In a cool cave, Xiao Yan sat cross-legged with Yao Lao floating beside him.
"Have you made your decision? The Flame Mantra has now evolved to Yellow Rank High-Grade, comparable to an ordinary Profound Rank Cultivation Technique."
"Although this level isn't high, it's not low either."
"With your cultivation speed, breaking through to Great Dou Master will only take a few years. At that time, when you refine the Strange Fire, the success rate will be higher."
As the moment arrived, Yao Lao also became nervous.
A complete Green Lotus Core Flame was truly too terrifying in power, leaving a bit of a shadow even on Yao Lao, who was only a Soul body.
After all, without consuming the seven illusory green spirit saliva, Yao Lao's strength was only that of a Dou Huang.
In the original story, when Xiao Yan snatched the Strange Fire from Medusa and Gu He, and Yun Yun came chasing in a black robe, Yao Lao had said,
He was confident in protecting Xiao Yan, but not confident in keeping the Strange Fire from a Dou Huang.
Therefore, Yao Lao's current combat power was roughly at the Dou Huang level.
Thus, the Green Lotus Core Flame, which could burn the Peak Dou Huang Medusa half to death, posed a certain threat even to the current Yao Lao.
Moreover, although there was no interference from Gu He and Medusa, the process of searching for the Strange Fire this time was also quite dangerous.
At that time, if Yao Lao hadn't convinced the Fire Spirit Snake with "virtue" to lead the way;
It's estimated that the two of them would have been completely unable to find the Green Lotus Core Flame within the Magma World.
However, because there were no Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils of Qing Lin to control it, that fourth-rank Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snake was naturally not as well-behaved as in the original story.
After Yao Lao took over the account to fight as a proxy and beat it into submission, it obediently led Xiao Yan and Yao Lao to find the Green Lotus Core Flame.
As a result, while the two were picking the Green Lotus Core Flame, that Fire Spirit Snake actually took the opportunity to run!
It probably intended to leave these two humans to fend for themselves deep within the underground magma.
In the end, Xiao Yan was blessed with great luck and finally crawled out from underground alive with Yao Lao.
However, Yao Lao's Soul Power was also consumed quite a bit during the process, and he only slowly recovered recently.
For a Soul body, as long as the Origin is not damaged, consumed Soul Power can be slowly restored.
In the original story, the time Yao Lao fell into a slumber was because the damage from the Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus had exceeded the threshold.
Although Yao Lao did not fall into a slumber this time, the entire process was also quite dangerous.
If it weren't for Xiao Yan's [opportunity 10], it would have been basically impossible for a Soul body with only Dou Huang strength to return to the surface alive from the depths of the magma, where there were turbulent flows everywhere.
[opportunity 10], terrifyingly formidable!
Yao Lao looked at the Green Lotus Core Flame nearby, then at the cross-legged Xiao Yan, hesitating to speak.
This Green Lotus Core Flame posed a certain threat even to him.
And Xiao Yan was currently just a small Dou Master; Yao Lao was somewhat unwilling to let Xiao Yan attempt refining it now.
After all, despite only having a Yellow Rank High-Grade Cultivation Technique, Xiao Yan's cultivation speed was quite fast, and there was absolutely no need to take a risk now.
"Let's do it now! Teacher, I'm ready."
Xiao Yan let out a long breath and looked at Yao Lao, speaking firmly.
From the moment Xiao Yan chose the Flame Mantra, he knew that searching for and swallowing Strange Fires would be his lifelong mission.
Moreover, he chose the Flame Mantra not only to become stronger but also to help Yao Lao be resurrected.
Just like in the original story, Xiao Yan wanting to become stronger for the Three-Year Agreement had a very direct goal—to defeat Nalan Yanran.
But if it were purely to win, he could have completely chosen the Earth-rank Cultivation Method in Yao Lao's hands.
In that case, his strength improvement speed in the early stages would definitely have been greater than choosing the Flame Mantra, and he would have had a better chance of winning the Three-Year Agreement.
Therefore, when Xiao Yan said he wanted to refine the Green Lotus Core Flame, he was definitely not joking.
He truly intended to swallow this Green Lotus Core Flame right now!
After swallowing the Green Lotus Core Flame, the Flame Mantra would at least reach Profound Rank Intermediate or even Profound Tier High Grade.
And cultivation is a matter of being one step ahead leading to being ahead at every step.
With a higher-rank Cultivation Technique, his future cultivation would yield twice the result with half the effort!
"Since you've made up your mind, then I can only support you."
Yao Lao flicked his finger, and a faint gray light suddenly flew from his fingertip and floated in the air—
This was a thumb-sized gray stone. Within the stone's core, a speck of faint blue light was slowly wriggling.
"The power of a Strange Fire is not something the human body can withstand. Unless you completely refine the Strange Fire's energy and merge it into your Dou Qi vortex, everything about you will be burned to ashes by the Strange Fire."
"However, completely refining a Strange Fire is a bit too early for you. This requires spirit storage to open up a space inside your body to contain the Strange Fire," Yao Lao said calmly.
"Is this the legendary spirit storage that only has a chance of being nurtured within Advanced Storage Stones?"
Xiao Yan looked at the spirit storage and asked with some curiosity.
"That's right. Take out the green lotus pill." Yao Lao said.
Xiao Yan swallowed his saliva and took out a jade bottle from his storage ring.
Inside was a green Medicinal Pill the size of a longan.
Looking at its quality, it was quite a bit better than the green lotus pill Xiao Xue had refined back then.
After all, that was Xiao Xue's first time successfully refining a sixth-grade pill.
But for a Grandmaster of alchemy like Yao Lao, refining a sixth-grade pill was probably just enough to warm up.
When Xiao Yan took out the green lotus pill, Yao Lao released the Green Lotus Core Flame from the Green Lotus Seat.
Without the restraint of the Green Lotus Seat, the originally tiny green flame suddenly surged several times in size.
In just an instant, the green flame transformed into a cluster of fire, floating in mid-air.
As the volume of the fire increased, the temperature in the cave rose at an extremely fast rate.
At the top of the cave, the cyan rock wall had already been silently melted into a head-sized hole.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Xiao Yan looked up with a solemn expression at the rising green flames in mid-air.
"Although what I'm saying might be unlucky, just to be safe, you'd better sit on the green lotus. In case of an accident, the green lotus can save your life."
"Otherwise, even I would find it difficult to rescue you in that instant."
Yao Lao said somewhat helplessly after hesitating for a moment.
Hearing this, Xiao Yan nodded with a bitter smile. He tapped his toes lightly on the ground, landing gracefully on the Green Lotus Seat, then turned his head to look at Yao Lao.
"Take the green lotus pill first."
As Yao Lao spoke, he pressed the Green Lotus Core Flame into the nearby ice spirit cold spring pool.
Almost instantly, the ice spirit cold spring completely turned into white mist due to the terrifying temperature of the Green Lotus Core Flame.
However, its icy temperature also made the Green Lotus Core Flame no longer active, almost losing all movement.
But Xiao Yan knew this was only temporary.
A mere pool of ice spirit cold spring was naturally not enough to suppress the Green Lotus Core Flame; it could only make it "weak" for a short period of time.
And what he had to do was to refine and swallow it during this brief period when the Green Lotus Core Flame was weak.
Xiao Yan poured the green lotus pill out of the jade bottle and swallowed it in one gulp. Then, using the Suction Palm, he sucked the Origin Fire Seed of the Green Lotus Core Flame—the green magma strip—into his hand.
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