Divine Fire

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Divine Fire
Original name	神火
Nature	High-grade fire-aspect power that cultivators can absorb and fuse with; individual flames can possess spirituality and develop living forms 234 261.
Varieties	Thirty-six kinds; multiple individual flames of the same kind can exist 276 312 391.
Source	Divine Fire Domain, which becomes accessible approximately once every two or three hundred years 234.
Primary users	Fire-attribute cultivators, especially artifact refiners and alchemists 234 245.
Access control	Artifact-refining sects regulate entry to the Domain through the Divine Fire Pact 239.

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Scarlet Flame absorbed; fire essence reaches high martial grand completion	264	Tong Mingshan’s fire essence undergoes a major realm breakthrough, but his cultivation increases comparatively little.
Ten divine fires absorbed	305	Tong reaches ten during the Bright Mountain Sect–Summer Path Mountain partnership. Zhu Xiangxin has absorbed four and An Wuzhi three by this point.
Eleven divine fires absorbed	324	Tong’s total is used as a comparison when Shi Chun discovers eight divine-fire flame auras within Black Tiger.
Twenty-six kinds absorbed; twofold samadhi true fire created	391 392	Tong fuses twenty-four kinds into two flames—black and white—with twelve kinds in each. He achieves this by arranging compatible fires into stable circulation.
Fifteen fires absorbed by Zhu Xiangxin; thirteen by An Wuzhi	401	Neither can reproduce Tong’s fusion because they lack complete sets of the relevant fire types.

Nature and Properties

• Thirty-six kinds does not mean thirty-six individual flames. Several Ice Flames are found together, and the Earthheart Tower supplies fires with attributes Tong has already absorbed 276 391.
• Spirituality and transformation: Divine fires usually possess some spirituality. The Scarlet Flame encountered by Shi Chun’s group has accumulated long enough to take the form of a Flame Crocodile 261.
• Aperture development: The Golden Flame has begun developing a vertical eye when discovered, indicating that it is nearing the opening of its apertures and transformation 267.
• Human manifestation: The Earthheart Tower’s Divine Fire Lords can appear as people and revert to flame. Their manifested appearances use deceased cultivators as models 399 400.
• Feeding: Divine fires consume refined substances of a kindred source. Golden Hall exploits this behavior with substances such as stone gall, gold essence, and ice soul 316.
• Visible traces after absorption: Shi Chun’s right-eye ability can distinguish differently colored strands of divine-fire flame aura inside cultivators 324.
• Size and strength: After several captures, Shi Chun’s group judges the size of an individual divine fire to be proportional to its strength 302.

Known Varieties

Kind	Appearance / Attribute	Documented properties or encounter
Scarlet Flame	Vivid crimson; one of the five-element fires 261 262 269.	Appears as a Flame Crocodile in the Magma Spring Eye. Captured by the Four Cauldron Sect group and given to Tong Mingshan 261 262.
Golden Flame	White; corresponds to metal, despite its name 269.	Found in the Iron Forest’s underground metal chamber with a developing vertical eye. Shi Chun captures it and gives it to Zhu Xiangxin 267 269.
Ice Flame	Translucent, pale silver-blue 273.	Passes freely through ice and snow. A weakened flame’s defensive eruption traps Shi Chun and his companions inside an ice mountain 273 274.
Earth Flame	Bright yellow; described as rare 298.	Located underground by Shi Chun and captured by Gu Liani. Assigned to Tong under the groups’ distribution agreement 298 299.
Flowing Flame	Brown, long, and snake-like; described as rare 302.	Travels through earth without disturbing it. Yuan Yao captures it using the Origin-Locking Formation, and Shi Chun awards it to Tong 302 303.
Void Flame	Transparent 316.	A named variety for which Golden Hall has not identified a corresponding kindred-source bait substance 316.
Wind Flame	Appearance not specified 316.	Named among the thirty-six varieties during Golden Hall’s discussion of its baiting method 316.

Abilities and Uses

Cultivation Enhancement

Divine fire nourishes fire-aspect power and can improve both cultivation and strength 234.

• Finding and merging with a divine fire can grant an innate ability and greatly improve a fire-attribute practitioner’s cultivation 240.
• Its effects need not be evenly distributed: Tong’s Scarlet Flame raises the realm of his fire essence far more than his cultivation itself 264.
• Cultivators who have reached the immortal level gain comparatively little because their bodies have transcended the mundane and their attributes are already fixed 234.
• It is of little use to cultivators outside the relevant fire-aspect disciplines; aptitude is also necessary to master fire-aspect techniques 234.

Artifact Refining

Divine fire improves smelting ability and can enable a qualitative increase in a sect’s refining capabilities 234 250.

• Without its enhancement, forging magical treasures with spatial properties is extremely difficult 250.
• Some major artifact-refining sects rose through opportunities gained from divine fire 250.
• Situ Gu’s six divine fires helped establish his position as the foremost artifact-refining master and the Heavenforging Sect’s standing 446.
• More fires do not automatically provide mastery. Tong enters the final contest without having adequately tested his new capabilities and must develop a new method when his inherited approach proves insufficient 455 461.
• Large-scale refining still requires external flames and suitable furnaces: refining enormous objects entirely with a cultivator’s own divine fire would consume excessive magical power 468.

Alchemy

Divine fire is as important to alchemists as to artifact refiners, particularly for its benefits to heat control 245.

• Absorption and fusion can make grandmaster-level alchemy an attainable prospect 245.
• Divine fire does not replace advanced training. Ten Thousand Herbs Hall stresses that Zhu Xiangxin still needs higher-level fire techniques and alchemical instruction to fulfill its potential 245.

Samadhi True Fire

Tong Mingshan creates black and white flames by fusing twelve compatible divine-fire kinds into each. An Wuzhi identifies the result as legendary samadhi true fire, rather than ordinary divine fire 391.

• Black flame: Injures Chen Wuji and Hao Ji during Tong’s initial experiment 391.
• White flame: Heals the injuries after Tong removes the black flame 391.
• Precision refining: The combined fire can coordinate heating, cooling, shaping, and preservation at a microscopic level 461.
• Fusion requirement: Simply accumulating fires is insufficient. Tong initially encounters instability and succeeds only after arranging their circulation 392.
• Incomplete development: Tong believes ten additional distinct kinds may produce a third flame, but that result is not demonstrated in the supplied chapters 391.

Dangers and Capture Methods

Hazards

• Fire affinity is not immunity. Four Cauldron Sect disciples suffer burns while approaching Scarlet Flame beneath the magma 261.
• Weapons and ordinary defenses can fail. Golden Flame melts swords and burns through Shi Chun’s protective gang qi 267 268.
• Demonic incompatibility: Divine fire burns away demonic essence. The Demonic Path therefore initially relies on Feng Yaoyang to absorb it on its behalf 255.
• Capture can provoke violent retaliation. Golden Flame floods an underground maze with fire, while Ice Flame freezes its pursuers inside a massive ice formation 267 274.
• Strength varies considerably. Gu Liani captures Earth Flame without needing the prepared formation, whereas the transformed Scarlet Flame requires a coordinated team attack 261 298.

Tracking and Restraint

• Shi Chun’s right-eye ability — Reveals concealed divine-fire shapes beneath ice and underground. He often uses incense displays to conceal his actual means of navigation 273 276 298.
• Fire God Incense — Presented as a means of locating divine fire; Shi Chun manipulates its smoke to indicate directions and apparent quantities. He later gives his last three sticks to Tong, An, and Zhu 276 298 407.
• Black Tiger’s senses — Detect fire spirits and help narrow down divine-fire locations, although wind can scatter the scent and prevent precise tracking 325 341.
• Origin-Locking Formation — Contains divine fire and absorbs its power, converting resistance into energy for the formation itself 302.
• Kindred-source bait — Golden Hall combines refined substances with an iron tower and formation to attract and trap fires 316.
• Physical restraint — A Metal-Catching Net helps drag the Flame Crocodile from magma, although its heat begins melting the net 261.
• Demon-Bathing Art — Protects Shi Chun against Golden Flame after his cultivation reaches advanced martial upper attainment. His related attacks disrupt the fire’s power and destroy its developing eye 268 269.

Background and Access

According to An Wuzhi, the ancient Fire God first sensed the Divine Fire Domain and entered by tearing open a passage through the void. After encountering its powerful fire-spirit monsters, he recruited other experts. Many died in the ensuing expedition, including the Fire God, who used his remaining strength to open an escape passage for the survivors 276.

Some survivors had absorbed divine fire, preserving a connection between the Domain and the cultivation world. Later generations continued entering and fighting its ancient inhabitants, gaining powerful cultivation resources at the cost of many lives 276.

After the Fire God’s death, access depended on an artifact—the Divine Fire Spirit Gate—which only artifact refiners could create. Their control of the gateway developed into a monopoly enforced through the Divine Fire Pact 239 276.

Divine Fire Pact

• Entry: Ordinarily restricted to selected artifact-refining disciples below the Human Immortal Realm 234 239.
• Additional places: Sects gain larger entry quotas by contributing higher-quality treasures to the competition’s prize pool 234.
• Opening the gateway: Requires cooperation among experts who have absorbed the requisite divine-fire attributes. At the documented opening, eight cultivators supply nineteen kinds between them 239 249.
• Expedition duration: Forty-nine days, with participants required to return to a designated mountaintop on the final day 253.
• Scarcity: Previous gatherings usually benefited only a few dozen people; even the most productive yielded opportunities to only a little over one hundred 259.
• Final contest restriction: During Shi Chun’s expedition, the sect leaders retain a threshold excluding contestants who have absorbed more than ten divine fires 420.

Story Role

Bright Mountain Sect’s Expedition

Shi Chun turns divine-fire acquisition into the foundation of Bright Mountain Sect’s attempt to win the artifact-refining contest. His group first obtains Scarlet Flame for Tong, then Golden Flame for Zhu, followed by Ice Flame for An 261 262 269 276.

Cooperation with Summer Path Mountain combines Shi Chun’s tracking, scouts’ information, inherited location records, and formation expertise. The partnership reaches three or four captures a day and secures another eighteen fires within seven Domain days after obtaining Flowing Flame 305.

Conflict over the Finding Method

• Major sects shift from searching for individual fires to pursuing Shi Chun’s ability to locate them 310 341 354.
• Shi Chun falsely claims that the method is an artifact called the Divine Fire Mirror, transferred to Gu Liani 344.
• The perceived secret remains valuable after the expedition: Shi Chun sells a divine-fire-finding secret to nine major artifact-refining sects, with Situ Gu identified as its crucial point 537.

Earthheart Tower

The tower provides enough varieties for Tong to reach twenty-six kinds and develop his twofold true fire. Fires he cannot use are allocated to An and Zhu 391 392.

During a later search, the group captures nine masses of divine fire apparently belonging to the tower’s Lords. The following chapter reveals that the captured figures were substitutes: the real Nine Divine Fire Lords had remained hidden 399 400 401.

Final Artifact-Refining Contest

• Tong’s fusion reduces his twenty-six absorbed kinds to four countable fires: two samadhi true-fire flames and two remaining ordinary fires. Shi Chun registers him despite uncertainty over how inspectors will classify them 432.
• An and Zhu withdraw from the competition after exceeding the ten-fire threshold 430 432.
• Luo Shengsheng’s ten ordinary divine fires are announced as the highest inspected count among contestants, while Gu Liani has seven 446.
• Tong’s decisive innovation is finer control, not merely a larger collection: he directs his twin flames to reproduce microscopic structures and preserve completed sections of his work 461 465.