C2007 The Mission of the Origin Spirit
Yu Yuan infused his spirit energy with his soul consciousness, weaving them together like a ribbon to seep into the earth.
Hiss, hiss!
At the instant his concentrated spirit energy made contact with the underground fire source, it ignited, disintegrating into ash within the inferno.
The Extreme Flame, hidden deep within the Boundless Underground, seemed to forbid any other life forms from probing the earth's core with their spirit energy.
Yu Yuan had blended his spirit energy with his soul consciousness because he was aware of the Extreme Flame's aversion to blood energy. He surmised that by entering with both his spirit energy and soul consciousness, he might still harness some power.
As his spirit energy was set ablaze, becoming mere sparks in the sea of fire, Yu Yuan prudently abandoned the effort, retaining only his pure soul energy.
Then, his eyes subtly brightened.
His soul consciousness, which had slipped into the Extreme Flame from the depths of his mind, felt no discomfort upon entering its domain.
In the region where the Geocentric Fire blazed with utmost intensity, he could perceive the many profound truths of the flames directly with his soul consciousness.
He was suddenly filled with an overwhelming confidence that if he were to separate his main soul and descend into the depths, it would surely traverse the Extreme Flame and reach the very heart of the Boundless Underground!
He believed he could now confront the Origin Soul at the earth's core and the enigmatic Abyss Treasure.
Previously, when he was in the Boundless Underground, he hadn't felt this way when sensing with his soul.
It was unclear whether the Extreme Flame at the earth's core had altered its disposition toward him, or if his soul had undergone a transformation that led the Extreme Flame to fully embrace him.
A ghostly soul shadow, formed by his focused soul consciousness, soared through the eternally burning flame world.
He refrained from delving hastily into the depths or attempting to bypass the Extreme Flame to unearth the core's secrets.
Instead, he sought to understand the presence of the Extreme Flame, to ascertain whether it, too, had been tainted by the Abyss, and to determine whether the Extreme Flame was aware of the alterations within the Origin Soul.
Shortly thereafter, his consciousness seemed to be drawn by the Geocentric Fire to a specific region.
There lay a seething pool of flames.
The intense flames danced atop a lava pool capable of smelting the gods themselves, with dense sparks interlacing and deep red lightning flickering.
A quivering Origin Soul, resembling a flame, bathed within this fiery cauldron.
Crackling sounds filled the air as a torrent of fiery lightning, embodying the ultimate laws of fire, either lashed at the Origin Soul or infused it with energy.
Inside the Origin Soul trembled a terrified fire phoenix, her fiery plumage long since dissolved, with only a scant amount of flame power left, not yet fully purified by the Geocentric Fire.
Reduced to just an Origin Soul, she was still desperately trying to pique the interest of the Extreme Flame, hoping it would favor her as it had Mo Baichuan, and bestow upon her the complete mastery of the Great Dao of Extreme Flame.
Mo Baichuan had perished, and she had acquired the Heaven and Earth Furnace.
Yet, she had failed to unlock the true essence of the Extreme Flame through the furnace and the Law of Fire that had been etched into Mo Baichuan's divine seat.
She was well aware that to refine the Fire Origin Spirit of the Boundless Underground as her sister Zhiya had envisioned, she first needed to grasp the Dao of the Geocentric Fire.
She could either decipher the formation, operation, and manifestation of the Extreme Flame through her own capabilities.
Or she needed to be acknowledged by the Extreme Flame, which would then impart the intricacies of this Dao to her, transforming her into another Mo Baichuan.
Only by achieving this could she stand a chance to confront the Extreme Flame directly after the Boundless Underground fractured. With Zhiya's assistance, she could seize the opportunity amidst the chaos to refine the Extreme Flame.
Originally, she believed in her exceptional talent and extraordinary perceptiveness, for in the Desolate Realm, much like Tan Xiaotian, she had gathered the Laws of Fire from various sources and slain alien beasts with similar attributes, assimilating their fiery essence. She had nearly unraveled all the mysteries of the existing flames in the Desolate Realm.
This included the Sun's Fire, the glow of meteors, and many other unique flames.
She had assumed that following Mo Baichuan's demise, she could, through the Heaven and Earth Furnace, decipher the subtleties of the Extreme Flame from the Dao inscribed within Mo Baichuan's divine seat.
Unfortunately, she had miscalculated.
Following Mo Baichuan's demise, the divine throne quickly crumbled. The secrets of the Extreme Flame she had committed to memory failed to stir anything within her.
She found herself unable to refine the Heaven and Earth Furnace, utterly baffled by the flame formations inscribed upon it.
With no alternatives, she was forced to take a secondary route.
Not daring to approach with her true form before the battle commenced, she had no choice but to lodge her flame soul within Zhou Cangmin, hoping to connect with the Extreme Flame through him.
She desired for the Extreme Flame to recognize her presence, her boundless potential, and her accomplishments that eclipsed those of Mo Baichuan.
She aspired to earn the Extreme Flame's favor.
Yet, she erred once again.
As her flame soul was dragged into the heart of the earth by the Extreme Flame, it began to deconstruct all the fire laws she had deciphered in the Desolate Realm.
The Extreme Flame was the primal source on this path, its level of superiority over her was immeasurable.
The myriad of flame essences she had painstakingly collected in the Desolate Realm were swiftly assimilated by the Extreme Flame.
Complicating matters, her flame soul and her physical body maintained a link, one she found impossible to sever on her own.
The Extreme Flame, opting not to dissolve her completely, preserved her flame soul, methodically stripping away the powers she had gleaned.
Her grand designs on the Extreme Flame crumbled to dust before they could even take flight.
"Yu, Yu Yuan!"
A faint consciousness emanated from her fire phoenix flame soul, attempting to draw Yu Yuan's attention, to see if he could lend assistance.
She had learned from Zhiya that Yu Yuan was at odds with the forces of the Boundless Underground and the will of the earth itself.
She believed this could be her chance.
With a whoosh, a wisp of fire emerged from the earth's depths. Propelled by the Extreme Flame, it stealthily infused itself into the lingering soul of the fire phoenix.
The dense crimson lightning transformed into the most intricate fire patterns, intertwining with the residual soul.
Additionally, streams of fire essence, pure to the extreme, solidified into crystals, aiding the fiery apparition in constructing... bones, enabling it to assimilate the residual energy of the fire phoenix.
Before long, in the tumultuous fiery pool, a diminutive figure of fire crystal materialized.
This being possessed bones of red crystal, yet lacked flesh and organs, and within its chest cavity, a flame from the fire phoenix continued to burn.
The aura emanating from the fire crystal figure was unmistakably Mo Baichuan's!
He lacked a true face; his head was a skull crafted from fire crystals. Yet within that radiant skull, a flame burned fiercely.
It was this flame that carried Mo Baichuan's essence, akin to a fragment of his soul that he had left deep within the earth's core.
It seemed as though Mo Baichuan had departed from the Boundless Underground, heeding the Geocentric Fire's command to seek out a peculiar flame, leaving behind a contingency plan in the earth's depths.
"I..."
Mo Baichuan, now a skeleton of Flame Crystal, transmitted a thought through the fire, "I require a Life Stoste that only you can refine."
Yu Yuan's conjured soul shadow wavered slightly, murmuring in surprise, "Life Stoste?"
Mo Baichuan's soul, once reassembled in the Realm of Demons, was cast into the Reincarnation Furnace and had set forth on a journey of rebirth.
Barring any unforeseen events, Mo Baichuan would soon be reborn in a human body, retaining the memories of his past life.
Once reborn, Mo Baichuan, aware of his identity, would carry the secrets of the flames he had once mastered, etched deep within his soul, ensuring a successful return to the path of cultivation.
Yu Yuan had even suggested that Mo Baichuan seek him out through the Divine Soul Sect when he felt the time was right.
Yu Yuan intended to assist Mo Baichuan in resuming his cultivation journey, enabling him to ascend to the highest echelons without reliance on the Boundless Underground's primal essence.
Yet now, another fragment of Mo Baichuan's soul had been encased in a Flame Crystal skeleton by the Extreme Flame, with the fiery essence of a phoenix residing in its chest, requesting the "Life Stoste." What was this all about?
How did Mo Baichuan come to know of the "Life Stoste"?
A flurry of questions flooded Yu Yuan's mind, and he refrained from responding immediately.
"The Life Stoste can enable me to take form again within the earth's core, allowing my Flame Crystal skeleton to develop flesh, blood, veins, and organs," Mo Baichuan communicated.
Yu Yuan remained silent, contemplating the enigmatic properties of the "Life Stoste."
Within the Time Secret Area, he had slain several Beast Gods and transformed them into orbs of blood energy, which he then placed on the Dragon Slash Platform.
Currently, he was indeed capable of condensing a "Life Stoste."
The Life Stoste could not only forge a Life Keychain but also possessed the power to recreate life, much like when he assisted the Violent Bear in creating a chilly little creature.
Mo Baichuan, who stood before him, already possessed a skeleton crafted from Flame Crystal and a soul.
All that was needed was to fill his skeletal frame with flesh, blood, organs, and veins, and Mo Baichuan would become a living, breathing entity, ready to be reborn.
However, the orb of blood in Mo Baichuan's chest, derived from the fire phoenix's soul, resembled an alien heart, and the Flame Crystal Bone had already been etched with numerous flame secrets.
Yu Yuan anticipated that this reborn Mo Baichuan could not be categorized as human.
The bones, flesh, and veins of the reborn Mo Baichuan would inherently bear the principles of fire. At the instant his heart solidified, it would surely be imbued with the core essence of the Extreme Flame.
Consequently, he would transform into a Bloodline Crystal Chain that matched the Extreme Flame.
This being was certainly not human!
Instead, it was a novel race with an innate fire attribute in their bodies, possessing the true essence of fire from the moment of their creation, akin to the Bright Clan and the Star Race members.
The origin of this nascent race lay in the Geocentric Fire below, the Boundless Underground's flame!
It aimed to use the Life Stoste and Mo Baichuan to forge a race that would be intimately linked to and perpetually governed by it.
Yu Yuan had an epiphany.
The evolutionary paths of entities like the Origin Soul, Origin Blood, and other wondrous Origin Spirits, akin to the Extreme Flame, seemed to necessitate this step—creating a race of living beings.
The Devaputras of the Origin Realm appeared to have been crafted by the Origin Soul, while the Starry Behemoth was evidently tied to the Origin Blood.
The mightiest Spinosaurus gave rise to the Titan and the vast Naga Race.
Similarly, the Secular Bird Queen, the Hannya Divine Tree, and the Abyss Goanna, whose ancient bloodlines spread across the cosmos, gave rise to the Winged Race, the Dark Elfkind, and the Silver Scale Clan.
The emergence and flourishing of a new race of beings seemed to be the purpose of these enigmatic existences. It was their way of maturing.
The Geocentric Fire was referred to as a primary Origin Spirit by the guardians of the Evil God Temple. It, too, was poised to take this crucial step!
It aspired to ascend, to become an intermediate or advanced Origin Spirit, much like the Origin Soul and Origin Blood. It seemed a necessary progression.
However, its power was only sufficient to provide Mo Baichuan with the rudimentary framework of a Flame Crystal skeleton; it couldn't give him flesh and organs.
Thus, it found itself in need of assistance.
"I need to know something. Who... exactly are you? Are you Mo Baichuan, the Earth Flame itself, the residual soul of the Phoenix from the Desolate Realm, or some kind of hybrid?" Yu Yuan inquired earnestly.
Mo Baichuan remained silent, as if he were pondering deeply, striving to understand his true nature.
"Let's revisit this once you have an answer for me."
Yu Yuan withdrew his spiritual awareness and instantly returned to his physical form.
Meanwhile, around his body and throughout the Hellfire Mountain range, numerous Unrestrained Stage cultivators and unfamiliar Primordial Spirits had gathered.
