Chapter 42 (Part 2)

Ignoring the pain, Song Yuanxi hurriedly found a clean Daoist robe from his storage bangle and changed into it. Then he swallowed healing pills. Only when his burned skin began to heal did he have the leisure to observe the environment he was in.

But the moment he looked up, everything before his eyes shocked him.

Endless fire. Apart from the tiny patch of ground he stood on, which could serve as a foothold, everything he could see was all flame.

Starting from the red flames visible at the outermost edge, the deeper in one went, the more the visible colors gradually changed: from red to orange, from orange to yellow, from yellow to white. The colors after white could no longer be seen by the naked eye.

But Song Yuanxi guessed that if this sea of fire had deeper depths, then the color sequence afterward should be cyan, blue, purple, green, and perhaps, at the very end, there would even be flames close to transparent in color.

In the cultivation world, jade slips related to information on fire seeds gave clear explanations. And on the Canglan Realm Heavenly Fire Ranking, the color of the weakest fire seed was white.

Song Yuanxi looked at the white flame region extremely far from him, and for a moment, his feelings were very complicated.

This feeling of being able to see something but not obtain it was truly too painful!

Just now, he had only stayed in the red sea of fire for such a short while, yet he had felt as if his whole body was about to be burned and melted away. As for the white sea of fire deeper in…

“Forget it, forget it. I have no fate with heavenly fire. My little life matters more.”

“Daddy, come quick, come quick.”

The Samoyed’s voice came over. Song Yuanxi followed the sound and looked, only to see a dog running happily in the red sea of fire not far away. After seeing him, it wagged its tail and ran over.

With a bang, Song Yuanxi was knocked to the ground.

The Samoyed rolled around in its owner’s arms, its fluffy head burrowing into his chest again and again. “Daddy, Little White likes it. It’s all tasty.”

Song Yuanxi held the dog and checked it, afraid that the sea of fire might have injured it. Yet that pure white fur was still bright and smooth. After running who knew how long in the sea of fire, not a single hair had been burned.

“Little White, you’re not afraid of these flames? This is a sea of fire!”

“Not afraid. Warm. So comfy.”

As soon as the Samoyed finished speaking, it sprang up on the spot, plunged forward, and charged into the sea of fire again.

It played all over the place inside, running wild like a mad thing. Song Yuanxi personally watched his cub run from the red flame region toward the orange one, then from the orange flame region toward the yellow, and finally dash into the white flames without looking back.

The Samoyed’s cheering voice came through his sea of consciousness. “Daddy, so happy. So warm. Little White is so happy!”

Song Yuanxi: “…”

For a moment, he did not know what to say. The worlds of humans and dogs did not share the same joys and sorrows!

The Samoyed ran through the sea of fire as freely as a wanderer returning home.

Song Yuanxi knew that Dàfeng did not fear fire. A phoenix could undergo nirvana and be reborn, releasing its strongest power within the most blazing heavenly fire. And Dàfeng, a phoenix fledgling, even if it had not inherited the full ten-tenths of the legacy, had still inherited seventy to eighty percent of its instincts.

“This sea of fire is a terrifying hell to me, but to a Dàfeng cub, it’s a shortcut for growth.”

How could he bear to leave just like that?

“Fortunately, there’s this little patch of open ground. I might as well set up a Defensive Array and wait until Dàfeng has played enough.”

Back then, He Man had given him a truly large number of intact array disks. Song Yuanxi had used them for all these years, but still had quite a few in stock. The basic array pillars had all been completed, so he could still manage a simple Defensive Array.

And so, while the Samoyed roamed through the sea of fire, Song Yuanxi activated the Defensive Array and sat inside to rest. Because he was too bored, he even took out the Qingling melon seeds he had deliberately collected back then.

This was the variety most similar to modern sunflower seeds, and the kernels were large, plump, fragrant, and crisp. It was the best snack for chatting and passing time. Eating too many seeds could easily make one heaty, so Song Yuanxi also took out a bundle of Evergreen.

The leisurely little days passed neither too quickly nor too slowly. Three days… five days… half a month… one month…

Aside from running back to play excitedly at first, the Samoyed rarely returned afterward. Through communication in his sea of consciousness, Song Yuanxi knew that the little cub had already entered the cyan flame region.

“Sigh. I’ve already said the word envy so many times I’m sick of it. As its dad, I’m actually inferior to my own cub. Sigh…”

“Daddy, tasty thing! Ran away! Ran away!”

Song Yuanxi, who had been dozing off from boredom, suddenly felt a violent fluctuation in his sea of consciousness. The Samoyed’s anxious voice surged back and forth inside it, instantly stirring up waves of sound.

“Hiss. It hurts.”

Song Yuanxi pressed his temples. His head instantly throbbed as if it were about to split.

Very quickly, he reacted. The Samoyed’s power had grown. If a contracted beast’s growth surpassed its master, the host’s ability to withstand pressure in the sea of consciousness would weaken. If it surpassed the master too much, there might even be a backlash, causing severe injury to the sea of consciousness.

“In only one month, Little White actually grew this quickly?”

Song Yuanxi circulated the Yin-Yang Art to regulate his breathing, while at the same time feeling shocked by the Samoyed’s rapid growth ability. He was already at the eighth level of qi refining, yet he had nearly been unable to withstand that one roar. Did this sea of fire really benefit Dàfeng that much?

While enduring the headache, he silently suffered in his heart. Why? Why can’t I enjoy treatment like this?

“Ah, wait! Why can’t I walk in and try? Even if I can’t reach the white flame region in the end and can’t obtain that heavenly fire, I can still train in the red flame region.”

Song Yuanxi took out a jade slip and flipped to the second cultivation section of the Yin-Yang Art. It clearly stated: For bone-refining, use qi to transform form. When the form resembles, it changes, passing through the meridians and entering the bones. When bone-refining achieves minor accomplishment, the bones transform into jade, and fierce fire cannot burn them…

“Fierce fire. Flames. Is this bone-refining related to fire? If I follow Master’s cultivation sequence for the Yin-Yang Art, by the bone-refining stage, I should indeed already have heavenly fire accompanying me. So when Master said that a Body Cultivation cultivator who has achieved great accomplishment must have heavenly fire, was it because bone-refining requires it?”

This was only Song Yuanxi’s own speculation, but he was someone who always liked to verify his guesses. Now, the sea of fire was right in front of him. The second cultivation section could be begun at any time…

“Don’t be afraid. I’m only walking a tiny bit into the sea of fire. If I can’t withstand it, I’ll immediately retreat.”

“My qi refining has already achieved great accomplishment, so I can adjust my internal breathing on my own. As long as I mobilize spiritual qi to form a protective layer outside my body and use it to resist the flames, it shouldn’t actually be that hot?”

“Song Yuanxi, you can do it! You’re a Body Cultivation cultivator. What’s a mere sea of fire to fear?”

He took a deep breath, then another, doing his best to mentally prepare himself.

Song Yuanxi opened his eyes. His expression was as if he were going forth without regard for his life, and his face was even more resolute. He bravely moved forward! Cautiously! And took one small step!

The instant one foot stepped into the sea of fire, red flames wrapped around him. His Daoist robe caught fire, and very soon, from outside to inside, the flames began burning his skin.

Song Yuanxi circulated the Yin-Yang Art, quickly mobilizing spiritual qi throughout his body. In a half-inhaling, half-not-inhaling state, he made the spiritual qi form a protective membrane-like shape over the surface of his body.

Sure enough, the scalding sensation quickly decreased. The temperature of the flames was now within the range his body could endure.

With the first attempt successful, Song Yuanxi followed the same method, submerging his entire body into the sea of fire. Then, at a place only one meter away from the previous open ground, he sat down and cultivated directly.

The second layer, bone-refining, was something he understood entirely on his own, without explanations from his master or Senior Sister Xu.

“So-called using qi to transform form should mean adjusting the spiritual qi through the breath so it enters the body and forms a kind of substantial medium, achieving the effect of resemblance leading to transformation.”

“Master once said that the only things capable of penetrating the human meridians are spiritual qi and blood. Spiritual qi can’t achieve the effect of bone-refining, so it should rely on blood?”

“To refine the bones with fire, then I should bring fire into the blood, eventually letting it flow into the bone marrow and temper the body and bones…”

As for how to bring fire into the body and complete the tempering of body and bones without burning himself, Song Yuanxi was completely at a loss.

Within the scope of his understanding, this went against common sense. But many things in the cultivation world could not be explained with science to begin with. He could only let his thoughts scatter and unleash wild imagination.

The Samoyed chased a clump of heavenly fire all over the place. Finally, relying on its extraordinary speed, it devoured it at last.

This was a clump of cyan flame. The fire seed had already become sentient. After swallowing it, the Samoyed only felt that it had eaten its fill.

Once it had eaten and drunk enough, it went home to sleep. The laziness belonging to a dog immediately rose up. Without another word, the Samoyed turned around and ran back the way it had come, charging recklessly through the sea of fire until it finally returned to the open ground.

Then it looked over and saw that its owner had actually run into the sea of fire.

The Samoyed still remembered Song Yuanxi’s pained expression when he had been burned by the flames. Its heart tightened, and it rushed inside, bit down on his arm, and used brute force to drag him outward.

Song Yuanxi had just thought of the crucial point when pain suddenly flashed through his arm without warning. He opened his eyes and saw that his cub was huffing and puffing as it dragged him out.

“Little White?”

“Daddy no scared. Little White save you.”

The Samoyed’s gaze was resolute. Its serious, slightly stubborn expression made Song Yuanxi return in an instant to the time when he had been struck by the Soul-Summoning Whip, and his cub, still a little yellow chicken then, had rushed over without hesitation to save him.

Back then, the little cub had also had that same stubborn gaze, saying, “Daddy no scared,” while such a tiny thing worked hard to protect him.

Song Yuanxi’s heart warmed. He directly picked up the dog and carried it out of the sea of fire. Once they reached the open ground, he simply hugged the Samoyed tightly, stroking its back again and again with his palm. The Samoyed was petted so comfortably that it made a deep, rumbling sound. Only after a long while did it remember something, turn its head, and stare at the person in front of it.

“Daddy, hurt?”

“No. I’m trying something. I want to enter the sea of fire to cultivate. The secret land is a supreme treasure, and this sea of fire is even more precious. Since you can make great progress here, I don’t want to miss this opportunity either.”

Song Yuanxi patiently explained the relationship between bone-refining and fire. He did not treat the Samoyed perfunctorily just because it was a contracted beast. He interacted with it just as he would with a human cultivator, explaining his viewpoint in a way the other party could understand.

The Samoyed listened for quite a while and finally understood.

Then, happily, it circled Song Yuanxi. “Daddy no scared. Little White help you.”

“Mm?”

“Little White eat fire. Daddy walk in. Eat all the way, walk all the way.”

Song Yuanxi did not understand, but the Samoyed demonstrated on the spot. It walked to the edge of the sea of fire and swallowed a clump of flame in one bite. A rumbling sound came from its throat, and not long after, it spat that clump of fire back out.

The Samoyed sprayed the fire it spat out directly onto him, and something unbelievable happened. He actually did not feel the pain of being burned.

Although the temperature was still very hot, that scalding heat was within the range he could endure.

“Little White, how did you do that? You actually lowered the flame’s temperature!” Song Yuanxi could hardly believe it.

However, the Samoyed did not know. It was only doing things by instinct. If asked why, then perhaps deep in its memory, it knew that it seemed able to do this.

“Is it inheritance? A legacy memory belonging to the phoenix?” Song Yuanxi could not help guessing.

But the Samoyed was too small. It was still in its cub form. Even if it had awakened a trace of inherited memory, because its growth was insufficient, it was unable to accurately describe it.

Song Yuanxi did not force it. This was already an unexpected joy. “Little White, you really are Daddy’s big treasure.”

“Daddy likes it. Little White likes it too.”

Seeing Song Yuanxi looking happy, the Samoyed became even more cheerful.

Because of the contract relationship, the emotional link between the host and the contracted beast could be transmitted to each other. In other words, both sides could share happiness and sorrow with each other.

And when one portion of happiness was shared, it became two portions of happiness. But when one portion of sadness was transmitted, only half of it remained. A powerful contracted beast could stabilize the host’s state of mind very effectively. As cultivation grew higher, the stability of one’s state of mind became increasingly important.

This was also the fundamental reason cultivators constantly sought contracted demonic beasts. Their ultimate goal was still to speed up their own cultivation.

Song Yuanxi did not know these things. To him, his contracted beast was a partner and family. Because Dàfeng had been a cub from the moment it was born, he loved and cared for it even more like a child.

This relationship, without utilitarian motives, made the emotional link between him and his contracted beast even sturdier.

His happiness was transmitted to the Samoyed, and the Samoyed became even more cheerful. In turn, that joy was transmitted back, making his state of mind more stable.

Song Yuanxi did not detect this subtle change. He only felt that the little bit of impatience he had earlier seemed to have vanished. He attributed this to the effects of petting the dog.

After resting and adjusting, one man and one dog began an entirely new companion cultivation mode.

For this, Song Yuanxi specially took out two red Daoist robes. He draped one over himself, and cut the other up a little to make the Samoyed a cape.

He even raised his hand to point at the sky in an extremely chuuni way and shouted, “Go, Pikadog!”

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