Chapter 149: True Flame Essence

So hot!"

Kritos felt as if his body had stepped into a blazing brazier. Although he was protected by qi, the burning ache was like a blazing knife cutting through him, almost unbearable.

Asrasys Burning Flame suddenly aroused from his body as it sensed the hot lava fire.

Zzz!! Zz!!

As if it is too excited to consume the sea of lava, it starts encircling Kritos in a mysterious spiritual flame.

Soon, the resistance of the lava began to decline. Taking a deep breath, Kritos's entire body instinctively plunged into the fiery sea of lava fire.

Chi chi chi chi chi!

Kritos could even hear the sound of the layer of qi protecting his body burning against the hot flaming lava. But Kritos was in a hurry to introduce the lava's fire into his body. He shut his eyes in meditation and adjusted his mental state for half an incense stick of time. He let his mind completely relax, and entered into a deep ethereal state before he began to gingerly introduce the fire of lava into his body. 

Unknowingly he mechanically activated Asrasys Burning Flame skill.

As soon as a small flame entered Kritos's body, it was like a fierce crimson fire flood dragon that tried to rush left and right. However, due to the Asrasys Burning Flame, it was soon suppressed and no matter where it rushed, it was unable to create any damage.

Soon, Kritos quickly subdued the wisp of lava fire, and it obediently circulated through the meridians in his body, burning away the impurities and purifying more qi in his body.

Kritos introduced wisp after wisp of lava fire into his body. Gradually, there were dozens of fire wisps inside of Kritos's body.

With each addition of fire inside his body through Asrasys Burning Flame, Kritos's cultivation increases involuntarily. Shortly after a minute, he realised that he just made a breakthrough to Rank Four of Foundation Realm.

He was really surprised by the power of Asrasys Burning Flame. 

However, with increasing flame wisps inside his meridians, Kritos felt unbearable pain in his body. A small flame did not count for much. However, there were so many flame wisps that were rushing about, that even though Kritos's qi was so thick and pure, he still felt that it was difficult to control.

His face was very red, and the blue veins of his forehead were bulging from the intense pressure he was feeling. He continuously exuded large beads of sweat, but as soon as these beads met the sizzling heat, they immediately evaporated before they could even fall.

Under such a difficult state, the impurities in Kritos's body began to melt away at a very slow rate…

The lava fire in his body began to grow more and more wild. The countless tiny units in Kritos's body began to breathe at the same frequency, suppressing the restless wisps of fire. But even so, Kritos was finding it more and more difficult to persist.

At this point, Kritos was considering leaving the lava pond. Otherwise, if he stayed down any longer, it was possible that he would damage his meridians, or even be burned to death!

Sssh!! Sssh!

But at this moment, the Asrasys Burning Flame in Kritos's heart suddenly burst out. A surge of highly compressed fierce and brutal true fire instantly surrounded that wisp of lava fire. With a light puff sound, that wisp of lava fire had been directly devoured by the tiny Asrasys Burning Flame!

Kritos probed his soul, and was utterly shocked to find that the lava fire had already fully integrated into the Asrasys Burning Flame and had become a part of the Asrasys Burning Flame!

This time, Kritos had a full understanding of the principle. The function of the Asrasys Burning Flame was to gather energy and to compress the true essence of fire into it.

Because of the continuous consumption of Lava fire, the Asrasys Burning Flame had grown a little bit!

With this, Kritos was pleasantly surprised.

As the Asrasys Burning Flame engulfed the lava fire, it began to slowly grow. At the start, it had been the size of a grain of rice, but now it has become the size of a mung bean.

Gradually, a deep crimson wisp of a flame began to float around the Kritos's heart. The Asrasys Burning Flame bathed in a mysterious flame and was suffused with a ruby-red light.

A small spark emerged from the side of the Asrasys Burning Flame, it began to mix with Kritos's blood. If Kritos hadn't been looking carefully, it would simply have gone unnoticed.

"This is… True Flame Essence?"

Kritos was shocked. Some extraordinary fires in this world had a soul. As long as the fire was able to exist for a long time in a remote place, it was possible that it would give birth to Flame Essence.

The difference between normal fire and Flame Essence was that normal fire had to have materials to combust, or else it would be extinguished. However, Flame Essence was eternal. It could even be used as kindling to create storms of flame that could burn down a forest. No matter how much fire was created, the Flame Essence would not weaken.

This was why some alchemists and refiners would travel the world to the most remote, savage, and dangerous dungeons in order to seek out a Flame Essence. They would devote all of their efforts to subdue it for their own use.

Kritos had never thought that a Flame Essence would actually be born inside his own heart with the help of Asrasys Burning Flame. Of course, this Flame Essence seemed to be the weakest Flame Essence in the entire world. It was only the size of a spark, and it had been bred from low-level fire lava. He had no idea where he would need to go to find a higher-grade flame.

Nonetheless, Kritos did not underestimate it. If the Asrasys Burning Flame could unendingly devour more and more exotic flames, would the True Fire Essence change along with it?

Kritos continued to stimulate wisps of lava fire into his body to see if the Asrasys Burning Flame would absorb them. But this time Kritos found that any new lava fire was only compressed around the Asrasys Burning Flame, and no longer fused into the Flame Essence.

It seemed as if the Asrasys Burning Flame had already achieved a state of saturation.

It might have been because this sea of lava fire was simply too weak, so it couldn't meet the needs of the Asrasys Burning Flame's growth.

Nevertheless, Asrasys Burning Flame soon consumes all fire wisps inside the sea of fire into it. It didn't want to leave a single fire wisp.

Like a hungry child, it still devours fire even after filing its stomach.

Due to the loss of all fire wisps of lava fire, the sea of fire soon dried. There was even some crack on the ground.

Thud!!

With a sound, Kritos fell to the ground, his body fully exhausted due to today's event. However, after complete absorption of the sea of fire, he made two consecutive breakthroughs. Now, he was at the peak of Rank five of Foundation Realm.

×××××××××××××××××××××