Four-Star Dou Practitioner, Flame Spirit Body Formed, a One-Star Dou Master's Physique

Three streams of information flooded into his mind at once.

Myriad-Flame Divine Physique—an uncapped cultivation art. By devouring all flames, including Heavenly Flames, ordinary flames, and Beast Flames, it condensed a Myriad Flame Source Seed within the body.

For every flame devoured, it would be refined into Flame Veins, forging a supreme divine physique.

The greater the number of flames and the higher their quality, the stronger the physique.

After devouring a single flame, one could nurture a Flame Spirit Body within the body. Naturally attuned to flames, it required no medicinal pills for assistance and carried no risk to life when devouring Heavenly Flames.

Heaven-Burning Divine Art—an uncapped cultivation art. By devouring all flames, it directly refined the essence of those flames into the foundation of the art.

There would be no elemental conflicts between flames. They could be freely fused, separated, and recombined.

Nurture the art with fire; advance one's realm through the art.

With every type of flame devoured, the art's tier and the cultivator's realm would rise in tandem, with no bottlenecks forevermore.

Undying Divine Flame Seed—the source-fire seed of the ancient divine beast, the Undying Bird, from the Great Ruler World.

Its color lay between gold and crimson. Blazing but not violent, warm but not scorching, it contained the supreme mystery of life's endless cycle through death and rebirth.

It possessed two powers.

The first was undying. The divine flame would remain within the body, and any injuries suffered by the host, internal or external, would be spontaneously burned away and restored by the flames—flesh regrown, broken bones reconnected, wounds healed as though untouched.

If the injuries were too severe—organs destroyed, meridians severed, or the soul gravely damaged—the restoration process would become exceedingly slow.

The second was Nirvana. When the host suffered a fatal blow, when the injuries became so severe that even the Undying Divine Flame could not heal them and the host stood on the verge of complete death, the divine flame would activate its ultimate forbidden power on its own.

The host's body would turn into a massive golden-crimson fire cocoon, lying dormant within endless flames. Nirvana had no fixed duration; it could take as little as several days or as long as several years.

When the time was ripe, the fire cocoon would break open, and the host would be reborn with all memories intact and a stronger body, as though newly born.

Nirvana was extremely difficult to invoke in one's lifetime. After each Nirvana, the conditions required to trigger the next would become even harsher, and the price ever greater.

After absorption, it could nurture the Undying Divine Flame, though it would require time to cultivate.

After absorbing the cultivation-art information for the Myriad-Flame Divine Physique and Heaven-Burning Divine Art, an irrepressible surge of ecstasy rose within Xiao Yan.

He had thought he would have to endure this most difficult period slowly on his own, but this wave of System rewards had sent him soaring on the spot.

The Myriad-Flame Divine Physique was practically the most perfect method for devouring Heavenly Flames.

After devouring a single flame, he could nurture a Flame Spirit Body within himself. Naturally attuned to flames, he would need no medicinal pills, suffer none of the agony of burned bones and scorched meridians, and devour Heavenly Flames as easily as eating and drinking, with no danger to his life whatsoever.

The Heaven-Burning Divine Art, meanwhile, was the ultimate upgraded version of the Flame Mantra.

It retained the Flame Mantra's core ability to devour flames without limit, while eliminating its flaws, such as low Dou Qi storage in the early stages and slow development.

Most importantly, with this art, he could fuse Heavenly Flames without limit. He would no longer have to nearly lose his life, as in the original story, just to fuse a Beast Flame with the Green Lotus Core Flame, only to have Yao Lao fall into slumber as well.

As for the Undying Divine Flame—it was a supreme divine fire far surpassing the Three Thousand Burning Flame.

The Three Thousand Burning Flame was known as the Flame of Undying, but it merely granted its host powerful recovery abilities and a long lifespan.

The Undying Divine Flame was true immortality and indestructibility, countless times stronger than that so-called Three Thousand Star Body.

Without hesitation, he silently recited, "System, claim the Undying Divine Flame Seed."

A crack opened in the System Space, and a cluster of golden-crimson flame seed quietly floated within.

It was a reward directly issued by the System. It automatically recognized its master and required no refining process.

Xiao Yan only needed to fuse it into his body to gain complete control over it.

He stretched out his hand, and the golden-crimson radiance drifted from the System Space, slowly descending toward his palm.

The instant the flame seed touched his skin, he felt no burning pain whatsoever.

A warm current surged in through his palm and flowed through his meridians toward every limb and bone. It was as comfortable as soaking in a hot spring during winter, like parched earth receiving its first sweet rain.

Golden-crimson light coursed through his meridians. Wherever it passed, impurities accumulated along the meridian walls were gently burned away by the flames.

The hidden injuries accumulated during three years of declining Dou Qi, as well as the lingering problems left behind by improper cultivation in his youth, all vanished beneath the flames' caress.

His meridians became as clear as jade, and Dou Qi flowed through them without the slightest obstruction.

Like a docile river, the Undying Divine Flame Seed slowly flowed through his body, from his meridians to his bones, from his flesh to his organs. Every inch of him was nourished by that warm power.

His bones crackled—not from breaking, but from being reforged. Tempered by the divine flame, they became denser and harder, like refined steel.

Blood rushed through his veins, and every heartbeat pumped the divine flame's power throughout his body.

He instinctively circulated the Myriad-Flame Divine Physique cultivation art.

As though it had sensed some kind of summons, the Undying Divine Flame Seed gathered from meridians throughout his body and converged toward the depths of his dantian.

The golden-crimson flame seed took root in his dantian, then gradually nurtured a faint golden flame. The Undying Divine Flame had formed.

After the flame was born within his dantian, another tiny speck of light condensed. It was the embryonic form of the Myriad Flame Source Seed.

Once the source seed formed, the Flame Spirit Body was nurtured alongside it.

A crisp boom rang out from deep within his body, as though some invisible shackle had been completely shattered.

His physique began to surge.

Under the tempering of the divine flame, his muscle fibers became tougher, a faint sheen surfaced on his skin, and his bones had already grown far denser than those of others his age.

He clenched his fist. The sensation of power in his palm gave him the illusion that he could shatter stone barehanded—no, it was no illusion. With the strength of his body now, smashing a slab of bluestone with one punch would be effortless.

Dou Qi surged from the depths of his dantian like floodwaters bursting through a broken dam, charging unstoppably through one barrier after another.

Three-Level Dou Zhi Qi—One-Star Dou Fighter—Two-Star Dou Fighter—Three-Star Dou Practitioner—Four-Star Dou Practitioner.

The explosive rise finally stabilized.

Xiao Yan slowly opened his eyes.

His formerly pitch-black eyes had turned golden-crimson, like two gemstones tempered in blazing fire. Faint flames flowed deep within his pupils.

A golden-crimson flame mark slowly appeared between his brows, shaped like an Undying Bird spreading its wings. Exquisite and mysterious, it radiated a faint pressure.

He lowered his head to look at his hands, unable to suppress the smile at the corners of his mouth.

Four-Star Dou Practitioner.

Though the Dou Qi he had lost over three years had not fully returned, his strength had already surpassed his former peak.

And that was far from his true gain—his physical strength had reached the level of a One-Star Dou Master.

A Four-Star Dou Practitioner possessing the physique of a Dou Master meant that against opponents of the same level, in close combat, he could crush them with physical strength alone without even using Dou Qi.

Driven by the Undying Divine Flame, the Myriad-Flame Divine Physique had broken through its beginner stage and officially entered the Flame Spirit Body stage.

Naturally attuned to fire-attributed Dou Qi, even without circulating his cultivation art, the fire-attributed energy in the air would automatically gather toward him, slowly and continuously increasing his cultivation.

Though this passive effect was not as fast as active cultivation, its greatest strength was that it never stopped—while eating, sleeping, walking, or even speaking with others, his cultivation would continue to grow at a faint pace.

More importantly, there was his control over flames.

The Flame Spirit Body granted him an almost instinctive affinity with flames. Any fire-attributed Dou Technique he used would be several times more powerful than when wielded by an ordinary cultivator.

Flames were like an extension of his body, moving with his will, arising at a thought.

The Heaven-Burning Divine Art likewise completed its first transformation under the impetus of the Undying Divine Flame, rising from the lowest Yellow Tier all the way to High Mystic Tier.

His cultivation speed became several times faster than before. In the same amount of time, he could absorb five times the Dou Qi he once could.

Moreover, empowered by a High Mystic Tier cultivation art, the quality of his Dou Qi became even purer. Every wisp contained explosive force far beyond that of others at the same level.