Burning Art, Building the Way

Spring passed and autumn arrived; five years drifted by. In the southeastern part of Jingcheng, inside a spacious Courtyard House, a four- or five-year-old boy rose from his bed. Glancing around and seeing no one nearby, he sneaked into the kitchen.

The delicate, jade-carved little boy approached the kitchen stove, leaped lightly, and flew up onto it, revealing agility far beyond ordinary people. Just that single jump onto the meter-high stove was something few adults could manage.

The boy fumbled with the switch on the cast-iron Gas Stove for a moment. A soft hiss sounded, and a blue-orange flame appeared before him.

He stared at the blue-orange flame, a trace of weariness and helplessness flickering in his eyes—an expression far too old for his age. After a moment, he slowly closed his eyes, crossed his legs, and sat down.

His hands formed a strange hand seal in front of his chest. His chest rose and fell gently, each breath creating a perfect cycle. As his breath circulated, faint streams of air rose from the blue-orange flame, drilling into the boy's body through his nose and mouth.

After meditating for a long time, the boy slowly exhaled a mouthful of turbid air. His eyes snapped open, and a faint glimmer of flame light flashed deep within his pupils.

He looked at the dimming flame before him and a bitter smile tugged at his lips. "Another tank of gas is almost finished by me. When Ms. Xiao gets back, I'll have to find a way to shift her attention onto Old Yan. Who told that guy he's my dad?"

The little boy was naturally the older Yan Kuan. He muttered to himself as he turned the switch up, and the blue-orange flame surged again. Standing on the stove, he sighed. "Sigh! If cultivating Battle Qi is this hard, what am I supposed to do in the future?"

"This world looks weird no matter how you see it. If you say it's completely End of Dharma, it doesn't quite fit. But if you're talking about supernatural phenomena, I haven't seen any in five years. Could it be the spiritual energy revival type?"

Yan Kuan muttered to himself and began another round of cultivation. This time, it took even longer. By the time he finished, most of a gas tank had been used up. The blue-orange flame flickered faintly, on the verge of dying out completely.

"It's only because I have the Flame Mantra: Foundation Forging Chapter that Xiao Yan modified. If someone else came along, even with a cultivation technique, they'd be stumped. With spiritual energy so thin it's almost nonexistent, I'd believe this was a no-magic world!"

Yan Kuan was quite dissatisfied with his current cultivation environment. Think about it—he, a proud inheritor of the Empyrean Flame and the Flame Mantra, had been practicing a top-tier cosmic technique for years and still hadn't managed to condense a Battle Qi Cyclone to become a Battle Practitioner. If word got out, other transmigrators would probably laugh themselves to death.

But the reality was that there was no helping it. Yan Kuan figured that even if the Flame Emperor Xiao Yan himself came over in person, his situation wouldn't be much better. Still, speaking of it, he and the Flame Emperor Xiao Yan seemed to count as 'the same person.'

Why say that? That involved the very famous Parallel Universe Theory from 'when in doubt, quantum mechanics.' Simply put, he and Xiao Yan were equivalent existences in different universes, similar to the 'Alternate Self' in The Grandmaster of the World.

However, the relationship between Yan Kuan and Xiao Yan was rather special. It was only 'similar' to an Alternate Self; neither of them was the 'True Self,' meaning there was no original body or clone. Of course, compared to other 'Alternate Selves' across countless universes, they were also exceptionally unique.

The uniqueness of the Flame Emperor Xiao Yan lay in his transmigration from Blue Star to the Battle Qi Continent, where he grew all the way to become the Grand Overlord at the pinnacle of the universe, one of the top powerhouses of his cosmos.

Yan Kuan's uniqueness, on the other hand, lay in his own transmigration. The first time, his soul went into another 'Alternate Self' who was a Vegetative Person, and then he was unexpectedly chosen by a clone of the Flame Emperor to become the inheritor of the Empyrean Flame.

Over these years, Yan Kuan had managed to sort out some clues. Roughly speaking, after the Flame Emperor Xiao Yan achieved Grand Overlord status, he suddenly felt a stirring in his heart and split off a clone carrying all his inheritance to 'go home' for a look.

That clone encountered some accident while crossing universes and ended up in the world of the Vegetative Person Alternate Self where Yan Kuan was. Then, rejected by the laws of that universe, it was forced to self-destruct. But before it did, it gave Yan Kuan, this 'original body,' a hand, allowing him to be reborn.

As for this current world, Yan Kuan said he wasn't entirely clear about it either. He could only confirm that it wasn't the Blue Star Xiao Yan had transmigrated from, nor the Blue Star of the Vegetative Person Alternate Self, nor the homeland of his original soul. It was another 'Alternate Self's' world.

This situation sounded quite complicated and seemed somewhat illogical, involving time-space travel to the 'past.' But since it had happened, Yan Kuan could only take things as they came. After all, with his current small arms and legs, he couldn't get involved in such profound topics.

Over five years, Yan Kuan had managed to barely start on the path of cultivation by organizing the inheritance given by the Flame Emperor's clone. If Battle Qi counted as a supernatural stage, then he could be considered a minor psychic.

The world he was in now was mostly the same as the Blue Stars he'd been to before. Spiritual energy in heaven and earth was nearly nonexistent, and the level of technological development matched the era he remembered. It looked like just an ordinary Blue Star.

But after living in this world for five years, Yan Kuan could vaguely sense something off. From some Antiques his family had collected over the years, he had refined a very small amount of spiritual energy. The older the artifact, the more obvious the characteristics it carried, as if hinting at a once-glorious ancient era.

But all of that was still too early for him, with his current small arms and legs. For now, Yan Kuan's top priority was to condense a Battle Qi Cyclone and become a Battle Practitioner—and that was quite difficult.

On the Battle Qi Continent where the Flame Emperor Xiao Yan was, spiritual energy was abundant. Cultivators still needed over ten years to have a chance at condensing a Qi Cyclone and becoming a Battle Practitioner. In his current world, where spiritual energy was almost nonexistent, the difficulty of cultivation was higher than climbing to the heavens.

Fortunately, the Flame Emperor who gave him the inheritance had considered his own hometown's situation. After becoming the Grand Overlord, he thoroughly deduced his foundational technique, the 'Flame Mantra,' and created the 'Flame Mantra: Foundation Forging Chapter.'

This chapter was specifically designed for the Battle Qi stage and could be cultivated in a no-magic environment. However, the law of conservation of energy still existed. Since heaven and earth's spiritual energy couldn't be absorbed, ordinary flames became a substitute.

Luckily, the flame temperature of a Gas Stove was far higher than the open flames from burning wood in ancient times, so the cultivation effect was naturally better. After stumbling through several years of cultivation this way, Yan Kuan's cultivation base had barely built some foundation. He was as light as a swallow and possessed divine strength. Against ordinary people, he was destined to be the one doing the beating.

"Little Kuan Kuan, where did you run off to? We're about to head out."

Just as Yan Kuan finished cleaning up the kitchen, his mother's voice came from the courtyard. He didn't dawdle for long. His short little legs moved quickly, and he appeared before his mother, Ms. Xiao.