Chapter 102: The Burning House

“Is it really this intense right after waking up?” Su Yuanbai reached out and lightly flicked away the white dagger that had pierced his brow, his dark eyes fixed on the man clad entirely in white, standing five feet tall, who had just pulled him out of this crystal coffin.

The last thing he remembered was the deep sea of the vast ocean; this man before him was a complete stranger.

The man in pure white, seeing that the white dagger formed from Su Yuanbai’s arm could not harm him in the slightest, began to emit a faint, fiery glow. This fire was not malevolent; rather, it carried a touch of divinity.

“How intriguing,” Su Yuanbai murmured, watching the faint flames flicker on the man in white. Even such a subtle blaze caused the crystal coffin beneath them—ordinarily impervious to light—to begin melting.

Cold, piercing water instantly soaked the floor, and wisps of chilling mist rose.

As the mist ascended, the man in white, wreathed in faint flames, lunged at Su Yuanbai. His movements were erratic and stiff, lacking any discernible pattern.

Su Yuanbai easily dodged, but the tables and cabinets in the room were less fortunate.

Any wooden furniture touched by the fiery white man ignited instantly, transforming into raging infernos within moments.

“So, he’s an enemy,” Su Yuanbai thought, eyes on the collapsing beams as he dodged another desperate lunge from the fiery man. He began to form a judgment, though some doubt lingered.

This enemy was far too weak.

Compared to those he had encountered beneath the ocean, they were not even in the same league.

“Run out quickly! It’s a fire-dwelling ghost. The fire it carries isn’t ordinary mortal flame—it’s the Southern Bright Li Fire bestowed by the Ghost Golden Ram. Nothing can withstand it.”

Su Yuanbai glanced back slightly and saw a beautiful woman in black anxiously calling to him outside the blazing doorway.

She seemed to know some of the truth.

Sidestepping the fire-dwelling ghost’s relentless attacks, Su Yuanbai approached the door and pushed open the half-ajar portal, flames roaring around its edges.

With a thud, the door dropped to the floor, flames clinging to it falling in shimmering sparks that flickered without extinguishing.

His body was changing again.

Su Yuanbai lowered his gaze to the scorched marks on his palm. In his memory, his body was never so fragile. Moreover, aside from the faint divine essence within the Southern Bright Li Fire that puzzled him, the rest was identical to the flames wielded by the Taoist in pale blue robes he had met in the ocean.

That Taoist’s flames were far stronger than these.

Cui Ya stared blankly as Su Yuanbai stepped through the door. The flames that had separated from the fire-dwelling ghost would take about the time of a tea break to gradually revert to mortal fire.

Only then could water and earth be used to extinguish the blaze.

Touch the flames within that time, and one would be burned to shreds; even rolling on the ground would not smother the fire.

Yet this man seemed only to have faint scorch marks on his palm.

Where was the fire?

What stunned Cui Ya even more was the man’s appearance. If she had to find a flaw on that handsome face, it was only the cold indifference in his jet-black eyes.

Every other feature seemed as if sculpted by a master craftsman, painted by an artist—too perfect to be real.

“Where is this place?” Su Yuanbai asked slowly, stepping in front of Cui Ya. He lowered his eyes to her, who stared at him in a daze, but hesitated to ask her name.

“Dreamfloat City of Nanxi Prefecture...” Cui Ya answered instinctively.

She immediately realized this was no time to be infatuated. If this man was unaffected by the Southern Bright Li Fire, he might be aligned with the Ghost Golden Ram faction, known as the Ghost Star Officials.

Her earlier worry and anxiety now shifted to vigilance and caution.

Cui Ya took a few steps back, her expression grave as she watched Su Yuanbai approach. From the corner of her eye, she saw the fire-dwelling ghost bursting out from the burning chamber silently.

This ghost could help her probe the mysterious man before her.

“Nanxi Prefecture? Could it be that we’re in Yunhai Province?” Su Yuanbai murmured, noticing the flicker in Cui Ya’s eyes and the gradually rising heat.

His body had grown fragile, but his senses remained sharp.

If he avoided it now, could this woman escape? If she couldn’t, and the fire-dwelling ghost behind her couldn’t speak, it would complicate matters.

“I’m not familiar with it,” Su Yuanbai said to Cui Ya.

Then he slowly turned, his face calm as he faced the fire-dwelling ghost now barely a foot away. Stepping forward, his crimson crane robe fluttered lightly.

Roll, roll.

A flaming head rolled across the floor, leaving a fiery trail behind.

“So you can answer my question...” Su Yuanbai began.

“You really don’t know it. Unless you remove the fire core from its chest, even if you chop off its head, it’s useless!” Cui Ya shouted helplessly before he could finish.

As she said, even if Su Yuanbai plucked off the ghost’s head, its body quickly grew a new one.

The flaming head rolling on the ground suddenly grew a complete body.

The two fire-dwelling ghosts did not attack Su Yuanbai further; instead, both lunged toward Cui Ya.

“So that’s how it is,” Su Yuanbai nodded thoughtfully. As the two ghosts charged, he stretched out both arms and, like the wind, snatched a shard of scarlet crystal from each of their chests.

Within the scarlet crystal shards flickered a faint image of the Vermilion Bird, whose feathered crown bore the proud silhouette of a black ram with curved horns.

Su Yuanbai lightly twisted the shard between his fingers. The crystal, as thin as paper, crumbled into red powder that drifted away on the breeze and vanished.

“The Ghost Golden Ram, the second constellation of the Southern Vermilion Bird, also one of the Ghost Star Officials,” he murmured, looking up at the night sky.

Though the stars still shone brilliantly and the bright moon hung high, the arrangement of the constellations had fallen into chaotic disorder.

“Has it already become chaotic?” Su Yuanbai muttered, brow furrowing.

Cui Ya’s mouth fell open involuntarily. She stared at the handsome man in the crimson crane robe bathed in firelight as the twin-bladed short knife she had drawn from her waist slipped to the ground.

“Sir Immortal, please save us!” Cui Ya kowtowed deeply to Su Yuanbai.

“Fire! Fire! Someone come put out the fire!!!” At that moment, Xie Xiushi, who had been tossed aside in a corner of the inner courtyard, finally awoke. Opening his eyes, he saw the innermost chamber ablaze and shouted loudly.

This was the house he had painstakingly purchased with his hard-earned money!

Suddenly, as he stood up, a sharp pain stabbed through his ribs. The pain was unmistakably that of a broken bone.

But even more terrifying than the broken ribs was what he saw next.

The corpse inside the crystal coffin was standing alive amid the flames!