Little Aunt fell into contemplation. She seemed to understand what Lord Ximen was getting at.
Sure enough, Ximen Qianxue continued, “Even the Ruos avoid the fire within the Eight Trigrams Furnace. Except for the sub-primal Ruos, all other grades of Ruo will be scorched if touched, and burned to death if they fall into it.”
Little Aunt suddenly remembered something and asked, “Is it the Samadhi True Flame?”
Ximen Qianxue nodded and said, “Fire of wood, fire of stone, fire of air.”
Little Aunt nodded in turn. She knew this concept. The Samadhi True Flame was famous throughout the realm; it was also known as Sovereign Fire, Minister Fire, and People’s Fire. Even many supremely powerful God Generals within Heaven feared it. The fire being able to kill the Ruos was perfectly reasonable.
Ximen Qianxue said, “So now you understand, don’t you? The Samadhi True Flame from the alchemy furnace isn’t burning Heaven to destroy it. It’s protecting it, so that when you rebuild this place one day, it won’t take too much time or effort.”
Suddenly, Little Aunt was enlightened. No wonder flames blanketed every corner of Heaven. Even the stones were burning. Yet no matter what material it was, nothing ever fully burned away. The flames never destroyed anything completely, and they never went out.
So the purpose of the burning wasn’t destruction, it was protection.
“But the flames inside Heaven... they seem, they seem...” asked Little Aunt. She still had doubts.
Ximen Qianxue responded, “They don’t seem to be pure Samadhi True Fire, correct?”
“Yes, yes!” replied Little Aunt, nodding repeatedly.
Ximen Qianxue said, “The fire of wood, fire of stone, and fire of air were separated, so it is not the complete Samadhi True Flame.”
Little Aunt immediately understood. The power of the Samadhi True Flame was truly terrifying. If it had been the complete version, the ruins of Heaven would have long since been incinerated and refined. Even with Ximen Qianxue’s nearly unfathomable control over the furnace fire, it would have been nearly impossible to let it burn freely for hundreds of years without losing control.
Moreover, if it had been the full Samadhi True Flame, future generations of the human race would never have been able to set foot in Heaven again, and all subsequent plans would have become impossible.
“Listen carefully.” Ximen Qianxue suddenly recited a mysterious incantation.
Her voice was transmitted directly and secretly into Little Aunt’s ears.
Little Aunt was briefly stunned and quickly fell into a profound and unfathomable state. Ximen Qianxue’s voice echoed like it came from the edge of the heavens as Little Aunt felt waves of Dao resonance pouring into her heart. Her thoughts became crystal clear; her mind was transparent and unclouded as though struck by sudden enlightenment as a great clarity flooded her entire being. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩✶𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚✶𝕟𝕖𝕥
She didn’t know how much time had passed when Ximen Qianxue’s voice faded away. Little Aunt snapped back to awareness. Inspired, she moved her fingers.
The Eight Trigrams Furnace swelled with the wind, expanding in an instant. In the blink of an eye, it became as large as a divine mountain, radiating brilliant light as it hovered above the Thirty-Third Heaven. Waves of Dao principles rippled outward, and its black-and-white flames flared like a burning storm, dyeing the entire firmament.
“Open,” Little Aunt uttered a low command.
At that moment, she felt as though she had completely merged with the alchemy furnace. The lid of the furnace lifted. A strange suction force surged outward, and in that instant, a breathtaking scene unfolded.
Countless flames within Heaven suddenly soared into the sky. Clusters of fire detached from their previous surfaces, scattering like endless stars across the void. They streaked through the air toward the Eight Trigrams Furnace suspended above the Thirty-Third Heaven like swallows returning to their nests. They surged into the alchemy furnace one after another.
The Eight Trigrams Furnace was fully activated. It let out a deep, resonant roar, like the toll of ancient bells and sacred drums.
The eight trigram symbols on the furnace's body suddenly burst with divine brilliance, projecting eight colossal formation diagrams into the surrounding void. These arrays rotated in the eight directions, east, south, west, north, above, below, left, and right. It formed a massive cube that enclosed the entirety of the Thirty-Third Heaven.
When the Mother of All Beasts witnessed this scene, it let out a piercing, furious roar. Its path of retreat had been completely sealed. The Heaven Array Formation cast by the Eight Trigrams Furnace had enveloped the Thirty-Third Heaven, cutting it off from the outside world and forming a prison eerily reminiscent of the ancient sealing grounds.
The beast was already covered in wounds. The Blood-Drinking Sword, dancing in crisscrossing arcs with Li Xiaofei, slashed again and again at its massive body at a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow.
Although each strike only left a wound hundreds of kilometers long, hardly fatal when compared to the beast's immense size and no more than superficial cuts, its pale golden blood was being continuously drawn out by the Blood-Drinking Sword.
This constant, uncontrollable, and irreversible loss of blood posed a grave threat. It was bleeding without end. Its strength withered further with every drop lost. On the other hand, the Blood-Drinking Sword, having feasted on that divine blood, only grew stronger. Its vitality was awakening, and its aura surging upward with no end in sight.
As time passed, the damage dealt by each strike increased rapidly. The Mother of All Beasts had long since desired to flee. But now? All routes had been sealed. At last, it realized it had walked straight into a trap. A trap even more terrifying and fatal than the one it had encountered hundreds of years ago.
Last time, it had only been sealed. But this time, it might actually be killed. Unwilling to be slaughtered, the Mother of All Beasts launched a desperate counterattack. Its massive body suddenly detonated.
The explosion released an annihilation force dozens of times greater than before. The surge of power plunged the entire Thirty-Third Heaven into utter chaos. The explosion was an outward burst of energy like the explosion of a galaxy, expanding violently and immediately placing immense pressure on the surrounding Heaven Array Diagrams projected by the Eight Trigrams Furnace.
Little Aunt felt her whole body tremble violently. The backlash transmitted from the Eight Trigrams Furnace was overwhelmingly forceful, and cracks formed across her skin like shattered porcelain. Scarlet blood burst from those fractures.
At that critical moment, a soft, pale hand pressed gently on her shoulder. Though unable to directly intervene in the battle between Li Xiaofei and the Mother of All Beasts, Tan Qingying finally found a moment where her abilities could shine.
An immense wave of destructive force poured into Tan Qingying’s body. But this time, she did not suffer injuries. Her body shimmered with an unusual dark glow. Dim, shifting hues flowed constantly across her face. This was her new ability.
After being reforged and transformed by the Blood-Drinking Sword, her entire physique had undergone a complete rebirth. She had seemingly gained a rare and mysterious ability, one that allowed her to temporarily store incoming destructive force within her body.
Then, at a chosen moment, she could release it in a devastating burst. It resembled a divine martial version of the Star Shifting Reversal Technique, but even more profound.
Of course, this storage ability had its limits. After merely twenty seconds, the damage Tan Qingying had absorbed reached her maximum threshold. The dark glow on her face flickered more and more rapidly. Without hesitation, she raised her left hand and aimed at the incoming shockwave.
The stored, devastating force burst from her palm in a strange pillar of night-colored light, mercilessly blasting toward the center of the battlefield. There, a smaller version of the Mother of All Beasts had emerged within the chaotic gray fog of the explosion. The beam struck it squarely and without flourish.
The Mother of All Beasts was sent hurtling back and crashed heavily into the wall of the Eight Trigrams Heaven Array.