The Heavenly Flame entered his stomach, and energy as thick and scorching as magma instantly erupted.
Xiao Ce knitted his brows tightly. The irresistible heat left him unbearably restless.
Under the Emperor Flame's protection, the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame could not hurt him. Yet even with him merely circulating the Spirit Refining Art, the heat inherent in that energy was almost more than he could bear.
Xiao Ce clenched his fists and forced himself to endure it.
He dared not claim to have much perseverance, but at the very least... he had to be worthy of the power he now possessed!
The Spirit Refining Art continued to circulate.
The Myriad Beast Spirit Flame flowed through Xiao Ce's meridians, assimilated bit by bit by the Spirit Refining Art's Dou Qi.
The energy remained scorching, and Xiao Ce still could not get used to it, but through sheer will, he forcibly suppressed it.
Once he endured that searing heat, everything went smoothly.
With the Spirit Refining Art's terrifying refining efficiency, Xiao Ce completed several full circulation cycles, and the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame was fully absorbed. The energy contained within it also transformed, bit by bit, into his actual cultivation.
Nine-Star Dou Zhe from Eight-Star Dou Zhe!
Xiao Ce's aura rose, his cultivation advancing by one star, but the energy had yet to be exhausted!
The Emperor Flame within him transformed at his will, becoming the formless, colorless Nihility Devouring Flame. Its terrifying devouring power immediately multiplied the efficiency with which Xiao Ce digested the energy.
The gap between Nine-Star Dou Zhe and Dou Shi was rapidly filled.
A few minutes later, an invisible wave of air spread out with Xiao Ce at its center.
One-Star Dou Shi!
At the same time, Xiao Ce took a Naling from his Storage Ring and sent it into his body, forming a Naling space.
The Myriad Beast Spirit Flame was not the Emperor Flame, after all. It would instinctively attack everything around it, and he could not withstand that, so he could only place it in the Naling space.
Thankfully, his avatar had possessed the foresight to store plenty of resources in the Storage Ring, including many natural treasures like Naling that would not readily dissipate with time. Otherwise, he really would not have known where to find one.
The Myriad Beast Spirit Flame entered the Naling space.
Xiao Ce opened his eyes and silently said, System, check the simulation count.
[Deployment count: 1]
Sure enough, the deployment count had successfully returned from zero to one.
The infant Myriad Beast Spirit Flame contained very little energy, yet it had still helped Xiao Ce break through to One-Star Dou Shi. That was a pretty good result.
Aside from that, the energy of this Myriad Beast Spirit Flame had also successfully helped the Spirit Refining Art evolve from high-grade Yellow Tier to low-grade Profound Tier. The advancement was not great, but Xiao Ce was not disappointed.
His Spirit Refining Art was not the Flame Mantra. It was not restricted to evolving only by absorbing Heavenly Flames and could absorb all spiritual treasures of heaven and earth. Correspondingly, it required more energy to evolve.
For the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame, ranked only twenty-second, to help the Spirit Refining Art advance by one grade was already a credit to it.
In addition, after absorbing the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame, Xiao Ce could distinctly sense that even the Emperor Flame's essence had recovered somewhat.
This meant that the effects of the other Heavenly Flames simulated by the Emperor Flame would also be stronger.
For example, the Nihility Devouring Flame's devouring power, the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame's purifying power, the Life Spirit Flame's vitality, and the Fallen Heart Flame's automatic cultivation through its heart flame had all improved somewhat.
Xiao Ce transformed the Emperor Flame into the Fallen Heart Flame and could distinctly sense the increased strength of its heart flame. It tempered his Dou Qi more efficiently, far faster than his own cultivation, and it cultivated automatically twenty-four hours a day.
With this assistance, breaking through to Da Dou Shi would happen within the year.
"Father/Master, how did it go?" the Ninth Grade Golden Pill and the Mysterious Yellow Flame asked with concern at the same time.
"Everything went smoothly," Xiao Ce said with a smile.
After briefly telling the two "people" about his improvements, Xiao Ce did not begin his third deployment.
After the first two deployments, he had discovered that the avatar in a deployment possessed the same memories he did at the moment he chose to deploy it.
This meant that any knowledge he learned in reality could also prove useful in the simulation.
So before the third deployment, Xiao Ce planned to first look through the alchemy techniques and Cultivation Methods and Combat Skills left behind by his previous avatar. He did not necessarily have to master them, but at the very least, he had to commit them to memory so his avatar could practice them during the simulation.
Thus, in the days that followed, Xiao Ce's life settled into a routine.
He made some simple improvements to the stone chamber, installed Moonlight Stones for illumination, and arranged it into a room suitable for living in.
He divided each day into three portions.
The first portion was for rest, including eating and washing. A small portion of his food came from what he had brought from the Xiao Clan, while most came from going out to catch fish and gather wild fruit.
Xiao Ce used the second portion to memorize alchemy techniques, as well as the cultivation methods and Dou Techniques passed down to him.
During the third portion, he personally practiced Dou Techniques and alchemy.
As for Dou Techniques, taking his own strength into account, he chose one offensive Dou Technique and one movement Dou Technique.
The offensive Dou Technique was called the "Blazing Flame Sky-Splitting Palm." Using the palm as a medium, it compressed Dou Qi flames. With a powerful Fire Control Technique, Dou Qi flames could be compressed into a thin layer of fiery light. The longer they were compressed, the greater their power. Compressed to the limit, their power could even rival an Earth Tier Dou Technique.
This Dou Technique ranked among the best high-grade Profound Tier Dou Techniques in armor-piercing ability and single-target lethality. Fully unleashing its power, however, demanded an extremely powerful Fire Control Technique. As it happened, a Fire Control Technique was precisely what Xiao Ce lacked least.
The movement Dou Technique was called the "Flowing Wind Shadow-Stealing Step." Each step could create trails of afterimages to confuse an opponent, but they possessed no actual destructive power.
In addition, this Dou Technique surpassed other movement Dou Techniques of the same grade in short-distance bursts and sudden changes of direction, making it a movement Dou Technique suited for combat.
At night, Xiao Ce would practice the "Blazing Flame Sky-Splitting Palm" in the small valley, replacing Dou Qi flames with the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame to raise its power another level. With a single palm strike, a deeply sunken palm print appeared on the valley's cliff face, charred black.
After practicing the "Blazing Flame Sky-Splitting Palm," he would reserve at least half his Dou Qi to practice the "Flowing Wind Shadow-Stealing Step," his figure flickering through the valley until his Dou Qi was completely exhausted.
After practicing his Dou Techniques, Xiao Ce returned to the stone chamber and browsed the alchemy techniques for a while longer before going to sleep, wasting not a moment.
A month passed like this.
During that time, Xiao Yi Xian visited twice, reservedly asking Xiao Ce about two herb combinations that had troubled her for a long time. She left after asking, leaving only a few medicinal herbs as payment.
Her relationship with Xiao Ce grew a little closer as a result.
On another late night, Xiao Ce returned to the stone chamber after finishing his Dou Technique practice.
This time, he did not take out the scroll recording alchemy techniques. Instead, he silently called up the system panel.
[Host: Xiao Ce] [Race: Human] [Cultivation: Two-Star Dou Shi] [Soul: Mortal Realm] [Physique: Tier One] [Attribute: Fire with wood (fire attribute mutation)] [Cultivation method: Spirit Refining Art (low-grade Profound Tier)] [Dou Techniques: Blazing Flame Sky-Splitting Palm (high-grade Profound Tier/beginner), Flowing Wind Shadow-Stealing Step (high-grade Profound Tier/beginner), Rock-Splitting Palm (high-grade Yellow Tier/minor mastery)] [Bloodline: Xiao Clan Dou Di Bloodline (extremely faint)] [Constitution: Three Thousand Star Body] [Mount: None] [Pet beasts: None] [Spiritual treasures of heaven and earth: Emperor Flame (faint), Myriad Beast Spirit Flame (infancy)] [Deployment count: 1 (breakthrough to Dou Zhe, deployment count +1)]
Over the course of that month, Xiao Ce had not refined a single medicine, but he had committed all the alchemy techniques passed down by his avatar to memory. He could now have his avatar study them in the simulation.
So...
"System, begin deployment!"
Before you continue