Chapter 325: 青焱剑煞

Luo Yixuan withdrew with a look of disappointment.

Most cultivators in the Eastern Wilderness regarded Foundation Establishment as their ultimate goal. Core Formation was beyond their wildest dreams.

Chen Mobai used the Phaseless Puppet to deduce her Foundation Establishment process and found that she couldn't succeed on the first attempt, meaning her probability of success was no more than fifty percent. The same problem persisted: she had consumed too many elixirs to boost her cultivation. Although the Everlasting spiritual power had been purged by the Lamp-Burning Technique, some elixir toxins still lingered in her innate Blackwater spiritual power.

However, the Phaseless Puppet's deduction wasn't absolute. After all, one Foundation Establishment Elixir alone offered a thirty percent chance of success. As his disciple, Luo Yixuan was almost guaranteed one of the Foundation Establishment Elixirs three years later, so perhaps she would get lucky and succeed.

The next day, the master and disciple returned to Xiaonan Mountain.

Afterward, Chen Mobai announced he was entering a life-or-death seclusion, using a cultivation breakthrough as an excuse, and sealed off the mountaintop. Since he was going to devote himself entirely to enhancing the Azure Sun Fire and forging sword qi in the Myriad Treasures Cave, Chen Mobai dared not leave his puppet body in the Heavenly River Realm, to prevent any dizziness at a critical moment that could lead to failure. Before leaving, he had already informed the Sect Master and Chu Zuoshu. Unless it was a major event threatening the sect's survival, no one should disturb him while he was in his declared "life-or-death seclusion."

Upon returning to the Immortal Sect, to avoid complaints from Hua Zijing, Chen Mobai didn't even show up at the student council. Instead, he secretly slipped into the Myriad Treasures Cave, found a cave near a fourth-tier spiritual vein, and diligently cultivated. He used the Pure Azure Art and spiritual stones to accelerate and enhance his Azure Sun Fire Seed, which was close to full maturity.

With the help of powerful fire spiritual energy, and Chen Mobai's willingness to use the raw ore spiritual stone obtained from Solitary Soul Ridge to nourish it, he finally merged the two "Azure Sun Fire Seeds" within just one month, forging the long-desired "Azure Sun Fire."

Gazing at the head-sized, pure azure flame in his palm, and then at the raw ore spiritual stone at his feet, whose spiritual energy fluctuations had diminished by nearly half, Chen Mobai felt a slight pang of regret. This was equivalent to more than a hundred mid-grade spiritual stones consumed by this mass of Azure Sun Fire.

However, if Xie Yuntian knew that the Azure Sun Fire could be rapidly enhanced this way, he would gladly spend not just a hundred, but even a thousand spiritual stones. But this required cultivating the "Pure Azure Art." This secret Everlasting Sect technique, obtained from the talent tree, was specifically designed to enhance the "Azure Sun Fire."

Over the years, Xie Yuntian had collected four Azure Sun Fire Seeds, but he could only barely merge them by relying on his powerful cultivation and divine sense, and still couldn't control them with precision. For this very reason, despite having mastered sword light, possessing Azure Sun Fire, and having sufficient Azure Wood Fiend Qi, he had never managed to forge his first "Azure Flame Sword Fiend." He had even been surpassed by younger sect members.

Chen Mobai pressed the Azure Sun Fire in his palm into the cave wall beside him. Soon, the incredibly hard stone, along with the hematite within, melted into molten rock and iron, flowing down the wall to form a spectacle resembling a crimson waterfall. Purely in terms of temperature, this Azure Sun Fire could melt stone and incinerate iron. If it were further nourished by Azure Wood Fiend Qi and upgraded into the Azure Flame Sword Fiend, its power would be unimaginable. At that point, he would truly be unrivaled beneath the Core Formation stage.

With such excitement, Chen Mobai took out five jade bottles he had redeemed from the Spiritual Treasure Pavilion from his storage bag. He opened one of them and looked inside: wisps of dark azure airflow swirled within the bottle but did not spill out. This phenomenon occurred because Earth Fiend Qi was heavier than atmospheric air and spiritual energy.

Chen Mobai slightly tilted the bottle opening towards the Azure Sun Fire in his palm and immediately pulled it back as the first wisp of dark azure airflow streamed out. Immediately, he felt the already incredibly hot Azure Sun Fire surge like oil poured onto a flame the moment the Azure Wood Fiend Qi was added, sending a towering flame upwards. The cave ceiling above Chen Mobai's head instantly had a pit burned into it. The molten rock and other debris that rolled down were blocked by the Crimson Cloud Smoke Net, which he had already unfurled. This artifact from the Dancing Arts Dao Academy, whose raw materials included magma currents, was particularly adept at this task.

At this point, Chen Mobai was fully immersed in forging the sword fiend. He held the Azure Sun Fire in his left palm and the jade bottle of Azure Wood Fiend Qi in his right hand, his eyes half-closed. The Pure Yang spiritual power within him began circulating through a grand cycle according to the path of the Crimson Flame Sword Art.

Guided by the Crimson Flame Sword Art, the Azure Sun Fire quickly transformed into a purple flame sword light under the manipulation of Pure Yang spiritual power. However, this purple flame sword light, compared to before, now had a wisp of deep, dark azure at its very core.

Within Chen Mobai's Purple Mansion Sea of Consciousness, one of the flower-fruits atop the envisioned Jade Phoenix Tree condensed into an invisible blade. His divine sense emerged and merged into the purple flame sword light. In an instant, he felt as if he had plunged into a sea of fire and magma. If it had been his former self, he would undoubtedly have been complaining bitterly at this point. Theoretically, at least a powerful divine sense from the late Foundation Establishment stage was required to withstand the terrifying heat of the Azure Sun Fire.

However, ever since Chen Mobai attained Foundation Establishment by gaining enlightenment through the Six Yang Divine Fire Mirror and acquired the Fire Spirit Body, his affinity for flames had become extraordinary. When his divine sense settled within the Azure Sun Fire, he felt no pain or scorching heat. Instead, it was like bathing in a hot spring—warm and weightless. The languid and pleasant comfort nearly made him lose himself in it. Fortunately, he remembered he was currently forging the Azure Flame Sword Fiend and promptly snapped back to consciousness.

After his divine sense merged with the Azure Sun Fire, he effortlessly absorbed and refined the wisp of dark azure fiend qi at the core of the purple flame sword light, leveraging his Fire Spirit Body talent. After this step, the originally vibrant purple flame sword light became slightly dimmer. It was as if the purple had been dyed by azure, starting to turn grey.

After one wisp, Chen Mobai tilted his right hand again, and another wisp of Azure Wood Fiend Qi descended. The purple flame sword light, nourished by the fiend qi, burned even brighter. But under Chen Mobai's divine sense manipulation, it didn't shoot upwards as before. Instead, it vibrated with burning energy, slowly refining and absorbing wisp after wisp of Azure Wood Fiend Qi poured from the bottle.

According to Immortal Sect standards, one unit of fiend qi was divided into ten strands, one strand into ten wisps, and one wisp into ten threads. Even with his Fire Spirit Body and perfect divine sense control over the Azure Sun Fire, Chen Mobai still took another half month to completely refine the entire unit of Azure Wood Fiend Qi from the jade bottle into the sword light.

A cinnabar-green beam of light extended from the Azure Sun Fire in his palm, like a ray of dawn breaking through the shroud of darkness at sunrise, carrying boundless heat and warmth. Yet, Chen Mobai had a premonition that if this cinnabar-green beam were to strike him, his life force would vanish, and he would turn to ash in an instant. This was the "Azure Flame Sword Fiend"!

Chen Mobai took out two cracked azure scales from his storage bag. These had fallen off the Azure Scale Gauntlets and, being damaged and unrecoverable, he had kept them instead of discarding them. They were perfect for testing the sword fiend's power today. As they had come from a second-tier water-attribute demonic beast—specifically, from the most precious natal artifact of the Azureblood Carp—they contained pure water spiritual energy and were ideal for defending against fire-attribute spells and artifacts. Although cracked now, the material itself was still second-tier.

Chen Mobai separated this Azure Flame Sword Fiend from the main body of the Azure Sun Fire, then dropped one of the cracked azure scales into the Azure Sun Fire. In just five seconds, he watched as the formerly crystalline, moist, and lustrous scale shriveled, charred black, carbonized, and finally turned into scattered dust on the ground.

After completing the first test, Chen Mobai threw the other scale onto the sword fiend. However, the moment it made contact, it instantly vaporized into a puff of smoke. The difference in power was immense.

Suppressing his excitement, Chen Mobai used his divine sense to coil the newly forged Azure Flame Sword Fiend. It eventually shrunk into a thumb-sized "sword pellet," which he then swallowed. This was only possible because he now possessed the Fire Spirit Body. If it were Xie Yuntian, even if he had successfully forged the Azure Flame Sword Fiend, he would still need to refine it with numerous medicinal ingredients before daring to condense it into a sword pellet and swallow it into his dantian qi sea.

After forging the first sword fiend, Chen Mobai looked at the Azure Sun Fire and noticed it had shrunk in size. However, he estimated that this mass of fire could forge five Azure Flame Sword Fiends, perfectly matching the quantity of Azure Wood Fiend Qi. This was also why he hadn't fed all of the raw ore spiritual stone to the Azure Sun Fire. He had even left a bit extra.

His current divine sense limit allowed him to control only four sword fiends. However, his Purple Mansion Sea of Consciousness had long been opened due to the Azure Wood Spirit Heart, and with the continuous supply of Clear Sight Bamboo Spirit Dew, another flower-fruit would grow in just half a year.

He then proceeded to forge the remaining three sword fiends in one go. With the experience gained from the first one, these three only took twenty days. After swallowing the four sword pellets, Chen Mobai felt a warmth in his stomach, as if four heat packs were attached to it. He instinctively touched his stomach but then found the action amusing and couldn't help but laugh aloud. However, this laughter was mostly due to his joy at finally having forged the "Azure Flame Sword Fiend."

It was worth noting that many Core Formation sword cultivators in the Immortal Sect only forged one sword fiend as a mere formality. Unlike them, he not only possessed a spiritual artifact like the Azure Sun Fire but also had the sect's help in extracting refined Earth Fiend Qi. He merely needed to circulate his sword art and use sword light to condense the spiritual fire and fiend qi to easily complete the forging. Furthermore, with his Fire Spirit Body—a physique most suitable for fire-attribute sword arts—he bypassed the tedious steps of refining the sword fiend with medicinal ingredients.

Now, Chen Mobai was confident that he could defeat even Xiahou Weihuan, Sima Xingyu, and others from the Pure Yang Academy. So what if they were at perfected Foundation Establishment? Just you wait!

Chen Mobai was brimming with confidence. His sword fiend was a third-tier technique. In a fair fight, he even wanted to spar with Lan Haitian to see if the so-called "unrivaled Foundation Establishment" was just an empty boast. Unfortunately, Lan Haitian had gone into seclusion to form his core, so he couldn't fight him in the Little Scarlet Heaven. What a pity!

Just as Chen Mobai was preparing to emerge from seclusion and make a long-overdue visit to the student council, his newly activated phone suddenly displayed numerous messages. The Ascension Class group chat, in particular, showed an unread message count of 99+.

Chen Mobai tapped to open it and found a lot of good news. Among them, Yun Yangbing's successful Foundation Establishment made him the happiest. Besides him, Gong Ranran and Li Zimo had also emerged from seclusion, full of vigor. Fan Yuanpu and Jin Shuwei had been slightly stuck at the critical moment of their divine sense emerging from the body, but they also announced in the group that they would definitely achieve Foundation Establishment before the end of this year. With this, over half of the Ascension Class had reached the Daoist Academy's average standard.

However, among them, Chen Mobai's good friend Wang Xingyu remained silent. Clearly, he hadn't reached the finish line yet, but since he had already comprehended the Critical Method, even if he didn't succeed this year, he certainly would before graduation.

After reading, Chen Mobai also appeared in the group chat and said a few words. "Brothers and sisters, once you get your artifact shards, don't rush to use them. I'll help you take a look first. Also, you can view the Student Council's Myriad Treasures Map for free using my name." Seeing his message, Yun Yangbing and the others who had successfully achieved Foundation Establishment all gave a thumbs-up. They all agreed to open their artifact-containing orbs together in the Myriad Treasures Cave at the end of the year. Chen Mobai also promised to wait for them at the student council then.

Finally, Ming Yihua popped up. He lamented that he was currently assisting the artifact forging department's director in crafting a large artifact, so busy every day that he had no time for cultivation. He greatly missed his brothers and sisters in the group and wished he could fly a thousand li to gather with them. Chen Mobai immediately chimed in, saying he (his disciple) had brewed a lot of excellent wines of various flavors, just waiting for him to come and open them. Ming Yihua replied with a drooling emoji...

While everyone was chatting merrily in the group, the separated couple, Lan Yufan and Lu Zixuan, remained silent, and no one called out to them.

After chatting for a while, Chen Mobai started looking at his other unread messages. After replying to his family and friends one by one, he saw a surprising one. Meng Huang'er had actually replied to him with "Here!" half a month ago. Her delay was quite significant, as Chen Mobai had asked if she was there three months prior. Feeling a bit ignored, Chen Mobai simply didn't reply, acting as if he hadn't seen it.

After chatting a bit more with Qing Nü Yan Bingxuan and other women, he officially emerged from seclusion. First, he returned to the student council. Under Hua Zijing's piercing gaze, he dealt with the accumulated official documents. By the time everything was finished, three days had passed.

Chen Mobai then paid a visit to his teacher, Che Yucheng. The master and disciple enjoyed an afternoon tea and finalized the roster for the team traveling to the Gou Mang Dao Academy at year-end.

Finally, Chen Mobai called his mother and asked her to mortgage the Flying Talisman Factory with the bank to acquire five million merit points. This money was, naturally, intended for purchasing elixirs from the Longevity Academy.

After settling all matters in the Immortal Sect, Chen Mobai returned to the Heavenly River Realm with a confident expression. Immediately upon his return and emergence from seclusion, he heard good news. Yu Lian had successfully established his foundation.