BTTH : Wandering Soul

This process repeated for unknown amount of time. Every time those pictures would feel like they are more elaborate than before, like he's closer to understanding the hidden meaning behind them. Every time he'd feel like he could figure it out, but he'd be just one step away from deciphering those words. And every time the time he'd spend in eternal dark void would keep increasing, making him push his limits.

Every time he woke up, his wounds would be disappeared, and he'd feel his body is a bit stronger than before. Every time his opponents would either grow in number or strength, provided that he defeated all of them in previous cycle, otherwise they'd remain same. Every time he'd lose consciousness instead of dying. Every time same process of healing, then tampering his body and then healing, would repeat.

After a while instead of stepping at any sides after waking up, he tried to just sit on the border and cultivate. To his surprise his cultivation which should've been stagnated, increased to Dou zhi Li 5th stage. He couldn't believe, that this space brought out this amazing benefit to him. Initially he thought that maybe Yao Chen's spiritual form couldn't affect him here. But he quickly discarded that idea, as without that obstacle, his cultivation speed should be much greater in this place.

All the magical beast cores, and the medicinal ingredients made his cultivation sky rocket. However, the relentless life-and-death battles, coupled with the constant tempering of his body by the red and blue flames, made his physical form stronger and sturdier, ensuring his progress was deep and stable, preventing his foundation from becoming shallow.

After an unknown amount of time, he decided to approach the volcanic structure at the center. He felt like it could help him decipher the picture in his dream realm along with words of that mysterious man, which always seemed to elude him. He slowly and carefully started going towards the center, walking along the line separating two opposite extremes, careful not to go towards any side, always maintaining the balance.

As he kept getting closer and closer the fiery red side's temperature surged unbearably, while the frost-blue side grew icier, pushing his body to its limits.. He walked only one tenth of the distance, when he could no longer endure the two extremes tearing his body and backed away. The searing heat and bone-chilling cold were far more intense near the center than at the outer edge, making it clear that without significantly improving his endurance, reaching the center would remain impossible.

At the same time, he felt as though he had uncovered a fragment of the puzzle, and if he ventured deeper, he'd get closer and closer towards deciphering mystery of this world, along with words of that mysterious person.

This went on for an unknown amount of time. There was no concept of time in here. Each time Xiao Yan lost consciousness and woke up, it felt as though he had been asleep for days. His body would relax, recovering just enough to face the same process again with body full of energy. He wasn't sure how much time had truly passed, but to him, the endless struggle made it feel like years.

At the time Xiao Yan was facing the cycle of eternal struggle of fire and ice, a lone figure clad in black robe was hovering over the mountains, some distance from the 'cave' he disappeared into. It was Ying Ling who was trying to find Xiao Yan after he lost his trail few hours ago.

The same day Xiao Yan left for his journey, Xun er instructed him to keep an eye on him. But as his utmost priority was protecting Xun er, he'd only keep track of his location by occasionally checking on him. But just as he was trying to tracking Xiao Yan, his aura was disappeared. Ling Ying couldn't sense Xiao Yan's presence at all. So he was currently trying to observe the last location he sensed Xiao Yan's presence from.

It had been hours, but there was no movement. And what surprised Ling Ying most was in the nearby area there were no monsters to be found. It felt like they were being repelled by invisible force field. He decided to expand his search and started to explore the whole mountain range. It wasn't easy even for a peak dou huang like him due to the vastness of the mountain range. Although there were no magical beasts in these mountains that he was afraid of, but he still had to be careful around the overlord of this region, rank 6 magical beast Amethyst Winged Lion. He was definitely stronger than the Amethyst Winged Lion, but with his power to summon all the monsters under him, he'd rather avoid all that trouble.

With these thoughts he travelled all the mountain range, trying to find Xiao Yan. Even with his strength it took him almost two days. And even after that he had no clues. So he decided to wait. He knew that with Xiao Yan's strength he couldn't have gotten too much distance from this location. And he had certainly explore far beyond that distance. So he concluded that Xiao Yan must have encountered someone more powerful than him. But that was highly unlikely as in regions there was no expert stronger than dou huang.

Unless someone from central planes decided to come here. But only people who would want anything to do with Xiao Yan would be from Hun clan. But why would they attack Xiao Yan? Only thing he could think of was- Tou She Ancient God's Jade. Maybe they couldn't retrieve it without alerting him when Xiao Yan was in Xiao clan, but in these mountains no one would know anything. Now he was almost sure that it was the work of hun clan. If this was true then they'd surely contact the Xiao clan to exchange the Tou She Ancient God's Jade for Xiao Yan's life.

Still, he decided to wait a few days and observe the mountains, hoping that perhaps his suspicions were wrong. He watched closely for any clues related to Xiao Yan's disappearance. However, after days with no results, he resolved to inform his little miss about Xiao Yan's absence and vanished from the mountains.