Beads of sweat popped out on Bai Xiaochun’s forehead, and he began to pant from the exertion. The fluctuations of his divine sense were somewhat disorderly, and yet, the sea of fire continued to shrink down. Soon it was 150 meters. Then 120 meters, 90 meters….
“This was where I failed so many times before….” He thought, working hard to maintain full focus. Soon, the sea of fire had shrunk down to 60 meters!
And things weren’t over yet! 45 meters. 30 meters. 15 meters!
By this point, the seventeen-colored sea of fire seemed like the sovereign of all types of fire! Intense rumbling sounds echoed out, and the fire leaped and danced as though it didn’t wish to be constrained.
However, all of the explosive activity was limited to that 15-meter area. As the shrinking continued, shocking transformations were beginning to occur. The fire began to burn hotter, and the seventeen different colors inside of it were beginning to overlap. It was a dazzling sight that not even Bai Xiaochun’s divine sense could make out clearly.
Furthermore, as the seventeen different colors flickered, it was possible to see… another color!!
“This is the last, critical moment!” he murmured excitedly. According to the formula, it was within the 15-meter area that the eighteenth color would appear. It was in that critical moment that his vision would begin to swim, but that he would be required to locate that additional color!
When he located it, he would have to lock his divine sense on it, causing that color to expand, to grow, to become… the eighteenth color!
At that point, he could make a portion of eighteen-colored soul medicine, or, if he compressed the flame all the way down, an eighteen-colored flame!
He would only have one chance, and if he failed… the flame would vanish.
The smaller the sea of fire got, the more slowly the colors would flicker, which would make it easier to spot and lock onto the new color. Unfortunately, he needed to exert more force to do that, which meant that the chances of dangerous instabilities were even greater!
This was another point where he had often failed in the past.
“I can’t fail again….” Forcing his breathing under control, he stared at the 15-meter sea of fire and tried as hard as he could to locate the additional color. Unfortunately, every time he sent his divine sense deep into the fire, it was rebuffed.
Time passed, and he was beginning to lose focus.
“I’ll compress it more!” he said with full determination. At this point, he abandoned his search efforts, and began to push the flame down to a smaller size. It was now 12 meters across, and the flickering of the colors was growing slower.
Please go to
install our App to read the latest chapters for free
Chapter
783: Dramatic Events!
The slowdown compared to the 15-meter size was miniscule. In fact, most other people wouldn’t even be able to notice the difference. However, Bai Xiaochun was so focused on the sea of fire that he could immediately notice the difference.
And yet, even with that change, the flickering colors within the 12-meter sea of fire were still impossible to penetrate with divine sense. Bai Xiaochun’s eyes were bloodshot, and he was trembling physically from the exertion. By now, his cultivation base, his mental faculties, and his ability to shrink the sea of fire were all reaching the limit.
And yet, he didn’t attempt to shrink the sea of fire down again. He tried yet again to find the eighteenth color. Then he tried a second time, and a third time…. In the short time it takes an incense stick to burn, he was able to glimpse it a total of fourteen times.
“So, I was right. This time, things are going better. The last time, I was only able to glimpse it nine times. This time, that number has increased to fourteen.”
His spirits were lifted. However, despite having glimpsed it clearly so many times, he still wasn’t able to reach it with his divine sense. He sighed, then gritted his teeth and gave up on trying to form the eighteen-colored flame with a 12-meter sea of flame. Instead, he chose… to shrink it down again!
It was almost as if a huge pair of hands were physically pushing the sea of fire in on itself. It began to fluctuate, and even seemed to be teetering on the verge of destabilizing. Bai Xiaochun immediately adjusted his method of control, and when it stabilized, he forced it to shrink from 12 meters… to 9 meters!
Sweat poured down his forehead, but quickly evaporated into steam thanks to the intense heat of the sea of fire.
By now, Bai Xiaochun was panting nervously. Shrinking the sea of fire down to 9 meters was something he would only do if absolutely necessary. It was very draining on him mentally, and also caused the sea of fire to behave even more wildly than before.
Worse of all, his numerous practice sessions had led him to the discovery… that 9 meters was the absolute limit!
Although it was possible to shrink the fire down to 6 meters, if he did, it would be destroyed moments later.
After all of his experiments, he was fully convinced that although it was technically possible to shrink the sea of flames down to a size of 6 meters, and that doing so would slow the flickering colors so much that, if he then sent divine sense into it, the result would be the same as had occurred when he was conjuring in the presence of Sima Tao and Sun Yifan. He would create only a dim wisp, not a true flame!
It was only because of the powers of his mask that, over the course of the past few months, no one had ever sensed it when he created such flame wisps.
And in the end, what Bai Xiaochun wanted was, not a flame wisp… but a complete eighteen-colored flame!
“9 is the limit….” he murmured, eyes shining with focused determination. He knew that he couldn’t keep going for very much longer, so he focused all of his mental faculties on searching within that sea of fire for the new flame.
He did it in methodical fashion, not blindly. After the initial attempt failed, he tried a second time, then a third time…. On the fourth time, when he was certain he had identified the newly added color, he unhesitatingly sent his divine sense exploding out.
His eyes shone with glittering light as his divine sense fused with his vision, pierced into the 9-meter sea of fire… and latched onto the newly added color.
As his divine sense merged with the new color, the color became brighter, as though it were struggling with the other seventeen colors. The 9-meter sea of fire rumbled loudly as the other seventeen colors fought as viciously as a nation defending against an invading army!
But Bai Xiaochun was in control of everything, and refused to allow the other seventeen colors to interfere. Within the shortest of moments, the eighteenth color grew brighter and more shocking.
The entire room shook violently as… the eighteenth color appeared in full in the 9-meter sea of fire!!
As of this moment, it was crystal clear that the sea of fire had risen… to the level of eighteen-colored flame!!
Although it was still in the sea of fire state, all Bai Xiaochun had to do was use his flame conjuring techniques to return it to a state of flame, and that was nothing incredibly difficult!
For all intents and purposes, he was now looking at an eighteen-colored flame!
In the instant the eighteenth color appeared in the sea of fire, it was almost as if the fire itself had fused with heaven and earth, instantly causing drastic transformations.
They were clear signs and portents pointing to the fact that an eighteen-colored flame had been brought into existence!
Any given eighteen-colored flame was enough to shake all creation, and gave rise to something like heavenly tribulation. If Bai Xiaochun closed his fist down to create the actual flame, then those signs and portents would grow more intense, until visible manifestations could be seen in heaven and earth.