It was while cultivating the Flame Mantra that Xiao Yan gained many insights. There was far more room to develop this thing than he had previously imagined.
Xiao Yan worked backward through certain key pathways, combining them with information about the Flame Mantra from the legacy Yao Lao had given him, and arrived at what might be an original version of the Flame Mantra unique to him.
It was older than the current version, yet more advanced. But for anyone else, learning it would essentially be a road to death. They could follow his line of reasoning, but imitating him meant death; moving in his direction meant life.
To make his body fully meet the requirements of this original Flame Mantra, he had to take a little risk. Combining secret arts he had learned, such as temporarily transforming into fire, he used the Heavenly Fire Rebirth Technique he had derived from the Flame Mantra to transform his body completely.
As the saying went, without destruction, there could be no creation; only after breaking could one build anew.
Only by entering the land of death could one find life afterward.
Although he still had a fallback and would not die even if he truly went all out, Xiao Yan ignored all of that in the moment. His mind held only one thought: Succeed, or die trying.
The rewards justified that resolve, too. This achievement, won by gambling his life, would bring endless benefits.
Now that he had mastered it, Xiao Yan could switch between his flame manifestation and his flesh-and-blood body at will. Only in this manifested form did some of the excessively dangerous operations in the Flame Mantra make complete sense.
For Xiao Yan's current manifested body, what was the big deal about swallowing Heavenly Flames directly? He was fire