The old dragon statue contained a residual will from the Candle Dragon.
Upon sensing the powerful dragon blood of Tianlong, it unfurled itself from the pillar and looked at him with a piercing gaze.
However, once it felt Tianlong's aura close enough, it could sense that the bloodline of Tianlong wasn't resonating with its will. So it unleashed the flames from the corpses to check.
Unfortunately, the creature was already dead and only had a remnant will. The lamp created by Long Qianmei easily deceived it.
"At which hour I was born, the abyss hast still not shattered. With mine own eyes, I witnessed the mundaneness of the mortal world, with mine own spirit I hath felt the majesty of the immortals; O sacred kinsmen of mine, bid me, wherefore shouldst the world have mortals at which hour it already hast immortals? wherefore shouldst immortals are there if 't be true the world already hast mortals?"
The old dragon's face was inches away from Tianlong and observing him with its left eye. Originally, there should've been a bright sun in that eye, but due to the interference of the lamp, it had been blinded.
As Tianlong looked into the eyes of the old dragon, he felt as if he was observing a solar eclipse. The dragon's eyes and words were the only things left in his mind.
Eventually, he became numb to the burning sensation in his body and sit down cross-legged just like the corpses.
His mind was completely blank and only a soft burning candle flame was visible in front of his eyes.
"O sacred kinsmen of mine, bid me, wherefore shouldst the world have mortals at which hour it already hast immortals? wherefore shouldst immortals are there if 't be true the world already hast mortals?"
The candle flame swayed and continuously repeated the question. There was no overbearingness of a supreme creature in the voice, only inquisitiveness.
"You say that immortals are superior lifeforms and the world only needs them. Pray tell me, on what basis do you consider them superior?" Tianlong asked him in return.
Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have answered. However, the Candle Dragon's voice had a magical quality to it that made him participate in the conversation.
"Immortals can fly in the sky, command over unimaginable power and live forever. But the mortals, those gents can only achieve so much in their bawbling lifespan. Of course, the mortals art inferior!" The dragon replied to him.
Tianlong became silent for a moment. After a long time, he replied, "Your basis of comparison is wrong! Once a person becomes a cultivator, they live in a different world than mortals. How can they be compared to each other?
"Mortals desire the power to fly in the sky, the immortals desire the power to split apart the world. The pursuit of power is endless. How can there be an end to greed?
"In exchange for power, cultivators lose their peace. Ever since I have become a cultivator, my sense of time has become completely different. As I spend my day in cultivation, a month seems even shorter than a day. I'm not living myself as much as when I was a mortal. Despite their short lifespan, who can say that they are living any less than us? Besides, do immortals truly live forever?"
Once he spoke these words, Tianlong finally snapped out of his daze. His forehead was filled with cold sweat when he realised how this creature had easily drawn him into an illusion.
The Candle Dragon's will went silent. Its face showing neither approval nor disapproval.
"Mine own soul hast perished while thy spirit is still burning. Art thee superior to me?"
The question caught him off guard. There was no clear answer he could give to the dragon.
Seeing Tianlong's silence, the dragon's gaze became merciless. He may have considered Tianlong as his kinsmen, but it didn't mean that he respected him.
Eccentric in behaviour, their race would spend their time thinking about the opposing forces of nature. Their race respected strength, but they respected knowledge even more.
"In my eyes, there is no superior or inferior lifeform …there is only variety." After a long moment of silence, he responded with a smile.
His answer was completely based on his study.
Every race had their strength and flaws. He believed that there was no perfect creature. For the world to function properly, it needed the existence of all these lifeforms.
The Candle Dragon looked at him for a moment then said, "You are wrong, but you are also right! Nevertheless, I accept your answer!"
Before Tianlong could ask something, the Candle Dragon opened its mouth and gobbled him up.
"Light and dark, just a cycle of life; the flow of yin and yang art imbalanced in the sacred nine yins… Allow us all to becometh the scions of order, Allow mine eyes to tear apart the dark… Burning the fire of mine life, I shalt open the obsidian eyes of the sky!"
The dragon's voice echoed in the room as it once again wrapped itself around the pillar while gazing in the sun's direction.
Meanwhile, Tianlong found himself inside the metallic dragon's mouth. If not for the fact he hadn't detected any hostility from the dragon, he could've easily escaped while it tried to swallow him.
The inside of the Candle Dragon was filled with demonic Qi. It was so thick in fact that anyone could see it with their naked eyes.
As it seeped inside of him, he felt as if his Qi and blood had been ignited at the same time. Under this intense pain, the residual Sublime Blood Elixir in his body was quickly refined and strengthened his physique.
Soon as the body was rid of the elixir, the demonic Qi rampaged his physique and disintegrated him into smoke to further refine his bloodline.
The Candle Dragon may be nourishing him, but without proper measures, his body would turn into ashes.
"Since the blood elixir can't handle it, I can only use the Golden Frost pills to handle the fire!"
During his father's recent adventure, he had extorted quite a few cultivation resources. Sublime Blood Elixir and the Golden Frost Pills were one of the most eye-catching among them. The former was a supreme tonic for anyone in the Blood Surging realm while the latter was a treasure for Diamond Carapace realm cultivators.
When Tianlong took out one of the 36 pills, it released a golden glow that made it look like a gemstone. Once he consumed it, he felt a cold metallic taste in his mouth.
"With my cultivation, I can't refine this pill. But under the heat of these flames, its coldness can help me resist the loss of my blood!" Gritting his teeth, he directed the demonic Qi towards the freezing pill.
Due to the counteraction of the pill, his blood no longer boiled as rapidly as before and he reached a steady state.
Closing his eyes, he started to breathe the flaming demonic Qi and cultivate the spell of Tempest Rage. It was the best place to cultivate the spell.
After every successful cycle, his body would absorb a part of the Qi and release a breath of scalding hot air.
Under the intense heat of the demonic Qi, not only was his fleshly body being strengthened, but his meridians were also changing.
Among the twelve standard meridians, the six yang type meridians were all glowing with white light. However, Tianlong was too focused on cultivating the spell to notice any of that.
Burning from outside and freezing from inside, under the simultaneous effect of these two, he kept cultivating.
It was the only way he could release the heat that was assaulting him. Due to the abundance of the flame type demonic Qi, he had a much easier time cultivating the technique here.
Just when Tianlong thought that he would cultivate inside the candle dragon's mouth in this way for the next few weeks, the sun finally set over the horizon in the outside world.
As if being able to see it, the Candle Dragon's statue also closed its eyes.
"Valorous and evil, just a difference in thoughts; If 't be true the world burns in chaos and the heaven closes its eyes …I shalt quench the sky with blood and soothe the bitter abyss… did let us all freeze our heart and bathe in the crimson dream of the night!"
The flaming demonic Qi that was rushing inside him suddenly stopped and started to flow in reverse order.
Looking at the scene, Tianlong immediately stopped his cultivation and sighed. "Just as I suspected. The flames would only be there during the daytime. Once it's night, it would…"
During the daytime, the Candle dragon would cultivate its inner yang using the laws of sunrays. That's why Tianlong's extreme yang physique was activated even without his consent.
While during the night, it would reverse its yang and hibernate to cultivate its yin nature.
Tianlong who was sitting inside, found himself turning into an ice statue. The reversal of the demonic Qi had turned the insides freezingly cold.
Being connected to the Candle Dragon, he was forced to follow its cultivation pattern.
The six meridians which were glowing white due to Yang demonic Qi swiftly cooled down and returned to their original state. Subsequently, the six Yin Meridians revealed themselves and swelled up with a dark glow. However, it looked feeble compared to his Yang Meridians.
"As the owner of an extreme Yang Physique, my Yin Meridians are nowhere as strong as their counterparts…"
Tianlong struggled to increase the suction force of the Yin Meridians but couldn't do anything. To make things worse, the Golden Frost Pill was still releasing its coldness.
Being connected to the Candle Dragon, he felt a hint of drowsiness washing over him. The sun had set, so he needed to close his eyes.
As he felt his body getting rigid, Tianlong gritted his teeth. "My body may be lacking in Yin, but it doesn't mean I can't do anything about it!"
His mind quickly connected with the black vine wrapped around his heart. Due to the continuous nourishment and having absorbed parts of itself from Long Qianmei, it was much thicker. It looked like a dead tree with branches spread all over his body.
If there was something that could be described as Yin natured in his body, it would definitely be this vine!
With his knowledge of anatomy, he had no problems in wrapping the tree's branches around his Yin meridians.
The cold demonic Qi which couldn't enter his body till now suddenly felt an outlet.
In response, the tree branches turned into vines and swelled up. It seemed as if the cold Qi was a tonic for them.
Once he felt that his situation had stabilised, he let go of all resistance and closed his eyes.
He could feel that under the nourishment of the Candle Dragon, his meridians and blood were changing.
This was serendipity for him that his mother had provided. In the entire clan, maybe only the patriarch was entitled to get such treatment. But now, Tianlong was using this chance to increase his cultivation.
Maybe after he came out of this place, he would be at the peak of Qi Condensation and Blood Surging realm. There was even a chance for him to reach the next cultivation realm.
However for him to successfully attain this serendipity, he would need to participate in an unknown number of Yin and Yang cycles of Candle Dragon.