out during that period of time! No, that's not right. Even if there wasn't anyone there, there's no way that Supreme Yao Lord Lie Huan's home is someplace that anyone can just waltz into. There must be some kind of major protection array placed upon the area. How did you manage to venture inside with your cultivation?!"

'I didn't want to talk about this, yet it still managed to make its way back into the conversation!' Miao Yi turned his head around with a pained expression on his face, then answered, "I didn't want to go inside either. However, at the time, I was being chased by my enemies and was forced to run to Skyfire Mountain. You have no idea how miserable the state I was in back then—I even had to chop off one of my own legs. As I was slowly backed into a corner, with no way of retreat, I had no choice but to jump into the mouth of the volcano that is Skyfire Mountain. Back then, I didn't know there was a major array within the sea of flames underneath, and I lost consciousness soon after I jumped in. When I came to, I realized that I'd already fallen down to the Supreme Fire Palace, and my whole body was burnt to a blackened crisp. It was then that I used up the immortal herb. That feeling of clawing your way back to life… Even now, my skin crawls whenever I think about it!"

As they listened to Miao Yi's story, Qian'Er and Xue'Er couldn't help covering their mouths as tears streamed down their cheeks. They didn't need to imagine to know how painful that must have been!

Yao Ruoxian couldn't help sighing either, and said, "It looks like you endured some hardship in the Sea of Constellations indeed."

It was so much more than just enduring some hardship. With Miao Yi's cultivation at the time, it was out of sheer luck that he managed to survive through to the end. Back then, if he hadn't calmly dealt with the situation and recruited a large number of people back on the ship, he would've died at the hands of the three major sects the moment he set foot on dry land. Moreover, if he hadn't carried the tiny mantids around with him, and broken through the Demon Refining Gourd, he would've been killed by Bai Ziliang.

Miao Yi smiled bitterly and said, "It's not all bad that I fell into the Supreme Fire Palace. At least no one could come in from the outside. I managed to spend most of the Subjugation Crusade hiding inside the Supreme Fire Palace and cultivating. If I had been outside, who knows what kind of danger I would get into? After all, bumping into another person usually ended up being a fight to the death in that damned place. If I got myself wrapped up in something like that, I really might have died in the Sea of Constellations."

Truth be told, Miao Yi sometimes felt a little grateful that the Six Sages had sent representatives to participate in the Subjugation Crusade. Otherwise, even if he did get through the early stages safely, he'd still have to fight against the remaining experts in the later stages—he probably wouldn't survive the whole ordeal even if he joined forces with Gu Sanzheng and the others. Regardless of how skilled he was with the spear, with transcendent artifacts flying around in the chaos, the outcome was easy to figure out. Miao Yi could imagine how bloody it must've been during the final stretch of previous Subjugation Crusades. All the participants would be assembled together, with no way of backing out, and they would all be forced to fight to the death. And for the sake of survival, they would use any and every method in their arsenal, no matter how underhanded it may be. Undoubtedly, that would be a terrifying place indeed. This time, however, because the representatives of the Six Sages had changed the rules slightly, he was able to narrowly escape with his life.

The Sea of Constellations Subjugation Crusade was a terrifying site of carnage and bloodshed to begin with. This much was public knowledge! Yao Ruoxian shook his head, refraining from dwelling on the topic any further. Otherwise, the girls probably wouldn't stop crying. He turned around and removed the giant Qilin head that was over the stone lion statue. As he flipped it over, he suddenly widened his eyes at the hollow Qilin head and exclaimed in shock. He then asked, "Why is the carving on the inside so crude?"

Miao Yi answered, "It's not that the carving is crude. It was originally solid all the way through, but I dug out the insides."

"What?!" Yao Ruoxian immediately stomped his feet in anger and asked, "You're saying you hollowed out so much of the insides? What happened to the pieces you scraped out then?"

Miao Yi casually replied, "I just tossed them away."

"You…" Yao Ruoxian felt a sudden urge to smack this kid in the head and send him to his grave on the spot. He quickly placed the Qilin head back on the lion statue, then pointed a finger at Miao Yi's nose and scolded, "Kid, do you have any idea what this thing is? It's the rare Supreme Fire Crystal that one can only dream of getting! You rotten child! You managed to obtain this after almost losing your life, and you're telling me you tossed most of it away just like that?! You bastard, why didn't you just get burned to death in the Supreme Fire Palace?!"

Seeing how Yao Ruoxian was flaring up, Xue'Er hastily walked forward to mediate, asking, "Father, what is a Supreme Fire Crystal?"

Still feeling incredibly irritated, Yao Ruoxian explained, "It's the crystallized essence of a flame!"

"Flames can turn into solid crystals?" Astonished, Xue'Er placed a hand on the crystalline Qilin head and asked, "Then why does it feel so cold to the touch? It's almost like a block of ice!"

"Oh, my daughter! Have you not heard that the elements take contrasting forms when pushed to their extremities? This thing is the product from a site of exceedingly high heat, thus it's called the Supreme Fire Crystal. Meanwhile, an example of something on the other side of the spectrum would be the Frostflame."

"Frostflame? Ice can turn into fire as well?"

"My daughter, I told you that the elements take contrasting forms when pushed to their extremities. Since a site of intense heat is able to form ice, a site of absolute frost can naturally give birth to flames as well. However, this type of flame is quite different than most flames. The common flames that we usually see are known as Yang Fire, whereas flames such as the Frostflame or Ghostfire are called Yin Fire."

Miao Yi's interest was immediately piqued by this. 'If I could absorb the spiritual essence from Yang Fire to increase my cultivation speed, I wonder if I could do the same with Yin Fire. If it's possible, then what would happen if I put these spiritual essences of contrasting natures together?' He couldn't help asking, "What would happen if you combine Yang Fire and Yin Fire together?"

Yao Ruoxian replied with an annoyed tone, "Obviously, Yin and Yang would counteract one another and kill a fire-type cultivation art practitioner like you!"

Miao Yi sheepishly rubbed his own nose, knowing that the old man still resented him for throwing away the Supreme Fire Crystal. He couldn't help wondering how much it cost. However, at the time, with the Supreme Fire Palace looking like it was about to collapse, there was simply no room for hesitation in order to save himself.

The two young ladies couldn't bear to see Miao Yi being reprimanded. Qian'Er hastily jumped in and tried to change the topic, asking, "Father! What can this Supreme Fire Crystal be used for?"

"It's got plenty of uses! Didn't you hear the kid say it can repel flames? Do you know about the Fire-Repelling Pearl? It's made of the same material as this Qilin head, only carved into the shape of a bead." Yao Ruoxian pointed to the crystalline Qilin head and explained.

Xue'Er smiled and said, "Yes, I do know about the Fire-Repelling Pearl. I've also heard of the Water-Repelling Pearl and Dust-Repelling Pearl."

Yao Ruoxian rolled his eyes and said, "Those are another two types out of the five elemental attributes. Naturally, the Supreme Fire Crystal falls under the fire element. Meanwhile, the Water-Repelling Pearl is made from the Supreme Water Crystal, whereas the Dust-Repelling Pearl is made from the Supreme Earth Crystal. There is also the Supreme Wood Crystal and Supreme Metal Crystal. All five of these are very suitable to be used as the formation core of a transcendent artifact."