"However, Young Hero Chu Feng, you don't need to fear them. The Totem Phoenix Clan was never a match for our Totem Dragon Clan back in the day, and they're even less of one now," Long Shanshan said to Chu Feng.
Chu Feng smiled faintly. He had never feared the Totem Phoenix Clan in the slightest — he simply wanted to learn more about them.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—
At that moment, a sound like the roar of a savage beast thundered from the distance, hurtling toward the two of them at tremendous speed.
"Young Hero Chu Feng!" The sound panicked Long Shanshan, and she instinctively grabbed hold of Chu Feng's arm.
"Brace yourself. A new round of tempering is coming," Chu Feng said.
Sure enough, red light soon appeared alongside scorching waves of heat — a towering wall of flames surging toward them.
The flames were blindingly fast. The very instant Chu Feng and Long Shanshan laid eyes on them, the inferno had already swallowed them whole.
A searing, scorching pain washed over every inch of Long Shanshan's body immediately, and she shrieked in agony.
However, Chu Feng noticed that despite the intense suffering etched across her face, neither her appearance nor her clothing had been scorched by the flames.
Just like the wind and water before, the only thing they could feel was pain and torment — but this power would not truly damage their physical bodies.
"Hold on. This is only tempering. It won't take your life," Chu Feng told Long Shanshan.
Hearing Chu Feng's words, Long Shanshan actually clenched her teeth and stopped screaming. Though the grimace on her small face still betrayed how much pain she was in, she truly endured it through sheer willpower.
"Chu Feng, is this really tempering?" the Queen asked.
"If I wasn't certain before, then now I'm almost positive — this is tempering," Chu Feng said in a definitive tone.
"But not the kind of tempering that improves your cultivation and enhances your strength?" the Queen asked.
"I haven't felt even the slightest bit of benefit so far, which makes this tempering rather peculiar. Whatever — we'll just have to take it one step at a time," Chu Feng said.
…
Outside the Demon Crane, chaos had erupted. Countless people were buzzing with discussion, and many wore expressions of visible anxiety.
No one on the outside knew what was happening within the Demon Crane.
But the time that had already passed amounted to a full ten hours.
This far exceeded the duration the Demon Crane had ever remained open. In previous openings, the longest it stayed active was two hours — and in most cases, after just a single hour, everyone inside was forcibly expelled.
Ten hours. This was utterly unprecedented.
Naturally, those whose younger generation members had entered the Demon Crane had begun to grow worried.
"True Demon Crane, what's going on? Why hasn't the Demon Crane opened yet?"
"Has something gone wrong, perhaps?"
People had begun raising questions, though in truth, similar inquiries had already been made multiple times before.
"It's nothing to worry about. This is all perfectly normal," the True Demon Crane replied.
"True Demon Crane, are you absolutely certain that the Demon Crane is still under your control?"
At last, someone voiced their suspicion.
They had harbored doubts before — that this opening of the Demon Crane might not be under the True Demon Crane's control — and those doubts had only deepened now.
The moment this challenge was raised, however, the True Demon Crane's expression darkened with displeasure.
"All of you entered the Demon Crane of your own free will."
"I never once claimed that entering the Demon Crane would be nothing but benefit with zero danger."
"Now that it's taking a little longer, you're worried? Why didn't any of you try to talk them out of it before they went in?"
"Did you really think there was such a thing as a free lunch in this world?" The True Demon Crane's tone was laced with irritation as well.
"Um…"
Faced with this response, no one dared to speak further. Setting everything else aside, the True Demon Crane's strength was nothing to scoff at.
Besides, what the True Demon Crane said was not entirely without reason.
When the True Demon Crane had first appeared out of nowhere with the Demon Crane in years past, and when it first opened, he had indeed warned that entering it would be dangerous and unpredictable.
The only ones who dared step inside back then were the bold and the daring.
But after word spread that those who entered not only faced no real danger but actually reaped benefits, more and more people began venturing in.