Chapter 388: Nirvana Flame Core

The distorted, tearing sensation of space finally began to dissipate.

“Bang!”

Rhain and Lyra landed heavily on a patch of parched earth.

An extremely pungent and nauseating stench immediately assaulted their senses, and the familiar yet deadly poisonous miasma filled the air, obscuring the sky like a blackened rag.

Without a doubt, they had left the perilous trial grounds and returned to the desolate Sunless Umbral Basin.

Not far away from them, Karsten and the four surviving mercenaries also got up from the ground.

For a moment, they just lay there, staring blankly at the perpetually dark sky.

They were out.

To breathe the foul air of the Basin again felt like the greatest blessing in the world.

“We… we’ve survived!” Karsten wept, tears of ecstatic joy falling down his scarred face. “We actually escaped that hell!”

The mercenaries collapsed to their knees, laughing and crying simultaneously. After facing meteors, slaughtering thousands of Domain Master beasts, and surviving the crushing pressure of a Supreme expert’s remnant soul, the toxic wasteland of the basin felt like a miraculous rebirth.

Rhain, however, did not share in their emotional celebration.

Although the trial was over, his mission was far from finished.

He had not forgotten the true reason why he had come to this basin in the first place.

“We are not done here,” Rhain spoke in a strict tone. “Our main objective hasn’t changed. I still need the beast core of the mutated multi-headed fire python.”

Karsten stiffened, hastily scrambling to his feet and wiping his face.

After surviving the literal hell of the old man’s trials, the dangers of the Basin seemed far less intimidating.

“Yes, Lord Rhain! We will take you there immediately!” Karsten nodded firmly.

Rhain allowed them a brief moment of rest to stabilize their breathing and ensure their essence was fully circulating again.

Afterwards, Karsten and the mercenaries took the lead, guiding Rhain and Lyra deeper into the wasteland toward the Scorched Umbral Zone.

They traveled for several hours without encountering any major obstacle.

The ferocious beasts that had been lurking in the miasma seemed to be terrified of the hidden malevolent aura emanating from Rhain, and dared not approach him in the slightest.

Gradually, the environment began to undergo a drastic shift.

The thick dark fog that blanketed the basin slowly began to thin out, replaced by a blistering heat.

A burning heat wave, seemingly capable of instantly drying a person, rolled in toward them.

The blackened earth beneath their boots turned cracked with glowing veins of molten magma visible within the fissures.

They finally arrived at their destination, the Scorched Umbral Zone.

“Lord Rhain,” Karsten called out, wiping a thick layer of sweat from his brow despite his Core Formation aura actively trying to repel the heat. “We have arrived. This is the boundary of the Scorched Umbral Zone.”

Rhain gave a brief nod.

The moment his boots officially crossed the invisible boundary into the scorching territory—

[Ding!]

The crisp, mechanical voice of the System echoed clearly within the depths of his mind.

[Location Sign-In Node detected: Scorched Umbral Zone.]

[Would you like to sign in?]

Rhain’s footsteps paused for a a second.

Another sign-in? It was beyond his imagination.

‘Sign in,’ Rhain confirmed internally without a shred of hesitation.

Location Sign-In Successful!]

[Congratulations! You have received the Saint-Grade Reward: Nirvana Flame Core.]

[Item cannot be sent to System Inventory. Do you want to integrate Nirvana Flame Core?]

A torrent of profound knowledge poured directly into his consciousness, detailing the properties of the divine item.

[Nirvana Flame Core: A Saint-Grade elemental core born from a true phoenix. Upon assimilation, it will directly evolve the host’s Heaven-Grade flame into a Saint-Grade flame, granting it the power of the incineration and rebirth.]

Rhain’s heart skipped a beat.

Saint-Grade!

His Red Tribulations Heavenly Flame was currently at the Heaven-Grade.

It was already an apocalyptic force capable of incinerating Domain Master beasts and suppressing toxic miasmas effortlessly.

To evolve it into a Saint-Grade flame… the destructive output would reach an entirely incomprehensible dimension.

‘Assimilate it,’ Rhain commanded the System internally as he continued walking forward.

Drawing from his past experiences when he had merged the Red Tribulations Heavenly Flame and the Boundless Sky Wind, the System and his Abyssal Sovereign Physique had always handled the integration flawlessly and painlessly.

He expected this to be no different. He could simply merge it silently while they marched.

But he was dead wrong.

The moment the Nirvana Flame Core was drawn from the System Inventory and deposited directly into his dantian—

BOOM—!!!

A scorching inferno detonated inside his very soul.

It felt as if a million molten needles had been simultaneously injected into his meridians, his bones, and his very soul.

The Nirvana Flame Core clashed fiercely with his Heaven-Grade flame, violently tearing his internal structures apart as they forcefully fused together into an qualitative state.

‘Argh!’ Rhain screamed in his mind.

The pain was indescribable; an ordinary person might have collapsed and cried out in agony within the first breath

But despite the overwhelming agony dominating his senses, Rhain clenched his fists tightly beneath his wide sleeves, his fingernails digging deeply into his palms.

He forced his breathing to remain steady, refusing to let even a single gasp of pain escape his lips.

His dark grey eyes remained fixed ahead on the path, and his expression did not change in the slightest.

To Lyra, Karsten, and the mercenaries walking beside him, Rhain looked as if he were leisurely taking a stroll through a warm breeze.

He acted perfectly normal from the outside, hiding a torment that defied human imagination.

Inside his dantian, the Abyssal Sovereign Physique roared, its tyrannical nature aggressively suppressing the turbulent mutation.

The Red Tribulations Heavenly Flame ravenously devoured the Nirvana Flame Core, its blood-red color deepening into a majestic crimson-gold.

His Heaven-Grade flame had successfully evolved into a Saint-Grade Flame!

At the exact same time, the Origin Seed of Fire residing in his spiritual sea was forcefully stimulated by the birth of the Saint-Grade flame.

His comprehension of the Law of Fire, which had just ascended to seventy percent during his previous breakthroughs, surged upward with massive speed.

Seventy-five percent!

Eighty-five percent!

Ninety-five percent!

And finally, it effortlessly shattered the final bottleneck.

One hundred percent!

He had achieved the perfection of the Law of Flame!

All of this happened within a span of a few seconds, and neither Lyra, nor Karsten and his merceneries suspected anything throughout this time.

The pain receded quickly, and Rhain slowly exhaled a quiet breath of scorching air, his dark grey eyes flashing with an imperceptible golden light.

In the entire Solathane Dynasty, spanning hundreds of millions of cultivators, fewer than a hundred men are currently at the perfection of any supreme law.

But as Rhain inwardly analyzed his newly ascended Saint-Grade flame, his brow furrowed slightly.

‘It is too volatile,’ Rhain thought with a frown.

The power contained within the crimson-gold flame was astronomically huge, but it was also extremely chaotic and exceedingly hard to control.

The density of destruction within it was so overwhelming that if he were to unleash its full power at his current realm, the resulting backlash wouldn’t just obliterate his enemies, but his friends as well.

Everything in his immediate surroundings would turn into nothingness.

‘I cannot use this casually,’ Rhain concluded instantly.

If he lost control for even a second, he would slaughter his own people.

He decided to keep it hidden.

The Saint-Grade Flame would serve as his ultimate trump card—a power to be unleashed only when facing an existence he absolutely could not defeat otherwise.

His enemies would have to endure the same hellish torture of being pierced by thousands of molten blades he had endured just now.

Just thinking of that, Rhain’s lips curved into a cold smirk of satisfaction.