Chapter 279: Visit

Several days passed.

The Ancient Holy King of the Holy Flame World lay in his wheelchair.

Eight cloudy compound eyes observed the sanatorium.

This was his new prison.

In the past, he would never have lived in such a place; he would have rather died.

However… things were different now.

Although he spoke tough words to the young people outside, only he knew…

He was just talking big.

If it were the him of old, he would have fought to the death without hesitation.

But now, he was confined here, putting on a defiant front, yet in reality, daring to do nothing.

His thoughts gradually drifted back to that battle many years ago.

Actually, to call it a battle… it was over in just one move.

Just one move.

An absolute disparity in strength, with no room for resistance whatsoever.

The Sacred Flame Clan’s body trembled uncontrollably.

Fear, bone-deep fear, mercilessly enveloped his mind…

This fear even made him consider retreating, and even though he had long left that battlefield, he still felt immense fear from the memory, even feeling… his legs go soft…

His resolute King’s Heart, his courageous and diligent perseverance, his fearless confidence—all crumbled in a single move.

His backbone was directly broken; he even felt his hands go soft when trying to clench a fist.

That golden… giant beast, which called itself a tiger, merely glanced down at him, effortlessly shattering all his pride and turning him into a trembling maggot.

A King, a warrior, who didn't even have the courage to stand up, what else could he do?

As he sank into sorrowful and despairing memories, he didn't notice that below his sanatorium, two Sacred Flame Clan members were arriving to visit.

It was Li Qi and Shen Shuibi.

Now, both of them looked exactly like the Holy Flame Clan Chief, perfectly disguised with illusion arts.

The Holy Flame Clan is a humanoid race, though, to be honest, not very much so; it's just a rough classification.

They actually resemble a type of insect, similar to a large beetle with slender limbs.

They constantly emit a buzzing sound from their vibrating wings, their four long legs support their segmented bodies, their carapaces open and close, and a pair of pincers protrude from their mouths.

Their hands are not fingers, but rather just two clamps, though very flexible, with stingers on them, allowing them to easily grasp and pick up objects, and even wield swords and knives.

Yes, this is the Holy Flame Clan’s weapon, but not in the usual sense of swords and knives.

They are born with a sword; it is a horn that grows on their forehead at birth, and it is also one of the hardest substances in the entire Holy Flame World.

Upon reaching adulthood, this horn detaches and becomes their weapon, from which their combat tradition also originates.

Li Qi was now very familiar with this, as he had spent the past few days specifically gathering information on the Holy Flame Clan’s social structure, physiological characteristics, and history.

After understanding these, they began their infiltration.

Shen Shuibi cast a spell, transforming them both into the appearance of Holy Flame Clan members, and then they acted here.

This was their second day of attempting to blend in with the Holy Flame Clan.

Based on Li Qi's investigations in various places, including consulting books and questioning elders, he learned many things.

Especially about the Immortals' arrival a hundred years ago.

Normally, such a thing would be very difficult, but fortunately, Li Qi didn't need to learn the language, making it easy for him to integrate.

Yes, the Holy Flame Clan's current common language is the language of the world, which is similar to ancient Chinese characters.

After one or two generations of influence, the Holy Flame Clan no longer spoke their original language, so Li Qi's standard pronunciation even made these Holy Flame Clan members think he was very 'fashionable,' which made communication much smoother.

Speaking of this, one must mention the origin of their name.

The Holy Flame Clan is called the Holy Flame Clan precisely because of the existence of the 'Sacred Flame.'

This is like the Earth Oil in the Earth Oil Realm, considered a special product of the Holy Flame World; both the race and this world are named after it.

The Sacred Flame is actually the materialization of the Holy Flame Clan’s spirit; these beetles have a special talent, which is that they can easily achieve 'resonance.'

This might be due to their evolutionary process; for many years in the past, Holy Flame Clan members would gather at specific times and emit the same sound with their back wings. This should come from their ancestors' initial cluster instinct, possibly gathering for reproduction.

Due to the lack of body language, eye contact, and facial expressions, almost all of the Holy Flame Clan’s emotional expressions rely on sound.

The chirping sounds produced by vibrating the carapace and wings behind them are both their language and their expressions.

They rely on this for almost all emotional expression.

And sound… there is such a thing as resonance.

Through resonance, they can coordinate their emotions to a degree where everyone resonates with each other, and this highly harmonic spirit will lead to the creation of a strange collective.

This product, generated by the spiritual resonance of the Holy Flame Clan, resembles a dark golden flame, but it actually has no temperature; it just looks like it.

Producing a Sacred Flame will cause the group of Holy Flame Clan members to fall into a weakened state, much like a side effect after excitement.

And the Sacred Flame, this thing, can greatly enhance the mental activity of a certain Holy Flame Clan member, allowing him to enter a mysterious state in a short period of time, as if merging into the spirits of the crowd.

In this state, their reaction speed, learning ability, and Comprehension Ability will all be improved.

In Li Qi's words, this thing is a collection of 'Divine Qi.'

It is the 'spirit' in essence, Qi, and spirit.

The Holy Flame Clan is naturally endowed with the ability to gather the Divine Qi of the masses.

And this thing is not very useful for other Dao paths, but it is a great tonic for the Divine Dao.

Giving it to Holy Flame Clan members is a pure waste; they can only use it as a stimulant, but for Divine Dao Cultivators, it is a treasure for consolidating foundation and excellent building material for constructing a divine kingdom.

Therefore, Li Qi judged that the Holy Flame World has very high economic value, and this economic value is reflected in the Holy Flame Clan itself, not in the world.

And during this questioning process, Li Qi learned of the existence of the Holy Flame Clan’s ancient 'Ancient Holy King.'

So, this is why they appeared at this sanatorium.

He showed a document to the security guard.

Its material was woven from the dried roots of local specialty plants, which the Holy Flame Clan commonly used as an information carrier, similar to paper.

“Yes, that’s right, we are here to visit the Ancient Holy King. This is our document. We are historians and would like to interview a witness to the events of that time.” Li Qi skillfully vibrated his wings, making a sound.

“History, huh… Don’t all historians now study the history of the Immortals? Why come here to study this? Can’t get funding, perhaps?” The security guard looked at Li Qi’s document suspiciously.

The document was certainly real.

Of course, in the physical sense of 'real.'

The Holy Flame Clan had not mastered Karma-level anti-counterfeiting technology; they still used methods like seals and anti-counterfeiting marks.

In front of Li Qi, who possessed True Knowledge Dao Resonance, such anti-counterfeiting measures were as good as none.

Moreover, Li Qi discovered that in these worlds outside the realm, the power of True Knowledge Dao Resonance was terrifyingly strong!

Without the Heavenly Dao suppression of the world, Li Qi could easily penetrate many defense mechanisms, not only greatly increasing his range but also strengthening his penetration power.

However… the function had not changed; it was just more detailed and had a wider range.

Li Qi easily made two documents identical to the real ones based on the other party’s anti-counterfeiting measures; they were no different from the real ones except that they were fake.

“We need to study both, to cross-reference them. I came this time to study the twists and turns of the Holy Flame Clan’s history versus the vastness of the Immortals’ history,” Li Qi said with a smile.

This direction was more in line with the current situation of the Holy Flame Clan.

Hearing this, the security guard from the Holy Flame Clan suddenly understood, nodded, and then handed over the document: “So that’s it. Then it’s good to compare them properly, to make those young people who worship the past wake up. Please come in.”

Li Qi flapped his wings, emitting a joyful sound.

This was the 'smile' expression, just conveyed through sound.

Shen Shuibi remained silent beside him, simply following quietly.

Even transformed into a Holy Flame Clan member, she was still a socially awkward person with few expressions, so she merely followed behind.

Taking back his document and exchanging a few more pleasantries, Li Qi entered the sanatorium.

He looked around; the architectural style was not like that of the Tang Nation.

But it also had very obvious flavors of the world's architecture, with various sculptures of house-guarding beasts, as well as flowers, plants, and trees, all in the style of the world's architecture.

The erosion was severe.

In just one generation, these Holy Flame Clan members were already completely transforming into the Dao Orthodoxy of the world, with customs, etiquette, values, and even cultivation methods and aesthetics shifting towards the direction of the world.

“It’s not from the Tang Nation, but it has some human Dao Qi. Where is that from?” Li Qi frowned, asking Shen Shuibi.

This conversation was conducted through secret sound transmission, so there was no need to worry about outsiders hearing it.

“Divine Dao. The arrangement of these house-guarding beasts is a Divine Dao method, but not entirely. There’s a mix of human Dao and Shaman Dao, which is quite strange. This combination is a bit odd,” Shen Shuibi observed her surroundings, analyzing the origins of these aesthetics.

As the saying goes, one can glimpse the whole from a single part. What Dao path this suddenly appearing 'Immortal' belonged to could be discerned from these aspects.

“Divine Dao, human Dao, Shaman Dao intertwined, uh… this combination is a bit like Baiyue,” Li Qi pondered aloud.

The Baiyue, a place of contention between Shaman Dao and humanity, but also home to a vast number of Mountain and Water Deities .

“Baiyue? Indeed, is a certain Realm Lord from Baiyue trying to establish a resource world here? After all, Sacred Flame seems to have great economic value,” Shen Shuibi mused.

“Not necessarily; let’s just see for now. But Sacred Flame is indeed a good thing; we can try to secure this world,” Li Qi said.

The books said that not everything in the outer domains was useful; most worlds were quite ordinary, and even their special products were just novelties. Only a few were truly useful to the world.

To stumble upon a special product of the Sacred Flame’s caliber at once was truly a stroke of luck; Li Qi felt this must have been brought by his own good fortune.

Moreover, after arriving in the Holy Flame World, the golden shimmering good fortune on him dissipated.

Evidently, Zhong Minglou’s guidance to him was this.

Therefore, Li Qi felt that this world was very valuable and must be fought for.

Thus, he specifically learned about the many histories of this world, finally finding the existence of the 'Ancient Holy King.'

He felt that this was a place to start.

Even if this world had already been occupied by another organization from the world, land-grabbing was always a matter of individual ability.

This was not within the world, a place where everyone discussed amicably under rules.

This was the outer domain, and it was a cluster of wild worlds.

No one was in charge.

As the two spoke, they quickly arrived at the innermost bedroom of the sanatorium.

Thump, thump, thump.

Li Qi gently knocked on the door three times.

Then, footsteps quickly came from inside.

Next, the door opened, revealing a female Holy Flame Clan member inside.

Distinguishing this was easy; although there was no significant physical difference between male and female Holy Flame Clan members, and their beetle faces and mouthparts had no gender characteristics, females did not have wings.

“Excuse me? Who are the two of you?” She spoke in… uh, a fluent wing-language of the world.

Zhang Lila was a little puzzled; would anyone still come to visit the Ancient Holy King?

“Hello, we are historians,” Li Qi repeated his trick, taking out his document.

However, this time he changed his wording: “We want to understand ancient knowledge, and we feel it’s important to compile the ancient history belonging to the Holy Flame Clan for research and promotion, so we would like to interview the Ancient Holy King.”

He changed his approach because Li Qi knew very well that for this Ancient Holy King, such a statement would be more acceptable.

If he continued to say he was there to promote the great Immortal culture, he would probably be kicked out.

Speaking to people in their language and to ghosts in theirs—Li Qi was very familiar with this approach.

“Interview?” Zhang Lila took the document and looked at it.

It indeed had legitimate anti-counterfeiting marks and seals.

However, she was still somewhat wary, so she said: “I’m sorry… the Ancient Holy King is currently resting and does not accept private meetings. Please submit your application to the official institution, and we will inform you of an audience once we receive the invitation.”

However, before she finished speaking, a voice suddenly came from inside.

The Ancient Holy King himself spoke:

“Lila, let them in. I want to see what young people interested in the Holy Flame Clan’s history look like.”

Zhang Lila emitted a buzzing sound, which was the Holy Flame Clan’s 'frown.'

However, since the Ancient Holy King had spoken, she couldn't say anything more.

“Then please come in with me. The Ancient Holy King is not well, so please be careful,” she said, stepping aside to let Li Qi and Shen Shuibi enter.

Li Qi and the others entered and saw the elderly Holy Flame Clan member sitting in a wheelchair.

This was the Ancient Holy King.

A Sixth-Rank Realm Lord.