Battle Through the Heavens: A Dragon at the Start

Chapter 19 Burning Body with Strange Flames

The moment he swallowed the fire seed, Qi Lie felt as if he had been struck by lightning, his body trembling violently. His face, which still had some color in it, suddenly turned deathly pale.

The fire seed entered his body and split into tiny, two-colored flames. These flames, containing terrifying energy, roamed haphazardly through his meridians. Even with the resistance of the Ice Spirit Cold Spring and his own battle qi, they still permeated with terrifyingly high temperatures. The intense pain of burning his meridians and the extreme cold of the Ice Spirit Cold Spring caused Qi Lie's face to contort instantly, and his body to convulse. He almost lost control of his external energy shield.

Enduring the burning pain emanating from his body, Qi Lie closed his eyes and gradually sank his mind into his body, beginning to make initial attempts to contact the wisp of Yin-Yang dual flames that traversed his meridians.

The raging strange fire was not so easy to tame. Qi Lie tried time and time again to guide the strange fire and make it flow along the designated meridians, but he failed time and time again.

One failure, two failures, three failures...

Qi Lie not only had to try to refine the strange fire, but also had to spare a bit of his mind to maintain the protective shield around his body so as not to be attacked from both inside and outside by the strange fire.

Extreme pain tormented him relentlessly. The energy shield around him was incredibly illusory, indicating that his fighting spirit was nearly exhausted. In his repeated attempts to refine the strange fire, Qi Lie's soul power was also being rapidly depleted. His reactions gradually became sluggish, and his consciousness began to blur.

"laugh!"

With a faint sound, the energy shield around Qi Lie shattered and dissipated, and the raging strange fire instantly engulfed and submerged him.

"ah!!!"

His unprotected flesh and blood body was instantly charred black by the strange fire. The intense burning pain forced Qi Lie, who was already somewhat dazed, to regain some of his senses, and he couldn't help but let out a painful and shrill howl.

Under the scorching heat, cracks quickly appeared in the storage ring in Qi Lie's hand, and it soon shattered. All the items inside scattered, and most of them were instantly burned by the strange fire and turned into nothingness. Only a few high-grade pills contained special ingredients that could withstand such high temperatures, but they were also slowly deforming.

The only thing that remained completely unaffected by the burning of the strange fire was the remnant of the Pure Lotus Demon Flame.

After a short while, Qi Lie regained some of his senses. He tried again to guide the fire within his body along the designated meridians, but he failed time and time again. At the same time, the extreme pain of being scorched by the strange fire caused his resentment to grow, and he gradually became ruthless and insane.

"Mysterious Spirit... Flame Technique..."

Qi Lie began to circulate his cultivation technique, directly absorbing the energy of the surrounding strange fire!

The black and white flame energy was drawn by the technique, forming a flame vortex around Qi Lie before being absorbed into his body.

The strange fire energy entered his body. A small portion was forcibly refined into battle qi by Qi Lie through his cultivation technique, while the majority was found in his meridians and transformed into wisps of flame, which then merged into one, growing stronger and stronger.

As the strange fire within his body grew stronger, the melting of the Ice Spirit Cold Spring accelerated, and the pain Qi Lie felt became increasingly intense. The extreme pain even made Qi Lie consider suicide!

Qi Lie gritted his teeth and crushed the thought into dust in his mind.

"Come on! Burn me alive!"

Qi Lie shouted hoarsely, while frantically absorbing the surrounding energy. Even if he couldn't refine it, he would force it into his body!

I'd rather die on the path of refining a different kind of flame!

As more and more intense heat energy surged into his body, the Yin-Yang Twin Flames grew stronger, seemingly about to grow and solidify within Qi Lie's body.

Just as Qi Lie was frantically absorbing the strange fire with the thought of going to his death, a wisp of flame that had split off from the fire seed in his body seemed to be influenced by the energy that Qi Lie had refined. It quietly began to travel through his meridians along the path of Qi Lie's cultivation technique.

At this moment, Qi Lie did not realize this in time. The pain brought him to the brink of mental collapse. He subconsciously circulated his cultivation technique to refine the energy, while repeatedly trying to draw the fire seed. This seemed to have become his last instinct.

With the first spark of fire compliant, a second, a third... quickly followed.

Then, in his dazed state, Qi Lie vaguely realized this, because the first spark of fire had already completed a cycle within his body and established a connection with his consciousness!

However, this was not a life-saving turning point for Qi Lie, because he had no way to store the spirit within his body, and according to Yao Chen, he would ultimately be burned to ashes.

At this moment, Qi Lie's soul power was almost completely exhausted, and he was in a dazed and semi-conscious state. He naturally knew what would happen to him if he failed to absorb the spirit.

Qi Lie was not afraid of his impending death. Instead, a slight upturn of his lips revealed a hideous and terrifying smile on his disfigured face.

He's no worse than anyone else, he just lacks a bit of luck.

"Heh...haha...battle spirit...the mainland...it wasn't a wasted trip..."

Qi Lie managed to utter a weak, hoarse sound, and then his charred head slowly lowered. Finally, his consciousness faded into darkness, and the intense pain disappeared.

As Qi Lie fell into a coma, the cultivation technique within his body immediately ceased operating. However, the strange fire energy that should have stopped being absorbed strangely did not stop and continued to pour into Qi Lie's body...

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Jia Ma Empire.

In a spacious and secluded courtyard in the northern part of the holy city of Gama, an eight or nine-year-old girl in green was swinging her little fists with great seriousness. Although her movements were stiff, they were still quite impressive for a little girl.

Not far away, an elderly man with white hair stood with his arms crossed, quietly watching the girl in green practice, his eyes filled with satisfaction.

After a long while, the little girl stopped practicing. She was slightly out of breath, and fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. However, she did not rest. Instead, she walked up to the old man, looked up at him, and asked in her childish voice, "Grandpa Hai, has Qinglin finished practicing?"

The old man smiled and nodded, saying, "Good, Qinglin is excellent. Take advantage of this time to meditate and cultivate, absorbing battle qi for even better results."

"Um!"

Qinglin nodded, then turned and went back to her room to cultivate.

Hai Bodong watched Qinglin return to the house, then turned his gaze to the roof, where a little girl in white sat quietly, resting her chin on her hands, looking somewhat bored.

Sensing Hai Bodong's gaze, Zi Yan glanced down and asked somewhat impatiently, "Old man Hai, what are you looking at? When is Brother Qi coming back?"

Hai Bodong shook his head helplessly and said, "I don't know. The Haiming Empire is too far away from the Jia Ma Empire. Young Master Qi traveled by flying magical beast. It will probably take four months to travel back and forth."

Zi Yan shouted, "Brother Qi has been gone for five months!"

"Young Master Qi is still looking for a Spirit Gathering Vessel over there. I've never heard of it before, so it'll probably be hard to find. Let's wait a bit longer."

"Sigh!" Zi Yan sighed heavily, resting her chin on her hands and gazing at the distant sky. She muttered to herself, "Brother Qi, you can clearly fly, so why are you riding a flying magical beast? It's so slow!"

"The pills you made for me are running low. If I finish them and you're still not back..."

Thinking that she didn't know when her brother Qi would be back, Zi Yan's face immediately hardened, and she looked a little unhappy. She took out a pill, hesitated for a moment, and then put it in her mouth, biting it hard a few times.

"...Hmph, I'll make you make a ton of pills as punishment!"