At that moment, he stood within this furnace of heaven and earth.
Heavenly lightning, Earthfire, and baleful wind—the three destructive forces that had been assaulting him madly moments before—now seemed tamed by some invisible power, becoming docile and controllable.
With a thought from Li Bufan, his spiritual sense surged out like a tide and enveloped the Golden Core fragment.
At the same time, he activated his core-condensation method, using his spiritual sense as a guide and his blood and qi as a medium, attempting to bring the Golden Core fragments together again.
Just then, the dark-red canopy overhead split open once more.
Purple heavenly lightning came rolling down. Bolts as thick as palace pillars tore through the void, striking straight down with the crushing might to destroy heaven and earth.
This time, however, the heavenly lightning did not attack Li Bufan. Instead, it struck the Golden Core fragment with perfect precision.
Lightning poured into the fragment. Rather than widening, the cracks began to close slowly under its tempering.
With every Heavenly Thunderfall, the Golden Core fragment grew more solid, and the light on its surface shone brighter.
The ground cracked again, and crimson Earthfire gushed from the fissures, transforming into fire phoenixes that spiraled upward.
The fire phoenixes coiled around the Golden Core fragment, their scorching flames burning away its impurities bit by bit until only the purest Golden Core essence remained.
Each time a fire phoenix wound around it, the Golden Core shrank a little, but its radiance became more concentrated and more dazzling.
Baleful wind gathered from every direction. Tiny fragments of space mingled with the blackish-gray gusts, like invisible blades shaving away every insufficiently solid part of the Golden Core's surface.
With every cut, the Golden Core became rounder and more seamless.
Heavenly lightning served as the