Chapter 44 (Part 1)

The temperature in the white flame region was so high that it had already surpassed Song Yuanxi’s imagination. He circulated the Yin-Yang Art to its limit, rapidly mobilizing his spiritual energy, but all it did was slow the speed at which he was being burned.

The flames invaded from the outside in. First, they clashed against his aura. After the flames overcame the spiritual energy surrounding his body, they pressed close to his skin and began to burn. Unlike ordinary flames, they did not directly char the human body itself. Instead, they continuously corroded the skin in a process of tiny, gradual changes.

If he had to make a comparison, it was more like placing a thick slab of fatty meat over a fire to roast. Oil would sizzle and bubble out, but unless it was roasted to the very end, the whole slab of fat would not be scorched black.

And the cultivation world had one unique point: as long as one had not been roasted black, one could still rely on high-grade pills to save oneself!

Song Yuanxi endured the pain the whole time. Bearing the agony of his skin being burned, he did his best to guide the flames into his bones.

The pain of the flames passing through his meridians hurt so badly that he almost burst apart. There was no way he could enter meditation. The situation usually ended up with him refining his bones while jumping all over the white flame region.

The Samoyed watched its master hopping around so energetically and thought this must be a very interesting new game. So it wagged its tail and joined in, following behind him and jumping too.

“Daddy, fun!”

“Daddy, jump high! Awoo!”

Song Yuanxi barely managed to split off a thread of attention and communicate with the Samoyed through his sea of consciousness. “Little White, quick! Hurry and convert the flames around me.”

If he kept burning like this, he was about to be roasted black!

The Samoyed nodded and opened its mouth to devour the white flames around its master. However, the situation was far from ideal. Once those flames entered the Samoyed’s mouth, they went straight down its throat and into its belly. There was no way to spit them back out.

The Samoyed tried several times and realized it seemed unable to breathe fire anymore. It instantly grew especially dejected. “Daddy, Little White can’t spit it out.”

“What?”

“White fire-fire goes down after Little White eats it, slurp-slurp, right into the tummy.”

Song Yuanxi struggled to understand while bouncing around and finally realized that the Dàfeng fledgling could not convert heavenly fire. And white flames already belonged to the lowest category of heavenly fire.

“So that means everything here depends on me alone?”

Song Yuanxi was frightened by this realization. This was simply an extremely terrifying thing.

“Oh heavens! Oh earth! What virtue or ability does this Song Yuanxi possess to have to undergo this kind of tempering? I didn’t get the face-slapping and scum-abusing script!”

In his understanding, heavenly fire was important, but not so important that he had to risk his life to obtain it. No opportunity or resource was more precious than his little life!

When the Song family ancestor first heard such dispirited words, his mood instantly grew stifled. His Song family had stood in the Canglan Realm for thousands of years. In every generation, there had never been a lack of talented cultivators, and all the younger generation, every single one, cultivated diligently and worked tirelessly in pursuit of the Great Dao.

Never. Never had there ever been anyone! An opportunity had already been delivered right in front of him, yet he still refused to risk his life to take it!

Seeing Song Yuanxi constantly running backward and trying again and again to break through the boundary between the yellow and white regions, the Song family ancestor simply swept his large hand and drove the heavenly fire hidden in the white flame region over.

You want to run, do you? I just won’t let you have your way. Not only will I make sure you can’t run, I’ll also directly turn this into hell mode for you.

Song Yuanxi could not refine his bones fast enough. Surrounded and burned by the flames, his body finally began clamoring urgently for escape. He did exactly that, frantically ramming against the entire boundary belt. He did not only ram it himself; he also made the Samoyed ram it with him.

“As long as I can tear open one crack, I can escape. Once I get out, I’ll immediately leave this sea of fire and never come back, even if you beat me to death…”

Before his muttering could finish, the temperature behind him suddenly rose. An aura that threatened his soul was approaching.

Song Yuanxi spun around quickly. Seeing the pure white flames constantly surging toward him, he was so frightened he lost his voice.

“Yummy! All of it is yummy!”

When the Samoyed saw the great mass of heavenly fire surging over, it automatically converted it into food. Food had grown legs and run over on its own. How could that not delight it to death?

The dog had no concerns; whoever fed it was family. Now that a huge wave of food was approaching, how could it still have the mind to ram the boundary? It bounded straight toward the heavenly fire.

Those heavenly fires had already developed a little spiritual awareness. Sensing the threat, they fled in all directions. Unfortunately, a Nascent Soul mighty figure was controlling things from the side, so no matter how they fled, their general direction still remained toward Song Yuanxi’s location.

The Samoyed swallowed one cluster of pure white heavenly fire in a single bite, eating with utter satisfaction.

It chewed, swallowed, and felt the warmth in its belly, so happy that it rolled directly on the ground.

“Daddy, so comfy. Little White wants sleepy-sleep.”

After eating a small portion of heavenly fire, the Samoyed began to grow sleepy and slowly fell into a deep slumber.

Song Yuanxi had still been counting on the Samoyed to take the lead so he could hide behind it for a while. Who would have thought! The dog ate too much and directly passed out!

A faint golden halo shone from the Samoyed’s body. Song Yuanxi recognized it at a glance. This was a contracted beast entering its growth stage. This stage could be long or short, but even the shortest would start at one year.

So the strongest combat power was directly gone!

Song Yuanxi’s entire heart was full of capitalized desolation. My mother, this time I really am doomed.

The pain of the burns kept intensifying. His cultivation technique had already been circulated to its limit, and he also had to find a way to avoid the pure white heavenly fire constantly surging over.

Song Yuanxi’s brain spun at high speed. The intelligence from both his previous and current lives concentrated fully in this moment. He had to survive. He had to preserve his life. He could not escape. How should he hide?

He turned the treasures in his storage bangle upside down. All usable defensive talismans were plastered onto his body, and all usable offensive talismans were thrown into the heavenly fire clusters.

The white flame region immediately crackled and popped. The heavenly fire was scattered by the talismans, then slowly gathered again and continued crawling forward.

Seeing that the talismans could not cause damage, Song Yuanxi took out array disks and endured the pain as he circled the heavenly fire clusters.

“Senior Brother He said these bewildering arrays work on both people and objects. Heavenly fire has a spirit, so it should be able to trap them too.”

All one hundred and eighty array disks were placed. Song Yuanxi muttered incantations under his breath and activated the arrays at the same time. He saw white light flash before his eyes. The radiance instantly vanished, and the arrays took effect.

“What else? What else can I use to resist them?”

Song Yuanxi continued rummaging through his storage bangle and dug through his pile of pills. He really was about to be roasted black. If he did not take healing pills soon, all his skin would be burned away by the flames.

It was not yet the most critical moment, so Song Yuanxi was reluctant to waste the Ten-Thousand-Li Teleportation Talisman. He felt he could still cling on a little longer.

“Once the pills are used up too, if I still can’t avoid these heavenly fires, it won’t be too late to run then… Huh, what’s this?”

His rummaging froze. Song Yuanxi discovered a very unusual pattern among a pile of jade bottles. He took it out and found it very unfamiliar.

After identifying it carefully, he finally remembered. This was the Vitality Blood-Reviving Pill his younger brother had given him.

At the time, his father had said, “This pill can revive the dead and regrow flesh on white bones. It is a superior sixth-grade healing pill and can preserve your life at a critical moment.”

Song Yuanxi felt that right now was a critical moment!

“I’m almost burned to death. If I don’t take the pill now and get burned into ashes, even a Soul Transformation mighty figure won’t be able to save me.” Without almost any thought, Song Yuanxi poured out one pill and swallowed it directly.

The effect of a superior sixth-grade healing pill was indeed extraordinary. The instant he took it, Song Yuanxi felt cool comfort from the inside out. As the pill dissolved, that unbearable pain and scorching heat were gradually suppressed.

Immediately afterward, the skin all over his body that had already been charred began to grow again. The newly grown skin was even better than before.

Even more miraculous was that the medicinal effect was still present, and the newborn skin could actually temporarily resist the burning of the flames.

“!”

Song Yuanxi returned to himself in a daze, then immediately split his mouth open in a grin, smiling like a total fool.

“Younger brother, you really are my precious baby brother. Big Brother loves you to death!”

He checked the remaining pills inside the jade bottle. There were two more. “Now it depends on how long the medicinal effect of one pill can last. If it lasts long enough, then with the support of three pills…”

Song Yuanxi suddenly twisted around and faced the heavenly fire clusters spinning not far away, his eyes bursting with light.

“These damned white heavenly fires almost turned me into a roasted sweet potato. If I don’t collect a little interest before taking them away, I’ll be letting down heaven and earth.”

Song Yuanxi continued circulating the Yin-Yang Art to refine his bones, but his feet did not stop. He charged straight toward the pure white heavenly fire clusters. However fast he had fled before, that was how fast he charged now.

“It’s about the same as I expected. The medicinal effect is still present, and even heavenly fire with a spirit can’t completely burn me.”

Before, he had nearly been burned into charcoal. Now, it was only a small-area burn. Song Yuanxi gritted his teeth and stiffly endured it.

Sometimes, human willpower was so formidable it exceeded imagination. After experiencing the most horrific pain, a level of pain one grade lower actually felt painless. Sure enough, once pain reached its extreme, even the meaning of pain was forgotten.

With the pills supporting him, Song Yuanxi ran rampant among the heavenly fire clusters. Relying on the method for subduing heavenly fire that he had once learned, he kept trying.

The Song family ancestor closed his eyes to rest. When he opened them again, three years had already passed. Thinking of the junior from his family who was still in the Ten Thousand Flames Pool, he split off a portion of attention to observe him.

When he saw Song Yuanxi wrestling with the pure white heavenly fire, the two sides already locked in a deadlock, he could not help nodding slightly.

“He has some aptitude after all. Once he subdues the white heavenly fire, I’ll send him into the azure flame region.”

The Song family ancestor had examined Song Yuanxi’s constitution. As long as his willpower was strong and his desire to survive sufficient, then with his own identity as a Body Cultivation practitioner, he would definitely be able to display one hundred and twenty percent of his ability.

Moreover, a Body Cultivation practitioner who achieved great success would definitely have heavenly fire. The heavenly fire of the azure flames was higher in grade than the white, and would also be more beneficial to future cultivation.

“If he performs properly, he may gain sudden enlightenment on the spot while subduing the heavenly fire and directly reach Foundation Establishment.”

Thinking to this point, the Song family ancestor considered the temperature of the azure flame region and worried that this junior might not be able to withstand it at the final moment of Foundation Establishment. He decided that when the time came, he would lend him a hand. “This can also be considered fulfilling the cause and effect between us.”

However, the development of events was completely different from what the Song family ancestor expected!

After exhausting tremendous effort, Song Yuanxi finally subdued one cluster of pure white heavenly fire. The instant he took the heavenly fire into his dantian, he began observing the degree to which his body was burned.

He had already taken the third Vitality Blood-Reviving Pill. He no longer had any external object that could help him resist the heavenly fire. And the heavenly fire he had just subdued was wild and difficult to tame. He would still have to properly refine it before he could use it for himself.

Thus, the moment Song Yuanxi sensed blood lines beginning to split open on his skin, he knew he could no longer stay in this damned place.

“Er Gouzi, come back!” Song Yuanxi put the sleeping Samoyed into the spirit beast pouch.

Then he took out the Ten-Thousand-Li Teleportation Talisman. After reciting a string of incantations, his whole person was directly teleported away.

There was a barrier around the secret land, so even the Ten-Thousand-Li Teleportation Talisman could not possibly teleport him directly out. However, leaving the sea of fire was something it could do.

After subduing the heavenly fire, Song Yuanxi felt he had made a huge profit. Even using up the Ten-Thousand-Li Teleportation Talisman did not make him feel especially pained.

His eyes closed and opened again. Looking at the green grass all around him, he only froze for a moment before directly beginning to sprint across the vast grassland.

As he ran, he shouted, “I’m out! I took in a cluster of heavenly fire and escaped death! Ahahahahaha…”

The Song family ancestor watched his family’s junior finish subduing the white heavenly fire and was just about to send him into the azure flame region. In the blink of an eye, however, the person vanished from the spot. Afterward, he sensed the entire Ten Thousand Flames Pool, but could not find Song Yuanxi’s presence anywhere.

Detecting the lingering trace of spatial law, the Song family ancestor identified it after some discernment and recognized it as the Ten-Thousand-Li Teleportation Talisman.

Moreover, the technique used in this talisman was extremely familiar. It was one he had made back then, then placed in the Song family’s main house under Song Wei’s safekeeping for use as clan rewards.

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