One person: I, Daoist Master, am a cultivator of immortality!

The fiery energy within the Heavenly Lake's earthly fire veins undoubtedly sustains his life, but things always have two sides. While this fiery energy sustains his life, it also erodes it. He is now like an opium addict, unable to survive independently without the fiery energy within these earthly fire veins.

If the earth's fire veins were to one day sever, its only chance of survival would be to transform into a dragon. However, because it had been absorbing the fire energy from the earth's fire veins for years, its transformation into a dragon was doomed to fail, leaving only death as its inevitable fate. This explains why, two days after its fall from grace, it was reduced to a skeleton, its flesh and blood completely gone. By then, the earth's fire energy had already eroded its body, and its flesh and blood were almost entirely formed from the earth's fire energy.

Even now, under Sun Yao's double pupils, one can detect the traces of the earth's fiery energy beginning to erode the fire dragon's body. It seems that this erosion by the fiery energy began some time ago, probably when it was nearing the end of its lifespan and began to contemplate transforming from a dragon into a dragon.

For thousands of years, it has been a crucial element in suppressing the celestial fire of Tianchi. If it were to transform into a dragon, the celestial fire would inevitably erupt, potentially causing a volcanic eruption. Whether Tianchi would even exist then would be uncertain, but the people living at its foot would certainly suffer. If it wishes to transform into a dragon, it must avoid creating significant karma; otherwise, it will undoubtedly fail. And in this world, nothing is more devastating than human life, especially the lives of so many innocent people.

This puts him in a vicious cycle: to successfully transform into a dragon, he must suppress the earth fire of the Heavenly Pool. However, if he absorbs the earth fire, he will inevitably be eroded by the fiery energy of the earth's veins, making his chances of transforming into a dragon less than one in ten. If he doesn't suppress the earth fire veins and breaks free from the Heavenly Pool, the earth fire will erupt, harming the people. In that case, he will be entangled in karma, and his transformation into a dragon will undoubtedly fail.

This clearly shows that the rules of heaven and earth no longer allow a dragon to survive, hence this dramatic turn of events. However, of the fifty Great Daos, forty-nine Heavenly Evolutions, and one escapes. In all things under heaven, there is always a chance for life, which is why it had that sliver of a chance to transform from a dragon into a serpent after suppressing the earth's fire veins. Therefore, even knowing that the chance of success was probably less than one in a thousand, it was still willing to gamble, because it truly was the only and final chance that the so-called Heavenly Dao had left it.

He is currently merely a tool dragon, dealing with a scourge of the world for the so-called Heavenly Dao. But once the Heavenly Pool Fire Vein is completely suppressed, he will have no use for it. The Heavenly Dao is ruthless, treating all things as straw dogs. How could a dragon be an exception? The new world will not allow such a high level of life as the dragon to continue to exist. Apart from this time, in the future, any news related to the transformation of a dragon into a dragon will never mention a dragon; all that will be mentioned are giant snakes. But even the probability of a dragon failing to transform into a dragon is terrifyingly high, let alone a mere giant snake.

It's just that the Heavenly Dao gives those demon immortals who have cultivated to a certain level some vague and illusory expectations to lure them toward death.

Sun Yao quickly arrived beside the fire dragon, which had already absorbed all the earth vein fire energy and was now coiled up there refining it. At this stage, it wasn't as frenzied as it would become later. It knew that absorbing the fire energy from the Heavenly Pool earth vein required refining it; otherwise, it would inevitably cause damage to its physical body.

However, its process of absorbing and refining at the same time was too slow. Its lifespan was almost over, and it could no longer continue with this slow and laborious process.

Even though it was a mass of quantified earth vein fire energy, it was extremely vigilant. Before Sun Yao even entered within a hundred meters of it, it had already sensed his presence.

"Young man, who are you?" The dragon asked without even opening its eyes, as if deep in thought.

"My name is Sun Yao, and I have not yet taken a courtesy name. I am a disciple of the Celestial Master's Mansion of Longhu Mountain, the Sanyi Sect, and the Huode Sect. I have come here today to see what may be the last remaining dragon in the world. It seems that even this last dragon is doomed."

As Sun Yao spoke, he walked towards the fire dragon. When Sun Yao uttered the last word, the fire dragon suddenly opened its eyes and stared at Sun Yao without moving.

"What do you mean by that? I'm not cursing you. This area under Heavenly Lake is my territory. Aren't you afraid I'll leave you here?"

"I would be afraid under any other circumstances, but I'm not afraid now." Sun Yao seemed to be pushing his luck, not only approaching the fire dragon but also stroking its scales. Despite being a fire dragon, its scales felt cool to the touch.

"What do you mean, kid?" The fire dragon was surprised by Sun Yao's audacity in daring to touch its scales. Even the Willow Immortals wouldn't dare come within a hundred meters of it.

"What do I mean? You are about to transform into a dragon, would you really risk such a huge karmic consequence as human lives because of me, turning your path to dragon transformation into one of certain failure? I bet you won't let a moment of anger affect your future. Besides, I'm not necessarily your enemy; why wouldn't I be here to help you?"

As Sun Yao spoke, he used the Fire Element Technique to extract the Earth Fire Qi from the Fire Flood Dragon's body, and then directly put this Earth Fire Qi into the Returning Void Cauldron.

The earth fire energy that the fire dragon cannot consume is actually an excellent benefit to the Guixu Cauldron. The Guixu Cauldron is ultimately just a cauldron forged by humans; it cannot possibly possess its own fire energy like those in cultivation novels. If the earth vein fire energy from the bottom of this Heavenly Pool were injected into it for refining, the Guixu Cauldron might become like the medicine cauldrons in cultivation novels.

"What!" The fire dragon could certainly feel the earth fire energy in its body being extracted, but it did not expect that the earth fire energy could be extracted so easily.

In the past, after absorbing the earth's fiery energy, it would gnaw at its body like maggots clinging to bones. It could not absorb enough earth's fiery energy for even an hour; it often needed more than ten days to completely refine it. Sometimes, some residue would even remain, to the point that its body was now being eroded by the earth's fiery energy.

But the person in front of it, who looked to be under the age of 18, was able to manipulate the earth's fire energy so casually, which was completely beyond its expectations.