Chapter 283: Reforming the Essence Fireseed!
“Boom!!”
An earth-shaking explosion erupted from the Northern Point of the Crafting School. It was so loud that every student heard it. Turning their heads to the source, they could all see a pillar of flames jettison into the heavens. The pillar evaporated any nearby clouds, and its intentions seemed like it wanted to bridge the earth and the heavens together.
This pillar of flames originated from the Northern Point, and at the source of this pillar was a cave.
The sleek ground around the pillar was ten meters long and wide. There were a series of lines and marks dug into the ground, forming an extremely complicated looking array. The inscriptions in the array glowed a bright red hue from the primal stones placed everywhere. The primal stones flashed and twinkled, and the array resembled a red version of the night sky with multiple stars blinking often. There had to be several hundred fire primal stones. At a glance, the lowest quality ones were of the mid-grade. The majority of them were the rarely seen high-grade ones.
And at the pivotal points of the arrays, there were a few primal stones that shined even brighter. They were superior-grade fire primal stones!!
At the center of the array was the pillar. It was two meters in diameter and was extremely bright. It looked as if the array was feeding the pillar a nearly unlimited amount of power.
Within the scorching-hot pillar, a single figure could be seen sitting inside!!
“Yunfei!!”
A woman cried out. From beyond the pillar, a group of people could be seen staring at it. An orange light was protecting the group from being burned by the fierce elemental fire.
The one who had shouted out loud had been a pale-faced Tang Xinyun. She was concerned about Bai Yunfei’s fate, and if Cang Yu had not grabbed ahold of her hand, Tang Xinyun would’ve already charged for the pillar.
A feeling of unease welled up inside of her. The sight of the person inside the pillar proved far too much for her to bear any longer; turning to Zi Jin, who was in front of her, she pleaded, “Senior headmaster… Yunfei can’t hold out any longer! Please save him! There’s not enough time!!”
From where he stood, Zi Jin was completely still. When the words of Tang Xinyun reached him, a feeling of worry and regret flashed in his eyes, “Alas… it looks like this attempt didn’t work…”
……
Bai Yunfei sat in the center of the pillar of flames. His eyebrows were knit together, his teeth were grit, and his face was scrunched up in great pain. The heat of the fire was the hottest on the left side of his chest where his heart was. Right there, a small fist-sized fireball blew apart as if failing to hold together.
The most shocking thing was that Bai Yunfei’s face had several cracks running through it! Like century-old dirt, there were crevices going everywhere down his body as if threatening to split apart!
Liquid blood did not come out of the cracks. Instead, a vapor trail of evaporated blood came out in its place.
“Dammit dammit dammit!! Calm down!!” Bai Yunfei practically howled. His body felt as if a gale was tearing him apart with how he was losing control of the elemental fire. Even his soul felt as if it was being ignited from all the heat, but he was loathed to give up now.
“Am I still unable to do it? Why? Why is this happening…”
…………
……
After Bai Yunfei thought of the idea to form a second essence fireseed and had earned Zi Jin’s approval, he had spent all of his time training and preparing. Aside from the periods of time where he’d go see Tang Xinyun or when he’d upgrade several accessories at night, he’d spend the rest of his time trying to feel for the elemental fire around him.
Right now, he had the soulforce expected of a Soul Ancestor, but since no element could be felt in his body, Bai Yunfei would look like a Soul Warrior if he didn’t release his soulforce. Though he tried to absorb the elemental fire around him, Bai Yunfei was unable to do so; there was no longer a ‘connection’ like before.
It was during that time that Bai Yunfei realized he had an extremely ‘close’ relationship with elemental lightning. In fact, he could very easily form an essence lightningseed if he wanted since his affinity for it was just as good as his affinity for fire.
But that wasn’t what Bai Yunfei wanted. He wanted to focus on absorbing elemental fire, and he had tried so many different methods to accomplish that goal. The Fire-tipped Spear, the Flameblade Bracer, the Ardent Sun Glove, and even other pieces of equipment that could help him with elemental fire were used to experiment. The one with the biggest results had been the Cataclysmic Seal, but he didn’t dare use it in case something hampered the recovery of his essence fireseed.
Half a month later, all of the spirit boosting accessories he owned had been fully upgraded. Although none of them gained an effect of granting soulforce recovery, there was no need to worry since Tang Xinyun was progressing fast enough on her own. Bai Yunfei was loathed to part with his +12 equipment, so he didn’t bother upgrading those. He also didn’t bother to find any more accessories. Instead, he focused completely on training.
Day by day, time slipped by as Bai Yunfei failed to make any progress with elemental fire. His essence fireseed was still slowly improving, but Bai Yunfei was hoping that the recovery effort would slow down. The essence fireseed would return to his body when it was fully healed, and he wouldn’t be able to attempt to form another essence fireseed if that happened.
What Bai Yunfei wished was only just a thought. A thought couldn’t impede the recovery of his essence fireseed, so he tried his best to absorb as much elemental fire as he could before his essence fireseed could recover.
Zi Jin was busy himself. His waking hours were spent pouring over the records within the archives of the school in search of any pertinent information on companion fireseeds. The procurement of the necessary ingredients and primal stone were managed by him so that Bai Yunfei wouldn’t have to do it.
He knew that if Bai Yunfei were to try to manage everything himself, there was no way to reach his goals. A special case like Bai Yunfei required special methods.
In fact, Zi Jin was more serious about the matter than Bai Yunfei since he knew just how important this opportunity was.
Two months later…
Bai Yunfei wanted to absorb as much elemental fire as he could, but it simply couldn’t be done. Not a single bit of elemental fire could be found in his body, but the essence fireseed in his Cataclysmic Seal had already recuperated more than halfway. Bai Yunfei asked Zi Jin for assistance because of his impatience.
For three whole days, Zi Jin tried his best to find a way, and after the third day, he finally informed Bai Yunfei that they could only try the more special ways to attempt to make a second essence fireseed.
Today, Bai Yunfei had been extremely excited. Under the guidance of Zi Jin, they walked close to the top of the Northern Point along with the first elder Xiao Binzi, second elder Huangfu Rui, third elder Cang Yu, and fourth elder Jiang Nan. Since Tang Xinyun learned of what was happening from Cang Yu, she tagged along as well.
The group traveled up the road before finally coming to a stop ten meters away from a cave.
Aside from the excessive width of the cave, there was nothing special about it. The moment they walked in, Bai Yunfei saw a ten-meter-wide array drawn on the ground with a myriad of fire primal stones laid at center points all over it. The primal stones exuded a bright crimson glow everywhere since there were so many.
Only one glance was needed for Bai Yunfei to determine that the worth of the primal stones was definitely not low. However much they were worth, Bai Yunfei didn’t know, but that was natural. His eyes weren’t sharp enough to discern their true worth.
It was because of this inability that Bai Yunfei didn’t know that several of these stones was enough to keep a small school running for over a century…
The sight of the primal stones was shocking to the elders who did know their worth.
“Yunfei, this array is called the Flame Gathering Formation. Your master will be using this today to help you form an essence fireseed. It’ll help you focus and gather the elemental fire around you at a faster rate, and it will also help you absorb it.”
Bai Yunfei was surprised to hear of such a thing. It was the first that he’d even heard of a ‘formation’ before. It was a topic that was completely untouched by him, so it went without saying that he didn’t understand it.
Now wasn’t the time to try and learn the art though. Nodding his head, Bai Yunfei followed Zi Jin’s instructions, and he sat down at the very center of the array.
As soon as he stepped within the boundary of the formation, Bai Yunfei felt the space around him ‘stick’ to him. A rich miasma of elemental fire pooled around him, and he could feel each breath travel into his abdomen.
Outside, Zi Jin shook his hand to retrieve something from his space ring. It was a type of drug.
Handing it to Bai Yunfei, Zi Jin said, “Yunfei, take this when I say so. You’ll feel it taking effect straight away. That’s when you will try to form your essence fireseed with the elemental fire in here.
“You won’t need to worry about anything else. I will stand by the side and watch for any danger. Should it come, I’ll be there to lend you aid. All you need to do is focus on forming an essence fireseed.” Zi Jin warned.
“Don’t worry, master. Your student will work hard to live up to your expectations!” Bai Yunfei bowed.
“Very well.” Nodding, Zi Jin had everyone else stand twenty meters away. “You may… begin!”
“Yes!”
Raising his left hand, Bai Yunfei took a swift look at the grape-sized red pill in his hand in determination.
“Success or failure, it all depends on this… no matter what happens, I have to form a second essence fireseed!!”