Beneath a sky of low-hanging leaden clouds, the wind, laden with ice crystals, swept across the surface, honing the gray-black gravel into sharp, blade-like edges.
This was the Northern Heaven Desert, a place forgotten by time, like a penal colony. Twisted deadwood lay scattered across the dark brown gravel beaches, its cracked bark preserving frost and snow from millennia past.
At this moment, a figure in white robes stood suspended in the air, hands moving with dazzling speed, rapidly forming complex and intricate hand seals.
Chen Xiao's pupils contracted sharply. As his palms flew, ice-blue palm seals materialized, spinning wildly in his palms. The Dou Qi around him surged like boiling magma, drawing the surrounding natural energy to converge like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea.
In an instant, the spinning palm seals suddenly froze, and a sharp pressure erupted from Chen Xiao's body.
"Earth Covering Seal!"
A furious roar echoed through the vast heavens and earth as he slammed the palm seal down.
Amidst a deafening roar, the earth seemed to be struck by a giant god's fist. Centered on the point where the palm seal landed, spiderweb-like cracks spread wildly like living things. A massive palm print, a hundred zhang in diameter, was deeply imprinted on the ground, its edges crumbling into dust. The residual energy waves transformed into tidal surges like a raging sea, crushing the surrounding giant rocks into powder wherever they passed.
Earth Covering Seal, the third stance of the Emperor Seal Technique, draws the might of the nine netherworlds to suppress the eight directions and six harmonies.
With one palm strike, mountains and seas overturn!
Looking at the conspicuous palm print on the ground, which resembled a meteor crater, Chen Xiao nodded with satisfaction.
After parting ways with Xun Er and Qing Lin that day, Chen Xiao had taken the Little Fairy Doctor and headed north.
Along the way, they utilized spatial wormholes and spent six days to reach the Northern Heaven Desert.
However, from the Northern Heaven Desert onwards, there were no more convenient spatial wormholes for traveling further north; they could only fly themselves.
Yet, after spending more than twenty days, the two could clearly sense the temperature of the world becoming increasingly lower, reaching levels unbearable for ordinary people. This caused the human population in the areas they passed through to become increasingly sparse. In fact, over the last half-month, they hadn't even seen a single living person.
This place was like a no-man's-land forgotten by the world!
However, Chen Xiao was certain that they still hadn't left the scope of the Central State, which showed how vast the Dou Qi Continent was.
"The power of this Emperor Seal Technique is truly astonishing. With this Earth Covering Seal, ordinary mid-stage Dou Zong will no longer be your match."
A fragrant breeze wafted from his side, and the Little Fairy Doctor appeared.
She was still wearing her fitted purple and white dress. The stronger her cultivation, the less the influence of extreme temperatures.
Chen Xiao nodded slightly and chuckled, "A High-Level Earth Tier Cultivation Technique, a Two-Star Dou Zong, combined with the Emperor Seal Technique. If I still can't handle a mid-stage Dou Zong with this, then I'd be terribly disappointed."
Over the past month, Chen Xiao had already converted his cultivation technique, and with the aid of the Sect Origin Pill, his cultivation had reached the Two-Star Dou Zong level.
While this strength wasn't formidable, as long as he didn't encounter Dou Zong from ancient races, Chen Xiao was confident he could easily handle five or six-star Dou Zong.
On the other hand, the Little Fairy Doctor remained at the Three-Star Dou Zun level.
The astonishing rate of improvement from the Woeful Poison Body had finally slowed down after reaching Dou Zun, giving Chen Xiao a chance to catch up.
The Little Fairy Doctor smiled gently, gazing towards the distant horizon.
"Once we reach that snow plain, we should be entering the Northern Continent's territory. In which direction is the Black Water Heavy Abyss you mentioned?"
"To be precise, it's in the Northwest Continent, at the border between the Central State and the Northern Continent. We'll slightly adjust our direction, and it won't take too long to arrive."
The Little Fairy Doctor nodded lightly, and the two immediately set off again.
As Chen Xiao had predicted, half a day later, as the two flew at high speed, they seemed to break through an invisible wall of fire. The wave of heat that hit them was a stark contrast to the coldness of the previous moment.
The scenery on the ground was no longer the open desert; barren mountains and steep peaks gradually came into view.
Chen Xiao and the Little Fairy Doctor exchanged a glance, tacitly slowing their speed and lowering their altitude, opting for low-altitude flight.
Passing through one steep peak after another, suddenly, a wondrous scene gradually unfolded before them.
In the deep canyon, black mist steamed and churned like a living creature, forming a bizarre dividing line with the icy and snowy world roaring a hundred miles to their right.
Beneath the surging black mist lay a muddy swamp of ink-black, accumulated over countless years, forming a winding black marsh.
The surface of the mud was covered in purple-black mycelia. Chen Xiao and the Little Fairy Doctor could easily see countless tiny poisonous mosquitoes and insects moving within, their buzzing making one's scalp tingle.
"This should be the Black Water Heavy Abyss. It certainly lives up to its name."
Chen Xiao observed the surrounding environment and said softly.
The Little Fairy Doctor nodded slightly, waved her jade hand, and a barrier firmly enveloped them.
"This place is somewhat similar to the Falling God Ravine. The pervasive miasma is highly toxic, making it impossible for ordinary Magical Beasts and insects to survive. Even the flying insects we see have evolved into highly venomous creatures."
As the saying goes, strange things are born in strange places. In such harsh environments, any creature that can survive, even an ant, cannot be viewed with conventional eyes.
A gurgling sound came from the depths of the black marsh. Chen Xiao focused his gaze and saw that the dark black mud was like boiling molten iron, continuously spewing foul-smelling bubbles. When they burst, the splashed toxic water etched gruesome holes in the dead leaves.
"Only in such a detestable place could the Netherworld Poison Flame be born."
With a casual remark, Chen Xiao looked at the Little Fairy Doctor. "Let's go deeper and get the Netherworld Poison Flame as soon as possible."
The Netherworld Poison Flame was ranked twenty on the Heavenly Flame List, one spot lower than the Green Lotus Core Flame.
Although the power of a Heavenly Flame couldn't be judged solely by its ranking, it also depended on crucial factors like how long it had existed.
However, in Chen Xiao's estimation, a Netherworld Poison Flame could develop to a level that could threaten Dou Zong experts at its absolute peak.
With the Little Fairy Doctor's and his current strength, they were fully capable of forcibly suppressing it.
Ending their conversation, the two accelerated their pace and moved deeper.
In about half an hour, both of them sensed that the surrounding temperature was getting higher and higher, becoming extremely stuffy, as if they were inside a giant steamer.
What was even stranger was that the dense swarm of poisonous insects that had been there before had completely vanished. The only sound left in the entire area was the "poof, poof" of flickering flames.
Chen Xiao and the Little Fairy Doctor simultaneously circulated their Dou Qi, as if a layer of flowing light film had attached itself to their eyes.
They gazed intently. Under the focused stare of their Dou Qi, the hazy poisonous miasma receded like a tide. Deep within the heart of the black swamp, a cluster of dark green flames floated above the mud, resembling ghostly eyes from the Netherworld.
The flames had no fixed form, sometimes elongating like flickering ghost tongues, other times coiling into grotesque human faces, aimlessly drifting through the hot and humid air. Wherever they passed, the toxic fog hissed and crackled, even causing rotten wood to rapidly char!
These flames, much like legendary will-o'-the-wisps, flickered in and out of existence within the steaming poison miasma, striking awe into anyone who beheld them.
"This is it... the Netherworld Poison Flame!"
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