Minor Success

Gu Fan felt as if he had sunk into a pitch-black space.

The surrounding area was vast and empty, stretching to the horizon.

"I can't see anything. If only there were some firelight," Gu Fan thought.

Upon realizing this, a great fire suddenly ignited in the dark space, surrounding Gu Fan and approaching him.

Gu Fan was startled. Just as the flames were about to engulf him, the Daoist inscription of the Flame Spirit Technique suddenly appeared in his mind.

"I can control the fire!"

Thinking of this, Gu Fan stretched out his palm and pressed it against the approaching flames, frowning and concentrating intently.

Feeling the pressure in his hands, Gu Fan quickly thought things through.

"I possess a fire elemental root; fire should not be my enemy, but rather my... servant!"

"You are all servants, how dare you offend me!"

Thinking of this, Gu Fan's eyes gleamed, and he shouted loudly.

As this powerful belief surged, the flames seemed to sense it and actually stopped burning.

Seeing this, Gu Fan's confidence soared, and he said in a deep voice, "Obey my command!"

At his command, the flames contracted and slowly transformed into a five-foot-tall, four-legged flame beast, which strode toward Gu Fan.

The Flame Beast lowered its head as it approached Gu Fan's feet. A smile appeared on Gu Fan's lips as he reached out to touch the Flame Beast's head.

Just then, the Flame Beast suddenly raised its head and roared at Gu Fan!

"what!"

Gu Fan was startled awake by a shout. He sat up from the bed, his clothes soaked with sweat.

After catching his breath for a moment, Gu Fan came to his senses.

"A dream?"

That dream just now felt so real, just like reality.

The intensity of the flames, the process of subduing them, and even the contact with the flame beast—all these insights remained in my mind.

'Insights?'

Gu Fan suddenly realized what was happening and quickly got up and went to the courtyard.

It was still night, the moon had not yet climbed the treetops, and the evening breeze blew through his sweat-soaked clothes, making him feel a chill.

He slept for a whole day and night!

Before he could regret missing the opportunity to gather Qi, Gu Fan stretched out his palm, and with the circulation of his magic power, a blazing flame rose up, shooting three feet high.

Gu Fan stared intently at the flame in his hand, recalling the insights from his dream, and infused his divine sense into the flame.

As naturally as a weary bird returning to its nest, a wisp of divine consciousness entered the flame, and Gu Fan immediately noticed that the flame in his hand had changed, as if it had acquired some kind of spirituality, responding to his thoughts without needing to be deliberately manipulated.

The flame in his palm slowly contracted, deformed, and gradually became more solid.

A moment later, a palm-sized fire beast appeared in his hand—a tiger formed from solidified flames!

The tiger stretched its muscles and bones in Gu Fan's palm, moving back and forth according to his thoughts.

An unprecedented sense of exhilaration welled up in Gu Fan's heart, making him burst into laughter.

The tiger in his palm seemed to sense Gu Fan's emotions and roared to the sky.

Gu Fan brought his palm to his eyes and blew a breath at the Flame Beast Tiger. The Flame Beast immediately disintegrated and shattered into sparks that floated away quietly in the night light, like a swarm of fireflies.

Gu Fan looked up at the fireflies, his face beaming like a child who had just acquired a new player.

After spreading his arms and turning around once, he extended his palms again.

"receive!"

With a low shout, Gu Fan summoned the fireflies, which transformed into flames that gathered in his palm. The hundreds of flames stretched and grew longer, like dancing fire snakes.

Looking at the hundreds of flames in his palm, Gu Fan knew what this meant.

Flame Spirit Technique, Minor Success!

......

Shenji Peak, Tiangong Pavilion.

Tang Yuan seemed to be in that lazy state.

Tang Yuan immediately perked up when he heard footsteps outside the Tiangong Pavilion.

Upon recognizing the newcomer, his small eyes narrowed slightly, and a smile appeared on his lips: "Oh, Junior Brother Gu, it's been a few days. I thought you'd given up your job here and gone out to sea to hunt demons."

"Senior brother is joking. With my limited abilities, I'm hardly hunting demons; I'm feeding them! It's just that after listening to Uncle Li's lecture last time, I gained some insights and spent a few days in seclusion to study them," Gu Fan replied with a smile.

"That's why I came here as soon as I cleared the border."

When Tang Yuan heard Gu Fan say that he had gained some insights, his eyes lit up slightly.

"Junior brother is indeed a talent for weapon crafting. He was able to grasp something after just one lecture. I wonder how many people were completely confused after listening to the lecture, treating it as just watching a show."

Gu Fan waved his hand modestly: "Senior brother, you flatter me."

Seeing that Gu Fan was unwilling to talk more, Tang Yuan stopped chatting and said directly, "The seat is still reserved, Junior Brother, you can go down by yourself."

Gu Fan thanked them, walked to the stone gate, opened it with the white jade ring, and went inside.

Inside the mountain, it was still a familiar spot.

Gu Fan took out the black iron ore from his storage bag and placed it on the stone platform. He skillfully made a hand seal, and the dragon head stone sculpture immediately spewed out scorching earth flames.

Unlike before, after spewing out three feet of earth flame, it seemed to be guided, dispersing into wisps of red fire snakes that coiled around the black iron ore, tightly enveloping it without revealing a single gap.

Under Gu Fan's operation, the black iron ore, which originally required a quarter of an hour to be heated to a bright red, turned completely red in less than half an hour.

The clanging sound of hammering rang out, and another forged spirit iron ingot appeared.

After breaking through to the minor completion stage of the Flame Spirit Technique, Gu Fan's speed in forging spirit iron increased significantly. He could achieve higher temperatures with less mana, allowing him to forge up to twenty pieces of spirit iron per day.

At this rate, it is estimated that he will be able to accumulate enough merit to exchange for the inheritance of the talismanic path in just one year.

Gu Fan had already inquired and learned that the inheritance of the talismanic path was different from the basic cultivation techniques, requiring sixty merit points to exchange for it.

Because it not only contains various basic runes, but also the methods for drawing many first-order spirit runes. If one can comprehend them, one will gain an additional skill, and may even be able to accept the task of drawing runes within the sect, thereby earning merit points.

One can obtain a first-tier spirit talisman inheritance after a year of labor; this is one of the benefits of sect cultivation.

For ordinary independent cultivators, not to mention that the inheritance of spiritual talismans is rare and hard to come by, they may not even be able to afford the initial investment required for drawing talismans, such as talisman pens, talisman ink, and talisman paper.

......

The earth flames beneath Shenji Peak burn incessantly, and time slips away quietly amidst the clanging of metal against metal.

Inside the Tiangong Pavilion, Tang Yuan handed the white jade ring to Gu Fan with a smile.

"Junior Brother Gu, you have accumulated six merit points this month. Please accept them."

"Thank you, Senior Brother." Gu Fan said his thanks, and after a brief inspection, he put the white jade ring away.

A month after returning to Shenji Peak, Gu Fan's speed in forging spirit iron once again reached a bottleneck.

After mastering the Flame Spirit Technique, the rate of improvement slows down. Unless one encounters a serendipitous enlightenment, it may take three to five days to generate an additional flame.

In the main hall atop Shenji Peak, another sermon was held, but the speaker was not Li Kunyuan, and the sermon was not about the method of controlling fire, but rather the method of inscribing restrictions.

Gu Fan doesn't need this knowledge right now, but he records it in detail for future verification.

Just as Gu Fan was about to leave, Tang Yuan stopped him.

"Junior Brother, would you like to cultivate more effortlessly?" Tang Yuan whispered as Gu Fan stopped in his tracks.

Gu Fan lowered his eyelids slightly and tentatively asked, "Could it be that Senior Brother has some miscellaneous tasks that earn more merit points?"

Tang Yuan was slightly taken aback, then slowly shook his head: "Mysterious iron is the most common spiritual material for forging low-level magic weapons, and the demand is huge, which is why this job exists. If you want to forge higher-level spiritual materials, Junior Brother, you probably need to be at the second level of Qi Refining."

"What is Senior Brother talking about?" Gu Fan looked at Tang Yuan warily.

Since it wasn't some sect-related miscellaneous task, it must be some kind of shady path. He didn't believe that a free lunch would fall from the sky.

Tang Yuan gave a mysterious smile and said softly, "Junior brother, do you want a Daoist partner?"