C413 Refining the Sunfire!!

The sun and moon simultaneously hung in the sky, casting their light upon the earth. The plaza, paved with soulstones and lined with towering stone pillars, was suffused with spiritual energy that was as pure and robust as the essence Yu Zhu had gathered on the mid-lake island.

Yu Yuan stood in the deserted plaza, his gaze falling upon a silver-white ship's stern that lay behind him. Observing the stern, which shared the same design but sported a different color, he felt the spatial vibrations emanating from it and was struck with amazement. In his grasp, the sword sheath emitted glimmers of sword light that flickered unpredictably.

Lifting his eyes to the sky, he was met with a leaden expanse. Beneath this gray canopy, a fiery sun and a cool crescent moon coexisted, suspended in the heavens. The phenomenon of the sun and moon appearing together was exceedingly rare. Yu Yuan narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing the spectacle before him, and then realization dawned upon him. In a hushed tone, he murmured, "The crystal of the burning sun and the core of the moon!"

The celestial bodies floating above were fundamentally different from those he had witnessed in the Everlands. The scorching sun of this Otherworld must have been the work of a cultivator who reached for the heavens, who found a burning sun beyond the Star River and extracted a crystal from within, bringing it here to hover aloft as a secondary "sun." In the same vein, the crescent moon was the doing of a cultivator of similar stature, who had harvested the core from a moon in the farthest reaches of the starry sea and, through a monumental feat, set it adrift in the high sky. Thus, the rare spectacle of the sun and moon sharing the sky was created.

The sun and moon, suspended high above, laid the magical foundation of this Otherworld. The ship's stern, resembling the one sunken at the ocean's bottom, served as the "door" through which he had entered. Lacking a key, he had relied on the sword light within the sheath to slice through the barrier and gain entry.

"The Embers Sea, one of the three great wonders of the Otherworld, boasts such an extraordinary sight!" Yu Yuan marveled, drawing in a deep breath of the pristine spiritual energy. He felt a sense of liberation, as if every pore in his body had opened in relief.

"What do I wish for? What do I seek?" he exclaimed with a radiant laugh.

The abundant and potent spiritual energy here alone could accelerate the refinement of my Golden Sanctum's little world by more than tenfold, regardless of the other wonders this place may hold!

My primary purpose for venturing to the Embers Sea was to engage in cultivation!

This land is a treasure in its own right, rivaling even the mid-lake island crafted by Yu Zhu. If I can persevere in my cultivation here until the Embers Sea trial concludes, my long journey will have been worthwhile.

"The protectors of the Devil Palace and Shadow's Keep are likely aware of this location. I mustn't be careless."

After some contemplation, observing the plaza laid with soulstones and the towering stone pillars reaching for the heavens, I resolved to focus on cultivation rather than exploration.

I'm well aware that if this realm harbors any rare treasures, they are beyond my grasp.

The cultivators from the Devil Palace and Shadow's Keep would be monitoring me through their remnant souls.

Yet, if I simply harness the ubiquitous pure spiritual energy of this place to cultivate and expand my Golden Sanctum's little world, I foresee no complications.

With this thought, I settled into a cross-legged position at the ship's stern.

The Nine Glories Wheel burst forth!

"Ah!" I exclaimed in shock, my gaze snapping to the burning sun under the leaden sky.

In the instant I activated the Nine Glories Wheel, I sensed the high-hanging "burning sun" respond!

Tiny grains of sunfire, each no larger than a grain of rice, began to drift down from the sun.

Sunfire, the essence of the sun itself, is imbued with explosive burning sun power, a rare and formidable celestial flame!

Members of the Sunlit Order, having cultivated to the level of Solar Spirit, venture into extraterrestrial realms to harvest sunfire from the sun's core, using it to temper their Solar Spirit Bodies and enhance their might.

The blazing flame energy within the sunfire is fearsomely intense; a mere speck could reduce me to cinders.

Thus, upon witnessing the descent of the sunfire, I was struck with awe and terror, realizing the potential danger of this flame. A chill ran down my spine, and I struggled to maintain my composure.

With a sudden rush, orbs of spiritual energy burst forth from the Golden Sanctum's little world, surging upward toward the crown of his head.

Nine orbs of spiritual energy coalesced, resembling miniature suns that had materialized within the Golden Sanctum's little world. They hovered about seven or eight meters above him, slowly rotating in place.

"The Nine Glories Wheel manifests beyond the confines of the body!"

Yu Yuan was profoundly shaken.

During his initial practice of this spell, nine specks of light had gathered at the acupoint of the Golden Sanctum, encircling the yet-to-be-opened acupoint like streamers of light, aiding him in more swiftly amassing and absorbing spiritual energy.

Upon opening the Golden Sanctum's acupoint and revisiting the cultivation of the Nine Glories Wheel, nine "suns" emerged within the little world of the Golden Sanctum, assisting him in refining the spiritual energy from an external source and channeling it to the lower realms.

Now, within the wondrous confines of the Otherworld, as he operated the Nine Glories Wheel and engaged the sunfire, the spell revealed its extraordinary nature once more!

The nine orbs, formed from his own spiritual energy, floated above his head, spinning like a constellation of nine "suns."

As a mote of sunfire descended, it was drawn in by the pull of the nine "suns," spiraling toward the inner vortex.

Swoosh!

In the instant the sunfire was absorbed, the rotation of the nine "suns" abruptly accelerated manifold!

A wave of heat, so intense it threatened to incinerate all in its path, burst forth from the vortex at the heart of the nine "suns" above his head.

The grain-sized sunfire, fueled by the searing blaze energy at the core of the nine "suns," made him feel that even those at the Veil Breaking Realm would be reduced to ash.

This was a force that seemed beyond his current level, a power he was neither equipped to withstand nor capture!

It was likely that not even the Lord of Mount Solarian, the creator of the Nine Glories Wheel, could have anticipated someone engaging with the sunfire at the Golden Sanctum level.

The Golden Sanctum, a realm so modest, was never meant to breach the vast expanse of the Everlands!

In the vast Everlands, practitioners employ the Nine Glories Wheel and various blazing flame techniques from the Sunlit Order to harness the power of the scorching sun. They capture merely the outermost light it emits, not the true essence within. The sunfire, concealed at the core of the burning sun, does not radiate outward like its luminosity. The brilliance of the sun and the sunfire are fundamentally different and should not be conflated.

While Tang Cen harnessed the sun's light using the Solar Flame Mantra, Yu Yuan, at this very moment, was refining and absorbing the sunfire with the Nine Glories Wheel. "Fortunate indeed that it was I who stepped into this realm, and not Tang Cen," Yu Yuan thought with relief as he focused intently on the sunfire, grateful that Tang Cen had not managed to enter.

Though Tang Cen's practice of the Solar Flame Mantra within the Subtlety Realm was less intricate than the Nine Glories Wheel, it might still possess the mysterious capability to refine sunfire. Had he entered and absorbed even a speck of sunfire, his cultivation level would have soared dramatically. He might have even reached the late stages of the Subtlety Realm in a short time, poised to challenge the Lunar Spirit.

With a series of swooshing sounds, a grain-sized piece of sunfire was meticulously processed by the rapidly spinning Nine Glories Wheel. More drifting sunfire, like languid fireflies, did not all plunge at once into the vortex created by the wheel's motion.

Moments later, a strand of scarlet firelight, akin to a crystalline wire, cascaded from beneath the whirlpool of the Nine Glories Wheel. Simultaneously, a powerful suction emerged from Yu Yuan's lower elixir field, the Golden Sanctum acupoint, and in an instant, the fiery strand was devoured.

Within his little world, Yu Yuan observed the sudden appearance of a scarlet bolt of lightning. This lightning, once refined, harbored the might of the sunfire and was now concealed within the Golden Sanctum acupoint. With a mere thought, the scarlet lightning coalesced into a bead and transformed into a tiny, nail-sized flame of a deep, rich red.

As the thought crossed his mind, a cluster of scarlet lightning suddenly coalesced into a small flame the size of a fingernail, enveloped in his essence of spiritual energy and carrying his unique aura. Yet, the core of the flame remained pure sunfire, retaining its formidable might. Through the refining process of the Nine Glories Wheel, the sunfire had been imbued with his essence and purified by his spiritual energy. This minuscule amount of sunfire, capable of incinerating anything, no longer posed a threat to him.

But what if this cluster of crimson flames were unleashed upon others? What if it were directed at cultivators of his own level, or at Lin Zhuyun, or even Tang Cen? Without a rare treasure to protect him, could Tang Cen truly withstand even a speck of sunfire? It's likely that he would sustain severe injuries, if not worse. And Lin Zhuyun, a practitioner of the Winter's Bite sect who had reached the Veil Breaking Stage, what fate would befall her if she came into contact with the sunfire?

With these possibilities unfolding in his mind, Yu Yuan couldn't help but reveal a sly grin, chuckling to himself.

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