As he dropped down, and the fire raged, the violet crystal immediately sprang into action. Xu Qing inhaled, and fire swept into him. After a moment of thought, he reached out and touched some of the lava. It was very hot, but his hand wasn’t injured.

My body is strong enough to sustain this.

With that thought in mind, he dropped down into the lava. When he had sunk down to his waist, he inhaled, and could sense the intense heat wrapping him up. It was starting to sting.

I can’t go any deeper.

After looking around vigilantly, he inhaled again, bringing masses of fire inside of him.

As the violet crystal rapidly absorbed the fire, it sent out six streams of violet light that thoroughly illuminated his sea of consciousness. Because of that light, the life mist didn’t obscure things as much as before, and the five life lamps within it became bright.

Xu Qing’s heart filled with anticipation. Although he couldn’t control the light emanating from the violet crystal, as it shone through the life mist, it first landed on the black umbrella life lamp.

That was the life lamp he’d acquired in that temple in the Merfolk Isles. As the six beams of light landed on it, it once again showed signs of melting. One of the umbrella spindles no longer looked as sharp. It gradually began to bend, until it ultimately turned into liquid that flowed downward. A drop of liquid landed in his sea of consciousness, causing thunderous rumbling to fill Xu Qing’s mind.

A tremor passed through him as the fantastic elements that made up the life lamp flowed into his blood. Things were going exactly as they had in his previous experiments.

Eyes shining, Xu Qing took another deep breath, and more fire raged into him. Another six beams of violet light formed, and the melting continued.

Two hours later, the second drop of liquid fell from the black umbrella life lamp. At the same time, the nascent soul that had formed from that lamp began to blur.

Xu Qing stopped to assess the situation. What he confirmed was that the nascent soul wasn’t being harmed. Instead, some of the melting parts of the lamp were fusing into it. Breathing a sigh of relief, he continued.

Three days passed.

Because of the unending access to the flames, Xu Qing was able to constantly work at melting the black umbrella life lamp. By now, it was thirty percent melted. It no longer resembled a life lamp, but rather, a broken umbrella.

Meanwhile, the life lamp elements in his blood were growing stronger. Xu Qing got the strong feeling that, once those elements reached a certain level of strength, then it was highly likely he would be able to form his own personal life lamp.

With such thoughts on his mind, he steadied his breathing and, instead of continuing to absorb the fire, flew back up into the air. He flew for about a day, found a new spot, checked carefully to make sure it was safe, then dropped back down into the lava and started again. Given how unfamiliar he was with the environment, and his vigilant and cautious nature, he was acting very similar to the way he had back when he first arrived in Seven Blood Eyes. He knew that it was too dangerous to stay in one spot for long. 1

It’s too bad this sea of flames isn’t a suitable space to set up spell formations. That would make things much simpler.

After some thought, he used his Gruegloom abilities to become semitransparent.

That method made him much more difficult to spot. Only then did he start absorbing the fire again. With the light of the violet crystal shining, the black umbrella life lamp, which no longer looked like either a black umbrella or a life lamp, continued to melt. It was now down to the base of the lamp.

Three days later, Xu Qing switched spots again. The lamp was now melted by fifty percent. .

It’s fine. I have plenty of time!

Xu Qing wasn’t in a hurry, so he continued at this pace. He would never stay in one place for more than three days. He was constantly switching locations.

The black umbrella life lamp went from fifty percent to sixty percent. Then seventy percent. Eighty…. During that time, red crystals continued to form, each of which he would instantly put away. He still wasn’t sure exactly what they were, but he still didn’t think it was a good idea to keep them out in the open.

As it turned out, being cautious in that way had its benefits….

***

“High-grade heavenfire crystals!”

A small team of Mirrorling cultivators was flying along over the Heavenfire Sea. They were different from the Mirrorlings that Xu Qing had encountered previously. They didn’t have mirror bodies. Instead, they had fleshly bodies. However, those bodies were actually those of other species. In the forehead position of each of them was a diamond-shaped mirror shard, blood red, without any cracks on its surface. The mirrors were not dirty in the least bit; in contrast, they were as clear as glass. These were members of the Mirrorling nobility, with bloodlines that far surpassed ordinary members of their species. All of them had enslaved members of other species, and used their bodies like puppets.

The leader of the group was a cultivator with three pairs of wings on his back and a body covered in black scales. He had a geomantic compass in his hand, which glittered with red light as it led him in a certain direction.

The Mirrorling cultivators spoke in hushed, excited tones as they sped along.

“Our luck is good today. We actually found a high-grade heavenfire crystal!”

“High-grade heavenfire crystals are usually hidden deep at the bottom of the sea. But occasionally the lava flows dislodge them and they rise toward the surface. That doesn’t happen often, though.”

“Let’s hurry. If we get there too late, someone else might get it, and then we’ll have to kill them.”

A moment later, their expressions flickered as the red light on the geomantic compass suddenly went out.

“Dammit! Someone took it!”

“Let’s keep going in this direction and see if we can find whoever stole our crystal!”

This scene wasn’t just playing out with the Mirrorlings. There were other cultivators in the area who had noticed the high-grade heavenfire crystal. And it had happened several times.

“It happens every three days. But it vanishes almost as soon as it appears.”

“How could there be someone getting the heavenfire crystals so quickly?”

Not far away in a different direction was a group of Skyface cultivators, who were having a similar situation with their geomantic compass. Outsiders might not be familiar with high-grade heavenfire crystals, but these people knew exactly how valuable they were.

“There’s got to be a reason why these sacrificial items are appearing with such regularity!”

“We should ask the royal preceptor to come help. His geomantic compass is extremely accurate. It can even lock onto things hidden in firebrane boxes!”

***

As dramatic developments were brewing in the area, Xu Qing was focused on melting his life lamp. The black umbrella life lamp was now ninety percent melted.

I only need one more day!

Eyes glittering, he looked around. Although he had no idea that there was increased cultivator activity in the area, his bluegreen dragon had been sending him warning signals, and he felt the need to be more on guard than ever.

Looking at the lava, which was at his chest level, he gritted his teeth, sent Ling’er into his bluegreen dragon heavenly palace, then sank deeper. In the blink of an eye, the lava covered him. Everything seemed to be going smoothly. Xu Qing’s aura was completely masked by the lava. That said, he couldn’t go very deep. At the most, he could go down a bit more than a meter. Gritting his teeth, he started moving. Thanks to the lava, he left no trace of his passage.

When he was a good distance away from his previous location, he once again settled into a cross-legged position and started absorbing fire. Instantly, huge waves of fire entered him, the violet crystal stirred, and light shone out again.

In that matter, time slipped by slowly but surely.

Twenty hours passed. At that point, a loud crack rang out from the black umbrella as the last bits of it melted into liquid and fell into Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness. A boom followed. It had taken a month, but the black umbrella finally melted.

The sound swept like wind over the water, causing ripples to spread. It reached the dome of heaven, and rumbling like thunder echoed out.

Xu Qing shivered uncontrollably in the lava. Unafraid of the heat, his eyes opened. Within them, something like a swirling mist converged, pulsating, preventing the lava from harming him.

Meanwhile, the life lamp elements in his blood had reached the requisite level. As the thunderous rumbling continued, and as the lava seethed around him, something like a vortex appeared in the sea of flames, with him at the center. It spun rapidly and visibly. However, beyond the 3,000-meter area of the vortex, everything seemed completely normal.

Only within that area did everything look different.

Xu Qing remained cross-legged in the middle of the vortex, flickering with light that pulsed between bright and dark. At the same time, an aura erupted from him that contained the advancement of life force.

Inside of Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness, a tempest raged in the spot where the black umbrella life lamp had once sat. Throughout Xu Qing’s body, violet threads appeared and gathered there.

As they did, a new life lamp began to take shape. This life lamp was actually made from Xu Qing’s blood, making it one-of-a-kind in heaven and earth! Whether it was the Ancient Emperors or the Imperial Sovereigns, when they created life lamps, they were just like this. After the arrival of the broken face of the god, people who could attain Imperial Sovereign personhood, even when taking in the entire Revered Ancient mainland as a whole, were rarer than phoenix feathers or qilin horns. Thus, it was the same with new life lamps.

Yet right now, a life lamp that had never been seen before in the world was now being born!

What appeared first was a circular plate of violet jade, tilted at an angle. The disk had twenty-four marked sections, each of which contained masses of magical symbols. All in all, the violet jade plate looked complicated and somehow full of holiness. Right in the middle of the plate was the spot where the violet threads were gathering. They slowly took the shape of something that resembled an upright needle!

It was a gnomon!

There was also a ball of light that slowly rotated around the gnomon.

When looking closely at that ball of light, it was possible to see that, seated cross-legged inside was one of Xu Qing’s nascent souls!

The light shining from the nascent soul landed on the gnomon, casting a shadow onto the plate. And that shadow was constantly rotating as the nascent soul rotated.

It was… a sundial!

This was Xu Qing’s life lamp! Violet jade formed the plate. Greenish gold made the needle! A ball of light floated around it, creating an image of ancient time.

It was: the sundial moves; the timescape is eternal. When striving against heaven, the days do not pass!

1. In thinking back to the Seven Blood Eyes days, I feel like the reference here is to when he was opening dharma apertures by provoking attacks by sea creatures. He went from island to island doing this, similar to what he’s doing here. That was described in chapter 142. If you can think of something else from the Seven Blood Eyes days that this could be referencing, please feel free to mention it in the comments. ?

𝘳𝘦.𝒸𝑜𝘮