"So patient, are we?"
Yan Qingshan gazed at the coiled, invisible fire serpent before him. It appeared to be in a deep sleep, but the feedback from his own Heavenly Flame told him that this creature was wide awake and seemed to be planning to do something unpleasant to him.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
Footsteps echoed in the empty space at the bottom of the Refining Qi Tower. Yan Qingshan walked up to within ten steps of the invisible fire serpent and then abruptly stopped. He leaned forward as if to approach, then stepped back, circling the area. He made sure to maintain a distance of exactly ten steps from the serpent.
Yan Qingshan noticed the invisible fire serpent subtly move its tail, then he suddenly stopped. He turned his head and, using a mental message, said, "Stop pretending. I've known you were awake for a long time."
"Roar!!!"
With an enraged roar, a fire serpent that occupied half of the underground space awoke. It had intelligence, and its anger at being played with like this was immense. A pair of fiery, massive snake eyes swept over Yan Qingshan, sending a chill down his spine.
"Angry, are you? But anger can't solve your problems."
Yan Qingshan calmly watched the enraged invisible fire serpent before him. His pure, bright eyes met the large, sinister snake eyes. He could genuinely feel the rage of a sentient Heavenly Flame.
A Heavenly Flame is the most powerful destructive force in the world. This power truly possesses the ability to incinerate the heavens and boil the seas. The full eruption of any Heavenly Flame is at least as powerful as a full-force attack from a Dou Ancestor.
The invisible fire serpent, a giant serpentine form that occupied a large portion of the underground space, let out a continuous strange hiss. With a flick of its tail, its massive body, like a bolt of lightning, slammed into the space in front of Yan Qingshan, causing a vibration.
Boom…
It seemed to have hit an invisible wall. It was just half a step away but couldn't attack Yan Qingshan. It was still trapped by the Inner Academy's seal.
At this moment, Yan Qingshan took action. A pure cyan Dou Qi blade, like a cyan rainbow, swept out with a slight spatial vibration, fiercely impacting the massive body of the invisible fire serpent.
With a loud bang of energy, it exploded like a brilliant firework on the serpent's body. Under such a fierce blow, the invisible fire serpent was directly flung back to its original coiled position, its furious hiss echoing shrilly underground.
"Roar!!!"
The invisible fire serpent rose again and roared. Its pair of large, triangular snake eyes were filled with hatred. It opened its mouth and erupted with an unprecedented energy fluctuation. An invisible fire pillar, carrying scorching temperatures, engulfed the area where Yan Qingshan stood.
Although seemingly invisible, the fire pillar instantly warped the entire space. The invisible flame pillar tore through the void. Where it passed, the air was completely evaporated, leaving a clear trail visible to the naked eye.
"Hmph!"
Yan Qingshan let out a cold snort and waved his sleeve. A powerful, deep pure-cyan flame immediately surged from his body. The semi-circular, bowl-shaped cyan light flame easily withstood the fire pillar's attack.
Yan Qingshan's hands suddenly moved, forming a seal. The cyan-blue flame surged upward, covering the sky. A cyan fire pillar responded to the invisible fire serpent's breath, and the two collided fiercely in mid-air.
"Boom!!!"
The collision of Heavenly Flames. A thunderous explosion erupted in the underground space. The temperature of the entire underground area instantly soared, and some loose rocks were roasted and exploded.
"You're sealed now and no match for me. It's best not to get any funny ideas."
The flame in Yan Qingshan's palm grew even more powerful, directly forcing the fire pillar to slam into the fire serpent's head. The invisible fire serpent coiled itself into a defensive position. Its huge, raised head and a pair of snake eyes stared at him, but it did not attack again. It's unclear if Yan Qingshan's words had an effect.
This sentient invisible fire serpent, to put it bluntly, was like an intelligent magical beast. It did have intelligence, but it wasn't very high. Its bestial instincts still outweighed its intelligence. Facing the difficult Yan Qingshan and his warning, it ultimately chose to back down.
"If you've got what it takes, keep going!"
Yan Qingshan provoked it, then turned his back. The invisible fire serpent's eyes flickered, but in the end, it did not choose to attack again.
Yan Qingshan walked straight to another direction in the underground world. Endless lava emerged from this place. This was the nurturing ground of the Fallen Heart Flame, a world of underground magma.
On the bank of the fiery red underground lava, Yan Qingshan chose a spot that was less likely to be disturbed by the invisible fire serpent. He then took out two rather strange corpses from his storage ring.
One of the corpses had a pair of golden wings on its back. Its eyes were wide with anger, and its mouth was wide open in disbelief. This was the corpse of Yan Luo Tian, the Sect Master of the Golden Goose Sect, who had been killed by the combined attack of two Dou Ancestors.
The other corpse was covered in a faint, pungent smell. Getting close to it would make one feel dizzy. A pair of scorpion-like pincers were where its hands should have been. This was the corpse of the Ten Thousand Scorpion Gate's patriarch, Xie Bi Yan.
After he took out these two Dou Ancestor corpses, Yan Qingshan prepared three jade boxes. He laid them out on a simple stone platform he had just created. Three crystalline cores that looked like multi-colored gems emitted a powerful aura.
One of the cores was completely fiery red, emitting a faint red light and a low temperature. Another was a mixture of cyan and red, with the strongest presence. The cyan-red halo it gave off seemed to stir up a hint of hot wind.
The last core seemed a bit weaker than the other two. It was from the Ten Thousand Scorpion Gate's collection, a Monster Core of a Blood Demon Scorpion Emperor that was about to break through to the Dou Ancestor rank. It was likely the one that was killed by Xie Bi Yan back in the day.
This Tier 6 Blood Demon Scorpion Emperor's Monster Core had already undergone most of its transformation, with only the last bit of the core not yet transformed. If Xie Bi Yan hadn't happened to disturb the Blood Demon Scorpion Emperor, it would have succeeded in its transformation.
"The Heaven Demon Phoenix's Monster Core... it would be a waste to use it on the Sky Demon Puppet."
Yan Qingshan thought for a moment and then put the cyan-red core in the middle away. Although he could refine a stronger Sky Demon Puppet with it, Yan Qingshan knew how to upgrade a Sky Demon Puppet later. Whether the refined puppet was the strongest it could be at the time of its creation was meaningless.
The Green Lotus Core Flame swept out, enveloping both Dou Ancestor corpses. Under the high temperature, the remaining clothes on their bodies turned into dust, and their corpses slowly turned fiery red. Wisps of black mist seeped out from the corpses, then were burned to nothing by the pure cyan flame.
The black mist was a type of death aura, faintly containing a trace of the owner's consciousness from before they died. If this black mist wasn't completely purged, an external soul would find it difficult to fully merge with the body.
When Yan Qingshan was preparing to refine the Sky Demon Puppet, the best way was to find a magical beast and refine it while it was still alive. This way, the body, Monster Core, and soul would perfectly merge, and the refined puppet would retain its strongest power.
In the later stages, Xiao Yan refined the original Northern Dragon King of the Ancient Void Dragon clan into the puppet, Northern King, which was comparable to a Six-Star Dou Saint (Dou Sheng) . He used this very method.
However, refining a living being into a puppet was too inhumane. Furthermore, Tier 7 magical beasts were even rarer than Dou Ancestors, and Yan Qingshan couldn't find the materials anyway.
Yan Qingshan carefully purged all the death aura from the corpses. This step was very crucial. If he had also collected the souls of Yan Luotian and Xie Bi Yan, he wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble. A puppet's compatibility is highest when the original soul is the dominant force.
Unfortunately, at the time of the killings, he was only focused on a quick kill, and he didn't have a way to lure souls, so he didn't get their souls.
Yan Qingshan flicked his fingers four times. Four gusts of wind shot at the chests and foreheads of the two corpses, each opening a fist-sized hole.
At this point, the two bodies seemed to have shrunk significantly. Yan Luotian's body was slightly golden, while Xie Bi Yan's was covered in dark purple spots. Their skin was tightly stretched over their bones and flesh, becoming dry and gaunt, like skin-covered skeletons.
Yan Qingshan reached out and summoned. The fiery red Monster Core fell into the small hole in Yan Luotian's chest, and the Blood Demon Scorpion Emperor's Monster Core was sent into Xie Bi Yan's heart. He then took out two jade bottles and a soul bag.
"Yan Qingshan, we've told you everything you asked for. What else do you want?"
"What will it take for you to let us go? Name your price; we'll agree to anything!"
Two voices sounded one after another. The black mist on Protector Tie and Protector Xuan was already very faint, and their condition looked very bad.
"Shh! That over there is the Fallen Heart Flame. Its invisible flame causes the most damage to soul forms. You should be careful!"
Yan Qingshan put a finger to his mouth, shushing them. The two Hall of Souls protectors who were about to keep shouting turned their heads and were instantly terrified. The invisible fire serpent was staring at them. If it could, it would have swallowed them whole and refined them by now.
The Fallen Heart Flame has a great ability to restrain and harm soul forms, and refining soul forms also benefits the Fallen Heart Flame. For the Fallen Heart Flame, these pure soul beings are a feast.
"Yan Qingshan, what are you going to do? Don't be reckless!"
"Hurry up and let us go! I don't want to stay in this damned place anymore."
The two Hall of Souls protectors were in a state of extreme panic. No one wants to die. They couldn't stand being watched like prey!
"Don't worry! It will be quick, and I'll work fast. It won't be painful for you. After this, you will be my most loyal servants, and we will all be on the same side."
Yan Qingshan smiled at the two soul forms, but his smile made them even more uneasy. If they hadn't been completely locked in by Yan Qingshan's Green Lotus Core Flame, they would have already tried to escape.
"Little Brother Yan, Mr. Yan, you are a magnanimous man. I can be your dog. Please, don't kill me..."
"I can do it too. I'm the Emperor Emeritus (Thaisang Huang = retired emperor/grand emperor) of the Boyun Kingdom in the Northwest Continent. As long as you spare my life, I can help you gain everything in the Boyun Kingdom..."
The two Hall of Souls protectors were so terrified that they kept begging Yan Qingshan for mercy. Unfortunately, he had already made up his mind and didn't even blink.