Chapter 371: Ancient Fire Flame

Li Fire Cliff — just from the name, it had something to do with Li Fire.

Hua Changxi did know a bit about Li Fire; it was the Vermilion Bird's companion innate fire.

She just wondered whether Li Fire actually existed on this Li Fire Cliff.

Hua Changxi stared at the sea of fire at the bottom of the cliff for a moment, then withdrew her gaze and turned toward the deep stone cave at the other end of the cliff.

Compared to directly exploring the bottom of the cliff, it was safer to investigate the stone cave first.

Hua Changxi cautiously entered the stone cave. The cave was large and deep, and the fire spiritual energy inside was extremely rich.

After going more than ten meters deeper into the cave, many man-made stone chambers began to appear. The chambers were symmetrical on the left and right, and from their size and layout, it was clear they were used for living quarters.

As she went deeper, Hua Changxi silently counted—there were over a thousand stone chambers.

"Could Li Fire Cliff be a dedicated training ground for the Vermilion Bird Army?"

Soon, Hua Changxi dismissed this conjecture.

Simply because behind the stone chambers, there appeared one forge room after another.

"Li Fire Cliff turns out to be a place for artifact forging!"

At the entrance of each forge room, a sequence number was engraved—from one to one thousand—giving a total of one thousand forges.

On the walls inside the forge rooms, much common knowledge about artifact forging was inscribed, along with even the crafting processes for weapons. Beneath each forge furnace, there was an underground pit.

She had been to the Artifact Saint Palace and seen their forge rooms; the forging furnaces there all connected to earth fire.

Thus, Hua Changxi immediately thought of the sea of fire at the bottom of the cliff.

The forging furnaces must use the fire from the bottom of the cliff to forge artifacts!

Hua Changxi darted quickly through the forge rooms, and the more she saw, the more joy swelled in her heart.

In Forge Room No. 1 was engraved the crafting process for the Vermilion Token; in Forge Room No. 10, the process for the Vermilion Armor.

In Forge Room No. 100 was the process for the Vermilion Spear; in Forge Room No. 500, the process for the Vermilion Bow.

The few pieces of Vermilion Army equipment she was most concerned about could all be forged and refined here!

Hua Changxi continued deeper inside. The further she went, the richer and purer the fire spiritual energy became.

Behind the forge rooms, stone chambers began to appear again.

Unlike the stone chambers in the front part of the cave—which were used for living—these later chambers were clearly larger and more spacious, presumably used for offices and storage.

Going still deeper, the stone cave gradually narrowed, and at the same time, the terrain began to slope downward.

A guess immediately formed in Hua Changxi's mind: the end of the stone cave should be at the bottom of the cliff.

As she descended, Hua Changxi clearly felt her blood boiling more and more fiercely, and an increasingly intense "craving" rose in her heart.

She had only ever felt this sensation when absorbing and refining Vermilion Bird essence blood.

Her body screamed wildly, propelling Hua Changxi to quicken her pace. Before long, she saw firelight.

When she stepped out of the cave mouth, what greeted her was a vast sea of flames.

After practicing "Ten Thousand Flames Homage," Hua Changxi had become almost immune to fire; even surrounded by the sea of flames, she suffered little harm.

Yielding to the pull of her body, Hua Changxi walked toward the depths of the fire sea. She didn't know how long she walked, but amid a blazing inferno, a clump of fire the size of a basketball seized all her attention.

At first glance, that clump of fire resembled the crimson radiance of the rising sun, emitting an immense power that dispelled all darkness, bringing an overwhelming sense of brightness and warmth.

Upon a second look, the fire changed color—a purple-gold flame wrapped in multicolored clouds, radiating a sacred and inviolable light.

Finally, the fire gave a sense of burning to the extreme, manifesting as a purest, immaculate white, as if it would purify all filth.

Hua Changxi had never known that fire could stir so many emotions in a person.

"Is this Li Fire?"

The blood in her body boiled more intensely. Hua Changxi confirmed her body's desire: to absorb the 'Li Fire' before her.

Considering that she possessed the Vermilion Bird bloodline and had absorbed and refined a drop of Vermilion Bird essence blood, and that she had sensed no danger from the fire in front of her, she tentatively used the method for subduing strange fires—outputting spiritual power in an attempt to peel off a wisp of flame from the fire mass to absorb and refine.

She had originally thought peeling off the flame would be difficult, but unexpectedly, the moment her spiritual power touched the Li Fire, a wisp of Li Fire voluntarily rode the spiritual power downward and attached itself to Hua Changxi's body.

Previously, when burning with fire, the pain of being consumed by flames was the hardest to bear. But this time, there was no expected unbearable pain. However, the Li Fire was extremely difficult to absorb and refine, only covering and roaming on the surface of her body.

Since normal absorption and refinement were not going smoothly, Hua Changxi used the divine ability 'Ten Thousand Flames Homage'. This time, the absorption rate of the Li Fire indeed became much faster.

Although the Li Fire was absorbed into her body, she encountered obstacles when starting to refine it.

Finally, after many attempts, Hua Changxi used the physical divine ability 'Five Elements Fire Virtue Furnace', and only then did the refinement proceed smoothly.

As the refinement deepened, a Vermilion Bird spirit image began to emerge and condense above the dantian sea of Hua Changxi.

"Screech~"

When the Li Fire was completely refined, a radiant firebird flew out from Hua Changxi's body. The firebird was bathed in flames, and within the flames swirled a rainbow of light.

The firebird circled once above the sea of fire, then suddenly flew back into Hua Changxi's body.

Hua Changxi slowly opened her eyes, and a gleam of excitement flickered within them.

Compared to the previous Vermilion Bird spirit image, the current one was much more lifelike. Moreover, its entire body was covered with a layer of sacred and profound Li Fire radiance, emitting a divine aura that made it hard to look directly at.

"Ancient Li Fire!"

Hua Changxi now understood that the flame in the sea of fire before her was actually the Ancient Li Fire that had existed since the creation of heaven and earth.

Thinking about the process of absorbing and refining the Li Fire, she sighed with emotion.

No step taken in life is wasted.

She was able to absorb and refine the Li Fire because of the combined assistance of the bloodline divine ability 'Ten Thousand Flames Homage' and the physical divine ability 'Five Elements Fire Virtue Furnace'; only then was it accomplished.

If either of the two divine abilities were missing, she would not have been able to subdue the Li Fire.

Hua Changxi raised her right hand, and the wisp of Li Fire she had absorbed appeared in her palm.

Li Fire can illuminate the world with light; it can encompass the five elements and govern heaven and earth; it can also purify evil spirits in the world. It represents light, order, and purification.

Having subdued the Li Fire, the clamoring inside her body ceased. Hua Changxi was finally able to focus on the other conditions at the bottom of the cliff.

Her first discovery was the Li Fire Token in the sea of fire — a palm-sized fiery red token. One side was engraved with the words "Li Fire Cliff", and the other side had a "burning" three-dimensional Li Fire with constantly shifting colors.

It was real Li Fire!

Hua Changxi marveled at the artifact-refining techniques of the ancient era, unable to imagine how the artifact refiner had "sealed" the Li Fire within the token.

This Li Fire Token was undoubtedly the symbol of the master of Li Fire Cliff.

After marveling, she refined the Li Fire Token.

Having already subdued the Li Fire, she succeeded with ease.

After refining the Li Fire Token, Hua Changxi became fully aware of the situation on Li Fire Cliff.

Li Fire Cliff was indeed the forging site of the Vermilion Bird Army, where the flames nurtured by the Ancient Li Fire were used to refine armors and weapons best suited for the Vermilion Bird Army's combat.

At the same time, due to the nourishment of the Ancient Li Fire, Li Fire Cliff had produced an exceptionally superior fire-attribute ore — South Bright Stone.

South Bright Stone was an excellent material for forging both armor and weapons.

Hua Changxi left the sea of fire at the bottom of the cliff and returned to the cliff top, looking at the stone cave and frowning, "We have a forging site, but there are no artifact refiners!"

Should she collaborate with Tong Yao again?

Hua Changxi was somewhat reluctant about this. The Vermilion Bird Army's required equipment was too massive. Collaborating with Tong Yao would definitely alert others in the Artifact Saint Palace, and she did not want to reveal too much about herself.

However, besides the Artifact Saint Palace, there seemed to be no one else who could handle such a large order.

Hua Changxi's head ached. Just as she decided to first go out and talk to Tong Yao, she sensed someone outside attacking the barrier of Li Fire Cliff.

"Are you sure it's here?"

"It's right here. I heard the bird call with my own ears. If you don't believe me, you can feel the fire spiritual energy in this rift valley — isn't it several times denser than when we passed by a few days ago?"

In the rift valley, five Nascent Soul cultivators and over a dozen Core Formation cultivators were searching everywhere and attacking in all directions.

"Alright, you continue searching the rift valley. I will report this information upstairs..."

Before the leading Nascent Soul cultivator could finish his words, he saw a giant hand that blotted out the sky stretching out from the depths of the rift valley, grabbing everyone in the valley, and then quickly retracting back into the depths.

The giant hand vanished, and the rift valley returned to silence.