The sight of the black-bearded man being swallowed by the waves of fire sent a shudder through everyone's hearts.

Seeing the scholar come running, they turned their gazes as one to the ink-robed young man behind him. But the young man was still chewing on his spirit-fruit, an air of complete unconcern about him.

Everyone groaned inwardly. It seemed this Mixed Origin Grandmaster had long since grown used to such things — hoping he might step forward was, in all likelihood, out of the question.

"Precious treasures all have their guardians. How could one ever get across by brute force?"

The little scholar rushed to the front of the crowd, examined the dense waves of fire carefully, then turned back to the Xiang siblings. "Stop sending them to their deaths. Let me think of a way — but I'll need a little time."

At this, the hearts that had just sunk finally lifted with a measure of hope. Every eye turned to him, burning. "Please, young brother, go ahead."

Never mind whether what he said was true or false — at the very least their own little lives were spared for now.

Sure enough, Xiang Tianxiong studied the scholar carefully, mused a moment, and finally nodded. "Very well. I'll trust you this once."

At those words, the scholar wiped the sweat from his brow. A great many cultivators breathed a sigh of relief in that instant.

But before they'd finished letting out that breath, Xiang Tianxiong was already looking over impassively. "He'll think of his method. The rest of you carry on with what you were doing."

"Senior Xiang?!"

Several of the more hot-tempered cultivators looked over in alarm, then thundered in fury, "So you mean to deliberately send us to our deaths?"

The man had said he had a way — so surely they need only wait in peace, and if it came to nothing later, they could think of some other road. Besides, they'd all just watched how the black-bearded man died. Who would still dare go forward?

"I've not entered Mixed Origin, but the elders of my…