Devouring the Glazed Purifying Fire

"Qingyangzi, your little brat burned down a room of mine."

Yunxiaozi tapped a fingertip against a roof beam that had been burned beyond recognition. "Bring me five spirit medicines I can use, and I won't hold it against a child."

The smell of charred wood filled Feng Zhuo's nose. He woke to hear his master trying to fleece his father.

Before Qingyangzi could speak, the hem of Feng Qingge's crimson dress swept up to Yunxiaozi. "You shameless old thing!"

"What do you mean, my little brat? Isn't Zhuozhuo your disciple now too? Who was it that said we had to send our child to Carefree Peak when we had one?"

The red-gold bells at her wrist jingled, startling the spirit sparrows outside the window into flight.

Feng Zhuo's lashes fluttered. This time, he could finally see the world outside clearly.

"Mother..." He reached out, his voice hoarse, and was immediately enfolded in a warm, fragrant embrace.

Feng Qingge's Scarlet Fire Silk moved without wind, wrapping her son in an airtight cocoon with only his pretty little face showing.

"Baby! You scared Mother to death! If I'd known, I never would have listened to your father and let you leave the clan to study at such a young age! Wouldn't it have been better to stay by Mother's side a few more years and find a master when you were older?"

"Mother."

Feng Zhuo's eyes reddened as he gazed at his mother's familiar face. It felt as though a lifetime had passed.

In his previous life, Feng Qingge had refused to believe that Feng Zhuo could fail to survive his Golden Core lightning tribulation. Then she had seen Su Ruanruan using a Divergent Flame-the very Glazed Purifying Fire they had found for their son-and naturally sought her out for revenge.

But Su Ruanruan was the protagonist of the storybook. Everyone who opposed her came to a bad end.

Feng Zhuo's parents were no exception.

Even though his mother was a highly esteemed heaven's chosen of the Feng Household, and his father was Dao Lord Qingyangzi, Peak Master of the Great Void Five Elements Sect's Wood Peak, they were no exception!

At the thought of his parents' fate in the storybook, the hatred in Feng Zhuo's heart grew stronger.

"Baby, did someone bully you?! Tell Mother, and I'll have your father stand up for you!"

Whenever Feng Qingge grew angry, spirit fire poured out of her uncontrollably.

The Feng Household's spirit fire was inherited from the phoenix. Like cultivators' realms, it was divided into eight tiers.

Feng Qingge's spirit fire had reached the sixth tier. Though it had yet to develop intelligence, it possessed the form of a phoenix.

"Yaoyao."

The peach blossoms bloomed in youthful splendor, their flowers blazing bright.

Feng Qingge had named her spirit fire Feng Yao.

Feng Yao had no spiritual awareness, but subconsciously knew not to hurt its little master.

Feng Zhuo held a high position in the Feng Household, and there were no children his age in the clan leader's line, so he had few playmates growing up.

Feng Qingge and Qingyangzi had both recently made breakthroughs in their cultivation at the time and often needed to enter seclusion to consolidate them. Whenever they did, Feng Yao stayed behind to keep Feng Zhuo company.

But in his previous life, this wisp of spirit fire that had grown up with him had ultimately become nourishment for Su Ruanruan's life-bound Law Treasure!

The grief in Feng Zhuo's heart deepened. Feng Yao seemed to sense its little master's pain as well and burst out of the wooden house in an instant.

Its phoenix head rose high. Though it was only a wisp of spirit fire that had borrowed a phoenix's form, it seemed to offer a glimpse of an ancient divine beast's mighty presence.

The result was...

"Ah!!!"

Feng Qingge had been talking with her son when Yunxiaozi suddenly pointed out the window and jumped up and down. "Feng Qingge! Your spirit fire is going to burn down my house again!!!"

What a vivid, expressive "again."

Everyone turned to look and saw a fire phoenix circling in midair, its wings spanning three zhang.

The phoenix formed from spirit fire had finished showing off its might. Now it hovered in the air, teasing the vines growing beside the wooden house with its tail feathers.

Every beat of its wings sent sparks raining down onto the thatched roof.

"Yaoyao, come back!"

At her call, the fire phoenix folded its wings and turned into a streak of light that vanished between Feng Qingge's brows. As it passed the window frame, however, it set the bamboo blind alight.

Qingyangzi silently made a Hand Seal, and fresh shoots sprouted from the bamboo blind that had been burned to charcoal.

Aside from visiting their son and seeing whether their old friend had passed away, Feng Qingge and Qingyangzi had mainly come to deliver a Divergent Flame.

Feng Qingge and Qingyangzi were naturally delighted to learn that their son's spirit fire had awakened successfully, appearing at the second tier from the outset and settling into the stable form of a firebird.

The Glazed Purifying Fire they had originally prepared for Feng Zhuo to contract could now serve as food to advance his phoenix fire.

They still needed to ask Feng Zhuo what he thought.

Wood shavings still clung to Qingyangzi's sleeves when Feng Qingge made a Hand Seal and conjured the Glazed Purifying Fire.

The pure white flame took the form of a snow fox in her palm. Ice crystals spilled out as its nine tails swept lightly through the air, and it struggled mightily to escape her grasp.

But its efforts were in vain.

Feng Qingge said, "Zhuozhuo, this is the fourth-tier Divergent Flame, the Glazed Purifying Fire. It was born in the Northern Region's Cold Abyss and ranks eleventh on the Divergent Flame rankings."

"Though it isn't the original flame on the rankings, it is a fire seed split from that flame. It also has considerable good fortune and recently began to develop intelligence."

"I originally intended for you to contract it. It would have been of great use to you in the future, whether for refining pills or fighting enemies. But now that you've awakened our Feng Household's life-bound spirit fire, with our family's cultivation method, the Nirvana Heaven-Burning Instruction, your spirit fire is certain to advance far faster than an ordinary Divergent Flame."

"So, Zhuozhuo, what do you think?"

"The Glazed Purifying Fire?"

The corners of Feng Zhuo's lips lifted slightly. "Mother, you said this is a fourth-tier Divergent Flame that has only just developed intelligence?"

The boy brushed his fingertips over the hidden spirit-fire mark between his brows.

How had that pure white Divergent Flame devoured his internal organs in his previous life?

Even now, the memory sent a chill into his marrow.

The firebird beat its wings and emerged from the mark, the second-tier spirit flame rushing straight at the fourth-tier Divergent Flame.

The snow fox formed by the Glazed Purifying Fire bared its fangs, only for Feng Yao to pin it down with one claw.

Feng Qingge nodded. "Your father and I gave it careful thought. You're only at the Qi Refining Stage right now, so a Divergent Flame of too high a tier would be difficult for you to command."

"When your cultivation improves in the future and the Glazed Purifying Fire is no longer suitable, your father and I will find you a higher-tier Divergent Flame."

"However..."

Feng Qingge raised an eyebrow, and Feng Zhuo continued for her. "However, Mother, the Glazed Purifying Fire has developed intelligence. As a fourth-tier Divergent Flame, I imagine it has its own pride and would never willingly let a Qi Refining Stage cultivator like me contract it."

"So..." Feng Zhuo enunciated his next words in a peculiar way that made one's skin crawl.

"Erase it. Mother, would you help me erase this Divergent Flame's spiritual awareness?"

Feng Zhuo turned the red jade bangle on his wrist. It was a protective Spirit Artifact Feng Qingge had given him for his birthday the previous year. "If it's food, why keep it? We might as well feed it to my life-bound spirit fire as a fire seed..."

"I'm very glad you think so, Zhuozhuo."

Feng Qingge's five fingers abruptly closed.

The Glazed Purifying Fire let out a shriek like an infant's cry, and the snow-white fox's body cracked apart inch by inch.

When she opened her hand again, only a cluster of docile, dancing pale flames remained.

The firebird swooped down with a joyful cry. As its wings swept past, the fourth-tier Divergent Flame melted into its body like snow.

Yunxiaozi returned from inspecting his house just in time to see this, but offered no opinion.

He was even happy to see it.

Contracting a Divergent Flame that had developed intelligence by relying on an elder's might, Feng Zhuo would be unable to form a life-bound contract with it. It was better to leave it without spiritual awareness.

After the Glazed Purifying Fire disappeared, the piercing pain that had inexplicably arisen throughout Feng Zhuo's body also vanished completely.

Feng Qingge had shared her experience with him, and the strength of Feng Zhuo's Divine Sense had already reached Golden Core in his previous life. He was also extremely familiar with the Glazed Purifying Fire from using it to control flames and refine pills.

The firebird devoured the Glazed Purifying Fire without much trouble.

The spirit fire advanced as a result and absorbed some of the Glazed Purifying Fire's traits. Seven ice crystals formed on its tail feathers, and snowflakes and sparks flew together whenever it beat its wings.

Through their life-bound contract, the vast amount of spiritual power released by the spirit fire's advancement drove Feng Zhuo's cultivation to a breakthrough.

A blue-and-red spiritual mist rose around the boy.

His hair ribbon snapped, and as his black hair stirred without wind, twelve vortices of Spiritual Qi bloomed one after another above his head.

His cultivation should have continued climbing, but Feng Zhuo desperately compressed the spiritual power in his body and managed to stop it at the twelfth level.

From then on, he was a Qi Refining Great Perfection cultivator, with no trace of an unstable foundation.

Seeing this, Yunxiaozi laughed heartily. "If Shuanghua saw this, he'd be shouting that the Heavenly Dao was unfair again."