Rising from Small Cloud Rain Technique

The hidden enemy did not take further action, and the situation in the Western Continent slowly returned to calm, at least on the surface.

Time flows like water, and half a year passed in the blink of an eye.

Today Ji An doesn’t need to go to the Agricultural Hall; at this moment, he is sitting cross-legged in the grotto mansion on Red Flame Peak, activating the Dharma Gate to open up the Fire Element Divine Mansion.

Blue smoke curls up from the incense burner, the Soul Incense emitting a light and spiritual fragrance.

Over the past six months, with a sufficient supply of Jade Radiance Pills, the core of the Wood Element Divine Mansion has been growing rapidly.

The Stone Turtle breathes out Clear Spirit Qi once a year, making his Primordial Life Fire extremely vigorous, indirectly enhancing the strength of his spirit soul.

In addition, with a plentiful amount of Spirit Tea to drink every month, the overlapping effects have accelerated his pace in opening up the Divine Mansion considerably.

Now he is opening the last part of the thirty-sixth vein pattern, which is six months ahead of his original estimate.

Time ticks away, and magical power circulates rapidly in the Immortal Vein, the vein pattern on the heart lighting up like white-hot iron wire.

In the Zhiyang Acupoint, the Bing Fire Dao Seed emits golden light; in the Celestial Pool Acupoint, the Ding Fire Dao Seed blooms with scarlet spiritual flames.

The green magical power flows into the heart, and when it flows out again, it is tinged with strands of scarlet, like red leaf veins on green leaves.

The flow of magical power becomes faster and faster, and the light emanating from the heart becomes increasingly intense.

Ji An feels as if a crisp sound comes from the heart, and in this instant, the world falls silent.

Immediately afterward, the heart beats violently, and the flame phantom blooms brilliantly in the chest cavity.

He feels a sense of joy, slowly withdrawing from the operation of the Dharma Gate.

Another Divine Mansion is just one step away from being successfully opened. Starting tomorrow, he will be able to simultaneously consume two types of Five Elements Qi.

Ji An brews some Jade Dew Golden Bud Tea, relaxing his mind.

Half an hour passes and the divine sense he had exhausted fully recovers.

Taking out a Jade Bottle, he swallows the last Jade Radiance Pill and begins to circulate the Five Elements Reincarnation Scripture for refinement.

Inside his body, five-colored lights rise and fall, and ten Dao Seeds shine brightly.

The liver is as jade-like as Cuiyu, and the core of the Divine Mansion grows continuously as it absorbs the medicinal power.

Likewise, a portion of the medicinal power transforms into magical power, converging into the Dantian.

The Primordial Life Fire flares up suddenly, and the Stone Turtle next to it moves its lips, swallowing one-tenth of the magical power.

The magical power within him gradually overflows, and his cultivation sees improvement.

Once the pill is fully refined and his state is adjusted to the optimum, Ji An shifts the Dharma Gate, and magical power gushes out from the Dantian.

Magic power flows through the Immortal Vein as if a rushing river, finally merging into the heart.

Pale golden vein patterns light up one after another, first the outer layer, then the inner layer.

When all 108 vein patterns are lit, Ji An immediately increases the output of magical power.

The heart becomes as bright as the sun, and the phantom of a crimson heart laced with gold congeals, and the core of the Fire Element Divine Mansion is completed.

A few breaths later, as the heart beats, the core of the Divine Mansion gently shudders, and the core and heart begin to beat in unison.

In the Dantian, the green Primordial Life Fire gains an outer flame layer, emitting a crimson hue.

The cultivation at the Chao Origin stage involves continually accumulating layers of the Primordial Life Fire.

Once five Divine Mansions are opened, five layers of flame are amassed.

Ji An first opened the Wood Element Divine Mansion, so the inner flame is green.

In the future, the flames will sequentially be green, red, yellow, white, and black from inside to outside, following the principle of Five Elements Mutual Generation.

Each cultivator’s Primordial Life Fire may differ, but once a cultivator comprehends the Five Elements Endless Life, the five layers of flame will combine into one, becoming a golden flame.

The golden Primordial Life Fire is used to refine and temper the five Qi within the chest, ultimately forming a golden pill, which is the Golden Core.

The Stone Turtle approaches the Primordial Life Fire and exhales two breaths of Clear Spirit Qi.

The green inner flame enlarges slightly, and the red outer flame expands half a circle.

’This’ll do!’

The actions of the Stone Turtle make Ji An inwardly exclaim with joy; he had been worried about how the Stone Turtle’s ’side gain’ of two layers of flame would be distributed, but now he feels relieved.

Once the Fire Element Divine Mansion was opened, Ji An immediately felt that the Blood Transformation Soul-Chasing Curse entangling his body dissipated significantly.

He smiled and couldn’t wait to run out of the grotto mansion.

Green cloud qi rises from beneath his feet, lifting him to fly to the mountain top.

The Fire Mansion has just been opened, and without consuming Fire Eating Qi, he cannot yet harness the Fire Element Cloud.

Fire Eating Qi and Wood Element Qi are noticeably different; Wood Element Qi unifies Yin and Yang, and once consumed, it can directly enhance the core of the Divine Mansion.

However, Fire Eating Qi is divided into Yin and Yang, and he plans to consume the Qi of the Sun’s Bing Fire, which is sky fire, the Yang fire’s Qi.

After consuming, it will be temporarily stored in the heart, and he must consume the Qi of Ding Fire within twelve double hours.

Only when Yin and Yang converge can complete Fire Eating Qi be formed, capable of being absorbed by the core of the Divine Mansion; otherwise, it will naturally dissipate.

Many options exist for choosing the Qi of Ding Fire, such as the People’s Fire from the myriad family lights, or the Warm Spirit Fire in Fire Element Plants, among others.

Consuming People’s Fire is too cumbersome, so Ji An plans to consume the Warm Spirit Fire from spirit plants, as it is the Fire in Wood, a Yin fire’s Qi.

Sky fire and Fire in Wood are both natural fires, making them more compatible.

There are many Fire Element Plants on Red Flame Peak, with fifty acres of Red Cloud Pine, over a thousand acres of Profound Yang Wood and Purple Sun Wood, and eight acres of Spiritual Peaches, Spiritual Apricots, and Dragon Blood Trees, more than enough.

Additionally, there are two spirit plants in the Magma Pool that might also be suitable for Qi consumption.

This is why he chose to consume the Fire in Wood; it’s simply convenient and quick.

The best time to consume the Qi of the Sun’s Bing Fire is at dawn when the sun rises, or at noon when the sun is at its hottest.

The optimal time to consume the Qi of Ding Fire from spirit plants is in the evening, at that brief moment when the sunset falls but there is still a lingering glow.

There was still half a double hour before noon; having nothing else to do, Ji An entered the golden-red mist, executed the Five Directions Spirit Gathering Technique, and began to condense Metal Element Essence.

This was his first extraction of the Five Elements Essence after breaking through to the Chao Origin Stage. With the release of the spell, threads of golden light gathered into his palm.

The area covered by the magic technique was more than twice that of the Foundation Establishment Stage.

Ji An took out the Yellow Jade Bottle, engraved with countless symbols as fine as mosquito nicks.

This jade bottle was specially made, exclusively for collecting Metal Element Essence, having a capacity a hundred times that of the ordinary jade bottle used previously as a Magical Artifact.

Because of the need to nurture Spiritual Artifacts with magical power and essence, Ji An custom-made ten jade bottles for each of the Five Elements Essence.

He executed the spell to store the essence in the jade bottle, whose engraved symbols shimmered like a heavenly script.

After a while, Ji An noticed the Metal Element Essence gathered was gradually decreasing, so he put away the essence, switched hand techniques, and began extracting Fire Element Essence, making sure not to waste even a moment.

Half a double hour passed quickly, and he contentedly put away the jade bottle, flying out of the now thin mist.

The piercing mist that once flayed skin was now a gentle breeze on his face.

Standing facing due south, Ji An slightly raised his head.

His mouth half-opened, tongue against his lower teeth, both hands lifted from his lower abdomen.

Turning his palms outward from the middle of his chest to above his eyes.

Simultaneously, he exhaled, chanting “Heh”.

His first attempt yielded nothing.

As expected, this was the first attempt at inhaling Qi of Sun Bing Fire, success at first try would be a miracle.

He resumed the action, “Heh!”

Second try, failed.

“Heh,” third try, a warm current entered his mouth, like swallowing a burning coal.

Before he could react, his heart gave a sudden throb, the energy was swallowed, following the Immortal Vein into his heart, transforming into a wisp of golden flame.

The burning sensation in his throat and Immortal Vein through which the Qi of Sun Bing Fire flowed was normal, as explained by the Zhengyang Ancestor.

All Chao Origin Stage Cultivators who hadn’t chosen a Fire Element Cultivation Technique during the Foundation Establishment Stage had this experience with their first taste of Bing Fire Qi.

Ji An, bearing the pain, attempted to consume Qi again.

After two more breaths of Qi, he felt the pain in his throat affecting his Qi-eating rhythm, thus ceased forcing it and flew to the edge of the Cold Pool.

“Cuihua, bring a pot of Middle Grade Cloud Peak Silver Needle, be quick!”

Speaking caused him to feel as if his throat was being scraped with a knife, slightly regretting consuming three wisps of Qi.

“Coming,” Zhang Cuihua dashed over, expertly lighting the wind furnace to boil water.

Irritated by the slowness of the boiling, Ji An helped with his Pill Fire.

His Pill Fire was now like the Primordial Life Fire, having dual layers of flame.

With the Pill Fire, the Spirit Spring Water boiled in just twenty percent of the usual time.

Zhang Cuihua took out tea leaves and asked:

“Master Ancestor, strong tea or light tea?”

“Strong tea.”

The disciple executed the Object Control Technique, tossing a large handful of tea leaves into the cup.

With the pouring of scalding Spirit Water, the tea leaves tumbled like swimming fish, releasing a fragrant aroma.

Ji An controlled the output of his magical power, releasing Cold Wind Technique onto the cup.

Drinking hot tea when feeling extremely spicy is courting discomfort, only cooling tea could provide relief.

The magic was controlled so precisely that a layer of white frost formed over the cup, without leaving a trace on the table.

The steaming hot tea immediately lost its warmth, even forming a thin layer of ice.

Ji An raised the cup and gulped it, the icy water entering his throat, easing the burning sensation ever so slightly.

He heavily placed the cup down, “More.”

Thus he continued drinking cold tea until late afternoon.

As the sunset hid behind the mountains, the sunset glowing like furnace fire began to dim.

Ji An rode the cloud to the Red Cloud Pine Forest, although the Fire Element Spirit Fruit Garden was closer, he worried it wouldn’t suffice to consume the Fire in Wood to neutralize three wisps of Bing Fire Qi, thus needing another trip here.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, then assumed the stance, inhaling and exhaling according to the standard actions.

After several tries, a warm stream entered his abdomen, joining his heart.

The scarlet Fire in Wood matched with the golden Fire in the air, transforming into a wisp of flame with a red-gold sheen.

The core of his Divine Mansion gently pulsed, drawing in the Fire Element Qi.

Ji An felt warmth spreading from his heart throughout his body.

The warmth extended to his throat, alleviating the burning pain that cold tea had failed to quench all afternoon.

He let out a relieved breath, relaxed, and continued consuming Qi.

One wisp after another of Ding Fire Qi and Sun Bing Fire Qi harmonized in Yin and Yang, utterly devoured by the core of his Divine Mansion.

The painful sensation in his throat completely disappeared, and Ji An found that his tongue could taste things differently now.

Fire-red cloud rose from beneath his feet, and he laughed aloud:

“Finally succeeded!”

Then, he rode the Fire Element Cloud to the Mulberry Field; this evening’s Wood Element Qi hadn’t been consumed yet.

After taking in three wisps of Wood-eating Qi, Ji An felt his Spirit Soul completely languish; he realized he could only consume up to seven wisps of Qi when his Spirit Soul was full.