A current of practically burning lava rapidly flowed from his hands into his meridians.

BOOM!

When that current entered his meridians, it was like salt water had met fresh water, causing violent surges that filled him with pain.

He continued to control the speed at which the energy was flowing into him. If he let that terrifying energy directly flood into his body, his meridians would immediately burst.

His FengFu Star was quickly circulating, and his enormous spiritual qi was pouring out. It controlled the speed at which the Neidan’s energy flowed into his body. He needed to let his meridians gradually become accustomed to that violent heat.

The Neidan was the spot where all the Flame Salamander’s energy had been stored over its lifetime. If the Neidan were to explode, that terrifying energy would be able to immediately exterminate several third rank Magical Beasts.

And despite his slow absorption speed, Long Chen still found the pain difficult to endure. That terrifying heat was constantly roasting his meridians.

There was also a violent qi that was constantly circulating around. That qi possessed an instinctive destructive will that wanted to burn everything.

It was good that Long Chen had made enough preparations. With the Fire Gathering Pill, he had a layer of protection over his meridians that prevented the energy from harming them.

He also celebrated that he had just advanced to the seventh Heavenstage, allowing his meridians to grow even stronger. Otherwise, even with the Fire Gathering Pill’s protection, he might have already failed.

All things were difficult at the start. But once you managed to get past the beginning, the rest would be comparatively easier.

Long Chen continued to absorb the Neidan’s energy. There was an incredible amount of energy within it, and Long Chen didn’t dare increase his absorption speed, and so it took a full six hours for him to completely absorb it.

By the time all that energy was absorbed, the original beast flame inside the Neidan had also disappeared.

All that energy that had been within the Neidan was now within Long Chen’s meridians. In reality, that energy was the Flame Salamander’s core flame.

The Flame Salamander was incredibly strong, most likely even beyond Long Chen’s imagination. If the Flame Salamander hadn’t been weakened by birth at that time, he really would have been screwed.

Now the Flame Salamander’s core flame was surging within Long Chen’s meridians. Long Chen’s Spiritual Strength slowly erased its berserk nature.

The Flame Salamander’s core flame didn’t actually have any consciousness. By using a gentle, stealthy method, he managed to easily erase that destructive will without worrying about a backlash.

Once the core flame’s will had been erased, Long Chen took a deep breath. Now was the real test.

“Condense!” Energy surged out of his FengFu Star, entering into the furthest reaches of his meridians and driving the beast flame to the center.

Having lost its will, the beast flame followed his energy surging towards his Dantian.

BOOM! All the scattered beast flame gathered back together.

Long Chen coughed up blood, his face completely pale.

“Damn, I failed. I just knew my luck was crap.”

Long Chen gasped for breath. That attempt just now had completely exhausted him. Unfortunately, he had failed to accomplish what he had wanted.

“Although I failed, I saw a flicker of the rune. That means there’s still a chance.”

Long Chen wanted to use a fierce collision of the beast flame to obtain the Flame Salamander’s own rune.

As a fire attribute Magical Beast whose beast flame was ranked ninety-seventh on the beast flame rankings, it possessed its own bloodline inheritance.

Such a Magical Beast’s Neidan contained its runic power. But that kind of rune was unusable by humans.

Long Chen was hoping to have the beast flame collide within his body. During that chaotic explosion, he would be able to grab onto the runic power.

That was only possible because the Neidan he had managed to obtain had barely lost any of its energy back then. As long as Long Chen caused its energy to erupt out, he was able to see that rune.

The Fire Gathering Pill he had consumed didn’t just have the purpose of protecting his meridians. Its main ability was to gather every single bit of flame energy together.

If others did this, their Dantian would explode. But Long Chen didn’t have to worry about that since his Dantian was empty.

“Again!”

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

…

He coughed up blood time after time. He felt that his body was about to collapse. But there was one thing that allowed him to continue.

That was because every time he collided against the beast flame, he saw the rune becoming clearer and clearer. However, that rune would only appear for the briefest instance. That moment wasn’t long enough for him to take control of it.

BOOM!

“Wait a sec… ugh, I failed again.”

With another explosion, the rune appeared again, this time extremely clearly. Long Chen attempted to use his Spiritual Strength to link up to that rune, but the flame energy scattered too quickly, causing the rune to also disappear.

“Ugh, I need a break.” Long Chen was absolutely exhausted. Coughing up mouthfuls of blood wasn’t something to worry about with his powerful physical body, but driving the flame into huge collisions greatly exhausted his Spiritual Strength.

That was especially true at the moment of collision. He would exhaust ten times the Spiritual Strength in an attempt to link up to that rune when it appeared.

He had already attempted this over ten times. Even though his body was able to continue, his soul was not. He had a splitting headache.

Quickly consuming a spirit stabilizing pill, he focused on recovering his spiritual energy. Two hours later, at least part of his Spiritual Strength had recovered.

“This time I’ll definitely succeed!”

Although he had failed each time, he had also accumulated more and more experience. He was much more sure of himself than at the beginning.

Once more driving the scattered beast flame in his meridians towards his Dantian, this time he used several times more intensity than before.

BOOOM!!!

When the beast flame collided inside his Dantian, terrifying energy exploded out. A rune immediately appeared within that fierce blaze.

“Quick… quick… get over here!”

Buzz.

Suddenly his mind shook. A strange fluctuation came from his spirit. An imprint appeared in the deepest part of his soul.

“I succeeded?” Long Chen opened his eyes. Extending his hand, a blue flame rose. Although it was only just a foot long, that terrifying heat caused all the surrounding grass three meters around him to dry up.

Long Chen slowly closed his eyes. Taking a deep breath, a fluctuation came from the depths of his spirit. He once more opened his eyes.

BOOM!

The flame in his hand pulsed and a clear rune appeared in the flame.

When that rune appeared, the surrounding grass immediately became ashes. Everything around him in an area of dozens of meters was now charred black.

“Haha, I succeeded, I…”

The world suddenly spun around him. Exhaustion battered him, and he immediately fainted.

When he woke up once more, he was lying in a bed.

“You’ve finally woken up! What the hell were you doing? You were covered in black ashes when I found you.” Tang Wan-er walked over with a wet towel.

“Hehe, I was doing a grand experiment.” Long Chen was extremely pleased.

“You almost burned yourself to death. Don’t tell me you were experimenting with barbecue?” laughed Tang Wan-er, moving to wipe his face.

Long Chen was given a fright and hastily took the towel. “I think I’ll do that myself. I really would be embarrassed to trouble the faction leader with such a thing.”

Tang Wan-er reddened slightly. She sniffed, “You also get embarrassed? When we carried you back, you were like a little beggar. If it weren’t for both me and sister Qing Yu, do you think you would be so clean?”

Long Chen was startled, realizing his clothes had been changed. He hastily checked his clothes, immediately feeling relief when he saw his original clothes were just underneath.

“Scoundrel, what’s with that expression?” Tang Wan-er gave his elbow a pinch. His expression really was annoying.

“Wan-er, you’re bullying Long Chen again.” At this time, Qing Yu walked over. She had just happened to see the scene of Long Chen grimacing in pain.

“Sister Qing Yu, why do you always take his side? He’s clearly the one bullying me!” Tang Wan-er felt somewhat wronged.

She also sighed inside. Why was this scoundrel’s luck always so good? Whenever she got the advantage, Qing Yu would always immediately appear.

Long Chen laughed mischievously, “Sister Qing Yu, you’ve misunderstood. I was just playing a joke with Wan-er.”

Tang Wan-er glanced at Long Chen with some relief. At least this brat knew how to talk.

“Right, what time is it?”

“It’s not what time, but what day. You were asleep for two days. It’s the afternoon of the third day,” answered Tang Wan-er.

“What, I slept for two days?!” Long Chen was shocked. He hastily leaped out of bed. “Wan-er and sister Qing Yu, close the door and activate the spirit stone formation to the max.”

“What are you planning on doing?” Tang Wan-er said blankly.

“Don’t ask, just do it.” Long Chen walked into the lounge and arranged all the medicinal ingredients he had bought as well as his pill furnace.

Tang Wan-er and Qing Yu followed Long Chen’s instructions, closing the stone door and activating the spirit stone formation to the max.

Normally, the door was only kept open when not cultivating in order to prevent wastage. The spirit stone formation was also normally kept inactivated. That was to prolong the lifespan of the spirit stones.

If their room’s spirit stone formation was activated to the maximum level, the eight spirit stones would only have enough energy to last for six hours.

If they calculated it like that, Tang Wan-er only had enough spirit stones for half a month’s usage. And so they saved as much of it as possible.

When they activated the spirit stone formation, the enormous spiritual qi from the spirit stones began to be released quickly. The entire immortal cave was immediately filled with dense spiritual qi.

“Long Chen, are you planning on refining pills?” Qing Yu was a bit puzzled.

“Yup.” Long Chen nodded as he confirmed all the medicinal ingredients.

He ordered the medicinal ingredients into a set sequence. That way it would be more convenient while he refined and he wouldn’t have to worry about grabbing the wrong medicinal ingredient.

“Then should we leave?” asked Tang Wan-er probingly. Although she didn’t know alchemy, all the alchemists she knew never let anyone disturb them while refining.

“Nope. Actually, I’ll need your help in a bit,” laughed Long Chen.

After saying that, he extended his hand. A blue flame rose from his palm, lighting up the entire immortal cave. It was time to test his harvest. He hoped that it wouldn’t disappoint him.