Following the cultivation method for the Extreme Refinement Dou Technique that Yao Lao had taught him, Huo Yuhao stirred his silvery-white Heavenly Flame, drawing the power that filled his body into his meridians, strand by strand.
Several lesser-used meridians were the first to receive the Heavenly Flame's power. It felt as though his body were being scorched by a raging fire from within, a pain no ordinary person could endure.
But he had experienced this sensation more than once, and his resolve had become extraordinarily tough. Any other Soul Master would have had their reason destroyed by the pain under the Heavenly Flame's searing heat and been burned to ashes.
Because he was fusing with the Snow Empress, her ultimate-attribute cold power also circulated through his limbs, bones, and internal organs. As the Heavenly Flame's blazing power flowed through his body, the cold power hidden in his flesh slightly eased its scorching sensation.
For this reason, although Huo Yuhao's body endured tremendous pain, the Heavenly Flame's power and the Snow Empress's cold power formed a peculiar balance that kept him safe.
This was also why Yao Lao had said that practicing Extreme Refinement at this moment would pose no danger to Huo Yuhao. Protected by the cold power of the Snow Empress's nearly seven hundred thousand years of cultivation, even the Heavenly Flame could not harm him in the slightest.
Everything was going according to Yao Lao's plan!
Yet although the Snow Empress's cold power was enough to protect Huo Yuhao's meridians and flesh from being burned and melted by the Heavenly Flame, it did little to lessen his pain.
Those threads of icy cold even kept Huo Yuhao's mind clearer, making him more keenly aware of the agony of flames consuming his body.
A transparent, ice-blue shell encased Huo