Battle Through the Heavens - chapter-587

As the clusters of invisible flame entered into the forehead of Xiao Yan
and the others, the bodies of the eleven of them immediately began to
tremble via a varying degree. Soon after, their faces began to flush red
to the degree of burning coal. There were even threads of white fog
seeping out from everyone’s head.

Su Qian nodded slightly as he saw the flushed red faces of the eleven of
them. He instructed the two Elders. “Watch them carefully. Don’t let
any accidents occur.”

The two Elders bowed and received the orders. A gray-robed Elder among
them sighed, “I wonder how many people will be able to successfully
endure this time around?”

“This kind of refinement of one’s body with the ‘Heart Flame’ is
far from those ‘Heart Flames’ used to train with in the upper few
levels can compare with. This kind of searing pain is something that even
someone with great mental strength may not have absolute confidence in
being able to endure through it all.” Su Qian spoke faintly.

The other Elder smiled bitterly and nodded. He said, “There were only
four among the last batch of top ten in the ‘Strong Ranking’ who
managed to endure through it. The remaining six failed and even ended up
receiving serious internal injuries. They had to recuperate for a full
two to three months before they completely recovered. Although the
benefit of this refinement of one’s body with the ‘Heart Flame’ is
sufficient to cause one to be envious, it is not that easy to enjoy it.”

“Let’s see their own luck. It is nothing much if they fail, but if
the ‘Heart Flame’ successfully refines their body, it can allow them
to have a slightly easier time advancing to a Dou Wang in the future.
Even though it cannot achieve the result of directly raising their
strength to a Dou Wang, most of those who can enter the top ten of the
‘Strong Ranking’ are those with excellent talent. As long as it is
not someone with extremely terrible luck, they would definitely have the
chance to advance to the Dou Wang class after exhausting five or ten
years.” Su Qian carelessly spoke. His gaze immediately turned toward
the enormous, deep hole behind him and frowned slightly as he spoke,
“How is the ‘Fallen Heart Flame’ recently? Is there any activity?”

Hearing Su Qian’s question, the earlier gray-robed Elder hurriedly
spoke, “The ‘Fallen Heart Flame’ is unusually quiet during this
period of time. It even reached the point where not the slightest
activity has appeared. If it were not because we were surveying traces of
its activity, it is likely that we would have thought that it had just
quietly fled.”

“No activity?” Su Qian was not only not happy when he heard this, but
his face had also gradually become solemn. During all these many years,
the ‘Fallen Heart Flame’ had been constantly trying to break the
seal. How was it possible that it was suddenly void of activity? As the
saying goes, ‘an abnormality is usually the result of a demon’. Was
the ‘Fallen Heart Flame’ brewing something?

Su Qian’s expression become increasingly serious as this thought
lingered in his heart. A moment later, he asked in a deep voice, “How
is the seal?”

“We have summoned all the Elders within the Inner Academy, gathering
together eighteen people and spending five days to completely repair all
the seals that had begun to collapse from the attacks of the past.” The
other Elder eyed Su Qian’s serious expression and smiled as he
continued. “First Elder need not be too worried. Even if the first
layer of the seal was unluckily broken, there is still the seal that the
Headmaster personally put in place at the surface of this ‘Blazing Sky
Qi Refining Tower’. It is quite difficult for this ‘Fallen Heart
Flame’ to break through it.”

Su Qian knit his brows and reprimanded, “Don’t underestimate this
‘Fallen Heart Flame’. A ‘Heavenly Flame’ is agglomerated from the
most destructive natural strength over an extremely long time. Its
strength could be said to be frightening. Should any mishap happen, this
entire Inner Academy would be instantly destroyed. Such a price is
something that our Jia Nan Academy cannot afford.”

That Elder was somewhat ashamed at being reprimanded by Su Qian.

“Assign more people to pay attention to the ‘Fallen Heart Flame’.
Release the signal the moment there is any activity. I have already
informed the Outer Academy. There will be people swiftly hurrying over
the moment that something goes wrong with the ‘Fallen Heart
Flame’.” Su Qian spoke in a deep voice.

“Yes sir!” The two Elders hurriedly responded respectfully the moment
they heard this.

“Additionally, you should pay more attention to these little fellows.
Don’t let anything happen. I will go to the lowest level below to
investigate the situation.” Su Qian’s body moved as his words
sounded. He immediately disappeared from this spot in a strange manner,
leaving behind the two Elders who were looking at one another.

……

Pain. A pain that seeped out from deep within his bones!

This was what Xiao Yan was currently feeling. After that invisible flame
invaded his body, it was as though his entire body was thrown into a fire
cauldron. Moreover, this flame was burning his body from within. The
raging fire, the hot temperature, the momentum… it seemed to be
refusing to give up until it incinerated his body into ashes.

White fog seeped out from his head. The Qi Paths, bones, and even blood
within Xiao Yan’s body appeared to have become invisible at this
moment. The invisible flame seeped out from all over his body much like
maggots in tarsal bones and began to incinerate anything that could be
burned within his body. The Dou Qi that was hidden within the Dou Crystal
was also unable to avoid this calamity. Although Xiao Yan could not see
within the Dou Crystal of his body, he was able to sense that the Dou Qi
within it was like floodwater that churned repeatedly…

Under this deep bone-searing pain, each second of each minute felt like
it took days or even years. Although Xiao Yan had the impulse of fainting
on the spot, he was able to sense that his organs appeared to be
gradually becoming stronger under the incineration of the invisible
flame. This also repeatedly increased the intensity of the pain. Such a
body refinement was just like a kind of torture.

After these two years of training and experience, Xiao Yan had confidence
in his determination and toughness. Moreover, he was also a little
adapted to the ‘Heavenly Flame’ because he had already successfully
refined the ‘Green Lotus Core Flame’. Even though this was the case,
he was also made this miserable because of the refinement of the ‘Heart
Flame’. It was difficult to imagine just what kind of frightening
degree the searing pain was to those people who had not adapted to it.

Endure. This was the word that was repeated in Xiao Yan’s heart as he
clenched his teeth. At this moment, he could only use this
self-hypnotizing method to cause himself to endure for a longer time.

The torment passed by extremely slowly. However, Xiao Yan gradually
became numb as this kind of intense pain continued. After his heart
became a little less focused on the pain, he was finally able to divide
his attention to sense the many slight changes that his body was
undergoing under the calcination of the ‘Essence Heart Flame’…

The slightly superficial Dou Qi due to his strength having soared
abruptly by two stars some time earlier, was gradually becoming
substantial at an extremely joyous speed under this kind of calcination
of the ‘Heart Flame’. Xiao Yan was able to sense that the superficial
feeling in the Dou Crystal when he maneuvered his Dou Qi in the past was
swiftly disappearing. The Dou Crystal once again recovered to the kind of
substantial feeling of the past.

His bones, Qi Paths, and even muscles were just like metal under the
intense flame as they were being refined at an extremely slow pace until
they became tougher and filled with explosive strength…

Due to various reasons, Xiao Yan luckily endured past the most painful
period. However, some of the others were not so lucky. Around an hour or
so after the ‘Essence Heart Flame’ entered their bodies, a student
became the first to show abnormal signs. His originally flush red
expression instantly became pale-white and his body trembled swiftly like
he was having a seizure.

Those two Elders who had been paying attention to Xiao Yan and the others
naturally discovered the unusual action of this student at the first
instance. Their expressions immediately changed a little. With a flash of
their bodies, they appeared beside the latter. Those shriveled hands were
extended at the same time before they gently landed on the back of that
student. Powerful Dou Qi suddenly surged into the latter’s body from
their palms.

As the Dou Qi surged out, the student’s body trembled even more
intensely. Finally, a flushed redness surged onto his pale face that was
as white as sheet. A fresh mouthful of bright-red blood was involuntarily
spat out.

The fresh blood landed on the ground and immediately let out a ‘chi
chi’ sound. A wave of white smoke rose before finally leaving behind a
shallow bright red mark on the ground.

That student also slowly opened his eyes after that fresh blood was spat
out. He appeared to clearly understand that he had failed and his eyes
were filled with dejection and helplessness.

“You should rest by the side first. Failure is something frequent when
the ‘Heart Flame’ refines one’s body. You need not be too concerned
over it.” The gray-robed man eyed the dejected expression of the
student and comforted him. However, his voice had just sounded when
another student’s body swiftly convulsed. The two Elders could only
bitterly smile and flashed to that person’s side. They repeated their
actions and forced the ‘Heart Flame’ out from within that student’s
body.

The failure of the first two people appeared to have caused a chain
effect. Within a short hour, there were another three people who failed,
causing the two Elders to be awfully busy.

After they finished dealing with the final student who had a problem, the
two Elders looked at the six people that still remained. The Elders
appeared to have laid down a heavy burden as they sighed when they saw
that the aura of these people were still stable despite their faces being
flushed red. These six people had clearly endured past the most dangerous
period. As long as nothing seriously wrong happened after this, they
should be able to be successful.

“Looks like there will be a few more people who succeed this time
around compared to the last batch.” An Elder wiped his perspiration as
he smiled and spoke.

The other Elder nodded. His gaze looked toward the five people who were
somewhat dispirited due to their failure and helplessly shook their
heads. He got up and said, “Take care of these people first. I will
send them out of the tower.” As he said this, he turned toward the five
people, waved his hand, and led them back up the route they had taken to
arrive here.

……

The refinement of one’s body by the ‘Essence Heart Flame’ was
something that exhausted quite a lot of time. Although Xiao Yan and the
five others had endured past the most difficult period, they were
receiving the calcination of the ‘Heart Flame’ during the subsequent
three days. During this calcination, they were able to clearly sense that
the interior of their body, regardless of whether it was their Qi Paths,
bones, etc., were greatly strengthened.

On the third day, the refinement of their bodies by the ‘Heart Flame’
gradually approached its end. The flush redness on their faces was
gradually withdrawn. Waves of auras of varying strength soared from
within their bodies. Although this aura did not differ much in strength
compared to before their bodies were refined, their aura was clearly much
more substantial compared to a couple of days earlier…

However, just as everyone was about to finish successfully, the
expression of Su Qian, who had been monitoring the activity of the
‘Fallen Heart Flame’ at the lowest level of the ‘Blazing Sky Qi
Refining Tower’ suddenly changed drastically.