Zi Mo's voice was the first thing Xiao Chen heard as he opened his eyes.

"H-huh? I-it's really three days?!" Xiao Chen gasped to himself. It was lucky that he had merely been gone for three days, not three years, or his friends might have buried him instead.

"D*mmit boy. Did you realize that you've slept for three days?" Zi Mo barked at him.

A thin smile curled on Xiao Chen's lips. Then he saw Perfected Immortals Qing Chen and Fengxi both present. He got up. "My thanks and apologies to you, Seniors. I am fine now."

The door of his room swung opened suddenly to admit Yu Yifeng, Murong Xian'er, Luo Shangyan, Li Muxue and the twelve of the Hidden Fragrance Wafting Under the Moon. They had heard his voice from outside and immediately came in. Murong Xian'er threw herself headfirst into him and began wailing. "I thought I will never be able to see you again, Brother Xiao Chen!"

In a soft voice, Xiao Chen said to her, gently stroking her hair, "Everything's all fine. There's no need to cry, dear sister."

Three days had pa.s.sed since he slept without breathing, Xiao Chen reflected. "So that must be the Dimension of the Frigid Void, one of the three most bizarre dimensions from history."

There is no known way of entering this Dimension, save through a dream or vision. Then he realized how lucky he was; the laws of Time and s.p.a.ce that governed the Dimension operated differently to the actual world he was from. He could have been trapped inside, forever stuck in another eon and unable to return.

Zi Mo and the Perfected Immortals then took their leaves and left, leaving Xiao Chen to deal with his friends. But he did not elaborate in detail of what he saw, merely saying to his friends that he has had a vision that had helped enlighten him, a fortuitous encounter that might prove to be a boon to his powers.

"That reminds me, Lil Chen." Yu Yifeng suddenly remembered. "There were people from the Fallen Immortals Sect here to look for you yesterday. But they left after hearing what happened to you. You'd best be careful; they will be back."

Xiao Chen's expression darkened. "What were they thinking of, coming to here to seek me?" But he knew the answer to his own question: a challenge to a duel. He nodded and replied, "I know. All of you will have to be careful too. But we'd pay no heed to them as long as they keep out of our way."

Night came swiftly that evening. Xiao Chen waited until his friends left before he took out his little black box again. Only this time, the box opened easily at the merest force. It was empty inside, and he had a feeling that that might be the only time he had ever stepped foot into the Dimension of the Frigid Void.

He placed the box back onto the table, his gaze fixated upon the burning wick of his lamp. The words of the Heaven's Bane reverberated in his mind: Long has the Natural Law lost its purpose; all mortal beings must now rise to fight for their freedom.

He shook his ways, clearing his mind of the tainted thoughts. No matter what, he had only one purpose: to look for his teacher! He would never allow himself to be distracted! Not ever again!

There was no point in dwelling on the affairs which he had no power in swaying. No matter what his role was upon this huge chessboard of Destiny, he would only concentrate on his goal. "No one!" Xiao Chen swore to himself, "No one will stand in my way!"

Still, he could not shake off the feeling that a hand has always been at his back, guiding him through a veil of mists even if he refused to.

He took out the manual for the Nine Heaven-scorching Flames spell he bought from the old man during his visit to the Myriad Immortals Pavilion and riffled through its pages. It was not an ordinary magical spell, but rather, a magical formation with powers that outstrips even the Nine Yang Extreme Heat Formation by a great length.

But magical formations could only be fully utilized in battle if a conjurer could cast the magic without any delay in his craft. Moreover, most conjurers today rarely saw any importance in the study of magical circles. "It was true, what the old man said," he mused, "that it is by Fate that this magic falls into my hand. I might be the only one in this era who can fully put it to good use."

He smiled to himself, "This is indeed money well-spent!"

He spent the next two hours reading the manual, committing to his mind as many details as possible about the Nine Heaven-scorching Flames. He drew the outlines of the magical circle on his left palm, along with several runes to activate its magic, and nine little emerald-green b.a.l.l.s of flame sprouted from his palm, hovering just above his opened palm.

The nine b.a.l.l.s of flames circled above his hand, crackling gently like little screeching dragons. He has no doubt that a single ball of flame would be powerful enough to raze the entire lodging house to the ground.

He closed his palm and deactivated the magic. He decided that he would look for an empty spot in the hills nearby at first light tomorrow to test the full power of this spell.

Having slept continuously for three days, Xiao Chen did not feel tired. He spent the whole night memorizing the details of the spell. At the break of dawn the following day, he put on his clothes and informed his friends about his departure before slipping out of town.

He had barely walked for a few miles, looking for a stable to hire a carriage, when a young man clad in purple garb barred his way.

"How can I help you?" Xiao Chen asked the young man. The stranger was doing a great job in masking his presence and this hindered Xiao Chen from fully measuring his powers and strength. But only under two conditions could a person do such a thing; the stranger was either very much stronger than he was, or that the stranger possessed more than nine Spiritual Meridians. The possession of so many Spiritual Meridians accorded its wielder the ability to conceal his or her strength.

But Xiao Chen would hazard that this man most likely owned more than nine Spiritual Meridians; he must be the challenger from the Fallen Immortals Sect.

A vicious smile curled upon the stranger's lips. "You must be the famous Xiao Chen recently, are you not?"

"Indeed, I am," Xiao Chen replied brusquely.

"Fine. There has been a word that you are the strongest among the young elites of all Five Continents. We wish to see if that's true for ourselves."

"I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you. I am not the strongest among young people in all Five Continents. None-flower Dust is. You should seek him out. I'm sure you'll find yourselves in awe at his power," Xiao Chen remarked bluntly and immediately walked past the man without waiting for an answer.

"HOLD!" The young man in purple garb hissed venomously; his apparent displeasure at being snubbed by Xiao Chen showing entirely.

"Yes? Is there anything else?"

Xiao Chen stopped in his tracks and looked back at the young man, who, in his fury, had displayed a measure of his powers: a symphony of nine white, flas.h.i.+ng orbs hovered around him, exuding raw energy channeled from all nine of his Spiritual Meridians, fully exposed in their most naked form.

The brilliant spectacle of the young man's imposing aspect would have frightened and cowered any foes, but Xiao Chen merely chuckled. "Not bad. Nine Spiritual Meridians, no wonder." He called forth his own powers, and twelve fiery orbs, all blazing brilliantly, sprang out from within him, dwarfing the radiance from the nine orbs of light that many onlookers or pa.s.sersby either watched with bewildered expressions or jumped back in fright.

The stranger gasped with shock. "Th-this! This is impossible! Twelve Spiritual Meridians?! No! It couldn't be! Unless..." But his voice stopped short in his throat.

Xiao Chen ceased channeling his powers. Xiao Chen regarded his adversary with a stiff smile. "You might be suffering under the delusion that the world is under your feet, just because you defeated a few students from some-heretofore-unheard-of schools. Challenge the strongest to see how good you are. I shall be waiting in the tournament and I will be one of the ten strongest contestants. We'll have a proper duel then. But until then, do not disturb me anymore." He walked away, leaving the young man and curious onlookers still gawking at him. He had never had much patience and respect for bullies and scoundrels.

But Tianyuan City was just too huge for his liking; it took him more than two hours for him to reach the gates of the city. Once outside, he drew his sword and rode upon it into the sky. He flew for another 25 kilometers until he saw a small ridge. He flew to it and landed upon its crest.

He surveyed the surroundings to make sure that he was alone. When he was satisfied, he cast the magic he learned the night before. Nine b.a.l.l.s of flames popped to life in his opened hand. Eager to test his new skill, he thrust a finger at a nearby patch of forest and a fireball lunged towards the spot he pointed.

First, there was a deafening bang, followed by a huge flood of light that burst from the depth of the woods before a powerful explosion so great that dirt, debris and splinters of wood were tossed into the air. What had been a forest was now a great tract of scorched earth and charred wood and smoldering, fallen trees, still crackling at the blistering heat that still savaged the ground.

A contented smile appeared on his face. The Nine Heaven-scorching Flames was more powerful than he had antic.i.p.ated. Its destructive force far exceeded all of his offensive-based magical formations, that a fireball—one of the nine points that would complete the formation—was more powerful than the total force of the Nine Yang Extreme Heat Formation.

To cast a magic spell that would yield such a force, Xiao Chen would have consumed one-tenth of his True Energy. But the use of magical formations such as the Nine Heaven-scorching Flames he had used earlier, consumed only one-tenth of the cost of a magic spell. This was a boon especially to Xiao Chen, who was able to cast magical formations at the blink of an eye, a feat that almost no one was capable of in this age.

Then again, his advantage might instead turn into his bane if he were to encounter an enemy with similar or superior prowess in using magical formations. His magic could be easily undone, or worse, used against him.

He raised two fingers and cast the spell again on his left hand. Two b.a.l.l.s of flames sprang to life at the tip of his fingers and he flicked them at another patch of trees.

The two b.a.l.l.s of flames, one green and the other red, streaked towards their designated target like twin comets, spiraling around each other in weaving patterns before they grew in size and turned into two fiery dragons! With another thunderous explosion, the entire top of a wooded hill was destroyed. A huge wave of blistering heat poured from the explosion, cras.h.i.+ng into an unwary Xiao Chen, who was tens of yards away, that he almost felt the hair on his skin burning to crisp.

His guess had turned out to be true: the combination of the fireb.a.l.l.s not only multiplied the force of his attack, it even changed his attack completely. The use of only one fireball was merely a huge fire, but two produced a devastating explosion.

He loved it. The Nine Heaven-scorching Flames was not only powerful, but also flexible. He could easily direct his attacks towards any target at will, and he could combine the fireb.a.l.l.s to create more power and better effect.

"But what would happen if I were to use three, four, or even five fireb.a.l.l.s?" He thought as his eye gleamed with antic.i.p.ation.