Chapter 123: Swallow the Fire

Chapter 123: Swallow the Fire "Success!" The sealing process had been a real roller coaster, but in the end, the power borrowed from the extreme cold array came out on top. "That was no walk in the park." Carlos carefully cradled a thumb-sized ice crystal in his palm. The crystal’s surface was etched with intricate, mind-bending patterns—this was the heart of the seal’s power. Inside danced a brilliant crimson flame. Even through the seal, he could feel his heart racing with a burning sensation. "Step two: bring it into the body." Psionic energy coursed through Carlos as he tried to break through the ice crystal and make contact with the Dawn Flame core inside. But this time, the extreme cold seal packed too much punch. After several tries, Carlos’s psionic energy couldn’t even scratch the surface. Seeing this approach was a dead end, Carlos’s eyes flickered with inner turmoil before he made his choice. "Guess I’ll have to go with plan B!" He stripped off his armor piece by piece, revealing his powerful muscles—each one carved like a marble statue, perfectly proportioned and built like a Greek god. Carlos handed a jar to Shield Guard #1: "You handle the artwork!" Inside the jar was a fiery red liquid that bubbled constantly like sleeping lava. Following his master’s orders, Shield Guard #1 immediately started carefully painting designs on this perfect canvas... Before long, the flame immunity body array was finished! Fiery red patterns covered Carlos’s skin from head to toe. This was a special body array that could temporarily make the wearer fireproof. Carlos shut his eyes as psionic energy surged through him: "Boom!" The fiery red patterns sprang to life, turning into ribbons of blazing ’lava’ that flowed and roared across Carlos’s skin... After double-checking that the flame immunity array was working properly, Carlos opened his eyes and locked onto the ice crystal holding the Dawn Flame prisoner. Time was ticking. Without missing a beat, he popped the ice crystal into his mouth and swallowed it in one gulp. "Gulp!" Cold hit his stomach like a freight train. Carlos closed his eyes again, turning all his focus inward. Using psionic energy to wrap around the ice crystal, Carlos’s eyes blazed with determination. Following a specific technique, he started cracking the seal on the crystal’s surface... The seal broke free, the ice crystal melted instantly, unleashing the furious Dawn Flame core inside. In a split second, raging flames exploded outward. Terrible, bone-melting heat seared Carlos’s flesh. Right away, Carlos’s eyes clenched shut, his body went rigid, and pure agony twisted his features. The fiery red lava patterns on his skin boiled and raged. Thank God he’d painted that flame immunity array on his body beforehand—it kept this hellish heat from cooking him inside and out. Right now, beads of hot sweat popped up on Carlos’s forehead, but before they could even drip, the scorching heat on his skin turned them to steam. "Keep going!" He gritted his teeth and held his breath, staying laser-focused. With a thought, a golden sword-shaped rune from deep in his soul appeared above the Dawn Flame core. This was the rune that represented Sun Emperor’s Court Swordsmanship. Under the golden glow of the sword-shaped rune, the wild Dawn Flame core started to settle down, with the surging crimson flames pulling back into the core. Carlos felt his pain drop like a rock! Seizing the moment, Carlos called up another blank rune—this was a skill rune he’d specifically kept in his back pocket from his last spirituality boost. The blank rune crept quietly toward the Dawn Flame core... The Dawn Flame was so caught up in the Sun Emperor’s Swordsmanship rune’s glow that it didn’t see it coming. The moment it made contact with the Dawn Flame core: "Boom!" The blank rune suddenly unleashed a powerful sucking force, greedily devouring the Dawn Flame. "Boom!" Inside the rune, the Dawn Flame realized it had been trapped again and started thrashing around like crazy, but it was way too late. One of humanity’s crown jewels—the mysterious power of skill runes—instantly fused with the Dawn Flame. The blank rune’s appearance shifted rapidly, transforming into a crimson flame. [Dawn Flame (Max Level): One of the Sun Emperor’s Sword’s companion spirit flames, representing the rebirth of all things. While packing extremely dangerous heat, it’s loaded with life force. Only when paired with the Sun Emperor’s Sword can it show its true colors!] [Note: Has a sky-high chance of catching the Sun Emperor’s Sword’s attention.] "Jackpot!" Carlos opened his eyes, crimson flames dancing in his emerald pupils. Then Carlos took a step forward: "Boom!" Wicked crimson flames erupted from his skin. Mind-blowing heat swept everything around him, making the air shimmer and dance. At the same time, the Dawn Flame’s life force flowed through his entire body. Carlos’s physical pain vanished completely—his whole body felt warm and cozy, like basking in perfect sunshine. Pulling back the Dawn Flame, Carlos’s already perfect body now glowed with a soft radiance, giving off a friendly solar vibe from the inside out. "Rich life force, combined with my own incredible healing powers..." Carlos was walking on air. After suiting up and calling back the Shield Guards, the Crimson-Gold Feathered Serpent Wings spread behind him. Riding the storm, he became a streak of light shooting toward the cave entrance... .... Rock Sand City, in a secret underground chamber. Under flickering lamplight, a stone table with two shadowy figures sitting across from each other. "Haswith, I want answers." Golden Sand Society’s Salimo looked steaming mad, the wolf-headed parrot on his shoulder screeching: "Answers! Answers!" Black Poison Faction Bishop Haswith scowled, clearly annoyed: "Answers? About what?" He was in a foul mood right now. After all these days, the Desolate Desert camp still hadn’t shipped over the various materials. This was seriously throwing a wrench in the Life-Death Serum research. He was betting it had to be the supervisor this guy sent screwing up the camp’s collection work! So even though this guy was bankrolling him, Haswith’s tone stayed ice-cold. "What! You’re seriously asking me what?" Salimo was seeing red. Damn backstabber—he’d been trying to set up this meeting for days, and this joker only just showed up. What really got his blood boiling was that this guy had completely spaced on his job. The wolf-headed parrot on his shoulder kept making low, threatening growls—a warning if there ever was one. Seeing his money man getting hot under the collar, Haswith—knowing he still needed to squeeze funding and materials out of this old coot—quickly slapped on a phony smile: "Just pulling your leg earlier, my dear Lord Salimo. How could I forget your little request? I’m sure that alchemical creation will be in your hands any day now!" Haswith remembered now—this old buzzard had hired him to take out a group of Psionics in the Desolate Desert and grab a huge eyeball from them. After hearing Haswith’s promise, Rock Sand City President Salimo’s anger went through the roof as he snorted: "Any day now? Those little pests came back ages ago! Safe and sound!" He practically spat out those last four words. "Safe and sound! Safe and sound!" The wolf-headed parrot squawked.