The daylight was like muddy water mixed with sand. A few thin rays struggled through a hole in the Broken Temple's roof and fell across Li Yuan's face. He leaned behind the base of a clay Mountain God statue, half his body hidden in shadow. His face was ashen, his lips cracked, and every breath sent needle-sharp pain through the wounds beneath his ribs and across his back.
The worst of it wasn't the flesh wounds. It was the icy feeling of restraint lodged between his bones.
Dozens of frigid chains formed from Cursed Bone Spikes still wrapped tightly around his meridians and bones, even trying to encase the Crimson Sun deep within his qi sea. Whenever his Crimson Sun Qi and Blood flowed, it was as if he were dragging a thousand-jin weight of Shackles. The flow was sluggish beyond measure, and even the slightest increase in force made the frigid chains cinch tight, bringing such bone-piercing pain that he had no choice but to stop.
A day and a night had passed. He had struggled his way here from the depths of the Black Mountain Forest, nearly exhausting himself. He couldn't return to the martial arts school for now, and people from both the Li Family and the Netherworld Cult might be searching for him. This derelict Mountain God Temple was the only place he'd found where he could catch his breath.
He had tried slowly wearing the chains down with his Crimson Sun Qi and Blood, but it had barely worked. This Curse-Binding Power was incredibly tenacious, like the toughest strands of ice. The Crimson Sun's heat could only loosen them slightly. At this rate, it might take ten days or half a month to refine them completely.
Ten days or half a month? He couldn't wait that long!
Li Yuan licked his cracked lips, his eyes hard and merciless as a wolf's. He remembered what it had felt like to devour the Bone Whistle's curse power, and the ravenous urge the Crimson Sun had unleashed at the end.
If the gentle approach wouldn't work...
He struggled to sit up, leaning against the cold, rough clay statue. He shut his eyes and stopped carefully guiding his qi and blood to wear down the chains. Like a soldier marching to his death, he gathered all his ruthless resolve and slammed into the Crimson Sun deep in his qi sea, where gray-black mist swirled around its dim light!
Either burn through these Shackles, or... we all go down together!
His resolve was absolute, like a final fuse being lit.
The dormant Crimson Sun seemed to awaken completely under this will to stake everything on a desperate fight. It shuddered violently! The pinpoint of crimson-gold light at its core blazed brighter than ever before!
It was no longer a gentle, warm current, but... Body-Burning Fire!
An indescribable scorching pain erupted from his qi sea and swept through his entire body! This fire came not from outside, but from the burning of his very life force! His Crimson Sun Qi and Blood turned frenzied and searing, like boiling magma. It no longer cared whether his meridians could endure it, nor did it heed the tightening frigid chains. With a madness that would take both sides down, it launched its fiercest assault against the Curse-Binding Power wrapped around every limb and bone!
"Ughhh—!"
Li Yuan could no longer hold it in. He let out a strangled howl of pain, his body convulsing violently as he curled up on the ground. The veins on his forehead, neck, and arms bulged like countless twisted earthworms. His skin turned instantly red, as if he'd been boiled alive, and tiny beads of blood seeped from his pores once more, turning him into a bloody mess in the blink of an eye.
Cold and heat began the cruelest battle within him.
Under the blaze of the frenzied Crimson Sun, the frigid chains let out a teeth-grating "sizzle." They writhed and constricted violently, releasing an even more piercing cold in their attempt to freeze the Body-Burning Fire.
Li Yuan felt as if his body had been thrown into the narrow space between a furnace and an ice cellar. One half was seared by flames, his organs cramping and wailing, while the other was frozen by profound ice, his blood congealing and his thoughts on the verge of stopping. Extreme pain crashed against his will like a relentless tide. His vision darkened again and again, and he nearly passed out.
I can't black out! If I do, all this will have been for nothing! The curse power will completely erode me, and I'll become useless!
He clenched his teeth so hard his lips split. Blood mixed with sweat ran into his mouth, salty and metallic. His fingernails dug deep into the cold cracks between the bricks beneath him, and his knuckles turned white with the strain.
Time stretched endlessly.
No one knew how long had passed when, on the brink of his consciousness scattering completely,
"Crack!"
A faint but unmistakable snapping sound rang out inside him.
Like a taut string stretched to its limit, suddenly breaking!
Then came a second snap, a third... "Crack, crack, crack, crack...!"
The frigid chains wrapped around his meridians and bones finally couldn't endure the ceaseless, all-consuming burn of the Body-Burning Fire. One after another, they began to snap and disintegrate!
Each time a chain broke, a stream of pure, frigid source energy was released. Before it could run rampant, the even more ferocious Crimson Sun Fire engulfed, devoured, and refined it in an instant!
The pain receded like the tide.
A feeling of relief unlike anything he'd ever known flowed through his parched, torn meridians like sweet spring water. After devouring these sources of curse power, the Crimson Sun seemed to have undergone a baptism. It had grown subtly larger, its light more blazing and pure, its color deeper. The crimson-gold point at its center had almost become solid.
The stiffened wounds eroded by the Curse-Binding Power began healing rapidly under the unobstructed nourishment of his Crimson Sun Qi and Blood. Tingling replaced the pain.
Li Yuan slumped on the ground, as if he'd just been hauled out of the water, drenched in sweat and blood. He panted heavily, his chest rising and falling. His body felt utterly hollowed out, yet at the same time as if he'd set down a thousand-jin burden. An odd mix of weakness and strength filled him.
He struggled to raise a hand and watched the blackened wounds on his arm fade at a speed visible to the naked eye, replaced by fresh skin with a healthy flush.
He'd succeeded.
Through the agony of burning his own body, he had forcibly burned through the Netherworld Curse-Binding!
And that wasn't all. After devouring and refining these purer sources of curse power, he understood the Netherworld Cult's power more deeply. His Crimson Sun Qi and Blood had also absorbed more of its cold properties, making its flow more solid and fierce.
He slowly clenched his fist. He was weak, but could feel the far more formidable power lying dormant beneath his skin. The Crimson Sun in his qi sea shone steadily, like divine iron repeatedly forged until all its impurities had been driven out.
This calamity had nearly cost him his life, but it had also turned disaster into fortune. Having broken through and risen anew, his strength had reached an entirely new level.
He lay on the ground, gazing through the hole in the Broken Temple's roof at the gray sky. With difficulty, he curled his lips into a faint smile.
The Li Family. The Netherworld Cult...
These chains couldn't hold me.
Next time we meet, it'll be your turn to taste the agony of this Body-Burning Fire.
Before you continue