Shi Feiyang sent Lin Han back to Qingtian County to visit his family, leaving only Fire Wuhai in the cave.
He told Fire Wuhai, "There are three paths to immortality open to you. The first is to follow your original course: gather all three volumes of the Fire True Scripture and use fire to nourish fire. That alone, however, can only make you an earth immortal. To ascend to the Purple Palace, you would need further fortunate encounters. Along the way, you would also stir up a great deal of karma, with no shortage of uncertainties.
"The second is for me to teach you the Inner Scenery Origin Treatise, allowing you to advance from a ghost immortal to an earth immortal. This is an Orthodox Mystic Sect method, thoroughly reliable, and it can take you straight to heavenly immortality. But it is very slow. With your weak foundations, even if you became a heavenly immortal, you would be among the lowest of them, barely capable of ascending. Your senior brother Yuan Hua is following this course. Since Mao Gong left that Daoist scripture to him, it would not be appropriate for me to change it.
"I have a third path for you to choose. You can bring Water and Fire in Harmony, first reshaping your body with five elements essence. Once you have a human body, you can turn back to cultivate both form and spirit to perfection, cultivating the Great Dao within and accumulating profound virtue without. Upholding the true balance of heaven and earth, you may roam the boundless and ultimately attain the highest rank. But there will be quite a few twists along the way, and the road will be rugged and perilous. Which path you take is for you to decide."
Fire Wuhai said, "Your disciple