Chapter 60: Burning Sky Flame

The Cinderflame Seed had visibly shrunk, and the spiritual power in his Sea of Qi had grown slightly. After completing the first round of refinement, Xu Xiaoshou stopped.

Surprisingly, it was much easier than he had imagined; his earlier concerns seemed to have vanished completely.

"Has the Cinderflame Seed gotten weaker?" Xu Xiaoshou wondered. "No... that's not it!"

With a serious expression, he walked to the doorway, letting the evening breeze ruffle his clothes. He pressed a finger to his forehead, looked up at the sky, his eyes filled with an infinite sense of solitude. "It's not that the Cinderflame Seed has gotten weaker," he mused, "it's that I've gotten stronger!"

The cold wind swept through his sleeves, hinting at rain, and Xu Xiaoshou felt he had grasped the true meaning of "it's lonely at the top."

After a long while, he snapped back to reality. Since the Cinderflame Seed no longer posed a threat to him, he simply slowed down the refinement process. His goal, which was initially to refine the seed, now shifted to earning passive points and successfully cultivating the Heaven Incinerating Cinderflame technique!

Undoubtedly, this was a powerful spiritual technique, and its straightforward cultivation method perfectly suited Xu Xiaoshou. His eyes hardened with resolve. He sat down cross-legged again, enduring the pain, and his body once more began to emit red mist.

Absorb! Emit again... Absorb again! Emit again...

Perseverance was a valuable trait, and Xu Xiaoshou's own perseverance had been forged by illness in his previous life. As long as he was determined to do something and there was hope, he could complete it, no matter how painful.

As time passed, the volume of the internal fire seed continued to shrink, and the passive points in his mind soared: "Passive Points: 43220." "Passive Points: 53449." "Passive Points: 64122."

Night fell. The last wisp of scorching energy was absorbed by Xu Xiaoshou into his Sea of Qi, which surged with spiritual power, seemingly about to be refilled. "It's a success!" he declared.

Xu Xiaoshou opened his eyes, his gaze seemingly ablaze. He felt the surging power within him; this genuine feeling of growing stronger was no less satisfying than blindly leveling up skills with skill points.

Above his Sea of Qi, the Cinderflame Seed had indeed vanished, but the cultivation progress of the "Cinderflame Spiritual Essence" was only eighty to ninety percent complete...

"That old geezer couldn't have calculated even this, could he?" Xu Xiaoshou pulled out a bottle containing yet another Cinderflame Seed...

His expression tightened. It felt like he had an endless homework assignment... "Damn it!"

He sat down again, not even wanting to rest. He glanced at the sky, determined to cultivate the "Cinderflame Spiritual Essence" to completion before sunrise.

Swallowing the third Cinderflame Seed, he resumed his cross-legged refinement. The night was quiet, the wind barely stirred, and a fine drizzle began to fall outside.

If Elder Sang had been there, he would probably have been astonished once again by this guy's terrifying perseverance. While he had indeed given a third Cinderflame Seed, he hadn't imagined this fellow would attempt to refine two in a single day! This was no longer just about perseverance; anyone capable of this might be a masochistic pervert!

"Hiss~" As the red mist erupted, he becam— *cough cough*— Xu Xiaoshou was once again engrossed. "Attacked, Passive Points +1." "Attacked, Passive Points +1." ...

Each scorching of his body, accompanied by waves of pain, also brought a small amount of passive points. "Passive Points: 73322." "Passive Points: 81008." ...

As time flowed, the misty spiritual power in his Sea of Qi gradually became viscous. The colorless energy was swallowed by the crimson, slowly approaching a critical point.

Xu Xiaoshou knew that when the misty spiritual power completely condensed, it would be the moment the "Cinderflame Spiritual Essence" was perfected!

With only a few remaining traces of the Cinderflame Seed, Xu Xiaoshou sharply exhaled, instantly dissolving it despite the pain, and then fused it into his own Sea of Qi.

"Boom!" In that instant, his Sea of Qi violently shook. The spiritual power completely contracted and condensed, transforming into crimson spiritual essence, raging within the Sea of Qi. A wave of spiritual energy spread out—a breakthrough! He had reached the Spirit Refinement Ninth Stage!

Xu Xiaoshou, seizing the momentum, swallowed a Spirit Refinement Pill. It melted into the crimson spiritual essence, and the "Breathing Technique" continuously transformed, fully stabilizing his realm.

The spiritual essence cooled, its crimson color transforming into an ancient, pristine white, settling completely.

"Hoo~" Xu Xiaoshou gently exhaled a turbid breath, his expression excited. It was a success!

The Cinderflame Spiritual Essence was white. Its power was tyrannical, its temperature incredibly high; it was as unmoving as a mountain, yet as striking as thunder!

Xu Xiaoshou tried to circulate the spiritual essence within his body. Just a wisp of it contained several times more potent and scorching energy than his previous spiritual power. He gathered it on his fingertip and aimed it at the floor. To his surprise, before his finger even touched the ground, the stone floor began to melt.

"This incredible?" Xu Xiaoshou was astonished. The attack power had visibly increased! If he added "Strong" and "Sharp," the effect would be...

"Tsk, tsk!" Xu Xiaoshou clicked his tongue, thinking to himself: mastering the innate fire attribute power with acquired cultivation, and such a tyrannical "Cinderflame Spiritual Essence" at that – he must be considered a genius, right?

"Next, I need to condense the 'Cinderflame Heavenly Incineration'." According to the jade slip, the Cinderflame Heavenly Incineration was a prerequisite for completing the "Heaven Incinerating Cinderflame" technique.

White spiritual essence gushed forth, appearing in his palm, and the room's temperature instantly became hot and dry. Controlling the spiritual essence with his mind, he tried his best to compress it. Xu Xiaoshou could feel the tyrannical energy in his palm intensely converging to a single point.

Sweat beaded profusely on his forehead. Xu Xiaoshou dared not relax, maximizing his "Perception" to meticulously control every wisp of energy in his palm. If he messed this up, it could directly explode, and he was quite fond of his life!

He controlled it precisely, adjusting continuously. Soon, the white substance in his palm condensed to an extreme point, then suddenly vanished.

"Poof-poof." Xu Xiaoshou clearly heard a few fluttering sounds of sparks. He looked at his palm; to the naked eye, there was nothing, but under "Perception," it was a mass of extremely compressed, violent energy.

The Cinderflame Heavenly Incineration was colorless, transparent, with occasional white sparks, capable of incinerating all things! The jade slip described it this way, but Xu Xiaoshou wasn't sure if there was any exaggeration. He thought for a moment and took out a spiritual crystal.

This item was as hard as rock and had a high energy density, making it excellent for testing.

Xu Xiaoshou held the spiritual crystal high with his left hand, while his right hand held the invisible energy far below it. However, before he even lowered the crystal, wisps of mist began to dissipate from it.

"This..." Xu Xiaoshou was secretly surprised and let go.

"Sizzle!" The spiritual crystal free-fell, but when it was still a few feet away from his palm, it instantly vaporized, and dense spiritual energy dispersed.

"Holy crap!" Xu Xiaoshou was shocked. "This is absolutely terrifying! Transparent flames, with such terrifying high temperatures – it's impossible to guard against!"

With a thought, the flame in his palm was reabsorbed into his Sea of Qi, and the vaporized spiritual crystal's energy also flowed into his body.

This was the "Breathing Technique"; not a single drop was wasted, all of it absorbed!

"Ah~" Xu Xiaoshou let out a comfortable groan as this incoming energy alleviated much of the fatigue from his night of arduous cultivation.

He clenched his fists. Everything was proceeding orderly. He was just one step away from completing this powerful spiritual technique...