Chapter 1685: Clearing the Fetal Poison (Part 2)

Knowing this was not the time for doubt, Zhang Xuan suppressed the dizziness in his heart and continued to observe the stone platform before him.

The black shadow, at this moment, appeared to be undergoing the same experience. Heavenly flames continuously rained down from the sky, scorching it as black as charcoal, like the bottom of a pot. Its aura was far weaker than before, seemingly on the verge of death at any moment.

Just as its aura became imperceptibly faint, a subtle power began to slowly grow within its body. Like a germinating seed, it quickly transformed into a towering tree.

It grew stronger and more vibrant. Although the black shadow remained motionless, it gave the impression that it could tear through space and leap away at any moment.

“This is… breaking down to build up, perishing to be reborn?”

His heart trembled.

Like autumn winds sweeping fallen leaves, when autumn arrives, the vibrant scenery is engulfed, eventually becoming lifeless. But in spring, all things revive, spiritual energy returns, and what seemed dead blossoms with new life once more.

This is a law of nature.

Evidently, the black shadow before him employed this method.

“With this heavenly flame, the more fiercely one resists, the more intense the burning becomes. Conversely, if one’s power is weakened, the temperature will also drop. Once the body’s strength has been enhanced by tempering in the lower-temperature flames, then one can continue, and the body will adapt…”

He suddenly understood.

This Supreme Heavenly Flame, much like a lightning tribulation, behaves similarly: the stronger your cultivation and the more profound your accumulation, the greater the power of the lightning. Conversely, the weaker your accumulation, the smaller its power.

The immediate priority was not to resist head-on. Otherwise, even a witch soul that had reached the Golden Body realm would be unable to withstand it and would fall into a coma. Given this… it would be better to feign weakness first, and then gradually increase strength once the body’s power had advanced.

“Winter arrives, and all life perishes!”

Understanding this, Zhang Xuan ceased resisting the flames within his body. In an instant, it was as if his breath had stopped, his consciousness detaching from his body. It felt as if he had entered the depths of winter, where under a blanket of heavy snow, all life perished, and not a single green plant was visible.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

Indeed, with his power completely suppressed, the heavenly flames seemed to have lost their opponent, and their temperature rapidly plummeted.

In this scenario, true qi was like gasoline. Using gasoline to block flames would only make them more ferocious. However, if it were locked away and prevented from contacting the flames, then as time passed, the fire would lose its fuel and naturally gradually extinguish, eventually vanishing.

With his true qi no longer resisting, he fell into complete silence, appearing like an ordinary person. The power of the heavenly flames weakened, the pain subsided, and it became bearable.

The flames dispersed, burning within his cells. Streaks of black gas were incinerated and expelled, and his physical body gradually began to turn golden.

Having cultivated the Heavenly Dao Golden Body, Zhang Xuan knew that these black gases were impurities in the body, difficult to completely eliminate even with continuous, repeated tempering.

It was like taking a bath; no matter how thoroughly one cleaned, dirt could still be scrubbed off.

Spiritual energy contained impurities, which was why spirit stones were categorized into various grades: Supreme, High, Medium, and Low.

But even the purest Supreme-grade spirit stones were not one hundred percent pure. If the spiritual energy absorbed was like this, one could only imagine the impurities within the human body.

Heavenly flames precisely incinerated these impurities into ash, expelling them from the body and making the cultivator even stronger.

Gold is the metal with the fewest impurities. With continuous tempering, the physical body would, like gold, emit a golden radiance—this was the origin of the Golden Body.

As more black gas was released, the golden radiance emanating from Zhang Xuan grew stronger.

Previously, only his soul had been burned; now, his physical body and true qi were also undergoing a golden transformation.

With a light tap, his body emitted a ‘buzzing’ metallic clang, like an unquenched divine weapon.

“I can increase the flame’s temperature now…”

Seeing that the previous pain had vanished with the tempering, Zhang Xuan knew the flames no longer posed such a great threat. His aura began to increase rapidly.

In an instant, all things revived, ice and snow melted, and the vitality within his body burst forth.

Rumble!

Seemingly sensing the change in his body, the heavenly flames felt as if they had been toyed with. Full of rage, towering streaks of fire descended once more.

This was precisely the result he wanted. With a thought, countless streams of power surged into his body.

Crackling!

The heavenly flames, which he previously couldn't resist, now roamed within his body, causing much less pain and becoming acceptable.

Black gas continued to be expelled, and his Golden Body appeared even more dazzling.

While his body remained unharmed, the floor he sat on turned pitch black and took on a glazed appearance under the scorching of the heavenly flames.

It was identical to the one he had seen before.

“It’s time to deal with the innate fetal poison!”

After burning for a while longer, feeling his body had completely adapted, Zhang Xuan breathed a sigh of relief and his gaze sharpened.

It was time to resolve the hidden danger of the innate fetal poison.

Before, it could hide within his physical body. Where could it hide this time?

Taking a deep breath, his gaze sharpened, and he suddenly shot towards the sky, entering the dark clouds.

Since he intended to eliminate the innate fetal poison, he would leave it no escape route. The amount of heavenly flames brought down by the lightning was still too little.

Although his witch soul had entered the dark clouds last time, it hadn't gone deep enough, which was why the creature had escaped.

This time, it absolutely would not escape.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

As soon as he entered, he immediately felt countless black flames swarming towards him, engulfing him.

He didn't dodge; all his acupuncture points opened simultaneously, and he began to absorb frantically.

The black heavenly flames entered his meridians, and under the control of his consciousness, surged towards the innate fetal poison.

Screeching!

The innate fetal poison was lazily curled up, not expecting him to attract such fierce heavenly flames with his physical body so quickly. Startled, it shrieked and turned to flee.

“Can you escape?”

Having been tormented by this entity for so long, he wouldn't let it have its way. Before the innate fetal poison could flee far, it saw a mass of flames surging into the meridians ahead as well.

In the blink of an eye, all escape routes were sealed off.

Knowing this entity was swift, he had prepared in advance. Now, his entire body was engulfed in heavenly flames, turning him completely black, like a lump of coal. If he still couldn’t burn this creature clean, he might as well just bash his head in and die.

Screeching!

Completely surrounded, the innate fetal poison could no longer escape. It was quickly encircled by the heavenly flames. Amidst the scorching inferno, a sharp, piercing, piteous wail, akin to a spiritual entity, grew fainter and fainter until it vanished completely.

“It’s finally eliminated…”

He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

With his soul and physical body tempered by the heavenly flames, his entire being—spirit, energy, and essence—reached its peak. No matter how cunning this entity was, it could no longer escape.

Fearing that the innate fetal poison might undergo a change and adapt to the heavenly flames, he continued to absorb the flames even after its cries ceased. He kept burning for nearly ten more minutes, only stopping when he saw that the dark clouds in the sky had noticeably thinned.

Pushing away the flames, his consciousness involuntarily spread inward. With just one glance, his pupils involuntarily constricted.

“This… what is this?”

Zhang Xuan stood frozen in place.