Treasure Refining

After listening, Zhao Fengnian remained silent for a long time. He looked down at the faintly visible fiery scales on the back of his hand, and his voice was a few decibels lower than usual. He said that he felt that everyone had a deep understanding of his cultivation, but he seemed to be still at a superficial stage.

Mingxin sensed the disappointment in his words, raised an eyebrow, and said irritably, "Zhao Fengnian is now on the path to becoming a dragon. His dragon body is already taking shape, he has mastered the art of water manipulation, and he is methodically devouring demon blood to refine his dragon scales. Is this what you call 'shallow'? Becoming a dragon is the ultimate fantasy of countless beings. To follow the map and still feel sorry for yourself is simply asking for a scolding."

Zhao Fengnian was taken aback by his retort, then burst into laughter. He hadn't really been feeling sorry for himself; he'd just been intimidated by the aura of Mingxin and Liu Jin, who seemed to have an uncanny knowledge of their cultivation systems. Now, after being openly scolded, he actually felt better. He stood up, dusted himself off, and said that Daoist Mingxin was right. If he was going to become a dragon, he was going to become a dragon; he wasn't going to compete with them in fire.

.....

Mingxin: My energy and spirit are out of balance, I can't learn Samadhi. Zhao Fengnian: Everyone is so profound, I'm so shallow. Mingxin: Shallow my foot, you're almost a dragon and you're still stuck in Versailles.

"Mingxin's cursing scene is so realistic. He just woke up from a vegetative state a few days ago, and now he's doing psychological counseling for others. He's been tormented by illusions for so many years, and he's turned into a psychological counselor."

"It's really heartbreaking to see Zhao Fengnian say that he's naive. He's clearly made the most progress. He transformed the Gluttony Seal from a curse into a supernatural power, his scales went from scattered to orderly, his Water Flow Technique went from zero to minor mastery, and his Dragon Transformation Technique went from concept to practice. He just had a temporary cognitive bias in front of two theorists."

"He immediately burst into laughter after being scolded by Mingxin; that's Zhao Fengnian's true nature. People from working-class backgrounds are resilient."

.....

Liu Jin read through the "Illusion Manual" that the sect leader had lent him three times from beginning to end. The first time was a general reading, the second time a detailed reading, and the third time a reading with questions in mind. He saw many familiar annotations in the margins and corners of the manual.

The thoughts of several generations of sect leaders are layered on the same page, as if they are having a dialogue across time and space. This method of inheritance, which is passed down from generation to generation with their own annotations, is completely different from the one-on-one oral transmission method of Zuo Ruotong of the Sanyi Sect, but it is equally solid.

After closing the copy, he found a clean blue stone behind the Sanyi Temple, sat cross-legged, and summoned all his flames one by one: the deep blue Samadhi True Fire, the pale gold Ten Thousand Lights, the silvery-white Taiyin Fire, the dark red Red Lotus Karmic Fire, the pale yellow Lingzhi Demon Fire, and the moon-white Moon Illusion Light.

Six flames slowly swirled around him, each burning quietly, casting interplay of light and shadow across the small clearing behind the mountain. Zhao Fengnian glanced at them from afar, wisely refraining from approaching, and even pulled Mingxin, who wanted to ask Liu Jin about illusions, away as well.

Liu Jin first set the Lingzhi Demon Flame aside. This life-giving flame from plant spirits was gentle and pure, but its combat attributes were weak, making it more suitable for support and nourishment, and it would not be included in the main combat system for the time being. The remaining five flames lit up one by one at his fingertips, and he began to disassemble and recombine them pair by pair.

Samadhi Fire and the Lights of Ten Thousand Homes. Samadhi Fire is the fire of destruction, burning everything and returning to its origin; it is the strongest and purest spear among all its flames. But precisely because it is so pure, its method of attack is only one: burning.

The Samadhi True Fire is invincible against a head-on opponent like the Black Mountain Demon, but against enemies that are extremely fast, adept at creating clones, or who lurk in the shadows and launch sneak attacks, the Samadhi True Fire's direct approach is prone to missing its mark. It needs a vessel that can entangle, pursue, and change direction in mid-air.

The myriad lights of homes represent the warmth and vitality of human life—gentle, flexible, and vast in number. The myriad lights he absorbed above Jinhua City were formed by the convergence of countless independent wisps of light and smoke, each of which could be controlled individually.

Using the lights of countless homes as ribbons and the Samadhi Fire as a blade, the ribbons are responsible for entangled with the target, blocking the retreat route, and weaving a net in the air to intercept, while the Samadhi Fire spreads along the trajectory of the ribbons in an instant to deliver a fatal blow.

He formed a hand seal, and pale gold and dark blue flames surged from his fingertips, weaving into a brand new ribbon in the air. The ribbon itself was a pale gold of countless lights, soft and flexible, drifting slowly in the air like silk, while its edge was inlaid with a ring of dark blue Samadhi True Fire, sharp and fierce.

With a thought, the ribbon shot out and split into dozens of finer golden and blue threads in the air. These threads simultaneously wrapped around a boulder not far away from all directions. As soon as the threads touched the stone's surface, the Samadhi True Fire spread along the threads' trajectory, and the entire boulder was burned to nothingness in less than half a breath.

He retracted the silk thread, watching the golden-blue flames re-condense at his fingertips, and named this new ribbon "Demon Slayer." It was specifically designed to vanquish all kinds of evil spirits and heretics.

The Fire of Taiyin. The essence of the moon, supremely Yin and gentle. He initially condensed the Fire of Taiyin to conceal the aura of the Samadhi True Fire, transforming the Fire Seed into a layer of silver-white gauze to drape over his body.

He had always used it with ease, but had never truly refined the gauze robe as a magical artifact. The Taiyin Fire itself had no fixed form, making it perfect as the base for the gauze robe. He refined the Taiyin Fire again, using the Qi of Reversal as the framework, and woven the Taiyin Fire Seeds inch by inch into a truly meaningful magical robe.

A silvery-white cold light flowed slowly across the surface of his robes, as thin as a cicada's wing and as light as nothing. But when he activated the Samadhi True Fire, the Taiyin Gauze Robe no longer passively concealed him as before, but actively enveloped the aura of the Samadhi True Fire. From the outside, he was surrounded by only a layer of clear, frosty silvery-white cold light, and even the temperature dropped.

He tried to make a move while wearing the gauze robe. The moment the Samadhi True Fire burst forth from his palm, the Taiyin Gauze Robe automatically opened a tiny opening in the palm. The flame passed through and then automatically closed. The whole process took less than a breath.

He tried it out on the back mountain, switching between the Samadhi True Fire and the Yin Qi more than ten times. His gauze robe remained as steady as a rock, the flames did not leak out, and the cold light did not fade. It covered him completely, while retaining some of the immortal demeanor of being untouched by dust.

The Crimson Lotus Karmic Fire and the Yin Fire. When combined, these two fires become the Moon Illusion Light, capable of striking directly at the most vulnerable part of the soul. On the summit of Black Mountain, he first used the Moon Illusion Light to shatter the Black Mountain Demon's mind, but that was only a one-time attack—condensed, ejected, and hit—once used, it was gone.

At that time, he had not yet mastered the method of solidifying the Moon Illusion Light; he merely temporarily fused the two flames and threw them out. The essence of Laoshan Illusion Art lies in "entering the Dao through illusion and breaking illusion with illusion." Illusion itself is false, but a skillful illusion can make the false appear real, just like the illusory moon that the sect leader invited him to admire together. It seemed illusory, but people could actually stand on it.