Translator: AnubisTL
Concealing the Savage Bone Battle Mark on his skin, Li Qing's consciousness once again sank into his dantian qi sea.
The Great Sun Golden Flame, having had a portion of its origin fire extracted, remained fiercely untamed, radiating an aura of unyielding defiance.
This was by far the most fiercely temperamental heavenly spirit fire Li Qing had ever encountered, far surpassing the three he had previously subdued.
While he could eventually take it back and refine it slowly, Li Qing didn't want to waste too much time on this. He had other matters to attend to and couldn't afford to be constantly distracted.
Immediately, Li Qing transmitted a divine sense message to the Great Sun Golden Flame:
"I advise you to abandon your resistance. The Crimson Blaze Heaven-Burning Art I cultivate naturally suppresses spirit fires. If you continue to stubbornly resist, I won't hesitate to completely disperse your origin and sink your extinguished fire seed into the endless depths of the sea, condemning you to eternal darkness."
He resorted to direct threats, knowing that such a fiercely tempered heavenly spirit fire would never respond to gentle persuasion.
Boom!
The great sun within his dantian qi sea trembled violently, seemingly unfazed by Li Qing's threats.
Sensing all this, Li Qing sneered.
"You think I wouldn't dare?"
"While a heavenly spirit fire is rare and precious, your existence isn't essential."
With these words, Li Qing surged toward the sea territory, unleashing the Kunpeng Treasure Technique. He transformed into a Swimming Kun, diving headfirst into the deep sea.
As he descended, Li Qing began extracting the Great Sun Golden Flame's origin fire, drawing it out strand by strand to weaken its power.
This power represented the Great Sun Golden Flame's accumulated dao cultivation from countless years of nurturing the scorching sun. Rapidly draining it was akin to damaging its very foundation.
Realizing Li Qing wasn't just bluffing, the Great Sun Golden Flame within his body finally began to waver.
Soon, they reached the abyssal depths, where pitch-black darkness swallowed all light.
Li Qing continued his descent, sensing an immeasurably deep trench within the sea—a place of utter stillness.
If the Great Sun Golden Flame's origin were shattered and its power used to suppress this trench, it would truly be condemned to eternal oblivion.
"Stop!"
The Spirit of the Great Sun Golden Flame finally cried out, willing to submit to Li Qing's will.
Hearing this, Li Qing chuckled softly and sank his consciousness into his dantian, using the pure mana cultivated through the Crimson Blaze Heaven-Burning Art to suppress the spirit fire.
Soon, as his consciousness invaded, the Great Sun Golden Flame was swiftly refined and subdued.
"Hah!"
Li Qing exhaled a string of bubbles underwater, a look of satisfaction in his eyes.
This fourth heavenly spirit fire had finally found its place, allowing the Crimson Blaze Heaven-Burning Art to operate at maximum efficiency.
He raised a finger, and a golden flame flickered to life at its tip. The scorching heat instantly vaporized the surrounding seawater.
Within his dantian, the Great Sun Golden Flame had been completely subdued. Unlike the previous three heavenly spirit fires, it didn't divide into a sea of fire to occupy a space within Li Qing's dantian qi sea. Instead, it remained as a single great sun, suspended above the dantian.
Li Qing paid this no mind; as long as it was subdued, that was all that mattered.
With the simultaneous empowerment of four heavenly spirit fires, the Crimson Blaze Heaven-Burning Art operated at full power, each circulation devouring vast quantities of spiritual energy.
Li Qing could, if he wished, completely drain the spiritual energy from a low-tier spirit vein land in an instant.
However, having reached the divine transformation realm, merely meditating and absorbing spiritual energy was no longer sufficient to meet his cultivation needs. Even tens of thousands of years of effort might yield little progress.
The four heavenly spirit fires within his body coexisted harmoniously, without any collisions or conflicts, which greatly pleased Li Qing.
"With another spirit fire, the power of my Fire Dao Divine Powers will increase dramatically!"
Both the Fire Extreme Dharma Body and the Myriad Flames Heaven-Burning Formation were techniques tailored to the Crimson Blaze Heaven-Burning Art. Each additional heavenly spirit fire would correspondingly amplify their potency.
With this in mind, Li Qing couldn't help but ask curiously, "Before his ascension, how many heavenly spirit fires did Senior Chi Huang subdue and refine in total?"
After all, Senior Chi Huang was the true ancestor of fire manipulation, having even created the Crimson Blaze Heaven-Burning Art, widely regarded as the human realm's foremost fire dao cultivation technique. Li Qing had benefited immensely from it.
The Profound Yellow True Flame replied calmly, "Including me, the Heavenly Monarch once controlled a maximum of seven heavenly spirit fires!"
"Later, I was left in the human realm, and I never learned whether the Heavenly Monarch managed to gather the remaining spirit fires."
Seven heavenly spirit fires!
Li Qing, who had just been feeling smug about subduing the Great Sun Golden Flame, couldn't help but twitch his lips.
This was simply too absurd!
An ordinary cultivator might never even glimpse a single heavenly spirit fire in their entire life, yet the Crimson Radiance Heavenly Monarch had subdued seven of them.
"As expected of Senior Chi Huang, truly remarkable," Li Qing marveled. "During his era, he must have completely monopolized all the heavenly spirit fires in this realm."
The birth of a heavenly spirit fire required not only extremely specific environmental conditions but also eons of accumulation before even the slightest possibility of its manifestation arose.
In essence, each heavenly spirit fire carried the opportunity and good fortune of an entire realm. Obtaining just one would be enough to benefit a cultivator for a lifetime.
"Not quite," the Xuanhuang True Flame replied. "The Heavenly Monarch did have one lingering regret: his failure to locate the Life-Annihilation Voidfire in this realm. That thing is too elusive and unpredictable, even for the Heavenly Monarch's power."
Li Qing recalled the formless, colorless flames he had seen in the demon realm—fires that burned eternally in the void without fuel, a truly bizarre phenomenon.
He wasn't overly ambitious about this. Having already acquired four heavenly spirit fires, his future cultivation would now proceed more efficiently.
Just as he was about to leave contentedly, a series of tremors suddenly erupted from the deep-sea trench below.
Rumble! Rumble!
The surrounding seawater shook violently, as if an underwater earthquake were raging.
Such extraordinary activity occurring tens of thousands of meters beneath the seabed piqued Li Qing's curiosity.
He unleashed his vast divine sense power, which spread effortlessly through the seabed.
He quickly located the source of the disturbance.
A smile crept across Li Qing's face as he quipped, "I never expected to encounter an old acquaintance here. No wonder you missed my Divine Transformation Realm Grand Ceremony—you've been trapped all this time."
With that, Li Qing's figure shot down into the trench.
Rumble! Rumble!
The deeper he descended, the more violent the tremors became. Amidst the thunderous roars, an urgent voice echoed:
"Is there a fellow daoist out there?"
"I am the Black Flood Dragon King of the Flood Dragon Clan! Release me, and I will grant you unimaginable opportunities and good fortune!"
Indeed, the tremors emanating from below were caused by none other than the Black Flood Dragon King!
Li Qing didn't respond immediately. Instead, he suppressed his aura and observed the scene with amusement.
Hearing no reply, the Black Flood Dragon King grew increasingly agitated. He intensified his efforts to attract attention, causing even more violent tremors.
"How strange... Just now, I clearly sensed an extreme heat in the seawater, like a blazing sun illuminating the darkness!"
"Why has it suddenly vanished? Could it have been an illusion?"
At the bottom of the trench, a treasure-blue gourd pinned the Black Flood Dragon King firmly in place. Despite his desperate struggles, he couldn't break free, managing only to shake the surrounding reefs and rock walls.
The Black Flood Dragon King's voice was filled with anxiety, clearly indicating he had been trapped here for many years.
Although the Flood Dragon Clan possessed immense lifespans, being inexplicably suppressed in this place for so long would undoubtedly cause extreme restlessness.
Having thoroughly observed the situation, Li Qing decided it was time to stop watching the spectacle. He stepped forward and said with a chuckle, "Well, isn't this a small world?"
"Brother Black Dragon, after all these years, I find you in secluded cultivation in such a remote and hidden place."
"If I hadn't had a sudden urge to explore the seabed, I might never have discovered your presence."
Li Qing emerged with a smile, a layer of spiritual light coalescing around him to illuminate the pitch-black surroundings.
At the base of the massive sapphire-blue gourd, the Black Flood Dragon King struggled to lift his head, his peripheral vision catching sight of the familiar figure.
"Fellow Daoist Limitless?!"
"You've come at the perfect time! Quickly, help me escape this predicament!"
The Black Flood Dragon King immediately called out, the anxiety in his eyes visibly easing.
He naturally trusted Li Qing. Hearing Li Qing's voice brought him immense relief, knowing he would undoubtedly be saved today.
"Heh, no need to rush, Brother Black Dragon. Why aren't you ruling as the Flood Dragon King in the Dragon Palace? What brought you to such a remote sea territory?"
The Black Flood Dragon King replied bitterly,
"It all started when a corner of Senior Wan's blood robe drifted down from the void. My big brother ascended with Senior Wan, and out of worry, I wanted to see if I could find any of his scales that might have fallen to the lower realm."
"While searching, I stumbled upon an ancient formation by chance. This gourd is part of the formation; once trapped, there's no escape."
"The gourd seems to contain the waters of the Five Seas. Combined with the formation, it can suppress all things in the world. Fellow Daoist Limitless, you must be careful."
By now, Li Qing had discerned the true nature of the situation.
The gourd wasn't a particularly rare spirit treasure, but rather a flawed rare treasure. Yet, when combined with the formation, it could draw upon the boundless power of the sea.
While it appeared the Black Flood Dragon King was being suppressed by the gourd, the mystic formation was actually playing the crucial role.
"I suspect the gourd contains a rare treasure," the Black Flood Dragon King added. "Even I sensed its powerful presence, which is how I fell into this trap!"
Li Qing attempted to sense the Primordial Energy of Heaven and Earth around him. His gaze sharpened, as if piercing through the gourd's strange barrier, allowing him to see inside.
"Hmm? Indeed, there's a dense, exceptionally pure water essence energy faintly visible within."
(End of the Chapter)
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