Cao Yun wanted to meditate on those worlds. He also thought about the Floating Ocean World. This was a world of the Withering Fusang Domains that Emperor Nuwa had mentioned. In fact, it was among the worlds Cao Yun planned to visit. While the Broken Fire World was a domain of flames, the Floating Ocean World was a domain of pure water. Within this Floating Ocean World, there was only one immense ocean covering everything. Emperor Nuwa herself couldn't even tell if there was anything else. Of course, there were things inside the ocean as well as people who intrigued Cao Yun as much as the Flameborns. To be fair, the people of the ocean seemed a bit more straightforward than the Flameborns. Although they were creatures of the deep, they were not actual physical emanations of the Dao of Water, they were just exceptionally well attuned to it.
Anyway, Cao Yun kept that in a corner of his mind. With all the things he had learned, he decided that following Red Calm's treatise was a very good idea. Alongside it, he would try to figure out more about the Dao of Fire. But he had to get rid of any preconceptions about Fire itself. It could take so many forms that trying to pin it down would only limit the scope of the Dao of Fire.
As he thought about it, Cao Yun also realized that he had neglected to ponder the fire within. After all, his own body was producing not only heat but also fire. As a 5th-grade Exalted Demon, he was manipulating his bodily fires. However, even humans had bodily fires. Most likely, devas also had bodily fires. In fact, most living beings were producing heat, so they all had some kind of bodily fire.
Fire wasn't just physical fire. Cao Yun felt as if he was slowly reaching a deeper understanding of the Dao of Fire, but also of the Dao as a whole. It felt as though he was about to discover something that should have been obvious from the start. A deeper truth that would appear as self-evident, and yet a truth he had never realized before. Unfortunately, he was still just shy of actually reaching it. Maybe something within himself wasn't quite ready to get there yet. He needed to work on his perception and on his own mind as well.
During the negotiations, Cao Yun also trained with Yanzhen and made sure that Yanzhen trained Jinyang and Jinyue. Despite his feelings for Jinyang, Yanzhen was training both girls with the same dedication. He didn't show any favoritism to either of them. Besides, he perfectly adapted his teaching to their strengths and weaknesses. Watching them train was also very useful to Cao Yun. At the same time, he felt terrible because he couldn't repress a tinge of jealousy. Indeed, the girls understood the Dao of Fire faster than he could. Now, though, he felt as if something was completely missing from all the Flameborns. They were understanding one aspect of the Dao of Fire, but Cao Yun felt as though he was on the verge of discovering another aspect they had neglected. Or maybe they were blind to this aspect. Potentially, the Withering Fusang Tree might be responsible for this selective blindness.
As they trained, the three Flameborns also followed Cao Yun's instructions when it came to cultivation. If the difference wasn't significant for Yanzhen, the twins showed much faster progress than any Flameborn Yanzhen had ever seen. Cao Yun's cultivation method for Flameborns was helping them a lot, as they still had a lot to learn, contrary to Yanzhen.
Cao Yun helped Jinyang and Jinyue feel their heat meridians. In fact, he altered his own heat meridian concept. Because Yanzhen was a man, his heat was moving in a specific pattern that was slightly different from a woman's. Although the difference wasn't that big, it helped Cao Yun refine the patterns of the meridians. His understanding of the Flameborn body improved a lot through small details and minor changes. Thanks to that, he proposed very specific routines to them. Within those routines were movements, mental images, specific patterns of heat circulation through respiration cycles, and even mantras. Everything helped them increase the efficiency of their cultivation.
Slowly, Cao Yun was creating a complete model. Of course, he used his own cultivation methods as a basis but also looked through every manual he had read. Dian Mo even helped a little here and there. Just like Cao Yun, he was fascinated by all of that as it was completely new to him.
The ultimate goal of cultivation was not only to understand the Dao, not only to have power over it, but to literally transcend the Dao and to become an actual immortal. For that, mankind worked on their bodies first, in order to strengthen them before working on their meridians. Through their meridians, they would accumulate enough Fire and Water Qi to produce the Soul Embryo. This Soul Embryo would then become the vessel of the soul in order to observe the Dao directly. In later stages, this Soul Embryo would become even more important as it would become the basis of the Immortal Body. Only this Immortal Body could go beyond the veil of the world.
For demons, it was a bit different, as they focused much more on the body all along. They would work on the blood, the marrow, the bodily fires. But they would also use this bodily cultivation to strengthen their Po, their Corporeal Souls. The merging of blood and soul was the way the demons could achieve a body similar to an Immortal Body. It was said that an Immortal Demon powerful enough could actually restore his entire body and soul from a drop of blood. Honestly, even Cao Yun wasn't completely sure about this.
Finally, the devas were mainly focusing on the soul. Of course, Cao Yun had very little experience with this cultivation and everything he had read seemed foreign and incomprehensible. To be fair, none of the people whose memories he possessed had really focused on learning this cultivation system. Cao Yun was interested because he had been able to practice two cultivation systems and hoped to learn this third one to become just like a Three Jade Saint.
Right now, Cao Yun's idea was simple. First, Flameborns needed to use heat and fire to fully develop what he had called heat meridians. Those were pathways of the heat within their bodies. By strengthening them and making them more efficient, Flameborns could produce more strength and more heat without using their life fire as much as before. Afterward, they could use those pathways to strengthen their bodies even more, refining them so that they could be sustained with less life fire. After all, their bodies were made of pure fire condensed into flesh. This was hard to understand for Cao Yun. So this step was difficult to conceive. From there, with a powerful body and plentiful heat meridians, they could finally work on their life fire in order to improve its quality and even try to condense more fire into it. Honestly, Cao Yun wasn't sure whether it was actually possible in the first place. However, he didn't see any principle it would violate. Technically, even humans could develop their prenatal Jing, it was just extremely difficult.
Cao Yun wasn't too sure about the next step. But, most likely, with a stronger life fire, the connection of the Flameborns to the Dao of Fire would be much deeper. But they also needed to create a form of connection between their souls and their life fire. Probably, the heat meridians would be useful. As such, Cao Yun decided to make them focus on specific heat meridians that would connect their lower abdomen, where their life fire was, like human beings, and their brain. Even Flameborns had their sea of consciousness in their brain.
Although Cao Yun was fully open about his ideas with Yanzhen, he quickly realized that even Yanzhen had a hard time fully understanding or following Cao Yun's explanations. Flameborns rarely worked on their soul, if at all. For them, only the Fire existed. If Cao Yun had not proved himself, Yanzhen would have never listened to him. But Cao Yun had proven himself and had even used the Sun-Severing Spear. Thus, Yanzhen was intently listening to his every word.
-
The negotiations were finally over. Cao Yun didn't want to spend any more time in the Raging Volcano tribe than was necessary. After all, he had obtained whatever he wanted. Through his intervention, he had saved the Ancient Obsidian tribe and was even training the next generation. Hopefully, he would even leave them a powerful cultivation system. Sadly, Cao Yun wasn't convinced it would be finished before he left, but that would still be better than nothing. And if Cao Yun was able to free them from the Withering Fusang Tree in the end, he would have done a lot for the Ancient Obsidian tribe and even the Flameborns overall. At this point, Cao Yun already estimated that his karmic bonds with Emperor Nuwa's tribe were severed.
The reason why he was helping and teaching Yanzhen and the twins wasn't because of the Ancient Obsidian tribe. Partly it was because he had met them by chance. But more than that, it was because he had taken a liking to them. Deep down, he even wondered if he didn't miss his own children and grandchildren. Although he had left them, he had spent many years with them, especially his children. Through those young Flameborns, Cao Yun was constantly reminded of his children growing up.
Seeing Yanzhen, who was desperately trying to arouse Jinyang's interest while defending himself from Jinyue's verbal abuse, was quite entertaining. Besides, Cao Yun could tell that Jinyue's attitude had turned from vicious to playful. She wasn't actually attacking him anymore. Now, she was teasing, and Jinyang also started to play around as well. Ironically, Jinyue's attitude was helping Yanzhen get closer and closer to Jinyang. From what Cao Yun could see, it was obvious that they would end up together without Jinyue even realizing it. In fact, Cao Yun wondered if Jinyue would realize it before they had a kid together or not. This was a genuine question.
Cao Yun left the emissaries behind as they had things to finish with the Raging Volcano tribe, and there was absolutely no risk of them being hurt. In fact, The Raging Volcano tribe led by Shaxin would rather have sacrificed their own tribesmen than let anything bad happen to the emissaries. Although the emissaries were convinced that they had won a lot, Shaxin and Cao Yun were both fully aware that the Raging Volcano tribe would have won much more in the long term. Indeed, both of them had more faith in the Ancient Obsidian tribe than almost every member of the tribe itself.
On Hongyu's back, the group left. They traveled a little while going toward the Weeping Summits. According to what Cao Yun knew, they still had quite some time before the hunt actually began. Until the right moment, no one could enter the Weeping Summits, so there was no point in going there sooner. As such, they traveled peacefully and explored.
Even the Flameborn trio had not explored those lands. They knew about those places through maps and legends. They saw amazing sights. There were waterfalls of literal fire rising from the ground and disappearing into the black clouds. They saw giant mountains that were molten and were always moving around, reforming, changing shapes. Rocks and solidified lava kept being flung into the air. Hongyu was fast and agile enough to avoid everything, but those flying rocks were frightening. Apart from Cao Yun and Hongyu, they could clearly kill the trio with no effort whatsoever.
At some point, they saw a vast plain of pure white. Those were ashes covering the entire ground. This obviously reminded Cao Yun of the white forests he had seen. However, he felt something completely different. Those ashes were absolutely extinguished, no trace of fire could be seen. At the same time, there was a warmth emanating from those ashes. Cao Yun felt it deep in his very soul. Those ashes seemed to almost be alive in some sense. Yanzhen and the twins were also very solemn.
As he thought about it, Cao Yun remembered Emperor Nuwa's words. This wasn't just a plain, this was actually a sacred place for the Flameborns. This was a so-called Ash Cradle. This was where Flameborns were born. Even though Cao Yun had read about this, he had never actually witnessed the process. Of course, he was quite curious about it. This ritual was the biggest difference between humans and Flameborns. Flameborns were quite literally born from flames and ashes. Those ashes were essential for the birth of any Flameborn. And yet, no one knew where they came from. Those ashes seemed eternal. Everywhere on the Broken Fire World, one could find those plains.
Despite all conflicts between tribes, no one would ever dare to bar access to those Ash Cradles. Or, worse than that, no one would ever think about using violence of any kind here. Those Ash Cradles were essential to their entire species. If anyone disrespected them in any way, shape, or form, the Fire Thearch would issue a total condemnation and every other Flameborn would try to kill the guilty. Even their own tribe would slaughter the guilty with no hesitation. It would be akin to killing babies for humans.
Obviously, Cao Yun also showed respect to the Ash Cradle. He dismounted Hongyu far from it and then walked with Hongyu, Yanzhen, and the twins. It took them some time, but they finally reached the Ash Cradle. Thankfully, Cao Yun quickly spotted a couple. The woman was pregnant.
Unlike humans, the woman's belly wasn't very big. Within it was not a fully grown baby, but pure fire. The life fires of the male and the female had mixed together, intertwined, and formed another kind of life fire, but it was missing a body. The couple was here for the birth.