"Since you’re so generous, it would be uncultured of me not to accept your kindness." The emerald flame settled obediently into Lin Feng’s palm.

"First, I received a precious cauldron. Now I’ve received a heavenly flame." Lin Feng nodded thoughtfully.

"Don’t you think I’m well on my way to becoming a great pill master?"

The corners of Gao Shan’s eyes twitched violently. His entire body shook with rage. Blood rushed to his head.

He had spent decades nurturing the Spiritual Bamboo Emerald Fire and regarded it as one of the greatest treasures of his life.

Yet within moments, Lin Feng had casually taken it away and was openly thanking him for the gift. The ridicule was so great that Gao Shan nearly spat out a mouthful of blood on the spot.

"Give it back!" Pill Master Gao Shan roared, his voice cracking with disbelief and rage. He pointed at Lin Feng as if he had just witnessed the greatest injustice in the world.

"That is my Spiritual Bamboo Emerald Fire!"

Lin Feng tilted his head slightly and looked at him with genuine confusion.

"What are you, a child?" He let out a small sigh.

"You throw something at me and then ask for it back? Do you even hear yourself?" Lin Feng slowly raised the emerald flame in his palm, letting it dance lazily between his fingers.

"Need I remind you that just moments ago, you wanted to burn me alive and cook me for ten hours? If I were even slightly weaker, I’d already be screaming in agony by now."

His tone remained calm, almost polite, as though he were discussing weather instead of life and death. Gao Shan’s face twisted.

"That was..."

Lin Feng interrupted him with a wave of his hand.

"I don’t care what it was." He glanced at the crowd around them.

"But since I’m a good man, I suppose I can let you borrow my new flame." A faint smile appeared on his lips.

"Just be careful. Don’t burn yourself, okay?"

The moment those words fell, the atmosphere froze. Even the wind seemed to hesitate. Then Lin Feng flicked his finger lightly. The Spiritual Bamboo Emerald Fire shot forward like a returning meteor.

Straight toward Gao Shan.

"Y-Yes! Come to me!" Gao Shan’s eyes lit up with wild excitement.

To him, this was merely his treasure returning home. He had spent decades nurturing this flame, refining his connection to it, and forging a blood contract. There was no way it would betray him.

No way at all. He even opened his arms slightly, as if welcoming an old friend. But the moment the emerald flame touched his body...

Everything changed. A silence fell. Then..

BOOM.

A terrifying wave of heat erupted from inside his meridians. Gao Shan’s expression froze mid smile.

"What...?"

Crack.

A faint sound echoed from his body. His skin began to glow with emerald cracks, as though his entire existence was being rewritten from within.

"No... this... impossible..."

The blood contract he had spent his life perfecting shattered like glass under a hammer. Instead of obeying him, the Spiritual Bamboo Emerald Fire reacted as though it had found its true origin.

It surged through him violently... not to protect him, but to reject him.

"NOOOOOO!" Gao Shan’s scream tore through the air. But it was already too late.

Whoosh!

A pillar of emerald flame erupted outward. The ground beneath him turned black instantly.

In less than a breath, Pill Master Gao Shan was reduced to a pile of drifting ash.

The crowd went completely silent. Not a single person spoke.

Then...

"...Senior Gao Shan?" Someone whispered uncertainly. As if saying it louder might make reality correct itself. But reality did not respond. Instead, the ashes scattered in the wind.

Then came chaos.

Whoosh!

A guard standing too close was brushed by a stray wisp of flame. He didn’t even have time to scream.

Whoosh!

He turned to ash. Another disciple tried to retreat.

Whoosh!

Gone.

A second disciple activated a protective talisman. It ignited instantly. Then so did he.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

One after another, the remaining guards and disciples collapsed into ash, as if the heavenly flame had decided to clean up every loose end in the area.

The marketplace that had been filled with arrogant laughter just moments ago now descended into pure horror. People stumbled backward. Some tripped over themselves trying to escape.

Others stared in stunned silence, unable to process what they were witnessing. This was not a battle. This was not even a massacre. It was... deletion.

Within moments, the once-mighty group led by Pill Master Gao Shan had completely vanished. Only black ash remained, scattered across the stone ground like the remnants of a burnt offering.

Lin Feng looked at the scene with mild interest, as though inspecting the result of a small experiment.

"Hmm." He nodded slightly.

"Borrowing it worked better than expected."

The crowd flinched.

Borrowing?

That was a heavenly flame! A legendary treasure that could reduce cities to ruin! Yet in his mouth, it sounded like borrowing a cooking pot.

Lin Feng casually flicked his sleeve, dispersing a few drifting sparks.

"Still, a bit too enthusiastic."

He sighed softly.

"I did tell him not to burn himself."

No one dared respond. Even breathing felt dangerous at this moment. Because at that exact time...

Unknown to everyone present...

The real bodies and souls of Gao Shan, his guards, and his disciples were not gone. They had simply been... relocated. To a very strange place.

A place filled with dim light, endless queues, and an air of terrifying efficiency. And at the front of it all stood a big, smiling fatty, rolling up his sleeves as if preparing for something important.

"Next batch. It seems like that old fogey Lin Feng got busy all of a sudden." The big fatty chuckled. As the newly arrived toys looked around in confusion... they suddenly realized something horrifying...

Whatever death they thought they had escaped... hell had only just begun for them all.