Wings Advance

After chatting with Xiao Yi Xian for a while, Xiao Yan returned to the east wing, which the maids had already tidied up.

The room was simply furnished, and a faint medicinal fragrance wafted through the air. From the scent, he could tell that it came from incense blended with six medicinal herbs.

This incense could clear the mind and sharpen the senses, making it especially suitable for someone like Xiao Yan, who used cultivation in place of sleep.

After using his Dou Qi to mark the doors and windows, then carefully probing the area inside and outside the room with his soul power, Xiao Yan finally relaxed and called out, "Teacher?"

As soon as he spoke, Old Yao's illusory, aged figure floated out of the ring. Holding the black scroll retrieved from the cave, he tossed it to Xiao Yan. "Flying Dou Techniques like this are extremely rare. Your luck truly is not bad."

"If my luck had been any worse, I wouldn't have lived to this day."

Xiao Yan shrugged and spoke casually.

Naturally, he was referring to the time he had foolishly swallowed a Heavenly Flame.

Hearing this, Old Yao understood that Xiao Yan was talking about the Heavenly Flame and nodded.

If he had not awakened in time, Xiao Yan would likely have long since been reduced to ashes.

Suppressing the jumble of thoughts in his heart, Xiao Yan opened the black scroll. Two pitch-black eagle wings that sent a chill through his body immediately came into view. Since they were painted on the scroll, the pair of wings did not appear large, yet faint heat seemed to rise from them. Their strange appearance made it obvious that this was no ordinary painting.

The eagle wings were dark black, faintly marked with purple cloud patterns. Looking closer, the wings resembled black steel, possessing a peculiar metallic texture. The feathers on the wings emitted a weak warmth.

Xiao Yan gently blew on them, and his expression changed slightly in surprise. Under that light breeze, the feathers on the eagle wings actually stirred like those of real wings. It was incredibly wondrous.

Xiao Yan's gaze swept over the wings before stopping on a line of small words beside them:

"Black Flame Purple Cloud Eagle, a fifth-rank flying magical beast. It is said to possess a faint bloodline of the ancient Phoenix. Its flying speed ranks among the best of all flying magical beasts. Naturally cunning and brutal, it is extremely difficult to capture and lives only in the Cloud Mist Ridge region in the southern part of the continent.

"This Dou Technique is called Eagle Wings, also known as Purple Cloud Wings. After three years of effort, several friends and I successfully captured a Black Flame Purple Cloud Eagle and used a secret method to take its wings, finally creating this flying Dou Technique for human cultivation. This Dou Technique was drawn with my Dou Qi before my death and can only be cultivated by one person. Remember this!"

Xiao Yan was naturally no stranger to Purple Cloud Wings, but this was indeed his first time seeing them. He reached out and lightly touched the slightly purple-black eagle wings.

The feathered texture beneath his palm left Xiao Yan astonished.

Although he had been accustomed to skyscrapers and all kinds of high-tech products in his previous life, when he saw and touched something so fantastical and strange, he still found it dazzling.

Just as Xiao Yan was lost in thought over it, a violent, vicious eagle cry suddenly exploded beside his ears.

"Hmph!"

Caught off guard by this attack that struck deep into his soul, Xiao Yan felt a sharp pain in his brow and could not help letting out a muffled groan.

"A mere remnant soul dares to ambush me?"

Xiao Yan's gaze turned colder. With a flip of his palm, blood-red flames surged forth and engulfed the scroll.

Sizzle!

In the next moment, the previously vicious eagle cry abruptly turned shrill and miserable.

The Myriad Beast Spirit Fire had been born from the essence, blood, and souls of countless beasts after being tempered for tens of thousands of years. It possessed an extremely obvious suppressive effect against the remnant souls of magical beasts!

Moreover, Xiao Yan's genuine First-Rank Alchemist soul power and the fire-attributed Dou Qi cultivated through an Earth Tier technique amplified it. In almost an instant, the remnant soul of the Black Flame Purple Cloud Eagle was refined into a part of the Myriad Beast Spirit Fire itself!

The black scroll was also reduced to ashes under the effects of the Heavenly Flames, leaving behind only a black wing floating within the flames. Beneath the burning of the Heavenly Flames, the metallic wing actually gave rise to black flames!

"Hmm?"

Seeing this, Xiao Yan released his soul perception and carefully examined it.

The burning of the Heavenly Flames had not damaged this flying Dou Technique. Instead, it seemed to have refined it on a deeper level, and the emergence of these black flames appeared to be one of the results.

"What a lucky brat. Originally, cultivating this flying Dou Technique required enduring the soul attack of that Black Flame Purple Cloud Eagle. With the Myriad Beast Spirit Fire protecting you, nothing unexpected would have happened anyway. Yet you directly burned away its remnant soul with the Heavenly Flames and even accidentally refined this flying Dou Technique further. In all my years, I have never seen such fortune!"

Old Yao had watched the entire process from the side and could not help sighing in admiration.

To become a powerhouse, talent and hard work were certainly important, but luck was also indispensable.

Perhaps this child's future achievements would surpass even his own!

"Hehe, just lucky, just lucky!"

Hearing this, Xiao Yan scratched his head somewhat sheepishly. Sensing that the black wing in his palm had reached its limit in enduring the refinement of the Heavenly Flames, he gradually lowered the temperature and withdrew the flames.

As the Heavenly Flames returned to his body, the black wing floating above his palm had already changed drastically.

Not only had it grown much larger, but the originally black-purple, steel-like wing had become a pair of purple wings covered in cloud patterns. Black flames burned across them, allowing Xiao Yan to feel a warm heat in his palm.

"Teacher, this is...?"

Xiao Yan was somewhat surprised.

"It should have advanced."

After staring at the wing for a moment, Old Yao spoke thoughtfully:

"I estimate that this Black Flame Purple Cloud Eagle had already reached the peak of the fifth rank. After you refined its remnant soul, the powerful energy of the Heavenly Flames transformed this pair of wings, bringing them to the sixth rank. This appearance is indeed that of the wings of a sixth-rank Black Flame Purple Cloud Eagle. You truly made a huge profit this time!"

"Heh, that's great!"

Hearing this, Xiao Yan looked excitedly at the wings in his palm, then tried pouring Dou Qi into them.

In the next moment, the purple wings burning with black flames transformed into a streak of light and shot into Xiao Yan's palm like lightning. They raced through his meridians before reaching his back, where they formed two extremely tiny branch meridians.

With a thought from Xiao Yan, Dou Qi flowed along the two tiny branching meridians and poured into the meridians in his back.

Whoosh!

A pair of enormous purple wings covered in cloud patterns burst from Xiao Yan's back like lightning!