Reaching the pinnacle from Doupo

Chapter 536 The Power of Devouring, the Power of Stars

"Hehe, then I'll leave it to you... my dear brother!"

Hearing Lin Yuan's words, Zi Yan smiled excitedly, her eyes sparkling with anticipation: "A ninth-grade Xuan Dan, even my father has never tasted it. I wonder what it tastes like?"

She had no doubt whatsoever about Lin Yuan's statement that he would be able to refine the Xuan Dan in a few years.

Although it is difficult to become a Grandmaster of the Profound Core Formation in several years, she believed that Lin Yuan could definitely do it.

The two had been together for many years, and Zi Yan had witnessed Lin Yuan's progress along the way, having more confidence in him than in herself.

So, no longer troubled by it, she enjoyed the food Lin Yuan had prepared while teasing Fu Xuan, appearing relaxed and carefree.

"Oh, right, this is for you!" Zi Yan seemed to suddenly remember something, stuffed the pastry in her hand into her mouth, and then handed a wisp of black flame to Lin Yuan: "My father and Uncle Jiang have already dispelled the tricks set in this Void Flame, so you can use it without worry..."

"However, in order to conduct in-depth research and find a way to deal with the Void Devouring Flame, Uncle Jiang extracted a bit of the essence from the sub-flame."

According to him, this research may take two or three years.

"Two or three years?!" Lin Yuan took the black flame and chuckled, "That's enough. I won't need it for the short term! By the way, is Senior Demon Saint happy?"

“I’m very happy!” Zi Yan shrugged and said.

"I've known Uncle Jiang for quite some time now, but this is the first time I've seen him so happy, like a child who's received a toy... Tsk, it's just a tiny flame, but if I wanted to, I could crush it in one swipe!"

"If this little fire doesn't behave, you can hand it over to me and watch me crush it in one go."

As she spoke, Zi Yan clenched her fist at the wisp of ethereal fire, as if to intimidate. A strange wave of destruction rippled out as the purple light flashed.

This is no exaggeration. Nowadays, she can take down a four-star Dou Sheng with a single punch... without any difficulty.

As a Supreme Dragon Phoenix whose combat power was developed under the careful guidance of a semi-emperor, she was a late-stage six-star Dou Sheng, and her strength was more than enough to defeat an ordinary seven-star Dou Sheng.

With such combat power, even the Pure Lotus Demon Flame wouldn't last more than a few rounds against her.

On the other side, under the shroud of this destructive wave, the pitch-black sub-flame flickered, and a faint sense of fear emanated from this rather spiritual sub-flame—now that its connection with its main body had been severed, it was weak and pitiful!
Lin Yuan released his soul power, carefully examined the ethereal flame, pondered for a moment, and then handed it to Fu Xuan.

"Fu Xuan, refine it and try to obtain its devouring power!"

"Master, don't you need it yourself?" Fu Xuan's eyes lit up with joy, and he subconsciously reached out his hand, but he immediately suppressed his desire and gently put his hand down.

"Hehe!" Lin Yuan chuckled and said gently, "You and I are fellow cultivators, what's mine is yours, and what's yours is mine. I sent Zi Yan to seize this sub-fire so that you could absorb it and complete the last piece of your cultivation puzzle."

"Besides, although the power of this fire is good, I am not yet fortunate enough to enjoy it personally!"

"The power of the Void Devouring Flame is too advanced in nature, and its power is even more domineering and strange. Even if it is just a small flame of his, I am not confident that I can completely control it."

"Even if I could fuse it into the Dry Blue Ice Flame, it's far too early now."

"In the near future, I will inevitably have to deal with the Soul Clan, and sooner or later I will use the Azure Ice Flame in front of them. If they discover that there are traces of Void Flame in my flames, wouldn't that expose our attack on Soul Wind?"

"Since Ziyan is also here, you should immediately try to refine and absorb the Daozi Fire. Her strength as a six-star Dou Sheng is enough to cover any unexpected events."

After saying that, Lin Yuan raised his hand, and the pitch-black flames immediately flew out and hovered not far in front of Fu Xuan.

After a moment's thought, he added, "If something is impossible, give up immediately!"

The Void Devouring Flame is said to be able to devour all things in heaven and earth, even energy and battle qi, making it a truly domineering devouring power.

This peculiar power of devouring has made countless powerful figures throughout history envious.

In the original timeline, even the Soul Emperor, who became a Dou Di, intended to use the Void Devouring Flame as his primordial fire.

Besides, one of the most appealing aspects of the Void Devouring Flame is that... as long as you can refine its sub-flames, there is a chance to obtain this devouring ability.

Although this devouring power cannot compare with the Void Devouring Flame itself, it is still a great tool for cultivation.

However, the Void Devouring Flame, as the strongest flame besides the Emperor Flame, coupled with its cultivation advantage, far surpasses the Pure Lotus Demon Flame. Its difficulty in devouring and refining is... incomparable to other strange flames.

In the original timeline, even the Soul Emperor, who had already become a Dou Di, was unable to completely devour and refine the Void Devouring Flame for a time, which indirectly led to his defeat.

Even Xiao Yan, a five-star Dou Sheng, could not completely control the Soul Palace Master's Sub-Fire.

In the end, it was only through the fire spirit Xiao Yi that he was able to completely transform the fire into his own, making it a powerful tool for his cultivation.

While Soul Wind's Void Flame is far less powerful than the Soul Palace Master's, Lin Yuan's cultivation level is still inferior to Xiao Yan's at that time. It would be extremely difficult and unnecessary for him to completely transform the Void Flame into his own power on his own.

On the other side, upon hearing Lin Yuan's words, the greedy Danhuo Spirit girl no longer held back.

She struggled to get up from Zi Yan's lap, grabbed the dark flames in front of her, and then sat down cross-legged on the spot.

Taking a deep breath, a pale purple flame surged from Fu Xuan's body, enveloping the wisp of black flame within. He then clenched his fist, directly merging the flame into his body.

Seeing this, Lin Yuan was a little nervous, but not too worried.

As the spirit of the elixir fire, Fu Xuan possesses extremely high innate spirituality and is naturally very sensitive to danger.

Under the watchful eyes of Lin Yuan and Zi Yan, the pitch-black flames gradually sank and merged into Fu Xuan's body. Just as it completely disappeared, a faint wisp of black flame suddenly surged from Fu Xuan's body and then quickly drilled towards her forehead.

Lin Yuan and Fu Xuan were connected in spirit, so Lin Yuan was able to sense the changes in the latter's body, and his expression changed slightly.

Faced with the sudden change, Fu Xuan remained calm and composed.

With a thought, wisps of pale purple fire quickly formed, transforming into a fire net that bound the black flame. Then, it suddenly contracted, slowly crushing the black flame into a patch of black light spots. Finally, with a sweep of the flame, it absorbed these black light spots into its body.

A moment later, pitch-black flames intertwined with pale purple flames surged out of Fu Xuan's body with a "poof," swaying and transforming into countless interwoven purple-black flame threads.

Silk threads coalesced within her body, intertwining with strands of pale purple flames. "Mystic Fire Divine Seal - Absorb!"

With a clear shout, Fu Xuan quickly formed several profound hand seals, and the threads of flame trembled slightly before converging towards her brow.

Before long, a strange lotus-shaped mark appeared between her eyebrows.

The mark is entirely purplish-black, with a purple lotus seal as the base and jet-black runes adorning the center. It looks strangely eerie, as if it could devour the entire world.

Sensing something, Fu Xuan stretched out her jade hand and gently grasped at the void in front of her.

In an instant, an invisible vortex quickly took shape, and vast amounts of energy from heaven and earth converged in his palm, transforming into a cluster of colorful energy crystals after a short while.

Fu Xuan opened his eyes, pondered for a moment, and then swallowed the energy crystals in one gulp.

Seeing this, Lin Yuan's mind stirred, and his powerful soul force seeped into Fu Xuan's body. As soon as he entered Fu Xuan's body, the mottled energy crystals were rapidly decomposed into original energy particles, which she then absorbed completely.

At the same time, Lin Yuan clearly felt an extremely pure energy suddenly appear within his body.

This extremely pure energy was fed back from Fu Xuan, who was one with him.

Sensing the abnormality within his body, Lin Yuan immediately withdrew his soul power. Then, with a thought, he slightly refined the pure energy, transforming it into battle qi and integrating it into his body.

"This...it's done?!"

Sensing the immense and pure energy, Lin Yuan's eyes lit up with joy.

For Lin Yuan, the chaotic energy of heaven and earth, like that just now, required multiple refinements to remove the unnecessary parts before it could be integrated into his body. Compared with the conversion speed and energy utilization rate shown by Fu Xuan, it was completely incomparable.

Therefore, there is only one conclusion—Fu Xuan succeeded; she successfully obtained the devouring power of the Void Devouring Flame!
Her current energy conversion efficiency is several times higher than before.

As for Fu Xuan himself, after absorbing that energy, his aura also changed slightly—although very slightly, it did indeed improve by a trace.

This rate of progress is almost perceptible.

Sensing the changes within himself, Fu Xuan's face lit up with undisguised joy. He got up, ran to Lin Yuan's side, and looked up with a big smile.

"Master, I succeeded! The power of devouring is indeed powerful!"

"Fu Xuan, you did a great job!" Lin Yuan smiled gently, reached out and patted her head, and said softly, "This way, our breakthroughs will definitely be smoother in the future..."

"Hmm!" Fu Xuan's lips curled into a slight smile as he nodded emphatically.

"It's a pity I didn't have a chance to show off!" Zi Yan finished the last piece of pastry, stood up and walked to Lin Yuan and Fu Xuan's side, smiling as she said, "However, I do have something that should be very beneficial to you, especially to little Fu Xuan now..."

As she spoke, she flipped her hand, and a purplish-black crystal the size of a head appeared in her palm, shimmering with dazzling and strange starlight.

"This power of the stars... so pure, so concentrated!!" Fu Xuan's eyes lit up. This energy gave her an extremely familiar feeling, as if it should have belonged to her all along.

"The energy cloak of the Three Thousand Burning Flames? You've refined it to this level? Good... it'll come in handy this time!"

Lin Yuan raised an eyebrow slightly, and said with great interest.

Lin Yuan was no stranger to this energy—he had seen it several years ago when he first entered the star field; it was the huge dragon-shaped energy cloak that enveloped the Three Thousand Burning Flames when the Three Thousand Burning Flames were still sealed in the star field.

The three giants once said: "If the energy of the Three Thousand Burning Flames were to erupt, it could destroy the entire Holy Pill City."

With a combat power of only seven or eight-star Dou Zun's Origin Fire, it naturally lacked that kind of destructive power. What they were referring to was the dragon-shaped energy cloak that enveloped the Origin Fire.

Over the long course of time, the Three Thousand Blazing Flames accumulated the power of the vast stars, its energy comparable to that of a half-saint.

However, due to its lack of spirituality, the primordial fire of the Three Thousand Burning Flames can only reach the level of a seven or eight-star Dou Zun, and cannot absorb the star power of the half-saint level and transform it into its own primordial fire.

To raise its upper limit and reach a higher realm, the Three Thousand Burning Flames can only seek opportunities to increase its own spiritual potential.

That's why the Three Thousand Blazing Flames wanted to leave the star field.

It's important to understand that different types of flames generally don't leave their birthplace on their own, as that's the most favorable environment for their growth. However, the Three Thousand Burning Flames overcame its instincts and wanted to leave the star field… because it clearly understood that staying in the star field was simply a waste of time!
As for the unabsorbable semi-saint level stellar energy, it used the special properties of its own stellar fire to condense the stellar energy into a dragon-shaped energy coat, thus preserving it.

Although the Three Thousand Burning Flames cannot control those powers to unleash combat power comparable to a half-saint.

But if things really come to a point where both sides have to fight to the death, the Three Thousand Burning Flames, driven to the brink of despair, can choose to self-destruct its primordial fire, triggering the complete eruption of its semi-saint-level energy, and perish together with everyone else.

Otherwise, how could its mere seven-star Dou Zun level primordial fire have kept the three giants of the Pill Tower helpless?
The three giants of the Pill Tower are all at the level of a Ninth-Rank Dou Zun.

For a long time, the three giants did not take serious action against it for two reasons: firstly, as alchemists, they naturally cherished the strange fire; secondly, the Three Thousand Burning Flames could cause great damage to Saint Pill City if it went berserk.

Lin Yuan naturally did not overlook this enormous power. When Elder Qingshan went to the Pill Tower to retrieve the Three Thousand Burning Flames, he also sealed and brought back that semi-saint-level energy.

However, he had not found a good way to utilize that energy for a long time, so it had been shelved and sealed away on Fanglong Island.

Now that Fu Xuan has acquired the power of devouring, he can indeed utilize that energy.

The Three Thousand Burning Flames were originally the building blocks of Fu Xuan. The Star Power, which shared the same origin as the Three Thousand Burning Flames and had been refined by Zi Yan, was an excellent tonic for her. After refining the Void Flame and gaining the ability to devour, she could also quickly digest that energy.

In this way, even without using other resources, the enormous energy required for Fu Xuan to advance to the level of a half-saint is already more than enough!
Fu Xuan himself clearly understood this, however...

Looking at Fu Xuan's eager eyes, Zi Yan smiled slyly, tossing the energy crystal in her hand and said, "Hehe, little Fu Xuan, if you say 'Sister Zi Yan is the best, I like Sister Zi Yan the most,' I'll give you this crystal of star power!"

After a brief pause, she smiled enticingly at the spirit of the alchemical fire: "This energy, I had the elders refine it for a long time, it's much purer than before..."

Upon hearing this, Fu Xuan fell silent, but a hint of interest flashed in his eyes.

(End of this chapter)