Mysterious Ring, Mysterious Cave

"Stop!"

A group of youngsters called out as they chased a dark-haired youth. Their hands held different kinds of weapons with faces full of greed.

"Huff, huff, huff"

Were the only sounds that came from the dark-haired youth, who despite feeling exhausted kept on running away from the group of youngsters.

"Zhao Long! If you hand over the ring we promise we will leave you a complete corpse!"

A pale-faced youth said, trying to prevent Zhao Long from running. And yet, despite his words, his eyes were filled with killing intent. His weapon ready to strike as soon as Zhao Long so much as slowed down.

Despite the youth's tries at 'persuading' him, Zhao Long simply brushed it off, instead quickening his pace and running further into the forest. Yes, they were in a forest.

As Zhao Long kept on running, he wondered how it was that this situation came to be.

Upon pondering on the matter a little further, he realised it all began with this ring.

What was this ring?

The only answer Zhao Long could come up with was:

Treasure!

In his short 15 year old lifespan, he had only seen two items that could be counted as treasures. The first one came from Ren Liu, while the second one is this ring. When he first laid his eyes on this ring, something inside him urged him to obtain the ring. It was for this reason that he forcefully took the ring before Lei Cheng's group, who were members of top first rank sect in Yunlei Province – Sky Mountain Sect.

However, upon taking the ring, a trace of nostalgia flashed past Zhao Long's heart, as if he had seen this ring before. He had no time to wonder about this feeling any longer, as Lei Cheng's group began chasing him.

– And that was how he got caught up in this.

Zhao Long who was in the middle of escaping had already used one of the movement techniques that his uncle Ren had taught him. As he increased his speed, he managed to see a cave in the distance.

He thought this was a chance for him to finally lose them, but upon getting closer and seeing that the entrance to the cave had a seal engraved at the top, he stopped abruptly. He was mere steps away from entering the cave.

"Fuck!"

Zhao Long cursed as he realised what this cave was.

He quickly turned his head to gaze at the group that was chasing him, wearing sinister smiles on their faces. He gritted his teeth, and despite his internal struggles that constantly urged him not to go inside the cave, he went in having no other choice.

Lei Cheng and his group who was chasing after Zhao Long, also came to a stop as soon as they saw that Zhao Long had entered the cave. This was because they too were painfully aware of what was in this cave. While the cave's seal could not be seen from afar, it was now clearly visible to the group! Cold sweat trickled down Lei Cheng's forehead as he realised what the cave was.

Within Yunlei Province, there were only 3 forbidden areas that cultivators were absolutely not allowed to step in to: The Demonic Mountain, Lake of a Thousand Sins and...the Sealed Immortal's cave which was none other than the cave before them.

Lei Cheng's group hesitated for a moment, deliberating on whether to continue to chase Zhao Long or not.

"Senior Lei, should we give chase or…?"

Seeing that Zhao Long had entered a forbidden area, Lei Cheng snorted in disdain before replying.

"Ha! That stupid bastard is seeking death! Come, we're leaving. There's no way he's coming out alive from there."

And with those words, Lei Cheng and his group vanished with the wind, as it wiped out any signs of them having visited this cave.

Meanwhile, Zhao Long was currently still running inside the cave, but as time passed without encountering anything, he slowly came to a stop.

'Looks like Lei Cheng did not chase me inside.'

He thought, as he finally began to pay attention to his surroundings. It was pretty dark inside the cave, so Zhao Long decided to use a light talisman he had saved for emergencies like these.

"This cave…" he muttered.

After looking around he found that the cave had a long underground tunnel going miles deep inside. Having already entered the tiger's mouth, Zhao Long decided to continue to explore the cave a bit further.

As he walked deeper into the cave, he found that it got surprisingly more sophisticated. Its previously dilapidated corners increasingly smoothened as he passed by, slowly becoming firmer and more refined. He found that this cave was more luxurious than he previously had thought.

"Is this really a cave?"

He wondered out loud as he continued walking. After an unknown amount of time, Zhao Long stopped walking. In front of him was a massive wooden door with the carving of an ancient rune so big it almost took up the entire area of the door. Upon seeing the ancient rune, Zhao Long suddenly reached out with his hand, placing it in the middle of the ancient rune.

Once his hand touched the rune, Zhao Long, who had been wearing the mysterious ring noticed that a green light zinged from within the ring and into the rune. Immediately afterwards, the ancient rune began glowing with a greenish light, and suddenly to Zhao Long's shock, it lit aflame!

When he saw the rune catch on fire, he quickly attempted to retract his hand. Unfortunately, this made him realise that he was actually unable to do so!

'My hand is trapped!'

The fire began spreading from the palm of his hand to his whole body, quickly flaring up in a terrifying way.

'Shit, shit, shit, shit. Am I going to die here?'

Just when Zhao Long thought he was done for, the fire slowly died down and calmly settled inside his lower dantian.

Despite being 15 years old, Zhao Long was surprisingly not that talented at cultivation. He was still stuck at the level of a mere 9th level Qi Condensation practitioner. At his age, this level was already below average, even his junior brothers at the sect had already entered the Early Foundation stage.

This was also part of the reason why Zhao Long was frightened when the fire engulfed him. As soon as he noticed that the mysterious fire had somehow calmed down, and confirming that upon entering his dantian, it had not damaged him in any way, he sat down cross-legged in front of the wooden door and began inspecting his lower dantian.

A cultivator's dantian is in a way, a representation of their soul. Zhao Long's lower dantian was like a massive empty cave engulfed in darkness. Usually, Zhao Long was not able to see much in his lower dantian. Strangely enough, today was different as 9 strong pillars made of Qi were visible.

'I can see?!' Zhao Long thought, shocked.

As he looked around his dantian for the source of 'light', he found a green glowing light in the distance. With a thought, he appeared right in front of the mysterious green light. Before him was a green flame shining resplendently before Zhao Long's eyes. This was none other than the green flame his body seemed to have… 'absorbed'.

Seeing that the shameless flame that had decided to freeload on his dantian cave, Zhao Long was momentarily speechless.

Helpless against this mysterious flame, Zhao Long shook his head and released his consciousness from his dantian.

"Shameless" he uttered.

"And it all seems to be because of this cursed ring."

Upon remembering the ring, Zhao Long's eyes moved towards the ring in his forefinger. Earlier, he had had no chance to get a proper look through this mysterious ring, and because of his carelessness he now managed to gain a weird green flame in his dantian.

The ring was azure colored and seemingly made of an unknown metal. What was unusual was that something was engraved on the ring. Sadly, Zhao Long could not tell what was written on it, as it seemed to be written in a foreign language.

'Maybe it's a dimensional ring?' he wondered.

Once his thoughts reached this point, his eyes shined full of expectation while he contemplated whether this was previously bound to someone else. Thinking this, he hurriedly pricked his finger and a drop of Zhao Long's blood fell on the ring.