Seeing all that he needed to see, Long Di flicked his finger and dispelled the qi shield.

Whoosh!

****

The heatwave descended upon him like a tidal wave and he had to admit that it was suffocating with an intent to incinerate his lungs. As of now, he was using a spiritual cultivator’s defensive capability by erecting a thin and powerful layer of spiritual qi over his body, simply known as qi armour.

This was different from the qi shield as it was streamlined to his body and translucent for the most part. Though a spiritual cultivator’s body grew stronger and tougher the higher in rank they rose, it was this armour they primarily depended on.

Since this armour was composed of the spiritual qi that they naturally possessed, its power depended on the spiritual cultivator's realm. In Long Di’s case, this would be that of a four star-core martial master.

“Can’t use the Foundation Forge Body Tempering Art for this. I haven’t cultivated it to the necessary level yet.”

Long Di arrived at the edge of the tunnel that was now open thanks to the beast skin acting as the key to the door and the heat that he experienced earlier was incomparably magnified compelling him to pump more spiritual qi into his qi armour.

This tunnel was one of many that lined the walls of what appeared to be a cylindrical chamber. Long Di was reminded of the missile silos he saw on the internet when he observed the structure.

However, there were no missiles here, but something more powerful. Instead, below the tunnel where he stood was a floating burning flame. It was completely red in colour and within it was a rune of some kind.

As the flame burned, countless flame ripples emanated from it that entered the countless other tunnels that led to the caverns that made up Cavern Flame Mountain.

Not even Long Di was spared. As matter of fact, the tunnel where he was, was the lowest and by extension the closest tunnel to the Earth Flame, so the ripples were affecting him too, more so than the others.

“What the-”

Suddenly, Long Di felt a powerful drain on his spiritual qi reserves, something he hadn’t felt in a long time. One had to remember that Long Di had nine crystal dantians in addition to his true dantian.

This meant that since he was a four star-core martial master, alone with his core dantian, four of his crystal dantians were filled with spiritual qi. What was even crazier was that the pseudo-crystallised characteristic of the crystal dantians meant that they could contract and expand as needed.

As Long Di’s realm grew, the amount of spiritual qi his core dantian could store increased. The increased capacity of the dantian and its subsequent symbiosis with the crystal dantians forced them to expand and match the amount of spiritual qi his dantian held.

So Long Di effectively had 5x the amount of spiritual qi that someone at his level should have.

Yet even he was feeling the strain on his spiritual qi which shouldn’t happen.

As of now, he already burned through three of his five dantians.

“What happened?”

As of now the spiritual qi in his last crystal dantian was draining at an alarming rate!

After this was depleted, the drainage would move on to his true core dantian, and if that was finished, so was he.

When Long Di focused on the only expenditure of spiritual qi he was making, his attention shifted to the qi armour he was keeping up.

It was being destroyed and reformed faster than he realised, and that’s when it all became clear.

“I underestimated the Crimson Horizon Flame. I need to ask Yaomu Shou what rank this Earth Flame has on that ranking of hers,” he remarked.

The Earth Flame was not something that your run-of-the-mill star core martial master could attain.

“Alright, let’s do this. Physique on!”

Following his will, his Profound Myriad Heavenseize physique activated. His entire figure, barring his robes, became crystal-like in an instant. There were countless dots of light within that mirrored the boundless depths of the heavens.

What was even more striking was the tribulation lightning that surged within. However, it was obvious at a glance that there wasn’t as much as there was before.

‘I should refill my tribulation lightning reserves when I get the chance again,’ thought Long Di to himself.

That’s right, Long Di was planning to use his physique to subdue this flame. Based on the rate that his spiritual qi was being exhausted, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that by normal standards, Long Di wasn’t qualified to take down an Earth Flame.

However, Long Di wouldn’t be a proper protagonist if he didn’t make himself qualified, and his cheat-riddled physique was the perfect way to do this.

Now Long Di’s physique had the ability to absorb power sources, this became evident when it absorbed the tribulation lightning Long Di cultivated. However, that was Long Di’s own energy and so it was as easy as turning a hand for his physique to absorb what already belonged to him.

This Earth Flame wasn’t the same as his tribulation lightning. This was something else entirely.

After thinking for a while, he got to work, “First things first, I need to get the Earth Flame over to me and there is only one way to do that.”

Saying this, Long Di’s spiritual force unfurled before it surged towards the Earth Flame.

…

“This fool!” Within the void, Wan Li exclaimed with a shocked voice when he saw what Long Di was doing.

He had been following Yaomu Shou, which ended up with him keeping up with Long Di’s antics, and he had to admit that the boy was a monster-level genius among geniuses.

However, if that was the case, then what was he watching now!?

Earth Flames were the manifestation of the heavens and the earth. They were extremely powerful and their temperature was the stuff of nightmares.

They could plunge entire landscapes into a fiery hell and the Crimson Horizon Flame was one of those that specialised in doing such a thing!

Their temperature was such that they could burn almost anything, spiritual qi and spiritual force included. If one’s realm wasn’t high enough, then sending either of these energies into an Earth Flame was the same as courting death!

The Crimson Horizon Flame would incinerate the spiritual force and if it felt specifically provoked, it may even attack Long Di. By then it wouldn’t matter how much spiritual qi he had access to, the Crimson Horizon Flame would burn his qi armour to cinders much faster than he could replenish it in a matter of seconds!

Was he going to witness the fall of a generation’s genius right here?

Yet the next scene caused his eyes to bulge in shock, “What!”

…

Whoosh!

An oceanic tide of spiritual force collided with the Crimson Horizon Flame.

Normally, spiritual force was invisible, but as Long Di let go of all restraints, it was possible to see his spiritual force, which brought shock to the figures watching him from afar.

It was translucent with a light grey tinge, to the point where it appeared like brilliant silver and it continuously shimmered with a sparkling effect. It was like a river’s surface reflecting the sun’s radiance with a starry gleam.

“Hm…” Long Di reacted as he felt the scorching heat of the Crimson Horizon Flame affecting his spiritual force. However, what was odd was that the Crimson Horizon Flame was finding it hard to burn away Long Di’s spiritual force and it also didn’t trigger any backlash.

Of course, Long Di wasn’t aware of the potential danger his current actions carried and went along with it.

Vrrrm!

The Crimson Horizon Flame trembled as it edged closer and closer to Long Di following his spiritual force-fuelled coercion.

Long Di could feel the heat rise higher the closer the Crimson Horizon Flame got.

When it was a few feet from Long Di, the heat that it emanated burned away his spiritual qi at a much faster rate. Right now, he was drawing on the reserves within the true core dantian!

“I don’t have much time to think about this.”

Realising that he was running out of time, Long Di’s spiritual force drilled into the core of the Crimson Horizon Flame, where the rune for it lay.

Ktch!

Whoosh!

A violent combustion went off as a furious blaze erupted within the Earth Flame!

“Oh…” Long Di exclaimed as his spiritual force caught ablaze. Though the incineration of his spiritual force was slow, the pain from it remained the same. However, pain was something that Long Di was used to though this level of pain was solely on the spiritual level.

What Long Di didn’t know, was that anyone else who attempted to do what he was now doing would have long had their spiritual force incinerated and their mind sea, where their mental energy and spiritual force resided, gone up in flames!

However, Long Di’s spiritual force and even his mental energy that he had yet to use had gone under a unique type of mutation. This was caused by the constant baptism of divine energy that they were subject to because of Long Di’s cultivation method.

Though tribulation lightning had the effect of increasing the quantity and quality of a person’s spiritual force among other things, this was only under the rare moments that a cultivator crossed a major realm in the later stages of cultivation, as these were normally the only moments that a lightning tribulation would be summoned.

Long Di, on the other hand, practised a method that continuously drew tribulation lightning energy into this body. Though it was now being stripped away courtesy of the Destiny Scale, the long-term effect of it prior to this was starting to show itself.

This was also the reason why his spiritual force was visible following the increase in quantity he released. This was a mutated form of spiritual force that possessed effects that Long Di himself was unaware of.

However, one could now speculate that Long Di’s spiritual force had far more durability than normal spiritual force. Hence why it was able to last as long as it did under the fierce burning of the Crimson Horizon Flame, even though it was just a slow burn.

Coupled with the fact that Long Di’s spiritual force was abnormally large because of the benefits of tribulation lightning, he had more than enough spiritual force to spare.

What he was doing was branding a seal on top of the rune of the Crimson Horizon Flame. This was Long Di’s own rune, a type of character that came to Long Di the minute he expressed his intent to subdue the flame. He wasn’t sure why, but he knew this rune was his to use in this manner.

If he was able to brand his own seal on top of it, then he would be able to call this Earth Flame his own.

However, this was easier said than done. Every mark his spiritual force left on the rune was incinerated by the rune’s extreme heat!

Ttsssss!

Long Di’s several layers of spiritual protection were burning out as his qi reserves were reaching dangerously low levels.

His qi armour was now absent from certain sections of his body, and those sections were being burned away.

Yet even with this, he remained unfazed and continued to drive his spiritual force to engrave his Soul Seal atop the rune.

With each attempt, his strokes were burnt away, but he continued all the same.

He realised that the robes he wore were able to resist the Earth Flame to an extent and he removed his qi armour where his robes covered and reallocated it to the parts that weren’t covered such as his head and hands.

Fwhoosh!

A tumultuous sea of spiritual force surged forward as Long Di sought a slightly different approach.

Seeing that he was failing so many times, he decided to just go all in. Following his control, he twisted the shimmering spiritual force into the shape of his Soul Seal. Of course, it also caught ablaze, but this was composed of so much spiritual force that it was like a slow-burning torch.

Long Di sent the burning Soul Seal atop the Earth Flame and the entire thing shuddered.

Before long, the flames surrounding the rune sputtered and before Long Di’s gaze; the flame went and the entire chamber descended into silence.

Seeing this, Long Di began to sweat as he asked out loud.

“D-Did I break it?”