Chapter Eighty-Seven: A Strange Flame

Lingtian was startled by the bold conjecture that had just sprung into his mind, for if he was right, then whatever lay within this dark pearl would be enough to drive countless cultivators mad with desire.

To truly discover what it contained, he would have to shatter the pearl’s outer shell.

Lingtian condensed his true energy into the shape of a steel needle and struck the shell at top speed. Fortunately, the shell was not particularly tough; after being hit, it developed web-like cracks. The gaps at the center widened, and a fierce, scorching aura gushed out in a frenzy from the opening.

In the blink of an eye, Lingtian felt the temperature around him rise sharply. The weeds within a radius of three feet withered at once, leaving only heaps of scorched traces as though a great fire had swept through them.

“This is bad!” Lingtian thought. The true-energy barrier he had formed around himself could not withstand the scorching aura; the protective shield was vanishing rapidly.

He hastily urged his true energy onward, thickening the barrier again and again.

The cracks in the dark pearl grew larger and larger until, at last, it turned into a palm-sized flame floating in the air. Waves of searing heat rushed at him; even through his protective true energy, Lingtian could feel an unbearable intensity, as though he himself had been cast into fire.

“This is... a primordial flame seed!” Lingtian temporarily forgot the heat around him and stared with glittering eyes at the crimson flame floating before him.

No—

He realized that the crimson flame was madly devouring the fragments of the pearl’s shell. Once it had swallowed them all, the flame swelled slightly and its color deepened.

At the sight of this, Lingtian was overcome with ecstatic joy. This meant that this as-yet-unnamed heavenly flame could grow. A heavenly flame that could grow on its own was a hallmark of the flames of heaven and earth.

According to the jade slip’s records, there were many strange flames in the world, but only those capable of self-growth could be called heavenly flames.

Each and every heavenly flame seed was enough to stir endless strife among cultivators.

Regrettably, although the jade slip was vast in scope, most of its contents were only broad overviews and not very detailed. For instance, it contained records concerning heavenly flames, but it did not list exactly which flames existed or how they were ranked.

“Whatever kind of heavenly flame it is, I’ll refine it first and ask questions later.” Lingtian spat a mouthful of essence blood at the heavenly flame, then urged his true energy to envelop it and began the refinement.

The heavenly flame, possessing a trace of intelligence, sensed his intent and began darting wildly about, trying to break free of the true-energy restraint.

“Even if I have to risk my life today, I’m keeping you here.” Lingtian spat another mouthful of essence blood and poured all his strength into trapping the heavenly flame. Under the suppression of his true energy, the flame grew even more violent. Scalding fire scattered in all directions, and Lingtian’s protective true energy vanished rapidly under its burning.

Lingtian felt his skin as though it were burning, but at this moment all of his true energy was being used to suppress the heavenly flame. If he diverted any of it to protect his body, the flame might escape.

“This time, I’ll gamble everything.” Lingtian gritted his teeth, activated a healing talisman to treat his injuries, then began burning his essence blood to release even stronger true energy.

Under his desperate assault, the heavenly flame was temporarily suppressed. Yet Lingtian had fallen into a difficult predicament. He and the heavenly flame had formed a precarious balance. If too much time passed, his true energy would be exhausted by the tremendous consumption, and he would lose control of the heavenly flame.

By then, he would be burned to charcoal.

Lingtian had not expected to end up in such a state. It seemed he had underestimated the power of the heavenly flame, or perhaps overestimated his own strength.

“Fortunately, it’s still in its initial state,” he said in a low voice.

This delicate balance lasted for about fifteen minutes. The true energy generated by the essence blood he had just burned had already been mostly spent, so Lingtian hurriedly absorbed the cluster of spiritual energy floating above his head, transformed it into true energy, and continued fighting the heavenly flame.

There was too little spiritual energy. In less than five minutes, it was completely exhausted, and Lingtian once again burned his essence blood.

“If I burn more essence blood, my foundation will be ruined.” Lingtian clenched his jaw so tightly it ached, his eyes bloodshot. At this moment, he faced the threat of death. If he were swallowed by the heavenly flame, he would be destroyed utterly, reduced to nothing but ashes.

Suddenly, he remembered that he still had a beast core from the Crowned Serpent King. Though it had come from a young Crowned Serpent King, the core had been formed by absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and contained a vast amount of it.

Without the slightest hesitation, Lingtian took out the Crowned Serpent King’s core and swallowed it directly. The effect would be greatly diminished, but at this critical moment, there was no time to care about such things.

After taking the Crowned Serpent King’s core, his blood seemed to boil throughout his body. A torrent of powerful true energy surged forth, and Lingtian felt excruciating pain in his dantian and meridians under the impact. Even some of the finer meridians had begun to crack.

“The strength of the true energy has exceeded what my body can bear,” Lingtian thought grimly.

Risking damage to his foundation, Lingtian burned his essence blood once more. When his meridians were on the verge of complete collapse, he seized the moment and unleashed all his true energy in a single burst, thoroughly suppressing the heavenly flame at last...

Agh—

With his dantian and meridians severely damaged, Lingtian suddenly spat out a mouthful of foul blood and collapsed weakly onto the grass. Coupled with the many burns across his body, he no longer had even the strength to move a finger; he lay there on the verge of death.

“When I was carrying out missions back then, it wasn’t this intense,” Lingtian said with a bitter smile.

A ball of crimson flame drifted slowly before him. By now, the heavenly flame no longer carried its earlier ferocity, and instead descended into his hand as docilely as a tame pet.

“At last, I’ve succeeded in refining it.”

The heat released by the refined heavenly flame could no longer harm Lingtian; instead, it made him feel quite comfortable.

After resting for about five minutes, Lingtian recovered a little and slowly sat up from the ground, gazing at the heavenly flame in his hand with a sense of accomplishment. The only regret he felt was that his own strength was too weak to bring forth the heavenly flame’s true, overwhelming power.

He stored the heavenly flame in his dantian and used his spiritual sense to inspect his body.

To his dismay, he found that eighty percent of his meridians were shattered, the rest were cracked as well, and even his dantian had developed fissures. He used a healing talisman, but it had little effect.

The talisman’s grade was too low; it could only heal injuries on the surface of the body. To treat the meridians and dantian, he would need at least a first-tier spiritual talisman. Given his current injuries, he would need at least three first-tier healing talismans.

Suddenly, Lingtian remembered a note from the jade slip: heavenly flames could temper the flesh.