Fire Monster

Chapter 344 Retreat
In the quiet room, Zhao Guanshan took out all the spirit stones in his hand. There were not many. In the past few years, he had spent a lot in order to strengthen the statue of Lihuo Immortal and to build a large ship. Now there were less than three hundred pieces left.

Fortunately, from now on, he will receive one hundred spirit stones every year.

In addition, the external environment has finally become safe, comfortable and stable. He will also seriously and formally start to comprehend the Lihuo Dao Fu from the basics. This is also the first part of his previous plan.

He started by condensing a rune for practicing martial arts, then Zhao Guanshan took out two spirit stones and carved the rune of the soul realm again. The next second, an ugly statue of himself was condensed.

That’s right, this is the special effect his statue obtains after being strengthened +14 with black spiritual ash. It is also the prerequisite for transforming into a golden-armored giant.

But aside from transforming into a giant in golden armor, this ugly statue of himself also possesses the advantage of allowing him to perform ten times more powerful actions.

To be honest, this is all thanks to the statue space.

Without the statue space, his statue would no longer exist, and he would not be able to have a visualized world. He would be the same as an ordinary Qi cultivator.

So if he is hit by a dimensionality reduction attack, he will have nothing.

Under the effect of ten times the power, the spiritual energy in the spirit stone was quickly stimulated and consumed, but the effect it brought was considerable. Layers of fiery rays of light flowed, radiated, and gathered around Zhao Guanshan.

This is very pure spiritual energy, but it cannot be absorbed directly. Instead, it must be further evolved into innate pure yang energy. This is what distinguishes Qi refiners from immortal cultivators.

Before the Pure Yang Body is tempered to a certain degree, the Qi Refiner's practice will be very slow and at a disadvantage.

But when the Pure Yang Body has a certain foundation, the effect will be apparent.

A total of one hundred and ten breaths of innate pure yang energy were like a long river of fire, flowing steadily, quickly and efficiently in his body. This was the power of life and also extraordinary power.

His life fire was burning on top of his head, and a long river of flames was connected to it, continuously supplying it with innate pure yang energy, keeping the life fire flourishing.

This life fire is consumed every day.

Just like people, they grow and age every day.

Qi cultivators and immortal practitioners are no exception.

Taking Zhao Guanshan’s life fire as an example, he has to consume two breaths of innate pure yang energy every day to ensure that the life fire can maintain its current state.

But the life fire will be consumed faster every once in a while.

Mortals age at an accelerated rate every ten years, for example, from the age of 20 to 30, it is clearly visible or one can clearly sense it.

When you are thirty to forty years old, it is immediately a completely different state.

Not to mention the age of forty to fifty.

Qi cultivators slowed down this process.

For example, Zhao Guanshan, his current level of Pure Yang Body tempering is the twenty-seventh level, so basically there will be an accelerated consumption process every twenty-seven years.

Immortal cultivators are no exception.

If you want to maintain your life fire, you have to consume it. Even if you do nothing, you still have to consume it.

Now Zhao Guanshan can generate four breaths of innate pure yang energy every day. After deducting the two that must be consumed on the life fire, there are still two breaths left.

This is the meaning of practice and cultivation.

However, if you look at your life fire so directly every day, it is easy to get anxious if you are not mentally strong.

It's like a mortal waking up in the morning and suddenly realizing that he has forty-eight years, nine months, five days, thirty-two minutes and nine seconds to live.

It’s fresh at first, but then comes endless anxiety and panic.

In short, spiritual practice is also a game of calculating every penny. Mortals only think that immortality is elusive, but only when they embark on spiritual practice, they will know the helplessness of being able to directly see how much time is left in their life.

All the practice, all the efforts, including breaking out of the cycle of destiny, overcoming tribulations and ascending to become an immortal, are for the purpose of immortality.

A clear, tangible Lihuo Dao Talisman appeared in Zhao Guanshan's life fire.

Whenever he is focused and practicing fully, the Lihuo Dao Talisman will emerge, because it is his foundation. Even if he is really hit by a dimensionality reduction attack in the future and the Lihuo secret key is taken away, the Lihuo Dao Talisman in his life fire cannot be taken away and can still guide him in the direction of progress.

In a sense, this is the technique, this is the secret book, and this is the route to practice.

At the center of his eyebrows, four pieces of soul armor spread out like lotus flowers, like stars surrounding the moon, protecting the life fire. Then, Zhao Guanshan closed his eyes and visualized the Lihuo Talisman. His spirit, will, and soul began to highly unify and resonate with the Lihuo Talisman, but he did not enter the visualization world or the statue space. Instead, he comprehended, analyzed, and mastered the Lihuo Talisman in a more in-depth, detailed, and comprehensive manner.

This is a process of learning knowledge.

Cultivation is also a kind of learning. The Tao is knowledge, and knowledge is the Tao.

Learning is always important.

The Secret Key of Lihuo and the Sealed Oil Lamp can only be described as a good teacher, a one-on-one tutor, the statue space, and the visualized world are like the eldest senior brother of Fengling Yueying Sect.

But the real core is always to learn and understand by yourself.

This is a very pure process, so no external interference or distractions are allowed.

Any external disturbance or harassment from the inner demons will cause this deep and profound learning and comprehension to go astray.

In fact, this was the first time Zhao Guanshan did this, and the first time he was qualified to do so.

Put your whole soul into it.

This is the real retreat.

Mortals cannot do it. Ordinary Qi cultivators want to do it but dare not. Even immortal cultivators need to make careful arrangements and have trustworthy people to protect them before they can do so.

This retreat will take at least three years, and at most ten years.

But in fact, Zhao Guanshan had only been in seclusion for three days when the evil god of destiny on the opposite side seemed to have sensed something, and immediately threw himself out without hesitation, transforming into a terrifying giant monster, making all kinds of strange noises, attacking, disgusting, and provoking Zhenhai City.

"Zhao Chengfeng, Zhao Guanshan, I am calling your real name, answer quickly!"

"Zhao Chengfeng, Zhao Guanshan, are you a coward? Come out and fight me if you have the guts!"

Countless wriggling black whiskers wrapped around like roots and tentacles, and each black whisker was screaming, screaming heartily, screaming in ecstasy, and screaming in disgust.

If you don't try to win, it's just harassment.

However, the statue of the Lihuo Immortal stood tall and indifferent, covered by blazing flames. Anyone who approached would be burned to dust with countless black beards. There was not a single flaw at all.

So let alone harassing Zhao Guanshan, in fact, even the ordinary people in Zhenhai City could not be harassed.

When the mortals of Zhenhai City looked out from inside, all they could see was the statue of the Lihuo Immortal. Nothing else.

This is the effect of invincible defense.

That evil god of destiny harassed them for almost three months and even tried to attack them several times, but all to no avail.

While it felt deeply uneasy, it was also more certain that Zhao Guanshan was in seclusion. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to defeat Zhao Guanshan in one fell swoop. Otherwise, this boy would become a serious threat.

"I have to go to the spirit world again."

In the Zhenhai Dao Palace, the Grand Master Cheng Muye, who was said to be dying, lay on the bed, muttering to himself. His body had reached its limit, and he still had more than a dozen spare bodies.

Too bad it's all meaningless now.

This time he went to the spirit world to awaken his true self.

"The power of Lihuo Tianzun has begun to gather again. I will become her stepping stone..."

On the bed, Cheng Muye died completely after saying this, and then there was a burst of crying. The great national master passed away. While several of his trusted disciples were wailing, a fight quickly broke out. The winner would be the great national master.

But it doesn't make sense anymore.

In the spirit world, some people are saying the same thing.

"The power of Lihuo Tianzun has begun to gather again. I will become her stepping stone..."

This voice continued to spread, from just one person at the beginning, to a few people, then to dozens of people, hundreds of people, and finally expanded to hundreds of thousands, millions, and tens of millions of people saying the same thing in unison.

Finally, in the deeper part of the spiritual world, in a dangerous area that the three major Taoist palaces of Fuyun, Cangwu and Tianlong could not set foot in, in an area that even the immortal Mei Xun did not know about, an extremely huge Skeleton Mountain awakened.

The part of Skull Mountain that is exposed on the surface is thousands of kilometers high, but in fact, it is only from the top of the head to the center of the eyebrows.

This is the true form of the fallen immortal.

He woke up, but not awake. The shouts of tens of millions only made him awake for a moment, but in this moment, endless magic fire poured out from his eyes. Wherever his eyes reached, the nothingness of the spiritual world could not stop it and was directly torn into a big hole. Afterwards, this endless magic fire poured into reality, and it actually doubled the amount and quality of magic fire in the real world.

An even more terrifying tide of demonic fire was immediately generated, causing the evil demons inside to evolve and grow rapidly. Under the ravages of the demonic fire, they launched an indiscriminate attack on all the Taoist palaces.

Many small Taoist palaces that were still maintained were directly swallowed up in this wave of indiscriminate demonic fire. Naturally, there were Qi Refiners and the five Taoist school of thought in these Taoist palaces. Now that the Taoist palaces no longer existed, the Taoist school of thought no longer existed, and all of them fell into the abyss of demonic fire.

Only large Taoist palaces like Fuyun, Cangwu and Tianlong can survive in peace.

However, due to the collapse of many small Taoist palaces, the five Taoist traditions were weakened as a whole.

Because even Zhao Guanshan's Lihuo Taoist school cannot be separated from the foundation of the spiritual world.

So even though they managed to withstand this wave of demonic fire, they had to endure the consequences of being weakened.

This is equivalent to a dimensionality reduction attack in another sense.

To the extent that Zhao Guanshan endured a certain degree of impact during his retreat, this was because his mechanical talismans accounted for a large proportion and had little impact.

(End of this chapter)