Chapter 72: Fusing with the Essence Flame (I)

One week later~

"Ugh," Zen woke up while clenching his forehead with his hands.

'What happened?'

*Thump*

Freya from outside dropped her basin of water when she saw Zen awake.

"You're finally awake Zen. Did you know how worried we were when you remained unconscious despite having Cecilia injecting her true qi to you?" 

Freya said as she walked over to Zen and used her smooth hand to touch his pulse to make sure everything was over.

Meanwhile, Zen was completely speechless about Freya saying he has been unconscious for a week.

The last thing he remembered was activating Chaos Void then everything became a blur to him.

"Freya, what happened to those people that I was fighting? Did you guys clean my mess because I was beaten?" Zen said depressingly when he was overpowered without a chance to take the upper hand.

'I was so arrogant and cocky about everyone being an ant. Turns out I'm the fool one all along.'

Being downcast by his poor performance in the fight, Zen wanted to hide in shame.

"Haha, what are you saying Zen? You were spectacular and amazing in the fight. You killed all of them in a flash where even I could not see the speed." Freya said blissfully in order to boost his self-confidence back.

Her strategy works as Zen covers his face with his hand before looking back up at Freya.

"That's right, I'm amazing, and for that, shouldn't you give me a kiss for my heroic fight." Zen removed his negative thoughts and returned back to his shameless self.

Freya was happy that he's able to return back to normal but sighs as she couldn't handle his cheeky behavior.

It was like he could hypnotize her into giving her body to him if she interacted with him any longer.

"Seeing that you're back to normal, I gotta go," Freya said as she rushed outside the room.

'Am I really that terrifying?' 

Zen stretched his arm and got up slowly to do some more exercise. Being unconscious for a week is not something good since he couldn't move his body nor cultivate.

Speaking of cultivating, Zen suddenly realized the most important point. The reason why he got into a fight against four people was for the essence flame.

'Did some fishermen take my essence flame?' Zhen was terrified to know the truth about what happened to the essence flame.

(Fishermen, a term used for those who wait for two parties to waste their energy and then come in to steal the fruit of labor.)

If he wasted all his energy, even to the brink of death, and got nothing in the end, that is one tragedy.

"Cecilia, did some faggot took the essence flame when I fainted? If so, let's murder him for stealing my thing." Zen said to Cecilia and is ready to massacre someone.

"You're an idiot alright. I got the essence flame in a special container so are you going to kill me now?" Cecilia said while flickering her hand and dragged Zen inside the space.

Staring deeply at him, Cecilia was smiling at what's Zen is going to do. Without a doubt, Zen starts bootlicking her after realizing his mistake.

"How could I possibly dare to harm my Cecilia? If you had a physical body, I can't wait to kiss you for being by my side. Haha." Zen said to try and avoid the conversation of his previous sentence.

"Hmph, next time, learn to think before you speak. If you actually dare to try and scheme against me then." Cecilia said without finishing her word because she didn't need to.

Cecilia activated her essence flame and it started making blazing images of Zen being burned alive.

Seeing the images that Cecilia used with her essence flame, Zen instantly got to his knee to beg for forgiveness.

'Bowing down to your woman is nothing shameful at all. It is just my way of paying respect.'

Trying hard to not make himself a cowardly person that kneels in front of a powerhouse, Zen came up with multiple reasons.

Cecilia didn't bother with his fake acting since she could tell he wasn't sincere and was just playing along.

She opens her palm and a special container with a fiery red lotus-shaped flame in it that is brimming with life force.

"This is the essence flame from that volcano. It is called the BloodJade Flame and it's ranked around the 20th in contrast to 32 known essence flames in total." Cecilia starts explaining the essence flame and many other rankings of it.

Zen nods slowly while paying attention to every detail that she is saying. Cecilia continues talking for another 30 minutes before stopping since saying any more would do more harm than good.

"Although BloodJade Flame is ranked 20, it doesn't mean it's weak because any essence flame is strong and depends heavily on the user.  My flame is ranked 6 and it has almost cost my life to fuse with it."

When Zen heard Cecilia mention how she almost lost her life when fusing with her essence flame, he figured out her true motive.

'It's a risky move for me to fuse with this BloodJade Flame and I could even lose my life in the worst-case scenario.'

Zen wasn't dumb to not understand her intention when she made it so obvious but he also wasn't one to give up.

"It took me so much effort to get this essence flame. Cecilia, you know that I will never back off just because there's a chance of me dying. Death always looms around so why should I be scared?"

Zen clenches his fist while his eyes start to brim with determination to fuse with the essence flame.

Cecilia didn't say any more unnecessary words since he got her meaning so she broke the special container and allowed the BloodJade Flame to be free.

*Crack*

The BloodJade Flame starts flowing mid-air while the temperature of the space becomes increasingly hot as it is untamed and a wild one.

"I'm ready Cecilia, you can teach me the method on how to fuse it." Zen took a step forward to get near the essence flame despite it starting to burn away his clothes.