What are you all doing gathered here?

When Chunyu Changfeng arrived outside Liu Yunqing's cave, he found it surrounded by layers upon layers of people, which made him frown.

The greatest danger of sudden enlightenment is being disturbed; even the slightest deviation from the expected state of mind can interrupt the person experiencing enlightenment.

Enlightenment is the most uncontrollable and significant opportunity in the cultivation world, and most cultivators never have the chance to experience it even once in their lifetime.

If a cultivator has even one moment of enlightenment in their lifetime, regardless of its magnitude or significance, their path to immortality will be much smoother than that of a cultivator of equal aptitude.

Therefore, even though he knew that the cave had been set up with an array, Chunyu Changfeng's worries were not excessive.

If this happened in a sect, naturally no one would approach it. Even if someone was ignorant, they would be scolded away by their elders on the spot.

But this is Luoxia City, the city of the Loose Cultivator Alliance.

Who wouldn't want to experience the profound wisdom of enlightenment? Who wouldn't want to seize an opportunity for a possible moment of enlightenment?

When Chunyu Changfeng asked this question, it naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of these people, but when they turned around and saw that it was the city lord, they all suppressed their dissatisfaction.

"City Lord!"

"Shh!"

Chunyu Changfeng raised his index finger, making a shushing gesture, and then signaled for everyone to leave.

A sensible person, regardless of their thoughts, will immediately and decisively leave.

Those who don't know their place can simply leave without hesitation.

The only difference is that those who knew better left on their own, while those who didn't were forced to leave by Chunyu Changfeng using his divine sense to lock them in place.

The little guide girl, who had been huddled in the corner, turned around to leave quietly upon seeing this, but in the next instant, she involuntarily landed in front of Chunyu Changfeng.

"City, Lord City Lord..."

"Are you her guide?"

Chunyu Changfeng's tone was relatively gentle. Although the little girl was reserved, she was not afraid and answered immediately upon hearing the question:

"Yes, Lord City Lord, but I don't know what's going on with Fairy Zhenru."

Chunyu Changfeng raised his hand to stop him, and said directly:

"You don't need to know. You don't know here, and you certainly don't know elsewhere. You don't even know who lives in this cave. You're just a guide, understand?"

The little girl was somewhat surprised. She looked at the cave entrance, then at Chunyu Changfeng, before belatedly realizing what was happening. She nodded in assurance:

"Don't worry, Lord City Lord, I won't say anything no matter who asks me. No, it's because I don't know anything and can't say anything."

Chunyu Changfeng nodded in satisfaction, but didn't chase the little girl away. He glanced down at her and casually asked:

Do you know when it started?

The little girl scratched her head, thought for a moment, and said:

"It should be in the morning, after I finished delivering the meals."

"When I came to deliver the food, Zhenru Fairy was heating up the food she hadn't eaten before. She said she would deliver it again in a few days and then let me leave."

"I had only been out for a short while when I felt that this cave was different, and then people started to gather around."

In the time it takes to heat up a meal, what kind of epiphany could possibly occur?

It can't be hot food, can it?

It was indeed hot food.

Liu Yunqing has been in seclusion for some time, and apart from the little girl who brings her food, she has not stepped out of her cave and has not seen anyone else.

A few days ago, I advanced to a higher level and became so engrossed in my cultivation that I forgot to eat, only to find that my food had gone cold.

For someone with a fire elemental root, heating up a meal was a piece of cake, and Liu Yunqing quickly burned the food to ashes.

She paused for only a moment before quickly taking out other food items and trying to heat them up again—one by one they turned to ashes.

But none of that matters. What matters is that something flashed through her mind, and she needs to try to find that thing.

Just after the last of the leftover rice in the kitchen burned, the little girl came to deliver more food.

The food was served hot, so Liu Yunqing decided to let it cool down before reheating it.

It wasn't that she was sick, but rather that under the all-encompassing monitoring of her divine sense, Liu Yunqing had finally gotten close to the edge of that thing.

This time, instead of cooking directly, she started heating the food in the cave's kitchen.

She doesn't control the fire, but rather becomes the fire herself.

It clings to the firewood, becoming a spark, merging with the flickering flames, growing stronger and stronger layer by layer, before finally licking the cold bottom of the pot.

One time, one time, and another.

Gradually, the cold bottom of the pot began to heat up slowly, and then the entire pot wall began to heat up as well.

Liu Yunqing, who had transformed into flames, felt the heat slowly seeping into the food in the pot.

She saw the sauce in the food was so hot it was about to bubble, but she realized she was getting further and further away from the bottom of the pot and couldn't reach it anymore.

So, as if by instinct, she began to absorb the power that would make her stronger and began to burn the firewood with all her might.

Then the firewood was exhausted, the flames grew stronger one last time, the broth from the meal finally boiled, dried up, and finally turned to ashes...

This time, it wasn't that Liu Yunqing made a mistake, but that she "lost" herself.

At this moment, she had completely regarded herself as a flame, a spark.

As the flames rose, she rose with them; as the flames died down, she died down with them.

"Thud—"

Until the last piece of charcoal burned out, Liu Yunqing, who had been sitting listlessly in front of the stove, let out a long breath and opened his eyes.

Upon waking, Liu Yunqing did not immediately get up, but instead raised her right hand with her palm facing upwards.

With a "whoosh," a cluster of pale golden flames, about the size of an oil lamp, rose in Liu Yunqing's palm.

Without Liu Yunqing making any move, the small flame began to grow slowly until it formed a large area that could spread like wildfire.

Just as the flames were about to lick the objects in the cave, the fire suddenly stopped, and then began to shrink inward, shrink, shrink until it shrank back to the size of an oil lamp.

Upon closer inspection, one can see that the small flames are the same size, but their color is quite different from the initial small flames.

The initial flame was just a pale gold with a hint of red, and it was even transparent or semi-transparent.

The small flame now is a rich golden-red color, not only opaque, but also capable of revealing surging and bursting fire currents within if one probes it with divine sense.

That wasn't the end of it; the tiny flame, condensed countless times, changed again in the next instant.

This time, it wasn't the size or color that changed, but the shape of the flame.

The ball of fire in Liu Yunqing's palm seemed not to be fire at this moment, but rather dough that could be easily kneaded into various shapes.

Fire swords and fire blades are easy to make; after a few tries, you'll get the hang of it.

However, Liu Yunqing failed when he tried to shoot arrows.

Firstly, the spiritual energy was insufficient; secondly, the arrows were too delicate, requiring stronger control of the divine sense.

Looking at his empty dantian, Liu Yunqing had no choice but to give up for the time being and planned to continue after recovering his spiritual power.

As soon as his spiritual energy resumed circulation, Liu Yunqing felt a heavy blow to his body—the second drop of Golden Crow essence blood exploded on its own!

Immediately afterwards, the speed of her spiritual energy circulation suddenly increased, and the surrounding fire spiritual energy surged into her body even more frantically.

Liu Yunqing didn't react for a moment, thinking that refining the Golden Crow's essence blood required more spiritual power, so she relaxed her body and focused on circulating spiritual energy. But as she circulated it, something went wrong.

Why is her body like a bottomless pit, with spiritual energy that seems to never be filled?

Furthermore, the speed at which the spiritual energy circulates within the body is getting faster and faster, and the spiritual energy outside the body is also extremely turbulent and restless. There is no need to stimulate it at all; the speed of its surge is almost like sucking the outside of the house into a vacuum.

Liu Yunqing felt a little panicked and wanted to stop cultivating, but found that she couldn't stop at all.

Finally, he watched helplessly as his cultivation level broke through from the seventh level of Qi Refining to the eighth level, then to the ninth level, and then approached the Great Perfection of Qi Refining.