Breaking the Masked Man

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 82 Evolution

The Burning Technique requires the aid of elixirs to absorb strange flames; otherwise, the body's fragile meridians and physical body simply cannot withstand it, since it is not designed for human cultivation.

If Yao Yan hadn't known the original plot, he would never have been able to cultivate this kind of technique.

In comparison, cultivating the Earth-rank or Heaven-rank techniques of the Soul Clan is clearly more cost-effective.

Because the process of devouring flames is equivalent to merging the flames with the human body, it is a hundred times more dangerous than a pharmacist refining a strange fire. To put it bluntly, if ten people practice this technique, nine of them will be killed, and the remaining one will be ruined.

In addition, this technique actually uses strange fire as its main source of sustenance; how could an ordinary person afford to play with it?

Even imperial clans wouldn't consider such a thing. The major imperial clans have no shortage of Heaven-rank cultivation techniques, so why would they allow their own genius direct descendants to cultivate techniques with a near 100% mortality rate? Is this because they think their family has too many geniuses?

As for ordinary disciples... why would the imperial family train ordinary disciples?

"Who would have thought that this technique would involve the legacy of Emperor Tuoshegu?"

Yao Yan chuckled inwardly, then calmed himself down and began to circulate the Burning Technique, attempting to use it to devour the Illusory Gold Fire within his body. As for the aid of pills... his body had long since adapted to the burning of the Illusory Gold Fire, and with the support of the bloodlines of the two imperial clans, there was no need to worry about the risks involved.

Even if he fails, it will not affect his health.

Under the control of his mind, the golden Illusionary Fire appeared in his dantian. Unlike the Illusionary Fire of the past, this flame was the original seed of the Illusionary Fire. It was like a drop of scorching golden magma, exuding a violent aura of a demonic beast.

Yao Yan mobilized his fighting spirit, enveloping the fire seed layer by layer, and then began to circulate his fighting spirit according to the operating route of the Burning Technique.

Perhaps because it was nurtured by Yao Yan's fighting spirit since its birth, Huan Jin Huo did not resist Yao Yan's fighting spirit, allowing the fighting spirit to circulate throughout its body. After circulating for a full cycle, Huan Jin Huo began to instinctively resist, because its origin was being devoured by Yao Yan's fighting spirit.

However, this resistance was clearly futile, and even somewhat resembled a feigned reluctance...

Under Yao Yan's control, the speed of his battle qi circulation increased, and with the nourishment of the Illusory Gold Fire's origin, he could clearly feel his battle qi gradually strengthening and circulating more smoothly. However, as the absorption intensified, a slight sense of irritability gradually crept into his mind.

He knew this was a side effect of consuming the flames.

The human body is not fire after all, so consuming it naturally requires a price to pay. However, this price is obviously insignificant compared to the power gained. He raised his hand and took out an Ice Soul Pill from his storage ring, then swallowed it.

As the Ice Soul Pill entered his body, a cool and refreshing sensation swept over him, and his mind calmed down. The rising evil fire melted away as quickly as snow meeting a blazing fire.

Taking advantage of the medicinal power, Yao Yan accelerated the speed at which she devoured the Illusionary Golden Flame, and frantically circulated the battle qi that enveloped the Illusionary Golden Flame through her meridians.

As for Huan Jin Huo's resistance, it was getting weaker and weaker at this moment, almost completely at Yao Yan's mercy, allowing him to be put into whatever position he wanted.

After all, it was a beast fire that had been cultivated for many years, rather than a wild exotic fire, so it was naturally very docile.

As the Qi circulated through more and more channels, the Battle Qi within Yao Yan's body changed from light yellow to golden yellow, flowing through his body like golden magma. At the same time, a tingling sensation spread through his limbs and bones, clearly indicating that his Battle Qi had now inherited the abilities of the Illusionary Golden Fire and possessed the effect of body tempering.

Until the last wisp of the Illusionary Golden Fire's essence merged into his battle qi, his battle qi became noticeably stronger, and at the same time, the light yellow battle crystal turned golden yellow again.

"Done?"

Yao Yan was somewhat surprised, because the process seemed a bit simple. Just then, he felt the surrounding energy of heaven and earth surging and rapidly converging towards him.

This is one of the benefits of advancing in cultivation techniques, and it is also another major feature of the Burning Flame Technique. It allows cultivators to break through without any bottlenecks. As long as you can control the power within your body, you can use the strange fire to advance infinitely. Of course, the premise is that you have a sufficient amount of strange fire.

However, this is obviously not a problem for Yao Yan, who is familiar with the plot.

It's really weird to think about.

Ordinary cultivators cannot frequently change cultivation techniques; in fact, a single misstep could lead to the collapse of their foundation and a regression in their cultivation. But the Burning Technique is unrestricted, evolving infinitely...

He closed his eyes and entered a meditative state. The vast energy of heaven and earth around him quickly surged into his body. Compared to the past when he needed to temper impurities and refine them before he could incorporate them into his battle crystal, he no longer needed to go through such trouble.

Although the Illusionary Gold Flame is not a different kind of flame, as the original beast flame of a seventh-order magical beast, its power is beyond doubt. Almost within a few breaths of the energy of heaven and earth entering the body, it transforms into strands of pure battle energy along with the circulation of battle energy and merges into the battle crystal.

As Yao Yan fully entered a state of cultivation, the surging energy of heaven and earth around him became increasingly rapid. In the end, his body almost became a black hole, continuously absorbing the energy of heaven and earth that was frantically pouring into his body, accepting everything without any concern for the impurities contained within the energy.

At this moment, Yao Yan fully felt the terror of the Burning Technique. That special ability to integrate the power of flames into oneself was truly outrageous.

His aura was rapidly increasing at a visible rate.

The cultivation of that two-star Grand Dou Master broke through to three stars in the blink of an eye, then four stars... until five stars before slowing down, and finally stabilizing at the six-star level!

"Whoo~"

Yao Yan slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, opened his eyes, and saw golden flames flowing within them. He raised his hand and released his battle qi. The golden battle qi gathered in his palm was several times stronger than before, and his control over the Illusionary Golden Flame had reached an extremely absurd level.

At the same time, Yao Yan also understood why Xiao Yan's alchemy skills improved so quickly in the original novel.

His talent is one aspect, and his control over fire is another.

When an alchemist incorporates other flames into their body, it is ultimately just borrowing, not making the flames a part of themselves. Therefore, many alchemists enjoy fire battles to show off their ability to tame and control flames.

After practicing the Burning Technique, the part of controlling the flames is completely eliminated. Just like a person using their fingers, apart from some movements that are comparable to 'jabberish', the rest are almost instinctive.

"High-level Yellow Rank...Six-Star Grand Dou Master!"

Yao Yan sensed the changes in the Burning Technique and was not surprised.

In the original novel, Xiao Yan devoured the Purple Flame, advancing his Burning Technique by one level. However, the Illusionary Golden Flame was undoubtedly much stronger than the Purple Flame, because the Illusionary Golden Flame was the symbiotic flame of the seventh-tier magical beast, the Fire Scorpion Dragon Beast, while Xiao Yan's Purple Flame was merely an byproduct obtained after refining the symbiotic Purple Crystal Source. The two were fundamentally different.

"The Yellow Rank High-Level is probably the limit. After all, the Burning Blade Technique is a cultivation method that relies on exotic fire as its main source of energy. At most, the beast fire can only evolve to the Yellow Rank High-Level. If you want to upgrade further, you can only consider exotic fire..."

Yao Yan's eyes flickered slightly, and the five characters "Azure Lotus Earth Core Flame" appeared in his mind.

P.S.: I'm so dizzy from staying up all night writing this...

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 83 Marrying Her

The Fire of the Green Lotus Core.

Having just tasted the benefits of the Burning Technique's absorption of the Illusionary Golden Flame, Yao Yan's desire for the Azure Lotus Earth Core Flame became incredibly strong. He knew very well how important the Strange Flame was to the Burning Technique. In the entire Dou Qi Continent, only a Strange Flame, containing such powerful energy, could drive the Burning Technique to continue evolving.

As for beast fire... even the primordial beast fire of an eighth or ninth-tier magical beast is probably far from enough, as there is a fundamental difference between the two.

However, the difficulty and risk of refining and devouring a strange fire are so high that it is almost a life-or-death gamble.

Even though Yao Yan now possesses a powerful physical body and several Dou Di bloodline powers, he cannot guarantee that he has absolute confidence in refining and devouring it. The strange fire, a rare object born of heaven and earth, contains violent energy that is enough to destroy everything. Even a Dou Zun-level expert cannot withstand the strange fire's rampage within his body.

In the original novel, Xiao Yan dared to use his Dou Shi strength to refine the Green Lotus Earth Core Flame.

Yao Yan truly admired this. If it were him, he would never dare to do such a thing. Even with the help of pills and Yao Lao, he wouldn't have the courage. Reason told him that such behavior was 100% courting death!

The only chance of success is luck, a gamble on the combination of the Azure Lotus Earth Core Flame...

"Let's raise our strength to the Dou Ling level first!"

Yao Yan pondered in his heart. He was not blinded by greed. To refine the strange fire, strength, pills, luck and so on were all indispensable. He did not believe that he had Xiao Yan's luck, so he had to make full preparations.

If he could explain it to Hunxuzi, he would even have called upon his cheap teacher to protect him.

With Hun Xuzi's strength, Yao Yan could guarantee that even if he failed to refine it, he would be unharmed and could even continue to try.

Unfortunately, the Tuoshe Ancient Emperor Jade has not yet been properly processed.

Think of this.

Yao Yan raised his hand and took out the Tuoshe Ancient Emperor Jade from his storage ring. Looking at the ancient jade fragments emitting a strange light, he remained silent for a while. He then took out a piece of millennium jade marrow from his storage ring, melted it into liquid with the Illusionary Gold Fire, and poured it onto the Tuoshe Ancient Emperor Jade. After it solidified, the whole piece had become an uncarved jade stone.

Millennia-old chalcedony can shield one's senses, making it impossible for others to discover the ancient jade of Tuoshe within it.

As for whether it could be concealed from the soul of an Emperor Realm expert... Yao Yan couldn't guess, but adding a few more layers should be enough. He took out an obsidian from his storage ring, melted it into liquid with Illusory Gold Fire, and then used it to wrap the jade.

Obsidian is a special mineral formed in magma. It is black and shiny, hard, extremely resistant to high temperatures, and can isolate energy fluctuations. It is one of the main materials for refining high-grade medicinal cauldrons.

Because of its properties, Yao Yan chose it as the final layer of disguise. He planned to place it in the magma of Canaan Academy, which is the location of the ancient Tuoshe Emperor's cave. If the Soul Clan could still find it in this way, he would accept it.

Man proposes, God disposes.

He has done everything he could.

After handling these matters properly, Yao Yan put the 'obsidian' into his storage ring, planning to visit Canaan Academy in a while. However, before that, he needed to subdue and refine the Azure Lotus Earth Core Flame before heading to the Black Corner Region to plan other things.

If everything goes smoothly, he should be able to get his hands on the Fallen Heart Flame, the Sea Heart Flame, and the Bone Spirit Cold Flame!

"Four different flames are enough to raise the Burning Technique to at least the Quasi-Heavenly Rank..."

Yao Yan's eyes gleamed with a burning light as he thought to himself.

……

The night ends and the day dawns.

When Yao Yan walked out of the alchemy room, the sky outside had already brightened, with a bright sun hanging high in the sky, and at the same time, Cai Die's enchanting and voluptuous figure came into view.

She was leaning against the soft couch, her dark blue tail swaying gently. She held a plant essence in her hand, teasing Ling'er and occasionally letting out a melodious laugh. Ling'er, with her big ears drooping and her head tilted back, made soft whimpering noises. At the same time, her little paws kept stomping on the soft flesh in front of the butterfly, as if to express her protest.

This scene is quite tempting.

So big, so soft... Yao Yan couldn't help but take a few more glances and gave his opinion in his mind. At the same time, he felt a surge of evil fire rising in his lower abdomen, so he quickly took a deep breath and thought to himself: The aftereffects of the Burning Technique's devouring of flames are too great. Even a decent person like me can't withstand it!

He absolutely refused to admit that it was his fault; everything must have been the fault of the burning execution.

After all, in the original novel, even a protagonist with Xiao Yan's incredible luck couldn't withstand the aftereffects of the Burning Flame Technique devouring a different kind of fire. It's normal that he couldn't withstand it either!

"Master?!"

Cai Die noticed the commotion in the alchemy room. Her pointed ears twitched slightly, and her azure eyes instantly turned towards Yao Yan. When she saw Yao Yan, her eyes immediately brightened, and she could hardly suppress her smile as she said, "Your pills are ready?"

"It failed; even the medicine cauldron exploded."

Yao Yan shrugged and said with a helpless expression.