The journey to the Tianluo Continent was long and arduous. However, what was supposed to be a monotonous and boring journey, actually turned out to be a painful one, especially after Jiu You had assigned her task. It was not a simple task, this completion of the transformation of their spiritual energies, even to a Sovereign Master.
Although Mu Chen had successfully integrated the Nine Nether Flame with his own spiritual energies in the past, in comparison to transforming one's spiritual energies, the degree of difficulty could be said to be like the huge gap between the light of a firefly and the glow of the moon. Not to mention, the Flame that he was going to integrate this time was no longer the Nine Nether Flame, but the Unperishable Flame, which was countless times more powerful!
Jiu You's method of cultivation was extremely straightforward, but also very brutal. She did not resort to the use of any tricks, but instead, by mobilizing the Unperishable Flame in her body, and directed it straight into Mu Chen's body, the Unperishable Flame finally locating the Sovereign Sea that was hidden in his body, as it surged in.
The Unperishable Flame roared in the Sovereign Sea, as the boiling temperature was close to burning Mu Chen's Sovereign Sea. The sensation of one's spiritual energies burning up inflicted unbearable pain to Mu Chen, such that even the Sovereign Sea seemed overwhelmed by it, as if it were about to be broken.
However, every time his endurance was about to reach its limit, Jiu You would withdraw the Unperishable Flame entirely, waiting for the spiritual energies in Mu Chen's Sovereign Sea to revert to a calm state, before repeating the process again.
In this never-ending cycle of feeling his spiritual energies burn, Mu Chen could only use four words to describe how he felt: fate worse than death.
According to Jiu You, the Unperishable Flame was, after all, overwhelmingly strong, and something that the Nine Nether Flame could never match up to. Hence, if Mu Chen started out by merging it directly with his spiritual energies, there would only be one result: his spiritual energies would be thoroughly burned by the Unperishable Flame, and even his Sovereign Sea would be affected.
Such a situation meant that, if he wanted to integrate the Unperishable Flame, he would have to allow his spiritual energies to get accustomed with the Unperishable Flame. But, how would he do this? The answer was simple, as he just had to burn his spiritual energies with the Flame repeatedly.
In Jiu You's words, it was akin to being beaten up, as the more you get beaten up, the more you get used to it. After Mu Chen's spiritual energies have reached a sufficient stage of being burned, it would then be accustomed to the Unperishable Flame, so that the next step of integration could then occur.
As such, Mu Chen had no choice but to persevere with this anguishing method of cultivation. In the first ten days of travel, whenever night came, Mu Chen and Jiu You would take a brief respite, during which time, the daily nightmare of Mu Chen would begin…
However, Mu Chen gritted his teeth and persevered, despite having to go through the sheer agony of this method of cultivation. He had known long ago that there was no power that came easily in this world, so if he wanted to attain a complete transformation of his spiritual energies, he would have to put in an equally immense amount of effort.
Moreover, he could feel that, whenever the practice was over, Jiu You's cheeks would turn slightly pale. After all, she had worked so hard to cultivate the Unperishable Flame. With such heavy exhaustion of the flames every day, even if she had successfully evolved, it would still be unbearable.
Faced with this situation, if Mu Chen said he could not persevere, he would not be worthy enough to be a man. With that in mind, the agonizing cultivation continued. Amid the excruciating cultivation every night, the speed of their journey was not affected, and in just half a month, they travelled across vast continents.
At the beginning, the boy, who had undergone his first experience in the Great Thousand World, expressed curiosity at many things. But, he soon began to adapt, until finally, he began to shift most of his attention to cultivation.
Besides travelling and cultivation, when Mu Chen and Jiu You passed by some continents, they would specially inquire about any information regarding the two spiritual treasures, "Great Solar Void Fruit" and "Undying Divine Leaf", as these were the last two key ingredients needed for Mu Chen to cultivate "The Great Solar Undying Body."
However, the inquiries were to no avail, as the rarity of these two ingredients were beyond Mu Chen's imagination. After all, even Sovereign Masters desired these two spiritual treasures immensely.
In particular, the " Great Solar Void Fruit ", if obtained, could be refined into the Sovereign Sea. What made it intriguing, was the fact that the Great Solar Void Fruit could turn into a scorching sun within the Sovereign Sea, constantly shining on the spiritual energies within it. This would strengthen the spiritual energies greatly by fusing it with the power of the scorching sun.
For this marvellous artifact that could strengthen the power of the spiritual energies, which supreme would not regard it as being the ultimate treasure?
As for the "Undying Divine Leaf," it was also extremely rare. This legendary treasure, was also named the "Substitute Leaf", which meant that, if one met with a truly life-threatening disaster, the "Undying Divine Leaf" could save one's life. This basically meant that one would have an extra life.
Of course, a rumor like this was often exaggerated. After all, if the attack, had been terribly strong, even the " Undying Divine Leaf " would be utterly destroyed. However, possessing such a treasure would still be a perfect safeguard for one's defense.
After knowing about these two kinds of precious, rare spiritual treasures, it finally dawned on Mu Chen how incredibly fortunate he was to have received the "Nine Suns Zoysia" in the Spiritual Academy Competition. After all, this item, was comparable to the two former precious treasures.
As it were, however, it seemed that it would be a long way to go before they could gather these two ingredients together.
They continued to hurry along with their journey. In the blink of an eye, it had been nearly a month that had passed, within which time, Mu Chen and Jiu You had crossed dozens of continents. The sheer distance of the journey so far, was an amount of miles that Mu Chen found hard to even imagine.
Some of the continents they had passed through were not large, and could not even be compared to the Northern Heavens Continent. However, some of them were exceptionally vast, and though they still could not match up to the Tianluo Continent, their power was still far greater than that of the Northern Heavens Continent.
In just one month, Mu Chen's experience had soared, and he had even seen some of the other races in the Great Thousand World, which was somewhat eye-opening. Of course, other than widening his exposure, Mu Chen's cultivation also began in earnest, getting him onto the right track.
After undergoing the torment of having his spiritual energies burnt repeatedly, Mu Chen's spiritual energies in his Sovereign Sea began to adapt to the Unperishable Flame, and the pain subsided, at least in comparison to the excruciating pain at the start. It was this subtle adaptation that made Mu Chen heave a sigh of relief, as he saw some encouraging results from the previous period of torturous cultivation.
The moon hung high in the sky. On a mountain, Mu Chen sat cross-legged quietly. In the distance, a magnificent city could be seen in the far distance, its bright lights were as if it was daytime.
The scale of the city was not small. Even at this time, there was still light and shadow that were piercing through the night sky and into the city.
The city was named Blazing Flames City, and the continent that Mu Chen and Jiu You were on was the Blazing Flames Continent. A large portion of it was occupied by deserts, and the spiritual energies of the heavens and earth seemed to be more hot and dry here than elsewhere.
This city had a Transfer Spiritual Array that could transport them to the next continent, but Mu Chen and Ji You did not enter the city. Instead, they chose to stay outside of the city, as Mu Chen's cultivation at night was of immense importance. He could start to feel the spiritual energies within his Sovereign Sea developing in an intriguing manner, and that sensation was indescribable, but extremely crucial.
Mu Chen took a deep breath, his eyes bright. He knew that his psychic powers had reached a tipping point.
Mu Chen turned his head to look at Jiu You, who was by the fire, and whispered, "This time I'm going to integrate the Unperishable Flame."
Jiu You's hand, which had been fiddling with the fire, froze, as she lifted her head, staring at Mu Chen with surprise in her eyes. She then knit her eyebrows together and said, "It has only been a month, isn't it too hasty?"
She had intended to give Mu Chen two months to complete the cultivation of his spiritual energies, but now he had already brought forward the process by half. It was a very dangerous thing to integrate the spiritual energies completely with the Unperishable Flame. In the case where both the energy and the Flame got out of control, they would not be able to control it.
"I'm not being hasty, I really feel that it's time." Mu Chen smiled slightly.
If Mu Chen didn't grasp that wonderful feeling, he was afraid that he didn't know when it would happen again, so he didn't want the opportunity to slip away.
Jiu You stared at Mu Chen, as the latter had an earnest look in his eyes, which made it clear that he was not joking with her. She remained silent for a moment, then nodded lightly.
"Very well then."
"It has been hard on you."
Mu Chen smiled gratefully, and then gradually closed his eyes. With a motion of his mind, he entered the Sovereign Sea, where the vast spiritual energies roared like the ocean. However, Mu Chen's spiritual energies within his Sovereign Sea were slightly different than they were a month ago, for his energies now seem to be mixed with a hint of purple. This was the reason why Jiu You had burned his spiritual energies for a month using the Unperishable Flame.
Whoosh.
On the surface of the Sovereign Sea, a clear and crisp sound of water trickling rang out suddenly. Then, a shadow slowly emerged, the silhouette looking exactly like Mu Chen, as it was his soul.
After successfully cultivating and condensing the Sovereign Sea, Mu Chen's soul had been hidden within the Sovereign Sea. The soul sat cross-legged on the surface of the sea, as he lifted his head and murmured, "Let us begin."
On the mountain, Jiu You sat cross-legged in front of Mu Chen, her face solemn. A month of gruelling torment was what had been required for this seemingly simple step.
She let out a huff of fragrance gently, as she stretched out her finger, lightly placing it between Mu Chen's eyebrows. Purple flames suddenly emerged from Jiu You's fingers, then immediately turned into small pillars of fire, which surged directly into Mu Chen's body. As the purple flame poured into his body, Mu Chen shivered with a fierce tremor, and with his teeth clenched tightly, he remained silent.
Within the Sovereign Sea, Mu Chen's soul lifted his head to look up, his eyes somber. His vision filled with a purple glow, although that was not of his own doing. Rather, it was due to the sea of purple flames in the air above the Sovereign Sea, as it swept through with a terrifying momentum.
This time, the Unperishable Flame began to reveal its true ferocity. This experience would determine whether or not Mu Chen's excruciating cultivation within the past one month would see results.