Inside a silent chamber, a man sat cross-legged and motionless with an expression so hollow that he looked more dead than alive. He had fully directed his consciousness into the Nascent Soul within his Purple Mansion as he did everything in his power to restrain the Netherfire.

Luo Chen extended a hand and sent his own true fire into the man's body. The azure-golden flames gathered into the shape of a great tree whose branches spread until they embraced the man completely. After searching him over, one of them came away with a strand of deathly pale fire at its tip.

Luo Chen leaned in to study it. "So this is Netherfire?"

The flame carried a heavy aura of death, and faint wails of countless resentful souls seemed to echo from within it. Luo Chen's expression turned solemn. He had never imagined that someone, anyone, could raise the most ordinary ghostly fire to such a level.

The name of Netherfire did sound quite impressive, but in truth, it was hardly rare in the cultivation world. At its core, it was nothing more than ghostly fire formed from the...