Seeing that Blue Maple had no special reaction, the old man started to talk about something else.

“Later, I’ll bring you to the place where you can fuse the Heavenly Fire. After that, I’ll let you use everything that has been prepared for you. What happens after that will only depend on you and yourself only. I have to tell you first... the Heavenly Fire is more yang than yin, which means that it’s going to be very painful when fusing it. When that happens, your increased pain threshold in the game will effectively still be useless. In other words, the pain would be even more pronounced in reality. Do you understand?” the old man said in a serious manner, quite unlike his cheeky and joking self.

“Oh,” was Blue Maple’s reply.

“Uh, it’s really painful.”

“Okay.”

“Fuck, are you even listening to me?”

“Isn’t it just painful?”

You are really an abnormal person, the old man thought to himself.

“Let’s go over, then.” The old man was ready to teleport over after he finished speaking.

“Wait a minute.” Blue Maple suddenly stopped the old man. “Authentication.” Blue Maple passed the Snow Pearl to the old man and demanded his authentication.

“Fuck, you really take me as some kind of authentication tool, is it?” The old man was irritated.

“Not as if it takes much effort for you.”

“Fucking *&%#*@...”

“Give it to me!” The old man snatched the pearl over after he finished cursing. He rubbed it once before the authentication was done. After that, he threw it back to Blue Maple.

“It really doesn’t take much effort for you,” Blue Maple muttered to himself after he received the Snow Pearl back.

“Hmph, rascal. You can authenticate things on your own after you fuse the Heavenly Fire. Don’t ask me to do such things for no reason. Although I don’t despise people who perform those types of authentication roles, I know that they are weak. You should know that I’m one of the strongest. Hmph!” the old man appeared very proud after he finished speaking. This left Blue Maple a little skeptical about what he said. However, Blue Maple wasn’t too bothered about it. He was curious to know what interesting item he had uncovered.

===

[Snow Pearl] (Special Item): can be used to create many exquisite items. After an item is created, it can increase the effect of ice-type skills by 10%. At the same time, it has a 10% increase in the ability to resist ice-type skills. However, this is only applicable for skills below Rank 100. The Snow Pearl is formed in places that snow all-year round, and thus is able to resist the influence caused by ordinary snowy environments when placed in a bag.

===

Doesn’t seem to be of any use to me. Forget it, I shall go fuse the Heavenly Fire.

“Let’s go,” Blue Maple said to the old man.

“We should have gone sooner.” The old man engulfed both of them using his Blue Fire and teleported over after he was done speaking.

---

In a blink of an eye, Blue Maple and the old man were at their destination, the place where they could fuse the Heavenly Fire.

However, it seemed to be an underground world. There was magma everywhere!

Scarlet-red magma was flowing slowly all around. Blue Maple was protected by the protective cover that the old man unleashed, or he would have been burned to death given what was around him.

“Hmph, don’t think that the Heavenly Fire is from above. I placed the Heavenly Fire underground. However, in truth, Earthly Fire forms underground. This is also the birthplace of Earthly Fire. This is the only place where you can store the Heavenly Fire.

“I designed a spatial boundary around the Heavenly and Earthly Fires. It’s not an issue for me to teleport into this boundary, but it’s a little troublesome to bring you in. It’s still less troublesome to bring you over. Come on, let’s go.”

Blue Maple followed the old man. On the way, he could already tell that there were human modifications to the place. At least, there was a clear path… The old man is really lazy. He didn’t even bother to make it look nicer. At least he could have repaired the road.

Blue Maple didn’t have an easy time crossing this path. If there were any obstacles in front, the old man could simply pass the obstacles, but Blue Maple had to climb up and down as well as jump from left to right.

However, the volcanic rocks around were indeed very hot. Even with a protective barrier, Blue Maple still felt the scorching heat from the rocks when he touched them.

---

“We’re here.”

They reached their destination in less than a minute. It was a spectacular giant magma lake!

Scarlet-red magma was boiling in this lake, continuously releasing smoking bubbles. The scorching heat distorted their view of the entire lake. Blue Maple and the old man were watching from an elevated ground by the side of the lake. They could see two tiny balls of Blue Fire, one darker and one lighter in shade, floating on the lake. Although they appeared very tiny, they were still very glaring.

The entire magma lake was like a Taiji Diagram, divided into two parts. On one side was a deep-blue flame situated just above the dotted area. On the other side was a light-blue flame situated just above the dotted area. There two flames seemed to be nourished by the magma lake. Red streaks were continuously seeping into the two balls of flames. However, the glaring blue of both flames didn’t seem to diminish no matter how many red streaks were seeping into them.

The flames were radiating with different auras. This added some color to this fiery-red world.

“Enough watching, rascal. Earthly Fire originated here. It is that light-blue flame. The Heavenly Fire was brought here by some cosmic meteor. After I retrieved it, I stored it over here. Even though this is originally the territory of the Earthly Fire, both fires still belong to the same Element. One represents Yin and the other represents Yang, so at least there won’t be any conflict. On the contrary, they even boost the effects of the other. It’s just that this place isn’t where the Heavenly Fire was nurtured, so all I can do is guarantee that it won’t vanish. Given this, I occasionally drop by this place to turn some of the Earthly Fire into Heavenly Fire to achieve Yin-Yang balance.

“Originally, I wanted to seal a weaker version of the Heavenly Fire for you to absorb. However, things have changed. I’m going to throw you right into it and aid you in your absorption of some pure Heavenly Fire. If I do it that way, I save the trouble of having to remove the seal in the future and strengthen the fire in your body. When you become stronger in the future, you can just come over to absorb more of it. Of course, don’t forget to turn some of the Earthly Fire into Heavenly Fire.”

“However, you must not forget to absorb first before performing any transformation. Heavenly Fire transformed from Earthly Fire is impure. Some time is needed for a self-purification process to take place before the Heavenly Fire will be completely pure again,” the old man warned Blue Maple seriously.

Blue Maple turned to the old man and asked, “You changed your mind because I can tolerate pain and you want to slack off, am I right?”

The old man coughed awkwardly before he straightened his face as he responded, “What?! How can that be?! Am I that sort of person? However, it’s really more painful if you absorb it this way. But the good thing is that the effect of the Heavenly Fire will be much stronger. Even though you won’t be absorbing much, it’s going to be pure and flawless.”

Blue Maple threw him an ‘as if I believe you’ expression.

“Okay, I’ll cultivate the materials first before passing them to you. After that, I’ll dump you inside. Pass your Snow Lotus to me.” The old man ignored Blue Maple’s expression and was prepared to begin. Blue Maple passed the Snow Lotus to him.

A gentle force surfaced above the old man’s hand, dragging Blue Maple’s Snow Lotus and the materials he prepared into it. After that, he seemed to be using this gentle force to cultivate something. Using fire was definitely the most optimal way of cultivation. However, the issue was that everything was ice-type. If fire was used to cultivate them, then they most probably would be destroyed.

The gentle force led Blue Maple to the conclusion that it had to be wood-type. That’s about right, too. Earthly Fire contains all five Elements with it. Even if he can’t use fire, the old man should be able to use any other Elements.

Very soon, all the materials were cultivated into a bluish-white fluid hovering in front of the old man and Blue Maple.

“Listen to my instructions later. Otherwise, I won’t care if you get burned to ashes. Come, keep this in your mouth.” The old man threw a small cube of ice at Blue Maple after he finished speaking. Blue Maple immediately felt a strong wave of cold coming from his hand after he caught the cube of ice.

“Can I really keep this in my mouth? Forget it. I won’t really die in the game.” Blue Maple was doubtful as he placed the ice cube in his mouth. When he put it in his mouth, it felt as if a burst of cold had been released into his mouth. He instantly froze.

If I wasn’t fortunate enough to chance upon this item, I wouldn’t dare to let you absorb pure Heavenly Fire. This is an item of the same tier as the Heavenly Fire. You got lucky, rascal. It’s just a little…, the old man thought to himself as he stared at Blue Maple.

“We have to be quick. Don’t die.” The old man engulfed Blue Maple with the hovering fluid, which was quickly absorbed by the frozen ice around Blue Maple.

“Get going!” The old man kicked Blue Maple into the air, and he landed exactly on the deep-blue flame. The balls of fire didn’t appear to be very big, but it was all relative to the lake. In fact, the balls were close to three meters in diameter. The old man must have had cultivated these flames for a long time to reach such a gigantic size.

After a brief moment, the ice around Blue Maple started to melt. The old man floated to Blue Maple’s side.

“Wake up, rascal. Experiencing hot and cold isn’t fun, right? You might be in greater discomfort when it’s only hot later. Listen to me now. You should sense the scorching heat coming from around you. Remove all distractions from your mind right now and only think of one thing: absorbing the Heavenly Fire!

“I don’t think this is going to be difficult for you. The Heavenly Fire will enter your body through your pores. After that, you must focus on gathering the fire in your belly. I won’t talk about your dantian or whatever. When the fire gets to your belly, it’ll automatically find its spot. When the fire enters your body, it’s going to be excruciatingly painful. You’ll feel as if every part of your body is being burned.

“Remember that you must hang on. Stay awake. Don’t pass out. The fire will create chaos in your body if you don’t control where it goes. You’ll be burned to ashes if that happens. Don’t think about the fact that you can resurrect because you’re a player. Once you are burned to death, you cannot absorb the Heavenly Fire again even after you resurrect. No matter what guarantees or protection you have, you’ll be burned to ashes on any other try!”

After a brief moment, the ice around Blue Maple completely melted. Apart from the cold Blue Maple sensed in his mouth, the rest of his body could only sense the burning heat.

“Right now, just think of absorbing the fire. I’ll assist you from outside!” the old man shouted.

Absorb!

As that thought surfaced in Blue Maple’s mind, he suddenly felt the flames seeping into his body. First, they passed his skin before reaching the flesh beneath his skin. He instantly sensed the scorching feeling engulfing his body. However, he clenched his teeth and didn’t utter a sound.

The old man was right. At this moment, his pain threshold was almost 100%, the same as it was in real life. He was literally on fire. It wasn’t any ordinary fire, either. It wasn’t as if only the outside of his body was being burned. The inside of his body was also being torched!!

This fellow is really a fucking freak! He’s not even making any noise!, the old man thought to himself in horror. He knew exactly how painful it was!

“Now, think of controlling the fire into your belly. You must stay awake. Whether you succeed or not depends on your move now!” The old man suppressed his horror and instructed Blue Maple calmly.

Blue Maple could only feel that his entire body was being consumed by terrifying flames. However, he still gritted his teeth and thought to himself, Gather!