STNS: Chapter 556 (Patreon)

The heat was oppressive. It pressed against his skin like molten hands. Even breathing felt like he was inhaling fire. Each breath he took carried the scent of sulfur and scorched stone, mingled with the faint metallic tang of spiritual minerals. The air shimmered constantly from the sheer concentration of heat and fire qi, and the sound was a constant low rumble, like the earth was growling in its sleep.

Shuchang sat in a pool of lava, his entire body red and blistering as though he was an overcooked chicken. There were many such pools around. Veins of liquid fire ran through the volcano like glowing arteries, feeding into the pools of molten magma, which bubbled and churned, the surfaces occasionally disturbed by eruptions of fire qi that scorched the surrounding air.

How long had he been here? He couldn’t rightly tell. Yánhuǒ Tiānzhǐ had dragged him all this way and then dropped him in this volcano and told him to begin cultivating.

It had been painful at first; Shuchang thought himself immune to all forms of heat, but he soon realized that even those with the blood of the Vermillion Bird had a limit. He reached his limit very quickly in this place of boiling magma. Nevermind getting into the bubbling red pools, just standing near the volcano’s center had been enough to overwhelm him. It had taken him almost a month of cultivating on a higher ledge away from the magma before he was comfortable enough to cultivate near it. Now, after several months, he could finally soak in the magma itself, though he still couldn’t stay there indefinitely.

His eyes were closed as he took slow, deep breaths. Every time he breathed, swirling flames flowed from the magma and into his mouth. The fire qi traveled through his meridians and settled inside of his dantian, burning away all impurities and increasing his reserves. He could feel his cultivation expanding. His dantian felt like a balloon that was slowly blowing up, larger and larger. He expelled the air, then compressed all the fire qi he had acquired before repeating the process, over and over, over and over.

This was all he had been doing for the past year. Breathing in the fire qi, compressing it inside of his dantian, expelling the impurities, lather, rinse, repeat. It was boring, if he was being honest. Training with Wu Jian had been much more fun. However, Shuchang’s cultivation had very specific requirements. If he wanted to increase his power and progress, he needed to cultivate in areas that were thick with fire qi. The thicker, the better. This volcano was, in fact, the best place he had ever cultivated in his entire life.

It still bored him to tears.

But he bore with it.

Every time Shuchang felt his motivation to cultivate drop, he recalled why he was doing this. His sister. He didn’t know what Huǒ Yulie was going through right now, but he knew what his father was planning. His sister would not be able to do anything by herself. Even if she had help from the phoenix, it would be useless. Their old man already had a plan to deal with the  phoenix.

The phoenix was powerful, a peak cultivator at the Perfection Realm, a step away from the divine, but that meant little in this case. The entirety of the great Xia Dynasty had been transformed specifically to contain the phoenix’s power. To prevent the phoenix from being able to go against the head of the phoenix clan. It was funny. Everyone thought the Huo clan worshipped the phoenix as a god. That was just a pretense. The phoenix was merely the tool through which the Huo Family, or, more specifically, Huǒ Huangdi, would gain power.

That was also the reason Shuchang had destroyed his original cultivation, removed his phoenix blood, and accepted the blood of the Vermillion Bird. He had broken away from the bindings of the Huǒ Family. His father had no power over him now. The only downside to breaking away like this was that he was no longer considered part of the family. He had been forced to leave his sister behind.

All because he wasn’t strong enough to take on the family.

Yet.

There was a moment of stillness as he compressed more fire qi into his dantian, but the stillness faded as fire erupted from his pores. He opened his eyes and mouth as though to scream, but all that emerged was fire. Flames flew out of every orifice. His mouth. His ears. His nose. Even his eyes felt like they had flames hiding within them. More than the feeling of fire traveling outside was the sensation of his dantian expanding massively. It felt like his dantian was like a balloon that had swelled so much it was gonna pop. He’d never felt this way before.

He felt a moment of pain, as though his body was cracking and his blood flowing beneath the surface was emerging from the cracks like the magma of this volcano.

Then the pain left…

…And he felt clarity.

Shuchang blinked several times and shook his head, surprised to discover how clear everything felt. His mind felt like it had been previously covered in fog that had suddenly cleared. Everything looked sharper, and his thinking was clearer.

Magma sloshed off his naked body as he stood up. Shuchang raised a hand and stared at it. His fingers seemed slenderer somehow. They didn’t look quite feminine, but they weren’t as masculine as they used to be. His arm was also much more slender.

“Hmmm…”

With a thought, Shuchang summoned flames to him. Fire swirled around his body, some of it flowing from the magma around him, but the rest was coming from his own dantian. The fire came easily. It moved like liquid around his body, creating patterns and leaving glowing trails. He willed the fire with his mind to flow between his fingers, creating figure eight patterns, then slowly lowered his hand and let the fire fall.

He had done it.

He had reached the second subrealm of the Realization Realm.

***

“It seems you have finally achieved your goal,” a voice said as Shuchang was getting dressed.

He was inside of his bedroom--well, he called it a bedroom, but it was more like a hole in the wall. He had dug it out after his first three months here. Sleeping in the open just hadn’t been that enjoyable. Shuchang wanted a place where he could relax, though it wasn’t like this room had much in the way of creature comforts. He didn’t even have a real bed. It was just a slab of molten stone with the general shape of a bed. Real beds instantly combusted before they even reached the volcano. He once tried to bring some straw in here to at least make a straw bed, but it combusted the moment he was within the general vicinity.

Shuchang turned around after putting on his shirt. It was made from phoenix feathers and infused with his blood, which was the only reason his clothes hadn’t combusted like everything else. He still couldn’t take it in the lava, however.

“I achieved my goal a while ago, but good of you to notice,” he said to his interloper.

The man who stood before him was beautiful. His physique combined masculine strength with feminine grace. He had a face that was entirely androgynous, pretty in a way that appealed to both men and women. However, his face was the only part about him that looked womanly. From the pectoral muscles peaking out from his flowing robes, to his large hands, everything else about his screamed man. His hair was long and vibrant orange-ish red, but there were hints of gold as well. Likewise, his eyes were a vibrant golden color like molten lava given the shape of eyes.

“Been a while Tiānzhǐ Shīfù. I’ve been wondering when you would drop in again.”

Yánhuǒ Tiānzhǐ was another phoenix, like the great phoenix within the Xia Dynasty, but he was not as powerful nor as wise. According to Wu Meiying, this phoenix was much younger. That said, the fires of ambition burned within him, unlike the other phoenix. Yánhuǒ Tiānzhǐ longed to leave this sealed world and journey into the stars beyond. It was this fervent desire that Wu Meiying had played upon to convince the surely phoenix to take Shuchang on as a disciple.

Not that he did much teaching.

He was a very hands off teacher. After dropping Shuchang in this volcano, the phoenix had told him to cultivate and vanished. He only periodically popped in to see how Shuchang was doing and help him further refine his cultivation. It was like once every blue moon or something. The man was so absent that Shuchang had sometimes cursed him out, but somehow, the man always knew when he did that and would beat him black and blue the next time he showed up.

“I’ve no need to remain here,” Yánhuǒ Tiānzhǐ stated. “Cultivation is an act to be done alone, without interruption or distraction, and you are not a child who needs to have his hand held. If you still stank of your mother’s milk, then this Yánhuǒ Tiānzhǐ would have long since abandoned you.”

“Wow. Harsh, though you’re not wrong,” Shuchang acknowledged.

It was true that cultivating like this didn’t require another person to be present. That said, would it have killed this man to at least teach him a few techniques…?

Yánhuǒ Tiānzhǐ snorted as though he knew what Shuchang was thinking. “Anyway, it is time for you to depart. Your comrades are already waiting for you outside of the volcano’s range.”

“Wait. Really?!” Shuchang’s eyes widened. “Why didn’t you say so in the first place?!”

“Because you were making a big deal about my lack of presence, moron,” Yánhuǒ Tiānzhǐ scolded, but Shuchang was no longer listening.

He rushed out of the room, then out of the volcano entirely. He flew through the skies on wings of fire and looked down at the land below. With his eyes enhanced like those of a bird of prey, he quickly spotted the people he was looking for. Wu Jian, Wu Meiying, Hou Jingshu, Zhou Lihua, and Youmei were all standing around just outside the volcano’s general range. They probably could have gone in unprotected. They were strong enough. However, their clothes would not have survived. It was a smart decision.

“Heeeeeeeeey!!!!” Shuchang shouted as he descended. Everyone looked up. “Everyone! It’s been so long!”

“Shuchang,” Wu Jian greeted as the man landed on the ground. He extended his hand, and Shuchang laughed as he did the same and gripped the other man’s forearm.

Wu Jian had changed a lot. His muscles seemed smaller, more compact, but Shuchang could tell from the forearm rippling underneath his grip how powerful Wu Jian had become. He still wasn’t feminine. A cultivator’s body often grew to represent that cultivator’s ideal form, and it was clear Wu Jian thought a macho muscleman was more ideal than a feminine softy. Even so, his face seemed less harsh and angular than the last time Shuchang had seen him.

Wu Jian tilted his head once. “Did you just break through?”

“I’m not surprised you noticed,” Shuchang laughed.

“Would be hard not to. Congratulations.”

“Thanks!”

They let go of each other’s forearms and Shuchang turned to the others. All of them had changed to some extent. It wasn’t just aesthetics either. They had all become more beautiful, even Youmei, but the real change lay hidden. Power roiled beneath the surface of every person here.

“I see. It looks like we’ve all achieved our goals,” Shuchang said after a moment.

Each one of them had reached the Realization Realm. Wu Jian and Wu Meiying were only at the first subrealm, but Hou Jingshu, Zhou Lihua, and Youmei were at the second subrealm. Their cultivation methods were easier to gain power, similar to Shuchang’s. Wu Jian and Wu Meiying’s cultivation methods were far more esoteric and powerful. This, however, came with the cost of a slower cultivation, though, in exchange, each realm they entered had more power than a normal realm.

“So, the gang is back together. What now?” asked Shuchang.

“Now, we head to the Divine White Tiger Clan and acquire their aid. Then, it’s off to the Xaio Continent once more,” Wu Meiying informed him.

Shuchang slammed his right fist into his left palm. “All right then! What are we waiting for? Let’s get this show on the road!”

“I forgot how talkative and… enthusiastic this man was,” Zhou Lihua murmured as they took to the skies.

“Same. He’s very loud,” Hou Jingshu muttered.

“I can hear you both, you know,” Shuchang muttered dryly.

“You’ll get used to it,” Wu Jian said.

“You too, Jian?!”

The flight from the volcano was filled with conversation, and Shuchang was at peace.