That was a strain of flame from the millennium earthcore fire! Xiang Shaoyun's energy barrier was instantly destroyed as the flame tried to get into direct contact with his body. The sudden change gave Xiang Shaoyun a great fright. He had just personally witnessed the millennium earthcore fire burn two people to a crisp a little while ago.
Xiang Shaoyun quickly took out the coldstar stone and unleashed the final power of frost it still had to resist the invading flame. At the same time, he fully released the power of the icesnow fruit, forming a layer of frost on his body. It saved him from being instantly burned by the millennium earthcore fire.
What to do? What to do? Xiang Shaoyun asked himself anxiously. He was clear that after catching the attention of the millennium earthcore fire, it would be very hard for him to flee. He had to think of a way to break himself free. Apart from Xiang Shaoyun, others who hadn't obtained the millennium earthcore fire's approval were attacked as well.
"Ahhhh!"
Miserable wails started ringing in the air as three of them were instantly lit on fire. The Cloud Margin Pavilion overseer, Qian Chen, was among the three. Of the three, only one of them had been able to survive relying on an ice elemental treasure. However, the moment he left the crater, he was surrounded by a large number of flame beasts. His ultimate survival was rather unlikely.
It was clear that the millennium earthcore fire was not intending to let those coveting it to leave. Only those who won its approval would have a chance to leave alive. Xiang Shaoyun couldn't be bothered to pay attention to anyone else as he himself was in deep trouble. He kept thinking, formulating numerous plans to save himself from his predicament.
The Nether Soul Domain within his head did not have the ability to control or resist flame. That was the same for the Nether Dragon Soul Headband. The only thing he had that could resist the power of the millennium earthcore fire was his innate purple lightning. However, he wouldn't be able to maintain an energy barrier powered by his lightning bone for long, as his cultivation level was still too low.
If his cultivation level was two or three stages higher, the innate purple lightning would be on an entirely different level. At that time, this kind of environment would pose him no trouble at all.
Just as Xiang Shaoyun was about to give up and try to run, he caught a glimpse of the human skin in his astral cosmos sea. It was the human skin he had obtained at the Blackhill Sect's mine with Dong Ziwan.
On the human skin were some characters of an ancient language Xiang Shaoyun couldn't understand, which was why he had ignored the skin all this while. He had decided to figure out the meanings of the characters when he had the chance in the future.
For some reason, he suddenly thought of that skin. Perhaps it was because he had suddenly recalled how the skin had survived an attack of his saber and was completely fine even after being burned. It was quite clear that the skin was not as simple as it looked.
"F*ck it, I'll have to give it a try." Xiang Shaoyun decided to throw caution to the wind and do whatever he could. He took out the human skin and draped it over his body.
The skin was elastic, and like a leather jacket, it wrapped around Xiang Shaoyun's body. The moment the human skin was taken out, the flame in the surroundings was no longer able to harm Xiang Shaoyun. In fact, the flame seemed to have some sort of instinctual fear as it quickly retreated from the skin.
"It works!" Xiang Shaoyun was overjoyed, and the realization calmed him down. Just a moment ago, he was still so anxious he was sweating madly. Now, he finally had a way of protecting himself.
Unfortunately, he had been too optimistic. The millennium earthcore fire seemed to hold a grudge, and it immediately sent the flame beasts at him.
"Bastard! Are you not giving me any chance at all?" Xiang Shaoyun cursed. Without any hesitation, he started climbing up the crater. He would think of his next step after escaping it. However, the flame beasts moved faster than him. They started spitting terrifying tongues of flame at him.
Xiang Shaoyun had his back against the beasts. Although he could sense the incoming attacks, he had no way of avoiding them since he was still climbing the wall. Just as he braced himself to be hit by the attacks, the tongues of flame actually stopped when they reached him and split to the sides, leaving him unharmed.
"Huh? I'm fine?" Xiang Shaoyun was thoroughly astonished.
It was at this moment that a new round of attacks began, and an even more intense bombardment of flame came at him from the flame beasts. Something amazing then happened. The tongues of flame all stopped and split to the sides upon reaching Xiang Shaoyun, not harming him at all.
"The human skin is immune to the flame!" Xiang Shaoyun was overjoyed when he reached this conclusion.
At that realization, a crazy thought surfaced in his head—to launch a counterattack at the earthcore fire. Thus, with the human skin draped over him, he turned around and swung his saber at the flame beasts. He was now immune to the flame beasts, but they were not immune to him.
"Die!" Xiang Shaoyun shouted.
His mighty saber energies shot out accompanied by an unparalleled saber intent, killing one flame beast after another.
Rumble! Rumble!
His actions created a series of explosions in the crater, putting the people there in an even greater panic.
"Bastard! Leave right now or I won't spare you!" Huo Linfei was the first to shout at Xiang Shaoyun.
They were all busy refining the strains of power sent by the millennium earthcore fire. Thus, they couldn't do anything else. What Xiang Shaoyun did angered them greatly.
The monk also spoke, "Amitabha, benefactor, it is not your fate to obtain the earthcore fire. Please leave."
Chen Zilong said, "Only those fated to obtain the earthcore fire will get it. Just leave first. I will battle you after taming the earthcore fire!"
"All of you think the earthcore fire is already yours? Hah! It belongs to this young master!" Xiang Shaoyun said with a mad glint in his eyes.
He had decided to throw all caution to the wind. With the immunity granted to him by the human skin, he could try going all the way to the earthcore fire and harvest it by force. The moment he made that decision, he stopped climbing and started sliding down the wall again.
This millennium earthcore fire already had a certain amount of intelligence. It was definitely not only 1,000 years old. It must have been forming for several millennia. A millennium earthcore fire like this had a chance to reach the next level, and it had an astonishing destructive power compared to other millennium earthcore fires.
Xiang Shaoyun couldn't be bothered to consider if he could even subdue the fire. He only wanted to borrow the power of its flame to refine the white tiger's bone into his saber. When the millennium earthcore fire saw what he was doing, it sent a large number of flame beasts toward him.
The flame beasts charged ahead fearlessly, sending an unending stream of fire attacks at Xiang Shaoyun. It reached a point he started wondering if the human skin could survive that kind of bombardment. Fortunately, the human skin did not disappoint, as it survived all the attacks.
Xiang Shaoyun became incomparably excited as he charged downward and attacked fearlessly. Wielding his saber, he killed one flame beast after another. The explosions from the deaths did nothing to him. Instead, the others were the ones to suffer.
And thus, chaos erupted in the crater.