"[Infernal Heavens]!"
One could light up the air with that Invisible Heaven Flames, and then burn everything within one's vicinity within one's control.
This was the most difficult step illustrated in the jade scroll.
The practitioner had to risk their lives finishing all the prerequisites, and then develop a sense of the spirits of all things around them before he could ignite something remotely.
Xu Xiaoshou closed his eyes and attempted to find that spirit inherent in all things.
He opened his eyes the very next second.
"What's happening?" he thought.
"I've finished the parts that require one to 'risk one's life,' yet why..."
"Is this '[Sense The Spirits in all Things]' so d*mn easy as well?"
He didn't even need to use [Sense]. He could easily perceive the spirit in all things in a fifty-meter radius just by using the [Sword Intent] needed to use "[All Things are Swords]."
He caressed his chin and wondered if things were really just that simple.
"That would be improbable. How could the jade scroll be wrong, eh?
"There were also the experiences of two prior practitioners recorded in it. Although I don't know who they are, they shouldn't have gotten this part wrong.
"They worked at it for months, so regardless of how much a genius I am, there's no way I could get it right in just one second, right?"
He shook his head and closed his eyes, extending his senses.
He tried using the second way—the [Passive Skill: Sense]
He opened his eyes again a second later.
"Gosh, this is strange. Why do I have the illusion that I've done it again?"
He cast away his doubts and skipped over the sensing part, getting to the last step recorded in the jade scroll.
He condensed the [Infernal Spiritual Source] inside him, bent over, then sprung hard. From afar, he looked as if he were about to self-destruct.
It went without saying that he wouldn't just explode. The Invisible [Infernal Heavenly Flames] would be released along with the burst, latching onto the spirits in all things.
Voom!
The shockwave spread all over the place.
He then looked around him and saw that nothing had changed.
"Failed, as expected eh?..." he thought.
He was exasperated, but just when he was about to try again, he heard that familiar sound again.
Puk, puk.
"So, umm…
"I did it after all?"
He looked around him, and found that everything seemed to be rather hazy—a sign of the [Infernal Heavenly Flames] at work.
He was immediately elated, yet what happened next wiped all that elation away.
Crack, crack, crack.
Bits of white flames began to dance in the building all around him, and crackling sounds were heard everywhere.
He was able to sense their presence, even if they were just sparks lighting up, and the flames covered everything in his place.
Unlike usual flames, which just combusted and burned away, his flames exploded as soon as they appeared.
The table, the windows, and even that bed which he had been reluctant to sleep on…
Everything cracked and then exploded to pieces.
White spots then appeared on every single broken piece, and invisible sparks were ignited, burning everything down so completely that not even ash was left behind.
"Oh my gosh, holy sh**!"
He staggered and almost fell to the ground, but he steeled himself and immediately crawled out of his room.
Boooom!
Explosions were heard again as soon as he left the building, and the place exploded. Everything was in ruins.
Puk, puk, puk.
Vague white flames appeared on the broken pieces. There wasn't even the color or shape of fire to be seen anywhere, yet his place was already completely gone.
Drip, drip, drip…
It began to drizzle outside, and he felt miserable.
He watched everything with a dazed look on his face, and could only feel his heart ache.
"This was a new house. Godd**amnit!"
It hadn't been that long ago when the Spiritual Affairs Division had issued a mission and he spent a great many Spirit Crystal to build that house of his. But now it was all gone. Just like that.
His hair was completely drenched by the rain. Whatever bits of bloodstains that had still been left after training were all washed away, and bloodied water began to pool at his feet.
He sensed that his bodily injuries had all healed, yet he still felt a very noticeable pain.
He grabbed his chest and fell to the ground.
"My house, I'm very sorry!
"I promise that there will be no next time!"
He felt like crying, yet he had no tears to spare. If he'd known this would happen, he would have refined the seeds on his bed.
He'd thought that he would get to sleep on the bed sometime in the future. Little had he thought that the eternal farewell would come so quickly.
Puk, puk.
The house before him was burned until nothing was left. The rain wasn't heavy enough to extinguish that terrifying [Infernal Heavenly Flames] of his.
This utterly scared Xu Xiaoshou. If it hadn't been for his meticulous sense, he wouldn't have been able to tell that there were invisible flames burning. All he would have seen was the place being quickly burned down to the ground.
"Not even ashes left, huh…"
He insisted on staying around until the very last second, and was thoroughly frightened, as there really was nothing left.
The place before him was completely barren, without even charred marks suggesting that the place had been burned. It looked like the house had never existed in the first place.
"If I were to throw this onto an enemy…"
He shuddered in the rain, feeling a chill run down his spine.
Even he, the practitioner, was terrified.
That [Spiritual Technique] was nothing short of terrifying.
He let the rain falling from above slap him on the face before pointing his finger angrily at the night sky.
"You stupid thing up there! Give me back my house!"
Fzzzz!
As soon as he finished this line, the puddle in his place vaporized in an instant. The drizzle in the night had been rather cool, yet now the air felt scorching all of a sudden.
Arrrggghhhh!
He shouted at the top of his lungs at the sky. The raindrops, which had yet to fall to the ground, were evaporated while they were still airborne.
The young man in the compound stopped doing anything stupid, seemingly stunned by what had just happened. The drizzle in the air mingled with the rising mist, making the place look like some sort of paradise.
"Man, this is awesome…"
He clenched his fist, feeling utterly overwhelmed.
He had seen scenes like that in hot-blooded anime when he was younger, where one could cause the weather to change just by being angry.
Boooom!
Streaks of lightning flashed in the pitch-black night sky as thunder rumbled. He was utterly frightened.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's my fault…"
He curled up and ran into an adjacent guest room.
…
Crack, crack!
[Infernal Spiritual Source] flared, drying his clothes and hair in an instant.
Xu Xiaoshou grabbed at his clothes and commented in astonishment, "Man, this is convenient."
His only regret was that there were still some bloodstains left behind on his clothes from when he'd internalized the seeds. The rain couldn't get everything off.
He grabbed his collar and sniffed, finding a rather mild stink emanating from himself.
"Seems like I need to take a bath after all."
He looked around him and exasperatedly slumped onto a wooden bench.
The guest room was cramped, with only a dilapidated wooden bed without even a mattress on it taking over half of the space.
The only other things in the room were a small wooden bench and a short table with a corner missing.
Such a place naturally didn't have a private bathroom. Having to wash himself meant that he had to fetch water from the well near the spirit pool in the compound.
He started to miss his own house terribly and swore to never act on impulse again.
He made it a point that if he were to ever again need to train and test things that he was unsure of, he would do so in the compound instead.
Nah, not the compound. Better do it at Goose Lake instead…
He recalled the time a while back when he'd trained at Goose Lake and broken the white jade fence around the lake. Yet, the next day, he'd found that it had been miraculously repaired.
"So long as I don't get caught, that place will really be a free training ground."
He tapped his fingers on the table, finding it to be a feasible option. He then wondered if he should actually take a bath right then and there.
He looked at the night sky. It was still raining out there, and sunrise was around the corner.
While a bath was imperative, he deemed that there was something else more solemn and important that needed to be done before he went to wash himself.
He rubbed his hands, looking forward to it. Then he saw the red interface in his mind.
[Passive Points: 81032]