When a Fanfic Protagonist Transmigrated into the Original Novel

Chapter 26: Heaven's Flame 

Almost at the exact same time, Yu Ying flew down and pulled Xiao Kui away.

The fierce flame had the color of blood red, and it burned silently in the air.

“Get away!” Yu Ying pushed Yi Xichen and all the other disciples away and yelled, “Everyone get away! Don’t touch that fire!”

No one has ever seen Yu Ying being so tense and angry before, causing all the disciples to quickly move away.

After being pushed, Yi Xichen only wobbled a little but did not move. His eyes were fixed on the scarlet flame. It was a very strange ball of fire: It came from the sky, it didn’t need anything to use as fuel, its color was bloody red… Such a strange fire, this wasn’t his first time seeing it though.

He dug his fingernails into the red mark on his fingertip. It was this type of fire that quietly burned his parents to death and sealed the power in his body!

Qiu Jian also landed from above and said with incredulity, “This… this is Heaven’s Flame? Zhangsun Zijun, you can summon Heaven’s Flame!” He saw very clearly from above. Xiao Kui was about to attack Yi Xichen, and with a wave of the hand, Zhangsun Zijun summoned Heaven’s Flame from the sky.

Yi Xichen abruptly turned his head around to look at Zhangsun Zijun. Zhangsun Zijun summoned this flame?!

“This is Heaven’s Flame?!” All the disciples around them stepped back in horror.

Heaven’s Flame was the force of nature from the heavens and the earth. It wouldn’t burn anything, but it could vaporize souls. The second one touched it, his or her soul would be quickly annihilated, leaving only an empty shell. With such powers, Heaven’s Flame only existed in the Realm of Nature. No one could create it, but there were some who could summon it.

And in the entire world’s six realms, there were no more than ten people who could summon such fire! Not everyone knew how powerful this rare fire was, but those who do know, knew that touching it meant no tomorrow.

Without having anything to burn, the fire floated in the air for a while, and then slowly sank into the earth. But even after the fire disappeared, no one dared to approach the ground that it sank into, afraid that their soul would be absorbed by the ground as well.

“Zhangsun Zijun!” Yu Ying yelled sternly, “Where did you learn how to summon Heaven’s Flame?!”

Zhangsun Zijun slightly frowned and didn’t reply. He didn’t bother to learn this, it was just that the fanfic author didn’t care much either and made him know all the powerful moves. He really didn’t know where to start.

Him not replying made it seem like he was refusing to tell the truth in Yu Ying and Qiu Jian’s eyes. But even so, there wasn’t anything they could do. In Heavenly Sword Sect, a place where one’s cultivation was treated above everything else, the elders were not that strict on what the disciples could do, it was allowed for them to go learn moves from other masters. The only big no-no’s were things that were immoral.

Although they didn’t have to force Zhangsun Zijun to tell them where he learned this incredible move, Yu Ying and the elders still couldn’t forgive what Zhangsun Zijun was about to do.

“How dare you try to use Heaven’s Flame to kill your Martial Brother! Do you still have Heavenly Sword Sect in your eyes?! Do you still have the words “morality” and “justice in your eyes?!”

Zhangsun Zijun still remained silent. He wasn’t planning to kill Xiao Kui, but after seeing him attack Yi Xichen, his anger rose and Heaven’s Flame just came along. If Xiao Kui was hit, he would be dead for certain, so there wasn’t anything he could argue either.

Yi Xichen was in a daze for a bit after seeing Heaven’s Flame, but by now, he has fully recovered as well. He quickly stood beside Zhangsun Zijun and said, “Sect Leader, it is Xiao Kui who attempted to harm me first, Zhangsun Zijun only summoned Heaven’s Flame to try and protect me, this isn’t fully his fault.”

Yu Ying’s anger didn’t fade away by the slightest, “Xiao Kui wanted to harm you, but he wanted to kill Xiao Kui! Yi Xichen, move away, this has nothing to do with you!”

Facing the Sect Leader’s anger, any other disciple would have lowered their head and apologized by now, but Yi Xichen remained in place. He continued while standing beside Zhangsun Zijun, “How does one define harm and kill? Brother Xiao didn’t hit me, what if I accidentally died from his attack? Heaven’s Flame didn’t touch Brother Xiao either, perhaps he is an exception who can’t be harmed by Heaven’s Flame. Since nothing really happened, how does one argue for either side?”

Obviously, this was stretching it a little. If Xiao Kui could kill Yi Xichen with just one palm, then how did the match just now last so long? And Xiao Kui being an exception who couldn’t be harmed by Heaven’s Flame? Even more ridiculous! But this couldn’t be proven, after all, the only way to testify would be for Xiao Kui to be hit by the flame and to see the result.

Zhangsun Zijun, who has been silent the whole time, finally spoke, “Xiao Kui did have a killing intent.” The cause for his extreme anger was this killing intent he felt, otherwise, Heaven’s Flame wouldn’t have been summoned so easily.

Xiao Kui took a step back and hid his fist behind his back. He didn’t mean to be so angry just now, it was that he was too pissed from being fooled that he did release some killing intent, Zhangsun Zijun wasn’t making things up. Now that he wasn’t as angry, his emotions started to get complicated again.

Zhangsun Zijun’s abilities were way too out of his expectations. Not only did he have the Heavenly Spiritual Root, but he could also even summon Heaven’s Flame! With such abilities, he didn’t attack him once after all the provocations he made over the years, yet to protect Yi Xichen… If I didn’t do those things back then, then perhaps, the one he will be protecting would be me…

He already knew by now that the words he heard through the eavesdrop bug were sentences that they purposefully said for him to hear. But what was purposefully said might not be lies. For example, the reason Zhangsun Zijun went into the Forbidden Land. Xiao Kui thought about it for a night and determined that that was the truth. He also realized that Zhangsun Zijun didn’t seem to care about the jade token he stole at all.

Yet now, Zhangsun Zijun did not summon Heaven’s Flame to protect him, but to kill him for Yi Xichen… Xiao Kui clenched his fists even tighter, with his eyes full of hatred.

Yi Xichen and Zhangsun Zijun’s words only sounded like futile arguments in Yu Ying’s ears. He yelled, “Yi Xichen, get out of the way!”

But Yi Xichen refused. He knew that if he was the one who committed a mistake, then Zhangsun Zijun would definitely be blocking in front of him as well. 

“Sect Leader……” Qiu Jian said quietly. His feelings were extremely mixed. On one side was the proud disciple he has been teaching for years, and on the other side was a talent he really wanted. Although he was leaning more towards Xiao Kui’s side, he still didn’t want to see Zhangsun Zijun being expelled from the sect.

After being in a stalemate for a while, Yu Ying said coldly, “Okay, Yi Xichen, I’ll go as you want. Xiao Kui and Zhangsun Zijun will receive the same punishments, both of them tried to harm each other. Since they both violated my sect’s rules, both of them shall be punished equally!”

Xiao Kui felt that today must be his unluckiest day. Not only was he almost burned to death, but he also had to receive the same punishments. But for a moment, he didn’t know what he could argue for himself.

“Sect Leader,” Yi Xichen’s attitude softened down, “Zijun must’ve learned Heaven’s Flame from a super powerful master. He probably didn’t say his name for a reason. But he’s still quite young, it is within the expectation that he wasn’t able to control it. However, I believe that he wasn’t purposefully trying to harm him, and it was I who was provoking Brother Xiao first, I am at fault too. Right now, the Sword Assembly isn’t over yet, can we wait to discuss who’s right and wrong after?”

In fact, Yi Xichen knew very well that Zhangsun Zijun’s capability to use Heaven’s Flame probably had to do something to do with the Confusion Array rather than some “super-powerful master”. He only made such a figure up to use as a bluff against Yu Ying, making him think that Zhangsun Zijun had a strong person backing him up. Now that he mentioned waiting until after the Sword Assembly finished, he could stall time to think for a plan.

Yu Ying thought for a moment and then agreed, “Fine. We’ll wait for today’s ten matches to finish, then discuss your punishments!”

All of them let out a sigh of relief.

Then, Yu Ying threw up his sword, gave a light jump, and got onto his sword. He flew away without turning back, showing no interest in the upcoming matches.

After Yu Ying left, Qiu Jian also returned to continue announcing the matches. Zhangsun Zijun and Lu Ziyao’s match was the eighth one, they still had quite some time.

Xiao Kui left angrily, and all the other disciples also backed away, keeping distance between Zhangsun Zijun with alarm, and afraid that they would get hurt. Zhangsun Zijun didn’t care about them at all. He just stared at Xiao Kui’s back and whispered, “Xiao Kui’s acting weird.”

Yi Xichen said, “I think I saw black smoke coming out of his palm, but I’m not certain. Do you know anything weird about him?” He asked this because he thought that Zhangsun Zijun would know something about Xiao Kui after going through the Confusion Array.

Zhangsun Zijun shook his head and said, “No.”

Yi Xichen was also puzzled. What he saw didn’t seem to be a sword cultivation technique just now, could it be that Xiao Kui still had a hidden skill he didn’t reveal? If this skill was very powerful, how come no one ever saw him using it?

Zhangsun Zijun said again, “The Sect Leader seems to treat you differently.” Although his IQ was rarely at its normal level, he could still tell that Yu Ying didn’t want to blame Yi Xichen, and kept asking him to leave.

Yi Xichen became even more confused, “I don’t know why either. What made him want to take me as his disciple? That old man thinks I have potential?”

Of course he was joking. Although Zhangsun Zijun didn’t take it seriously, he couldn’t help but snort softly.

Yi Xichen sighed, “Let’s not care about this now, we should go ask Master if he has any solutions to this.”

In the Heavenly Sword Sect, harming fellow disciples was a severe crime. It could be forgiven if the harm was done unintentionally, but Zhangsun Zijun’s act of summoning Heaven’s Flame would have to be seriously investigated, and he might end up expelled or even deprived of his cultivation by force.

Zhangsun Zijun didn’t care, “What can they do? I’ll just leave if I have to.”

Yi Xichen smiled and said, “Sure, that’ll be good too. We can leave the mountain a few months early and find my Elemental Treasures. I can’t wait, even though Master might be mad.” He never even considered the possibility of separating from Zhangsun Zijun. If Zhangsun Zijun was going to leave, he would definitely follow.

Zhangsun Zijun didn’t find anything wrong with Yi Xichen’s words either, because he had the same thing in mind.

Without any delay, both of them went to find Yao Budu.