BTTH: I have a key to travel to Wu Dong Qian Kun.

Chapter 23: Evolution of the Flame Mantra

Xiao Family.

In a cave in the back mountain.

Xiao Tian placed two bottles of pills in front of him, then sat down cross-legged, closing his eyes as he immersed his mind within his body. Under his control, the Dou Qi whirlpool in his abdomen began to rotate at high speed. As the whirlpool spun faster, clusters of purple fire were flung out, gathering together to form a fierce mass of purple flames.

Before they could react, a vast amount of Dou Qi emerged from the whirlpool, enveloping the purple flames entirely and beginning to move towards the meridians of the Flame Mantra under Xiao Tian's control.

In an instant, the purple flames started to resist, burning the Dou Qi surrounding them. However, unlike those intelligent Heavenly Flames, their resistance was futile. Under Xiao Tian's control, the purple flames were stretched into a thin line and began to follow the meridians of the Flame Mantra.

Even though Xiao Tian was now a Dou Shi and had Dou Qi isolating the purple flames, he still felt intense pain. Without hesitation, he divided a portion of his soul power, grabbed the Meridian Protection Pill through the air, and swallowed it.

As soon as the Meridian Protection Pill entered his mouth, it transformed into a warm stream, quickly coating the meridians of the Flame Mantra with a protective white energy membrane under Xiao Tian's mental guidance.

With this protective layer, the burning pain was significantly reduced, allowing Xiao Tian to drag the purple flames along the path of the Flame Mantra at a faster pace. During this process, Xiao Tian also took the Ice Heart Pill to shield his mind from the rampant aggression.

When the purple flames, wrapped in Dou Qi, completed a cycle along the Flame Mantra's path, they returned to the Dou Qi whirlpool. As the purple flames re-entered, the Dou Qi whirlpool turned purple.

During this process, a mysterious force acted upon the Dou Qi whirlpool, causing it to expand. Moments later, Xiao Tian slowly opened his eyes. In the next instant, two blinding purple beams shot out from his pupils, extending over half a foot.

Seeing this, Yao Lao quickly approached and asked, "Did it work?"

"Yes, it did," Xiao Tian nodded and smiled. "Now, the Flame Mantra has evolved into a high-level Yellow Grade technique."

"Not bad," Yao Lao nodded slightly. "One purple flame upgraded the Flame Mantra by two levels."

He didn't know that in the original story, Xiao Yan's Flame Mantra only upgraded by one level after absorbing the purple flame. The reason Xiao Tian's Flame Mantra upgraded more wasn't due to luck but because his purple flame was stronger than Xiao Yan's.

Some might ask, how can the same purple flame have different strengths? The answer is simple: cultivation. Yao Lao's method was to cultivate the purple flame. Xiao Yan couldn't initially absorb the purple flame because it was too weak. After cultivating it for a long time, Yao Lao deemed it ready for absorption.

Xiao Yan was at the peak of the nine-star Dou Zhe when he absorbed the purple flame, while Xiao Tian was already a five-star Dou Shi. Despite the six small levels, the difference in strength was immense. Previously mentioned, the peak nine-star Dou Zhe's total Dou Qi would condense into only three drops of liquid, whereas a two-star Dou Shi would have fifteen drops. In the original story, a four-star Dou Shi had around one hundred drops of spiritual liquid, and a five-star Dou Shi far exceeded the peak nine-star Dou Zhe by dozens of times.

Moreover, Xiao Yan's soul power at that time wasn't as strong as Xiao Tian's. Xiao Yan lacked soul cultivation methods, hadn't consumed soul-enhancing treasures, nor had he condensed soul imprints. In contrast, Xiao Tian had all these advantages, and his soul power alone could easily crush any Dou Shi.

Considering his overall strength, Xiao Tian far surpassed Xiao Yan when absorbing the purple flame, allowing him to control a stronger flame. Xiao Yan could also have cultivated the purple flame to such strength, but Yao Lao advised him against it due to the potential backlash from an overly strong flame.

Thus, the difference in the strength of their flames led to the varying levels of improvement in the Flame Mantra.

Shaking his head, Xiao Tian thought, "It's a pity that all the energy from the purple flame was used to evolve the Flame Mantra, leaving none to boost my cultivation."

From Xiao Tian's understanding, the Flame Mantra needed to first use the energy of the exotic flame to evolve itself before enhancing the cultivator's strength. If the energy was just enough for its evolution, none would be left for the cultivator.

Returning to his thoughts, Xiao Tian said to Yao Lao, "Master, I have fully mastered the Eight Extreme Breaks. Can you teach me an Earth-level Dou Technique now?"

"Alright," Yao Lao nodded, and a massive black object flew out from the ancient black ring.

"Bang!"

When it fell to the ground, the earth trembled slightly, stirring up a cloud of dust.

"This is made of Blaze Meteorite Iron. It is not only incredibly hard but also extremely heavy, capable of suppressing one's Dou Qi," Yao Lao explained. "If you can adapt to its suppression, your strength will surge once freed from it. Additionally, the Earth-level Dou Technique I will teach you is related to it."

Saying this, Yao Lao's illusory finger lightly touched Xiao Tian's forehead, imparting a large amount of information.

"Flame Splitting Wave Ruler, Earth-level low-grade Dou Technique. Master it, and you can split mountains and waves with a flick of your wrist."

After imparting the technique, Yao Lao disappeared. After absorbing the information, Xiao Tian held the stone talisman, and his soul entered the space within it.

As Xiao Tian arrived, a light figure appeared, demonstrating the Flame Splitting Wave Ruler technique. Each time the figure executed the technique, its power slightly increased, continuously deducing the Flame Splitting Wave Ruler.

The previous high-level Profound Technique—Eight Extreme Breaks—had been deduced to an Earth-level low-grade technique by the light figure in the stone talisman space. Though it was called Earth-level low-grade, the power of the twelve-layer dark force made it comparable to a mid-level Earth technique. Of course, it was only quasi-mid-level Earth, slightly less powerful than a true mid-level Earth technique.

The light figure's deduction made the low-grade Earth-level Flame Splitting Wave Ruler truly reach mid-level Earth. With the addition of the Xuan Heavy Ruler, its power far surpassed that of ordinary mid-level Earth techniques.

(End of Chapter)

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