Chapter 21 - All-tempering Flame
Edited by FluffyGoblyn
Once Xu Qi returned to Xu Clan, he quickly went into his room and activated the Four Divinities Coffer. He dived into the Four Divinities Cavern and sat down in meditation in the plaza. Xu Qi took a deep breath, then started practicing the Void Dao.
After operating the cultivation method for a full cycle, Xu Qi opened his eyes. He began thinking back what happened tonight, muttering, “Twenty-six of them… it seemed like their temperaments were all pretty good. God knows how many of them will remain until the end? Who was the mysterious white-robed man that appeared out there? Why did he appear at this timing? It seems like I’ll have to be more careful in the future. How troublesome.”
Xu Qi had always disliked pondering over problems with no simple solutions; it only served to give him more headaches, anyway. He didn’t want to waste any more time pondering, and just go with the flow instead. Whatever will be, will be.
Xu Qi suddenly recalled he’d gathered the necessary ingredients to craft the Five Elements Wings. He immediately got excited thinking about it; he had always dreamed of a pair of wings for himself, soaring in the sky. If he were able to forge the wings, it would definitely be a tremendous boost to his strength, while realizing his dream at the same time.
Xu Qi rummaged through the things he kept in the interspatial ring, retrieving the cauldron left behind by Venerable Ziyan and ten weapons he didn’t like the looks of. He also took out all the Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth element treasures procured by Mo Dingtian.
“Oh, right. A monster’s inner core,” Xu Qi remembered of the last ingredient for Five Elements Wings. He retrieved a wooden box made of Violetcloud wood. Within it contained a Spirit grade inner core collected by Xu Clan.
After arranging everything neatly, Xu Qi took a long, deep breath. Then, he took out the book on crafting the Five Elements Wings and started reading.
“To forge the Five Elements Wings, one must first refine the Essence of the five elements. The five elements’ essence is obtained by fusing the essences of each of the five elements, namely: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. Gather the required materials into a cauldron and use Yang-natured1 flames to refine and rid of the impurities, leaving only its essence,” Xu Qi paused for a moment, reading up till here, feeling as if he’d forgotten about something.
“My god! Where do I get Yang flames? I can’t possibly use fire built by firewood, can I?” Xu Qi said, depressed. He thought, all along, the necessary materials had been gathered, and the flames never crossed his mind. Where was he supposed to find the proper flame required? It’d be a miracle if he could forge the Five Elements Wings using flames from burning firewood.
“Ah… where exactly do I get the fire? Others could make some flames appear using their cultivation on a whim, but take a look at me; there’s no way I can do that,” Xu Qi shook his head, looking at himself in pity.
Xu Qi was left with no other choice but to store everything he’d taken out back into the interspatial ring. He was depressed. Suddenly, he widened his eyes, seemingly remembering something. He rummaged through the interspatial ring, and took out a book excitedly, “I got you now!”
The truth was, Xu Qi suddenly remembered, since Venerable Ziyan left a cauldron for him, it would be for naught if he couldn’t summon any flames. Therefore, there must be something else left behind with regards to conjuring the flames for the cauldron. As such, Xu Qi looked through the interspatial ring holding onto a sliver of hope. Alas, he managed to find a book titled “All-tempering Flame.”
“Haha, I should have seen this book before; how could I have forgotten? Let’s see how this flame is cultivated!” Xu Qi licked his lips.
When Xu Qi flipped open the book, his face full of excitement immediately went stiff. Not a single letter was found in the book. He flipped through the pages once more, unwilling to believe what he was seeing. However, he still couldn’t find a word in it! He immediately felt downhearted.
Xu Qi was discouraged for a while, then stamped his feet cursing, “God damn it, old geezer Ziyan! Are you playing a trick on me? By giving me a ‘Heavenly Book of Nothingness2’?!”
“What was the point of keeping you then!” Angered, Xu Qi grabbed the book, intending to tear it apart. “Eh?!” He used all the strength he could muster, but he couldn’t tear off a single page, causing Xu Qi to become even more puzzled.
“Isn’t this paper? Why couldn’t I rip it; could there be some tricks to it? Stop making a fool out of me, old geezer Ziyan. What is going on?” Xu Qi yelled in the plaza, but his echo was the only reply he got.
Xu Qi calmed himself for a moment, then got to work once more. He tried dripping water onto the book, bruising his hands and dripping his blood onto it, and even tried torching the book in flames. However, nothing appeared in the book no matter what. In the end, he sat on the ground, huffing and puffing in frustration.
“How should I deal with this thing? Give me some tips, old geezer Ziyan,” Xu Qi said dejectedly.
“This book is definitely not a common object since it was left behind by old geezer Ziyan, and I can’t rip it apart, despite exerting all my strength. Yet, the question remains, how do I use it? Venerable Ziyan practices the Void Dao cultivation method… Wait a minute… Cultivation method! That’s it!” Xu Qi thought of the Void Dao cultivation method both he and Venerable Ziyan practiced. He wanted to test whether his idea worked.
Thinking of this, Xu Qi immediately acted. He operated his cultivation method, enveloping himself in blue light. This time round, he manipulated every strand of cultivation within him, displaying the beautiful blue light to its full splendor, with specks of rainbow light on the outer surface.
After Xu Qi activated his blue colored energy, he poured all of it into the book of All-tempering Flame. Unexpectedly, a gravitational force could be felt, sucking all the energy being poured in as the blue energy came into contact with the book. Xu Qi sensed even the energy within him were being pulled out, gushing into the book by its devouring force; he couldn’t stop the flow even if he wanted to.
Gosh, what trickery is this? I’m almost all emptied out, Xu Qi cursed inwardly. His body was starting to become weak, but he had no way of stopping it; he could only watch on helplessly as the book extracted his energy.
Suddenly, a golden flame emitted from the book of All-tempering Flame with a whoo sound, causing the book to combust in flames. As for Xu Qi, his energy was being sucked dry and didn’t have a spare moment to attend to the burning book. Once he felt the sucking force ceasing, he immediately operated his remaining energy to regulate himself. However, his body was already considerably weakened.
When Xu Qi was done regulating his body and felt some strength returning to him, he looked towards the golden flames. Now, the “All-tempering Flame” book had already fully turned to ashes, and the flames were all that was left, dancing.
“Could that be the All-tempering Flame?” Xu Qi muttered, looking at the tiny ball of flame.
Since his body was in this weakened state, he had thought not to mess with the flames yet. However, after some slight consideration, he decided to give it a try anyway. Xu Qi manipulated the remaining energy in him, forming a blue colored energy palm above his real palm. Then, he controlled it to grab the ball of flames. He felt the scorching heat in his palm when his blue energy touched the flames. In spite of that, he gritted his teeth in perseverance and grabbed the flames.
“Ahh…” Just as Xu Qi wanted to retract himself to observe the flame’s reaction, it jumped onto his body. It easily penetrated the layer of Spirit realm energy protecting his body. His clothes immediately caught on fire, causing immense pain to Xu Qi with its extremely high temperature.
He frantically stood up, patting the flames on his body hoping to extinguish it. However, no matter how much he tried to, he couldn’t cease the flames; all his clothing turned to ash. Currently, the energy in Xu Qi was at a very weak level, and the rising temperature of the flames caused him to realize that death was approaching.
“Can’t believe my death would be by fire.” At this moment, Xu Qi’s entire body was enveloped in the golden flames. He no longer had any strength to resist. His body slowly slid downwards, kneeling on the ground.
TL Note:
1: Basically Yin/Yang
2: Heavenly Book of Nothingness: A book without a single word on it, said to show whatever your heart desires. There are several interpretations of its true meaning, but here the context is just a treasured book with nothing on it.