Chapter 15

The ethereal sound drifted, penetrating the mind.

It swayed and shook, vibrating the divine palace.

His tightly closed eyes slowly opened, a dazed expression flickering on his face.

After a long while, his eyes regained their clarity.

Yang Qifeng fully regained consciousness. At the first moment, he did not speak to the Qianlan Demon God but began to carefully examine his current state.

A vast and mighty power flowed within his body, giving rise to a sense of boundless freedom in Yang Qifeng's heart.

However, this feeling quickly disappeared.

Yang Qifeng's realm was extraordinary, and the situation where his mental state could not keep up with the sudden surge in power did not occur in him.

Nine thousand years of power—this was the amount of power Yang Qifeng could currently control.

Yang Qifeng's gaze was somewhat dazed as he scanned the boundless world of flames, and he could not help but say, "This truly is a treasure land for cultivation, to be able to increase one's power to nine thousand years in a single cultivation session."

There was a hint of surprise in his tone. Nine thousand years was no small number.

In the novels he had read in his previous life, a hundred-year-old demon could wreak havoc in a region, and a thousand-year-old demon could be considered an old demon. With nine thousand years of power, although this world was much more dangerous than the ordinary world, he could still be considered an old demon.

"A treasure land for cultivation."

"Hmph!"

The Qianlan Demon God let out a cold snort, which echoed in Yang Qifeng's ear, clearly showing some disdain. Without waiting for Yang Qifeng to ask, the Qianlan Demon God said, "It's only before the formation of the Inner Kernel. After the Inner Kernel, when you need to condense the divine soul, you cannot complete the final step in this Eight Trigram Immortal Furnace."

"Why?" Yang Qifeng asked. The joy that had just surfaced was completely dispelled by this statement. His escape was still uncertain, but if his own strength was stuck at the step of condensing the divine soul, it was not good news for Yang Qifeng.

This was the worst possible news.

If the divine soul could not be condensed, it meant that Yang Qifeng could not use the divine soul to resist the Six Ding Divine Fire. The consequences of this were all too clear to him.

"Why? When the divine soul leaves the body and begins to wander at night, is it possible in this Eight Trigram Immortal Furnace?" The Qianlan Demon God's tone was rather cold.

Following the Qianlan Demon God's words, Yang Qifeng thought for a moment and suddenly realized that he had been overly optimistic and idealistic about his future prospects. The situation he was facing in the Eight Trigram Immortal Furnace was exactly as the Qianlan Demon God had described. Cultivating the soul in the demon kernel and evolving the three souls and seven spirits into the divine soul was not a problem, but when the divine soul was fully formed, it had to leave the body and complete the night wander, transforming into a yin spirit.

This was the entire process from the Inner Kernel to the yin spirit, which was originally the simplest and easiest part.

However, for Yang Qifeng in the Eight Trigram Immortal Furnace, it was absolutely not allowed.

What was the Eight Trigram Immortal Furnace? It was one of the three major auxiliary furnaces of Laozi, where the flames burning inside were either the Three Pure Fires or the Three Realms Purifying Fire. For the divine soul to leave the body was tantamount to suicide.

Not to mention the divine soul, even a gust of wind could cause significant damage, and even the primordial spirit would ignite upon contact with the Three Pure Fires, burning to ashes in an instant, leaving not a trace behind.

The joy from the sudden increase in power was completely gone, and Yang Qifeng directly asked, "If the divine soul cannot be fully formed, how can I resist the Six Ding Divine Fire?"

"Directly resisting the Six Ding Divine Fire is not possible, but we can take an indirect route," the Qianlan Demon God said calmly, explaining in response to Yang Qifeng's question, which he had clearly anticipated. He continued, "Using the divine soul to resist is the basic strategy. When we cannot improve the divine soul, we can enhance your physical body. When your physical body reaches a certain strength, I can help you mobilize the Six Ding Divine Fire within your body. This way, using your physical body to resist will allow the divine soul to relax."

"Using the Six Ding Divine Fire to refine your body is a great fortune for you." The Qianlan Demon God fell silent here because he had not said that this method was only a temporary solution, not a fundamental one. If Yang Qifeng could not escape the Eight Trigram Immortal Furnace, the burden of the Six Ding Divine Fire would inevitably lead to his death. Using this method would only allow him to live a bit longer.

However, such disheartening words were unnecessary to say.

Yang Qifeng nodded in satisfaction at the Qianlan Demon God's suggestion. He could not know what the Qianlan Demon God had left unsaid.

The path of refining the body and cultivating the primordial spirit, Yang Qifeng would have taken this route even without the Qianlan Demon God's reminder.

Since he knew this was a mythological world, Yang Qifeng was no longer completely in the dark about the outside world. He could discern some situations based on mythology. For example, in his view, the most powerful beings were those who cultivated both their bodies and their primordial spirits, like Sun Wukong and Erlang Shen.

These two were the most typical examples, with formidable combat strength and great renown.

Yang Qifeng had ambitions and wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with them. Purely cultivating the primordial spirit was not enough.

And purely refining the body, focusing only on physical strength, was also not advisable, as the Qianlan Demon God had said, no one from ancient times to the present had ever reached the ultimate realm of shattering the void through sheer physical strength.

Without the Qianlan Demon God's explanation, Yang Qifeng knew that his next step in cultivation would be to refine his power, increasing it from nine thousand years to nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine years, and then forming the Inner Kernel. This was the main task. The secondary task was to use the flames to refine his physical body.

Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine years of power had a specific meaning. For those who had not yet attained immortality, whether human or demon, nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine years was the limit. Only by passing the ninefold thunder tribulation and achieving immortality could one break this boundary.

Nine was the ultimate number. Since the great calamity of ancient times, the laws of the universe had become increasingly strict, and no one could break them.

Therefore, with nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine years of power as a foundation, one could communicate with the celestial phenomena during the formation of the Inner Kernel and directly condense a nine-turn demon kernel.

Both the Golden Kernel and the demon kernel were divided into nine turns, with the first turn being the lowest and the ninth turn being the highest. The number of turns represented one's foundation and future achievements.

To achieve immortality, a foundation of at least seven turns was required, which clearly showed the strictness of becoming an immortal. Out of ten thousand cultivators, none might achieve immortality.