Chapter 372 - 360: Permanent Baleful Fire Body Tempering

Chapter 372: Chapter 360: Permanent Baleful Fire Body Tempering

Deep within the grotto, a dark red light flowed across the walls.

Li Yuan sat cross-legged in an open area next to the Fire Demon Beast’s lair, his body enveloped in a dense mixture of fire Evil Qi and Spiritual Qi. The intense heat baked the air until it seemed to distort, and the surface of the rocky ground glowed with a dark red incandescence.

The Spiritual Power in his body circulated steadily along the paths of his Cultivation Technique. Fire Spiritual Power and Evil Qi flowed alternately through his meridians. With every completed cycle, the effect of the Burn Evil Body Tempering entry would draw a portion of the fire Evil Qi deep into his skin, slowly strengthening his physical resilience.

For the past thirty days, he had repeated this process countless times.

After finishing the last cycle, Li Yuan slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air.

The panel popped up.

[Condition to make Burn Evil Body Tempering (Green) permanent has been met]

[Cultivated continuously for thirty days in an environment with extremely high fire Evil Qi concentration (30/30)]

[Burn Evil Body Tempering (Green) has become a permanent entry]

In the equipment slot, the phantom image of the Fire Evil Core instantly dissipated, leaving the slot empty.

The moment the entry became permanent, the fiery red membrane of light beneath the surface of his skin completely merged with his flesh and blood, becoming a part of his body.

Li Yuan raised his arm, sensing the change.

The grotto’s searing heat now felt as gentle as a spring breeze. The stinging sensation from the pervasive Evil Qi completely vanished. He even felt a faint sense of affinity for it, as if he had returned to the most comfortable of cultivation environments.

His body’s resistance to Fire Element and Evil Element damage was permanently increased by thirty percent.

Just as Li Yuan was about to stand up, an incredibly dazzling azure light suddenly erupted at the edge of his vision.

The panel flickered wildly.

[Permanent entries that meet the conditions for same-element fusion detected]

[Evil Focus Wall (Green) + Burn Evil Body Tempering (Green) + Flame Evil Spiritual Essence (Green)]

[Fusion Direction: Overall enhancement of Fire Element and Evil Element cultivation, combat, and defensive abilities]

[Proceed with fusion?]

Three green entries were triggering a fusion at the same time.

Li Yuan looked at the names of the three entries lined up on the panel.

Evil Focus Wall increased the casting speed and power of Evil Magic by twenty percent each. Burn Evil Body Tempering increased resistance to fire-evil damage by thirty percent and cultivation efficiency in fire-evil environments by twenty percent. Flame Evil Spiritual Essence boosted cultivation speed, which increased further with every Fire or Evil Element Magic learned, up to a maximum of fifty percent.

All three entries revolved around the Fire and Evil Elements, sharing a highly consistent theme.

The last fusion involved Earth Vein Resonance and Earth Element Array. Two green entries had merged into the blue Earth Vein Spirit Hub. This time, three green entries were fusing at once. The result could only be stronger.

"Fuse."

The three clumps of green light were devoured by the azure light, weaving together violently at the center of the panel. The light spun faster and faster as the effects of the three different entries penetrated, reorganized, and superimposed upon one another within the azure glow.

After several breaths, the light abruptly converged, solidifying into a single point of blue light.

[Flame-Evil Unity (Blue)]

[Effect: Increases the power of Fire and Evil Element Magic by forty percent; increases cultivation speed in fire-evil environments by fifty percent; increases physical resistance to Fire and Evil Element damage by fifty percent; Fire Spiritual Power and Evil Qi can be freely converted into one another.]

Li Yuan’s gaze lingered on the last effect for a long time.

Fire Spiritual Power and Evil Qi can be freely converted into one another.

This wasn’t a simple numerical boost, but a qualitative transformation.

Before this, while he could use the Fire Spiritual Power and Evil Qi in his body alternately, they were still fundamentally separate energy systems. Casting Fire Element Magic consumed Fire Spiritual Power, and casting Evil Magic consumed Evil Qi. The two were unrelated.

But now, the two could be freely converted.

This meant he would never face the awkward situation in battle where one type of power was depleted while he still had plenty of the other. If his Fire Spiritual Power ran out, his Evil Qi could be instantly converted to replenish it. The reverse was also true.

Within the scope of the Fire and Evil Elements, his total Spiritual Power had effectively doubled.

Li Yuan stood up from his cattail mat.

He raised his right hand, and a crimson flame coalesced in his palm.

After the flame danced in his palm for two breaths, Li Yuan focused his mind. The flame’s color instantly shifted from crimson to a grayish-black as its attribute switched from Fire Element to Evil Qi. The entire process was seamless, with no need to reconjure the energy. The Spiritual Power flowed between the two attributes as smoothly as water.

He tried converting it back. The grayish-black Evil Qi formed a cone at his fingertips, then instantly reverted to a crimson cone of flame. The speed was incredible, the transition flawless.

Li Yuan dispersed the Spiritual Power in his palm.

The three separate green entries had each offered only twenty to thirty percent bonuses. After fusion, they were comprehensively boosted to the forty to fifty percent range, and he had also gained the qualitative ability of mutual energy conversion.

’The benefits of this fusion far exceeded my expectations.’

He followed the mine tunnel back to the surface.

By the time he walked out of the mine entrance, it was nearly evening. The afterglow of the setting sun dyed the dense fog at the edge of the Ghost Mist Forest a dark orange.

Li Yuan didn’t hurry back to his stone house, instead taking a detour to the Spirit Field.

In the Yin Evil isolation zone, the Soul-devouring Grass had already grown to half a foot tall. The dark red patterns on its leaves were clearly visible, its growth far surpassing that of ordinary Spirit Medicine. Li Yuan squatted down and circulated the Cyan Wood Longevity Skill to tend to the seedlings. After confirming their roots were stable, he stood up and left.

Back in his stone house, he sealed the door and windows.

Li Yuan sat down at the table and took out the jade slips for Void-Rending Slash and the Teleportation Skill from his storage bag, placing them on his left and right.

’The combat power boost from the fusion is secured,’ he thought. ’Next, it’s time to make progress on the spatial Magic.’

Two spatial Magic techniques, two paths toward making the Teleportation Stone’s effect permanent.

He first picked up the jade slip for Void-Rending Slash and sent his Divine Sense into it.

It was a spatial attack Magic. The core principle was to compress Spiritual Power to its absolute limit and inject it into a tiny spatial fissure. This would cause the fissure to extend in a designated direction for a very brief moment, inflicting cutting damage on all targets in its path.

The fissure itself contained no elemental Spiritual Power; its offensive power came purely from the severing of space. In the face of a spatial fissure, conventional Spiritual Power shields were like paper and offered almost no defense.

The cultivation difficulty was extremely high.

It demanded a level of precision in Spiritual Power control far beyond that of ordinary Magic. The slightest deviation would cause the fissure to collapse and result in a backlash.

Li Yuan put down Void-Rending Slash and picked up the Teleportation Skill.

A short-range spatial displacement technique. Its core principle was to use Spiritual Power to tear open a tiny spatial passage and instantly transfer oneself to the other end. The effective distance ranged from several to dozens of meters, depending on the Cultivator’s Spiritual Power reserves and spatial perception accuracy.

Each casting was followed by a short cooldown period and consumed a massive amount of Spiritual Power.

Both Magic techniques required an extremely strong spatial perception as their foundation.

This was where the Teleportation Stone’s effect—doubling spatial perception—showed its core value. Without this entry as a foundation, the difficulty of cultivating these two Magic techniques would be at least two or three times higher.

Li Yuan put away the two jade slips and sat cross-legged on his cattail mat.

He decided to start with Void-Rending Slash.

He gathered Spiritual Power in his palm, slowly compressing it according to the circulation path recorded in the jade slip. When the Spiritual Power’s density reached a critical point, he attempted to inject it into the space an inch in front of his fingertip.

The Teleportation Stone’s enhanced spatial perception allowed him to clearly see every minute fold in the structure of space before his fingertip.

The moment the Spiritual Power touched the membrane of space, an extremely fine and short-lived fissure flashed for an instant before collapsing and dissipating.

’A failure, but there was a reaction.’

Li Yuan adjusted the angle and pressure of the Spiritual Power injection and tried again.

This time, the fissure lasted for about half a breath before dissipating, its length less than an inch.

’I’m on the right track.’

He continued to repeat the process, over and over again.

In the dead of night, Li Yuan opened his eyes.

In the space before his fingertip, a gray fissure about three inches long floated stably for a full two breaths before slowly closing.

’I’ve finally reached the threshold of mastery.’