254: Chapter 254 Evil Nature

Su Cheng listened very carefully, and only asked when his father mentioned that the other party had produced a Xuanyin Sect Personal Disciple token: "Dad, how did you handle those Xuanyin Sect Disciples' tokens?"

"I threw them all into the magma rift afterwards, burning them on the spot."

Su Cheng nodded and did not continue to ask about this matter.

He did not know about the Tracing Formation Inscription on the Xuanyin Sect Core Disciple tokens, and Su Chengyuan naturally did not know either.

Moreover, even if the tokens were burned, the Tracing Formation Inscription had already completed its recording the moment the Disciples died, so it didn't matter whether they were burned or not, but Su Cheng and the others were not aware of this.

Furthermore, it was difficult to make a choice in that situation; not killing them would certainly lead to trouble later, and while killing them also brought trouble, the benefits were immediate.

After Su Chengyuan finished recounting the events, Su Cheng also briefly told his father about his progress in the Sect and the Prefecture City over the past few months.

The wanbao mirror had upgraded to a mid-grade Treasure Artifact, his Divine Soul had reached the Late Foundation Establishment Stage, and three Divine Soul Spells had been mastered, among other things...

After listening, Su Chengyuan stared at his son for a long while.

"Chenger, you have progressed too quickly." Su Chengyuan's words were full of gratification.

Su Cheng just smiled and then said: "Dad, let's go, let's go see Senior Sun."

The two headed to the inn, while Li Shi remained in this courtyard.

Sun Boyong was still in the room, sitting by the window with his Disciple Zhou Changgeng, each with a pot of wine, drinking together.

This was Su Chengyuan's first time meeting a Late Golden Core Stage Great Master of Artifact Refining.

He stood still at the doorway, straightened his clothes, and then stepped inside, performing a standard Junior's salute.

"I am Su Chengyuan, I pay my respects to Senior Sun."

Sun Boyong looked him up and down; this was not a perfunctory glance, but a genuine inspection.

Despite Su Chengyuan's Early Foundation Establishment Stage cultivation, he lacked the restraint and nervousness typical of an ordinary Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

Standing before a great Cultivator of the Late Golden Core Stage, his back was straight, his gaze did not flicker or avoid, and his posture while saluting was respectful but not servile; one could tell at a glance that he was a man who had seen the world and experienced much.

Sun Boyong nodded: "Your son mentioned you to me, saying you took a group of people out for several months and actually accomplished things. Judging by your complexion, you certainly don't look like someone who has suffered any losses."

Su Chengyuan humbly replied that he did not deserve the praise and did not say anything more.

"Sit, don't be formal."

After thanking him, Su Chengyuan sat down to the side, and Zhou Changgeng poured him a cup of tea.

Zhou Changgeng and Su Cheng addressed each other as brothers, so the other's father was naturally considered his elder.

After a few pleasantries, everyone got straight to the point; Su Cheng took the jade bottle out of the creation furnace space, though to the outside world, it appeared as if he had simply taken a bottle from his sleeve.

"Senior, this is it."

Su Cheng placed the spiritual white jade bottle in the center of the table, with the Seal talisman still attached and unremoved.

Sun Boyong put down his wine cup and leaned forward slightly.

"You just took it out like this?"

"I said yesterday, this Junior trusts you, Senior."

Sun Boyong looked at him and shook his head, muttering something unclear, likely something along the lines of "newborn calf."

He did not rush to act, but instead took several Formation Flags from his sleeve, flicking his wrist to pin them into the four corners of the room and on both sides of the doors and windows.

Guiding them with his magic power, several invisible threads of Spiritual Qi stretched between the flags, interweaving into a dense blockade that sealed the entire room tightly.

Soundproofing, air insulation, and isolation of Spiritual Qi fluctuations—all three effects were fully applied.

Only after doing all this did he reach out to remove the Seal talisman.

Before the stopper of the jade bottle was even pulled out, a gloomy aura seeped out from the bottle walls.

Zhou Changgeng was closest to the table and subconsciously took a step back, his face showing a bit more wariness.

Sun Boyong did not retreat; instead, he guided his magic power to condense a thin golden film over the bottle's mouth to lock in the aura, and only then did he slowly pull out the stopper.

Dark purple firelight overflowed from the bottle's mouth, bulging outward against the golden film, making the entire private room flicker between light and shadow.

Sun Boyong's eyes narrowed slightly.

The flame was purple with traces of black, and a brilliant white dot danced in the heart of the flame, its form unstable, changing shape every three to five breaths.

The most eerie thing was that the fire was not hot—at least Su Cheng could not feel any heat—but he could feel a vigilance stemming from instinct; the fluctuations that the thing emitted on the level of Spiritual Qi caused his Meridians to have a slight contraction reaction.

"A third-rank strange fire." Sun Boyong's tone was very flat, "It is a pity that the path taken was crooked; demonic Cultivators are just demonic Cultivators, daring to use any method."

He lifted the flame with his magic power, hovering it three inches above his palm and rotating it slowly, and only after carefully scanning it with his Divine Sense did he continue.

"When Righteous Path Sects want to Cultivate a strange fire, they rely on the power of Spiritual Veins to slowly nurture it, taking at least a hundred years, or even several hundred years; the resulting fire seed is righteous in nature and can coexist peacefully with a Cultivator's own magic power."

"Demonic Cultivators are different; they cannot wait that long, nor are they willing to wait."

"Using a Formation to absorb the flesh and soul essence of living beings as nourishment to forcibly mature the fire seed—how clean can something fed by human lives be?"

Su Cheng asked: "What are the specific consequences?"

Sun Boyong did not rush to answer, but instead probed the core of the flame with his Divine Sense again, his brows furrowing tighter and tighter.

"This thing was not formed naturally." His tone became deeper as he spoke, "There are two types of strange fire; one is naturally condensed from Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi under special conditions, which is righteous in nature and can coexist with a Cultivator's own magic power after refining."

"The other type is artificially cultivated, using external forces to forcibly mature the Origin fire seed from a budding state."

He used his magic power to compress the dark purple flame to the size of a bead and examined it carefully for a moment.

"There are many methods for natural maturation; Righteous Path Sects will use the power of Spiritual Veins to slowly nurture it for several hundred years, which is time-consuming, but the resulting item is clean. But this one of yours..."

Sun Boyong looked up and glanced at Su Chengyuan.

"You said that Formation used the flesh and soul essence of Yao Beasts and Cultivators as nourishment?"

Su Chengyuan nodded: "There were traces at the bottom of the valley; the corpses would be swallowed by the Formation, their flesh and blood turning into red liquid that seeped into the underground inscriptions. When we finally left, the corpses of those people were also swallowed in this way, and then the thing underground was formed."

Sun Boyong did not ask any further.

"Then that adds up; this strange fire was forcibly fed by the resentment and essence blood of living beings. The grade of the fire seed itself is indeed third-rank, and its power should be quite considerable, but it carries an extremely heavy evil nature."

"If you refine it directly without processing it, every time you activate it, it will backlash against the Cultivator's Divine Soul; over time, this will lead to a drastic change in personality at best, or Qi Deviation at worst."

He paused for a moment.

"The Xuanyin Sect is a demonic Sect; their Cultivation Technique paths are inherently biased towards the vicious and sinister, so they might be able to withstand using this thing, but you cannot."

Su Cheng asked a crucial question: "Can the evil nature be removed?"

Sun Boyong thought about it, shook his head, and then nodded.

"It cannot be completely removed, but it can be suppressed. My specialty is Artifact Refining, which involves a large number of Formations, and a strange fire is, after all, a type of spiritual material. I am still capable of using Array Inscriptionss to Seal the evil nature while retaining the power of the fire seed itself."

He added: "If you are at ease with it, I can Seal the evil nature first, and then you can proceed with the refining; it will take about three days."

Su Cheng stood up and performed a salute: "Many thanks, Senior."

Su Chengyuan also stood up and saluted, speaking words of gratitude, while Sun Boyong just waved his hand, saying it was merely a small effort.

Over the next three days, Sun Boyong had Su Cheng find a private Cultivation room in the city available for rent.