soft ho

As Ye Xiao flew forward persistently, the sand grain-sized 'hope' became bigger and bigger, reaching the size of a large sphere.

And it became increasingly bigger, gradually enveloping Ye Xiao. The scene before him changed in an instant, the light enshrouded his body. He exited the endless black tunnel and came to a mountainous open space that was not only frozen because of extreme cold but the ground's surface was also littered with white bones everywhere!

There were humans, beasts, and some unknown creature's bones. Heaps upon heaps, mountains piled next to each other. Some bone mountains peaked as high as a hundred meters!

These white bones emanated an evil Yin energy that formed a fiendish gale that swirled in the air above like wailing ghost cries.

Looking at this scene, Ye Xiao frowned.

What kind of place was this? How could such a place exist within the Land of Ice? These heaps and mounds of white bones from humans, beasts, and strange creatures.

The temperature here was incredibly low. It was fortunate that the Sun Fire Soul was no ordinary fire soul. Even a Sky Fire Soul which is golden in colour could not be compared to the Sun Fire Soul.

Sun Fire Soul comes in the category of Rare Fire Souls and it was placed in the top ten even amongst the Rare Fire Souls.

The Sun Fire Soul was enough to take care of the cold aura of Ye Xiao's surroundings.

Right now, his entire body was covered with the Sun Fire Soul, making him look like a Fire God as his entire body was blazing brightly.

His Fire Soul did surprise Wu Cheng and others but they thought that it was only an ordinary fire soul since its colour was red. What they could not understand was the fact how Ye Xiao was able to survive and was walking normally with an ordinary Yellow Grade Red Fire Soul?

Ye Xiao continued to walk forward as if he had arrived in an underworld of white bones.

It was also at this moment that Ye Xiao again sensed the location of where the White Flag was placed. Wings of Divine Dragon spread out from behind his back and he shot out in a certain direction.

After flying for more than dozens of minutes, Ye Xiao arrived at a very big clean place. There was no mountain of white bones of humans, beasts, or strange creatures. This place was too clean.

The only thing that made it still look like the Land of Ice was the fact that this clean place was covered in a thick layer of snow and snow was still falling down continuously from the sky. The temperature was still very low here.

In the center of this clean place, Ye Xiao saw a White Flag floating in the air. On the ground below the White Flag, a formation could be seen shining with blue lights. It was this formation that was blocking Ye Xiao's Divine Sense to probe the location of the White Flag.

"You are mine!"

Ye Xiao muttered in his heart and flew straight towards the White Flag. In a very short time, Ye Xiao was already standing in front of the White Flag.

You are mine!"

Ye Xiao muttered in his heart and flew straight towards the White Flag. In a very short time, Ye Xiao was already standing in front of the White Flag.

He extended his hand and just as he was about to catch the White Flag, the ground suddenly started shaking heavily, making Ye Xiao lose balance as he fell down on the ground.

It was also the moment when the ground a few meters in front of him has suddenly split apart into two halves and the upper part of the ground was shattered into many tiny rocks.

A huge head slowly emerged out from the ground, followed by a long neck and other parts of the body. This was yet another huge but strange creature.

A name suddenly appeared in Ye Xiao's mind as he looked at this strange creature in front of him: "Man-Demon Ice Horse!"

The Man-Demon Ice Horse is a snow monster that likes to live within the depth of the snow ground. It is a creature that will surely send a chill up the bones of any martial artist. It is said to be a type of Ice Demon. The Man-Demon Ice Horse likes to waste its time sleeping always and would not reveal itself if a person or even a beast stronger than it was to appear in its line of sight but if the person appearing was weaker than it, the Man-Demon Ice Horse will surely emerge out from the Snow Ground's depths.

It has a cowardly nature as it only likes to hunt down the weaker opponents and hides itself in front of stronger opponents.

The Man-Demon Ice Horse has the appearance of a horse with the upper body of a man coming out of the middle of its back. The head of the man-like part is three times big than a normal man and it rolls back and forth. Its arms were too long and were being dragged on the ground.

The legs of this creature have fin-like appendages. The horse head has a gaping mouth and a single blood-red eye. The creature has no skin; all that can be seen on its surface was the powerful muscles and pale sinew, with black blood pulsating through yellow veins. The horse's mouth breathes a smelly but cold toxic vapor.

"Roar!"

The Man-Demon Ice Horse looked at Ye Xiao with its one red eye and roared loudly. It could not sense any kind of strong aura from Ye Xiao's body other than the Sun Fire. So, according to it, Ye Xiao was yet another weakling that came to throw away his life.

Around a month ago, it had sensed three men coming here and doing something but the aura on their bodies was too strong. So, it never showed itself. Although it was hungry and carved for those three people to fill up his hunger, it dared not appear in front of them and attack.

But the case with Ye Xiao was different. He was nothing but a weakling that came to throw away his life in the eye of this Man-Demon Ice Horse.

It gave Ye Xiao a mocking look. Although the Man-Demon Ice Horse kept staring at Ye Xiao and even roared at him, it was still cautious and didn't immediately attack.

.....

_Outside!_

A group of participants was standing in the big arena were looking at the numerous water screens in front of them.

There were eight participants in this group, five men and three women. Four of them were holding Red Flags while the other four were holding white flags in their hands.

Clearly, they were the eight participants who have already been selected as eight out of ten participants that will represent the Immortal Star Sect in the competition of the Myriad Worlds.

In the sky, only two big water screens could be seen. As for other water screens, Wu Cheng chose not to show others. Not only it will consume a great amount of energy, but it was also taking up a large space.

The two water screens were showing two participants that were very close to obtain the flag placed in their respective areas.

One of the water screens was the scene of the Land of Fire where a chubby young girl was fighting against terrifying a Fire Demon. Not far away from where she was fighting, a Red Flag was hovering in the air, and around it was an invisible barrier that was protecting the flag from not only other's divine sense, but also from the fire and Fire Demons.

The chubby young girl was trying her best to fight against the Fire Demon and was on the verge of collapsing. She was seriously injured and was bleeding from her hands, cheek, waist, and from her back.

Her clothes were tattered and she was almost entirely nude but there was no greed or lust in the eyes of the people watching her. All the people had fear in their eyes as their heart was beating too fast.

The chubby young girl was fighting against this Fire Demon for whole two days without any rest. At first, she could still fight equally but as time passed, she started to fall at disadvantage, and now, she was on the verge of collapsing while the Fire Demon had no injury on its body.

Just like the Valley Ye Xiao was in was the most dangerous area of the Land of Ice, the place where the chubby young girl was fighting against the Fire Demon was also the most dangerous area of the Land of Fire.

The chubby young girl was actually at the Middle Stage of the Immortal King Realm. This could also show her potential as only the disciples of First Level Sects who were less than 300 years old were allowed to participate in the competition.

For many people, it takes them more than 500 hundred years just to reach the Immortal King Realm but this chubby young girl was already at the Middle Stage of the Immortal King Realm when she is still less than 300 years old.

The chubby young girl was still fighting fiercely but this time, she was not fighting for the Red Flag anymore, she was fighting for her life.

It was at this moment when the entire Land of Ice and Fire trembled fiercely. It was as if a heavy earthquake suddenly appeared, shaking the entire Land of Ice and Fire to the core.

"What is going on?" A look of confusion appeared in the eyes of Huang Daniu as he asked. He could not understand why the entire Land of Ice and Fire just trembled?

As if Wu Cheng thought of something his face changed dramatically. He said, "I think... I think it is the time of the eruption of Hell Flame."

"What?"

Both Ta Mu and Huang Daniu exclaimed as they could not calm down anymore. The eruption of Hell Flame only happens every 1000 years and they knew that the Hell Flame would erupt very soon but still, they didn't expect the Hell Flame to erupt so soon.

According to their estimation and calculation, there should be another 1 month of time before the eruption of the Hell Flame. This was also the reason why they didn't hesitate to hold the competition in the Land of Ice and Fire.

At first, they only thought of using the name 'Hell Flame' to scare the participants so that they could give their all and search for the 10 Flags. There was no time limit of this competition and scaring the participants could at least save them a few days as the participants of this competition would give their best.

Now that the eruption of the Hell Flame was about to occur, their heart could not help but palpitate heavily.

There were still more than 80 participants alive and were searching for the flags inside the Land of Ice and Fire. All these participants were the geniuses of their generation and core disciples of their corresponding sects.

It has to know that the sect they belong to were all the First Levelled Sects. Just this label of 'First Levelled Sect' was enough to describe the potential of their disciples, not to mention that the disciples stuck inside the Land of Ice and Fire were the core disciples of their sects.

Wu Cheng sighed and said, "The Hell Flame is about to erupt. All the participants in the Land of Ice and Fire are in great danger. Prepare to open the space channel and transport all the participants back."

Ta Mu said, "We can not do that. If we did this, we will be unable to select the last two candidates to participate in the Competition of the Myriad Worlds."

Huang Daniu thought something before he gave his suggestion, "We can do one thing. Considering the fact that the young man named Ye Xiao and the young girl named Xu Feiyi, both of them are closest to the flags, we can select them as the last two candidates to participate in the Competition of the Myriad World. No one should disagree as all of us could see they are the closest one to get their hands on the flags!"

Wu Cheng and Ta Mu fell in thought for a while before Ta Mu again said, "We can not do that either. Let's pass Ye Xiao. He is not injured in the slightest and the performance he has shown till now is enough to show his potential and the fact that he could easily defeat the Man-Demon Ice Horse."

"But that young girl, she is already very injured and in a very disadvantageous position right now. What is more, it is already very clear that she could not defeat the Fire Demon. No one will agree to let her become one of the ten candidates to participate in the Competition of Myriad Worlds."

Upon hearing this, the Ta Mu and Wu Cheng again fell into deep thought.

The First thing was they could not let all the participants die inside the Land of Ice and Fire no matter what. Hell Flame is an extremely terrifying existence that could devour all kinds of life. It is a clear fact whenever and wherever the Hell Flame appears, all life will cease to exist.

What is more, the Hell Flame that erupts in the Land of Fire is not limited to only Land of Fire, it would spread all the way to the Land of Ice before devouring all life of the Land of Ice and Fire.

Because of this, even the participants on the Land of Ice are not safe. All of their lives were in great danger right now.

After thinking for a while, Wu Cheng said, "It is clear that we could not let all the participants die this easily. According to my calculation, there is still one day of time left before the eruption of the Hell Flame. Other than Ye Xiao and Xu Fieyi, let's save all other participants right now."

"As for the two of them, we'll not interfere with them. Although it is unfair, but there is no such thing called 'fair' in this world. Only the strong people are qualified to hold their head high up and weak people are only to bow their heads in front of strong people."

"Let their fate decide the outcome. If before the eruption of the Hell Flame, they could get their hands on the flags, they will already be safe at that time. But if they can not, then we will immediately open the space channel to teleport the two of them out."

Ta Mu and Huang Daniu, both agreed with Wu Cheng this time. They knew what he said was correct. There was no such thing as fairness in this world. But even so, Ta Mu still found it difficult to agree with something and said, "I'll not say anything about Ye Xiao but Xu Feiyi is clearly in a very perilous situation right now. She is on the verge of collapsing. That Fire Demon can kill her anytime soon. If we were to transport out every participant other than those two, we have to at least help her out by doing something, right?"

"Sigh! Ta Mu, you know we are judges of this competition. We can not help them no matter what?" Wu Cheng said.

Huang Daniu thought of something and said, "Let's do this. We will open the space channel to transport everyone out and at the same time, send a High-Grade Immortal Rank healing pill to that girl, Xu Feiyi. She could instantly recover from her injuries and even recover half of her lost spirit energy. This should be enough to make up for not teleporting her out immediately. How about it?"

"This is foolishness!" Wu Cheng sighed and continue to say, "We can not do that. I'll say again, we are the judges of this competition and we have o right to help any participant in any way. If we are going to teleport the participants out, let's teleport all of them out at once. As for the last two candidates, we will do as brother Huang said. We'll select Ye Xiao and Xu Feiyi as the last two candidates, after all, they

are the closest people to the flag."

The discussion between the three of them continued for another fifteen or so minutes. They finally supported the decision made by Wu Cheng and agreed to teleport all the participants out together, including Ye Xiao and Xu Feiyi.

Since they were the ones giving out a helping hand, they decided to be fair with all the participants. No one was going to be an exception, not even Ye Xiao and Xu Feiyi.

Upon making the decision, the three of them started preparing to open the space channel to teleport every disciple out of the Land of Ice and Fire and save them from the Hell Flame.

Before opening the Space Channel, they talked with all the sect leaders of various First Levelled Sects. Some of them opposed but the majority of them agreed with the three judges' decision.

After receiving the agreement from the majority of the sect leaders, Wu Cheng, Ta Mu, and Huang Daniu started opening the Space Channel.

.....

_Inside The Land Of Ice And Fire_

All the participants were in shock and were terrified when the entire Land of Ice and Fire shook heavily. The shaking of the Land of Ice and Fire continued for whole fifteen minutes before the appearance of peace once again.

Although the participants could not understand what was going on and they didn't know the situation they were in, their instinct still told them that they were not out of danger right now. All of them tried to calm down their terrified hearts and continued to search for the flags.

It was at this moment when intense fluctuation of energy suddenly appeared in front of everyone and this fluctuation continued to grow stronger and stronger.

The participants had calmed down their hearts with great difficulty but upon witnessing this scene, the fear in their hearts intensified and their hearts trembled once again because of fear.

An intense fluctuation of energy suddenly appeared in front of everyone and continued to grow stronger and stronger as time passed second by second.

The participants had calmed down their hearts with great difficulty but upon witnessing this scene, the fear in their hearts was intensified and they felt like their heart was about to come out from their mouth.

They didn't understand what was happening. From their points of view, a great danger was about to reveal itself in front of them. But what they thought didn't happen, instead, in front of them, a circular tunnel appeared and they could even see the other side of this tunnel.

They could see many people looking up in the sky as if they were watching something and their eyes were filled with curiosity. There was also the hint of fear in their eyes but they were not as much terrified as the participants on the Land of Ice and Fire.

All of them suddenly remembered what Wu Cheng told them before they were teleported to the Land of Ice and Fire. He told them that after the ten candidates will be selected, he and his other two companions will open the Space Channel through which they could return back.

Upon remembering this, without wasting any more time, all of them entered the Space Channel and started appearing on the big arena one by one before walking down the arena..

Only then the fear in their hearts started to subside slowly and their hurried breath also calm down.

_Deep Inside The Land Of Fire_

Xu Feiyi was still struggling with all her strength just to barely keep herself survive under the terrifying attacks of the Fire Demon. She was now left with less than 10% of spirit energy. She was also dead tired. She knew her death was coming.

It was at this moment when the strong fluctuation of energy appeared in front of her that not only startled her but even startled the Fire Demon that was fighting her.

At first, she also doubted that another strong enemy was about to appear but her doubt was proved wrong when the Space Channel appeared in front of her. She immediately understood what this was after seeing the sight of the other side of the Space Channel.

One thing that confused Xu Feiyi was that she clearly remembered what Wu Cheng told all the participants before. He told them that only when all the ten candidates will be chosen will they open the Space Channel to bring other disciples back.

The participants holding the flag will be the chosen candidates. Not far away from here, she could still see a Red Flag floating in the air. She still had yet to even touch the flag, how was it possible for ten candidates to already be chosen?

Well, right now was not the time to think about these matters. She had to save her life first, so not wanting to waste time, she immediately jumped into the Space Channel and disappeared from the Land of Fire.

The Fire Demon that was fighting her could helplessly watch her disappearing from its sight. It was a Fire Demon and could only survive at a place filled with fire. Outside the fire, it was impossible for it to survive so, it didn't dare to walk in the Space Channel and could helplessly see the Space Channel closing slowly before completely disappearing from its sight.

.....

_Land Of Ice_

Ye Xiao and the Man Demon Ice Horse, both of them kept looking at each other without making any kind of move for a very long time.

Ye Xiao was surprised by the patience shown by the Man Demon Ice Horse. He found it very amusing to see a beast having such patience.

"Roar!"

It was at this time when the strong fluctuation of energy suddenly appeared in front of Ye Xiao and sensing this strong fluctuation, the Man Demon Ice Horse let out a furious roar and pounced at Ye Xiao with an incredible speed before slashing a claw at him.

Ye Xiao was also startled by the sudden appearance of the strong fluctuation of energy but the furious cry of the Man Demon Ice Horse brought Ye Xiao back to his senses.

"Spirit Devour Escape!"

Ye Xiao immediately used the Spirit Devour Escape to devour the surrounding the speed and disappearing from his spot in an instant, leaving behind an afterimage that also disappeared a moment later of his disappearance.

The claw of the Man Demon Ice Horse failed to touch Ye Xiao's figure, but it did touch his disappearing afterimage. But what was the benefit? It didn't manage to do any kind of harm to Ye Xiao.

Ye Xiao waved his hand and the Sea Dragon Spear appeared in his hand. Looking at the Sea Dragon Spear, Ye Xiao was reminded of the fact that he still had yet to unseal the other seals and get the other styles of the Sea Dragon Descends.

Sighing, Ye Xiao immediately made up his mind to unseal the other seals after the end of this competition. For now, he immediately took the stance and executed the First Style of the Sea Dragon Descends.

"Sea Dragon Descends: First Style, Hands Of Waves"

The entire icy ground immediately transformed into a vast sea and countless dragon claws emerged out from deep within the sea before clawing at the Man Demon Ice Horse from every direction.

The Man Demon Ice Horse was startled at first when it saw the surroundings changing into the vast sea. When it heard the countless tearing sound of air, it looked up and saw hundreds of Dragon Claws clawing at it.

At first, a look of fear appeared in its eyes but upon sensing the strength of this attack, a mocking smile appeared on its face.

With this kind of attack, it was impossible for it to be harmed in any way, so it let all the Dragon Claws land on its huge body.

"BOOM!"

Instead of a tearing sound, the sound of metal collision rang out as the Dragon Claws landed on the Man Demon Ice Horse's body. The Man Demon Ice Horse was surprised to find that his guess was proved to be wrong.

According to his guess, this attack of Ye Xiao should do no harm to its body, but to its surprise, many cuts appeared on its large body, and drops of blood started flowing out from those cuts.

Of course, the injuries it received were not fatal at all. The First Style of the Sea Dragon Descends lost its effect in front of a strong opponent. After all, it was only a Low-Grade Immortal Rank martial arts skill while the Man Demon Ice Horse was already at the Late Stage of the Immortal King Realm.

All these things sound to have taken a long time but in reality, only it took only one minute and a few seconds to happen all these things.

It was also at this time when the Space Channel finally completely revealed itself in the middle of the Man Demon Ice Horse and Ye Xiao. Both of them could see the scene on the other side, but none of them chose to move.

Ye Xiao was also surprised just like others when he saw the Space Channel but again, he understood immediately what this Space Channel was for.

Ye Xiao first looked at the Man Demon Ice Horse that was also looking at the Space Channel with curious eyes, then he looked at the White Flag floating in the air before moving his gaze to look at the Space Channel again.He was also confused just like Xu Feiyi, after all, one of the ten flags was still floating in front of him. But he didn't think much about this matter. Unlike others, Ye Xiao chose to ignore the Space Channel and focused on the Man Demon Ice Horse.

The Man Demon Ice Horse kept looking at the Space Channel. Although it wanted to use this Space Channel to go to the other side, it didn't dare to do so. It was because it could feel the same threatening aura coming out from the other side of the Space Channel that it had felt around a month ago.

There were also other hundreds of different aura that could threaten its life at the other side of the Space Channel. The Man Demon Ice Horse's personality is cowardly. It would only reveal its existence in front of the weaker opponent but in front of the strong opponent, it chooses to hide.

So, the Man Demon Ice Horse didn't dare to take a few steps forward and enter the Space Channel. It also then ignored the Space Channel and focused on Ye Xiao. The Man Demon Ice Horse didn't want to let the food in front of it escape, so it didn't even blink its only red-eye for even a single second.

Now, both Ye Xiao and the Man Demon Ice Horse were staring at each other without blinking their eyes.