Chapter 119: Heart’s Flame (Please subscribe, second update)

“Open the tower!” As the bell’s chant faded, an ancient voice seemed to echo from within. Shortly after, the tightly closed, pitch-black door began to creak open, and a faint surge of scorching heat seeped out, subtly raising the temperature in the surrounding air.

Feeling the sudden warmth, Xiao Xie’s pupils contracted sharply, and his hand clenched tightly. Fallen Heart Flame, I am here!

“Enter the tower!” The elder’s voice rang out again. Yet no one dared move; all eyes fell upon Xiao Xie and his two companions.

“We’ll go in first,” Xiao Xie said with a smile to Little Doctor Immortal and Qing Lin, seeing that the crowd hesitated. With that, he led the two toward the Skyburn Refining Tower.

Approaching the tower, the three truly sensed its immense size. What emerged above ground was merely the first floor, equivalent to a two- or three-story building. It was only the tip of the iceberg; one could scarcely imagine how vast the tower body hidden beneath the earth must be.

With a sigh of awe, Xiao Xie and his companions did not linger, stepping directly inside.

Once they entered, the older students representing the major factions began to dart toward the tower’s entrance. Finally, those on the periphery, impatient and eager, streamed into the Skyburn Refining Tower.

The moment Xiao Xie crossed the threshold, his body suddenly stiffened. His delicate face flushed as if pressed against burning coals, and faint white mist, accompanied by the sizzle of roasting meat, seeped from within him.

Beside him, Little Doctor Immortal and Qing Lin, who entered at the same time, also turned rosy-cheeked, with wisps of white mist emerging from their bodies.

“So this is the split flame of the Fallen Heart Flame?” Xiao Xie sensed the sudden, inexplicably strange fire that appeared within, formless and shapeless. If he did not possess three kinds of flames and mastery over fire, and if he did not know the nature of the Fallen Heart Flame, he might not have recognized this twisted, invisible oddity as a kind of flame.

With a thought, Xiao Xie summoned the Hell Flame, instantly devouring this wisp of fire. The Fallen Heart Flame could stir the heart’s fire, burning one from the inside out to ashes. Yet, before the Hell Flame, which could incinerate souls, this heart fire was simply outmatched.

After consuming the split flame of the Fallen Heart Flame, Xiao Xie noticed his Dou Qi had been purified slightly. Though only a small portion was refined, if he could devour all the Fallen Heart Flame, his Dou Qi would surely be entirely purified. This was why cultivation could progress so rapidly within the Skyburn Refining Tower: as long as one could withstand the burning of the heart fire, one’s strength would soar.

In the softly lit ancient tower, a crowd gathered around the three, eyes closed, whispering and chuckling among themselves.

“Newcomers don’t know the rules. They walked in without any precautions. They’re doomed.”

“Quick, notify the elders inside! The first time someone enters the Skyburn Refining Tower, if an elder doesn’t intervene, they might be burned to charcoal from inside out.”

Earlier, Xiao Xie had intimidated them outside. Now, seeing the three suffer from ignorance of the rules, the old students could hardly hide their glee.

Barely a minute had passed when Xiao Xie opened his eyes. Moments later, Little Doctor Immortal beside him did the same. The heart fire had merely caught her off guard; her poisonous Dou Qi devoured it in an instant.

Xiao Xie stepped before Qing Lin, pressing his finger to her forehead. A surge of Hell Flame flowed into her, devouring the Fallen Heart Flame within. Qing Lin, being only a Dou Practitioner, would have struggled without Xiao Xie’s assistance, so he intervened.

“Thank you, young master,” Qing Lin said shyly, rubbing her sleeve.

“It’s nothing. With preparation, there’s no danger.” Xiao Xie ruffled her hair with a smile, then led Little Doctor Immortal and Qing Lin deeper into the tower, leaving the old students dumbstruck.

“Make way, Elder Liu is coming!” Suddenly, a stern voice sounded from the crowd, which immediately parted. Within the Skyburn Refining Tower, the elders of each floor held the highest authority. Offending them brought nothing but trouble; a single abuse of power could leave one utterly helpless.

“Where are they?” Elder Liu, seeing the empty space after the crowd cleared, asked the students sharply. If someone dared to toy with him, he would make them regret it.

“Where are the three just now?” The student who had fetched Elder Liu, seeing his displeasure, asked nearby students, nearly in tears at his own misfortune.

“They left. Woke up on their own, then walked off!” The questioned student, still shocked, pointed out the direction in which Xiao Xie’s trio had departed.

“Gone? Explain what happened, quickly!” Elder Liu frowned, questioning the bystanders.

A chorus of students began to recount the events to Elder Liu, each adding their own detail.

“To awaken under the burning of the heart fire on their first entry—looks like the academy has welcomed some prodigies!” Elder Liu sighed after hearing their accounts. Never before had any student awakened on their own the first time in the Skyburn Refining Tower.

This tower, buried deep with only its tip exposed, proved more spacious inside than Xiao Xie and his companions had expected. As they walked, Xiao Xie realized that the first-floor interior alone could accommodate five hundred cultivators at once.

Within the circular space, rooms of varying sizes had been constructed for training. Above each doorway hung a small red plaque, inscribed with different words. Xiao Xie glanced over and saw that these signs designated the rooms as high, medium, or low grade—the hierarchy of cultivation chambers within the Skyburn Refining Tower.

As they strolled from east to south, Xiao Xie noticed that the high-grade training rooms clustered near the center, while the medium-grade rooms circled them, and the low-grade rooms lay on the outermost edge.

“The strong grow stronger, the weak weaker—this is truly Canaan Academy’s style!” Little Doctor Immortal remarked with a gentle smile, observing the different levels of training rooms.

“Qing Lin, you’ll cultivate on the first floor. Here is a Nine-Pattern Dou Practitioner Pill and a Barrier-Breaking Pill, enough for you to advance to Grand Dou Practitioner.” Xiao Xie took out a jade box containing two pills. He had not let Qing Lin consume them earlier for fear her growth would be unstable, but now, with the Fallen Heart Flame refining her Dou Qi, he no longer worried.

“Yes, young master. Qing Lin will go cultivate now,” she replied obediently, nodding and entering a high-grade training room.

Nine-pattern pills were notoriously difficult to refine. Though the Dou Practitioner Pill was only a second-tier specialty pill, even a ninth-grade alchemist had no certainty of producing a nine-patterned version. Each added pattern multiplied the difficulty. Had Xiao Xie not spent ten thousand points to enhance the pill, it would not have become a nine-pattern Dou Practitioner Pill. Ten thousand points seemed modest, but a magic core from a beast equal to a nine-star Dou Spirit was worth just that much!

If Xiao Xie wanted to enhance a Dou Emperor Pill into a nine-pattern Dou Emperor Pill, it would cost ten million points—hardly worthwhile. Better to use that to elevate Arno to nine-star Dou Sect! Enhancing pills below tier three was reasonable; above that, the cost outweighed the benefit.

After Qing Lin entered her training room, Xiao Xie and Little Doctor Immortal continued toward the tower’s center. After some time, a pitch-black abyss appeared before them.