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

Sun Yao poured the earth vein fire energy he extracted from the fire dragon into the Guixu Cauldron. However, this earth vein fire energy only gave the Guixu Cauldron some heat; it was far from enough to completely change it.

However, there are many earth fire veins beneath this Heavenly Pool, and countless amounts of earth fire energy within them. With these, reforging the Guixu Cauldron would be a piece of cake. But now is not a good time, because he needs to negotiate a deal with this fire dragon.

"Senior Fire Dragon, what do you think of my plan? With my strength, I can completely remove the earth vein fire energy from the fire veins beneath this Heavenly Pool. But what will I gain in return?" Sun Yao never makes a losing deal. For the Fire Dragon to transform into a dragon, it must first thoroughly cleanse the Heavenly Pool. Sun Yao needs the earth vein fire energy from the fire veins at the bottom of the Heavenly Pool to reforge the Returning Void Cauldron, but he's not in a hurry for it. Even without the Returning Void Cauldron, he can still refine pills and forge weapons. On the other hand, the Fire Dragon is in a hurry, as this concerns its success in transforming into a dragon.

"What do you want?" Despite its urgency, it maintained a calm tone. Having lived for a thousand years, it understood one principle: never let others exploit its weaknesses. But even if it pretended to be indifferent, Sun Yao fully understood its current situation and knew how anxious it was.

"How about this? If you successfully transform into a dragon, I want you to protect me for 10 years and provide me with dragon blood for refining elixirs during that time. If you fail to transform from a dragon, I will use your body to forge a magical artifact, and you will become the artifact's spirit to fight for me. What do you say?"

Are you daydreaming, kid?!

"Of course I'm not daydreaming. Simply helping you manage the earth's fire veins won't make you agree to my conditions. But if I can help you complete all the preliminary preparations for transforming into a dragon, including clearing the river channels and evacuating the residents, so you only need to worry about the final heavenly tribulation, how about this deal? If you successfully transform into a dragon, you'll naturally profit; if you fail, I'll profit even more. So let's make a bet. Do you dare accept this wager?"

After Sun Yao finished stating his conditions, the Fire Dragon fell silent. It pondered whether Sun Yao's deal was suitable for it, but soon a resolute glint flashed in its eyes.

"Alright, I accept this bet. This world is a place where all living beings strive to cross the river and all creatures compete for survival. If I can successfully transform from a snake into a dragon, I can also successfully transform from a dragon into a dragon!" A resolute look flashed in the fire dragon's eyes, and his tone revealed the courage to fight with his back against the wall.

"Good, as expected of the only dragon in the world, you should have this confidence. Next, I will cooperate with you to clear the earth fire veins at the bottom of this Heavenly Pool. After that, you can focus on accumulating power. I will definitely prepare you for the transformation into a dragon within half a month."

As Sun Yao spoke, he released the Guixu Cauldron. All this earth vein fire energy was needed for the reforging of the Guixu Cauldron. However, this earth vein fire energy alone was far from enough. While earth vein fire energy was important for the Guixu Cauldron, the materials for reforging it were even more crucial.

Sun Yao's treasure pouch contained a considerable amount of fine iron, leftover materials from when he forged the Thunder Pool Flying Sword. However, this amount of fine iron was insufficient to recast the Guixu Cauldron, given its sheer size.

However, Sun Yao wasn't in a hurry. When he was forging the Thunder Pool Flying Sword, he hadn't just collected fine iron; he had also collected many other metal materials. If he were to put all of these into the forging of the Returning Void Cauldron, he might just obtain a powerful magic weapon.

However, the most important task at present is to untangle the earth fire veins at the bottom of Tianchi Lake and extract the earth fire energy from them. This is a task he certainly cannot accomplish alone. He doesn't know how long it would take to mobilize so much earth fire energy from the veins; he just told Second Grandfather Liu that he would definitely return in an hour. Now, two quarters of an hour have already passed, and at most he has another hour and a half to untangle the earth fire energy.

“The earth fire veins at the bottom of this Heavenly Pool are too vast, containing countless amounts of earth fire energy. If we want to extract all of this earth fire energy, I alone cannot do it. I need your help in this regard. You will absorb the earth fire energy from these earth fire veins, and I will help you extract the earth fire energy from your body. I can guarantee that not a single trace of this earth fire energy will remain in your body. How about it?”

As Sun Yao spoke, he patted the fire dragon, and the fire dragon raised its eyes and glanced at Sun Yao.

"Sure, but can your speed of extracting earth vein fire energy keep up with my speed of absorbing earth vein fire energy from the earth veins?"

"You can rest assured about that. The reason I asked you for help is because, unlike you, I can't directly absorb magma from the earth's veins. I have to mobilize a large amount of spiritual energy to unleash all the magma from the earth's fiery veins at the bottom of the Heavenly Pool before I can extract the earth's fiery energy. But you are different; you can directly absorb the fiery energy from the earth's vein magma, something I can't do as well as you do. So with your help, we can achieve twice the result with half the effort. As for my extraction speed, you can rest assured; you'll only find that your extraction speed can't keep up with mine."

"I hope you're not just talking the talk, otherwise I'll have to reconsider whether our bet should really go through with it."

"Enough talk, let's see what we've got. We'll have to put it to the test, won't we?"

“That’s right, we have to put it to the test. Are you ready? I’m about to begin.” After saying that, the fire dragon opened its blood-red maw and began to suck up the magma from the earth fire veins beside it. These things looked like magma, but they were actually the most precise earth vein fire energy, only they flowed in the form of magma within the earth fire veins.

In a short while, the fire dragon had completely absorbed all the earth vein fire energy within one of the earth fire veins. However, after the fire dragon finished absorbing the earth vein fire energy, it was surprised to find that there was no earth vein fire energy left in its body. It subconsciously looked at the human beside it, only to find that he had crammed an unknown amount of earth vein fire energy into a large cauldron.