Chapter 117: The Grand Return

There was nothing particularly impressive about it, just a simple golden colored leaf.

It wasn’t covered in powerful spiritual energy, nor emit a dazzling light. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary leaf.

But this thing made his eyebrows furrowed.

’What is this?’

He turned the leaf over several times, even released his soul power and carefully swept across the golden leaf. But he found nothing.

Long Feng’s expression became more serious.

Because even with the knowledge of a seventh-rank alchemist’s legacy, he couldn’t identify this leaf.

His knowledge of herbs and spiritual plants had already reached an extremely profound level. He could recognize countless rare medicinal ingredients with only a glance.

But not this one, that alone was strange.

If he hadn’t been specifically looking through Ye Wuxie’s storage ring for something unusual, he probably would’ve ignored this.

Long Feng carefully examined it again.

There was no obvious spiritual fluctuation, no poisonous aura, no special medicinal fragrance, nothing.

It looked completely ordinary, but he didn’t believe that was the truth.

Why would such a strange golden leaf appear inside Ye Wuxie’s storage ring?

And why couldn’t even he recognize it?

Anything simple yet strange thing coming out from a protagonist’s ring should be a powerful treasure, that’s universal law of traditional novels.

Long Feng’s curiosity increased as he began to check it more carefully and then, he found something more odd thing that he ignored.

The leaf was still remained floating above his palm and didn’t fall.

’Wait.’ Long Feng’s eyes narrowed as he withdrew his hand.

The golden leaf continued drifting in the air with no spiritual energy supporting it, as if it didn’t have mass.

"Interesting."

After seeing all this, how could he remain calm?

The alchemist inside him awoke, and he began experimenting. If this thing in its raw form wasn’t revealing anything, perhaps its paste would.

Dark purple Hell Python flames appeared on his hand and started bringing it close, intenting to extract its essence.

But what happened next made even Long Feng rub his eyes twice to believe what he was seeing, but the scene didn’t change.

Those violent flames suddenly became gentle upon getting close to the golden leaf.

Long Feng’s pupils contracted.

"What?"

Let alone burn the golden leaf, those flames couldn’t even touch it.

The Hell Python Flame, which normally carried a destructive and dangerous aura, suddenly stopped advancing.

Instead, it began slowly swirling around the golden leaf. It looked almost like a child circling around its mother, seeking attention.

Long Feng stared in disbelief for a few moments, before coming into reality and immediately withdrew the flame.

In his hand, he checked again and found that Hell Python Flame had returned to its normal violent state, as if nothing happens just now.

"What exactly are you?"

He tried again. This time, he controlled the Hell Python Flame more carefully and brought it closer. The result was exactly the same.

The moment the flame approached the leaf, its violent nature disappeared. It became incredibly docile.

Long Feng’s expression gradually became fascinated.

He began testing it in different ways. First, he used his Hell Python Flame in different ways, but the result remained unchanged.

Then he transformed his spiritual energy into an ordinary spiritual flame like any normal alchemist.

The moment those flame approached the golden leaf, the same thing happened. The flame became gentle and automatically began circling the leaf.

’It isn’t affecting the Hell Python Flame specifically.’

Several hours passed without Long Feng even realizing it.

He tested different temperatures, different types of flames, different methods of control, and even different ways of approaching the leaf.

Even with the normal fire that didn’t even have a trace of spiritual energy, couldn’t change the result.

"I still don’t know what you are." Long Feng eventually sat back and rubbed his forehead.

He was both excited and irritated.

He had spent hours investigating the leaf, yet he still couldn’t identify its origin.

However, he had at least discovered something.

No matter what kind of flame it is, once it gets close to this leaf, it becomes completely docile as if it could control any kind of flame to certain extent.

This was definitely not normal.

Long Feng stared at the golden leaf floating before him.

’This has to be some kind of extremely rare heavenly treasure.’

But then another thought appeared. If this tiny leaf was already so extraordinary... what about the tree it came from?

Long Feng’s eyes became serious.

If the leaf alone possessed such an unbelievable property, the tree itself could be something far beyond his imagination.

But where had Ye Wuxie obtained it?

Long Feng thought about the faint heat aura remain on the leaf.

It was subtle, but he could sense something familiar. It reminded him of the atmosphere surrounding the Flame Spirit Stones he had found in the underground world.

’Could it have come from there?’

Long Feng frowned, but he immediately rejected the thought.

He had carefully explored that underground world and had searched every places, but he hadn’t seen any kind of tree or even such leaves.

’Maybe I simply missed it.’

Long Feng couldn’t completely rule out the possibility. Still, he didn’t have enough information to make a conclusion.

He carefully placed the golden leaf back into his storage ring. Whatever this thing was, he wasn’t going to casually expose it.

After sorting the remaining treasures, Long Feng finally stood up.

There shouldn’t be much time left before they reached the sect.

’I’ll have to investigate it more later.’

Long Feng shook his head and left the room. The moment he stepped outside, he noticed that the atmosphere on the ship had already changed.

The excitement that had been suppressed during the journey was gradually becoming more obvious.

The disciples were talking among themselves, discussing the battle, their harvests, and most importantly, the victory over the Vermilion Flame Sect.

Even though the competition had already ended, it was clear that the excitement hadn’t faded.

Long Feng walked toward the front deck. Zhu Yuan and Li Qiang were already there.

"Finally came out?" Li Qiang asked when he saw him.

Long Feng nodded.

"Looks like we’re almost there."

Zhu Yuan glanced toward the distant horizon and smiled.

"We should be arriving soon."

Long Feng walked to the edge of the deck and looked ahead.

Sure enough, in the distance, he could already faintly see the familiar outline of the Azura Heaven Sect.

The massive mountain range appeared beneath the clouds, with countless towering peaks piercing through the sky.

As the ship approached, the familiar sight gradually became clearer.

And soon, Long Feng noticed something unusual. There seemed to be a huge gathering outside the sect. At first, it looked like a dark patch beneath the distant mountain.

But as the ship continued forward, that dark patch gradually became clearer.

"What’s going on?" Long Feng narrowed his eyes.

The answer soon became obvious.

Thousands of disciples had gathered on the enormous training ground outside the main sect area.

Outer, Inner and even some core disciples had come forward. At the very front stood several elders of the sect.

Their expressions were filled with smiles. Clearly, they had already received the news.

And judging from the size of the crowd, it seemed more than half of the sect had come out to welcome them.

Li Qiang stared down from the ship and immediately became excited.

"Damn! That’s a lot of people."

Zhu Yuan also looked surprised, but not exaggerated like them.

"Under normal circumstances, it shouldn’t. It is entirely due to our miraculous victory against overwhelming odds in the three-versus-seven battle. This has not only severely humiliated the Vermilion Flame Sect but has also elevated our renown, demonstrating that a single disciple of our sect is worth more than two of theirs."

Long Feng remained silent for a moment.

Even during the Ranking Tournament, there hadn’t been this many people surrounding the area. But now, thousands of disciples were waiting for them.

The ship continued descending. At this moment, a disciple at the front suddenly pointed toward the sky.

"They’re here!"

His voice immediately attracted everyone’s attention.

"It’s our sect’s ship!"

"The competition is over! We actually defeated the Vermilion Flame Sect with such a huge margin!"

"I have heard that it’s mainly because of a disciple name Long Feng!"

Excited voices quickly spread throughout the crowd. Some disciples who knew more than others, clenched their fists in excitement and cheering loudly.

The enormous flying ship slowly passed through the clouds before gradually lowering toward the ground.

Wind swept across the training ground, causing the robes of the surrounding disciples to flutter.

The elders standing at the front remained calm, but the smiles on their faces made their happiness obvious.

Finally, the ship landed, its huge doors slowly opened and the disciples began walking out.

The crowd immediately erupted into cheers.

"Welcome back! Senior Brothers and sisters!"

"How was the wilderness training?"

"How many treasures did you get?"

The returning disciples laughed as they walked down.

Some proudly displayed their harvests, while others were already surrounded by friends asking about the competition.

The atmosphere was lively.

However, the moment Long Feng stepped out with Zhu Yuan and Li Qiang, the reaction became noticeably different.

For a brief moment, the surrounding noise seemed to quiet down before blasted.

"That’s him! Long Feng!"

"The disciple who fought Han Tianyu!"

"I heard he has a Strange Flame!"

"Really? Wasn’t he the disciple who ranked ninety-eight in the Inner Disciple Ranking Tournament?"

"That’s him!"

Whispers quickly spread through the crowd. Some disciples stared at Long Feng with curiosity, others looked at him with admiration. A few even looked at him with disbelief.

Long Feng’s footsteps slowly stopped. He looked around and thousands of pairs of eyes were staring directly at him.

His mouth twitched upon the sight.

’Again?’

He suddenly remembered the ship. And somehow, the situation was even worse.