"Golden Bird True Flame?"
Lu Yang was bewildered. His cultivation shouldn't have gone wrong. He had gazed at the Golden Crow True Flame, listened to the Immortal Fairy recount the history of the Golden Crow clan, and visualized himself transforming into the sun, with the cry of a bird echoing within it.
The True Fire right before his eyes, guidance from an Immortal, and a sublime visualization—how perfect was the process!
So how on earth did it produce a two-legged golden bird?
"There are three possibilities," the Immortal Fairy analyzed solemnly.
Lu Yang was overjoyed. To think the Immortal Fairy could be so reliable as to offer three perspectives! Cupping his fists respectfully, he asked, "Please enlighten me, Fairy."
"Possibility number one: when you cultivated Samadhi True Fire into Three Flavors True Fire, the 'dot' you left out got transferred onto the Golden Crow True Flame."
"Possibility number two: although Immortal Jiuchong didn't shoot down the tenth Golden Crow back then, this Immortal was thinking how a pity it was that Jiuchong and the others could only watch the Golden Crows and Jade Rabbits mate without getting to eat any. So, one of the Golden Crows proactively tore off one of its legs and gave it to me. Just as it was about to regenerate its severed limb, a Jade Rabbit pounced on it."
"What you refined might be that very Golden Crow before it had the chance to regenerate its leg."
"And there's a third possibility. According to clues provided by Immortal Kirin and research conducted by Immortal Jiuchong, the Golden Crow clan initially only had two legs. Later, to adapt to the harsh ancient environment, they gradually evolved a third leg. Both Immortal Kirin's Survival of the Fittest Dao fruit and the Phoenix Clan prodigy's rudimentary Natural Selection Dao fruit drew inspiration from the history of the Golden Crow clan."
Lu Yang felt that not a single one of these sounded reliable.
"Oh well, whatever kind of True Flame it is, as long as it's a True Flame, it'll do."
Holding the Golden Bird True Flame in his palm, Lu Yang could feel the terrifying might contained within. It was a destructive True Flame even more powerful than his Three Flavors True Fire. Once hurled out, likely very few cultivators in the Golden Core stage could withstand it.
The second to succeed in his comprehension was Li Haoran. Possessing half of Qin Haoran's memories, his life experience far surpassed peers of the same realm, second only to Lu Yang.
He snapped his fingers, and a small wisp of Liuding Divine Fire flared to life on his fingertip. After staring at it for a moment, he took off his wig, baring his bald head, and began refining the wig with the Liuding Divine Fire to elevate the inscriptions inside it to the next level.
Seeing this, Yuan Gang was struck with deep respect. What a ruthless man! To grow stronger, he had actually refined his own hair into a magical treasure!
Man Gu was the third to comprehend a True Flame; what he mastered was the Samadhi True Fire.
He noticed the commotion on Lu Yang's side, and seeing Lu Yang holding a golden bird in his hand, his body gave a start as he murmured under his breath,
"The first True Fire Brother Lu comprehended was the Three Flavors True Fire, which took barbecuing up a whole notch. The second time, has he turned the True Fire straight into an ingredient for barbecue?"
Sure enough, the gap between him and Brother Lu was vast. He still had plenty of room for improvement.
Another half day passed, and late night had fallen. Meng Jingzhou and Tao Yaoye comprehended their True Flames almost simultaneously, successfully mastering Nirvana True Fire and Nanming Li Fire. Because they were comprehending True Flames belonging to the demon race, taking longer was only natural.
Seeing Meng Jingzhou master Nirvana True Fire, the Five Vein elders were thoroughly shocked.
"This boy from the Meng Family is truly something, mastering even Nirvana True Fire."
"I thought he was going to give up."
"This is the perseverance of someone destined for greatness. He possesses a Bachelor Spiritual Root, meaning his body of pure yang must never be broken. Yet Nirvana True Fire is the True Fire of the Phoenix Clan, possessing the property of invigorating yang and replenishing blood. A Bachelor Spiritual Root mastering Nirvana True Fire—its yang-boosting effects will surely surpass every single Bachelor Spiritual Root in history!"
"To still be able to control his desires under such conditions without losing his virginity—such willpower is truly admirable!"
"Stacking Nirvana True Fire on top of a Bachelor Spiritual Root will elevate the strength of the spiritual root by another notch, making his cultivation speed even faster than before!"
In all their long lives, this was the first time they had ever heard of a Bachelor Spiritual Root driving himself so ruthlessly into a battle with his back to the river.
Meng Jingzhou turned his head to glare at the whispering Five Vein elders with a deeply resentful gaze.
Why didn't you people mention this earlier?! If you had, I would never have picked Nirvana True Fire!
His body was already reacting, and he feared not even dumping cold water over himself would bring it down.
Although having all five of them comprehend a True Fire left Song Duantian rather disgruntled, he said nothing. After all, he had already resolved to let go of his enmity with Daoist Buyu.
The Five Vein elders and Qiu Jin'an departed, and the cracked earth closed back up, allowing the seeds of True Fire to fall dormant beneath the Fire Vein once more.
Bai Ming cleared his throat. "Shall we continue the tour?"
"We can still tour this late?" Lu Yang asked in surprise. At this hour in the Dao Seeking Sect, their senior brothers and sisters would have long been partying their heads off.
Bai Ming was equally surprised, unable to comprehend why Lu Yang would say that. "As cultivators, we have no need for sleep. What difference does morning or night make?"
Lu Yang looked around and realized it was true. The senior brothers of the Fire Vein were still sitting cross-legged cultivating along the vein, save for those who had been sunbathing in the buff during the day.
The sun wasn't shining at night, so they couldn't sunbathe.
Meng Jingzhou recalled, "I've heard that Dao Seeking Sect used to cultivate day and night without rest as well. But ever since Grandmaster retired and our master and the elders took over, they changed the cultivation policy. They advocated balancing work and rest—cultivating by day and playing by night, with no need to torture ourselves."
After shifting that policy, setting aside the outlier that was Eldest Senior Sister, Dao Seeking Sect's overall strength not only hadn't declined, but even showed faint signs of rising. It showed just how viable the approach was.
"This is the Water Vein," Bai Ming said, leading the five of them to an area permeated by moisture. Not a soul was visible on the lake's surface; only aquatic spiritual plants poked up, protruding above the water.
"Where is everyone?"
Standing upon the water's surface, Bai Ming pointed beneath his feet. "They're all down below. Please follow me."
The six held their breath, wrapping their bodies in spiritual energy to keep their clothes from getting wet, and slowly sank into the water.
Upon entering the water, their vision opened up into a lively world.
Spiritual plants, unintelligent fish, exotic rocks, whirlpools... It could truly be called an underwater world.
"A pity none of you possess a Water Spiritual Root, or you would be able to sense the extraordinary spiritual essence of this place even more easily."
The Five Elements Sect disciples moved freely through the water, clearly accustomed to cultivating here. Some even spun around repeatedly, whipping up underwater tornados; two disciples clashed using these water tornados, turning the depths upside down.
Dao Seeking Sect also had a cultivation ground for Water Spiritual Roots—a lake so colossal that even if Tianmen Peak were dropped into it, its summit wouldn't breach the surface. However, since none of the five had Water Spiritual Roots, they had no need to cultivate in such a place.
"Originally, the Water Vein was merely a lake. But an elder of the Water Vein once traveled to the East Sea and discovered that the ocean and a lake were entirely different environments. So, he used a storage ring to steal quite a lot of seawater from the East Sea and transported it to the Water Vein."
"Later on, he figured that having seawater alone wasn't enough without the Sea Race, as it still wasn't quite like the real environment of the East Sea. So that Water Vein Elder ran back to the East Sea, contacted members of the Sea Race from various places, and asked if they'd be willing to relocate to the Five Elements Sect."
"Most of the Sea Race refused, but a small portion wanted a change of scenery, so they followed the elder back to the sect. The elder then took them to register their household status and handle their residency paperwork—a dreadfully tedious process."
Pointing ahead, Bai Ming said, "Up ahead is the seawater dug up from the East Sea, as well as the Sea Race."
Chapter 533