*ROAR*

Suddenly a roar capable of shaking the earth and the heavens was heard, and that roar had come from inside the cave. Although Itachi was quite far away from the cave, both of his ears were sore after hearing that sound.

"It seems that the elder had the wrong information about the beast's cultivation..." Itachi thought.

Along with the beast's growl, a fiery light suddenly came from the bottom of the cave. It was subsequently followed by the appearance of a pillar of flame tens of meters thick that rushed toward the five cultivators in the sky.

"Really a dragon." Itachi commented to himself as he activated his Sharingan, he did not want to miss any movement of this profound beast.

"Stand back!" The great elder shouted.

The sudden appearance of the flame pillar also surprised the five as they quickly dispersed in different directions while continuing in mid-air.

The pillar of flames slowly dissipated into the sky. At this moment, in front of the cave, a colossal figure of a dragon could be seen.

With a size reaching a hundred feet and a body that was completely scarlet red, like red-hot steel, its huge wings and tail were rising with a blazing fire. When the dragon raised its head, its two scarlet eyes were full of prestige and it currently spoke in the human tongue, "Audacious humans, you currently had the impertinence to dare to offend and violate this king's territory!"

Hearing that heavy, husky voice, Itachi finally realized the difference of a true king to that flame lion he fought months ago.

"That's a real king..." Itachi thought as he continued to watch from a distance.

The dragon's voice emanated a dignity capable of making people's hearts palpitate.

The Grand Elder of the Burning Heavens Clan gave an arrogant smile as he said, "I didn't expect it to really be a dragon... even so, a Flame Dragon! However, I must say that it is your bad luck to reside in that area. After we get your Profound Core, we will bring your body back to show the people of the Blue Wind Empire."

The Grand Elder stood in the air standing still arrogantly as he said those words. If he was alone he definitely wouldn't dare to face this dragon that was at Level 10 of the Profound Sky Realm. But now there were four more cultivators from the Heaven's Profound Realm, so even if the battle is intense and difficult they will still come out victorious.

Their arrogance also came from their Burning Heavens Secret Arts, which allowed them to be able to suppress fire attribute Profound Beasts.

The words of this great elder seemed to have offended the Flame Dragon. The flames from its wings and tail burned with much more vigor and the temperature of the surrounding area rose tremendously.

"Arrogant humans, you will pay the price for your greed and arrogance. This King will not leave even a corpse behind."

As the wings of the furious Flame Dragon flapped, its huge body took off into the air and attacked directly towards the five people in mid-air.

"Let's kill him!" The Grand Elder shouted, as he pulled a spear from his storage ring. The other four elders also split up to surround the Flame Dragon.

Itachi stopped watching the battle, this was because he felt that there might be something inside that dragon's cave. He felt that a Flame Dragon would not stay in an area like this if there was no treasure inside the cave.

"I guess I can go there and take a look..." Itachi muttered as he snuck inside the dragon cave. He felt that this was the best course of action, since he doubted that he would be able to fight this dragon that was hiding its forces to kill the five cultivators.

Upon entering the cave, Itachi heard the cry of the Grand Elder from outside the cave.

"Damn it, that dragon is in the Profound Emperor Realm!"

That shout was filled with shock and also fear, the Grand Elder knew that the five of them would never be able to kill that dragon, but as proud and arrogant elders they didn't run away as Itachi imagined but stayed to try to fight the dragon.

"The greed of these people will be their downfall..." Itachi muttered in a voice that only he and Jasmine could hear.

"Indeed." Jasmine nodded at Itachi's line. She felt that a mere profound core was not worth losing her life for.

"Anyway, I have to thank them for continuing to delay the dragon, otherwise I would have trouble continuing to sneak around." Itachi said.

He was a little glad that those old men stayed to fight the dragon, and as he walked through the cave he noticed that there was a bright red mist in an area in front of him.

Itachi's steps stopped for a few moments, but soon picked up speed again. When he saw the source of the red luminescence, both his eyes radiated a bright light.

"Fire Spiritual Herb!"

A mature Fire Spirit Grass was around seven inches in size with extremely short roots, it usually had nine leaves and glowed in the dark. It was extremely rare and grew only in areas with concentrated fire element. At the same time, the growth speed of Fire Spirit Grass was extremely slow and it would usually take more than ten years for it to reach maturity and as a result caused the value of mature Fire Spirit Grass to be extremely high. Fire Spirit Grass could be refined into a Fire Spirit Pill and after consuming it a person would be able to resist a high degree of fire elements for a certain period of time. It could also change the Profound Energy that resided in a person's Profound Veins temporarily into one with the attribute of fire without any harmful burning side effects. For profound practitioners who practiced the Profound Arts of the fire attributes, the benefits it would bring were immeasurable.

"Such a hard to find herb was here being guarded by a Flame Dragon..." Itachi felt that if this was known by the sects and great clans of this continent then it is likely that they would all come to fight to the death with the Dragon.

"It seems that in the end I will be the only one to get these spoils." With those words Itachi used his cube to collect the Fire Spirit Herbs. He knew that if he tried to harvest with his hands they were likely to lose their effectiveness so he decided to just use the cube for this job.

A small amount of a Fire Spirit Herb could be sold for an extremely high price. But here was Itachi collecting them as if they were cabbages.

"About 300 Fire Spirit Herbs... If any sect knows that I stole these Herbs then they are likely to come after me."

Itachi planned to refine these Herbs in the future so that he could increase his fire element power, and also become stronger.

"NO!!! ARRGH!"

A scream could be heard from outside the cave, and Itachi realized that one of the elders must have perished upon the attack of this dragon.

After collecting the Fire Spirit Herbs. Itachi felt that it was time to leave, but as he was walking out of the cave, he spotted a stone that seemed to be untouched in the corner of the cave, and as he looked deeper he felt that this was strange, since all the stones around it were destroyed.

"That's strange..."

Without much thought Itachi moved close to the stone and exerted some of his strength to move it. And just after moving the stone to the side, he saw a point of red light shining in his direction.

It was a very small, round pearl, about the size of an ordinary marble. It had the translucency of a normal ruby, but the radiation it gave off was much richer and more vibrant than an ordinary ruby.

"Don't touch that! The Flame Dragon has put a flammable mark on it." Jasmine warned Itachi.

Itachi had also realized this, but he still wanted to take this pearl, this was because he felt that this was the treasure that was being guarded by the Dragon.

Itachi thought for a few moments and in the end gave up trying to take that pearl.

"Even I am not confident of defeating this dragon... I believe that in the future I will have the opportunity to return here." With those words Itachi moved the stone to the same place as before, and left the cave.

He did not regret his decision besides he could come back here in the future to get the pearl.

Itachi knew that Jasmine could kill this dragon, but he didn't want to ask her for help and there is also the fact that the poison would consume her body if she used too much of her power.

Outside the cave Itachi realized that the five cultivators were now only two who were still continuing to fight the dragon.

"Let's go..." Itachi muttered.

He decided not to go back to his training area but to leave in the direction of New Moon City.