Chapter 43 (Part 1)

“Awooo—”

The Samoyed lifted its head and howled, its gaze turning firm. With a bold, swaggering stride that recognized neither friends nor family, it walked step by step toward the sea of fire.

Following Song Yuanxi’s instructions, it stopped five meters away from the clearing. Then it opened its mouth and inhaled sharply, swallowing all the flames around it. After converting them, it spat them all back out.

Song Yuanxi stepped into the converted sea of fire. It was unbearably scorching, but it did not harm him. He immediately sat down cross-legged, preparing to begin cultivation.

“Little White, if the flames start burning my skin, swallow them and convert them again. If I can still hold on, then don’t mind me.”

After thinking for a moment, he added, “Check my physical condition every so often and keep pushing me inward.”

To make it easier for the Samoyed to operate, Song Yuanxi directly took out an array disk, removed the four wheel-like array stones beneath it, and installed them onto the base of the golden rush cushion.

This golden rush cushion had been modified from the great golden hammer and fused with Fire Spirit Essence. Unless it encountered a fire seed ranked in the top ten of the Heavenly Fire Ranking, it could not be worn away.

Once everything was ready, Song Yuanxi closed his eyes, entered meditation, and began cultivating the second layer of the Yin-Yang Art.

“Transform qi into form, send meridians into bone.” It was only eight short words, but to truly accomplish it smoothly was indescribably difficult.

While meditating, Song Yuanxi’s perception of the spiritual qi around him became even sharper. The flames carried within the spiritual qi entered his body, circulated through his meridians, and entered his bone marrow. That bone-deep pain was something ordinary people simply could not endure.

In his previous life, one of his relatives had developed bone cancer at a young age. From discovery to the late, severe stage, it had taken only a single year. He had been a younger cousin three years younger than him, a boy who used to run wild everywhere and loved basketball more than anything.

Song Yuanxi remembered the last time he visited the hospital. His younger cousin had already wasted away until he was almost unrecognizable. His eye sockets were sunken deep, and there was barely any flesh left on his face. He happened to see the illness flare up, and even after sedatives were administered, his cousin was still trembling from the pain.

Afterward, his younger cousin looked utterly drained and said to him, “Bro, do you know what bone pain feels like? It’s like someone is carving along every bone in your body. Like countless needle tips are piercing in, embroidering on those bones. Right, embroidery. I feel like my bones have already been pierced full of holes. By the day I leave, maybe they’ll have embroidered an entire Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival inside me…”

At the time, Song Yuanxi only felt heavy-hearted, grieving that a loved one would soon leave the world. But that pain was something he had no way to truly empathize with.

Yet now, at this very moment, the flames entered his marrow, burning ceaselessly as his cultivation method circulated. That penetrating pain startled him awake from meditation several times. He could even feel the marrow inside his bones boiling.

And this was still fire that the Samoyed had converted. If it had been the original fire…

Song Yuanxi drew in a deep breath and turned his gaze toward the dog constantly running around him. In order to keep converting the flames, the Samoyed was running especially diligently. It was also conscientious, striving to ensure that every flame around him had been converted.

As if sensing something, the Samoyed suddenly turned its head and grinned happily. “Daddy, don’t be scared. Little White will eat it all!”

Song Yuanxi instantly felt that he did not hurt quite so much anymore, and the thought of giving up began to fade. His cub was working so hard for him. As the old man here, how could he fail to set a good example?

“It’s not like I’ll die. At worst, I’ll just be half-dead from pain. I’m doing this!”

“Can it hurt more than having my soul scalded by the Nine Netherworld Flame? I’m a Body Cultivator. I’m a Body Cultivator. Body Cultivators fear nothing…”

As Song Yuanxi cultivated, he hypnotized himself, constantly drawing the flames around him into his body and tempering his bones every moment.

Humans were strange sometimes. Take running, for example. At first, someone might feel that five kilometers was absolutely impossible, that finishing it would cost half their life. But once they broke through, they would feel capable again and begin challenging ten kilometers with passion. After that came fifteen kilometers, twenty kilometers… until finally, they challenged a marathon.

Every time they completed a leap forward, then looked back at the process where they had nearly given up at the last moment but gritted their teeth and persisted, an incomparable pride would arise within them. They would feel that they were someone with great perseverance, their heart filled with hope, convinced that tomorrow would be better.

Song Yuanxi was in precisely this state. Amid the pain of the flames constantly burning his bones, he gradually began to grow numb. By the end, he had even developed a somewhat “perverse” mentality.

What did this little pain count for?

It was not enough. Only the bones of his limbs were being burned and refined. His body needed it too.

Right, and his skull. His brain should be refined as well…

The flames entered his body and traveled along his meridians. Song Yuanxi hardly thought about anything else and directed them straight upward. The instant his skull began refining, his sea of consciousness instantly began boiling, surging like towering waves over a blue sea…

“Hiss… Oh… Damn it—”

Song Yuanxi finally could not bear it and unleashed a string of national curses.

The Samoyed was panting as it swallowed flames when it suddenly sensed that the connection between itself and its host had broken. Its entire dog self immediately panicked.

“Daddy? Daddy?”

It turned to look behind it, ran toward the meditating person, and circled back and forth around him. As it circled, it tried to communicate with him inside the sea of consciousness.

In the end, it was as if there were a wall between them.

The Samoyed immediately wilted, lying beside Song Yuanxi’s feet and whimpering. As for swallowing and converting the flames? It had completely forgotten.

Song Yuanxi had refined his skull until his sea of consciousness was almost about to burst. After finally adapting by the tiniest bit, he suddenly felt unbearable pain across the skin of his entire body. As the flames entered him, that pain went straight into his bones. Almost instantly, the bones inside his body turned red-hot.

“Ao… damn…”

He had originally thought that the previous pain was already unbearable, but he had not expected that the pain he felt now would go straight through his heart.

Song Yuanxi was forced to wake from meditation. He opened his eyes and, good heavens, the flames had wrapped around his entire body. He had been completely set on fire. If not for his great completion in Qi Refining, which allowed him to control spiritual qi somewhat, he would probably have already been burned to ash by now.

“Daddy! Daddy’s awake!” the Samoyed’s voice suddenly rang out, filled with incomparable joy.

Song Yuanxi felt an itch by his leg. He lowered his head and saw the Samoyed lying beside him, its fur carrying flames of its own. The little cub was burning more and more energetically in the sea of fire.

“Didn’t I tell you to convert the flames? Why are you… hiss…” Halfway through speaking, Song Yuanxi hurriedly circulated his spiritual qi, forming a protective film of spiritual qi around himself.

The Samoyed finally remembered its responsibility. Its ears drooped listlessly. “Little White couldn’t find Daddy. Little White was scared.”

Daddy was almost gone. Who would still remember swallowing fire and spitting fire!

After asking it about what had happened, Song Yuanxi finally understood. It turned out that when he had been refining his skull earlier, his sea of consciousness had boiled too violently and actually cut off the connection between him and his contracted beast. He had not noticed while meditating, but the Samoyed had sensed it immediately.

He had not expected the little cub to rely on him this much. Realizing that he and his contracted beast were so close, Song Yuanxi felt delighted.

He could not help feeling a little smug. Stroking the dog’s head, he laughed loudly. “Son, you really can’t live without your old man. A cub without a father is like a blade of grass, huh? Did you feel lonely, lonesome, and cold?”

The Samoyed did not quite understand, but whatever Daddy said was right, so it nodded fiercely and rubbed against him hard. “Daddy. Like Daddy.”

“Little White, I need to cultivate now. All sorts of unexpected situations during the bone-refining stage aren’t something I can control. If our connection breaks again, don’t be afraid. As long as I’m not dead, you must be steady as an old dog.”

After soothing the cub, Song Yuanxi entered meditation again and began a new round of bone refining.

After receiving his reassurance, the Samoyed’s mood brightened again, and it continued swallowing and converting the surrounding flames.

One person and one dog cooperated with each other in the sea of fire. Time flowed like water, flying by during cultivation. When Song Yuanxi refined his skull, his divine sense entered a drifting state. His consciousness wandered as if it had entered another dimension.

The Samoyed once again sensed that its connection with its host had broken, but this time, it only froze for a moment. After coming back to itself, it continued doing its own work.

It even remembered Song Yuanxi’s instructions and pushed the meditating him deeper into the sea of fire every so often so that he could keep adapting to and challenging stronger flames.

The flames in the red flame region had basically all been swallowed by the Samoyed once. With nothing to do for the moment, it began pushing the person inward.

As a dog, the Samoyed could not tell how much a human cultivator could endure. Seeing that Song Yuanxi had no reaction at all, it just kept pushing straight ahead.

Just as they were about to enter the orange flame region, Song Yuanxi’s sea of consciousness boiled once more. Not only that, but the marrow inside his bones nearly began to riot.

“Mm… ah…” Still meditating, he could not help letting out a muffled groan.

The Samoyed’s ears twitched. It tilted its head and thought for a moment, then bit the rush cushion and dragged the person back. Afterward, it lifted its head to look at its master. Finding that Song Yuanxi’s pained expression had disappeared, it suddenly understood where the other party’s limit was.

“Daddy is afraid of yellow fire. Even after Little White swallows it, he’s still afraid. Mm… Red fire, not afraid…”

The Samoyed was bored out of its mind. It bit the rush cushion and wandered everywhere around the red flame region. With no one to play with it, it entered self-entertainment mode. As it played and played, a sudden flash of inspiration struck its mind, and its eyes lit up as it stared at the four wheels beneath the rush cushion.

Then it directly used its own strength as impact force and knocked into Song Yuanxi, making him slide all around the red flame region.

“Awooo!”

“Yay!”

“Daddy’s flying!”

After being swallowed and converted, the flames’ harm was reduced to a certain degree. However, as time went on, they would slowly recover on their own.

The Samoyed pushed the rush cushion and played sliding-cart until it completely lost itself in the fun. Song Yuanxi had not instructed it to swallow and convert the flames a second time, and as a Dàfeng fledgling that only knew eating, drinking, and sleeping, it had absolutely no further thoughts.

During bone refining, Song Yuanxi felt a kind of torment beyond ordinary comparison. At times his skin was burned, and at times it was fine again. Every so often, his sea of consciousness would boil for a short while. During the bone refining, one moment he hurt so much he could barely stand it, and the next he felt as if he were drifting in water-like warmth…

This was a cultivation method he had never experienced before. But the bone refining had reached a crucial point. Even though he was hesitant, he did not dare easily wake from meditation.

In the blink of an eye, two or three years passed. When Song Yuanxi woke again, he was like someone who had been drained dry. Aside from still being able to breathe, he had not the slightest bit of strength.

With a thud, unsurprisingly, he fell off the rush cushion.

The Samoyed woke from its nap. Seeing its master fallen in the sea of fire, his whole body curled like a mantis shrimp, it vaguely felt that this scene looked familiar.

It did want to keep sleeping, but after so long being lonely and bored, it hoped even more to be close to its master. So it moved its steps over and stopped beside Song Yuanxi.

In the next moment, the Samoyed’s body kept swelling, growing larger and larger. Only when it had grown to the size of a small wooden house did it stop. Then it stepped over with all four limbs, lowered its head, and looked back and forth. After confirming that its master was fully beneath its body, it slowly lay down.

Song Yuanxi’s body was enveloped beneath the enormous dog body. Soft fur covered him, blocking off the scorching heat of the outside flames and making him sink even deeper into sleep.

The Samoyed buried its head and listened for a while. Sensing that its master was still breathing, it remembered the other party’s words, “As long as I’m not dead,” and instantly felt at ease. Then it tilted its head, flopped onto the ground, and continued snoring away.

…

Song Yuanxi was jolted awake while nearly suffocating. After opening his eyes, the entire world was black. It was as if he had sunk into a soft mass of cotton. Only this cotton had somewhat long fibers, long enough that they were nearly poking into his ears and nose.

“What is this place? Cough, cough…”

Song Yuanxi adjusted his spiritual qi and found that he did not have enough spiritual power. He immediately took a Return Origin Pill from his storage bangle and swallowed it. After that, he frantically absorbed spirit stones, finally restoring himself to his full-blooded state before meditation.

He still remembered that he had been cultivating in the sea of fire, yet now the environment around him was so unfamiliar that he could not help becoming wary. After finally crawling out of the pile of “cotton,” he lifted his head and looked, only to fall into silence.

The cotton before him was not cotton, but the thick fur on his cub’s body. He had actually been wrapped up inside his own cub’s body?

Wait, no! When had this little cub become so huge?

Song Yuanxi could not hold back and directly slapped it hard. The Samoyed woke from sleep, its dazed and bewildered eyes turning everywhere before finally settling on the area of its own belly.

It looked once, blinked, looked again, then blinked again. “Daddy? Daddy!”

The Samoyed jolted and directly pounced forward, wanting to be affectionate with its master.

Poor Song Yuanxi had only just crawled out from under the dog’s belly, and now he was knocked down and buried again. Fur wrapped around him, and he nearly suffocated inside it.

“Little White, let go! You’re going to crush me to death!” Song Yuanxi shouted inside the sea of consciousness.

The Samoyed released its paws and quickly stood up, lowering its head to look at its tiny master in confusion. Why had Daddy become so tiny? It could flatten him with one foot!

Because of this, the Samoyed conveniently lifted its paw and gestured back and forth over Song Yuanxi’s head. That serious, studying expression made people feel for a moment that this step would be very forceful.

“Daddy, will you be stepped to death?” Before putting its foot down, the Samoyed did not forget to consult him first.

Song Yuanxi: “…Get away from me!”

“Oh.”

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