Chapter 327 The Heart's Fire Palace

The enemy in the shadows made no further move, and the situation in the Western Continent gradually returned to calm, at least on the surface.

Time flies, and half a year has passed in the blink of an eye.

Ji An doesn't need to go to the Ministry of Agriculture today. He is currently sitting cross-legged in his cave on Crimson Flame Peak, activating the magic to open the Fire Element Divine Palace.

The incense burner emitted wisps of smoke, and the fragrance of the incense wafted out.

With a sufficient supply of Bihua Pills over the past six months, the core of the Wood Element Divine Palace has grown rapidly.

The stone tortoise exhales pure spiritual energy once a year, and its vital fire is extremely vigorous, indirectly increasing the strength of its soul.

With the added benefit of having plenty of spiritual tea to drink each month, the speed at which he opened up his divine palace accelerated considerably.

He is now developing the final part of the thirty-sixth vein, which is six months ahead of the original estimate.

Time ticked by, magical power circulated rapidly in the immortal veins, and the veins on the heart lit up, like burning white iron wire.

Within the Zhiyang acupoint, the Bing Fire Dao Seed emits golden light; within the Tianchi acupoint, the Ding Fire Dao Seed blooms with crimson spiritual flames.

The emerald-green magic flowed into his heart, and when it flowed out again, it was tinged with a reddish hue, like the red veins on a green leaf.

The flow of magic power accelerated, and the light emanating from the heart grew increasingly intense.

Ji An felt as if a crisp sound came from his heart, and the world fell silent in that instant.

Immediately afterwards, my heart pounded, and a phantom of flames blazed in my chest.

He was overjoyed and slowly withdrew from the operating method.

Another divine palace is just one step away from being successfully opened. Starting tomorrow, he will be able to consume two kinds of five elements at the same time.

Ji An brewed some Jade Dew Golden Bud Tea to relax.

Half an hour later, his depleted spiritual energy had fully recovered.

He took out the jade bottle, swallowed the last Bihua Pill, and began to circulate the Five Elements Revolving Scripture to refine it.

Five-colored light rose and fell within his body, and the ten Dao seeds shone brightly.

The liver is like jade, and the core of the Shenfu (a point on the body) grows stronger thread by thread after absorbing the medicinal power.

Similarly, some of the medicinal power was transformed into magical power and flowed into the dantian.

The flame of primordial life suddenly blazed up, and the stone tortoise beside it moved its lips, swallowing a ten percent of the magical power.

His body gradually filled with magical power, and his cultivation level improved.

Once the elixir was fully refined and his own condition was adjusted to its optimal state, Ji An switched methods, and his magical power surged out from his dantian.

The magical power flowed through the immortal veins, surging like a river flowing downstream, and finally flowed into the heart.

The pale gold veins lit up one by one, first the outer layer, and then the inner layer.

When all 108 veins lit up, Ji An immediately increased his mana output.

The heart became as bright as the sun, and a crimson and gold heart phantom solidified, thus forming the core of the Fire Element Divine Palace.

A few breaths later, as the heart beat, the core of the Divine Palace trembled slightly, and the core and the heart began to beat in sync.

Within his dantian, the emerald green primordial fire gained an extra layer of outer flame, radiating a crimson hue.

During the cultivation of the Chaoyuan stage, the number of layers of the Yuanming Fire will be continuously accumulated.

When five divine palaces are opened, five layers of flame will accumulate.

Ji An first opened up the Wood Element Divine Palace, so its inner flame is blue.

The flames will then change from blue, red, yellow, white, and black in sequence from the inside out, following the principle of the five elements generating each other.

Each cultivator's life-force fire will be different, but after a cultivator comprehends the endless cycle of the five elements, the five layers of flame will merge into one, turning into a golden flame.

The five elements within the chest are tempered by the golden primordial fire, eventually condensing into a golden round elixir, which is the Golden Elixir.

The stone tortoise approached the primordial fire and exhaled two breaths of pure, spiritual energy.

The cyan inner flame grew slightly larger, while the crimson outer flame grew by half a circle.

'That's a good idea!'

Ji An was overjoyed at the stone turtle's actions. He had been worried about how the two layers of flames would be divided, but now he was relieved.

After the Fire Elemental Divine Palace was opened, Ji An immediately felt that the Blood Transformation Soul Chasing Curse that was wrapped around his body had dissipated considerably.

A smile appeared on his lips as he eagerly ran out of the cave.

Green clouds rose from beneath his feet, lifting him to the mountaintop.

The Fire Palace has only just been established, and without consuming the fire elemental energy, it cannot yet control the fire cloud.

The Qi circulation from fire and wood is significantly different. Wood Qi combines Yin and Yang, and can directly strengthen the core of the Shenfu (spirit palace) after consumption.

However, the fire element has a yin-yang division. He is preparing to consume the fire element of the sun, which is fire in the air and is the fire element of yang.

After consuming the Qi, it will be temporarily stored in the heart. Then, one must consume the Qi of Ding Fire within twelve hours.

Only when Yin and Yang are in harmony can a complete fire element be formed, which can be absorbed by the core of the divine palace; otherwise, it can only dissipate naturally.

There are many choices for the Ding Fire Qi, such as the human fire of ten thousand lights, and the warm spiritual fire in fire-elemental spiritual plants, etc.

Consuming human fire is too troublesome, so Ji An plans to consume the warm spiritual fire within spiritual plants. This is fire within wood, and is the energy of yin fire.

Fire in the air and fire in wood are both natural fires, making them a better match.

There are plenty of fire-elemental spiritual plants in Crimson Flame Peak: fifty acres of Crimson Cloud Pine, thousands of acres of Profound Yang Wood and Purple Yang Wood, and eight acres of Spirit Peach, Spirit Apricot, and Dragon Blood Tree—more than enough.

In addition, there are two spiritual plants in the magma pool, which may also be used to absorb qi.

This is why he chose to consume wood and fire – simply because it's convenient and quick.

The best time to absorb the fire energy of the sun is in the early morning, when the sun has just risen, and also at noon, when the sun is at its most intense.

The best time to absorb the Ding Fire Qi from Spirit-Eating Plants is at dusk, during the very short period when the sun has set but there is still some afterglow.

There was still half an hour until noon. With nothing else to do, Ji An entered the golden-red mist, activated the Five Elements Spirit Gathering Technique, and began to condense the essence of metal.

This was the first time he had extracted the essence of the five elements since breaking through to the Chaoyuan stage. As the incantation was released, strands of golden light gathered in his palm.

The area covered by the spell is more than twice as large as it was during the Foundation Establishment stage.

Ji An took out a yellow jade bottle, on which were engraved countless tiny talismans, as fine as mosquitoes and flies.

This jade bottle is specially made, specifically for collecting the essence of the metal element. It has a capacity a hundred times greater than the ordinary magic jade bottle we used before.

Because it was necessary to nurture the spiritual artifact with magic power and essence, Ji An commissioned ten jade bottles each to hold the essence of the five elements.

He made a hand seal to store the essence into a jade bottle, and the runes on the bottle shone brightly, like a heavenly book.

A moment later, Ji An noticed that the amount of metal element essence gathering was decreasing, so he put away the essence and changed his technique to extract fire element essence, making sure not to waste any time.

Half an hour passed quickly. He put away the jade bottle with a sense of satisfaction and flew away, leaving behind a thin mist.

The mist that used to feel like bone-scraping medicine is now like a gentle breeze to him.

Ji An faced due south and slightly raised his head.

He opened his mouth slightly, his tongue pressed against his lower teeth, and raised both hands from his lower abdomen.

Turn your palms outward from the front of your body to the middle of your chest between your breasts, and lift them up to your eyes.

At the same time, exhale and say "he".

First attempt, unsuccessful.

As expected, this was the first time the body had absorbed the energy of the Sun's Fire element, and to succeed on the first try would be a miracle.

He repeated the movement, "Ha!"

The second attempt failed.

"Ah," on the third attempt, a hot stream was drawn into his mouth, as if he had swallowed a hot coal.

Before he could react, his heart suddenly skipped a beat, and the breath he had swallowed flowed down his immortal meridians into his heart, transforming into a wisp of golden flame.

The throat and the meridians through which the fire energy of the sun (丙火) flows feel burning pain. This is normal, as explained by the Old Ancestor Zhengyang.

All Foundation Establishment cultivators who did not choose the Fire element cultivation method will have this feeling when they first consume the Bing Fire Qi.

Despite the pain, Ji An tried to ingest qi again.

After consuming two more strands of qi, he felt the pain in his throat affecting the rhythm of his qi consumption, so he stopped forcing it and rode a cloud to the edge of the cold pool.

"Cuihua, bring me a pot of mid-grade Yunding Yinhao tea, and be quick!"

He felt a sharp, grating sensation in his throat as he spoke, and couldn't help but regret that he had spoken in such a manner.

"Coming!" Zhang Cuihua rushed over and skillfully lit the stove to start boiling water.

Ji An complained that the water was boiling too slowly, so he activated the alchemical fire to help it burn.

His alchemical fire, like his primordial life fire, possessed a double layer of flame.

With the addition of the alchemical fire, the spiritual spring water boiled in only 20% of the usual time.

Zhang Cuihua took out the tea leaves and asked:

"Grandmaster, would you like strong tea or weak tea?"

Strong tea.

The disciple used his object manipulation technique to grab a large handful of tea leaves and put them into the cup.

As the boiling hot water is poured in, the tea leaves seem to tumble and roll like swimming fish, releasing a refreshing aroma.

Ji An controlled the output of his magic power and released a cold wind spell at the cup.

Just like eating extremely spicy chili peppers, drinking hot tea at that moment would be asking for trouble; you must drink cold tea to relieve the discomfort.

The spell was controlled with extreme precision; a layer of white frost condensed on the cup, but there wasn't a single mark on the table.

The steaming hot tea immediately lost its temperature and even froze into a thin layer of ice.

Ji An picked up the teacup and drank it down in one gulp. The ice water went down his throat and the burning sensation was immediately relieved.

He slammed the cup down. "Again."

And so he kept drinking herbal tea until the end of the 5-7 PM.

As the sun sets behind the mountains, the once-bright, furnace-fire-like sunset begins to fade.

Ji An rode the clouds to the Crimson Cloud Pine Forest. Although the Fire Spirit Fruit Garden was closer, he worried that he wouldn't be able to consume enough of the three strands of wood fire to neutralize the Bing fire energy, so he had to make another trip there.

He took a deep breath, tried his best to calm down, and then got into position, breathing in and out according to the standard movements.

After repeating this process several times, a warm current of air was swallowed into the abdomen and flowed into the heart.

The crimson fire in the wood and the golden fire in the air combined to form a wisp of bright, crimson-gold flame.

The core of the Divine Palace pulsated slightly, and the fire elemental energy was drawn into it.

Ji Andun felt a warmth surge from his heart and spread throughout his body.

The warmth spread to my throat, and the burning pain that I hadn't been able to get rid of even after drinking herbal tea all afternoon immediately subsided.

He breathed a sigh of relief, relaxed, and continued to ingest qi.

One wisp after another of Ding Fire Qi and Bing Fire Qi, in harmony of Yin and Yang, were completely devoured by the core of the Divine Palace.

The pain in his throat completely disappeared, and Ji An could taste a different flavor on his tongue.

Fiery red clouds rose from beneath his feet, and he laughed loudly:

"It's finally done!"

Afterwards, he rode the Fire Cloud to Sangtian, where the Wood element energy of this evening had not yet been consumed.

After absorbing three strands of Qi, Ji An felt his soul completely weaken, knowing in his heart that he could only absorb a maximum of seven strands of Qi when his soul was at its fullest.

(End of this chapter)