Wheel Sea Perfection, Qi Condensation into Crystal

Crimson flames gradually spread across Yan Kuan's entire body, yet his body temperature was instead steadily dropping, and the violent, rampaging red energy within him also slowly grew docile.

He operated the Burning Art to refine the Vermillion Phoenix Blood, excavating the flame power deep within this blood essence to refine it, ultimately condensing the Vermillion Phoenix Demon Fire, then turning the seed of this demon fire into nourishment for the Burning Art to refine and advance, strengthening his own foundation by another measure.

Throughout this process, the pure energy contained within the Vermillion Phoenix Blood was refined by Yan Kuan, and his cultivation naturally grew. The Sea of Bitterness and the Divine Bridge both reached a certain limit. His mind relaxed slightly, but just then, he detected an anomaly.

Yan Kuan only felt a hazy blur before his eyes, as if he could no longer see anything, like he had lost his direction. He activated his divine power to open his Fiery Golden Eyes, and quickly discovered the clue—he had encountered the Calamity of Lost Direction.

The Calamity of Lost Direction when ascending from the Divine Bridge realm to the Other Shore is the first checkpoint tribulation for a cultivator. The mysteries of the human body are endless. If a cultivator does not wish to be trapped in the Sea of Bitterness and wants to explore other secret realms of the body, they must forcibly cross the Sea of Bitterness.

Only by cultivating a Heavenly Meridian, spanning above the Sea of Bitterness, can one reach the Other Shore. This is the meaning of the Divine Bridge realm, and the Calamity of Lost Direction is a very critical checkpoint.

The Heavenly Meridian grows and pierces through the void, but where exactly does it extend to reach the Other Shore? Some people spend their entire lives unable to see through the illusion, trapped at this end of the Divine Bridge, unable to cross the Sea of Bitterness—this is the Calamity of Lost Direction.

When the Calamity of Lost Direction arrives, the five senses are stripped away, spiritual perception is completely lost, turning one into a senseless, useless cripple. This is the most terrifying scenario.

Most people, when forming their Heavenly Meridian, encounter mist blocking the path, but it is not severe. If they calm their mind, they can pass through, unable to be stopped. However, according to some cultivation classics, the greater the potential of a prodigy, the more difficult the Calamity of Lost Direction they face.

"Calamity of Lost Direction, you think you can block my path."

Yan Kuan's divine soul blazed with golden radiance, his powerful mental energy nearly solidifying as it surged forward, while his Fiery Golden Eyes directly saw through the illusion to the origin.

"Boom rumble..."

Yan Kuan's profound foundation was fully displayed in this moment. Even the Calamity of Lost Direction could not stop his steps. The mist and clouds ahead churned and rapidly dispersed. Heaven and earth cleared, and everything lay before his eyes.

The mist scattered completely. His five senses revived, and were even sharper than before, becoming incredibly acute. A mysterious radiance enveloped his body. He closed his eyes, accepting the baptism of transformation after the tribulation.

Having seen through the Calamity of Lost Direction, his "instinct" was baptized. His divine sense shot out like a bolt of silk, the range he could perceive growing ever broader. His body and mind felt as if they had been tempered.

Yan Kuan immersed his mind into the Wheel Sea. At this moment, that stretch of Heavenly Meridian Divine Bridge grew even thicker, crystal clear and translucent, like a purple-golden beam bridging the sea, leading to an unknown place.

His divine sense stepped onto the Divine Bridge and directly strode forward. As he had said, wherever he walked, that was the Other Shore. He crossed the sea.

His divine sense traversed the Sea of Bitterness and reached the end. This was a pure land, with mist and clouds drifting. In the high heavens, he vaguely saw a massive Dao Palace.

Beneath Yan Kuan's feet, endless crimson divine power surged. The energy from the refined Vermillion Phoenix Blood was continuously being refined, and his cultivation steadily advanced toward the perfected Wheel Sea level. His divine sense rose unceasingly, arriving before the Dao Palace with great ease.

The legendary Dao Palace corresponds to the chest cavity region of the human body. There, five deities reside. When cultivating this secret realm, all sorts of strange phenomena occur.

The valley spirit never dies—this is called the Mysterious Female. The gate of the Mysterious Female is the root of heaven and earth. The five deities gestate the five elements. The five energies are pure and subtle, connecting with heaven and earth, unending and continuous, capable of giving birth to Dao power.

Yan Kuan ascended to the Other Shore, his essence, energy, and spirit sublimated. Yet he did not rush to break through to the Dao Palace Secret Realm. Instead, he once again channeled all his divine power to converge within the Sea of Bitterness.

Crimson divine power surged wildly. Yan Kuan's entire energy gathered into the Sea of Bitterness. The Sea of Bitterness, which had stabilized, began to churn again. The originally liquid, flowing divine power of the Sea of Bitterness gradually grew viscous.

After this change persisted for a period of time, the crimson flame gauze on Yan Kuan's body surface began to transform. The rolling flame energy twisted continuously, as if reconstructing something.

Faintly, that originally illusory flame energy gauze began to exhibit characteristics similar to solid matter.

Yan Kuan's mind naturally sensed the changes in his body. He suddenly opened his eyes and swept his hand, bringing two other purple-glowing jade bottles before him. Two streams of purple light were simultaneously drawn into his mouth, and a process similar to the earlier refinement of Vermillion Phoenix Blood unfolded once more.

Within Yan Kuan's body, two streams of light purple energy frantically released rich energy. With the experience of refining the Vermillion Phoenix Blood, Yan Kuan smoothly refined the origin within the Dragon Sparrow Blood into a flame seed.

Threads of light purple flame invaded deep into his body. Another stream of energy joined his Sea of Bitterness, and the change in the energy properties on his body surface became even more pronounced. At this moment, he focused all his attention on the Sea of Bitterness, his powerful mental energy continuously guiding the energy transformation.

The crimson liquid energy, after absorbing external energies like the Vermillion Phoenix Blood Essence and the Dragon Sparrow Blood Essence, reached a certain limit.

Yan Kuan's hand seal shifted. The energy within the Sea of Bitterness first fell into an instant stillness. Then, ripples began to spread, the fluctuations growing fiercer until, at last, it was almost like boiling water, bubbling and churning with strange waves.

A slowly rotating vortex appeared in the center of the Sea of Bitterness, and after appearing, it abruptly accelerated. In less than ten seconds, it became a wildly spinning spiral sphere.

Due to the high-speed rotation, rings of cyan arcs formed around the vortex in the Sea of Bitterness. The gurgling fluctuations emitted by the rotation affected every part of his body.

These sounds, seemingly containing some mysterious rhythm, passed through the meridians, penetrated the bones, merged out of the body surface, and finally reached beyond the skin, transmitting into the flame gauze that was still writhing on the surface of his body.

The writhing of the flame gauze slowly ceased. An instant later, the firelight flashed violently. The crimson flame light merged with the newborn light purple flame light, and the two fused into one. The brilliance dimmed slightly, and a suit of purple-red armor appeared, branded with lines of flame on the chest.

The purple-red flame armor was somewhat blurry. Though it only had a rudimentary form, the deep purple-red light and the faint but vigorous surge of energy allowed Yan Kuan to clearly sense its formidable defensive power.

As this suit of Flame Battle Qi Armor took shape on Yan Kuan's body surface, drastic changes were also occurring within his Sea of Bitterness.

The Sea of Bitterness, once brimming with divine power, gradually dried up. In the center of the vortex in the Sea of Bitterness, a substance possessing immense energy was slowly taking form.

The liquid energy within the Sea of Bitterness gradually bottomed out. A purple-red rhombic crystal, no larger than a thumb, gradually appeared, ultimately hovering silently in the center of the Sea of Bitterness.

On his body, a faint light flickered like a candle in the wind, as if a random breeze could snuff it out, displaying the fragility of this newborn object.

Yan Kuan's mind was constantly focused on that purple-red rhombic crystal standing in the center of the Sea of Bitterness. The moment this crystal appeared, he could clearly feel a sense of comfort radiating from the depths of his soul.

This was a Battle Crystal, possessed only by those above the Grand Battle Master level on the Battle Qi Continent. In the eyes of experts on the Battle Qi Continent, only by possessing a Battle Crystal does one truly step into the hall of Battle Qi cultivation. This little thing, though small, contained astonishingly vast energy.