Battle Through the Heavens

As the clusters of invisible flame entered into the forehead of Xiao Yan and the others, the bodies of the eleven of them immediately began to tremble via a varying degree. Soon after, their faces began to flush red to the degree of burning coal. There were even threads of white fog seeping out from everyone’s head.

Su Qian nodded slightly as he saw the flushed red faces of the eleven of them. He instructed the two Elders. “Watch them carefully. Don’t let any accidents occur.”

The two Elders bowed and received the orders. A gray-robed Elder among them sighed, “I wonder how many people will be able to successfully endure this time around?”

“This kind of refinement of one’s body with the ‘Heart Flame’ is far from those ‘Heart Flames’ used to train with in the upper few levels can compare with. This kind of searing pain is something that even someone with great mental strength may not have absolute confidence in being able to endure through it all.” Su Qian spoke faintly.

The other Elder smiled bitterly and nodded. He said, “There were only four among the last batch of top ten in the ‘Strong Ranking’ who managed to endure through it. The remaining six failed and even ended up receiving serious internal injuries. They had to recuperate for a full two to three months before they completely recovered. Although the benefit of this refinement of one’s body with the ‘Heart Flame’ is sufficient to cause one to be envious, it is not that easy to enjoy it.”

“Let’s see their own luck. It is nothing much if they fail, but if the ‘Heart Flame’ successfully refines their body, it can allow them to have a slightly easier time advancing to a Dou Wang in the future. Even though it cannot achieve the result of directly raising their strength to a Dou Wang, most of those who can enter the top ten of the ‘Strong Ranking’ are those with excellent talent. As long as it is not someone with extremely terrible luck, they would definitely have the chance to advance to the Dou Wang class after exhausting five or ten years.” Su Qian carelessly spoke. His gaze immediately turned toward the enormous, deep hole behind him and frowned slightly as he spoke, “How is the ‘Fallen Heart Flame’ recently? Is there any activity?”

Hearing Su Qian’s question, the earlier gray-robed Elder hurriedly spoke, “The ‘Fallen Heart Flame’ is unusually quiet during this period of time. It even reached the point where not the slightest activity has appeared. If it were not because we were surveying traces of its activity, it is likely that we would have thought that it had just quietly fled.”

“No activity?” Su Qian was not only not happy when he heard this, but his face had also gradually become solemn. During all these many years, the ‘Fallen Heart Flame’ had been constantly trying to break the seal. How was it possible that it was suddenly void of activity? As the saying goes, ‘an abnormality is usually the result of a demon’. Was the ‘Fallen Heart Flame’ brewing something?

Su Qian’s expression become increasingly serious as this thought lingered in his heart. A moment later, he asked in a deep voice, “How is the seal?”

“We have summoned all the Elders within the Inner Academy, gathering together eighteen people and spending five days to completely repair all the seals that had begun to collapse from the attacks of the past.” The other Elder eyed Su Qian’s serious expression and smiled as he continued. “First Elder need not be too worried. Even if the first layer of the seal was unluckily broken, there is still the seal that the Headmaster personally put in place at the surface of this ‘Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower’. It is quite difficult for this ‘Fallen Heart Flame’ to break through it.”

Su Qian knit his brows and reprimanded, “Don’t underestimate this ‘Fallen Heart Flame’. A ‘Heavenly Flame’ is agglomerated from the most destructive natural strength over an extremely long time. Its strength could be said to be frightening. Should any mishap happen, this entire Inner Academy would be instantly destroyed. Such a price is something that our Jia Nan Academy cannot afford.”

That Elder was somewhat ashamed at being reprimanded by Su Qian.

“Assign more people to pay attention to the ‘Fallen Heart Flame’. Release the signal the moment there is any activity. I have already informed the Outer Academy. There will be people swiftly hurrying over the moment that something goes wrong with the ‘Fallen Heart Flame’.” Su Qian spoke in a deep voice.

“Yes sir!” The two Elders hurriedly responded respectfully the moment they heard this.

“Additionally, you should pay more attention to these little fellows. Don’t let anything happen. I will go to the lowest level below to investigate the situation.” Su Qian’s body moved as his words sounded. He immediately disappeared from this spot in a strange manner, leaving behind the two Elders who were looking at one another.

……

Pain. A pain that seeped out from deep within his bones!

This was what Xiao Yan was currently feeling. After that invisible flame invaded his body, it was as though his entire body was thrown into a fire cauldron. Moreover, this flame was burning his body from within. The raging fire, the hot temperature, the momentum… it seemed to be refusing to give up until it incinerated his body into ashes.

White fog seeped out from his head. The Qi Paths, bones, and even blood within Xiao Yan’s body appeared to have become invisible at this moment. The invisible flame seeped out from all over his body much like maggots in tarsal bones and began to incinerate anything that could be burned within his body. The Dou Qi that was hidden within the Dou Crystal was also unable to avoid this calamity. Although Xiao Yan could not see within the Dou Crystal of his body, he was able to sense that the Dou Qi within it was like floodwater that churned repeatedly…

Under this deep bone-searing pain, each second of each minute felt like it took days or even years. Although Xiao Yan had the impulse of fainting on the spot, he was able to sense that his organs appeared to be gradually becoming stronger under the incineration of the invisible flame. This also repeatedly increased the intensity of the pain. Such a body refinement was just like a kind of torture.

After these two years of training and experience, Xiao Yan had confidence in his determination and toughness. Moreover, he was also a little adapted to the ‘Heavenly Flame’ because he had already successfully refined the ‘Green Lotus Core Flame’. Even though this was the case, he was also made this miserable because of the refinement of the ‘Heart Flame’. It was difficult to imagine just what kind of frightening degree the searing pain was to those people who had not adapted to it.

Endure. This was the word that was repeated in Xiao Yan’s heart as he clenched his teeth. At this moment, he could only use this self-hypnotizing method to cause himself to endure for a longer time.

The torment passed by extremely slowly. However, Xiao Yan gradually became numb as this kind of intense pain continued. After his heart became a little less focused on the pain, he was finally able to divide his attention to sense the many slight changes that his body was undergoing under the calcination of the ‘Essence Heart Flame’…

The slightly superficial Dou Qi due to his strength having soared abruptly by two stars some time earlier, was gradually becoming substantial at an extremely joyous speed under this kind of calcination of the ‘Heart Flame’. Xiao Yan was able to sense that the superficial feeling in the Dou Crystal when he maneuvered his Dou Qi in the past was swiftly disappearing. The Dou Crystal once again recovered to the kind of substantial feeling of the past.

His bones, Qi Paths, and even muscles were just like metal under the intense flame as they were being refined at an extremely slow pace until they became tougher and filled with explosive strength…

Due to various reasons, Xiao Yan luckily endured past the most painful period. However, some of the others were not so lucky. Around an hour or so after the ‘Essence Heart Flame’ entered their bodies, a student became the first to show abnormal signs. His originally flush red expression instantly became pale-white and his body trembled swiftly like he was having a seizure.

Those two Elders who had been paying attention to Xiao Yan and the others naturally discovered the unusual action of this student at the first instance. Their expressions immediately changed a little. With a flash of their bodies, they appeared beside the latter. Those shriveled hands were extended at the same time before they gently landed on the back of that student. Powerful Dou Qi suddenly surged into the latter’s body from their palms.

As the Dou Qi surged out, the student’s body trembled even more intensely. Finally, a flushed redness surged onto his pale face that was as white as sheet. A fresh mouthful of bright-red blood was involuntarily spat out.

The fresh blood landed on the ground and immediately let out a ‘chi chi’ sound. A wave of white smoke rose before finally leaving behind a shallow bright red mark on the ground.

That student also slowly opened his eyes after that fresh blood was spat out. He appeared to clearly understand that he had failed and his eyes were filled with dejection and helplessness.

“You should rest by the side first. Failure is something frequent when the ‘Heart Flame’ refines one’s body. You need not be too concerned over it.” The gray-robed man eyed the dejected expression of the student and comforted him. However, his voice had just sounded when another student’s body swiftly convulsed. The two Elders could only bitterly smile and flashed to that person’s side. They repeated their actions and forced the ‘Heart Flame’ out from within that student’s body.

The failure of the first two people appeared to have caused a chain effect. Within a short hour, there were another three people who failed, causing the two Elders to be awfully busy.

After they finished dealing with the final student who had a problem, the two Elders looked at the six people that still remained. The Elders appeared to have laid down a heavy burden as they sighed when they saw that the aura of these people were still stable despite their faces being flushed red. These six people had clearly endured past the most dangerous period. As long as nothing seriously wrong happened after this, they should be able to be successful.

“Looks like there will be a few more people who succeed this time around compared to the last batch.” An Elder wiped his perspiration as he smiled and spoke.

The other Elder nodded. His gaze looked toward the five people who were somewhat dispirited due to their failure and helplessly shook their heads. He got up and said, “Take care of these people first. I will send them out of the tower.” As he said this, he turned toward the five people, waved his hand, and led them back up the route they had taken to arrive here.

……

The refinement of one’s body by the ‘Essence Heart Flame’ was something that exhausted quite a lot of time. Although Xiao Yan and the five others had endured past the most difficult period, they were receiving the calcination of the ‘Heart Flame’ during the subsequent three days. During this calcination, they were able to clearly sense that the interior of their body, regardless of whether it was their Qi Paths, bones, etc., were greatly strengthened.

On the third day, the refinement of their bodies by the ‘Heart Flame’ gradually approached its end. The flush redness on their faces was gradually withdrawn. Waves of auras of varying strength soared from within their bodies. Although this aura did not differ much in strength compared to before their bodies were refined, their aura was clearly much more substantial compared to a couple of days earlier…

However, just as everyone was about to finish successfully, the expression of Su Qian, who had been monitoring the activity of the ‘Fallen Heart Flame’ at the lowest level of the ‘Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower’ suddenly changed drastically.