A long ditch appeared in the solid ground. Jiang Zijun hacked up blood as he lay atop a large rock that was now riddled with cracks.

Fortunately, he had Pill Valley’s secret technique, the Raging Flame Armor. If it had been an ordinary flame defense, then considering how weak an alchemist’s body was, he’d definitely have died.

Long Chen continued to go after him, launching another punch. Heaven and earth shook as he advanced.

“Lord Brahma Shield!”

Jiang Zijun formed hand seals, and his flame runes blazed with blinding light, turning into flame chains that wove together, forming a large shield. Chanting filled the air, and flame energy poured into the shield. It was sacred and divine.

Long Chen’s fist landed atop the shield. Flame runes blew back, and ripples appeared in the air. When those ripples reached the ground, the ground crumbled.

However, Long Chen was unable to break the shield. Jiang Zijun gained some breathing room, and he once more attacked Long Chen, stabbing a spear at his heart.

Long Chen kicked the spear and borrowed the power to fly back. A burning pain came from his foot.

“This bastard’s Earth Flame is too powerful. Huo Long isn’t strong enough to resist it.” Long Chen knew that the difference in the power of their flames was too great.

“Long San, I know you’re powerful at close-range combat. But I won’t give you a chance to get close. You’re just trash.”

Jiang Zijun held a shield in his left hand and a spear in his right hand. The nine flowers behind him revolved. Flame energy raged as his Heavenly Dao runes merged with his flame runes.

“Die!”

Jiang Zijun thrust his spear forward. A sea of flames followed his spear, crashing over Long Chen.

“Scarlet Blaze Shield!” Long Chen also summoned a shield, but his technique was instantly broken by the spear. The intense flames devoured him.

Long Chen conjured flame armor to protect himself. He then broke the flame spear with a punch, while he activated his boots to charge forward at Jiang Zijun.

“Idiot, I won’t let you get close.” Jiang Zijun sneered. He retreated, spreading his flame domain. Everything within a hundred miles was covered in his flames.

Long Chen’s expression was grave as he charged through this flame sea. Jiang Zijun’s flames were too powerful. He had to expend a great deal of spiritual yuan just to resist the flame domain.

The difference in their flames was so great that he was expending hundreds of times the energy Jiang Zijun was. Even with his huge amount of spiritual yuan, Long Chen wouldn’t necessarily be able to exhaust him. After all, Jiang Zijun was a Jade Core expert.

Furthermore, an alchemist had a much vaster amount of spiritual yuan than normal cultivators, so Long Chen had no assurance of being able to exhaust him. Seeing Jiang Zijun retreating and occasionally launching attacks to keep him back, it was clear he had seen through Long Chen’s weak point.

“Since that’s the case, then let’s go all-out.”

Long Chen suddenly extended a hand. A sphere condensed in his hand, and chanting filled the air. The sphere rapidly grew larger.

Just as Long Chen summoned this sphere, Jiang Zijun was shocked to find that when Long Chen used the Nirvana Scripture, not only was heaven and earth’s flame energy drawn toward him, but even his own flames were being sucked away.

“Star Fall!”

The sphere in his hand had grown to three hundred meters almost instantly. It shot toward Jiang Zijun.

This terrifying move was summoned so quickly that it even surprised Long Chen. He was experiencing just how powerful the second volume of the Nirvana Scripture was. When he used it, all the flame energy in the world became his. Here in Jiang Zijun’s flame domain, he even benefited from his flame energy.

“Lord Brahma Shield!”

The shield in Jiang Zijun’s hand rapidly grew. It was like a huge mountain blocking Star Fall.

BOOM!

Flame energy exploded and ripples spread. Seeing this, Long Chen’s expression changed, and he hastily summoned the Blazing Dragon Cauldron and hid himself inside it.

Those ripples struck the runic barrier the Blazing Dragon Cauldron had summoned around it, and it was instantly sent flying like a shooting star.

The Blazing Dragon Cauldron pierced straight through a mountain and rolled a great distance. Long Chen crawled out and vomited.

What he vomited wasn’t blood, but vomit. The Blazing Dragon Cauldron had protected him, but in that instant, he had been spun dozens of times, so he was dizzy.

The feeling of the world spinning around him faded after a breath. He picked up the Blazing Dragon Cauldron and rushed back to the battlefield.

“He actually got away.” Long Chen didn’t see any sign of Jiang Zijun upon returning to the battlefield.

The power of that explosion just now had been too terrifying. According to reason, Star Fall shouldn’t have possessed that much power. After all, he had used it very quickly.

The main problem was that Star Fall had collided with Jiang Zijun’s flame energy. It was like a spear clashing against a spear. Energies from the same source attacking each other immediately caused an explosion.

Long Chen searched all around but didn’t find a trace of Jiang Zijun. When he looked in the primal chaos space, he didn’t see a rank nine Heavenly Dao Fruit on the tree. That meant he had escaped.

He supposed that Jiang Zijun was pretty tough to be able to survive such an explosion. Even Long Chen would have been blown to bits without the Blazing Dragon Cauldron and in his current state of not being able to fully use his spiritual yuan.

If even Long Chen couldn’t handle it, then an alchemist would be annihilated without question. However, Jiang Zijun had managed to escape.

“It seems that bastard has quite a few trump cards.”

Long Chen sighed, but his expression suddenly changed. Lightning wings appeared on his back, and he rushed off.

“Hahaha, Long San, there’s no need to run. Not a single person has managed to get away when I want them dead.”

A huge figure appeared in the sky. His laughter was like thunder. It was the Flame Divine Palace’s Qu Dajiang.

Qu Dajiang’s eyes were shining coldly like two sharp blades. Two huge flame wings flapped on his back, bringing him rapidly closer.

Long Chen’s scalp turned numb. Qu Dajiang possessed boundless power. He was like a crazy beast raging with killing intent.

“Long San, you killed my brother Qu Chunsheng. Hand over your life!”

Qu Dajiang’s wings suddenly stopped moving. He vanished from his original location and appeared in front of Long Chen, a hand reaching for his throat.

“You think you’re qualified to take my life?”

Although Long Chen had felt Qu Dajiang’s hostility from the start, he hadn’t expected this large man to be Qu Chunsheng’s brother. Qu Chunsheng had been a little pretty boy, and the two of them looked completely different. It seemed their father had quite a bit of skill.

Long Chen snorted and smashed a fist at Qu Dajiang’s hand.

BOOM! Long Chen was actually blown back, his wrist almost broken.

“Hmph, you have a bit of power, but it’s not enough in front of me.” Qu Dajiang shot after him. It was like he had teleported, and he arrived in front of Long Chen instantly, smashing a fist at him.

BOOM!

What greeted him wasn’t Long Chen’s fist, but a cauldron. An immense power caused his body to tremble, and he was knocked back a few hundred meters. Flame runes flew through the air as the cauldron was also sent flying.

“An Ancestral item?” Qu Dajiang was surprised. But the cauldron had already flown into the distance. He snorted and didn’t chase it. Instead, he charged at a distant figure. “You won’t get away!”

Qu Dajiang’s wings once more appeared and he caught up to Long Chen quickly. He smashed his fist at him.

However, what caused his expression to change was that this figure instantly exploded.

“Bastard, you think you can slip away?!” Qu Dajiang’s expression was unsightly now. He had been duped. This figure had been nothing more than something formed of flame energy. Long San had definitely escaped with the cauldron.

“AHH!” Qu Dajiang roared and shot off in the direction the cauldron had gone. In an incense stick’s worth of time, he finally saw a figure rapidly rushing away. It was Long Chen.

“You won’t get away! I’ll make you pay a price for fooling me. I’ll let you know what it means to live a life worse than death!” roared Qu Dajiang as he got closer and closer.

Long Chen was extremely vexed. After beating a jackal, a tiger suddenly came after him.

Qu Dajiang was no alchemist. He was a true flame cultivator and a rank nine Jade Core Celestial. All of that, combined with his extremely powerful physical body, made him a real expert.

Right now, Long Chen was just at the peak of Foundation Forging, and he couldn’t even use his full power. As he didn’t have the ability to fight Qu Dajiang, he could only run.

Unfortunately, Qu Dajiang was even faster than him. Seeing him get closer, Long Chen prepared to take out the pot.

Although Long Chen couldn’t unleash the power of the pot, its hardness was definitely unmatched. Using it in a sudden attack wouldn’t necessarily allow him to defeat Qu Dajiang, but if he could catch him off guard, he might be able to use it to escape.

Nevertheless, once he used it, his identity as Long San would be over. This pot was far too easily recognized.

Just as Long Chen was preparing to take this risk, a message came from Huo Long that delighted him.