Chapter 48: Chapter 48: Body Refinement with Blazing Fire
On the back of the lava turtle, Lu Yu had already absorbed thirty to forty fire crystals, and now his Qi Blood had reached 269.
After Qi Blood reached 269, Lu Yu could only restore it by absorbing fire crystals, but couldn’t increase it further. Even when absorbing the purer Spiritual Qi fire crystals from the Fire Babes, it was impossible to enhance his Qi Blood.
He felt that his physical body had reached its limit, overflowing with Qi Blood, unable to accommodate any more.
Without using martial skills, Lu Yu’s full strength could deal 30 Qi Blood damage, countless times higher than the previous full strike Black Tiger Heart Rip, which dealt 10 Qi Blood damage.
Now, at the peak of the Body Refinement realm, Lu Yu could casually kill Martial Cultivators at the sixth or seventh level of the Body Refinement realm.
Lu Yu didn’t even need to eat Spirit Fruits, rushing directly into the fire spirit group in their flame form, able to instantly kill the fire spirits in flame form with a single strike, while they couldn’t harm the highly fire-resistant Lu Yu.
Amidst the fire spirits’ flames, Lu Yu was not afraid of the Qi Blood consumption at all, as the Ice and Fire Seven Realms cultivation technique operated at full speed, continuously absorbing the surrounding fire Spiritual Qi, producing new Qi Blood endlessly.
The only limitation for Lu Yu was his lack of AOE damage, and he could only kill the fire spirits one by one, making the speed of acquiring fire crystals somewhat slow.
Ouyang Lie, seeing Lu Yu charging into the fire spirit group, thought he had a death wish, but seeing Lu Yu charging recklessly through the raging flames, it seemed those flames were merely illusions.
But he could clearly feel the violent Spiritual Qi in that area. It was not an illusion but real flames.
Lu Yu’s wanton harvesting of fire crystals disturbed the fire spirit tribe, so a mature fire spirit commanded a group of Fire Babes to fly towards Lu Yu.
Although the fire spirits in flame form were unclear-minded with only the most basic instincts, they were still members of the fire spirit tribe, and the Fire Babes evolved from the flame-form fire spirits.
Furious about Lu Yu slaughtering their kind, the Fire Babes launched an attack on Lu Yu, spewing flames. The combined attacks of dozens of Fire Babes expanded the range of the flames rapidly, engulfing Lu Yu within the fire spirit group.
Dozens of Fire Babes surrounded Lu Yu, spraying flames towards the center, turning the area into a huge flame furnace, intending to incinerate Lu Yu inside.
This was the fire spirit tribe’s group attack method—the Flame Furnace.
Inside the Flame Furnace, even Lu Yu’s previously even more resilient and heat-resistant skin, after withstanding the Fire Babes’ attacks, couldn’t withstand the baking of the furnace.
He felt his body was about to melt.
His skin and muscles were burnt through, exposing the bones beneath, which crackled and popped in the flames, with tiny gray particles being incinerated out of the bones.
As the flames scorched Lu Yu’s body, they also brought a large amount of fire Spiritual Qi into him.
Operating the Ice and Fire Seven Realms cultivation technique, countless fire Spiritual Qi began to merge into Lu Yu’s body, helping to reconstruct his body.
The most crucial part was that the Ice and Fire Seven Realms cultivation technique could convert Spiritual Qi into Qi Blood, which is the source of flesh and blood; with Qi Blood undying, flesh and blood would not perish.
Qi Blood continuously consumed, stimulated the surviving cells in the flames to proliferate, using these cells containing fire Spiritual Qi as a foundation, reconstructing Lu Yu’s body.
This was the introductory process of practicing the Ice and Fire Seven Realms cultivation technique.
After practicing the Ice and Fire Seven Realms cultivation technique, one could transform their physique into a fire and ice spirit body, converting ordinary Spiritual Qi into fire and ice Spiritual Qi.
This method of transforming physique postnatally was extremely difficult to practice, a life-or-death struggle.
If Lu Yu couldn’t reconstruct a fire spirit body, he would truly be reduced to ashes.
The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was chaotic and violent; Martial Cultivators laid their cultivation foundation by training Qi Blood, enduring the infusion of chaotic and violent Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi to cultivate Spiritual Power, which truly meant stepping onto the path of cultivation.
The strength of the physical body determined the amount of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi the initial Qi Cultivation realm could endure. The more Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi absorbed, the larger the spiritual sea developed, and the higher the cultivation could ultimately reach.
Without a special physique, the cultivated Spiritual Power would be just the most ordinary Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, with mixed attributes of Spiritual Power.
Martial Cultivators could convert their internal Spiritual Power into corresponding martial skill attribute Spiritual Qi to attack opponents by using martial arts.
Having a special physique allows one to cultivate attribute-based Spiritual Power, greatly enhancing the martial skill power when using martial arts of the corresponding attribute, with no time needed for Spiritual Power attribute conversion, enhancing speed of action.
Of course, Martial Cultivators with a special physique can also learn martial arts with attributes different from their own.
However, the speed of conversion between Spiritual Qi attributes varies, potentially leading to Spiritual Power loss, requiring more Spiritual Power to use martial arts.
The physique transformed by practicing the Ice and Fire Seven Realms is a postnatal physique, slightly inferior to the innate fire spirit body. While similarly able to convert absorbed and refined Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi into fire Spiritual Power, there is a slight deficiency in amplifying the power of fire attribute martial arts techniques.
If an innate fire spirit body could amplify fire attribute martial arts by a factor of one, then the fire spirit body obtained through Lu Yu’s transformation could only amplify by thirty percent, although the enhancement effect on martial skill power will increase with the practice of the Ice and Fire Seven Realms.
The transformation process of the fire spirit body had already reached halfway, and Lu Yu finally could sense the presence of Spiritual Qi.
Unlike the gentle Qi Blood, Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was extremely violent. Lu Yu could feel the constantly burning fire Spiritual Qi around him, with its violent intense high temperature, where any slight carelessness would lead to self-destruction.
After the fire spirit body conversion was halfway complete, he felt the transformation process was slowing down. The Flame Furnace created by the Fire Babes was no longer sufficient to support him in completing the remaining transformation to a fire spirit body; he needed more intense flames.
Lu Yu set his sights on the mature fire spirit. Amidst the panic of all the Fire Babes surrounding him, Lu Yu walked out of the Flame Furnace step by step, rushing towards the nearest mature fire spirit.
When Lu Yu was enveloped by the flame furnace, Ouyang Lie thought he was destined to die. Previously, a Martial Cultivator at the fifth Qi Cultivation level was burned to ashes in a flame furnace formed by hundreds of fire infants.
Knowing the power of the flame furnace, everyone tried their best to avoid being surrounded by the fire infants.
When Ouyang Lie saw Lu Yu being surrounded, he realized that Lu Yu was bound to meet his end sooner or later and felt a sense of pity for him.
But seeing the flame furnace burning for so long without extinguishing, a trace of hope rose in his heart. The fact that the furnace had not gone out indicated that Lu Yu inside might not be completely dead.
During the battle, he occasionally glanced toward the flame furnace, hoping for a miracle.
After killing a fire infant, Ouyang Lie looked toward the flame furnace and saw a figure, charred black and sparking from time to time, walking out from the furnace.
Lu Yu’s eyes were destroyed in the flame furnace, but they were restored through the effects of Qi Blood and Spiritual Qi, allowing him to re-enter the energy realm.
The golden brilliance of the sacred relic had already dimmed, and the brightest place on the battlefield was where the Fire Spirit King collided with the blue protective barrier.
He focused on a relatively small crimson light cluster, which was a weaker mature Fire Spirit.
Hiss~
A high-intensity line suddenly lit up in his field of view, and Lu Yu instinctively jumped to avoid that line. A blazing ray swept under him, leaving a deep groove on the ground.
That was the beam attack of the mature Fire Spirit.
After evading the blazing ray, Lu Yu took large strides quickly, approaching the mature Fire Spirit. Fire infants blocking his path were punched away by him.
Initially, he found it incredible that he could punch away fire infants. Fire infants were energy entities, and although they appeared solid, Lu Yu previously couldn’t touch their bodies, let alone strike them.
After knocking away several fire infants, he no longer found it unexpected. In his view, Lu Yu saw his hands turn an orange-red color identical to that of the light clusters representing fire infants.
Except that the color of Lu Yu’s hands was brighter than most light clusters of fire infants.
This meant the quality of fire Spiritual Qi within Lu Yu’s body was higher than within most fire infants, which was why the flame furnace couldn’t further advance the transformation of the Fire Spirit Body.
After dodging several attacks from mature Fire Spirits, Lu Yu pounced on one, grabbing its arms with both hands, twisting his body forcefully to land behind it, and clamping its large thigh with his legs.
Initially, Lu Yu planned to clench its waist, but unfortunately, the Fire Spirit was too short, and he could only clamp its two legs.
The mature Fire Spirit, locked in a strange position by Lu Yu, became very angry, emitting flames all over its body, attempting to burn Lu Yu to death.
Hanging on the mature Fire Spirit, Lu Yu felt the transformation of the Fire Spirit Body start again as its entire body ignited.
The cultivation technique operated, extracting Spiritual Qi continuously from the Fire Spirit Body underneath.
The mature Fire Spirit realized that the fire Spiritual Qi it relied on for survival was continuously being depleted, making it appear extraordinarily terrified.
It flew around the battlefield with Lu Yu, seeking help from other Fire Spirits.
For Fire Spirits, their attack method was to burn the enemy. When this didn’t affect Lu Yu, the Fire Spirits became very vulnerable.
"Ji wa ji wa ji wa..." The mature Fire Spirit shouted at its companions. Its body had become somewhat dull due to Lu Yu absorbing a large amount of fire Spiritual Qi. If it continued, this mature Fire Spirit might be completely drained by Lu Yu.
Realizing its predicament, it sought help from other mature Fire Spirits.
Under the combined burning of several mature Fire Spirits, Lu Yu felt the transformation of the Fire Spirit Body had exceeded seventy percent, and it could soon transform into the postnatally Fire Spirit Body.
The transformation process was painful. The feeling of being burned by the flames was like being grilled on a barbecue rack.
But after enduring the most difficult pain, feeling that the flames capable of turning him to ash became weak; it felt like soaking in a hot spring, enjoying the full-body massage provided by the flames, becoming very pleasurable, his mind seemingly reaching a sage’s realm.
Lu Yu expressed an unwillingness to let go.
Finally, the mature Fire Spirit, almost drained by Lu Yu, charged at the Fire Spirit King, encouraged by other Fire Spirits.
Other mature Fire Spirits only wanted to send away Lu Yu, their mortal enemy, to avoid becoming the next victims.
Just as Lu Yu felt the flames turn into a hot spring, suddenly, the spring became a cauldron of boiling oil, and someone kept adding wood underneath, thinking the oil wasn’t hot enough.
Lu Yu hurriedly let go, emitting a silent scream, having lost his voice as his throat burned upon entering the scorching oil.
The dim mature Fire Spirit, carrying Lu Yu, rushed into the Fire Spirit King’s attack, destroyed by the rampant fire Spiritual Qi, leaving only a crimson fire crystal stone to fall to the ground.
Lu Yu fell from mid-air, hitting the ground, struggling to crawl away, realizing his Fire Spirit Body was rapidly transforming amidst the blazing flames.
However, he felt that before the transformation of the Fire Spirit Body was complete, he would be burned to ashes.
"Wow! Lu Yu, I never thought you’d be so brave, daring to challenge the Fire Spirit King at the Body Refinement realm." Ouyang Lie saw Lu Yu rushing into the Fire Spirit King’s attack with the mature Fire Spirit, perishing together with the opponent, utterly shocked.