Void Fissure Spiritual Flame

Heavenly Fires were extraordinarily rare. They might emerge during cataclysmic worldly shifts, gestate within peculiar spiritual meridians or spiritual caverns, or remain hidden deep inside ancient ruins and secret realms.

Different Heavenly Fires possessed distinct forms and attributes. For alchemists and weapon refiners, taming a Heavenly Fire and adopting it as their natal fire could drastically increase their efficiency and success rate, while boosting the quality and power of the crafted items.

Furthermore, a Heavenly Fire naturally contained abundant spiritual energy and profound Daoist principles, offering boundless benefits to one's cultivation and realm.

Without a doubt, the fire seed before her was a Heavenly Fire.

No larger than a fist, it radiated a vibrant glow that stood out brilliantly against the dark realm, exuding a profound sense of mystery.

The raging flame seemed composed of interwoven strands of crimson, with flashes of gold folding and dancing within as it flickered.

This interplay of brilliant red and bright gold caused no harsh glare; instead, it evoked a feeling of crystal clarity and transcendent calm.

“What kind of Heavenly Fire is this?”

Even with Shi Yu's vast knowledge from roaming the four seas in the game, she had never encountered the spirit fire before her.

Its appearance defied easy description, looking almost like millions of tiny spatial fissures woven together, emitting a captivating aura that drew one in.

As Shi Yu focused her gaze, she seemed to glimpse flickering stars within it.

It was no illusion. As the fire burned, it sent out ripples across the void. Through these spatial ripples, Shi Yu felt as though she were gazing into a mirror, catching glimpses of distant lands.

She saw pitch-black deep seas, starry cosmic skies, and the frozen, vast expanses of the far north... For a split second, she even caught a fleeting image of imperial palaces belonging to the Mortal Realm.

“This is...”

The scenes within the spatial ripples shifted constantly, occasionally revealing rare spirit beasts native to places beyond the East Continent.

Shi Yu stared closely at the ripples stirred by the fire seed. The image shifted once more, showing a Purple Harrier preening its feathers near a body of water. As it tilted its head, water droplets on its beak flicked outward.

A few droplets flew straight out of the image and splashed onto her face.

Shi Yu froze in place, realization dawning upon her. “This fire seed possesses spatial attributes.”

She raised her eyes to look around. The dense magma that had pressed down on her earlier had long backed away, leaving a vacuum around the fire seed.

Containing spatial power, the fire seed stirred faint spatial fluctuations as it burned. Over time, this location deep within the magma had become an intersection of spatial dimensions, making the spatial barrier here exceptionally thin.

That was why the water droplets from the Purple Harrier's beak had crossed through space itself and landed directly on her face.

“So the Scarlet Flame Void-Cleaving Python that suddenly appeared in the Fulong Mountain Range must have been influenced by this fire seed, accidentally stepping through a spatial fissure and teleporting all the way from the distant North Continent to the East Continent.”

Her earlier doubts about the Scarlet Flame Void-Cleaving Python were finally answered.

She pondered for a moment.

The longer she stayed in this world, the deeper her understanding of the Origin Realm became.

A dense barrier separated the Origin Realm from the Mortal Realm, keeping the two worlds strictly divided.

Cultivators of the Origin Realm had to expend immense effort to force their way through the barrier, so they rarely descended to the Mortal Realm unless absolutely necessary.

Yet the Yuxu Sect was able to reach the Mortal Realm every fifty years using a specific method, holding the Immortal Destiny Gathering in Guangle Village. At its core, they were taking advantage of the weakened barrier between the two worlds right here in the Fulong Mountain Range.

Looking back now, the weakness of the barrier here had everything to do with this Heavenly Fire.

Could I use this fire seed to return to the Mortal Realm? Shi Yu wondered.

However, she immediately discarded the thought.

Even setting aside whether the fire seed had such a function, how could she possibly return now?

Before her strength grew sufficiently, going back would only bring trouble to her family.

She stared quietly at the fire seed, refraining from rushing forward, afraid that a careless move might disturb its tranquility.

This subterranean fire was a true spiritual treasure of heaven and earth, born of heavenly destiny and carrying a fraction of the Dao's origin. It had likely developed its own intelligence long ago.

Faced with such a treasure, Shi Yu was naturally tempted. If she could tame it and refine it into her natal fire, not only would her strength leap forward, but her alchemy and artifact refining would also become far more effortless.

Yet she possessed self-awareness.

With her current strength, taming it was completely out of the question, and expecting such a treasure to willingly acknowledge her as its master was pure fantasy.

Yet waves of summoning intent radiated outward from the fire seed, rippling in continuous circles.

Without realizing it, Shi Yu stepped forward and reached out to touch the fire seed.

When she snapped back to her senses, she realized her hand had passed straight through it, as if touching complete emptiness, leaving only a sensation of warmth in her palm.

Shi Yu paused, feeling a strange sense of closeness to it. Shifting her palm slightly, she touched the spatial ripples that constantly shifted with the fire's flickering movement.

At that moment, the fire seed's name surfaced in her mind.

“Void Fissure Spiritual Flame...”

Suddenly, an ancient, vast consciousness echoed into her divine sense.

“You are not yet fit to become my master.”

Unsurprised, Shi Yu gave a subtle nod, withdrew her hand, and took a few steps back.

However, as her hand pulled away from the fire seed, it drew forth an extraordinarily tiny strand of golden flame, which hovered upon her palm.

Stunned, she stared at the strand of flame, sensing a spatial aura that—though weak—was identical to the fire seed before her.

Before she could figure out what was happening, her body was gently pushed aside.

“Return another day.”

In the next instant, the Void Fissure Spiritual Flame flared. Shi Yu instinctively closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she was far away from the magma layer, standing once more at the crater's rim.

She looked down into the bottomless crater, took a deep breath, and opened her palm.

The tiny flame resting on her palm flickered tirelessly. Pale gold and seemingly refined from pure crystal essence, its faint glow nevertheless held an awe-inspiring presence.

Sensing an affectionate intent from it, Shi Yu poked the tiny flame, deep in thought.

“So it was you who chose me.”

The tiny flame's aura matched the unknown entity that had wrapped around her waist and dragged her down into the magma layer earlier.

It was the very aura that had gestated within and emerged from the Azure Flame Cloud Sand.

It seemed that from the moment she obtained the Azure Flame Cloud Sand, fate had been guiding her here.

The tiny flame had split off from the main body of the Void Fissure Spiritual Flame, gestating inside the Azure Flame Cloud Sand for who knew how many years. For now, it remained weak, far from matching the main body's power or maintaining spatial fissures.

Yet beneath its hazy, delicate glow, the aura it radiated subtly echoed the same profound sense of mystery.

After Shi Yu played with it for a short while, the flame shot into the spot between her eyebrows with a swift swoosh.

As the flame burned between her eyebrows, a surge of warm power began spreading outward from deep within her body.

At the same time, Shi Yu saw the scene deep within her bloodline clearly for the very first time.

It was a crimson mass, vaguely revealing the phantom of a divine bird spreading its wings. Nine chains tightly bound the phantom, but as the spark of the Void Fissure Spiritual Flame entered her body, the first chain began to totter on the verge of breaking.