Devouring Demon Fire

"Lanruo Temple is just outside the city. I don't know which direction it is, but it's definitely not far." Zhao Fengnian said, then suddenly slapped his forehead. "Oh right, that weasel you killed earlier, brother, was also a frequent visitor to Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. The density of monsters in this place is quite high."

After listening, Liu Jin remained silent for a while. He had heard the story of Nie Xiaoqian; there had been too many film adaptations, so even without reading the original novel, he knew the general outline. A female ghost controlled by a tree demon, a scholar with no strength to even kill a chicken, and a swordsman carrying a sword case. He silently calculated the timeline and the strength of each party in his mind.

The Tree Demon Granny, having cultivated for a thousand years, can control a group of female ghosts to absorb people's yang energy for her. Yan Chixia, capable of slaying the thousand-year-old Tree Demon, should be among the top tier of cultivation in this world. But just how strong is the thousand-year-old Tree Demon?

What exactly Yan Chixia's cultivation level is remains unknown until one has witnessed it firsthand. In the Republican era timeline, he relied on his understanding of the plot and the aid of his cheat-like abilities to gain an advantage at every step. Now, the plot does exist, but there are too many versions, making it difficult to recall the details, and the world rules are also different.

"Let's go into the city and take a look." Liu Jin strode towards the city gate.

"Alright." Zhao Fengnian was about to follow when Liu Jin stopped and glanced at him again: "Put away the essence fire first. There are too many people and too many eyes in the city. If you walk around carrying a flame, aren't you just obviously telling the monsters that there's a cultivator here?"

Zhao Fengnian looked down at the small, eerie blue flame on his chest, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Brother, I haven't even started refining it yet, how do I extinguish this flame?"

"Swallow it. The essence fire is your own fire. Although it hasn't been refined yet, it has already recognized you as its master. Swallowing it won't harm you; it will find its way to your dantian on its own."

Zhao Fengnian, with some skepticism, brought the flame to his lips, took a deep breath, and swallowed it. A warm sensation slid from his throat into his chest, then slowly settled in his lower abdomen, like a small sun shining inside.

He smacked his lips; there was no taste, but his complexion had noticeably improved. The Gluttony Mark had been temporarily suppressed by the essence fire. Although it hadn't been completely refined, at least it was no longer frantically devouring his life force.

The two entered Jinhua City. The city was no different from any other ancient county town, with bluestone paved roads and wooden shops on both sides, selling cloth, medicine, and pastries, their signs swaying gently in the wind.

The pedestrians on the street were dressed in long gowns and short tunics, and occasionally one or two scholars in tattered clothes could be seen hurrying by with books in their hands.

Liu Jin found an inn and asked for two rooms. The innkeeper looked up at the strange pair: a distinguished young man and a fat man covered in mud. But the innkeeper was obviously knowledgeable and didn't ask any questions. He took the money and handed over two copper keys.

Over the next few days, Liu Jin and Zhao Fengnian were both busy. Zhao Fengnian locked himself in his room every day to refine the essence fire, howling in pain.

As Liu Jin passed by his door, he could hear muffled groans coming from inside, accompanied by occasional self-hypnotic phrases like "I'm not hungry, I'm not hungry, I'm not hungry."

But he never slacked off for a single day. Every time Liu Jin saw him, he was more disheveled than the last time, his face sallow, his eyes sunken, and his hair soaked with sweat and plastered to his forehead, but his eyes were brighter than ever.

Those were the marks left when the Mark of Gluttony was forced back inch by inch by the essence of fire, and also the medals he had won back his body's sovereignty little by little.

Liu Jin, meanwhile, was pondering his own affairs in the backyard. He opened his palm, and a wisp of pale yellow flame emerged from the inner realm—the Lingzhi Demon Flame.

After leaving the weasel, the flame became even purer, free from any demonic influence, leaving only the most authentic vitality of vegetation. He opened his mouth and swallowed the demonic fire, closed his eyes, and began to smelt it.

The Qi of Reversal is the primordial Qi, supremely pure and clear. The True Fire of Samadhi is the fire of destruction, burning away all things and returning them to their origin.

Both originate from the same source and are different manifestations of "purity," flowing seamlessly within him, like two fingers of a hand.

But the Lingzhi Demon Fire is different. It comes from plant spirits and carries vitality and nourishment, which is exactly the opposite of the destructive nature of the Samadhi True Fire. Forcibly fusing them will only cancel each other out, just like a weasel mixing demon fire and poisonous smoke together—one plus one is less than two.

What Liu Jin needed was a vessel, a structure that could simultaneously contain the flames of destruction and the flames of life.

He thought of the path he had comprehended when he broke through to the third level in the previous world, using the fragments of reality as anchors, the Qi of Reversal as the framework, and the Samadhi Fire as the blade.

Now he has a clearer idea: the demonic fire is not for fighting, but for mutual verification.

With the Samadhi True Fire as his life essence, he forged various strange fires, using Qi to support the fire and fire to defend against enemies. His brow twitched slightly, and a wisp of extremely fine blue flame from the Samadhi True Fire gently enveloped the cluster of pale yellow Ganoderma lucidum demon fire.

It wasn't about devouring or suppressing, but about weaving. Two flames slowly intertwined in the air, blue flames as the warp and yellow flames as the weft, weaving a translucent ribbon the width of a finger at his fingertips.

The ribbons fluttered gently in the air, one end a deep blue, the other a pale yellow, with the middle filled with Qi that resembled fire and smoke.

He flicked the ribbon lightly, and it wrapped around a stone pier in the corner of the backyard as if it were his own arm. The blue flame burned the moss on the surface of the stone pier, while the yellow flame made a nearly dead weed in the crack of the stone pier stand up again.

Destruction and life are simultaneously displayed on the same ribbon.

"Interesting." He retracted the ribbon, and the blue and yellow flames returned to his fingertips, slowly disappearing beneath his skin.

With Qi as its framework, Samadhi True Fire as its life essence, and various other fires as its ribbons, this system has taken initial shape. If more other fires can be incorporated in the future, the power of the entire ribbon will increase several times over.

......

"He's playing with fire. He really loves playing with fire."

"He's called the Fire-Swallowing Daoist, but he only started seriously collecting strange fires after arriving in this world. Wasn't the Lingzhi Demon Fire from the weasel the first strange fire he collected?"

"Yes. The Lingzhi Demon Flame is a flame of life, while the Samadhi True Flame is a flame of destruction. He wove these two flames into ribbons; this isn't cultivation anymore, it's art. But for a grown man, it feels a bit..."

"Well, I wouldn't dare say that. He probably just hadn't found any other way. He probably just felt that the weasel's firework technique was too weak, so he modified it a bit."

"I don't understand, I don't understand, I'll just watch."

......

On the evening of the fifth day, Zhao Fengnian walked out of the room, leaning against the wall, completely soaked as if he had been pulled out of the water. He went to the backyard and saw Liu Jin sitting on a stone bench, flipping through a notebook filled with his cultivation insights.

"Brother, can I ask you something?"

Liu Jin closed his notebook and glanced at him. Zhao Fengnian had lost weight these past few days. After the Gluttony Mark was suppressed by the essence fire, he no longer needed to eat like crazy, and his body began to burn off the fat that had accumulated before.

His features finally emerged from the pile of fat; his eyes weren't large, but they were very bright, and his jawline had begun to take shape. He actually looked more energetic after losing weight.

"explain."

"When are we going to Lanruo Temple?"

Liu Jin put the notebook into the bamboo box: "Tonight."