The mountain collapsed.
As rocks shattered loose above and came whistling down, Yu Ci was sitting with his eyes closed, regulating his breath.
He seized every chance to recover his strength. In truth, he had regained some, but it was far from enough. Earlier, when he employed the "Profound Storehouse Flying Star Great Refinement Technique," he had exhausted all the Innate Qi he had accumulated. What naturally recovered in his meridians now was merely ordinary true breath, its quality a great deal inferior to before. In this state, he feared even the Half-Mountain Mirage sword intent would be difficult to wield. To that end, Yu Ci tried using his yin spirit to operate the treasured mirror, to see whether it could accelerate the refinement and conversion process.
It seemed promising. Yu Ci could already sense the flavor of vital energy transforming within his body. But then, amid earthshaking booms, came Jin Huan's long laughter. Millstone-sized boulders rained down like a storm. He also saw Crimson Yin tumbling over the cliff, and the sense of danger in his heart grew heavy. He immediately drove force into his legs, using the snow and ice on the slope to slide all the way down, swift as wind and lightning.
Yet in the blink of an eye, that sensation vanished completely.
The ground grew hot—scalding hot!
Yu Ci grunted and leaped aside for no reason at all. Only a heartbeat later, a golden-red tongue of fire burst from the earth where he had just been headed, rising several yards high. Its erupting heat wave melted snow and ice, scorching one to the point of charring. Before Yu Ci could rejoice at his narrow escape, more fire tongues of equal force erupted one after another, weaving into a crisscrossing blaze that covered half a li.