Cultivation Begins From The Desert-Chapter 54: Qianyang True Flame

"Spiritual Energy Infusion! Xiao Jiu has succeeded!"

At White Camel Peak, when Zhou Minghan, who was guarding outside Chen Pingzhi’s cave residence, detected a fluctuation in spiritual energy inside, he abruptly stood up from his game with Chen Pingzhi, looking excited and joyful as he gazed into the cave.

Chen Pingzhi also placed the chess piece in his hand down and stood up, chuckling softly as he said, "It is indeed the phenomenon of Spiritual Energy Infusion. With Zhou Xiaoyou’s age, and the protection of the Foundation Establishment Pill, there is absolutely no possibility of failure at this Physical Body Barrier!"

After speaking, he cupped his hands towards Zhou Minghan, laughing and congratulating, "Hehehe, congratulations Brother Ming Han, with such a genius member of the Zhou Family, prosperity is within reach, and Brother Ming Han truly has successors!"

"Hahaha, then I’ll take Brother Pingzhi’s auspicious words!" Zhou Minghan laughed heartily, not denying it.

Chen Pingzhi’s words seemed to hit the nail on the head for him. Why had he worked so hard to cultivate the younger Zhouyang for all these years if not for this moment?

Now, the years of effort have finally borne fruit, how could he not be overjoyed?

Zhou Minghan couldn’t even remember how long it had been since he was this happy. Even when Zhou Xuanhao unexpectedly succeeded in Foundation Establishment, he wasn’t this delighted.

After all, Zhou Xuanhao was old, and even if he succeeded in Foundation Establishment, his future achievements would still be capped at the Foundation Establishment Stage, possibly not even reaching the Late-Stage Foundation Establishment.

But Zhouyang was different. Zhouyang was only thirty-four years old, and with the Foundation Establishment Cultivator’s lifespan of two hundred and forty years, he still had at least two hundred years to live.

Two hundred years is more than enough time for him to reach the Ninth Layer of Foundation Establishment and strive towards the Purple Mansion.

If Zhouyang succeeds in opening the Purple Mansion and becomes a Purple Mansion Stage Cultivator with a lifespan of five hundred years, the Zhou family will benefit, becoming a Purple Mansion Clan with a Purple Mansion Stage cultivator. For the following five hundred years, with a Purple Mansion Stage cultivator overseeing, the Zhou family would not need to worry about issues in their family legacy.

Zhou Minghan couldn’t help but smile even in his dreams at the thought of this.

Of course, the happiest person right now was undoubtedly Zhouyang himself.

As Chen Pingzhi mentioned, given his age and physical condition, there was simply no reason for failure at the Physical Body Barrier.

Even though the "Spiritual Energy Infusion" he experienced was a notch stronger due to being on a Tier Four Spiritual Vein compared to when his father Zhou Xuanhao went through it, it only caused a bit of swelling pain, nothing to mention when compared to the pain of passing the Magic Power Barrier.

After the "Spiritual Energy Infusion," it took Zhouyang roughly three days to refine all the spiritual energy surging into his body into Magical True Essence. At this time, the amount of Magical True Essence in his Dantian Qi Sea had transformed from a small puddle into a small pond, solidifying his cultivation at the First-Layer Foundation Establishment.

However, what made Zhouyang the happiest wasn’t this; it was because, with the success of Foundation Establishment, his unique Treasure Body finally revealed its anomaly, awakening the companion divine technique unique to the Treasure Body, and he finally learned the name of his Treasure Body.

The Treasure Body is called "Qianyang Treasure Body," where Qian signifies gold, and Yang signifies fire, aligning with Zhouyang’s spirit root attributes of gold and fire, not without influence from this.

The Treasure Body Divine Technique Zhouyang awakened is called "Qianyang True Flame."

"Qianyang True Flame" is the Supreme Yang Fire, extreme and fierce, famed for its dominance and intensity, and is also one of the most suitable True Flames for artifact refining.

After Zhouyang learned from the old clan leader Zhou Minghan that he might possess a Treasure Body, he specifically researched various Treasure Bodies and their past owners, among which was this "Qianyang Treasure Body."

According to the records he reviewed, more than five thousand years ago, there existed a cultivator with a Top-grade Spiritual Root in the Boundless Desert Sea who also possessed the "Qianyang Treasure Body." This person, after forming his core, relied on the dominant and fierce "Qianyang True Flame" to fight an admirable draw against a Nascent Soul Stage ghostly demon cultivator. It is said that after forming his Nascent Soul, the power of "Qianyang True Flame" was strong enough to burn mountains and boil seas.

While the power of the "Qianyang True Flame" Zhouyang awakened and mastered right now was certainly not at the level of burning mountains and boiling seas, it was stronger by far compared to the Foundation Establishment True Flames grasped by other Foundation Establishment Cultivators.

Zhouyang estimated that even the Purple Core Earth Fire in the Level A Earth Fire Chamber at the Earth Fire Cave of Golden Dawn Mountain would at most be comparable in power to his "Qianyang True Flame."

And that Level A Earth Fire Chamber was only accessible to Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators because Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators couldn’t withstand the temperature of the Earth Fire inside.

"I wonder if my ’Qianyang True Flame’ can refine that black iron ore?"

Inside the Seclusion Chamber, Zhouyang looked at the faint golden True Flame in his hand, and suddenly thought of the pitch-black iron ore he once received at the Jade Spring Tower.

That piece of black iron ore, despite his extensive research, yielded no information on its origin. Even the senior clan leader, Zhou Minghan, a Tier Three High-grade Refiner, couldn’t identify its true origin or break it apart, even after deploying a Tier Three Flying Sword to attack it.

With the thought in mind, Zhouyang immediately took out the mysterious black ore from his storage bag and directly threw it into the pale golden "Qianyang True Flame" to be tempered.

At this moment, something unbelievably surprising happened to Zhouyang.

After he threw the black ore into the "Qianyang True Flame," the flame, which was originally burning quietly under his control, suddenly became uncontrollable, leaping several feet high and the temperature sharply increased.

"What’s going on? Why is my True Flame suddenly beyond my control? Could this mysterious ore have some special connection with the Qianyang True Flame?"

Startled, Zhouyang widened his eyes, staring at the fiercely burning flames. It was unheard of for a True Flame, formed by a cultivator’s magical power, to escape their control—it was simply an extraordinary occurrence.

But this was just the beginning.

As Zhouyang continued to watch, he noticed that the black ore being tempered by the "Qianyang True Flame" had its color changed to a blue-black hue, and the surface, which even a Tier Three Flying Sword couldn’t scratch, finally began to melt.

Before long, this mysterious ore, which had once exhausted Zhouyang’s effort without being melted or destroyed, melted into a pool of blue-black liquid right before his eyes.

At this moment, Zhouyang had no time to examine or study the nature and properties of the blue-black liquid, as his attention was fully captured by a golden treasure pearl revealed after the ore had melted.

Because the mysterious ore had a strong isolating effect on Divine Sense, Zhouyang never imagined that inside the ore another treasure was hidden.

Now that the golden treasure pearl was revealed, it was evidently extraordinary, for once the Qianyang True Flame wrapped it, not only did it not damage the pearl in the slightest, but it also seemed to invigorate and strengthen the flame.

This made Zhouyang conclude that the culprit for the Qianyang True Flame becoming uncontrollable was this unknown golden treasure pearl.

He even suspected that the reason the mysterious ore was refined by his Qianyang True Flame was all due to the power of this golden treasure pearl; otherwise, his modest Foundation Establishment stage True Flame shouldn’t possess such miraculous effect.

"What kind of treasure is this golden treasure pearl? Is it a kind of powerful magical artifact? Or a kind of natural spiritual object?"

With a face full of curiosity and suspicion, Zhouyang stared at the golden treasure pearl floating up and down within the Qianyang True Flame.

The golden treasure pearl, about the size of an egg, was engraved with dense and intricate ancient inscriptions all over its surface, inscriptions even smaller than sesame seeds, as thin as a strand of hair.

Zhouyang, being a Tier Two High-grade Refiner, understood many functions of restriction runes, yet he couldn’t decipher any of the inscriptions on the golden treasure pearl. Just staring at them too long made him dizzy and nauseous.

This amused rather than alarmed him, and with excitement, he mumbled while staring at the golden treasure pearl: "Without a doubt, since I’m now a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and my Divine Sense is as strong as that of a Late-Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, any treasure that makes me feel uncomfortable at a glance must be at least Tier Six or higher. It’s normal for me not to understand those inscriptions, because artifacts above Tier Six can only be crafted using techniques recorded in the legendary ’Golden Seal Jade Record - Artifact Refining Chapter’ from the Upper Realm."

The so-called "Golden Seal Jade Record" was a set of cultivation codices compiled when the earliest cultivators of this realm received the teachings from Immortals of the Upper Realm, containing not only more than ten Chapters of immortal techniques pointing directly to the True Immortal Dao but also sections like "Array Chapter," "Artifact Refining Chapter," "Alchemy Chapter," "Spirit Plant Chapter," and "Beast Taming Chapter," recording the cultivation world’s most top-tier skills and inheritance.

The text of the "Golden Seal Jade Record" wasn’t the simplified characters commonly used in today’s cultivation realm, but the legendary "Golden Seal Text" and "Silver Talisman Text," with each character said to contain mysterious power.

However, throughout the inheritance in the cultivation realm, most of the original "Golden Seal Jade Record" had long been lost, with only some remnants stored by major sects and clans with long histories.

Moreover, later cultivators, building upon the predecessors’ works, used the techniques and skills from the "Golden Seal Jade Record" as templates to create many cultivation techniques and skills not inferior and even superior to them, so the loss of the original "Golden Seal Jade Record" was not a huge concern.

Of course, these things had nothing to do with the Zhou Family or Zhouyang. He had only seen the legend of the "Golden Seal Jade Record" in some books, as such a level of treasure was far beyond the Zhou Family’s ability to collect or use.

It was only upon seeing the golden treasure pearl before him that Zhouyang recalled those stories of cultivating miracles, originally considered as mere legends, and speculated, half-guessing, that the golden pearl was a treasure crafted with the artifact refining methods from the "Golden Seal Jade Record."

Whether or not this was the case, it would need to be confirmed.

He stretched out his hand, directly reaching into the fiercely burning Qianyang True Flame, and firmly grasped the golden treasure pearl.

The Qianyang True Flame, originally manifested by his magical power, even if out of control, wouldn’t harm someone with the Qianyang Treasure Body like him.

At the moment he grasped the golden treasure pearl, the pearl suddenly radiated brilliant golden light, instantly transforming into a golden shooting star and entering his Dantian Qi Sea.