Xiao Yan's heart raced. He could feel the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame approaching, and the temperature inside the cave kept rising.
He had only heard of Heavenly Flames before and had never actually seen one, so he was understandably nervous.
Even a newly born Heavenly Flame ranked near the bottom surpassed the countless flames of the Dou Qi Continent. Every Heavenly Flame was a king among flames, and its danger was easy to imagine.
Xiao Yan tightly gripped the emerald jade bottle containing the Ice Heart Pill. The moment the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame appeared, he would swallow this fourth-grade pill and begin suppressing and subduing it.
As time crept by, the cave grew increasingly stifling. Had Xiao Yan not been a fire-attribute Dou Zhe, the scorching heat would have become unbearable long ago.
Fortunately, the emerald jade bottle in his hand gave off wisps of coolness, allowing him to remain patient.
Suddenly, blood-red light set the darkness outside the cave ablaze, and the temperature inside shot up in an instant.
Xiao Yan had no choice but to awaken his Divine Pattern ahead of time, using the power of his bloodline to resist the intense heat.
At the cave entrance, a young beast suddenly poked its head inside. It was actually a Flame Puppy only twenty or thirty centimeters long.
The color of this Flame Puppy was richer than that of every Flame Beast he had seen before, and the heat radiating from its body was even more terrifying.
The instant it approached, all the rocks in the cave showed faint signs of shriveling beneath the scorching heat!
This was the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame!
The Flame Puppy's identity surfaced in Xiao Yan's mind. There were no other Flame Beasts around it. Perhaps it feared those Flame Beasts would evaporate its favorite treat, so it had come here alone.
Still, the Flame Puppy remained somewhat wary, standing at the cave entrance without daring to enter.
Seeing the entire cave being scorched, with perhaps no more than a dozen minutes before it collapsed, Xiao Yan had no choice but to try an unusual trick.
"Pspsps, pspsps."
No puppy could resist that coaxing sound, not even a puppy formed from a Heavenly Flame!
Sure enough, the sound seemed engraved upon its soul, and more than half the Flame Puppy's wariness melted away.
It scampered into the cave on its four short legs. But with its arrival, the cave burned even faster and threatened to collapse at any moment.
Once inside, the Flame Puppy caught the scent of the last half bottle of purple liquid.
It rushed over excitedly and took the bottle itself into its mouth. Unable to withstand the Heavenly Flame's heat at such close range, the porcelain bottle melted instantly, letting the purple liquid seep out and flow into the Flame Puppy's mouth.
Xiao Yan knew the moment had come. He crushed the emerald jade medicine bottle in his hand and swallowed the Ice Heart Pill.
As the pill entered his body, Xiao Yan immediately felt as though he had plunged into an ice cavern. His entire body seemed to turn into a block of ice. Even his heartbeat slowed drastically, and his warm blood turned icy cold.
Normally, taking an Ice Heart Pill by itself was courting death. It was essentially turning oneself into a corpse.
But only this extreme cold could withstand the terrifying temperature of a Heavenly Flame.
Xiao Yan abruptly leaped down from above and clamped both hands onto the Flame Puppy.
Startled by Xiao Yan, Little Milk Puppy instinctively retaliated, biting the back of his hand.
The Heavenly Flame's heat instantly spread throughout Xiao Yan's body. Even his flesh, rendered icy cold by the Ice Heart Pill, warmed in an instant.
Either of these two powers, one freezing and one scorching, would have been deadly on its own. Yet when they met, they formed a strange balance.
Xiao Yan dared not hesitate. Having come this far, retreat meant certain death.
His hand pierced through the Flame Puppy's body and seized the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame's Flame Seed within.
The moment he touched the Flame Seed, even the Ice Heart Pill's effects began fading rapidly.
At this rate, it would not last an hour. In half an hour at most, the medicinal effects would vanish completely, and he would be reduced to ashes.
That was only natural, though. After all, the pill had been stored for decades. Retaining even half its potency was already impressive.
Xiao Yan gripped the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame's Flame Seed tightly. Even as searing pain tore through the flesh of his hand, he dared not let go.
The ring-shaped Divine Pattern on his forehead awakened and flickered, forming a black hole within his body. Using Xiao Yan's flesh as a bridge, it slowly pulled in and devoured the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame's Flame Seed!
But the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame was a Heavenly Flame, after all. The Amethyst Winged Lion King's Beast Flame could not begin to compare with it.
To protect his body, Xiao Yan's Dou Qi drained more than a hundred times faster than before!
At this rate, his Dou Qi would certainly fall short. With difficulty, Xiao Yan used his other hand to take out another medicine bottle and stuffed the entire bottle's worth of Qi-Replenishing Pills into his mouth.
With the Xiao Clan's Divine Pattern, as long as my Dou Qi holds out until I completely devour and absorb the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame, victory will be mine!
Xiao Yan's Dou Qi was rapidly consumed, then swiftly replenished by the Qi-Replenishing Pills.
The two sides actually reached another balance. Now it was a matter of holding on.
Would Xiao Yan's Dou Qi run out first, or would the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame be completely devoured?
Xiao Yan's entire body had turned blood-red. Apart from his Inner Armor, all his clothing had burned away, leaving him almost completely naked.
Eventually, even the Storage Ring on his hand could no longer hold out and cracked apart. Most of its contents turned to ashes the instant they spilled onto the ground.
But Xiao Yan could no longer spare any attention for that. He dared not think of anything besides resisting the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame's Flame Seed with all his strength.
Beneath that terrifying heat, every second felt like a year to Xiao Yan.
The cave finally buckled under the strain and collapsed completely, burying Xiao Yan.
At this point, the devouring process was not even halfway complete!
Thanks to the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame's terrifying heat, however, the rocks piled atop him soon melted away, forming a round hollow.
Yet the supply of Qi-Replenishing Pills was limited, and the Ice Heart Pill's effects finally faded as well. The Heavenly Flame instantly gained the upper hand.
The balance between the two sides shattered, and Xiao Yan's Dou Qi burned away at a rate visible to the naked eye.
He knew that once his Dou Qi was completely exhausted and the Divine Pattern shut down, his flesh and bones would also be reduced to nothing beneath the Heavenly Flame's heat.
"Did I still underestimate the Heavenly Flame?"
Xiao Yan felt no regret. He only blamed himself for failing to take the Heavenly Flame seriously enough and for not preparing thoroughly.
Although the devouring of the Heavenly Flame was now nearing its end, he no longer had any Dou Qi left to sustain the process.
Once his Dou Qi ran dry, his body would burn away completely. Even devouring it in full would be meaningless.
On the brink of death, many people appeared in Xiao Yan's mind: Xun'er, Xiao Yi Xian, and Yun Zhi.
After today, perhaps there will no longer be anyone named Xiao Yan on this Dou Qi Continent.
Just as Xiao Yan's consciousness began to blur, the indistinct figure of a woman appeared in his mind.
The woman seemed very tall as she cradled him in her arms. Though he could not make out her face, Xiao Yan could feel her smiling.
Through the haze, Xiao Yan seemed to hear a gentle voice. "My dear child, Mommy will always protect you!"
In the next instant, another Divine Pattern began to flicker inside the ring of the Xiao Clan's Divine Pattern on Xiao Yan's forehead!
It was a design formed by two triangles joined vertically, resembling an hourglass.
The instant the hourglass Divine Pattern began to flicker, Xiao Yan felt his body start to change. His scorched flesh healed once more, the exhausted Ice Heart Pill and Qi-Replenishing Pills became active again, and even the Dou Qi within his body returned completely to its fullest state!
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