The white halo trembled. It had barely formed a mostly indistinct outline behind Wang Yu when it suddenly collapsed without a sound.
The white ball of light between his hands vanished in a flash at the same time.
"As expected, it didn't work. I'm still far from truly forming a yang ring," Wang Yu murmured as he opened his eyes, an unnatural crimson flush briefly crossing his face.
According to the instructions for the first level of the Crimson Sun Great Art, initiation into the art required first forming a so-called "yang ring," then using it to gather external fire spiritual energy and refine it into the body.
Fire spiritual energy was the most violent of the five elemental spiritual energies. Without a yang ring, it could not be absorbed directly into the body.
Although the Fire Spirit Art he had practiced before was called a fire-attribute cultivation art, the ordinary spiritual energy it drew in and released was actually a mixture of all five elements. And although the dharma power produced by refining that spiritual energy was predominantly fire-attributed because of the art, it still contained other attributes.
This was true not only of the Fire Spirit Art, but also of other Qi Refining Realm arts, and even most Foundation Establishment Realm arts.
Only a handful of Foundation Establishment arts, such as the Crimson Sun Great Art, required the spiritual energy absorbed into the body to possess a single attribute, ensuring that the dharma power within was pure enough to unleash the cultivated art's power to its fullest.
Other elemental spiritual energies might have been manageable, but fire spiritual energy was extraordinarily violent. Only after forming a yang ring could one contain and refine it, thereby achieving initiation into the Crimson Sun Great Art and beginning its cultivation in