Longevity: Starting with an infant's innate growth potential

Chapter 222 Five Elements Heart Fire
Inside Zhou Ling's study at Xuan Yuan Dao Academy in Qingyun Immortal City.

In the cultivation room, Zhou Ling sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, condensing five spiritual flames that circulated and flowed, his body shining with dazzling light from the five elements of spiritual flames.

Strands of spiritual flame gathered in his dantian, gradually condensing into a five-colored spiritual flame.

"The Five Elements Spiritual Flame Heart Fire is complete!"

Zhou Ling's face lit up with joy.

The Five Elements Spiritual Flame Heart Fire is formed by the condensation of five Five Elements Spiritual Flames.

As long as Zhou Ling's mind is focused, it can be condensed.

The Five Elements Heart Fire combines the different attributes of the Five Spirit Flames.

The green wood vitality of the Azure Lotus Spirit Flame can heal injuries and accelerate cultivation.

Earth and fire can refine spiritual power and guard the mind.

The True Fire of Qianyang can assist in refining artifacts, making them even more perfect.

······.

Furthermore, when facing an enemy, the Five Elements Heart Fire can be used as the center to condense the Five Elements Spiritual Flames into an array, which can unleash endless flames to kill the enemy with astonishing power!
It can even be used in conjunction with the Five Elements Sword Formation. The combined power of the Five Elements Spirit Flame Formation and the Five Elements Sword Formation is terrifying to even imagine.

Similarly, when refining weapons, condensing the five elements of inner fire can greatly enhance the power of the spiritual flame.

It can be said to be both offensive and defensive.

It is an all-around type of flame.

After a long while, Zhou Ling slowly opened his eyes and sensed the Five Elements Heart Fire that had just condensed within his Qi Sea.

He exhaled softly, his face beaming with joy.

After visiting the Wang family's ancestral land, they absorbed a large amount of the Golden Soul Burning Heaven Flame's essence, resulting in a significant improvement in all five spiritual flames.

In particular, the spirit of the Qianyang True Fire fused with the Golden Soul Burning Heaven Flame is only one step away from the fourth rank.

After returning to Qingyun Immortal City, Zhou Ling began to cultivate the Five Elements Formation Technique and quickly condensed the Five Elements Heart Flame.

According to his master, once the Five Elements Heart Fire is condensed, it can be refined into his natal spirit flame.

At that time, the other five spiritual flames will simultaneously become his natal spiritual flames.

Although he can now fully control the five spiritual flames, they are not yet his natal spiritual flames.

Once it becomes Zhou Ling's natal spirit flame, it will be closely related to him. As Zhou Ling's cultivation improves, these spirit flames will also progress accordingly.

Similarly, Zhou Ling will also benefit from the enhancement of his spiritual flame.

The so-called "personal treasure" generally refers to a personal magical artifact.

However, there are also natal spirit flames, spirit beasts, etc.

Once refined into a natal item, it becomes inextricably linked to the cultivator who refined it.

This kind of natal item has many advantages, such as the grade and power of the spiritual flame increasing as the cultivator's cultivation level improves.

At the same time, one's spirituality will also be greatly enhanced.

It possesses the instinctive attribute of automatically protecting cultivators, and can even unleash astonishing power when a cultivator consumes their own essence and blood.

Of course, with advantages comes disadvantages.

If such a natal item is destroyed, it will have a huge impact on the cultivator, and may even severely damage their vital energy.

Therefore, one cannot choose to refine one's own natal spirit item at will.

Instead, it's about finding something that matches your own attributes, techniques, and compatible items, which will accelerate the rate of improvement for both.

As for Zhou Ling, he possessed the Five Elements Spiritual Roots, the Five Elements Thunderous Body, and cultivated the Five Elements Qianyang True Technique.

Therefore, when refining one's natal item, one should naturally focus on its five elements attributes.

For cultivators, once they reach the Foundation Establishment stage, they will begin preparing to refine their natal artifact.

The longer you nurture your natal item, the greater its power will become, and it will then become the main means of assisting you in passing the Golden Core Tribulation.

If you refine it in the middle or late stages of Foundation Establishment, it might be because you haven't had enough time to cultivate it.

It won't be of much use when you're undergoing a tribulation of lightning; in fact, it might pull you back.

After all, the destruction of one's natal spiritual object will have a great impact on a cultivator.

As for Qi Refining cultivators, when they refine their natal artifacts, the concentration of spiritual energy in their bodies is insufficient, so the nourishing effect is also generally poor.

The Five Elements Qianyang True Manual provides several methods for refining the Five Elements Natal Spiritual Objects.

Like the Five Elements Heart Fire that Zhou Ling just condensed, there are also the Five Elements Heart Lamp, the Five Elements Sword, and the Five Elements Pearl.

These all correspond to the five elements and their properties.

However, each of these refining methods is quite difficult.

The Five Elements Heart Fire is the most difficult to condense, requiring five spiritual flames to condense simultaneously.

This is something that ordinary cultivators cannot do.

However, Zhou Ling did not immediately begin refining the Five Elements Heart Fire.

Because refining one's natal item can sometimes take a long time.

Sometimes it can even take several months.

Of course, this Five Elements Heart Fire was condensed by Zhou Ling using the Five Elements Spiritual Flame.

It is already perfectly suited to him, so it certainly doesn't require as much time as fusing a magical artifact for the two to become compatible.

However, now that the Five Elements Heart Fire has been refined, it is definitely better to refine it into a natal spirit flame as soon as possible.

After all, if he succeeds, it would mean that all five elemental flames would become his natal flames.

At that time, the speed of cultivation will definitely increase significantly.

"The assessment for the Heavenly Guards of the Heavenly Crafts Bureau will be in half a month."

"The fusion of the Golden Soul Burning Heaven Flame Spirit Soul had already significantly improved my weapon-refining skills."

"If I refine this Five Elements Heart Fire into my natal spirit flame, I might be able to forge a third-tier treasure!"

Zhou Ling murmured.

He believed that ten days or so would be enough time to refine this Five Elements Heart Fire into his natal spirit flame.

However, he had some things to take care of before that.

After returning from the Wang family, he went directly to the Xuan Yuan Dao Academy's study to fully integrate the spirit of the Golden Soul Burning Heaven Flame.

The gathering of the five elements of inner fire was merely an unexpected gain.

In his heart, the best natal weapon was originally the Five Elements Sword.

Now that the Five Elements Heart Fire has been condensed, let's refine it first.

Refining the Five Elements Sword will be even easier next.

As for one's natal treasure, there can be many variations.

However, more is not necessarily better.

After all, cultivators have limited time and energy.

They usually only choose the one that best suits them and devote all their efforts to cultivating and improving it.

He had not yet delivered the things Wang Xin had asked him to give to her mother.

As for what it was, Zhou Ling knew it was the material for the Foundation Establishment Pill he obtained from the Wang family.

Zhou Ling had already begun preparing these things for her mother.

But if there's something readily available, that saves trouble.

Moreover, the materials used by the Wang family are of even better quality.

The Lingxia True Spring inside is already a second-tier superior grade, and it is configured according to the standard of Heavenly Grade Foundation Establishment.

This can also increase the success rate of the mother's foundation building.

Afterwards, Zhou Ling left the Taoist temple and went home.

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"Uncle Chu, when did you arrive in Qingyun Immortal City?"

As soon as Zhou Ling got home, he saw his old acquaintance Chu Xing.

Chu Xing had a thick beard, which made him look older.

He and Zhou Shan were in the lobby, sitting around a table, drinking.

"Ling-ge'er, you've come!"

"I only arrived in Qingyun Immortal City two days ago!"

Chu Xing stood up and spoke to Zhou Ling.

Their tone and posture were very respectful, which made Zhou Ling pause slightly.

However, considering his current status as a Heavenly-grade Foundation Establishment cultivator, Chu Xing must already know.

That's why he seemed a bit reserved.

But Zhou Ling didn't think that way.

After all, Chu Xing had watched him grow up since he was a child, and had taken good care of him when they went into the mountain before.

He naturally remembered this kindness.

He then sat down at the table, picked up the wine pot, and added spirit wine to Chu Xing's bowl.

Chu Xing then sat down.

"Brother Ling, congratulations on reaching the Heavenly Rank Foundation Establishment! Now everyone in Lingxia Immortal City knows about it."

"Everyone praises you as the greatest genius in the history of Lingxia Immortal City!"

Chu Xing picked up his wine bowl and congratulated Zhou Ling, a genuine smile appearing on his face.

Zhou Ling showed amazing talent from a young age, but no one expected that his talent would reach such a terrifying level.

Not only did he successfully establish his foundation at the age of fourteen, but he also achieved the highest level of foundation establishment.

It should be noted that the spiritual energy concentration in the courtyard where Zhou Ling and the others lived was not as high as that in his courtyard.

"Uncle Chu, it was just a bit of luck!"

Zhou Ling said with a smile.

He also picked up his wine bowl and offered a toast to Chu Xing.

Zhou Shan, with a smile on his face, drank with them.

During Chu Xing's visit, he was introduced to Zhou Ling, who is now a household name in Lingxia Immortal City as a great genius.

As a result, the Zhou family also gained great fame.

Zhou Shan, who always cared about his image, was naturally overjoyed.

"Ling'er, you're back!"

Li Ru brought out a large plate of game meat from the kitchen and, seeing her son return, said with a joyful expression.

"mother!"

Zhou Ling took the plate, placed it on the table, picked up a piece of animal meat, and began to eat.

Afterwards, Chu Xing also introduced them to some information about Lingxia Immortal City.

Under Yuan Hu's management, the winery has now become the number one winery in Lingxia Immortal City.

They hired more than a dozen good people.

Most of them were members of the original medicine-finding team.

Moreover, Yuan Hu did not neglect his cultivation while running the winery, and he has now entered the seventh level of Qi Refining.

Hearing this, Zhou Ling and his family were very gratified.

It seems that entrusting the distillery to Yuanhu was the right thing to do.

Now, Yuanhu has not only significantly expanded the scale of the winery, but also taken good care of the original members of the medicine-finding team.

This is something that Zhou Shan and his wife have always wanted to do.

After all, when they went into the mountains to search for medicinal herbs and their lives were difficult, it was the medicinal herb-finding team that gave them the greatest help.

So now that they have a little extra capacity, the couple wants to help their neighbors.

But if you don't live in the same place, you can't be of any help at all.

Now Yuanhu has fulfilled their wish.

"Uncle Chu, what are your plans for the future?"

At this moment, Zhou Ling spoke up again and asked.

He knew that Chu Xing had come to Qingyun Immortal City to seek an opportunity to establish his foundation.

But he failed to establish his foundation last year.

If we are to build a foundation again, we need to be even more cautious.

After all, each failure increases the difficulty.

If I fail again, I probably won't have another chance.

"Alas, the reason why I failed to establish my foundation last time was mainly because the Foundation Establishment Pills I bought in Lingxia Immortal City were of mediocre quality, which led to my failure at the last minute."

"Therefore, I plan to find an opportunity to purchase some better Foundation Establishment Pills in Qingyun Immortal City."

"Let's try again!"

Although Chu Xing's attitude towards Zhou Ling remained respectful at this moment, he was no longer as reserved as he had been at the beginning.

"I've already spoken with your Uncle Chu. He'll help out at the winery for now, and we'll find another opportunity to buy Foundation Establishment Pills later!"

Zhou Shan spoke up.

Hearing this, Zhou Ling didn't ask any more questions.

In Qingyun Immortal City, ordinary Foundation Establishment Pills are not difficult to purchase.

Moreover, the quality is definitely much better than that of Lingxia Immortal City.

After all, there are only a handful of second-grade alchemists in the entire Lingxia Immortal City.

Furthermore, the recipe for the Foundation Establishment Pill is not something that can be easily obtained.

Therefore, the quality of Foundation Building Pills on the market is not very reliable.

This is also one of the reasons why it is extremely difficult for independent cultivators to successfully establish their foundation in Lingxia Immortal City.

Then Zhou Ling took out a storage bag and handed it to his mother.

Upon learning that Wang Xin had given her the item she was preparing for her foundation building, Li Ru was overjoyed.

"Father, Mother, there is one more thing. The head of the Wang family wants me to marry into the Wang family."

"I haven't agreed yet; I wanted to ask what you think!"

Zhou Ling poured spirit wine for Chu Xing and Zhou Shan, and then spoke up.

"I definitely don't believe that. You're the only son in my Zhou family. How could you possibly marry into another family!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Shan shook his head and said.

Even if it weren't for the fact that he was the only son in his family, with Zhou Ling's current achievements, he wouldn't have trouble finding a good woman to marry.

"Yes, Ling'er, we don't expect you to be very successful, but there's no need for you to marry into the Wang family!"

Li Ru also spoke up.

"I didn't agree; I just wanted to get your opinions!"

Zhou Ling smiled.

Knowing his parents as he did, he knew they would definitely not agree.

"Alright, we don't need to talk about this anymore!"

Zhou Shan stated definitively, putting it bluntly.

At this moment, Zhou Ling felt a slight vibration coming from the sound transmission jade on his body.

It was then removed.

"Zhou Ling, I've returned to Qingyun Immortal City. Come to the Demon Slaying Department; I have something to discuss with you!"

After Zhou Ling infused his spiritual power, he heard Wang Qingshang's voice.

He immediately replied, "Okay, Sister Qingchang!"

Even after Wang Qingshang successfully fused with the Ancestral Flame Seed at the Wang family, Zhou Ling did not see her again.

Most likely, they were consolidating the flame within the Wang family.

I only returned to Qingyun Immortal City today.

Afterwards, Zhou Ling bid farewell to her parents and Chu Xing.

He left home and headed to the Demon Slayer Division.

After all, Wang Qingshang is now his superior, so Zhou Ling doesn't dare to neglect her.

When they arrived at the Demon Slayer Division, they only saw Wang Qingshang sitting on a wooden chair, looking at the information on the jade slip.

He put down the jade slip only after seeing Zhou Ling arrive.

"Late stage of Foundation Establishment!"

Feeling the powerful aura emanating from Wang Qingshang, Zhou Ling couldn't help but gasp slightly.

Unexpectedly, Wang Qingshang has actually entered the late stage of Foundation Establishment through these few days of cultivation.

"Yes, I was able to enter the late stage of Foundation Establishment this time thanks to your help."

"If it weren't for your help in suppressing the Golden Soul Burning Heaven Flame, I might not have been able to fuse with the Ancestral Flame Seed."

"It's even more impossible for him to reach the late Foundation Establishment stage!"

Wang Qingshang said with a smile.

"It was just a small favor!"

Zhou Ling replied.

Thinking about how his cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds after fusing with the Golden Soul Burning Heaven Flame Spirit Soul, he realized that his cultivation had also advanced by leaps and bounds.

Wang Qingshang's fusion with the fire seed was naturally no problem.

However, this Golden Soul Burning Heaven Flame is truly a good thing; it lives up to its reputation as the ancestral flame of the Wang family.

"This is the secret technique I promised you, the Spirit Flame Assisted Golden Core Formation Technique, 'Spirit Flame Golden Core Technique'."

"After you've seen it, destroy it; you mustn't pass it on to anyone else."

Wang Qingshang took out a jade slip from her storage ring and handed it to Zhou Ling.

"Ok!"

Zhou Ling accepted the jade slip and replied with a smile.

Although it will be a long time before we can condense the Golden Core, it doesn't hurt to learn about it first.

Moreover, now that he has condensed the Five Elements Heart Fire and refined it into his natal spirit flame, he will have a great advantage in controlling the spirit flame in the future.

Then Wang Qingshang asked him about his experience in controlling spirit flames, and Zhou Ling naturally gave her a detailed explanation.

(End of this chapter)