Under these circ.u.mstances, Bai Yunfei couldn’t afford not to take in the elemental fire. It was dangerous, to be sure, and it certainly wasn’t purely elemental fire. Due to bi-elemental nature of the wolf, it’s elemental fire was a very different substance than to what Bai Yunfei’s was, meaning it was exceedingly dangerous to absorb.
Taking in the elemental fire, Bai Yunfei felt his fireseed start to tremble, as if trying to reject the elemental fire. Forcing him to stop the repulsion, Bai Yunfei had the fireseed try and fuse the foreign elemental fire with his own.
But to do that caused a great deal of chaos and….pain.
Fire hot enough to burn even his heart came to being inside his body. Bai Yunfei was ‘accustomed’ to such pain, as he felt this same pain before when training in the Dual Flame Arts, so Bai Yunfei could grit his teeth and continue onwards without being too hampered.
The truly dangerous element in this situation was the fact that he wasn’t just absorbing elemental fire into his body.
He was absorbing elemental lightning as well.
Experiencing what felt like tendrils of lightning snake into his body and spark every centimeter of his nerves, Bai Yunfei felt his body grow numb to the touch. And combined with the burning sensation going on at the same time, his pain multiplied.
The amount of perspiration starting to form on his body grew in proportion to the amount of seconds. Not a single droplet had fallen yet, but they were hot to the touch, and several parts of his body was starting to ‘steam’.
Everything was going beyond Bai Yunfei’s expectations. Not even a second of break was given as Bai Yunfei was pushed deeper into his conundrum without being able to think about it. The only thing he could rely on was his own instincts, and that was what he was doing in order to try and get through this.
Controlling the wolf and taking in the elemental energy was proving it hard for Bai Yunfei to think about anything else. He didn’t even have the time or ability to take the Cataclysmic Seal out and have the fireseed in that try and alleviate some of his pain.
But what he was already doing was enough to suffice. The torrent of elemental energy was reaching a calm, and combined with his efforts with Xiao Qi, the situation was starting to get better.
Several seconds went by in reality, but to Bai Yunfei, these seconds were practically eons. Elemental fire and lightning was running rampant in his body and surging through his veins; though the fire he was used to, the lightning was moving like snakes underneath his skin, wriggling here and there and making for a scary sight.
Only a third of the seal was left. But the energy pouring out from it was still growing in momentum in its attempt to blow up the soulgem.
Like Bai Yunfei, Xiao Qi was hard at work trying to stop the self-destructive process. Bai Yunfei had even felt a message from the bird asking asking him to focus on absorbing the elemental energy while it focused on stopping the soulgem from exploding by itself.
But why would Bai Yunfei do that?
While it was true that Xiao Qi’s current strength of soul was stronger than his, it was only because Bai Yunfei had already allocated most of it as soulsense to control the Beast Taming Ring!! If Bai Yunfei were to relegate the task to Xiao Qi, they might be able to truly do something. But if the explosion were to happen while Xiao Qi was the only one controlling the Beast Taming Ring, then its soulsense would be thoroughly wiped out!
And should that happen….Xiao Qi would have its soul wiped out!
“d.a.m.nit! I have to endure this!!” Bai Yunfei roared to himself, pouring some more of his soul into it!
He wasn’t using soulforce or soulsense this time, but the raw energy that originated from his soul! It was his soul that he was using!
It streamed out from Bai Yunfei and into the wolf’s minds.p.a.ce. Without any obstructions, Bai Yunfei’s soul traveled into the wolf’s soulgem!
A while ago when the slave seal had lost half of its integral structure, a small ‘crack’ had formed on the soulgem. Continuing with the collapse of the slave seal, the crack had only grown wider. And behind it was….where the wolf’s soul was!
As his soul entered this spot, a peculiar feeling suddenly registered to his mind. There was a faint existence within the vicinity of his soul. It was weak and hard to detect, but it was there for Bai Yunfei to see. He had felt this feeling many times before, it was the feeling of comprehension. Insights into the world and its elements.
His eyes glimmered with light as the insights touched him. In the next moment, his absorption rate of the elemental energy around him rose drastically!
Straight away, the previously volatile energy grew ‘docile’, as if Bai Yunfei had discovered a way to properly control it.
But that wasn’t enough. The slave seal was already in the most extreme phase of its self-destruction, and the energy that was coming out from the interior of the wolf’s body was just as explosive. Bai Yunfei’s soul entering the soulgem left Xiao Qi the only one there to control the Beast Taming Ring, meaning the force pus.h.i.+ng for the wolf’s soulgem to explode had grown stronger!
He still had one final attempt to try out. There was a reason why he had his soul surge into the wolf’s soulgem…..
The elemental fire and lightning he was absorbing both had one destination. No matter where it entered his body from, the two energies had only one place to go to.
The center of his body where the origin acupoint was!
Obediently, the elemental fire flowed into the acupoint and joined with the essence fireseed there.
As for the elemental lightning, it started to gather around itself and form a small sliver of ‘concentrated’ purple lightning.
This was….an essence lightningseed!
Somehow, Bai Yunfei was trying to form an essence lightningseed!
Insane.
That was the only word that could describe this action.
And yet, it was also the best method to handle this situation!
The lightningseed was in an embryonic state of being, but with the rate of absorption Bai Yunfei had, it was already growing by several magnitudes!
“Chirp!!!!”
A chirp from Xiao Qi signalled to Bai Yunfei, telling him that it knew what he was doing and was trying its best to work the Beast Taming Ring. Though it couldn’t help him absorb the elemental lightning, there was still the ‘connection’ it had with Bai Yunfei, the soul contract!
Xiao Qi had an affinity for both fire and lightning as well!
Despite its relatively shorter time spent training in understanding the elements, Xiao Qi had something that was different than experience.
It had instinct!
Light blossomed from both Bai Yunfei and Xiao Qi. This was the result of their soul contract, allowing for a connection between the two and to have Xiao Qi share what insights it had about the two elements to Bai Yunfei. Knowledge and understanding poured forth from Xiao Qi’s mind into Bai Yunfei, and once again, Bai Yunfei began to absorb the elemental energy faster than before!
Bai Yunfei’s body became the eye of a whirlpool, with his body being a bottomless pit for the elemental fire and lightning to go into and be absorbed!
The events that was happening between Bai Yunfei, Xiao Qi, and the thunderfire wolf was something no one could possibly understand or even attempt to talk about if they ever saw it!
Time had almost no meaning to the two now. Bai Yunfei could still ‘see’ the slave seal crumbling away bit by bit, and as he absorbed the elements, he took notice of the slave seal having only a quarter of it left.
Then a fifth of it.
And then a tenth….
The essence fireseed in his body continued to absorb the special elemental fire from the wolf, swelling in size as it was fed. Right by its side, the embryonic essence lightningseed was already gaining in ma.s.s to form the shape of a lightning bolt.
A cloud of elemental fire and lightning covered the hill Bai Yunfei, Xiao Qi, and the thunderfire wolf was in, making it impossible for the naked eye to see in or out of it. All anyone could see if they looked was a tumultuous influx of energy and nothing else.
In time, the air of death that once threatened Bai Yunfei started to clear up….