Chapter 86: Fireseed Spirit Mushroom
In one of the rooms of the western courtyards in the Green Willow School.
Bai Yunfei was laid on one of the beds with a strange crimson red color appearing all over his body. His eyebrows pinched together in pain as he clenched his fists together so much that his fingernails had dug into his skin and shed blood that instantaneously evaporated. The veins on his arms and neck were clearly visible, and his skin was as cracked as a dry field–his right arm was most noticeably mangled. Rivulets of blood had secreted onto his skin before evaporating into a bloody mist.
The temperature of the room was completely because of him, and it was still increasing rapidly. Even the mattress under him had a faint black spot of being burnt. It was as if….there was a ball of fire that was raging within his body. It was ready to cut open his chest, come out of his body, and burn his entire body until there was nothing left.
Hong Yin sat right by the bed with his hands held against his stomach. His eyebrows were furrowed together while his eyes were closed shut in thought.
After some time, Hong Yin finally opened his eyes and slowly stood to turn around to face You Qingfeng and the others.
“Big brother Hong Yin, what is going on with big brother Yunfei? He’s going to be fine, right? Please….you have to save him!” Chu Yuhe immediately ran to Hong Yin when she saw him rise. Her face had turned upwards to look expectantly at Hong Yin.
You Qingfeng walked up as well to look at the bedridden Bai Yunfei. Concerned, she asked, “Hong Yin, little brother Yunfei’s circumstances doesn’t look too reassuring! Do you have any plans right now?”
Hong Yin sighed with a shake of his head, “Yunfei is in an abnormally bad situation right now. I have no idea what method he used to uplift himself to the Soul Sprite stage or how he managed to condense his essence fireseed. But because he broke through too fast, his body wasn’t able to completely harmonize with the elemental fire. Whatever method he used, he had unexpectedly managed to condense a half of the essence fireseed to advance. There wasn’t anything that could go wrong in the battle, but the more and more he used the elemental fire, the faster he found himself in this current predicament. With half of the elemental fire not under control, it grew in amount, causing it to go out of control within his body and burning. If this goes on, I’m afraid it might become fatal….”
Hong Yin’s eyebrows grew even closer together, “Right now the interior part of his body is in chaos. I don’t dare involve myself in it. If there is a soul cultivator with the water element, they could temporarily abate the problem. But alas, with my wind affinity soulforce, or your wood affinity, we cannot do anything to rein in the berserk elemental fire in Yunfei’s body….”
“Then what do we do? Didn’t you just say the more we wait, the more dangerous it gets….” Mu Wanqing’s eyebrows knotted together in worry.
You Qingfeng looked to Hong Yin for a moment before suddenly speaking out, “Hong Yin, if it was you, you’d be able to do it, correct? You’d remove the unstable essence fireseed in his body….”
Hong Yin nodded his head faintly, “I would indeed do that. But, if we really did that, we would be destroy Yunfei’s entire future! Not only would his strength drop back down to the Soul Warrior stage, he would never be able to make a breakthrough again….”
“What? Is it that serious?” Mu Wanqing was astonished, “Is the backlash of a soul technique truly that terrifying?”
Hong Yin shook his head, “Yunfei’s circumstances is quite unusual. I don’t even know what he did….but in short, I don’t wish to destroy his future….”
He looked back to Bai Yunfei whose face seemed to be even more pained. Sinking his head down in thought, Hong Yin’s eyes continue to flash as if he was hesitating. After some time, he seemed to have reached some sort of conclusion. His eyes grew resolute as he turned around to You Qingfeng. “Big brother You, there is something I require your assistance with.”
You Qingfeng was startled, “Eh? Don’t tell me you actually thought of some way to save Yunfei? If you have need for me to do anything, then say it. I will do my best to help!”
Hong Yin’s right hand shook, unexpectedly bringing out a plethora of plants from his space ring. They looked to be medical ingredients–at least ten different sorts. A gentle wind had kicked up from around his body before levitating the ingredients into the air.
With another lift of his hand, a small fire the size of a palm had appeared above his hand. It was some sort of flaming red object. With its appearance, the entire room seemed to have skyrocketed in temperature once more. A wisp of elemental fire came pulsating out from Bai Yunfei’s body with a strong resonance to the fire from the item.
Hong Yin stared at the plant in his hand for some time before looking up to You Qingfeng. “Use your wood affinity soulforce and extract the essence from these ingredients. Then mix it with this thing and give it to Yunfei. It should help him get through this crisis for now.”
You Qingfeng looked astounded at the floating plants in front of Hong Yin; each one of these were extremely precious ingredients. But when he saw the one item held in Hong Yin’s hand, he was instantly stunned. As his eyes opened wide, he cried out, “That’s a….fire….fireseed spirit mushroom!!”
Mu Wanqing had been shocked at the strong amount of elemental fire that came out from the item in Hong Yin’s hand as well. When she heard You Qingfeng’s gasp, she couldn’t help but ask in confusion, “Qingfeng, what is a fireseed spirit mushroom? Why is it that I feel it’s….”
“You feel that it contains the essence of fire, correct?” You Qingfeng nodded as he became calm once more. Explaining, he said, “Your sense isn’t wrong. This ‘fireseed spirit mushroom’ contains an extremely pure amount of the essence of elemental fire. This precious material grows in the deepest part of the Soulbeast Forest, the million year old volcano. From its growth to maturation, it requires at least several hundred years worth of time. Soul cultivators at the stage of Soul Warriors and upwards can use this to make a direct breakthrough to the Soul Sprite stage. It can also condense the essence fireseed with ease and without any danger! Even a soul cultivator without any gifts for the fire affinity can become incomparably close to the elemental fire with this. It can even be said that whomever possesses a single fireseed spirit mushroom possesses an absolute opportunity to advance into the Soul Sprite stage!”
“Furthermore, for a soul cultivator at the stage of Soul Sprite without the affinity for fire, then they could without fail gain another elemental essence from within their body!” You Qingfeng spoke up to there before turning to look at Hong Yin. “Are you certain you wish to give this to Bai Yunfei? This is…..”
Hong Yin gave a determined nod of his head, “It is important to save a life. I will bother big brother You with this then.”
You Qingfeng gave a moment’s consideration before answering promptly, “Very well! If brother Hong Yin brings out such a precious item to save a life without consideration, then how could I be so miserly to not squander some of my original property strength?!”
Reaching out, You Qingfeng’s hand grabbed at the ingredients that flew to his hand. After calming himself, a green halo of light began to slowly appear above his palm to envelop the ingredients within it and rotate them. From the outside, the ingredients could be seen slowly withering away before turning into ash. A clear and transparent drop of liquid could be seen being squeezed out before floating up on the side.
After several repeats of the process, all of the ingredients Hong Yin had taken out had been reduced to ash. In their place, several drops of clear and transparent liquids could be seen.
You Qingfeng’s forehead had several beads of sweat on it, but he looked to the fireseed spirit mushroom in Hong Yin’s hand, unsure on whether or not he would have to do the same to it. In midst of his stares, Hong Yin spoke out, “You’ve worked hard, big brother You. You needn’t break down this ingredient. For the next step, allow me to take over.”
Letting out a faint breath of air, the green halo of light in You Qingfeng’s hands retreated back into his own body. He walked to the side where he then sat down on a stool. From the looks of things, breaking down and extracting the essence from these ingredients had required a large amount of energy from him.
Hong Yin extended an arm to allow the several drops of liquid to slowly fly to his hand. An azure-colored whirlwind had then formed on his palm, forcing the liquids to begin to rotate around the fireseed spirit mushroom. After several breaths worth of time, the fireseed spirit mushroom let out a “bang” sound before transforming into a fist-sized flame. Even the liquid revolving around it had been engulfed before the temperature in the room had clambered up once more.
Hong Yin’s face had grown grim as the whirlwind in his hand flew faster and faster. That ball of fire in his hand had gradually grown smaller as if it was being forcibly compressed. Finally, it had decreased to the size of a newborn’s fist. Furthermore, the several drops of liquids seemed to have been melted into the flames to become one with it.
Hong Yin let out a gentle sigh of air as he directed the ball of fire towards Bai Yunfei’s body. Fixating his eyes on him, Hong Yin spoke gently, “Yunfei, I know you can hear what I’m saying. I am administering this to you, do not reject it. Let it flow to your essence fireseed and fuse with it. Let it control the elemental fire within you, and free yourself from this danger!”
Bai Yunfei’s eyes were still closed, and his body continued to tremble. But there was a faint grunt that could be heard from between his teeth as if he was answering Hong Yin.
Hong Yin’s eyes flashed without anymore hesitation. His left hand pinched Bai Yunfei’s chin and pulled open his mouth. With his right hand, the ball of fire was immediately stuffed within Bai Yunfei’s mouth!
Bai Yunfei’s body began to violently jerk around. His teeth continued to clench tightly as the ball of fire was swallowed down into his abdomen. Afterwards, his face warped in even more pain, there were even some parts of his body that had even split open, but no blood had come out. Instead, another bloody wisp of mist had risen up in a grotesque manner.
Not too long after, his eyebrows had smoothened out and the body tremors had lessened as if the situation had begun to turn around.
Seeing this turn of events, Hong Yin had finally let out a sigh of relief. Turning around to look at everyone, he said, “There shouldn’t be any problems now. Let us all head out. Whatever happens next, it will be up to Bai Yunfei to deal with. If nothing out of the ordinary happens, he should be fine by tomorrow….”
Walking out of the room, Hong Yin watched You Qingfeng and the rest leave as well. He stood in the middle of the courtyard in heavy thought before shaking his head, “Having done things this way, it was well worth it. With all things considered, I had no plans to cultivate the elemental fire in the first place….there is a secret to Bai Yunfei. I would think that he would definitely not disappoint me then….”
Hong Yin returned to his own room and shut his doors. And so the western courtyards had descended into a gentle calm once more.
The moon was beginning to ascend as the stars began to sparkle as well. Time went by bit by bit as Bai Yunfei remained in his room. That burst of raging elemental fire hadn’t ceased in its pulsating from start to finish. But it had gradually went from a chaotic mess of energy into a moderate and regular burst of energy. Receding and extending, it was quite similar to the rhythmic pattern of a heartbeat.
With the end of the night came day. And the moment when the sunshine shined into the room, Bai Yunfei’s finger moved from its place on the bed and his eyes gradually began to open….