Chapter 4194 Comprehension
Countless flames raged within this world of fire and began to gather toward Long Chen when he appeared.
At this moment, Long Chen heard the sound of billions of flames burning. Together, they formed a strange sound.
The sound resembled the exchange of emotions, the sharing of thoughts. The flames felt intimately connected to Long Chen, as if they relied on him for their existence.
The flames burned, emitting a sound that seemed to be telling him something, yet Long Chen couldn’t understand its meaning.
The sound was cacophonous. These flames contained all kinds of manifestations, including the immortal world’s Heavenly Flames, the mortal world’s Earth Flames, beast flames, even wildfires in the mountains, and fires for cooking food.
It was too complicated, too chaotic. They all seemed to be trying to communicate with Long Chen, but Long Chen couldn’t comprehend what they were trying to say. There was a barrier between them that he couldn’t break.
Within the endless flames, Long Chen suddenly noticed ten thrones.
Of these ten thrones, seven were ahead, and three were behind. The three rear thrones were high in the air and completely empty.
“This is…!”
Long Chen looked at the fourth throne, and his heart leaped. In the thrones around it, Long Chen saw the Heavenly Rainbow Flame, the Ice Soul Divine Flame, the golden Sun Flame, the black Moon Flame, as well as the Phoenix Flame which was in the shape of a beautiful divine bird.
Furthermore, the order they were in was clearly the order of the top ten of the Heavenly Flame Rankings.
The Heavenly Rainbow Flame was rank nine, the Ice Soul Divine Flame was rank eight, the Moon Flame was rank seven, the Sun Flame was rank six, and the Phoenix Flame was rank five. But as for rank four, the flames on that throne were as black as ink.
“The Yan Xu Flame?! How can that be?! Isn’t the Yan Xu Flame the strongest flame within the nine heavens and ten lands?!”
When he saw the rank four, Long Chen almost couldn’t believe his eyes. That was clearly the Yan Xu Flame. However, this Yan Xu Flame didn’t give off any sinister air, so Long Chen almost couldn’t accept it. But the fluctuations it gave off made it impossible for him to deny that this was the Yan Xu Flame.
The Yan Xu Flame said to be the strongest flame within the nine heavens and ten lands was actually only ranked fourth? Was there some mistake? Long Chen was dumbfounded.
“The top three spots are empty. They should be the rank one, rank two, and rank three Heavenly Flames. But they aren’t there?”
This ranking shattered Long Chen’s current understanding. Could it be that the immortal world’s Heavenly Flame Rankings were wrong?
“This is the Yan Xu Flame, but it is also different from the Yan Xu Flame I’ve seen. Is it real or not?”
“If it is the Yan Xu Flame and it’s merely rank four, then what are the top three Heavenly Flames?”
Long Chen looked at the three empty thrones with a dazed expression. This world of flames had truly shaken him, and he struggled to accept this reality.
The flames continued to burn, their power seemingly limitless and freely unleashed.
Long Chen’s mind went blank as he listened to the roaring flames. Time seemed to come to a standstill, and gradually, his heart began to regain its composure.
He could only patiently listen to the voices of the flames, not thinking of anything else. Long Chen didn’t know how much time had pa.s.sed, but he suddenly felt a spark of enlightenment.
He then formed hand seals and began to chant a scripture. As he did, the flames grew active, akin to soldiers who had received orders. The sound of his scripture chanting was the bugle horn to war.
As the chanting intensified, the flames rose with it. It was as if someone had poured oil into the flames, causing them to wildly rise.
Billions of flames surged upward, weaving around Long Chen to take the shape of mystical runes.
“So that’s the case. The most original Nirvana Scripture is made of endless runes. These runes are dead, but the scripture is alive. Then there must be another thing as a contrast. If there is Yin, there is Yang; if there is right, there is wrong; if there is good, there is bad. Between Yin and Yang, right and wrong, good and bad, there must be something dividing them. This is one of the principles behind the Dao: one produces two, two produces three, and three produces all things.”
The runes manifested by these flames were the original Jiuli immortal characters, the characters for Nirvana Scripture.
As Long Chen progressed to the second volume of the Nirvana Scripture, the flames rose once more and twisted into another kind of rune.
Then he went on to the third volume, the fourth volume, and the fifth volume. The flames continued to twist and merge into runes.
As those runes swirled around him, Long Chen finally reached a certain threshold. Now, he not only comprehended what the runes were expressing, but he also knew their actual names.
Each original Jiuli immortal character could convey multiple meanings through variations in their form, length, and angle. Moreover, every character had several p.r.o.nunciations, and when combined with another character, their p.r.o.nunciation would undergo yet another transformation.
Long Chen’s Nirvana Scripture had been taught to him by a mysterious woman. Initially, he could only recite it without understanding the meaning behind each character. But now, he was gradually gaining a comprehensive understanding of the entire scripture.
Long Chen had learned up to the fifth volume of the Nirvana Scripture. However, now that he had found the key to opening the entire Nirvana Scripture, he could grasp the complete Nirvana Scripture with just its first two characters.
As Long Chen started to chant the sixth volume, the world of flames soared once again. The intense heat it produced made it seem like the world would explode.
But all of a sudden, Long Chen’s Spiritual Strength began to rapidly fade away, causing him to jump in fright. He hastily stopped chanting the Nirvana Scripture. To his astonishment, he discovered that his Spiritual Strength had plummeted to less than ten percent.
If he had been the slightest bit slower, his Spiritual Strength would have run dry and he would have pa.s.sed out.
“What’s going on? Even now, I can’t control the sixth volume of the Nirvana Scripture? That doesn’t seem right.” Long Chen was shocked to find that his Spiritual Strength had been so rapidly exhausted.
After all, his Spiritual Strength was incredibly powerful. He had never encountered someone in the same realm with a stronger Spiritual Strength. In fact, even innate Heaven Venerates might not have such vast reserves of Spiritual Strength.
It could be said that his Spiritual Strength far surpa.s.sed the rest of his power. However, even then, it was almost sucked dry.
When Long Chen stopped chanting, the explosive world gradually calmed down. In the end, it returned to its original appearance.
Long Chen sank into thought as she started studying the Nirvana Scripture again. All of a sudden, he burst into laughter.
“I understand! I understand!”