Chapter 795: Fire-Spirit Transmutation
In the successful mining of fire, one's cultivation level and strength were non-trivial factors; however, the greatest factor was determined by one's understanding of fire-elemental laws.
The deeper one's understanding in fire-elemental laws, the easier it was to mine the fire.
And the easier it was to mine the fire, the more fire-elemental energy could be obtained. This would then allow a person's understanding towards fire-elemental laws to deepen and turn more profound, as well as steadily strengthen one's cultivation level!
Hence, the Earth Fire Hall disciples' fire mining of the Spirit of the Earth Fire became something extremely important. The strong would become stronger, while the weak would become weaker.
In fact, not only Earth Fire Hall disciples came here, but even Heaven Fire Hall disciples would also occasionally make the trip here to mine for fire.
At this moment, amongst all the disciples mining fire, Yang Zishan was the one that had the deepest understanding of fire-elemental laws. The fire spark he mined was the biggest and he was also the fastest to absorb it amongst everyone present.
That bit of fire spark had sunk into his Dantian and had been mostly absorbed by him.
At this moment, Yang Zishan suddenly opened his eyes and looked towards Man Dao and Yun Qiao'er. Man Dao was at a critical stage of his fire-mining process, so he was sweating profusely and persisting with great effort.
Although he could barely persist on, Man Dao steadily refined the Earth fire, eliminating the chaotic energies from it, so as to make it easy for absorption.
If this went on, Man Dao would succeed in his fire mining in about 15 minutes.
Beside Man Dao, Yun Qiao'er's speed was slightly slower. The young lady's cultivation level was lower than Man Dao's to begin with, so it was a struggle for her as she barely held on. Her face was drenched in sweat.
Seeing the barely persisting Man Dao and Yun Qiao'er, a teasing smile suffused from the corners of Yang Zishan's lips. It was as though he was waiting for something.
At this moment, the few Earth Fire Hall disciples beside Yang Zishan were also done with their fire-mining. They had become Earth Fire Hall disciples for quite some time now, so although they were considered lackeys of Yang Zishan, they were not much weaker than Man Dao in terms of strength. Anyone who could enter the Earth Fire Hall was no ordinary person.
"Senior Brother Zishan, why have you stopped? With Senior Brother Zishan's strength, mining another eight or ten times wouldn't even be a problem! Hahaha!" An Earth Fire Hall disciple that followed Yang Zishan around said to him with a smile.
The number of times one could mine fire was a close reflection of one's strength. At Man Dao's strength, he could at best do it three or four times, while Yun Qiao'er could only manage fewer. Two or three times would be her limit.
As for Yang Zishan, mining seven or eight times was indeed not a problem.
"Ha, I'll continue mining for you to see. Speaking about it, I happened to learn a new technique the past few days. I made a tiny improvement in fire-elemental laws, so let me show it to all of you."
"Alright, please broaden my horizons!" The Earth Fire Hall disciples said in unison. Many of them were Elder Heaven Scorpio's disciples, a result of his long tenure at Earth Fire Hall.
Yang Zishan chuckled and suddenly looked at Man Dao. Targeting at the tiny bit of fire spark in front of Man Dao, he shouted, "I'll let all of you see my new technique. Come, fire!"
Yang Zishan grabbed out at the air towards the fire spark in front of Man Dao!
The flickering fire spark, which was originally in front of Man Dao, suddenly began to vibrate intensely after Yang Zishan made a telekinetic grab at it!
The fire spark turned erratic as though it was being strongly attracted by a force. It began flying towards Yang Zishan.
"What?"
Man Dao, who was in the midst of desperately refining the Earth fire, suddenly opened his eyes. His forehead was covered in bean-sized sweat droplets. He watched the Earth fire that he was nearly done refining being snatched away by Yang Zishan.
"Yang Zishan, you!"
Man Dao stared with a furious gaze. Refining a fire spark consumed a great deal of Yuan Qi. Yet, it had been snatched away by Yang Zishan just as it was almost done refining! So how could Man Dao not be enraged?
He could only mine three or four times per trip to the Fire Spirit Palace because he would end up drained of all his Yuan Qi by the end of it. Now, the fire spark had been snatched by Yang Zishan after he had finished consuming Yuan Qi needed for one fire-mining attempt. It was equivalent to wasting one chance of his, so how could he take this lying down!?
But at the same moment his anger flared, Man Dao also turned shocked. The Earth fire that he was almost done refining was equivalent to having a mark imprinted by him. It would have made it much easier for him to control the fire spark than Yang Zishan, but even so, it had still been snatched away by Yang Zishan.
This meant that Yang Zishan's control over Earth fire far surpassed his.
"Trying to snatch my Earth fire, dream on!"
Man Dao was a hot tempered person, so he could not tolerate such acts. He grabbed at the Earth fire that had yet to float far away. It was situated closer to Man Dao, and along with him having refined it previously, his grab should in principle allow him to easily bring it back.
However, at this moment, a layer of red mist emitted from Yang Zishan's palm. It was like rolling red smoke that enveloped the fire spark, segregating Man Dao's nomological force from the Earth fire.
Following that, the Earth fire in Man Dao's hands seemed to gain an intelligence. It started flying towards Yang Zishan on its own accord, as though it had its own consciousness and knew how to make a choice.
"Fire-Spirit Transmutation!"
Standing not far from Yang Zishan, an Earth Fire Hall disciple's eyes lit up upon seeing this scene.
Many disciples who were planning on continuing mining for fire stopped at this moment to watch the struggle.
Fire-Spirit Transmutation was to endow flames with a little spirituality, allowing the fire to seem to possess life. This was an extremely difficult to master fire-elemental law. From the looks of it, Yang Zishan's mentioning of his tiny improvement in fire-elemental laws referred to Fire-Spirit Transmutation!
This wasn't a 'tiny improvement', it was basically a qualitative leap in fire control!
Once the flame possessed some spiritually, then be it controlling the flame for an attack or the manipulation of the flame, there would be nothing in comparison!
Fire-Spirit Transmutation...The bastard, Yang Zishan, sure had the skills!
Man Dao clenched his teeth. This form of nomological fire control far exceeded his, so it was no wonder Yang Zishan dared to snatch his fire.
Having a flame that he had mostly refined snatched away made Man Dao aggrieved, but what could he do? Refining Earth fire in the Fire Spirit Palace was meritocratic. It was not against the rules to snatch the flames of others, and you could only blame yourself for being weak if it happened to you.
However, under normal circumstances, nobody would deliberately snatch the flames of others. This was something that did not benefit oneself, but Yang Zishan and Man Dao were at odds with each other, or to be precise, Elder Heaven Scorpio and Fairy Black Bamboo were at odds with each other. The factional struggles were passed down from Elders to disciples!
"Haha, Man Dao, you sure are down on your luck to meet me today. Don't think of mining any bit of fire sparks. If you are indignant about it, have a gamble fight with me!"
While competing with Man Dao over the control of the flame, Yang Zishan was still able to distract himself by speaking. As for Man Dao, he was sweating bullets, so it was immediately clear who had the upper hand.
At this moment, Yang Zishan suddenly looked at Yun Qiao'er. The Earth fire in front of her was about 60–70% done, and she could barely persist on.
Yang Zishan grinned and shouted, "Fire, come!"
He used his other hand and grabbed at the air, causing the Earth fire in front of Yun Qiao'er to immediately be snatched by Yang Zishan. The second Earth fire also began floating towards Yang Zishan.