Cultivating Southern Bright Illusory Fire True Qi

"Little blacksmith?"

Inside the Void Heaven Mirror.

A little figure was hammering away on an anvil.

After hammering for a while, it threw the forged iron block into the furnace again, then added other ores.

It repeated this process.

Sometimes, a look of surprise would appear on its face.

Other times, it would discard the iron block in its hand with a look of disgust.

Song Chengan watched with great interest.

It was from the book Fire Refining Sect: Beginner's Guide to Artifact Refining for Junior Disciples.

Hong Ying had tossed it to him.

He flipped through it; it explained artifact refining in great detail.

Unlike the miscellaneous notes from Chang Fu's place, which only mentioned it sporadically.

Of course, the Void Heaven Mirror was even more monstrous.

Because even with those intermittent bits of artifact refining experience, Song Chengan had already become an artifact refiner.

But unfortunately.

There were no formations mentioned in it.

So Song Chengan could only be considered a blacksmith.

But this beginner's guide to artifact refining from the Fire Refining Sect was different.

It also mentioned some basic introductory formations.

Then Song Chengan had a sudden idea and gave the little blacksmith a command.

To purify the iron block in its hand.

Then, the little blacksmith got busy.

Over the next few days.

Song Chengan was called to Skyfire Plaza every day to help Hong Ying move iron ore.

Moving artifact refining materials and managing furnaces.

This was the duty of the Furnace Management Department.

Logically, Song Chengan should have waited until he had an identity token before doing these things.

But Hong Ying had ordered it, and no one objected.

After all, it was just moving some ore.

Hong Ying was also part of the Furnace Management Department.

However, she was different from Song Chengan and Yuan Fusheng.

She was a disciple of the Furnace Management Elder.

While Song Chengan and Yuan Fusheng were mere laborers.

"Will doing manual labor make you age faster?"

Song Chengan looked at the little blacksmith in the Void Heaven Mirror.

He saw that after only three days, the little blacksmith had already turned white-haired.

But there was a smile on its face, and it held a lump of iron in its hand.

"But you died of exhaustion, so I'll count it as a merit!"

As Song Chengan's voice fell, the little blacksmith turned into a ball of light and was absorbed by Song Chengan.

"Mysterious Sand can extract some impurities from Blood Jade Stone, thereby improving the quality of the iron embryo obtained."

"Exchange?"

"Seems interesting."

"This means even low-level artifact refiners have a chance to refine higher-tier Magic Tools."

"Instead of having to refine a certain fire-attribute True Qi to its extreme."

"Uncle Qiao An!"

"You've worked hard again today!"

Yuan Fusheng said weakly from his bed.

As a disciple of the furnace room, he had to patrol the furnaces in Skyfire Plaza every night.

To ensure they were sealed.

This was a rule of the Fire Refining Sect.

The elders always worried that keeping the furnaces burning would prematurely extinguish the fires of Mount Luofeng.

But Song Chengan felt it might be meaningless.

After all, even if the furnace was sealed, it was still burning.

"Don't worry, leave it all to me."

Song Chengan said.

Three days ago.

Yuan Fusheng somehow fell ill.

His sickness worsened, and he couldn't even get out of bed.

Since he was sick and someone had to do the furnace rounds, after getting permission from Hong Ying, the task fell to Song Chengan.

Song Chengan arrived at Skyfire Plaza.

Many disciples had already left.

But a few disciples were still forging Tekkai.

The Fire Refining Sect usually called these people hardworking genius youths.

But Song Chengan was used to calling them Brother Juan.

Song Chengan waited until midnight.

The last disciple finally left.

Then it was time for the furnace-round duty servants like Song Chengan to step in.

Song Chengan quickly finished patrolling his assigned area.

Then he simply waited.

"Qiao An, I'll leave this to you."

"We're heading back."

"Okay!"

"Steward Jin, you can go back first."

The speaker was a steward in his thirties.

"Hong Ying's furnace is still burning."

Song Chengan smiled and nodded, "She asked me to watch it for her. She needs the materials from the furnace tomorrow."

"Alright!"

Steward Jin didn't suspect anything because Song Chengan was too normal.

Elder Hong's relative, who had been close to Hong Ying these past few days... and he was a down-on-his-luck scholar, abandoned by his wife and bullied into coming to the Fire Refining Sect.

Most importantly, Song Chengan was just a mortal with no threat, a servant disciple, and the Heart-Questioning Trial was the day after tomorrow. Who would be bored enough to suspect him?

Steward Jin left with the disciples.

He also reminded Song Chengan to rest well at night and not to stare constantly.

As long as the furnace didn't explode, there was no problem.

Even if it exploded, that would be the elders' problem.

Song Chengan sat down cross-legged.

Then, a wisp of flame containing Earth Vein Spiritual Energy flew out from the furnace in front of him.

Song Chengan began to circulate the Southern Bright Illusory Fire True Qi.

It was almost effortless.

A strand of bright, light-red True Qi slowly roamed his meridians.

It worked!

Of course, it worked!

He had his Illusionary Body practice it countless times in the Void Heaven Mirror!

It was equivalent to him practicing countless times!

How could it not work!

"So this is Southern Bright Illusory Fire True Qi!"

In Song Chengan's dantian.

A strand of bright, light-red True Qi and the red-purple Heavenly Radiance Dao Qi coexisted peacefully.

"Just as First Boss Bai said, they don't conflict."

True Qi has attributes.

If one rashly cultivated conflicting True Qi, the consequences would be extremely severe.

Conflicting True Qi will turn your body into a battlefield for their struggle.

At best, your meridians will be shattered; at worst, you'll explode and die.

"It seems I can only give up the Heavenly Radiance Dao Qi from now on,"

Song Chengan thought.

The Heavenly Radiance Dao Qi was very powerful.

But the Southern Bright Illusory Fire True Qi was even stronger.

It could refine pills and Qi!

And it also had the effect of restraining demons and evil spirits!

Song Chengan planned to only cultivate the Southern Bright Illusory Fire True Qi from now on.

"But?"

A bold idea suddenly popped into Song Chengan's mind.

Since he could create a blacksmithing puppet to comprehend the method of purifying iron ore.

Could he also create two illusionary body puppets to try and fuse the Heavenly Radiance Dao Qi and the Southern Bright Illusory Fire True Qi?

That's right.

Why did he have to choose only one?

Couldn't he have both?

Once this thought arose in Song Chengan's mind, he couldn't stop it.

He decided to act immediately.

Two puppets appeared in the Void Heaven Mirror.

One had the Heavenly Radiance Dao Qi, circulating in red and purple through its meridians!

The other had the Southern Bright Illusory Fire True Qi, circulating in a bright, light red through its meridians!

"I want you to try and fuse the two True Qi!"

Song Chengan silently conveyed his thought.

Then... Song Chengan's mouth fell open.

"Isn't this a bit too much?"

He saw the two puppets sitting cross-legged facing each other, their palms touching!

Then, the two True Qi began to flow back and forth between their bodies.

Song Chengan felt a little embarrassed: "It was my dirty mind, I thought you were going to cultivate together."

Pfft!

The sound of spitting blood echoed.

The two puppets instantly vomited blood and died.

"Fusion is this difficult?"

Song Chengan said.

But it seemed to be feasible.

Because the two puppets instantly resurrected and continued to sit cross-legged, their palms touching.

"If this is also feasible..."

"Isn't this Void Heaven Mirror too monstrous? It can comprehend any spell or spiritual power, even directly achieve enlightenment, as long as I can think of it."

"When that Daoist gave me this mirror back then, was it a gift from a master, or just a coincidence? Did that Daoist not even know this mirror was a treasure?"

"I wonder if I can still go home."

"Perhaps when I reach the peak of cultivation?"

Song Chengan shook his head, clearing these thoughts from his mind.

The origin of this Void Heaven Mirror is likely astonishingly grand; I must hide it well.

Song Chengan opened his eyes.

The Southern Bright Illusory Fire True Qi had been successfully cultivated.

It was time to leave.

"But I wonder if Mysterious Sand can truly extract the impurities from the Blood Jade Stone?"

Song Chengan looked at the ore being forged in the iron furnace before him with some curiosity.