Chapter 57: Using Heaven and Earth as a Furnace to Refine This Body

Flying into the sinkhole, her feet felt a slight scald, and the sound of her footwear striking metal echoed.

Zhao Chun looked around. She saw that the walls of the pit were carved with exquisite patterns. Upon closer inspection, they were actually a series of continuous engravings depicting historical events: misty seas of clouds, immortals rising upon the wind, stars guarding mountains, rivers, and lakes, and above it all, an immortal gate. Common folk played music, and groups of immortals feasted and reveled before departing through the heavenly gate, causing all races to bow their heads in reverence.

The carvings were so exquisite and the scenes so grand that a surging sense of joy rushed toward her.

It was precisely a depiction of a ritual ceremony sending immortals to the upper realm!

But why was it carved here, in this desolate land?

Perplexed, Zhao Chun suddenly heard the faint, seductive sounds of music, which she initially thought was an auditory hallucination brought on by viewing the paintings.

Accompanying the celestial music, however, was the sound of noisy conversation.

"The auspicious hour has arrived!"

"From here on, we go to the Land of Ultimate Bliss! No longer shall we be disturbed by the mortal world. How delightful! How delightful!"

"Cultivate a body of immeasurable merit and create three thousand great worlds!"

Countless majestic figures appeared, laughing heartily and shouting with raised arms!

Standing amidst these layers of figures, Zhao Chun heard and saw a scene of great joy, yet she suddenly felt a thread of resentment intertwined within it, making this state of ecstasy seem exceptionally absurd and bizarre...

As the sky darkened, Zhao Chun looked up to see the barren earth above rapidly growing and closing in to trap her. She attempted to summon her smoke boat to depart, but the earth moved faster and faster, swallowing the last sliver of the horizon!

Heat suddenly surged from all sides. Faint colored lights appeared within the indentations of the murals, bringing the entire scene to life. The sea of clouds rolled, stars cycled, and immortals toasted by flowing waters, their silken sleeves fluttering with every movement.

"Once... was... a... pile... now... remains... in... heaven..."

The vast, ancient voice was intermittent; Zhao Chun could only catch a few scattered words. Her back and abdomen were drenched in sweat, and the spiritual root in her dantian was so restless that she had no strength to attend to anything else.

She took a Wood-Nourishing Fruit from her storage bag and lightly bit through the skin. As the cool juice flowed down her esophagus, she felt a slight relief. However, this was merely a temporary fix; as the rolling heatwaves grew more intense, this meager amount of wood qi could not suppress the gold and fire elements.

She took out several more in succession. At first, they were somewhat useful, but later, even consuming a hundred years' worth of Wood-Nourishing Fruits could only sustain her for half an incense stick's time. Furthermore, her meridians were already transmitting a slight pain, and her dantian was saturated; she truly could not consume any more.

In her desperation, Zhao Chun suddenly recalled the *Art of Fire Forging in the Furnace*. This technique could draw fire qi out of the dantian and into the flesh, muscles, and bones. She wondered if it could resolve her current predicament.

Zhao Chun had already memorized the mnemonic. She had originally intended to obtain the blacksmithing method and then return to her sect to practice in an earth-fire furnace, but now that the situation was critical, she had no choice but to try!

Sitting cross-legged at the bottom of the sinkhole, she was subjected to even more heat. Her fire spiritual root was like a fish in water, displaying an unrestrained and flamboyant posture, while her gold spiritual root followed alongside in joyful compliance. It was miserable for Zhao Chun; externally, there was extreme heat, and internally, the intent of slaughter and violence shook her Dao heart.

The entry level of the *Art of Fire Forging in the Furnace* begins with refining the flesh.

Zhao Chun concentrated with all her might, guiding the fire-attribute spiritual qi toward her body. The first sensation to strike was a burning pain, as if tongues of flame were rolling over her skin, licking away her flesh.

Once she endured the burning sensation, a needle-like pain followed, piercing from the surface as if trying to drive straight into her bone marrow!

If not for the fact that she could sense her flesh tightening and becoming tougher after the pain, Zhao Chun would have thought this technique was intended to destroy her physical body!

Fortunately, after part of the fire qi was drawn from her dantian, the gold and fire elements gradually subsided, remaining dormant within her dantian, which warned Zhao Chun not to underestimate them.

Having never studied blacksmithing, she found it difficult to comprehend the methods of fire refining. She could only proceed through difficult exploration, using her own body as a test subject to make slow attempts.

Within the sinkhole, once the heat accumulated to a certain level, it would stop rising, occasionally drop, and then slowly climb back to its original intensity after a moment.

A thought flashed through Zhao Chun's mind: this sinkhole, which resembled a tripod furnace, did not seem as sturdy as she had imagined.

As if to refute her thought, the heatwaves inside surged violently. A surge of intense pain erupted in Zhao Chun's dantian, forcing her to focus immediately on body refining, guiding the newly generated fire qi into her flesh.

Because she had not mastered the method, her body was already covered in heavy wounds. Zhao Chun was forced to consume healing pills and forcibly take wood-attribute spiritual medicines to neutralize the violent fire qi.

Her entire body's meridians and acupoints were at risk of being overwhelmed. Her blood and qi surged, and even her consciousness began to show signs of dissipation.

In a world that was originally devoid of spiritual energy, the heatwaves in the pit had become an inexplicable source of fire qi, causing the fire spiritual root to lash out wildly!

As the fire qi passed through her flesh, it could not be refined perfectly. In areas of excess, her skin cracked, and blood seeped out from the fissures.

Zhao Chun dared not stop the induction; her dantian was frantic and uneasy. If more fire qi were allowed to surge, she feared it would show signs of shattering!

It seemed she was going to die here...

Even as she fought to maintain her consciousness, the boundless pain made it difficult to steady her mind. After an unknown amount of time, she heard a massive boom!

The entire sinkhole shook for an instant!

The heatwaves gradually subsided. Having lost this assistance, the fire spiritual root withered significantly compared to before.

The gold and fire elements finally settled, but Zhao Chun was already in a state of bloody exhaustion, barely holding on without losing consciousness.

Her eyelids were heavy, as if coated in blood. With her head hanging low, Zhao Chun struggled to open her eyes. The colors of the murals on the four walls had faded, returning to their previous dullness, and fine, thread-like cracks had appeared upon them.

"Boom!"

Another massive explosion sounded, though it was not as violent as the previous one. The sinkhole only shook slightly, but the tiny cracks on the murals began to expand!

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

As if sensing an opportunity, the sounds continued incessantly, striking the four walls of the sinkhole until the cracks widened significantly. From the sea of clouds to the mountains and rivers, and even to the place where the immortals gathered, cracks tore through horizontally and vertically!

Someone was attacking the sinkhole from the outside!

Zhao Chun struggled to lift her head. In the darkness, a faint, weak light shone through the rock cover above, causing her heart to race!

The person outside struck intermittently. It was likely that in this world, spiritual energy could not regenerate on its own and required some other method to recover, hence the pauses.

The light grew stronger, changing from threads into pillars of light. The spiderweb-like cracks expanded, and with every loud boom, they shattered into falling rock fragments!

Zhao Chun rolled to avoid the debris, her injuries worsening. Gritting her teeth to endure the pain, she tumbled into a ball on the ground.

A heavy ruler descended from the sky, piercing through to the bottom of the pit!

A tall woman landed gracefully upon the grip of the ruler. Seeing the disheveled and wretched Zhao Chun amidst the dust, she showed a hint of surprise but asked nothing. She leaped from the ruler, pulled it out, and continued to strike the bottom of the pit heavily with the ruler!

Her hair was tied at the back of her head, and a yellow jade hung from her waist.

Qi Yunrong!

Even a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator had been sucked into this world!

Zhao Chun truly had no strength left; the rolling she had just performed had exhausted her stamina. She could only lie on the ground, watching the woman continuously swing the heavy ruler, her lips moving as if she were cursing.

"Help..."

Qi Yunrong looked back at her with a cold expression. She rested the heavy ruler on her shoulder and snorted, "I can barely protect myself right now; you expect me to save you?"

"I am... a disciple of the Lingzhen Sect... Senior... if you could help..."

"Lingzhen?" She heard those two words. After a long pause, she swung the heavy ruler to strike the ground and replied, "From Senior Qiu's sect?"

Her tone held a great deal of reverence: "Consider yourself lucky to be a fellow disciple of Senior Qiu. If we can get out today, I'll give you a hand. Whether you can hold on or not depends on yourself!"

As for whether they could escape this realm, even Qi Yunrong did not seem entirely certain.

Zhao Chun's eyelids grew increasingly heavy. The sound of the striking ruler grew more and more distant. After a long time, a gust of wind finally brushed past her blood-and-dust-covered body.