Chapter 26: The Fury of the Earth Fire

  Feng Ling brought Ling Xiao and stopped in a corner at the bottom of the cave mansion.

  Ling Xiao's gaze stretched out towards the front, but all he saw was a world of crimson red before his eyes. The scorching red flames rolled and billowed, stretching for dozens of miles without end in sight. The flames churned and surged like a raging river, ceaseless and relentless. The surrounding rock walls were all scorched to a deep crimson, the dazzling colors somewhat piercing to the eye, making one dare not look straight at them.

  In between, a pillar of fire rose into the air, brought by an inexplicable force, like a dragon, coiling upwards and disappearing at the edge of sight.

  Such a vast and magnificent scene left Ling Xiao's heart and soul shaken.

  Although he often uses the earth fire, he also knows that the temperature of the earth fire is unimaginable. But really entering the root source of the earth fire, even if being protected by Fowling's Flame Ribbon on his side, he can still feel a wave of heat coming. His heart trembles slightly, and if there was no protection from Fowling, he fears that he would be incinerated into flying ash in an instant.

  "That pillar of flame in the middle," Fu Ling said calmly, "is the third master of Yun Tian Sect, who used his great divine power to draw out the geothermal energy from this source, and guided it with a formation to reach the surface thousands of feet away. We use it for our daily alchemy and artifact refinement. The reason why Qi Yun Sect can pass down for a thousand years is precisely because of this geothermal energy. This is also the only geothermal source in the entire Qi Yun mountain range."

  Even with Ling Xiao's temperament, he couldn't help but be shaken from the bottom of his heart.

  Such a surging flame pillar, with such intense heat that he couldn't even get close to it. Yun Tianzong's master was actually able to bring the earth fire to the surface from thousands of feet underground and use a spell array to restrain it for refining elixirs?

  It is said that Yun Tianzong's master was at the Golden Elixir level of cultivation and lived for over 300 years before passing away.

  Jindan period great repair, already have such a through-the-heavens divine ability method, it's really hard to imagine, in the Yuanying period and Huashen period above Jindan, what kind of unfathomable divine power should there be?

  Ling Xiao's heart was racing with excitement, but then he heard Fu Ling continue to say: "Unfortunately, although the master of Yun Tian Sect is a stunning talent, there is no one to inherit his legacy. Since the master of Yun Tian Sect, for over a thousand years, through six generations, my Qi Yun Sect has not produced another Golden Dan stage cultivator. Speaking of the master of Yun Tian Sect, he single-handedly laid the foundation for Qi Yun Sect's thousand-year history; rather than saying it was his predecessor's achievement, it would be better to say that his successors were unworthy."

  Her voice also became somewhat subdued at this point.

  Ling Xiao didn't have a great feeling about it. After all, he was still striving to break through to the third layer of Qi Refining and the Golden Dan period, not to mention the Foundation Establishment period, were still too far away from him.

  Besides, he couldn't help but have some doubts in his heart. With Fowling's double decade of cultivation, he had already built a two-layer foundation and broken through the Great Barrier to enter the Golden Elixir stage. How could she be so worried?

  Isn't it difficult for Ziyunzong to have any hidden dangers in recent years?

  He had a vague guess in his heart. But after all, he was just a low-ranking outer disciple, although Fowling valued him, but for the secrets of the sect, it was still far from what he could understand.

  Fortunately, Fuling was only momentarily inspired and soon calmed down. He instructed Ling Xiao: "I'll bring the earth fire over for you now, use Cloud Claw to pull and drive it, carefully perceive the quality of the earth fire."

  He paused for a moment, then said: "That set of magical skills can also be practiced."

  "Yes." Ling Xiao's heart was moved, and he hastily replied.

  Feng Ling's sleeves had already been swung out, but she saw a pair of slender jade-like small hands stretched out from the wide sleeve, fingers intertwined and changing, one after another, and then reached out to invite, just as the source of the ground fire in front of her eyes, a flame pillar as thick as a palm suddenly burst out from it, rushing towards them.

  Within a distance of no more than a few dozen zhangs, in almost the blink of an eye, it had rolled up before their eyes.

  "Seal it!" Fuling shouted hastily.

  Ling Xiao didn't dare to slack off, and hastily followed the profound cloud claw techniques that Fu Ling had taught him over the past few days. He shot out one after another of the techniques, conjuring up rivers of red clouds in the air, which he used to slap at the incoming flames.

  But the power of this volcanic fire is really hard to imagine.

  The law of Ling Xiao's grasp was almost instantly swept away by the surging flames as soon as it touched the fire pillar, and it silently collided and dissipated. The fire pillar rushed towards him like a giant dragon, not stopping for a moment.

  At the moment when Fa Jue was dispersed by the fire pillar, Ling Xiao also felt as if his chest had been hit by a heavy hammer under the impact of his breath, and he almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

  Seeing the fire pillar rushing towards him, Ling Xiao felt that his life was at an end.

  In his ear, however, he heard a loud shout from Fuling, "Come again!"

  She saw her jade hands dancing in the flames, casting spells that sent the fire pillars soaring into the sky just as they were about to engulf them. The fierce gusts of wind whipped up by the sudden movement blew their clothes into a frenzy.

  Ling Xiao hastily calmed down the surging vital energy and continued to chant the incantation, trying his best to pull that column of fire over a little.

  ……

  This is the real volcanic fire.

  Compared with it, Ling Xiao's usual alchemy using earth fire is simply like a child's play, not worth mentioning.

  In fact, the meaning of Fú Líng is not to let Ling Xiao really control the earth fire, but to make him truly feel the power and quality of the earth fire at close range.

  Only when one is familiar with the earthly fire can they more finely control the flame in alchemy and produce higher quality elixirs.

  Ling Xiao naturally understood Fuling's meaning and was even more grateful.

  He knew in his heart that it was because Fuling valued his "alchemical talent" so much, and had gone to great lengths to bring him to the root of the earth fire, where he could come into close contact with the earth fire.

  But in fact, Ling Xiao knew that his so-called "alchemical talent" was just relying on the strange flame in his body. Therefore, for Fuling's emphasis on this, he felt a bit ashamed of his efforts. But it wasn't good to speak directly and clearly, so he could only work even harder.

  It's not easy to get familiar with the nature of this land fire either.

  His cultivation was too weak after all, relying on the Cloud Claw Technique, whenever he tried to touch that fire pillar, he would always be defeated by the overwhelming power of the fire pillar.

  While his Qi mechanism was responding, the true Qi he had released was defeated, and he himself didn't feel well either.

  Each time was like a heavy hammer, heavily hitting the chest. So much so that later on, he only felt his chest stuffy, his eyes dizzy, almost unable to stand firm, just gritting his teeth and desperately persevering...

  Ling Xiao's "diligence" also moved Fulingdong.

  She was increasingly satisfied with Ling Xiao. Although his cultivation had weakened a bit, and he was always slightly impatient, his talent for alchemy was good, and he was sincere and diligent, which was already very rare, and it wasn't in vain that she had put so much effort into him.

  Ling Xiao was already on the verge of collapse, and it was really hard to hold on. Fuling waved her sleeve and retreated the fire pillar again. She gasped slightly, with her current foundation-building second-layer cultivation, facing this raging fire was still extremely strenuous for her. Continuously driving the earth fire for nearly an hour, she didn't dare to slack off even a bit, and the consumption of her own energy was also enormous.

  Ling Xiao's true energy had already been exhausted, and he was only barely holding on to his last breath. As soon as Fu Ling withdrew the flame pillar, he collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.

  Fu Ling also quietly adjusted his breath for a moment before waving his sleeve and saying lightly: "Let's go."

  Having spoken, he took Ling Xiao with him and transformed into a red light, fleeing in the direction they had come from.

  ……

  From this day on, Ling Xiao's cultivation had an additional item.

  At least once or twice a month, I would be taken by Fuling to the roots of the earth fire, where I would experience the power of the earth fire up close and become familiar with its properties. And each time it ended, I would be exhausted to the point of almost losing half my life.

  It's fortunate that Ling Xiao was originally resilient and had the heart to hide the strange flame in his body, so he could grit his teeth and persevere.

  But what he gained was also amazing.

  Having experienced the roots of earth fire, he felt exceptionally easy to control the earth fire during his usual alchemy practice. Under the drive of his magical formula, it was as if he had a feeling of being able to command with ease. He could finely manipulate the earth fire and control the temperature he needed.

  Under the pressure of the flames, his repeated use of Yunzhua made him more adept at using it. With each stroke of the spell, he could release a flowing stream of clouds at will.

  As a result, the quality and success rate of his alchemy have greatly increased.

  If the strange flame in the body is used to burn the materials into a pure powder, then the final result of refining the elixir will almost never produce a low-grade Cultivation Elixir. Even if that strange flame is not used, it is still possible to maintain a success rate of one in every three batches of materials; the quality will also be half lower-grade and half mid-grade Cultivation Elixirs.

  Ling Xiao truly felt her own progress.

  Of course, this is also the reason why he repeatedly refined the Peiyuan Dan and was extremely familiar with it. If he were to refine other first-grade elixirs, his success rate would still be slightly lower. But compared to before, it was already much better.

  Along with that, Ling Xiao also made progress in the magical technique of the Demon Gate. Now, he can cast thirteen or fourteen spells in one breath.

  Although it is still far from being "fluent", it can be considered as a good progress after all.

  Of course, cultivation is the foundation.

  Ling Xiao had been following Fu Ling to learn alchemy, but he hadn't relaxed in his cultivation at all. The true energy inside his body was surging and flowing rapidly, more than twice as strong as when he first entered the second layer of Qi Refining, and he could already faintly feel the bottleneck of the third layer of Qi Refining.

  Maybe someday I'll encounter an opportunity and be able to break through smoothly.

  It's been more than two months again.

  It's been more than four months since Ling Xiao followed Fu Ling to learn alchemy. Autumn has passed and winter has arrived, the weather is getting colder and colder, and the heavy snowfall two days ago even covered half of Qi Yun Peak.

  Ling Xiao's cultivation of the second layer of Lian Qi had not yet reached the point where he was impervious to cold and heat, but with his true energy circulating, protecting himself, he was not afraid of this degree of cold.

  Today is the day when Fu Ling takes him to the Root of Earth Fire.

  Ling Xiao arrived early at the Fuling Cave Mansion, and then Fuling took him deep into the source of the earth fire.

  Ling Xiao had followed Fu Ling here several times before, and it was already a familiar path. As Fu Ling did as usual, drawing out a flame from the earth fire source, he then began to chant the Cloud Claw incantation, continuing his attempts to make contact with the flame.

  Once, twice...

  Ling Xiao's spells were always like hitting a stone with an egg, easily and effortlessly crushed by the powerful force contained in the fire pillar. And Ling Xiao was always without hesitation, immediately casting the next wave of spells.

  The true energy was soon exhausted again.

  But just as he was gritting his teeth and persevering, he suddenly felt a stirring in his heart, and the true energy that had been gradually drying up actually seemed to be reviving.

  At this moment, he understood that this was his opportunity to break through to the third layer of Qi training!