Laying the Cards on the Table

"Looks like having too much Soul Power isn't exactly a good thing."

Xiao Yan's brows twitched, and only after calming himself several times did he manage to force his heartbeat back down. His powerful soul allowed him to clearly sense that the thin Spiritual Qi was being destroyed.

Heavenly Flames could even burn away the mysterious Spiritual Qi, and possessed the ability to directly annihilate the soul.

No, that was not right.

"It's a frenzied aura of destruction..." Xiao Yan looked deeply at the flame seed. The stronger one was, the more clearly one could feel the power of a Heavenly Flame.

Compared to blazing flames, raging fire, or molten lava, a Heavenly Flame was more like a nuclear reactor forever hovering on the edge of losing control.

Every moment, it radiated a heat that was almost impossible to defend against or resist. Those strange abilities were more like adding a few steel pellets to a nuclear bomb, nothing more than embellishments at best.

The destructive energy that erupted and could ruin everything was the true foundation of a Heavenly Flame.

"This is the trade I want to make with you."

Yao Lao held up the Bone Chilling Flame. "When I was alive, I was an alchemist. Together with this Qi Method, I will help you roam unhindered across the entire continent."

"Then, senior, what is the price?" Xiao Yan looked straight at Yao Lao.

"When your cultivation has reached success, I ask that you revive me."

Yao Lao's expression was extremely solemn. To him, this was no different from a desperate gamble with everything on the line. If it succeeded, so be it, but once it failed, there would be no redemption.

"As you can see... I have been dead for a long time. But the Fen Jue records a method to revive the dead. Though I do not know whether it is true or false, in the end, I still want to take that gamble."

"Then what's the success rate?"

Xiao Yan chose to strike straight at the heart of the matter and stopped dragging things out.

"..."

Yao Lao suddenly fell silent, looking at Xiao Yan without knowing how to answer.

He knew clearly in his heart that this was not an equal trade at all. It was nothing more than the final struggle of a lonely ghost.

Risking death countless times, enduring the burning and roasting of Heavenly Flames, all for the sake of reviving the soul of someone who had tried to steal his Dou Qi? What normal person would do such a thing? Xiao Yan clenched the Ring at his chest. Even though he had already somewhat expected the answer, he still grew a little nervous.

Would he tell the truth? Or rather, would Yao Lao choose to deceive him...

It was not impossible.

Without three years to test his temperament, directly entrusting his final hope to a stranger... who would do that? Moreover, he had once been stabbed in the back by a disciple he had treated like his own child, and had slept all the way until now because of it. After encountering such a thing, who would easily trust another person?

Once he thought through this point, Xiao Yan felt somewhat regretful.

Was this not putting this old man, who was already covered in heartache, over the fire to roast? If Yao Lao simply chose to give up on the trade, would he not have made a huge mess of things?

"Forget it..."

Yao Lao let out a long sigh, as if he had breathed out the last breath in his body.

Forget it? Xiao Yan's heart lurched. This really looked like he was about to give up. "Senior—"

Before he could open his mouth to ease the situation, Yao Lao spoke calmly.

"Less than twenty percent."

"Wha..." Xiao Yan's eyes widened, and for a moment, he did not know what expression to make.

"That is only the probability that this Qi Method can truly be cultivated to success."

Yao Lao seemed to have come to terms with it, chuckling as he folded his sleeves together.

As early as the instant Han Feng stabbed him in the back, he had already become a lonely ghost. He should have died there in the first place... Being able to awaken once more and exist in the world as a Soul Body was already an enormous stroke of luck.

"If we include fighting over Heavenly Flames, absorbing them, merging with them, and even take into account the forces you'll offend along the way and the enemies who covet the Heavenly Flames..."

The more Yao Lao spoke, the more he felt that the idea of persuading someone to cultivate the Flame Mantra was truly far too laughable. "Your chance of reaching the end... just calculate it as zero! That should be much more accurate."

The danger was extreme, and the gains were not even guaranteed.

What fool in this world would learn this thing?

"Fine, got it. Give it to me." Afraid that the Flame Mantra would slip through his fingers, Xiao Yan hurriedly spoke.

"..." * 2 The two of them stared at each other for a long time.

"You're serious?!"

Yao Lao looked as if he had seen some rare treasure. "You have to understand... with your talent, even if you follow the proper steps, you can still easily reach the peak! What need is there to gamble with your life?"

"Then aren't you curious, senior?"

Xiao Yan looked helpless. "The chance to revive is clearly right in front of you, yet you're saying so many irrelevant things. Aren't you really afraid I'll shrink back and give up?"

"This..." Yao Lao was left speechless. "Life and death are decreed by fate. Since things have come to this point, I cannot force anything anymore."

"Then I also have my reasons for choosing the Flame Mantra."

Xiao Yan looked at this old man who seemed somewhat weighed down by age. "Give it to me. Just treat it as a gamble against fate. In any case, you don't have much of your stake left."

"Sigh~ I really am afraid of you."

Yao Lao tossed the scroll over, his eyes sweeping Xiao Yan up and down. "You really do have quite a few secrets on you."

"Aren't you the same, senior?" Xiao Yan shook the Fen Jue in his hand.

It had been a close call, but in the end, he had still gotten it.

Weighing this absolute cheat in his hand, Xiao Yan finally felt his heart settle. With Fen Jue in hand, even following the plot step by step would work.

"Whew—"

Pale yellow flame shot out from Xiao Yan's hand. Though it looked somewhat dim and dull, its aura was solid and long-lasting in every sense.

"At least before Dou Wang, I'm afraid no one's Dou Qi will be thicker than yours." The person before him had surprised Yao Lao more times than he could count.

With no cultivation method and no pills, relying only on time to slowly accumulate it, Xiao Yan's Dou Qi was like ten-year-aged vinegar, much "thicker" than others of the same level.

But compared with that, what concerned him more was Xiao Yan's strange Dou Qi.

"The three masses of Dou Qi are already different kinds of energy."

One gold and one red thread of Dou Qi twined together in Yao Lao's palm.

"Senior, can you tell anything?" Xiao Yan asked as he leaned in from the side.

"This red one is more like energy of blood and vitality. If I had to say, some body-tempering Dou Techniques might be able to cultivate something like this, but it would only appear when the Dou Technique was being released."

It could only be said that Xiao Yan's situation was too unusual. Even with Yao Lao's breadth of experience, he was not quite certain. "As for this golden Dou Qi, it should have been produced by fusing with life force... In terms of its nature, I seem to have seen something similar before."

The Yin-Yang Profound Dragon Pill.

Compared with vigorous, upward-surging vitality, it was more like life energy forged through hundreds and thousands of temperings, heavy as metal and stone, sluggish as asphalt, deeply fused with the organs.

"Your talent may have something to do with this." Yao Lao pondered. "As this Dou Qi continues to grow stronger, you will also undergo a transformation that could be called nirvana. Your talent and potential will slowly increase."

From the perspective of pills, this was a divine pill with infinitely stacking enhancement.

"So that's basically... the red one is a permanent body-tempering Dou Technique, and the gold one is a continuous buff-type Dou Technique?"

Xiao Yan suddenly had the strange feeling that he was playing an online game.

"You could put it that way." Yao Lao seemed lost in thought.

It was not as though he had never seen something similar to this golden Qi. In fact, others' versions were even more effective, had higher limits, and were more useful and comprehensive.

That thing was known as—

Dou Di Bloodline.

As a Dou Zun Peak plus peak eighth-tier alchemist, Yao Lao's displayed knowledge, insight, and role in the original work were all a bit underwhelming (understandable, since it was a long-form work, and the power scale at the beginning had not been set that high yet). So I'll be adding many areas where Yao Lao shows off his divine might.

(It's perfectly reasonable to hand out cheats through Yao Lao, right? After all, who knows what this old man has in his collection?)