Awakening the Innate Spirit Flame

"Don't go, Father, Mother..."

On the wooden bed, the red-robed youth's eyes were tightly shut and his brows faintly furrowed. Sweatdrops the size of tears fell one by one from his temples.

A woman's voice sounded in the room. "Where did Master find this little junior brother of ours? He's so handsome. Don't tell me Master tricked him into coming?"

Another voice, familiar to Feng Zhuo, replied pitifully, "Boo-hoo, is that really how Shuanghua sees her master? I'm so sad, so heartbroken. Nothing but Wuhen's beggar's chicken can cure me now..."

Beggar's chicken? Feng Zhuo remembered his mother making it. It was a black lump of food that was called chicken, yet didn't look the least bit like one. It was bitter and astringent, and not at all tasty.

Why did Master need beggar's chicken to get better?

And what was happening to him?

Feng Zhuo had regained consciousness when the woman-his second senior sister, Ling Shuanghua-spoke, but he still couldn't open his eyes.

Another man's voice rang out, presumably his eldest senior brother, Ye Wuhen. "If Master wants to eat it, this disciple will go make it."

...Unexpectedly obedient.

In the storybook, the Demon Race bloodline mixed into Ye Wuhen, eldest senior brother of Carefree Peak, belonged to the Two-Headed Winged Wolf, a high-level Demon Beast. Upon reaching adulthood, its cultivation was equivalent to that of a human cultivator at the Spirit Transformation stage.

The storybook devoted most of its pages to Su Ruanruan and her many dao companions, with little ink spent on the other characters.

Feng Zhuo had imagined that his eldest senior brother took after the Two-Headed Winged Wolf in temperament, wild and overbearing, but he actually...?

His second senior sister's character, on the other hand, matched Feng Zhuo's expectations. She had decided to self-destruct and done just that, so resolute and decisive.

Ling Shuanghua rolled her eyes inelegantly and stopped paying attention to Yunxiaozi. "Junior Brother Cang, stop swinging that lousy sword of yours. Aren't you coming over to see our little junior brother?"

Cang Wuya didn't even turn his head. "It won't help me improve my swordsmanship. A waste of time."

"So you really are a sword cultivator? You're already planning to spend the rest of your life with your spirit sword at your age?"

Feng Zhuo nodded. He truly was the sword fanatic described in the storybook.

But soon, he had no mind to dwell on such things.

Feng Zhuo's consciousness was clear, but everything before his eyes was pitch-black, as if he were alone in an enclosed space.

Now, however, a glimmer of light resembling a spirit flame appeared.

His first thought was the Glazed Purifying Fire. The instinct to flee surged up, and the pain he had suppressed rapidly welled up again.

He quickly realized something was wrong!

The Glazed Purifying Fire was a white Divergent Flame, but what appeared before Feng Zhuo was a wisp of crimson flame. It simply floated quietly a short distance away, neither approaching him nor moving farther off.

Feng Zhuo restrained his trembling body and recalled what his mother had once told him: everyone in their Perching Phoenix Clan nurtured a wisp of Life-Bound Spirit Fire within their body.

He alone was an exception.

That was also why Feng Zhuo had formed an equal contract with the Glazed Purifying Fire.

Because they carried Life-Bound Spirit Fire within them, they could not form a Life-Bound Contract with another flame.

Yet Feng Zhuo had clearly failed to nurture that wisp of spirit flame within his body, and still he could not form a Life-Bound Contract with the Divergent Flame.

Feng Qingge could only guess that Feng Zhuo did, in fact, have a spirit flame within him, but that the combination of his Wood Spirit Root and Wood Spirit Body was too overbearing, preventing that wisp of spirit flame from awakening.

It had even caused the Yi Wood Sacred Physique he should have inherited from his father to awaken as a mere Wood Spirit Body.

Given the circumstances, did that mean there was hope of awakening his spirit flame?!

Feng Zhuo was overjoyed.

Having been betrayed by a Divergent Flame in his previous life, he no longer dared to form a contract with a flame seed lightly.

But without a Divergent Flame, and with Feng Zhuo himself lacking a Fire Spirit Root, he cultivated the Dao of Alchemy.

If he relied solely on earth fire to refine pills, how could his alchemy improve over time?

But if he could awaken his Life-Bound Spirit Fire, things would be entirely different!

The Feng Household's spirit flame was born from a bloodline passed down from High Antiquity. Even if it gained sentience one day, it could never betray its master.

It could be used against enemies and was also enormously beneficial for pill refinement. It even possessed a trait that ordinary Divergent Flames lacked.

The Feng Household's spirit flame could devour other flame seeds to advance, and could also absorb and inherit some of their traits!

Suppressing the joy in his heart, Feng Zhuo wasn't sure how to awaken the spirit flame, so he could only approach it first and decide what to do afterward.

The wisp of flame constantly shifted between the forms of a flame and a firebird. Though clearly an inanimate thing, it was remarkably lively.

Feng Zhuo instinctively felt it posed no danger, but he never expected that when he was two steps away from the spirit flame, it would transform into a bird and dart straight into the center of his brow!

The spirit flame ignited without a breath of wind, engulfing Feng Zhuo in an instant.

He clearly should have been afraid, but the spirit flame caused Feng Zhuo no pain whatsoever. Instead, it gave him a warmth like returning to his mother's embrace.

Outside.

"Master! Little Junior Brother's on fire!!"

"What?! Quick, quick, quick! Put it out! I knew everyone from the Feng Household was like this, setting people's houses on fire at the drop of a hat. I had such a hard time building this place brick by brick, tile by tile!!!"

Ling Shuanghua hadn't expected Master to be so improper even at a time like this. "No, Little Junior Brother is on fire! Master, forget your lousy house! Hurry and save Little Junior Brother?!"

Though Yunxiaozi's interruption had helped her relax too.

Since the older person was handling it, it was no concern of the youngsters, Ling Shuanghua thought.

Hearing the commotion, Cang Wuya, who was swinging his sword in the distance, had intended to freeze the house with a single strike and put out the fire. After hearing Yunxiaozi's words, he decisively left it alone and resumed practicing his sword.

"Ai..." Yunxiaozi sighed and groaned.

Although he was a cultivator, Yunxiaozi used neither Method Formulas nor spiritual power to fight the fire, instead pouring bucket after bucket of water onto it.

Seeing this, Ling Shuanghua stopped using Spiritual Qi as well and followed her master's example, carrying water over by the bucketful.

She was a body cultivator to begin with, and treating it as part of her daily cultivation was rather enjoyable.

Half a shichen later, only a few broken tiles and bricks remained of the once quaint, antique-looking house.

Feng Zhuo, meanwhile, lay there perfectly fine. The spirit flame had not harmed him in the slightest; his cultivation had even broken through, rising from the Qi Refining Tenth Layer to the eleventh level in his sleep.

This time it was Ling Shuanghua's turn to sigh. "Another monstrous talent! Ai! Why didn't the heavens see fit to give me talent like that too?! He actually broke through from the Qi Refining Tenth Layer to the eleventh level in his sleep! The Heavenly Dao is unfair, the Heavenly Dao is unfair!"

Everyone was used to it.

Ordinary cultivators would take a pill to reach Foundation Establishment at the tenth level.

Only those of exceptional aptitude pursued Perfect Foundation Establishment.

And going from the Qi Refining Tenth Layer to the eleventh level was precisely a hurdle one had to cross on the path to Perfect Foundation Establishment!

Feng Zhuo had crossed that hurdle in his sleep. It was hard to say whether he was extraordinarily gifted or blessed with heaven-defying fortune.

"Damn it! Damn it!"

Yunxiaozi viciously tore off a chicken leg with his teeth. "When I see Feng Qingge, I'll make Qingyangzi pay me back for my house!"

Though he spoke fiercely, his hands didn't pause as he swiftly tossed out several top-grade Spirit Stones to set up a Spirit Gathering Formation.

In the blink of an eye, he saw that only the head of his beggar's chicken remained. Yunxiaozi shouted, "Ling Shuanghua! You little brat! Stop running if you've got the guts!"

"It wasn't me, it was Junior Brother Cang!"

As Ling Shuanghua fled, she didn't forget to stuff the big chicken leg she had swiped into her mouth.

Yunxiaozi: "And you still say it wasn't you!!!"

"Mmm... Eldest Senior Brother's beggar's chicken really is fragrant."

While Yunxiaozi was too occupied to pay attention to him, Cang Wuya swiftly destroyed the corpse and wiped out the evidence.