The cultivation of every spiritual incantation that had a special attribute required a unique spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth. Of course, the Flame Spirit Incantation was no exception.
The cultivation of the Flame Spirit Incantation required the cultivator to absorb the spiritual Qi that contained flame power and slowly merge it into the spiritual sea.
The spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in many realms and domains contained energies of different attributes. For example, in the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range, where the Spiritual Treasure sect had been based, the spiritual energy in the air carried an intense flame power.
It was also the reason why fire-attributed Qi warriors of the Spiritual Treasure sect, as well as equipment forgers, could make use of the flame power within the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range to cultivate fire-attributed spiritual incantations.
For those who didn’t have a specific cultivation attribute to practice fire-attributed spiritual incantations, the first thing they would have to do was to open up an area within their spiritual sea to contain the flame power.
Nie Tian was currently in an ice-cold river of stars far from his own realm, where there wasn’t even the slightest bit of spiritual Qi in the air, much less any flame power.
Therefore, the environment was very unsuitable for him to cultivate the Flame Spirit Incantation within this ice-cold mysterious land.
Fortunately, he had previously obtained a large amount of Flame Crystals when he was in the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range.
The level two Premium grade Flame Crystals were spirit materials that contained rich flame power, and were of a much higher rank than Flamecloud Gems.
The Flame Crystals were more than enough to be used as the energy source for his cultivation of the Flame Spirit Incantation.
WHOOSH!
A Flame Crystal that was the size of his palm flew out of his bracelet of holding as soon as he sent a wisp of will into it.
He held the Flame Crystal in his palm and realized that it was warm. Then he started to operate the Flame Spirit Incantation to pull out the flame power within the Flame Crystal.
FIZZ! FIZZ!
Like scarlet strings, strands after strands of fiery aura that could be seen by the naked eye flew out of the Flame Crystal and entered his palm.
He used the Flame Spirit Incantation to continue to channel the strands of flame power into the meridians within his hand, and then guided them to flow along those meridians into his spiritual sea.
Within his white and misty spiritual sea, the vortex of spiritual power was originally revolving at a low speed, but with the entrance of the flame power, it suddenly sped up.
A few dots of fiery light started to flicker within the white mist.
Those dots of fiery light were the flame power that he had pulled out of the Flame Crystal.
As soon as the scattered spots of flame power entered his spiritual sea, they flowed separately, not merging with the spiritual energy that was already there.
He sat in silence, sensing the process of him continuously pulling flame power out of the Flame Crystal with rapt attention.
During the process, he experienced an increasingly intense burning sensation from his meridians as the flame power flowed inside of them.
His meridians had never had flame power flow within them before, so he experienced pain during the starting period of this process.
However, he also realized that his body was gradually adapting as the flame power flowed through his meridians.
The strands of flame power that floated out of the Flame Crystal were as fine as gossamer threads. The flame power contained within them was limited, and wasn’t enough to condense and take form. Therefore, it wouldn’t really burn his flesh.
Following his continuous absorption of the flame power, the light the Flame Crystal emanated… gradually turned dull.
On the contrary, within a small area in his spiritual sea, the fiery spots came together and grew increasingly condensed, quietly forming a small cluster of fire.
At first, it was only the size of a thumb. However, it seemed to illuminate his entire spiritual sea as it flickered with a bright, fiery light.
As the flame power continuously fused into it, the small cluster of fire slowly expanded.
Nie Tian used his psychic awareness to carefully protect the cluster of fire, fearing that something might happen to it.
After an unknown period of time, the small cluster of fire had expanded from the size of a thumb to the size of a fist.
CRUNCH!
It was also at this moment that the Flame Crystal in his hand suddenly shattered.
Having awoken from his cultivation, he temporarily retracted his attention from the fluctuations within his spiritual sea, and looked down to take a close look at the Flame Crystal.
The level two Premium grade Flame Crystal seemed to have completely run out of flame power.
“A level two Premium grade Flame Crystal didn’t even cause a real change to occur in my spiritual sea…” he muttered and took out another Flame Crystal from his bracelet of holding without any hesitation.
Once again, he immersed himself in cultivation.
CRUNCH!
A while later, that Flame Crystal also broke into pieces.
By that time, the cluster of fire that had formed in his spiritual sea had grown from the size of a fist to the size of two fists.
He continued cultivating with the same method and took out a third Flame Crystal to absorb the flame power that lay within, as if he had forgotten about eating and sleeping.
In the ice-cold dimension that Nie Tian was in, there was no daytime or nighttime. All there was in the sky were countless shining stars.
He had completely lost track of time and forgot that he was currently in the Heaven Gate, participating in a cruel trial.
He was completely carried away as he practiced the Flame Spirit Incantation.
One after another, many Flame Crystals were taken out before they shattered in a short while.
When he pulled out half of the flame power within the twentieth Flame Crystal, its radiance slightly dulled, and the cluster of fire within his spiritual sea had increased in size by tenfolds, a change suddenly took place!
Suddenly, a scarlet aura started to surge about in the cluster of fire, which was already quite sizable, making it seem unsettling and disordered!
Nie Tian, who had been looking forward to a change, was elated instead of startled.
He knew that if someone like him, who didn’t have a specific attribution, wanted to cultivate a spiritual incantation of a certain attribute, they would have to condense a new vortex within his spiritual sea!
He had a similar experience when he broke through from the Qi Refining stage into the Lesser Heaven stage.
Because of that he didn’t deliberately stop the disorderly surges within the cluster of fire. Quite on the contrary, he completely opened himself up and continued using the Flame Spirit Incantation to absorb the flame power within the Flame Crystal.
At that moment, he noticed that the flame power that he continued channeling into his spiritual sea went straight into the cluster of fire.
As more flame power infused into the cluster of fire, it became increasingly violent and disorderly.
He only silently sensed the changes as a bystander and didn’t do anything to temper its movements.
After a moment, fiery sparks suddenly splashed out of the cluster of fire, causing a scarlet misty aura to float out of it.
When the movements within the cluster of fire couldn’t get any more frenzied, the mist that contained flame power seemed to have suddenly found a law to follow and a method to operate.
He watched as the cluster of fire disintegrated while splashing out fiery sparks and spewing out burning mist. Then, it started to reshape as a vortex.
Before long, a new, small, scarlet vortex gradually took shape within his spiritual sea.
Compared to the vortex that had been completely made from the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth, the new vortex was inferior in both size and the amount of power it could contain.
The vortex of flame power was more than ten times smaller than the vortex of spiritual power.
But no matter how small it was, as long as the vortex of flame power was formed, it would expand following the infusion of more flame power.
The forming of the vortex of flame power signified that he had already completed the first and most important step in cultivating the Flame Spirit Incantation.
From now on, he would be able to use the flame power within fire-attributed spirit materials to gradually strengthen and expand his vortex of flame power.
After finishing the first step of cultivating the Flame Spirit Incantation, Nie Tian took out all of the remaining Flame Crystals from within his bracelet of holding. “Only seven Flame Crystals are left now.”
Looking at the only remaining Flame Crystals, he secretly frowned as he realized that if he wanted to continue cultivating the Flame Spirit Incantation within this icy mysterious dimension, those seven Flame Crystals were far from enough.
At that moment, he thought of An Shiyi and Jiang Lingzhu.
The two of them had also collected a large amount of Flame Crystals when they were in the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range. If he could meet them and borrow a few Flame Crystals from them, he might be able to keep cultivating for a longer time.
Furthermore, he believed that no matter whether it was An Shiyi or Jiang Lingzhu, either of them would be willing to lend him some of their Flame Crystals as long as he asked for them.
Just as he was pondering, Zheng Bin quietly approached him, his expression clearly uneasy. “Nie Tian!”
Nie Tian was startled. “Something’s wrong?”
“While you were cultivating, I went to other meteors where I found many dead bodies.” A rattled look appeared in Zheng Bin’s eyes.
“Really?” Nie Tian asked. “More dead outsiders?”
Zheng Bin promptly shook his head and said somewhat panickedly, “No, not outsiders! They were dead human Qi warriors! Two of them were from the Mystic Mist sect, and both of them had Heaven stage cultivation bases!
“The rest seemed to be disciples of the Blood sect and the Ghost sect! And the person who had the highest cultivation base seemed to have been in the Greater Heaven stage!
“Their bodies were all as cold as ice. They must have been dead for some time when I found them. Everything they had was looted, including their bracelets of holding.
“I bet that those from the other realms have already started to make moves against us.
“It probably won’t be long before they find us!”
Fear filled Zheng Bin’s eyes.
“Which meteor are you talking about?” Nie Tian asked with a grim face.
Zheng Bin raised his arm and pointed toward a distant, giant meteor that was separated from them by six meteors. “That one.”
Nie Tian took a glance at it and calculated in his heart. He believed it would take at least a few hours to get to the meteor that he was on from that one.
His face suddenly turned as dark as the deepest ocean.