Chapter 589: Dreamlike and Illusory

The cave walls fractured, and the seawater was annihilated.

In the vacuum created by the sea of fire, a fiery red figure sat cross-legged, the center of an endless cycle. As the churning cyan flames gathered around him, they brought with them wave after wave of destruction and rebirth.

The Cyan Lotus Fire Sea still surged, but as time went on, its essence was subtly plundered and devoured. Though the flames raged, the cyan hue that bloomed like petals within them slowly faded from rich to pale.

The terrifying heat of the fire sea and its annihilating fury both began to slowly dim and subside.

Time trickled by until, finally, the sea of fire remained, still surging, but now a pure, crimson red. The cyan lotus petals that had filled the flames, that pure touch of cyan, were… completely gone.

At this moment, inside the cracked and scorched cave, Chu Mu remained seated cross-legged. The flames swirling around him had merged as one with the sea of fire, and with him. It seemed as though everything was under his control.

Crimson light rippled and surged, casting flickering shadows on the cave walls. It was like his own personal fire sea, creating ripples of flame that undulated like waves in the deep sea.

Surrounded by the sea of fire and empowered by the Spiritual Radiance Blessing, he was like an Immortal God enthroned in the Cloud Realm, commanding not only this ocean of flames but also every part of his own body.

Within his body, streaks of mottled cyan energy still rampaged, but they were now utterly rootless. Their fate—to be devoured and refined—was sealed.

Inside his Dantian, the rich and pure crimson light acted like a vortex. No matter how furiously the mottled cyan flames struggled or how unwilling they were, the vortex’s tyrannical pull drew them into the Dantian, bit by bit.

Eventually, they merged with the Great Sun True Flame, becoming the foundation for its transformation.

With the external Cyan Lotus Fire Sea already devoured, this process of cleaning up the rootless remnants didn’t last long.

In less than a few hours, the last wisp of mottled cyan flame sank into his Dantian. A mournful cry seemed to echo from the void as the final trace of cyan merged completely with the crimson fire within.

In that instant, from Chu Mu’s perspective, it was as if heaven, earth, and all of creation had fallen silent.

The turmoil within his body vanished, as did the rampage of the fire sea outside. The divine essence of the Cyan Lotus was annihilated. Only the residual energy, accumulated by the Cyan Lotus Earth Core Flame over ten millennia, remained, still forming a sea of fire. It burned fiercely, yet it could no longer stir the slightest wave.

In the dead silence, only that crimson flame remained, now the apparent center of the universe.

The True Flame was formless—a pure, crimson fire, burning eternally, never to be extinguished.

Just as Chu Mu had anticipated, after completely plundering and devouring the Cyan Lotus Earth Core Flame, the True Flame began a quiet transformation, from the inside out.

And this transformation would inevitably trigger a chain reaction.

Originating from the Great Sun True Flame and stemming from the Great Sun Scripture, everything would ultimately feed back into his shattered body.

‘Whether a blessing or a curse, for me, this will ultimately become a monumental stroke of fortune.’

Chu Mu’s expression was calm. Aided by the Spiritual Radiance Blessing, his weary Divine Soul still maintained complete and meticulous control, perceiving everything within his body.

Right now, the top priority was clearly this transforming Great Sun True Flame.

The True Flame burned brightly, its color growing more bewitching, more pure. It was as if the Great Sun True Flame was being tempered a thousand times over—impurities purged, the flame itself further compressed.

That pure crimson hue grew even purer!

And now, as the True Flame transformed, the Great Sun Scripture, which stemmed from it, also seemed to be undergoing an imperceptible change.

Just as he had predicted, a crimson light spread along his meridians. Within a few breaths, his entire body, inside and out, was bathed in red. Even his heavily guarded Sea of Consciousness was showered with a touch of crimson radiance.

It was like the Great Sun hanging high above, illuminating his meridians, Magical Power, Dantian, flesh, and bones…

His entire being, inside and out, was stained with a layer of crimson light.

Under this crimson radiance, his chaotic Magical Power grew calm. The brilliant glow made his Magical Power, one of Supreme Yang and Firmness, even more scorching, yet it teemed with vibrant life. Wisps of impurities were purged bit by bit under the crimson light, returning his power to a state of utter purity.

Crimson Magical Power circulated through his meridians. The meridians themselves, once nearly dry and damaged beyond recognition, began to twitch. As the churning Magical Power and brilliant crimson radiance flowed through them, they were like blades of grass in a desert finding water, slowly unfurling and coming back to life.

The countless meridians within his body seemed to cry out in excitement. As the Magical Power surged and the radiance shone, their dryness and ruptures faded away, replaced by a state of perfect healing.

Moreover, under the influence of the surging Magical Power and crimson light, the healed meridians began to undergo their own tempering. They grew tougher and wider than before.

But the transformation was not yet over.

The withered meridians had been revitalized, and now his fractured bones and burned flesh were also rapidly repairing and healing under the crimson light.

And his perfectly repaired meridians, bones, flesh—even his Dantian and Sea of Consciousness—were all transforming in tandem with his True Flame.

As his insides transformed, so too did his exterior. The hideous, bloody gashes on his scorched body rapidly closed. Scabs formed and fell away in quick succession, leaving not a single scar.

Layers of dry skin sloughed off his body like a snake shedding its old hide. The new skin underneath was clearly far tougher than before.

Every part of him, inside and out, now far surpassed the strength he possessed before devouring the Cyan Lotus Earth Core Flame.

At this moment, the Great Sun Scripture began to operate on its own. Although the method for circulating the technique remained the same, the transformation of the True Flame meant the very essence of the Cultivation Technique had taken a qualitative leap forward.

As the Great Sun Scripture operated on its own, the crimson fire sea outside—the manifestation of millennia of energy accumulated by the Cyan Lotus Earth Core Flame—began to slowly converge on the cross-legged Chu Mu.

This crimson manifestation of the Cyan Lotus Earth Core Flame’s residual energy seeped into Chu Mu’s body bit by bit, just as the flame itself had done.

However, with its Cyan Lotus will having been devoured, this pure manifestation of energy could no longer run rampant. Under his control, it remained perfectly orderly.

As the Great Sun Scripture operated, the utterly docile crimson energy seeped into his body, flowed along his meridians, and finally entered his Dantian, merging into the brilliantly transforming Great Sun True Flame.

As the Cyan Lotus energy merged into it, a deafening ROAR echoed from the void. The transforming Great Sun True Flame was like a fire suddenly doused in fuel; it flared violently.

As a continuous stream of external Cyan Lotus energy poured into the Great Sun True Flame, the surging power quickly satisfied all the requirements for its transformation.

The excess energy, however, was still immense. Like a relentless tide, it continued to pour in from the outside, rushing through his meridians and converging on his Dantian.

When this process reached its limit, the crimson radiance illuminating his body seemed to hesitate before trembling abruptly. Then, wisps of pure, gaseous crimson energy began to pour out from the brilliant True Flame.

As this pure, gaseous crimson energy was continuously expelled from the True Flame, it rapidly gathered in his Dantian.

In just a few moments, his Dantian—emptied by the refinement of the Cyan Lotus Earth Core Flame—was completely filled with this pure, crimson Fire Attribute Energy.

The gaseous crimson energy churned rapidly within his Dantian. As more and more of it was fed back from the True Flame, it began to compress and condense on its own. Finally, a single, small droplet of crimson liquid energy abruptly appeared, hovering within his Dantian…

The True Flame blazed. The appearance of the first drop of crimson liquid energy triggered a chain reaction within the gaseous energy filling his Dantian. Drop after drop of liquid, as crystal-clear and precious as jade, emerged from the mist, floating within his Dantian.

In Chu Mu’s perception, each drop of crimson was a condensation of incomparably pure Fire Attribute Energy.

Each drop was comparable to an Upper Grade Support Cultivation Elixir; each drop was equivalent to the Magical Power he could gain from more than a month of hard Cultivation.

Moreover, having been plundered from the Cyan Lotus Earth Core Flame and then refined and fed back by the Great Sun True Flame, every drop of this crimson energy was exceptionally pure, without a single trace of impurity.

It was like a legendary divine object forged by the heavens themselves, requiring no further Refinement. It could be directly integrated into his Magical Power, into his very Essence, Qi, and Spirit, becoming a part of his foundation.

Now, as the millennia of residual energy from the Cyan Lotus Earth Core Flame continued to pour into him, satisfying the needs of his True Flame’s transformation, the excess energy began to condense. Like a steady drizzle, DRIP, DRIP, DRIP, the drops fell continuously. In just a short time, this liquid energy had already filled more than half of his Dantian.

‘Clearly, just as I predicted! Compared to the benefits I’m reaping, the price I paid and the destruction wrought by the Cyan Lotus Earth Core Flame are completely insignificant!’

‘This is a heaven-defying opportunity. How much I gain depends entirely on how much I can withstand during this feedback process. In other words, the more of this fortune I can swallow, the greater my rewards will be.’

Even with the Spiritual Radiance Blessing, Chu Mu found it hard to suppress the excitement surging through him. As he sat cross-legged, his face became slightly flushed.

But he quickly focused, pouring his vast Divine Sense into his body to meticulously manipulate the flow of his Magical Power. His entire Dantian became a bottomless vortex, rapidly refining the crimson energy as it condensed.

If Chu Mu could spare the attention to look at his Light Curtain Panel right now, he would see the precise value of his Cultivation—which had only just reached the Middle Stage of Golden Core—visibly surging upwards under this frenzied, greedy refinement.

‘Normally, every single point of increase would have cost me vast resources and countless hours of arduous Cultivation.’

‘But now… this is just unimaginably, fantastically dreamlike…’