"Brat, did you not understand me? Yellow Tier Low Grade is the lowest grade of cultivation method there is. Why are you so happy?" Yao Lao asked, looking utterly speechless.
"Uh..." Huo Yuhao's expression suddenly froze as he remembered something extremely important.
"Uh, Teacher, what's so strange about that cultivation method you mentioned?" Huo Yuhao suddenly quieted down and asked with a frown.
"It can evolve!" After a brief silence, Yao Lao answered with a smile.
"It really can evolve?" Looking at Yao Lao's serious face, Huo Yuhao asked again.
"It really can!" Yao Lao nodded firmly. "At least, that's what its description says."
"Then how does it evolve?" Huo Yuhao asked.
He actually knew the answer. The Flame Mantra evolved by fusing with heavenly flames, but he was on the Douluo Continent now, not the Dou Qi Continent. Where would he find heavenly flames here?
"The Flame Mantra can indeed evolve, but it requires heavenly flames as fuel. For every evolution, it must devour a heavenly flame!" Yao Lao's voice was slightly hoarse.
"What are heavenly flames?" Huo Yuhao asked. "As far as I know, no one in this world has ever seen these so-called heavenly flames."
Hearing Huo Yuhao's words, Yao Lao nodded and slowly began explaining.
"Across this vast world, certain heavenly flames exist in nature. They might be a wisp of fire carried within the heart of a meteor falling from the sky, or lava earth flame tempered for hundreds or thousands of years deep within a volcano. These heavenly flames are considerably more powerful than flames produced through one's own cultivation. However, they are all exceedingly violent. Even encountering one is a rare stroke of fortune, and even if you do, making it your own is extremely difficult."
"Some powerful alchemists also acquire these heavenly flames for their own use. Using them to refine medicine not only greatly increases the success rate, but also produces pills with stronger, more concentrated medicinal effects than those refined with ordinary dou qi flame!"
"I know what you're trying to say. Heavenly flames may be rare treasures, but unless I'm mistaken, every world should have heavenly flames condensed from its own primal essence. In other words, this so-called Douluo Continent should have its own unique heavenly flames as well. They simply haven't been harnessed by anyone."
At that moment, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, who had been listening quietly in Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness, could no longer resist speaking up.
"Yuhao, he's right. I've indeed seen these so-called heavenly flames."
"What? Brother Sky Dream, you've seen heavenly flames?" Huo Yuhao asked in surprise.
"That's right. In the ice cavern where I absorbed ten-thousand-year cold marrow, I once saw a strange white flame. But at the time, my instincts told me that flame was extremely dangerous, so I avoided it and went elsewhere to absorb the cold marrow."
"And during all those years I spent imprisoned by those ferocious beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest, I overheard some of their conversations. There's a fire-attribute ferocious beast in the Star Dou Great Forest named the Scarlet King. His lair is a magma cavern deep within the earth, and inside it burns a core earth fire."
Huo Yuhao's heart instantly filled with joy. His greatest fear had been that heavenly flames did not exist in this world, which would make cultivating the Flame Mantra utterly meaningless.
Yet Brother Sky Dream had now effortlessly given him the locations of two heavenly flames, solving that problem outright.
He relayed everything the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had said to Yao Lao, whose face also lit up with delight.
As long as they knew where heavenly flames existed, all they needed to do next was prepare the materials and fuse with them, saving a tremendous amount of time.
"But Yuhao, many alchemists spend their entire lives searching for heavenly flames without ever fulfilling their wish. After all, to control a heavenly flame, you must draw it into your body. And every heavenly flame is a violent force of destruction. Even divine iron tempered a hundred times cannot withstand its burning, much less the fragile human body."
"What's most terrifying is that this cultivation method requires you to devour all kinds of heavenly flames. Just one can torment a peerless expert until they hover between life and death. I truly cannot imagine what would happen if someone had two, or even more, inside their body."
"This cultivation method can indeed evolve. I absolutely haven't lied to you about that. However, the danger is extremely high! By my calculations, the chance of success is less than twenty percent..."
"But Teacher, perhaps you have other cultivation methods as well?" Huo Yuhao asked with a smile.
"Hehe..." Yao Lao rubbed his withered face and gave a sheepish chuckle, looking somewhat embarrassed. "All right, I admit I was trying to encourage you a little. But from my perspective, I very much hope you'll cultivate this Flame Mantra."
"You should know that I exist only as a soul now, right?" Yao Lao asked, spreading his hands.
Huo Yuhao nodded.
"Normally, in this state, I should be considered dead. However, because my soul force is much stronger than an ordinary person's, I've managed to survive in this strange form..." Yao Lao gave a self-mocking smile, a trace of bitterness lingering in it.
"I don't like this insubstantial existence, so I need to escape this soul state."
"According to some obscure passages in the Flame Mantra, if you successfully cultivate it, you can apparently use several mutually complementary heavenly flames to forge a body capable of housing a soul. With a new body, I could then be considered reborn."
"I endured all those years in the sunless darkness inside the ring because I hoped that one day I would meet someone whose soul force met the requirements. I was fortunate. In the end, I met you."
Looking at Huo Yuhao, Yao Lao smiled bitterly and said, "Just take all that as an old man's idle chatter. Sigh, I clearly said I wouldn't interfere with your choice, yet I still couldn't stop myself from talking too much. It seems I really am..."
Yao Lao extended his withered hands and gave them a slight shake. Two somewhat illusory scrolls, one black and one red, appeared in his palms.
"The red scroll contains a fire-attribute Earth Tier Low Grade cultivation method. The black scroll is the Flame Mantra..." Yao Lao raised his hands with a smile, his withered face softening slightly as he said gently, "Choose for yourself. Consider your own circumstances. Just remember that no matter what you choose, you are my disciple. I won't blame you for it."
Looking at the kindly old man before him, Huo Yuhao's eyes grew misty.
Yao Lao could easily have deceived him. He could have told him that the Flame Mantra was the only cultivation method he possessed.
Although Huo Yuhao's ultimate choice would have been the same, Yao Lao had genuinely given him the chance to choose.
As an assassin in his previous life, he had never had any choice at all. Accept missions, complete missions, turn them in. Day after day, year after year-that had been his life.
Only from this moment onward did Huo Yuhao truly acknowledge this teacher of his.
"The path of cultivation is a struggle against Heaven for one's fate. Storms rise without warning, and fortune or calamity can strike between dawn and dusk. No one can predict what will happen in the next moment," Huo Yuhao said solemnly.
"Better to die crying out than live in silence. My fate is mine, not Heaven's! Teacher, I choose to cultivate the Flame Mantra!"
"If I succeed in my cultivation one day, I'll take you back to your world and help you remedy all your regrets."
A brilliant smile spread across Huo Yuhao's still-childish face. Before Yao Lao's reddening, moist eyes, he reached out and seized the black scroll.
The instant his palm touched the scroll, it transformed into a stream of information that poured straight into his Sea of Consciousness.
"Good! Well said-my fate is mine, not Heaven's!" Hearing those words, Yao Lao could not help lighting up with excitement, delight spreading across his face.
Rubbing his reddened eyes, he knew in his heart that Huo Yuhao had chosen this dangerous cultivation method partly for his sake.
Warmth welled up in his careworn heart. Lifting his face to the sky with a soft sigh, Yao Lao murmured, "Rest assured. I'll make you the most outstanding alchemist."
Huo Yuhao sat cross-legged where he was and cultivated the Flame Mantra, converting his soul power. Meanwhile, through his keen soul perception, Yao Lao located the resting place of the Soul Master Brother Sky Dream had mentioned, the one who had battled a hundred-thousand-year soul beast.
For the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, whose lifespan was measured in tens of thousands of years, the event he had described as happening "a little while ago" had actually taken place three thousand years earlier.
Had Huo Yuhao been left to find that expert's remains himself, he probably would not have found them even if he dug three feet into the ground.
Yao Lao, however, casually blasted apart the soil above them and found a glittering purple ring and a stark white skeleton in the deep pit.
At that moment, Huo Yuhao also awakened. After cultivating the Flame Mantra, he seemed more spirited than before. A faint luster like warm jade shone across his delicate features, making him look exceptionally handsome.
The attributeless soul power in his meridians had now all turned pale yellow. That pale yellow soul power seemed to be gathering toward his eyes, causing a strange tingling itch in them.
"Huh? Yuhao, this cultivation method seems to be affecting your Spiritual Eyes Martial Soul. What's going on?" the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm asked in surprise within the Sea of Consciousness.
Yao Lao also came to Huo Yuhao's side. He stopped him from forcing his eyes open and examined him with his soul perception for a while, a look of surprise appearing on his face.
"It seems your Martial Soul is undergoing some changes."
Huo Yuhao felt as though the meridians throughout his body were blazing hot. The fiery currents gathered together, then surged fiercely toward his eyes.
His eyes finally opened beyond his control, and two blazing jets of light more than a foot long shot from them. His once ink-black eyes had actually turned fiery red.
A Body Martial Soul's second awakening? Huo Yuhao wondered inwardly, feeling rather astonished. The original owner's Spiritual Eyes Martial Soul was stimulated by cultivating the Flame Mantra and actually evolved again.
"In that case, I'll call you Flame God Eyes!"
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