Cultivation begins with harvest.

Extending a finger to touch the eerie blue flame, aside from the scorching heat, the inside felt like lukewarm water, spreading out into the shape of a handkerchief as I touched it.

But if this wasn't a flame he cultivated himself, the high temperature on the outside would be enough to burn off his fingers, and the flame would grow along with his flesh and blood, making it difficult to extinguish.

"The shape of the flame is unpredictable. While it excels at spreading, adhering, and burning, unlike conventional flames which are easily suppressed, it lacks strong offensive power. Is it better suited for influencing and weakening opponents, turning advantages into victories?"

With just this one touch, Chen Guang had many sensations and applications formed in his mind.

With a sudden burst of energy, the ginseng flames surged in the wind, growing to the size of half a courtyard in just a few breaths, and flew towards the sky. In an instant, Chen Guang's magical power was reduced by half a pot.

Cold sweat broke out on my forehead—it was entirely due to overexertion.

The flames are inherently amorphous, and when deliberately spread, they require almost no control to easily create a large area of ​​fire, while also giving the feeling of water violently sloshing in a bucket.

It's easy to sway, but difficult to stabilize.

This was an area Chen Guang had never explored before. His Flame Control Technique lacked experience in this area, so this was the first time Chen Guang had faced such flames. He almost lost control of the flames and burned down the courtyard.

He quickly withdrew his magic power, gathering all the flames together and re-condensing them into a small, pale blue flame. In every respect, it was a flame, but the Canyan Flame was indeed a rather unique one among the five acquired spiritual flames. It always gave people a feeling of water in some subtle ways, truly making the saying "fire form and water image" deeply ingrained in his mind and unforgettable.

The Water-Fire Pill, refined using the fruits of the Zhan Yang Flower and the Bu Zhi Thorn, also benefited greatly from my own diligent cultivation. When I finally cultivated the Ginseng Flame, I still had a fleeting sense of 'it was so easy to achieve this'.

With the magic power severed, the dark blue flame gradually drifted away, transforming into a burst of heat that dissipated into the sky.

The eight characters "the foundational spiritual fire of the five elements" may sound weak at first glance, but in reality, cultivation of it is very difficult.

The reason why no one dared to openly criticize Deacon Longma, despite not being very optimistic about him, was that he had mastered the Beak Flame. The cultivation of these five spiritual flames was not a particularly profound secret technique; anyone could obtain them with a little effort, but few cultivators had actually mastered them.

Furthermore, knowing and being proficient are two different levels. Chen Guang's ability to generate the ginseng flame is certainly a difficult step, but each use requires more than twenty breaths, and there is even a possibility of failure. These are all things that need to be mastered. Only by improving the stability and speed of casting can it be used in actual combat.

Chen Guang also remembered the day he used the Ice Essence Bottle. With a thought, Long Ma's flames appeared, melting ice and turning cold in an instant. It was clear that he did not borrow a spiritual artifact or some secret technique to preserve the fire, but simply catalyzed it with magic power. His mastery was obviously extremely high. Long Ma's skill was truly remarkable.

That being said, this is also the wonder of the Five Visceral Flames. While nourishing the five internal organs, the flames can be released at a moment's notice. This allows a cultivator who is not familiar with the basic spiritual fire of the Five Elements to summon spiritual fire at any time, just like a skilled spiritual fire cultivator. This is where the value of this secret technique becomes apparent.

In terms of understanding Kui Yan, even if you look at it several times over, you still can't compare to Shen Yan. However, summoning and using Kui Yan is many times easier and more skillful than using Shen Yan. This is the shortcut of secret arts, and it is also the reason why Chen Guang does not want to rely too much on secret arts.

It's so useful that I don't even know how to use it myself.

Having grasped the essence of the Flame, Chen Guang's next goal, besides continuing to practice, is naturally the Earth Element Flame. However, the Flame's aids are not only pills like Water and Fire Pills, but also require a magical artifact called "Chanpu." This is not Chen Guang's area of ​​expertise, so he will inevitably have to ask others for help.

Because the excitement of comprehending the Flame of Enlightenment lingered for a long time, Chen Guang had no choice but to suspend his practice and instead visit Cao Fang.

The former's fire peach forest has stabilized, and Chen Guang would occasionally go over to discuss with Cao Fang and provide some experience in large-scale planting.

Having experienced her first failure, Cao Fang already knew what she was doing. However, she was too caught up in the moment and needed occasional reminders from others to avoid making the same mistake again.

Getting Huotao through the winter was naturally an important matter. After working with Cao Fang for a while, Chen Guang turned around and went to Dongfang Lieming's place.

Naturally, it was to ascertain the state of Dongfang Lieming's war preparations.

The two siblings were clearly quite wealthy. When Chen Guang arrived, Dongfang Lieming was demonstrating a metal-attribute shield-shaped defensive magical artifact. Although it was only of low grade, it could be doubled when mana was activated. Dongfang Lieming invited Chen Guang to see it. After activating it to the maximum extent, some blazing golden halos would appear on the edge of the shield, which also had the effect of interfering with and hindering spells.

Defense and escape are usually paired together, and Dongfang Liming only demonstrated one aspect of defense.

Chen Guang was just checking to see if they were ready. Since they were, he didn't ask any more questions. After all, winter was approaching, and they could prepare to set off.

Chen Guang's preparations were a bit more complicated. He could entrust the food, such as ice-tailed shrimp and ice-shelled turtles, to Cao Fang, but he could only harvest the time-limited reward orbs as much as possible first, harvesting the main parts and letting the rest go.

The largest remaining pine that hasn't yet produced a reward orb is the Ice Pine. Two of them still have a chance to mature because they are close to the active cold energy area where the Purple Grass is located, so they can still be saved. However, the Ice Pine further away is in trouble. Its growth has stagnated, and there is a considerable probability that it will be strangled by the cold energy of the growing Ice Flower Wutong before next summer.

This is beyond human control, so we might as well just leave it alone.

He also took the time to familiarize himself with the Wind-Chasing Demon-Binding Rope and further refined and familiarized himself with his own spiritual weapons.

Finally, before winter arrived, Chen Guang met Dongfang Lieming's elder brother, Dongfang Jianming, in Xingfeng Market.

Both siblings possessed remarkable elegance; the younger sister was like a clear lake, while the older brother was like a pine tree in the snow.

Are these two really being oppressed by the Dongfang family?

This was my first impression of the two. Temperament is actually an outward manifestation of a person's demeanor, personality, and style of behavior. Such a refined and gentle temperament must have been cultivated through leisure and extensive reading. It is consistent with the fact that the siblings, who came from such a family, would suddenly suffer humiliation after their parents' death, and that they possessed the secret of the Fire Beard Cave. However, the fact that two mortals were able to escape is somewhat inconsistent with the previous signs.

Although the Dongfang family did indeed search for traces of the two siblings, they did so in secret and did not take any action on the surface.

There must be some hidden story behind this, but Chen Guang was limited by his lack of access to the Lu Tang Records and the fact that the Dongfang family was an independent vassal family, so he was unable to obtain any progress information.

Dongfang Jianming was at the second level of Qi Refining, but he was clearly wary of Chen Guang. After a few simple pleasantries, Dongfang Jianming spoke the majority of the conversation.

However, he frequently observed Chen Guang from the corner of his eye. There were two gourds on one side of his waist and a bundle of array flags on the other side. Strangely, not much spiritual energy was leaking out. Unless you got close, you could hardly feel the solid spiritual energy under his clothes. It seemed that there was also a defensive spiritual artifact.

"Could it be that he doesn't have a storage artifact? But he's already at the mid-stage of Qi Refining; is he just feigning caution?"

Dongfang Jianming simply followed Chen Guang through the procedures, and only after returning from Xiantang did he noticeably relax and chat with Chen Guang for quite a while.

They arrived at the horse farm while chatting and laughing.

Last time, Wan Longjing led the way, but this time Chen Guang became an old man. He led the two men and the Crimson Blood Horse straight to Purple Dragon Ridge, but they came up empty-handed and failed to meet the wine stall owner. As agreed, he left a few words for someone else and headed west.