The Fire-Swallowing Taoist

His physical body had transformed into Qi, but Qi cannot contain fire. Fire needs fuel, a vessel, and a foundation more stable than mere Qi. The flames danced wildly within the white ball of light he had transformed into, each flicker scorching his spirit, consciousness, and even his very existence.

He could feel himself dissipating, not dying, but dissipating more thoroughly than death. His Qi had reached its ultimate state, free from the constraints of the physical body, and his consciousness and spirit had lost their last anchor, being burned into nothingness by the Samadhi Fire.

Everyone watching stood up. Lu Jin took a step forward, but Li Muxuan grabbed her tightly. Zuo Ruotong's white robe billowed violently in the wind, and his fingers trembled slightly. He could see what his disciple was going through.

But Liu Jin was waiting. He was waiting for an opportunity. He deliberately slowed down his breakthrough by half a beat, deliberately letting the Samadhi True Fire backfire on himself. He knew he couldn't withstand it; he had known it for a long time. He knew it when the Zhuge family ignited the Samadhi True Fire, and his deductions over the past two years had also told him that with his current foundation, it was impossible for him to simultaneously withstand the Reverse Rebirth Triple Stage and the Samadhi True Fire.

Therefore, he needs an anchor point. A foundation that is more stable than Qi, purer than the physical body, and more suitable than any material in this world to bear the Samadhi True Fire. And he cannot find this anchor point in this world.

So he had a different idea.

Just as the Samadhi True Fire was about to completely burn away his consciousness, Liu Jin moved. He mobilized the golden finger energy that had accumulated at the edge of his inner vision for more than two years—a power that did not belong to this world and was transformed from the gaze of Earth's audience. He forced the Samadhi True Fire out of his body and pushed it in the opposite direction along the extremely thin connection at the edge of his inner vision, transforming the flame into a burning hand.

The fiery hand followed the invisible thread, flowing upstream, traversing the edges of the inner landscape, crossing the barrier of the void, and breaking through the divide between the two worlds. He had noticed before, when the automated cultivation device was supplying him with energy, that the passage was bidirectional. Energy could come, and so could the flame.

On Earth's screens, all viewers simultaneously witnessed the same scene: a ghostly blue flame emerged from between Liu Jin's eyebrows in the live broadcast.

It wasn't a special effect. It wasn't a glitch. It wasn't an illusion. The flame burst from the screen, burned in the very center for a full three seconds, turning the surrounding inch of pixels pure white.

Then, a hand, a hand woven from eerie blue flames and pure white energy, reached out from the screen. The hand didn't harm anyone; it simply touched the screen lightly, causing a crack to appear and a fragment to fall from it. It was a fragment smaller than a fingernail, shimmering with iridescent light. It wasn't any known substance; no physical property could describe it. Yet, it was a real fragment, the very medium that transcended dimensions, connecting two worlds.

An alarm blared simultaneously in the minds of all viewers: [Warning! Illegal interdimensional operation detected! Forced disconnection imminent!]

The fiery hand, clutching the fragment, withdrew. The live stream screen went black instantly, the chat system crashed, and all viewers' screens were left with only a continuously counting down reconnection timer. Thirty seconds. Twenty-nine seconds. Twenty-eight seconds.

"Holy crap, is this guy that crazy? The sense of oppression he exudes is completely different from what I usually see."

"It's different? It's very different. I'm sweating."

"Is it sweat? Oh, it's sweat. I thought I was sweating."

"I was wondering why I was sweating. I was relieved to see that everyone else was sweating too."

"Indeed, the boss granted us a half-day off so we could go home and freshen up, since everyone had been sweating."

"Haha, I'm fine, I just peed, and I happened to be squatting on the toilet."

"You beast, don't expose me! I'm on a date! How am I supposed to face everyone after this...?"

After the tension eased, laughter and cheers filled the air. But no one dared to consider what would happen next; after all, that was a question for the god of live streaming to ponder.

......

On the training ground, Liu Jin opened his eyes. He withdrew his right hand from mid-air, and no one saw what he did, only that his fingers seemed to grasp something in the air. Then he opened his palm.

In his palm lay a fragment, the size of a fingernail, shimmering with iridescent light. The moment the Samadhi True Fire touched that fragment, it immediately quieted down—not extinguished, but found its home. That fragment wasn't a product of this world; it came from the live-streaming system itself, a medium connecting two worlds, an anchor point transcending dimensional limitations. It didn't belong to this world, therefore it could bear laws that didn't belong to this world. Liu Jin pressed the fragment into his brow.

boom!

The Samadhi True Fire reignited with unprecedented ferocity. This time, with the fragment as its foundation, the flames were no longer destructive, but rather forging. The essence fire, the qi fire, and the divine fire surged into the fragment simultaneously, burning the seven-colored fragment into an extremely small point. Then, with this point as the center, the process of reforging Liu Jin's physical body began.

His Qi-transformed body, anchored by the fragments, reformed, no longer a mortal being, no longer pure Qi, but a completely new existence. It used real fragments as its bones, primordial Qi as its flesh and blood, and Samadhi Fire as its spirit. An unprecedented foundation for the Dao slowly took shape between his brows.

It's like a furnace. All fires converge there, refined and perfected. All flames are absorbed, transformed, and purified within it, then nourish itself. From then on, heavenly fire, earthly fire, mortal fire, and true fire can all be contained within this furnace. He simultaneously broke through the third level of the Reverse Life Triple Realm and the Samadhi True Fire, in a way that no one had ever traversed before.

The dark clouds dispersed, and the midday sun shone again on the training ground.

Liu Jin stood in the sunlight, the pale blue flame mark between his brows slowly receding and disappearing beneath his skin. His skin was no longer a simple white aura, but a translucent luster between aura and substance, with faint blue lines visible in the sunlight, like countless tiny flames slowly flowing through his meridians. His eyes opened, and deep within his pupils was a faint, seven-colored glint—the mark left by a fragment of reality. He was neither an immortal nor a human. He was the Fire-Swallowing Daoist.

Liu Jin looked down at his hands, clenched his fists, and then relaxed them. He turned around, faced the silent guests, and smiled.

"Gentlemen, you have worked hard. I have attained enlightenment and call myself the Fire Swallower!"

He cupped his hands in a gesture of respect to the four directions, then walked out of the martial arts arena. He stopped a step when he reached Lu Jin and Li Muxuan: "Don't stand there, the event is over."