Chapter 368: The 'Flame' Belonging Solely to Jiang Lin!
The only troublesome part was the Soul Slot, which could only be replenished halfway in an hour, and barely fully recovered after two or three hours.
So it wasn't surprising that Jiang Lin was at his weakest during this time. In fact, during the half hour right after finishing cultivation, Jiang Lin's combat reaction speed would drop—his mind essentially burned out. For a full hour, he couldn't use any soul-type secret techniques. Not that Jiang Lin used soul techniques often anyway.
But are you sure you want to launch a close-range sneak attack on a body-refining expert who's nearly immune to long-range assaults?
"Otherwise, with the strength of my soul, I could probably kill some low-tier cultivators just by glaring at them." Jiang Lin stood up and stretched his stiff body, then shook his head and smiled. Many outsiders thought he was just a brute force body cultivator, but they had no idea that this so-called brute had a Dou Qi reservoir that outlasted most Dou Huangs' lives. Even in terms of soul cultivation, he could glare some weaker opponents to death.
Some Dou Qi cultivators with strong souls experienced energy overflow at the end of their cultivation, resulting in scenes like golden beams shooting from their eyes and piercing walls. But Jiang Lin wasn't like that. Due to the special nature of the Forging Flame Art, every time he finished cultivating, his essence, energy, and spirit were nearly exhausted.
"My body… seems to be undergoing transformation by the Five Elemental Dou Qi..." Jiang Lin extended his palm, a glint flashing through his crimson-gold eyes. Through his soul perception, he sensed that the blood beneath the skin of his arms carried faintly colorful auras, exuding extraordinary spirituality.
Perhaps due to the guidance of the four senior experts before him, Jiang Lin's adaptation to the earth-type Dou Qi added by the earth-elemental core was astonishingly fast. After one or two more cultivation sessions—roughly a day—he would fully adapt to the earth-type Dou Qi and officially become an earth-wood dual-type Dou Qi cultivator.
Within Jiang Lin's body, the Five Elemental Pattern was centered on the Fire Spirit Colorful Lotus, the initial flame of his Forging Flame Art. Until he found another spiritual root capable of rivaling the Fire Spirit Colorful Lotus, its core position would remain unshakable.
"The fifth level of the Forging Flame Art seems to be merging the Five Elemental Dou Qi with my body... This process will take a long time. No, rather, the entire Dou Ling stage is part of the Five Elements' convergence process. And to fully integrate the elements with the body, theoretically, an even greater pressure is required—in other words, after advancing the Forging Flame Art to the sixth level."
Through his soul sense, Jiang Lin could clearly observe the Five Elemental Dou Qi transforming his body, and also see how close it was to fully fusing with his flesh.
Currently, the Five Elemental Dou Qi had gathered within his flesh and blood, spreading slowly from the outside inward. Jiang Lin speculated that only when his bone marrow and soul had completed their transformation would he finally obtain what could be considered a "Five Elemental Spirit Body."
And that critical moment, Jiang Lin roughly estimated, would coincide with his breakthrough to Dou Wang. During the Dou Ling stage, he would also begin to accumulate the benefits of the Five Elemental Spirit Body—for example, elemental immunity and elemental suppression.
"Based on this calculation, if this trend continues, then before Xiao Huohuo completes his own energy transformation, he won't even be able to use his fire-type Dou Techniques to penetrate my Dou Qi shield… So who's the main character here—him or me?"
After roughly deducing the changes brought by his newly acquired abilities, Jiang Lin was surprised to realize that he'd become even tankier.
With both physique and Dou Qi reaching the Dou Ling level, even Dou Huangs might not be able to break his defenses. Of course, that excluded blades and firearms.
"In terms of opportunity, Xiao Huohuo is undoubtedly the main character. But in terms of background… mine really ought to be pressing his into the dirt," Jiang Lin muttered helplessly in his heart.
"The appearance of the 'Spirit Body' was within my expectations, but this soul transformation really was an unexpected delight."
Among all the changes that came after completing the Five Elemental Cores, what surprised Jiang Lin the most was the transformation of his soul.
He always knew his soul was strong, but he rarely exposed it.
However, he'd been stuck at the half-step Spirit Realm for a long time, always feeling like something was missing for the breakthrough—yet not knowing what.
Now, he finally understood—what he lacked was a body capable of bearing a Spirit Realm soul.
At this moment, he was like a lotus bud about to bloom. Once the time was right, he would undergo an extraordinary transformation both in physique and soul!
Huala!
Inside the forging chamber, after resting briefly, a blaze with a faint multicolored glow suddenly surged from Jiang Lin's hand. Gazing at the mystical flame in his palm, his eyes flickered slightly. He suppressed the thoughts for now, and with a casual wave, summoned the Qing Xuan Cauldron. Pouring Dou Qi flame into it, he retrieved various ores and materials from his storage ring and tossed them all into the cauldron—then began forging.
A week later, after finishing a day of cultivation, Jiang Lin suddenly extended his hand, and with a whoosh, a thumb-sized, colorless flame rose from his palm.
Five colors mean no color.
Jiang Lin stared at the dancing flame in his hand, his expression subtly shifting.
His entire Dou Ling stage could be described as a metamorphosis.
Now, Jiang Lin had discovered a brand new transformation point—his Dou Qi and soul, using the body as a cradle and the Fire Spirit Colorful Lotus as an embryo, were attempting to give birth to an entirely new flame.
Although Jiang Lin had considered using the exotic flame, the Green Lotus Flame, to nurture a spiritual flame, it was merely a whimsical idea. But now that this unrealistic idea had actually come true, his eyes couldn't help but tremble slightly.
The flames of this world were roughly divided into five categories: Common Fire, Dou Qi Fire, Beast Fire, Soul Fire, and Heavenly Flames.
Common Fire, Beast Fire, and Heavenly Flames were easy to understand. Soul Fire was the flame of the soul, mostly used by the Soul Clan. Only Dou Qi Fire was commonly used by alchemists and blacksmiths.
But the colorless flame in Jiang Lin's hand now… was a brand new fire born from the fusion of his essence, energy, and spirit—nurtured by the exotic Green Lotus Flame. Its nature was so mixed that even Jiang Lin couldn't classify it, so he tentatively named it "Spirit Flame."
"If one day I fall after reaching a certain level in my cultivation… perhaps this flame in my belly might even become a 'Heavenly Flame,'" he murmured.
Staring at the not-yet-fully-formed colorless flame in his hand, Jiang Lin fell silent for a long time before finally smiling.
At this moment, Jiang Lin had gained a deeper understanding of the birth of Heavenly Flames.
There weren't that many flames in this world to begin with.
But with enough people feeding the fire—
That's how the myriad Heavenly Flames of the ten thousand races came to be.
(END CHAPTER)
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