The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

Chapter 357: Devouring Heavenly Fire

Long Xuan, wary of damaging anything while devouring the Heavenly Fire, decided not to let his Fire Clone complete the process inside the spatial chamber within the Heaven-Devouring World toad’s body. Instead, he casually found a cave in the Thunder Swamp to serve as the location for the Fire Clone to devour the Heavenly Fire.

He surrounded the cave with lightning rods and further protected it with a Five Elements Reversal Formation Disk, completing the preparations to safeguard the closed-door cultivation site.

Finally, an idea struck him. He took out the Divine Ice Flames and the Cold Jade Bed and placed them inside the cave.

The danger of devouring Heavenly Fire lies in its extreme heat. By preparing extremely cold objects in advance, the risk associated with the devouring process could be significantly reduced.

Long Xuan had one more strategy, derived from his experience devouring the Divine Ice Flame.

When the Fire Clone could no longer endure the fiery torment, all his clones could join hands, leveraging the cyclical power of the Five Elements to resist the fire collectively.

The power generated by the Five Elements Cycle was far greater than a simple sum of five individual forces.

This would divide the fire’s strength into five parts, to be borne by the five clones collectively. Consequently, the success rate of devouring the Heavenly Fire would skyrocket.

Thus, Long Xuan left all his clones in the cave, distributing a Blood Lotus Pill to each one. Being heat-sensitive himself, he moved far away to observe from a safe distance.

With such thorough preparations, coupled with the fact that the Sunset Divine Flame was an incomplete fire seed, Long Xuan believed the success rate of his Fire Clone devouring the Heavenly Fire was as close to 100% as it could get. Therefore, he wasn’t overly worried about the Fire Clone’s safety.

The Fire Clone, having grown accustomed to cultivating on the Cold Jade Bed, sat down on it and began activating his body-refining techniques, unfazed by the bed’s chill.

He had stripped completely naked, leaving no clothing. Since the Heavenly Fire would soon burn away everything anyway, there was no reason to waste any garments.

Sitting on the icy Cold Jade Bed, he glanced at the floating seed of the Sunset Divine Flame in the air. Finally, without hesitation, he closed his eyes and tossed a Blood Lotus Pill into his mouth.

The pill melted instantly, its medicinal energy penetrating his tongue, bones, meridians, and every corner of his body.

Soon, he felt intense pain spreading throughout his body, causing him to tremble slightly.

Blood seeped out of his pores, quickly coagulating on the surface of his body to form scabs. These scabs soon covered him entirely, turning him into a "blood man."

The scabs not only formed externally but also coated his esophagus, internal organs, and every surface within his body.

Encased in protective blood scabs, the Fire Clone could not only devour the Heavenly Fire but also use this defense in combat. Consuming a single Blood Lotus Pill during a fight would provide extraordinary defense, enough to frustrate any opponent.

But that wasn’t all. After swallowing the Blood Lotus Pill, the Fire Clone summoned the Divine Ice Flame that Long Xuan had placed in the cave and swallowed it whole.

As the Ice Flame entered his body, a layer of ice formed over the blood scabs, encasing them entirely. His esophagus and internal body were now sealed in ice as well.

Observing from a distance, Long Xuan nodded in approval. With dual layers of protection, he was confident that the Sunset Divine Flame would be subdued today.

The second level of the Purgatory True Demon Technique involved body refinement using cold energy. After years of cultivating on the Cold Jade Bed, the Fire Clone had mastered this level to perfection.

His resistance to cold had reached astonishing heights. While the Cold Jade Bed and the Divine Ice Flame enveloped the cave in frost, the Fire Clone remained unaffected, enduring it in silence.

With such meticulous planning and the Fire Clone’s resilience, the odds of successfully subduing the Sunset Divine Flame seemed overwhelming.

He waved his hand toward the Sunset Divine Flame Seed floating in the air. Guided by his soul force, the flame seed followed the Divine Ice Flame into his mouth.

The flame seed, wrapped in soul force, was partially insulated from its scorching heat. However, as it slid down his esophagus, it easily pierced through the ice layer, burning the blood scabs beneath. The intense pain made him let out a muffled groan.

The Fire Clone quickly tossed a healing pill into his mouth. The pill dissolved instantly, rapidly repairing his esophagus, which had been scorched by the flame seed.

"Swallow it!"

The Fire Clone roared, his eyes wide open as if two flames were reflected within them.

At the same time, his entire body was engulfed in raging flames, instantly melting the ice layer created by the Divine Ice Flame.

From a distance, Long Xuan clenched his fists, silently cheering for the Fire Clone.

Although the Sunset Divine Flame Seed was severely damaged, its emitted power still far exceeded his expectations.

The clone attempted to use the Divine Ice Flame to resist the power of the Sunset Divine Flame, but the Divine Ice Flame was swiftly defeated.

The might of spiritual fire could not match that of Heavenly fire, even if this Heavenly fire was but a severely damaged remnant.

At this moment, his body was no longer filled with cold but extreme heat.

Fortunately, the blood scabs formed by the Blood Lotus Pill were specifically designed to counter heavenly fire. These scabs had strong heat-insulating properties, and with the continuous chill emanating from the Cold Jade Bed, they prevented the Fire Clone from being instantly incinerated to ashes.

However, the pain caused by the heavenly fire’s burning was unavoidable. Its flames inflicted agony so intense it was worse than death itself. His mouth let out painful groans, and only through sheer willpower did he stop himself from screaming out loud.

At this point, the other clones no longer hesitated. Each tossed a Blood Lotus Pill into their mouths. Once their bodies were covered in thick blood scabs, they charged forward, linking hands with the Flame Clone to share the damage caused by the heavenly fire.

The power of the heavenly fire was thus divided among the five of them, burning all five simultaneously. The pressure on the Fire Clone was greatly reduced.

With the combined efforts of the five clones, they finally managed to stand against the Sunset Divine Flame. The two sides entered a stalemate.

The Sunset Divine Flame couldn’t immediately burn the five blood-scab-covered figures to ashes, nor could the five clones instantly refine the flame seed. Both sides were locked in a draining battle of endurance.

This was destined to be a prolonged war, where the side that exhausted its strength first would be devoured by the other.

Long Xuan clicked his tongue as he watched the scene. The power of the heavenly fire was truly terrifying. Even though the Sunset Divine Flame ranked low among heavenly fires and was now just a remnant, with less than one-tenth of its peak power, its current strength was still overwhelming.

The high temperatures were slowly melting the cave. Over time, the cave itself might evaporate entirely under the influence of the heavenly fire, exposing the sky and its dark clouds directly above.

Even with all the preparations—planning for every possible scenario, Blood Lotus Pills, the Divine Ice Flame, the Cold Jade Bed, healing pills, anti-heat body refinement techniques, dividing the heavenly fire’s power among five clones, the Water Bear Gu, Soul Armor, and the fire immunity buff from the Fire Dragon Fruit—

They were still barely able to contend with this remnant of a heavenly fire.

But how could he have known? He was just a mere Spiritual Sea-stage Gu cultivator, far too weak for such an endeavor.

Attempting to devour a heavenly fire at such a low level was courting death—something that had never been done before.

He might make history as the first Spiritual Sea-stage Gu cultivator to successfully devour a heavenly fire.