The Strange Azure Fire
"Hey, hey, don't go!" Yue Qianchou called out several times, but the other party remained silent. He listened intently, unsure if they had truly left, and then unleashed all his flying swords, bombarding the light screen at the cave entrance. But just as the other party had said, the greater the force, the stronger the rebound. After a series of "plop plop" sounds like pricking cotton, the flying swords were scattered all over the ground. With a long sigh, he retrieved all the flying swords, having achieved nothing.
Just then, He Li's laughter rang out again from outside. "Yue Qianchou heartbroken! Haha!" The laughter slowly faded away.
Yue Qianchou sneered. The birdman was indeed outside. He didn't bother trying anything more. Turning around, he looked around, walked to a crack in the ground, glanced at the silver ball in his hand, frowned, put it away, and then took out a small porcelain bottle, stuffing it into the crack. It was fine in the cave outside, but here the silver ball clearly couldn't withstand the high temperature; porcelain, on the other hand, was the most heat-resistant.
After doing all this, there won't be any problem coming in next time. He walked around the space, which was several hundred meters in diameter, with great interest, looking around. Finally, his gaze fell on the ever-burning blue flame rising from the center. He couldn't hide the excitement in his eyes and slowly stepped towards the center.
If He Li present at this moment, he would be utterly astonished, for he would witness something unbelievable. Yue Qianchou stood on the edge of the pit, gazing up at the azure flames that shot up dozens of meters high, his arms outstretched as if to embrace them, his expression serene, his eyes gently closed, as if he were about to return to his mother's embrace.
"Huh!" Yue Qianchou opened his eyes and looked sharply at the root of the flames in the pit. When he was circulating the fire technique to absorb it, he felt a restless emotion from below, as if someone was saying, "Don't touch me, get away!"
"Could I be hallucinating?" Yue Qianchou muttered to himself, staring at the earth's eye dozens of meters deep. Unable to figure it out, he shook his head and stopped thinking about it. He then activated the Fire Technique again, but instead of focusing on it as before, he kept some attention on what was below.
Sure enough, just as he was about to extract what he needed from the azure flames, a suction force from the ground pulled the object back, while a violent and strongly repulsive emotion roared in his mind.
This time, Yue Qianchou sensed it clearly and immediately stopped absorbing it. He stared at the eye of the earth from which the blue flames emerged, his expression somewhat surprised and uncertain. He frowned and pondered, "Damn it! What's down there? How strange! Could there be something else alive down there?"
"Is anyone down there?" Yue Qianchou called out several times, but no one answered him. He tilted his head, pinched his chin, and felt more and more uneasy. He decided to go all in, opened his arms to face the blue flames, and quickly began to circulate the fire technique.
A faint, ethereal blue mist detached from the flames and drifted towards him—the fire element he needed. But just as it reached him, about to be absorbed into his body, the suction force returned, and the blue, misty fire element began to pull back. Yue Qianchou's eyes widened, and he roared, "Damn it!"
The circulation of the fire technique within his body accelerated once more, and the azure mist drifted back towards him again. Immediately afterward, the suction force from below gradually increased. Yue Qianchou, undeterred by the odds, fought back and forth like a tug-of-war between the azure flame and him, neither side gaining the upper hand.
They dragged on for who knows how long, making Yue Qianchou sweat profusely with anxiety. Having finally arrived here, how could he not eat what he saw? He was determined to fight! He pushed his internal True Essence to its limit, following the cyclical movement of the stars—a limit Yue Qianchou had never reached before. His small meridians surged and roared like the raging Yellow River from his past life.
Slowly moving closer, he finally brought the azure mist near him, but the mysterious suction seemed to be exerting all its might. Instantly, the azure mist froze right in front of Yue Qianchou, or rather, right in front of him. However, Yue Qianchou was currently enduring immense pain from the rapid circulation of his True Essence within his body. He stood trembling at the edge of the pit, his expression contorted beyond recognition, so close yet so far.
Just then, Yue Qianchou's eyes widened, as if they were about to pop out, and he struggled to reach for the green mist in front of him. The True Essence that had been circulating rapidly through his meridians was now mercilessly colliding with the suddenly twisted meridians in his hand, and immense pain spread throughout his body. Yue Qianchou bit his lip tightly, his face flushed red and bulged, and blood began to seep from his nostrils and the corners of his eyes.
The moment his finger touched the azure mist in front of him, the mist rippled, like a reservoir finding an outlet, quickly spreading along his palm and being absorbed into Yue Qianchou's body. Meanwhile, within Yue Qianchou's sea of consciousness, he seemed to hear a painful howl, immediately feeling the suction force from the azure flames lessen considerably. Then, a vast expanse of azure mist swept in, enveloping his entire body.
As the pressure lessened, Yue Qianchou, who had inhaled the azure fire element, felt a surge of comfort. However, he dared not relax, determined to absorb as much as he could. The fire element, having entered his body through the pores of his skin, immediately severed its connection with the external suction force, becoming a part of Yue Qianchou's body. It continuously gathered in his Dantian, eagerly rushing towards the formed core, only to be absorbed by it once more.
The agonizing struggles in his sea of consciousness ceased, and he began to absorb the fire element within the azure flames. Once he reached the Core Formation stage and could no longer absorb any more, the fire element began to spread throughout his limbs and meridians. In Yue Qianchou's words, this was like storing the fire element in every cell of his body, which could be retrieved at any time, like charging a battery—once charged, it could last for a considerable period.
After a long while, Yue Qianchou stopped circulating the fire technique within his body, or rather, he absorbed it to his heart's content. At the very moment he stopped, a blazing blue flame flashed in each of his eyes, disappearing almost instantly.
"Damn it! What the hell is this?" Yue Qianchou noticed something was wrong with his eyes and nose, wiped them, and found he was bleeding. He couldn't help but curse. But the trip wasn't in vain, and the blood wasn't shed for nothing; he had finally gotten what he wanted.
He pinched his chin, glanced sideways at the hole below, and after a while seemed to have made a decision. Suddenly, he jumped into the raging blue flames, using the upward buoyancy to slowly descend into the hole dozens of meters below. He was determined to see what strange things were down there.
The closer one gets to the crater, the greater the upward buoyancy. Upon reaching the crater's opening, one immediately grabs the rock wall, resisting the buoyancy and slowly climbing backward. All that can be seen is a hazy, shimmering blue light; nothing else can be seen. After climbing about ten meters, the hand reaching down grasps nothing; the rock wall has slipped from the grasp. The hand extends downward, feeling around, only to find emptiness...
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