At first, the fire was furious. It swelled in size, transforming into a fire dragon that attacked Lu Yaoyao with all its might—unfortunately, despite being the all-powerful celestial fire, it was only recently born and its cultivation was comparable to the Golden Core stage.
But Lu Yaoyao didn’t let her guard down. Celestial fires were very resistant to spiritual control; even if she managed to subdue it, there was no guarantee it would acknowledge her as its master.
Of course, it wasn’t yet time for that step. Lu Yaoyao’s current plan was simply to beat the fire again and again into submission.
Initially, the fire was able to launch a few attacks, but under Lu Yaoyao’s relentless assault, it gradually switched to a defensive stance and eventually ended up fleeing in all directions. The once-large fire dragon was beaten smaller and smaller until…
…only a tiny flame was left, barely the size of Lu Yaoyao’s fist, hovering above the rock. Right when Lu Yaoyao was about to catch up and continue the beating, she noticed the tiny flame making a gesture of submission, which made her come to a halt.
If fire could have facial expressions, this one would probably be crying pitifully!
Was it really submitting just from this? Lu Yaoyao was actually hoping for another round, nevertheless, she deliberately put on her fiercest look and demanded, “Are you going to acknowledge me as your master now?”
The fire swayed up and down, displaying a high understanding of verbal communication.
“If you want to be my fire, you must follow my rules. Whatever I say goes. If you don’t obey, I’ll extinguish you!”
The fire showed no signs of hesitation and continued to bob up and down.
Seeing how scared it looked, Lu Yaoyao thought that since this was the case, she might as well take it. After all, a newly born spiritual fire wouldn’t have a strong sense of right and wrong, but with time, she could teach it and turn it into a good boy—er, she meant, a good fire!
So she extended her hand towards the fire.
The fire cautiously approached Lu Yaoyao, pausing in front of her momentarily before abruptly leaping into her consciousness.
Without warning, Lu Yaoyao felt a powerful surge in her head as her spiritual sea was overwhelmed by raging flames, assaulting her mind. The pain was excruciating, similar to having her soul scorched, causing her to lose balance and fall to her knees.
The fire continued rampaging her spiritual consciousness, almost as if it were laughing, mocking Lu Yaoyao for trusting it so easily. It attacked her spiritual sea with such ferocity, seemingly determined to burn her entire being into ashes.
But its smugness did not last long—the next moment, a potent mix of milky-white spiritual aura and pitch-black devil aura erupted, entwining and enveloping the rampaging fire, suppressing it with absolute dominance.
The once arrogant spiritual fire had no power to resist and let out a sharp scream.
Two completely different auras filled the spiritual sea, pressing the fire into a corner, leaving it barely alive, its flames flickering weakly—merely a step away from being completely devoured.
Such immense spiritual and devil aura coexisting in harmony… The fire’s innate instincts told it that this was the dual physique of dao and devil.
Realizing it had provoked someone it should never have messed with, the fire trembled in fear. Allowing it to enter their spiritual sea was not a foolish move by its opponent; rather, it had been incredibly foolish to dare to trespass…
Lu Yaoyao only experienced a brief moment of pain before the sharp sting disappeared. Her spiritual sea, now filled with two kinds of aura, brought her comfort as if she was being gently soothed by a soft breeze.
She rose to her feet, touching her head. How could she have had no precautions? In fact, she had been on guard all along. But this entity, being a celestial-grade spiritual fire, had still managed to injure her spiritual sea. However, there was a silver lining—the seal Daddy had placed on her loosened slightly because of this, causing her cultivation to rise from the Foundation Establishment stage to the Inedia stage. Although she was still far from her true strength, her power had increased significantly.
Lu Yaoyao opened her palm, gathering a ball of spiritual aura, unable to contain her joy.
After a moment, she turned her attention back to the little fireball trembling in fear in her spiritual sea.
“So naughty… should I just extinguish it?” As soon as Lu Yaoyao spoke, the fire frantically jumped up and down before it voluntarily initiated a one-sided master-servant contract with Lu Yaoyao’s soul.
“Master, I was wrong, please don’t kill me…” Once the contract was established, a childish voice, tinged with sobs, echoed in Lu Yaoyao’s spiritual sea, filling her mind with loud cries that left her feeling dizzy.
The wailing was incessant. Rubbing her ached ears, Lu Yaoyao shouted, “Shut up!”
The sharp crying stopped abruptly, followed by a pitiful little “oh” from the childlike voice.
How could this fire cry so much? It had been so aggressive, cunning, and sinister before—this change was too drastic! Moreover, its desperation to survive was remarkable. Despite being a celestial fire, it had actually initiated the most unequal master-servant contract, granting her absolute power over its life and demise. As long as she didn’t dissolve the contract, it had no choice but to comply with her commands, and any attempt to harm her would be met with a powerful counterattack.
Lu Yaoyao hadn’t even realized how the contract had been signed, but now that it was in place, she could sense the fire’s memories at will, without any resistance. As she navigated the extent of the contract, she involuntarily glimpsed the fire’s experiences from the primordial chaos up to its birth, vaguely understanding that it was the fire’s innate instinct that had made it aware of this one-sided contract.
Yanhuo Mountain was the largest volcano cluster on the Yuanqi Continent, with Yanshan being the largest among them, holding the most ancient history, reportedly spanning tens of millions of years. This fire had been in the core of Yanshan since its beginning, nourished and nurtured by the essence of the volcano over the years, and finally came into being more than two months ago.
Its birth was marked by a phenomenon that followed the appearance of spiritual treasures, causing quite a commotion, though it was limited within the Yanhuo Mountain cluster.
However, due to the environment, the Tianyan Sect was the only sect within the thousand miles of Yanhuo Mountain. When they witnessed such an unusual event, they suspected the emergence of a spiritual treasure and were determined to claim it for themselves, so they tightly concealed this information.
The sect leader and elders of the Tianyan Sect knew the treasure must be within the core. They made numerous attempts to retrieve it but failed, losing several disciples in the process. They were also pressed for time—there was no such thing as a secret that could be kept completely under wraps, especially given the large-scale phenomenon that happened that day, and they knew that sooner or later, other sects would catch wind of the news and start investigating the location, ultimately discovering the truth. Realizing they couldn’t get the treasure by themselves and feared that word might spread, attracting more sects who might hold them accountable for their deception.
After much deliberation, the Tianyan Sect decisively sent a request for aid to the most powerful sect, the Guiyuan Sect. They figured that if the treasure were to fall into someone else’s hands, it might as well be Guiyuan’s, hence selling them a favor and obtaining some protection in return…
Of course, Lu Yaoyao was unaware of the Tianyan Sect’s hidden intentions at the time. However, through the memories of the fire, she learned that the Tianyan Sect had long known that this was not some unknown disaster, but rather an opportunity. Throughout the entire ordeal, the Tianyan Sect never mentioned a word about it to her group. It became clear that the Tianyan Sect was not as straightforward as it appeared.
Lu Yaoyao’s previously favorable impression of the Tianyan Sect vanished instantly. No matter what, they had deliberately concealed the truth when the Guiyuan Sect came to help them, believing that the Tianyan Sect was in trouble. Even if the outcome was positive, it was still wrong to keep such secrets. What if it had turned out badly?
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