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"The Three-Year Agreement… it's about to begin soon. From the moment we left the small valley, it's already been a year and a half. And there's still about one year left until the Three-Year Agreement."
Wei Yang gazed into the distance, toward the direction of the Jia Ma Empire—the same direction they had originally come from.
In his heart, he couldn't help but think of that mysterious cultivation technique in Yao Lao's possession—Flame Mantra.
Most likely, by now, Xiao Yan had already begun cultivating Flame Mantra.
The so-called upgradeable cultivation technique: Flame Mantra.
At its core, it was essentially a form of plunder.
A method of plundering Heavenly Flames.
To put it bluntly, there wasn't much complexity or sophistication to it. It was simply brute-force plundering.
It involved directly devouring the source energy of a Heavenly Flame, and after seizing it, using that energy to drive one's own advancement and improve the cultivator's Dou Qi realm.
That's why in the original story, Xiao Yan was able to rapidly increase his strength through Flame Mantra by devouring Heavenly Flames. Simply put, it was an act of overbearing and tyrannical plunder.
Using the essence of Heaven and Earth's spiritual treasures—the source energy of Heavenly Flames—to elevate oneself.
Stripped down to its essence, there wasn't anything particularly magical or mysterious about it.
It was, at its root, an act of pure plunder.
Just like the Ancient Emperor Tuo She, who was himself a Heavenly Flame. He achieved supremacy by devouring the other twenty-two Heavenly Flames.
Even between Heavenly Flames themselves, when two meet, they instinctively try to devour one another to evolve and grow.
That is the inherent advantage of cultivating Flame Mantra.
However, the true power of a Heavenly Flame depends entirely on the user's Dou Qi realm and the depth of their energy reserves.
Moreover, to wield a Heavenly Flame, the user must use their own Dou Qi as the driving force behind the flame's energy.
The benefit for a Flame Mantra cultivator is the ability to completely plunder the source energy of the Heavenly Flame in one go—to fully absorb it for personal advancement.
As for others who refine Heavenly Flames—people like Wei Yang—the benefits are generally more subtle and long-term.
Just now, after refining the Black Sun Burning Heaven Flame, Wei Yang had used the flame's power to temper his body, resulting in a complete transformation and an increase in his innate talent.
But the core source energy of the Black Sun Burning Heaven Flame had not been absorbed by Wei Yang.
If given the right opportunity, the flame could continue to grow—possibly even surpassing Wei Yang, its master.
Wei Yang used his Dou Qi to fuel the Black Sun Burning Heaven Flame, treating it as a source of external energy.
The power of Dou Qi and the intrinsic power of a Heavenly Flame could stack together.
The resulting effect could be additive, surpass additive, or even fall short—it wasn't always fixed.
Take Gu Xun'er for example. She had a sub-flame of the Gold Emperor Incinerating Heavenly Flame sealed inside her. Its power vastly exceeded her own Dou Qi strength.
If Gu Xun'er ever encountered mortal danger, she could unseal the sub-flame and unleash its power.
She wouldn't even need to supply it with Dou Qi to drive it—the flame itself had enough inherent power to protect her or destroy her enemies.
The Black Sun Burning Heaven Flame was the same. Its source energy had not been depleted.
If one day Wei Yang found himself in danger, or lost the strength to fight, the flame could still act on its own—releasing its might to protect its master, without needing Wei Yang's Dou Qi to activate it.
It had become his Life Flame, similar to the Life Beast Flame that existed inside a Magic Beast.
It could grow alongside Wei Yang, yet it could also grow independently—eventually surpassing its master.
This was a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship.
When Wei Yang fought with the Black Sun Burning Heaven Flame, it was more like the two of them fighting as partners.
Looking down at the black flame flickering in his palm, Wei Yang silently analyzed the situation in his heart.
Should he devour it in one go, plundering it entirely to empower himself?
Or should they grow together in symbiosis?
It was hard to say which was better or worse—ultimately, it was a matter of perspective.
Of course, the single greatest benefit and advantage of cultivating Flame Mantra was this:
As long as you could find enough Heavenly Flames to devour, your growth speed would be nothing short of rocket-like.
This was something that others could only dream of catching up to.
Unless you had an extraordinary physique like the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils, or the Woeful Poison Body, or the legendary divine-grade Dou Di bloodline.
Flame Mantra was essentially an alternative way of cheating.
But this cheat came at a cost: nine deaths for every survival, always by your side.
If your fate wasn't strong enough, you were better off staying far away from it.
Also… it was extremely wasteful to the Heavenly Flames.
…
"In the blink of an eye, I've reached Seven-Star Dou Wang. This stage of Dou Wang is nearly at its end now," Wei Yang sighed.
He hadn't even realized it. Somehow, without much feeling or fanfare, he had already nearly finished his journey through the Dou Wang realm.
Once you reached the Dou Wang level, and especially beyond, even if you had top-tier talent and powerful cultivation techniques, you still had to rely on painstaking effort to slowly improve.
There weren't many shortcuts available.
Dou Spirit Pills were one such shortcut.
Or consuming other types of rare heavenly treasures.
Even Wei Yang was no exception.
Previously, he had thrown himself into cultivation with all he had, spending an entire year training. He'd been cultivating a Quasi-Heaven Grade compatible technique, and through consistent effort, had slowly risen from Three-Star to Six-Star.
Breaking through to Seven-Star only became possible thanks to this recent opportunity—by successfully devouring the Heavenly Flame and seizing the chance for his cultivation method to evolve. Without that, he would've needed at least a few more months.
After all, crossing from mid-tier Dou Wang to high-tier Dou Wang involved a significant barrier.
In fact, before reaching Dou Wang, as long as one had a decent technique, enough resources, and passable talent, it was very possible to cultivate up to Dou Wang.
But after Dou Wang, and especially into Dou Huang, unless one had some unique encounter or stroke of fortune, advancement would rely purely on slow, incremental gains—on the accumulation of time.
As for Dou Zong, that was no longer something you could brute-force with resources.
Dou Zong was a major threshold—it was the beginning of contact with the power of space.
It required extremely high levels of soul strength, innate talent, and comprehension ability.
Dou Zong was a massive divide. Countless peak Dou Huang experts got stuck there for life, unable to take that next step.
Even those with peerless talent in their youth had to bow their heads before this chasm.
Those who could become Dou Zong experts—regardless of how many years it took—had to possess outstanding qualifications and comprehension ability at the very least.
Even Wei Yang himself felt a bit uneasy about it. He didn't know how long he'd be stuck at that barrier.
If luck wasn't on your side, being stuck for three to five years was nothing unusual.
Not surprising at all.
After all, "talent" was a vague and hard-to-define thing.
Some people might have excellent physical aptitude, but if their comprehension was lacking, it still wouldn't be enough.
They might progress quickly in the early stages, but get overtaken later on—nothing strange about that.
With good roots, enough resources, and a decent technique, you might reach Dou Huang quickly. If you endured long enough, you might even touch Dou Zong.
But Dou Zun? That was almost out of reach.
That realm involved things like soul, comprehension, spirituality…
Very abstract and intangible.
Of course, that applied to normal people.
Those who relied on special physiques or Dou Di bloodlines were exceptions.
Though, sometimes, special physiques or bloodline powers could also become shackles.
(AN : According to Heavenly Silkworm Potato's lore, Xiao Yan's raw talent actually wasn't that great. After all, he had a discarded Dou Di bloodline. But his soft talents were exceptional—his comprehension was top-notch, and he had a sort of innate spirituality… No matter what Dou Technique he studied, he could pick it up quickly. The same applied to alchemy. Even after Yao Lao was captured, Xiao Yan relied entirely on self-study to reach Tier 8 Alchemist. That was true comprehension! True spirituality!)
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