Chapter 131: Refining the Furnace
Translator: Lordbluefire Editor: Lordbluefire
The stone covering his body changed into a stone sh.e.l.l that was completely sealed, with Feng Lin within.
Feng Lin transformed into the Heart Monkey, guarding his body and resisting the heat of the lava.
This was a unique ability of the Stone Monkey Gene after it had been maxed out. This ability was known as Stonebirth Transformation.
The price of this ability was becoming completely immobile, but when he was in this state, his defenses would be greatly strengthened to the max.
The temperature of the lava could reach over ten thousand degrees. Those soldiers who had rushed in instantly became ashes, yet Feng Lin was still unharmed. This was the extreme defense provided by the Stonebirth Transformation.
Ever since he confirmed that he had successfully refined the furnace, Feng Lin thought of this strategy.
The soldiers of the Mars Revolutionary Army seemed endless, coming with waves after waves. Given the strength of him alone, it was very difficult for him to fight against them.
Even if he could kill them, how long did he need to kill all of them?
No matter how strong he was, in the end, he would simply die from exhaustion.
Hence, Feng Lin might as well open up the furnace and lure them into the lava of the Mars’s core, turning this place into a fiery h.e.l.l, making it so that no one could enter. Only he could survive due to the Stonebirth Transformation ability.
Hence now, Feng Lin transformed into a stone monkey that was still inside the stone sh.e.l.l as he floated among the lava.
This place was filled with core’s flame, and the temperature was extremely high, capable of refining and tempering anything. The heat constantly tempered his body, and the stone sh.e.l.l turned more and more transparent, glowing with a glossy light.
If he was just an ordinary stone before this, now that all impurities had gradually been removed, the stone sh.e.l.l now resembled a pure and flawless piece of beautiful jade.
Although the Stone Monkey Gene had been strengthened to the max, this didn’t represent that all his abilities had been maxed out.
Adding points to the strengthening tally of a gene was equivalent to improving one’s talent. When one’s talent reached the limit, in order to continue and grow in strength, they had to undergo continuous practices for their abilities to grow stronger and stronger, seemingly without end.
When Sun Wukong was born, he was already a spiritual stone monkey, but his strength wasn’t something he gained innately. It was just because his talent was good and his intelligence far surpa.s.sed his same species which led to him ultimately gaining such immense strength. At the start, he was merely a weak little stone monkey.
Later on, Sun Wukong traversed the four oceans and experienced many kinds of suffering before he managed to take Patriarch Subhuti as his master. From there, he learned many heaven-shaking abilities and he eventually became the Great Sage Equal to Heavens!
Hence, strengthening one’s gene would only allow your talent to be maximized. As to how you would use that talent to increase your potential and develop your strength, that would be up to yourself. There were many different methods of cultivation; hence, there would be differences.
For example for the Ice Gene, many people would use this gene to form icicles from the water vapor in the air to kill their enemies. There were also some who directly employed the power to freeze their enemies or use cold qi to kill…
Feng Lin’s toughness started to change under the refinement of the fire in the planet’s core. Vast amounts of impurities continued to be forced out, and the instant they appeared, they were evaporated into nothingness by the high temperature.
The acc.u.mulated nutrients in his body also rapidly decreased as his body began to shrink from his original 1.98 meters, to 1.90 meters, and all the way to 1.78 meters.
However, this didn’t mean that Feng Lin had weakened. On the contrary, his body was purified and he became stronger than before.
If in the past, his body was said to be forged from steel. Right now, his body of steel had transformed into the strongest alloy. His body structure gradually transformed as his bones turned as white as jade, emitting a faint golden l.u.s.ter. And his muscles were like corded steel wires, extremely resilient.
Feng Lin suddenly had an epiphany.
The path of cultivation was endless. One must move forward or would fall behind.
All his encounters turned into valuable experiences as he engraved them in his mind, unable to forget even after a long time.
The lava here flowed backward, incinerating everything inside the furnace. The t.i.tan’s body, frank’s body…all turned into ashes, no longer existing.
No matter how strong they had been when they were alive, no matter how high their status was, everything returned to nothingness.
It felt like an impressive bout of fire burned everything cleanly in the mortal world.
For a period of time, everything was burning. Feng Lin was the only thing that remained as he curled up safely inside the stone sh.e.l.l.
At the same time while his body was being tempered, he also silently formed gestures, controlling his mental energy to continue ‘taming’ the furnace as he branded his own mental imprint in the furnace’s core, creating a formless connection between them.
As the mental imprint sank in deeper, the connection grew increasingly tighter. The furnace felt like it was a part of his body.
Feng Lin felt that as long as he willed it, he would be able to control the furnace’s movements effortlessly.
But at this moment, a loud voice suddenly rang out.
“Is this the mythological site the Giant Pharmaceutical Company discovered?”
“There’s still a remaining vile sp.a.w.n from the Giant Pharmaceutical Company. We must capture him for sure!”
“What? The first batch of people who entered have all been burned to ashes?!”
…
Numerous exclamations of shock rang out from the s.p.a.ce above the furnace.
Clearly, the situation here had already been discovered, and more soldiers were drawn here. He controlled the furnace to shake violently, completely severing the pa.s.sageway that led into this s.p.a.ce. The furnace’s top was completely shut off with a huge bang.
The soldiers screamed as they suddenly fell straight into the lava.
By doing so, the s.p.a.ce inside the furnace was now completely isolated from the outside world. He could temporarily stabilize and put in all his effort in refining the furnace, not being disturbed by anyone.
Unless the Mars Revolutionary Army had the technology to enter deep inside the core, it was impossible for them to do anything to him.
But even so, in order to guard against future troubles, Feng Lin began to exert all his efforts to refine the furnace.
Now that Mars was in the midst of internal warfare, everywhere on the planet was in chaos. It wasn’t suitable for him to stay too long here. It would be for the best if he could leave this place as soon as possible.
A silver light shone from the center of Feng Lin’s brows. His mental energy gushed forth in full strength, instantly channeled into the furnace.
This furnace was as expected an ancient wondrous treasure left behind by the Furnace Immortal Sect. There was actually an interior s.p.a.ce within it, and it contained all kinds of secrets.
When Feng Lin’s mental energy entered the furnace, it felt like it was entering a bottomless hole. No matter how deep he probed, he wasn’t able to reach the very end. He could feel a mysterious energy hidden in the depths, but as of now, his capabilities were still far from enough to discover anything about it.
He still failed after several attempts and could only give up for now, leaving behind a mere mental imprint.
In this case, his refinement of the furnace could only be considered to be at the initial stage. He still wasn’t able to gain complete control of the furnace yet.
But this was already sufficient.
After all, an interstellar cultivator’s cultivation base was simply too low. It was far from enough to completely control a treasure like this.
Reaching this step was already Feng Lin’s current limit.
Feng Lin didn’t feel too much regret. He silently mused that it was about time to leave.
The planet’s core was in the center of Mars. If he stayed too long here, he would be like a turtle trapped in a jar, and he wouldn’t be able to leave even if he wanted to.
According to what Frank had said earlier, there should be a secret pa.s.sage here in the core, leading to the tallest volcano on Mars. The tallest volcano was named Mount Olympus, and it was over 20,000 meters tall.
He should be able to travel through the core, to the volcano, climbing out of the crater to reach Mars’s surface.
According to this information he had learned from Frank earlier, Feng Lin started to control the furnace, moving it across the core’s lava.
If the lava of Mars’s core was like an ocean, this furnace would become his submarine.
With just his will, Feng Lin was able to easily control the movements of the furnace. It was truly extremely mystical.
Very soon, he arrived at the location Frank had mentioned.
The inner s.p.a.ce of the core had countless tunnels. Right now, at this moment, the furnace stopped before a giant tunnel where the lava was flowing into it. It was like an underground river of lava which led to an unknown location.