Gods of the Nation: You worship the God of Longevity, I worship the King of Hell!

Chapter 210 The True Fire of Samadhi! The Flame in the Hearth Displays Divine Power!
As they approached the small island, Erlong leaped into the air.

Lu Chen then jumped up and landed steadily.

Lan'er transformed back into a little girl.

Jiang Shuilong collapsed to the ground, exhausted, panting heavily, unwilling to move.

"Chun'er!"

Lan'er quickly bent down to check.

Chun'er was the name she gave to the river dragon based on the seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter.

"Is Chun'er alright?" Lu Chen hurriedly leaned closer to check.

"It's alright, it's just that it's the first time it's used its innate ability and it's been swimming for so long, so it's a bit exhausted. You should put it back and let it rest."

Lan'er's tone was full of heartache.

"it is good!"

Without further hesitation, Lu Chen's divine light reappeared around him. Upon seeing this, the Jiang Shuilong immediately flew into the divine light.

"What's next?"

Lan'er pointed to a pond not far away.

"That pond is the entrance to the Samadhi Fire Heaven. Just jump in."

Lu Chen stared at the white expanse of water and swallowed hard: "This... is this also the Weak Water?"

"Yes."

"So if I jump down, I'll just die?"

"With me here, what are you afraid of?" Lan'er snorted lightly, and a beam of divine light shone out, protecting Lu Chen once again: "Although I can't carry you, protecting you in the Weak Water for a while is no problem. Let's go!"

After saying that, she jumped into the pool first.

Lu Chen took a deep breath and thought to himself: With a mortal body, I have ventured into the innate treasure. Looking at the past and present, I am probably the only one who has done so!

He then leaped into the pool.

The pond made almost no sound, only a few tiny ripples spread out...

……

"Gulu gulu..."

Beneath the Weak Water, all is pitch black.

Lu Chen was enveloped in endless darkness and cold.

Lu Chen held his breath—

It was truly holding one's breath.

Lan'er never said you can't breathe underwater!
—"Whoosh!"

A dragon appeared behind him.

Lan'er's divine voice came through: "Just bear with it a little longer! I'll give you a push!"

Before he could finish speaking, Lu Chen suddenly felt the speed of his descent increase dramatically, plummeting into the depths of darkness like a shooting star.

However, time seemed to stretch on endlessly at that moment.

Ten seconds, twenty seconds... forty seconds, one minute, two minutes, three minutes...

Lu Chen felt like his lungs were about to explode, and his vision was going black.

Without even looking, I knew that my face must be as red as a cooked pig's liver, and even my eyeballs were twitching.

Just as his consciousness began to fade and his limbs started to struggle unconsciously—

Finally, a ray of light pierced through the darkness.

--boom!

With a muffled thud, Lu Chen burst through the water like a cannonball and slammed hard onto the hard ground.

Before he could recover, an indescribable heat instantly swept over his entire body, as if he had been thrown into a red-hot furnace, his skin stinging as if he would be roasted alive in the next second.

At the critical moment, a bright red flame suddenly appeared between his brows, burning fiercely.

—It's the fire in the hearth!
One of its supernatural powers is to absorb all kinds of fire and not be afraid of divine fire.

All the heat seemed to be drawn towards the fire seal.

Lu Chen suddenly felt a lightness all over his body, but the scorching heat still made his skin burn painfully.

"Cough! Cough!"

He ignored the scorching heat and gasped for breath.

My wildly beating heart gradually calmed down.

"Lu Chen! Quick... quick, help me!"

Just then, Lan'er's weak voice came from behind.

Lu Chen turned around abruptly and saw Lan'er lying motionless on the rock wall not far away. Her clothes had long been dried by the heat, her skin was red, and the moisture was evaporating at a visible speed, involuntarily revealing a weak half-human, half-dragon form.

Dragon scales were faintly visible on its neck, and half of its tail, which was limply swaying, trailed behind it.

Lu Chen's heart tightened, and he immediately staggered forward, tightly grasping Lan'er's hand.

Sensing his intention, the fire in the hearth between his brows immediately shot out a crimson divine light, enveloping Lan'er and forming a red barrier.

The moment the barrier fell, Lan'er's tense body gradually relaxed, her expression softened, and she slowly returned to her childlike appearance.

"How's it going? Are you okay?"

"Thank goodness, we had this fire in the hearth." Lan'er said with lingering fear, "I heard that this fire was transformed from the first fire in the world, and it can subdue all fires. It is indeed well-deserved."

"You know quite a lot."

"That's natural. Over the past thousand years, my master has often discussed the Dao with other immortals and talked about countless strange and wonderful things in the Three Realms. It's not surprising that I know these things from what I've heard and seen."

Lu Chen nodded, stood up, and looked around.

This place is like a natural cave, with its rock walls entirely red and burning hot even without touching them.

"Lan'er, have you been to this floor before?"

"No, but Master has mentioned the structure of the Seven Treasures Exquisite Pagoda many times, so I roughly know it."

"Okay, so where do we go now?"

“Go wherever it’s hot.” ​​Lan’er stood up, her figure already back to normal: “Remember, you have to refine a wisp of Samadhi True Fire before the Fire Spirit Guards discover you, so that you can activate the pivot of this realm and open the door to the next level.”

"When will the Fire Spirit Guards appear?" "It's hard to say. They're all mindless fire spirit puppets. According to Master, they don't usually show themselves easily, unless..."

"Unless what?"

“They will only appear in large numbers if a powerful enemy breaks through the tower. But you don’t need to worry about that. You are definitely not a ‘powerful enemy,’ and you are so weak that you won’t even attract their attention. As a tower spirit, I am not a threat at all.”

Lu Chen: "..."

I never imagined that one day, "weakness" could become a life-saving asset.

"But we still can't be careless. Just in case, we must be careful."

Lu Chen nodded, carefully sensing the direction where the heat wave was stronger, and pointed to the left front:
"This way."

The two walked along the rock face, but dared not touch it, and headed to the left front.

The further you go, the more intense the scorching heat becomes.

Fortunately, the fire in the stove grew stronger with each passing moment. Apart from the increasingly burning heat between my eyebrows, I felt a growing sense of coolness throughout my body.

"This fire in the stove is truly a divine object! Without its protection, let alone a mere mortal like you, even I probably wouldn't last long before being roasted to a crisp!" Lan'er exclaimed.

"It feels like we're getting closer!" Lu Chen said in a deep voice. "Let's go faster."

"it is good!"

Just as the two reached a corner and caught a glimpse of the scene ahead, their expressions changed drastically—

Not far away is the exit of the cave passage.

The scene outside the exit was absolutely horrifying.

It was an endless sea of ​​fire!

It comes in three colors: red, blue, and black.

They represent: [Fire of the People], [Fire of the Ministers], and [Fire of the Ruler]!
It felt as if I were inside Laozi's alchemy furnace.

The raging flames burned everything in their path, truly living up to the name of this realm: [Samadhi True Fire Heaven]!
"It's up to you now. I can't go any further. If I get any closer, I'm afraid even the fire in the stove won't be able to protect me."

Lan'er activated her divine power and set up several more layers of weak water barriers.

Even so, the barrier was visibly and rapidly depleting.

"Hurry! I'm afraid I can't hold on much longer!"

Lu Chen took a deep breath, nodded solemnly, and then, without further hesitation, stepped forward into the heatwave.

His shirt could no longer withstand the high temperature and turned to ashes.

Only his lower body remained incredibly firm!
He sat cross-legged about five meters from the cave entrance and began to use his supernatural powers to ignite the fire in the stove.

Similar to how Yama's Decree imparted supernatural powers, when the fire in the hearth was integrated into his body, the relevant supernatural powers and methods were naturally imprinted in his mind.

No need to memorize it, you can activate it with just a thought.

He used his spiritual sense to look inward and saw the embers of the stove hanging between his eyebrows, the tiny flames, no bigger than a grain of rice, flickering slightly and emitting almost transparent wisps of fire.

Lu Chen's mind raced, and he shouted in a deep voice, "Rise!"

The fire in the stove immediately responded—

"Buzz!"

With a barely perceptible tremor, the flame suddenly expanded, and the suction force exploded.

Lan'er peeked out from around the corner behind her.

Within the Samadhi True Fire Heaven, strands of pure crimson flames were stirred up. Though as thin as gossamer threads, they carried the power to burn mountains and boil seas. Wherever they passed, even the void emitted a scorching scream!

--boom! !
The flames slammed into Lu Chen's chest.

Instead of turning him to ashes instantly, the fire, like rivers flowing into the sea, was drawn in by the suction of the fire in the stove and flowed continuously into his brow.

At the same time, Lu Chen clenched his teeth, veins bulged on his forehead, and large beads of sweat rolled down instantly, evaporating into white mist as soon as they touched the air.

Even though the fire in the stove helped him counteract 99.999% of the heat, the last trace still surged wildly through his meridians.

Wherever it passed, the walls of Lu Chen's meridians trembled inch by inch, emitting a humming sound of unbearable strain, yet under the warm and divine light of the fire in the stove, they were visibly reshaped and became increasingly resilient and transparent.

—"Ugh!!!"

pain!
It hurts so much!
If the pain during the previous image-making process was 1, then...

So now it's at least 10, no, 20!

Even though Lu Chen believed his tolerance for pain had improved considerably, the constant torment of destruction and rebirth still nearly caused his consciousness to collapse.

He forcefully channeled his magical power, activating the supernatural ability of the Jishui Dragon King—the Purest Water—to force himself to remain conscious.

Even so, the results were still limited.

Clearly, this is the moment when real men must test their willpower!
After an unknown amount of time, Lu Chen, whose eyes were bloodshot, finally felt a little better.

A faint reddish hue had already spread around the embers in the hearth between his brows.

That is the lowest level of Samadhi True Fire, namely [Common Fire], and it is also the first step in refining Samadhi True Fire.

But what he will face next is the real test:

【臣火】 and 【君火】.

——"Bah!!!"

The moment his thought crossed his mind, a sharp, long howl suddenly rang out from outside the cave.

A wisp of blue flame quietly condensed.

The moment this fire appeared, the fire in the stove seemed to be completely awakened. It was like a glutton that had been starving for hundreds of years. It had just tasted a little sweetness and was instantly activated, bursting out with a suction force ten times more terrifying than before!

Then, Lu Chen witnessed a scene that sent chills down his spine and made his scalp tingle—

The blue [Ministerial Fire] was not being sucked in bit by bit, but was forcibly gathered by the suction force of the fire in the stove, and was forcibly gathered into a blue fireball about the size of his head!
--boom! ! !

The next instant, the blue flame formed from the [Minister Fire] shot towards them like a meteor.

Wherever it passed, the rock walls melted completely, the air was burned into a vacuum, and a piercing explosion was heard!
It can be called devastating!

"Holy crap!!—"

At that moment, Lu Chen's pupils dilated like an 18-magnitude earthquake!
"Are you fucking an idiot?! You can eat anything! -- No, don't come any closer!!!"

He wanted to escape, but his body seemed to be nailed to the spot, unable to move at all!

　Write it again! Write it again!

　
(End of this chapter)