Chapter 464 - 288: Great Sun Glaze (3)
The further one progressed on the martial path, the greater the disparity between realms, and the fewer weaklings there were. For Yu Fei to possess the power to fight across realms as a Martial Saint, he first had to be able to survive a few direct clashes with one as a Grandmaster—and not by teleporting away, but by weathering their actual attacks.
This would make it possible for him to slay a Martial Saint as a Great Grandmaster, and then dominate the world as a Martial Saint.
And the first step in this grand plan was beginning right now.
To temper his spiritual will with the True Intent of the Great Sun, draw the True Flame into his body, and achieve the state of Great Sun Glaze.
Seeing that Yu Fei had finally taken the first step, Ye Shuping’s Finger Skill shifted. Streams of pure light struck the metal altar, and in an instant, countless brilliant rays of light shot into the sky, connecting with the Red Sun.
The Celestial Yang Sect had managed the Red Sun Realm for a full ten thousand years. According to historical records, though the sect had faced periods of decline, it had never truly fallen.
The sect’s various Cultivation Techniques all complemented the Red Sun Realm. Over millennia, the wisdom of countless high-ranking Martial Artists had culminated in the creation of this altar, capable of drawing down the Great Sun True Flame.
Ever since the First Ancestor suppressed the world with his martial might, the master of the Celestial Yang Sect was defeated, its gates were torn down, and the sect was forcibly reorganized. Its core body of knowledge was absorbed, studied, and ultimately discarded by the Seven Greats.
However, a Cultivation Technique like the Great Sun Glaze Body was merely deconstructed, with its post-Grandmaster cultivation methods left largely unchanged.
Ye Shuping, through his own efforts and in collaboration with a super-intelligence core’s deductions, had advanced the cultivation of the Great Sun Glaze Body by an entire realm. As a result, upon promotion to Grandmaster, one’s dharma body could undergo a more profound baptism from the heavens and the earth, becoming significantly more powerful.
At that moment, Ye Shuping gave a light flick of his wide sleeves. His expression was solemn, his aura majestic. With a single wave of his hand, the primal energy of the Red Sun Realm obeyed him as readily as a student would a teacher, flowing according to the old man’s will.
A crimson-gold beam of flame descended from the Red Sun in the blink of an eye, striking Yu Fei. Instantly, his entire body erupted into a human torch, and he was unable to even scream.
During his initial breakthrough, Yu Fei had assimilated the True Intent of the Great Sun. He had felt he could withstand the omnipresent, searing heat of his surroundings; even the red-hot altar beneath him felt merely warm. But then, this otherworldly fire had descended upon him.
It shot down from the Baihui acupoint on the crown of his head, piercing straight through him. It dyed the extraordinary meridians he had forged in the Inner Qi Realm a deep red before plunging directly into his Qi Sea. In an instant, more than half of his Inner Qi reserves were vaporized!
Entering through his Mud Ball Acupoint, it invaded his sea of consciousness. His soul was plunged into a calamitous fire where life and death hung on by a single thread.
More crimson-gold flames poured in through his pores and orifices, penetrating deep into his bone marrow and boiling his blood, threatening to refine his entire body to ash in an instant.
This was the greatest challenge in cultivating the Great Sun Glaze Body.
In that moment, his essence, qi, and spirit were all simultaneously engulfed by the fiery calamity. Yu Fei could only struggle to keep his consciousness from fading. The core of his soul was anchored by the Fate-Defying Pearl; everything else was beyond his control.
At this critical moment, the medicinal essences within his body fully activated, providing a ceaseless stream of power to resist the otherworldly fire. A dense, gold-and-jade-like property manifested, preserving the framework of Yu Fei’s body. Under the intense forging, this property began to sublimate and fuse with him.
His purple Yang Fire, cultivated to a height of nine-feet-nine, manifested externally. It formed a simple, ancient lotus that began to absorb the invading flames. Then, the Returning Ruins Realm Sword, which Yu Fei had only just tempered and advanced, emerged from his Qi Sea. Carrying the ancient, imperious will of the Great Sun, it floated above the lotus.
Subdued by the aura of the Returning Ruins Realm Sword, the crimson-gold Great Sun True Flame ceased its violent rampage. Instead, it began to cooperate, aiding him in this journey of profound life transformation.
Everything seemed to be proceeding according to plan, but a new crisis erupted from within Yu Fei’s Qi Sea. Although his Inner Qi was vast and boundless, it was far inferior to a Grandmaster’s True Essence. It simply couldn’t withstand the tempering of the crimson-gold flames, and his Qi Sea was on the verge of being burned through.
Just then, Ye Shuping activated the altar at the perfect moment. The ancient, sacred ground suddenly blazed with innumerable mysterious runes. Pure, fire-elemental primal energy, accumulated over tens of thousands of years, surged into Yu Fei’s body, carrying with it the vibrant life force born from the principle that all extremes birth their own reversal.
Instantly, the fiery calamity threatening his essence and qi was neutralized, leaving only the process of tempering and ascension.
All that remained was to see if Yu Fei’s soul could endure.
In Ye Shuping’s estimation, even though Yu Fei’s soul had yet to undergo a Grandmaster’s metamorphosis, withstanding the fiery calamity should be no issue. It would just be... rather painful.
’If he can’t even endure this much pain, then let him turn to ash. Without such willpower, how could he ever hope to become a Martial Saint? This is a price I can afford to pay.’
’Yes. It was nothing more than pain.’
This was a realm Yu Fei knew well. The agony of cultivating the Star Soul Forging Scripture was not much different from this Golden Flame Soul Burning.
His soul even had the spare capacity to analyze the properties of the golden flame’s power, attempting to refine it just as he had countless times before while cultivating in the sea of light. But, as always, he failed to grasp the key.
The essence of the light beams in the sea of light was of an incredibly high quality, but the quantity was minuscule. The golden flame, however, was different. Not only was its essence sublime, but the quantity was more than abundant. And outside, Ye Shuping was continuously drawing down more, feeding the fire according to the state of his cultivation.
’Yu Fei didn’t dare absorb it directly into his soul. That would be suicide.’
On the altar, Yu Fei’s clothes had long since turned to dust. His skin and flesh had melted away, leaving only a crimson skeleton intertwined with transparent, forged extraordinary meridians.
The intangible gold-jade property maintained a phantom outline of Yu Fei’s body, which, under the influence of the Great Sun Golden Flame, was gradually taking on a glazed, translucent sheen.
The medicinal properties and life force within his body were smelted down into a single, extremely dense ball of quintessential essence, as various impurities were constantly burned away into wisps of black smoke.
After a long period of this forging, the Golden Flame on his body gradually dissipated. By now, his bones glowed with a crimson-gold luster, like jade and gold. His extraordinary meridians were tougher and purer than ever. As the flames receded, the ball of quintessential essence suddenly dispersed. It followed the outline maintained by the gold-jade property, climbing along his bones as new flesh and blood began to weave themselves back into existence. His internal organs reformed one by one, and even his hair was restored to its original state.