Chapter 155: Purple Flame

Red light flashed brightly in Li Jiansan's eyes, and soon he foresaw the attack trajectory of the Purple Flame Companion Beast.

Following that, Li Jiansan stepped into the void, tracing a series of bizarre and erratic footwork patterns.

At the same time, the Purple Flame Companion Beast closely followed behind him, continuously spitting out terrifying fireballs.

Yet, just as every fireball was about to strike Li Jiansan, his figure would always manage to dodge it in the nick of time.

Swish, swish, swish!

Guided by the foreseen attack trajectory, Li Jiansan kept shifting his position.

If anyone were to look down from the sky, they would notice that Li Jiansan had actually been circling around a specific location the entire time.

"It is time."

Li Jiansan suddenly came to a halt, retreated a step, and abruptly unleashed a sword strike toward the Purple Flame Companion Beast. The formidable sword qi instantly blasted it backward, sending it crashing to the ground.

Not a single scratch could be found on its body. The beast then rose angrily, preparing to unleash a ferocious attack on Li Jiansan, but right behind it, several terrifying fireballs suddenly hurtled through the air.

The attack was launched with such lightning speed that the Purple Flame Companion Beast had zero time to react before it was completely engulfed by the descending sea of fireballs.

A single fireball from the Purple Flame Companion Beast was powerful enough to shock and kill a cultivator in the Foundation Establishment stage; even ordinary Martial Monarchs would not dare to face it head-on.

Under such terrifying might, even the Purple Flame Companion Beast, with its immensely resilient defense, could not withstand it.

Never could the Purple Flame Companion Beast have imagined that it would ultimately be defeated by its own fire.

Having figured out the Purple Flame Companion Beast's attack trajectory, Li Jiansan had spent the entire time circling and dodging. By utilizing the principle of a circular loop, he guided the beast into spitting fireballs right behind him. Once the cumulative destructive force became sufficient, he blasted the beast back to its origin point, using its own flames to annihilate it.

Amidst a series of rumbling explosions, the tough hide of the Purple Flame Companion Beast was instantly cracked open by the purple flames, after which its flesh and bones began to be scorched.

Numerous fireballs crashed violently into one another. Individual fireballs rapidly collapsed, sending dazzling sparks scattering across the sky, as the irresistible and terrifying power of the purple flames struck heavily upon the beast's body.

"Awoo!"

The Purple Flame Companion Beast let out a series of agonizing, miserable roars. Seeing this, Li Jiansan swept out with a palm infused with true essence, scattering the remaining terrifying flames.

Next, Li Jiansan sliced open a gash on the beast's body, and a torrent of purple blood gushed forth.

Without any hesitation, Li Jiansan manipulated his true essence and collected the beast's blood.

Then, with a wave of his sleeve, massive volumes of blood began to circulate and flow rhythmically through the void, creating a magnificent and spectacular scene.

This was a refining technique known as "Revolving Qiankun," an exceptionally potent method of purification.

Among alchemist techniques, it was fully capable of rivaling the refinement methods of a tier-three alchemist. Even the techniques of a tier-four alchemist could not achieve the same results as Li Jiansan.

Moments later, Li Jiansan condensed the vast amount of purple blood into a pool of liquid no larger than the palm of a hand.

"Thud!"

Li Jiansan retrieved a porcelain bottle from his Sumeru Ring. As he withdrew his control, the blood suspended in the void precisely dropped into the bottle.

Gazing at the volatile blood within the porcelain bottle, Li Jiansan clicked his tongue in praise and said,

"The primal blood of the Purple Flame Companion Beast is the source of all its purple flames. Normally, the blood of an ordinary Purple Flame Companion Beast contains fifty percent of the flame's power.

However, the primal blood of this particular beast possesses a full eighty percent of the flame's power—it is nearing perfection!"

"So this was a Purple Flame Companion Beast in its brooding period. No wonder its blood possesses such near-perfect power."

Glancing at the carcass of the Purple Flame Companion Beast, Li Jiansan suddenly understood. During the brooding period, a Purple Flame Companion Beast would condense the vast majority of its energy into its flesh and blood.

When nursing its young, its offspring could devour this formidable power and instantly evolve into a powerful demonic beast.

Furthermore, the purple flames derived within the body of the young beast after devouring this would be even more formidable than those of an adult companion beast that had never undergone this process.

"I must refine the primal blood of the Purple Flame Companion Beast immediately, or the flame power within it will soon dissipate."

Li Jiansan swirled the primal blood inside the porcelain bottle and swallowed it down in a single gulp.

"What an overbearing and tyrannical energy!"

Ye Wu gasped inwardly. The moment the primal blood entered his throat, it felt as though he had swallowed a hundredfold concentration of Burning Fire Dragon Wine.

He felt as if he had plunged straight into a pool of magma, being scorched by raging fire and swallowed by molten lava...

After swallowing the primal blood, Li Jiansan's face flushed crimson in an instant. Veins bulged prominently on his forehead, and beads of sweat the size of soybeans continuously seeped from his skin.

He did not even need to actively do anything; the purple flames within the primal blood spontaneously burrowed into his skin and infiltrated his limbs and bones, tempering his body over and over again, reinforcing and polishing his flesh, meridians, and bones yet again.

Although his body felt intensely hot, it was not completely unbearable; it remained within Li Jiansan's threshold of endurance.

He knew well that this bodily scorching sensation meant that his meridians, flesh, and bones were actively digesting the flame energy, utilizing those flames to forge an even more resilient physique.

This scorching energy penetrated his body like the fire of a magma pool, working upon him just like a weapon smith polishing a divine artifact, refining Li Jiansan's body stroke by stroke, over and over again.

Those flames roamed through his body, filling every single meridian, muscle, and bone, making his already formidable body even more indestructible as his frame gradually grew accustomed to the high temperatures.

The flames belonging to the Purple Flame Companion Beast already possessed astonishing destructive power, let alone the purified flames contained within its primal blood!

The primal blood of a demonic beast inherently contained terrifying energy. Under normal circumstances, such immense power was something even Martial Monarchs would not dare to absorb rashly, and even formidable geniuses required various auxiliary spiritual treasures to assist them.

Yet Li Jiansan was relying purely on his raw strength to endure it. Even though his physical body had already been tempered by the Three-Clear Body-Tempering Liquid, it was still being scorched to the point of curling inward, and waves of agony washed over him.

"Hum!"

The flame energy within the primal blood of the Purple Flame Companion Beast completely exploded. As each surge of flame entered Li Jiansan's body, it charged wildly back and forth like a vicious, ferocious python.

Li Jiansan felt as though his entire body had sunk into magma, and the searing pain felt like knife cuts, almost too agonizing to bear.

"Hiss..."

The high temperature of the burning flames had surpassed the limits of what Li Jiansan could comfortably withstand. His skin turned charred black, and lying upon the cold ground, he continuously expelled breaths of scorching hot air.

"Pain is merely a matter of a single thought; I, Li Jiansan, do not fear it!"

Within Li Jiansan's body, a surge of true essence that churned endlessly like the ocean suddenly erupted, rapidly flooding his entire frame.

Once the immense true essence burst forth, it permeated outward from all directions, tightly surrounding the violent purple flames raging inside him.

Faced with the tyrannical energy of the purple flames, the formidable true essence within Li Jiansan showed no courtesy whatsoever, steadily enveloping and expelling wisps of the purple energy.

Although the purple flames were quite domineering, before Li Jiansan's endless army of spiritual qi, they still possessed no power to resist.

Encased layer by layer by clusters of spiritual qi, the purple flames grew much more docile, and every strand of energy flowed obediently within his body.

The purple flames, heavily encircled by true essence, suddenly lunged fiercely toward the enclosing true essence.

As if sensing a crisis, this cluster of purple flames violently trembled, and upon the surface of the energy, wisps of purple fire rose into the air, burning any oncoming energy into nothingness.

"Hmm?" Li Jiansan seemed to sense the bizarre nature of the purple flames as well, but he did not shrink back in the slightest, abruptly unleashing his mental strength.

Immediately, the true essence within his body surged violently, transforming into a rolling blue tidal wave that spun incessantly.

Moments later, the tidal wave swept the cluster of purple flames into its center, instantly turning the blue torrent into a swirling vortex of alternating blue and purple.

The blue-purple vortex spun at high speed, resembling a colossal gear operating at maximum velocity.

Li Jiansan's immense mental power controlled the force of the vortex, continuously purging the volatile energy contained within the purple essence.

Once the violent energy was stripped away and flung out by the vortex, the army of spiritual qi gathered on the outside would instantly annihilate it into nothingness, fusing it into Li Jiansan's own energy.

As the speed of the vortex increased, the purple hue within the blue-purple blend gradually faded. When it had faded to a point of zero hazard, the vortex suddenly came to a halt.

Then, it slowly dissipated throughout Li Jiansan's limbs and bones, melting into his dantian and completely becoming energy under Li Jiansan's control.

After the vortex vanished, a somewhat lighter shade of purple flame appeared wispy and lingering within Li Jiansan's body.

This time, the purple flames were noticeably much more docile than before, and their violent aggressiveness had diminished as well. This substance was now truly pure energy capable of being absorbed and refined by a person.

Simultaneously, streams of purple flames continuously merged into Li Jiansan's flesh and bones. Every time the purple flames integrated into his flesh, his body would take on a faint purplish tinge, resembling patches of twinkling purple starry sky.

"It is a success."

Li Jiansan slowly exhaled a breath. Even for him, refining the primal blood of the Purple Flame Companion Beast had consumed a tremendous amount of mental and physical effort.

This time, Li Jiansan had not borrowed any external forces, relying entirely on his own sheer willpower to endure it. If word of this reached the ears of those alchemists, it would undoubtedly leave them gasping in shock and disbelief.

One must know that even among master alchemists, when refining the primal blood of demonic beasts, who among them did not spend years preparing and utilize numerous auxiliary treasures? Even so, they faced a near-death experience every time, and the success rate was exceedingly low.

After all, flame techniques possessed immense might!

And fire itself inherently carried astonishing destructive power.

It was simply not something ordinary people could hope to control.

At that exact moment, a startling momentum suddenly erupted from within Li Jiansan's body...