After careful consideration, the fiercest thing Li Ming could think of was the earth fire used in alchemy in the sect.
After all, heavenly fire was hard to find, but as far as he knew, the Divine Will Sect had a spiritual vein of earth fire.
Generally speaking, that spiritual vein was used by the inner sect elders to draw fire for when they refined pills.
However, this time, Li Ming wanted to use the earth fire to help him reach the foundation establishment stage.
He did as he thought.
He immediately headed to the sect's great hall.
After finding the elder on duty, he stepped forward and saluted, "Elder Lin, I would like to request permission from the sect to use the earth fire."
Elder Lin was a little confused when he saw Li Ming.
He had a deep impression of this disciple.
From being unknown after he had gone on to tread the path of body cultivation, to defeating Duan Xiuwen and becoming a rising star once again.
At that time, the great elder had even said that he would give Li Ming a chance.
However, what was the point of using the earth fire?
"What kind of pill are you going to refine?"
"If you have the materials, you can ask the elders in the sect to help you refine it. That way, the success rate will be higher," Elder Lin suggested.
Li Ming said, "Elder Lin, I'm not here to refine pills."
"Instead, I need to use the earth fire spirit to break through."
Elder Lin had never heard of such a request.
After all, there were no body cultivators in the sect, and ordinary people would not use earth fire to cultivate.
Therefore, Elder Lin was even more puzzled. Earth fire could be used to break through?
He thought for a moment and asked Li Ming to wait for a moment. He discussed this with several elders in the sect.
"Using the earth fire spirit to break through?"
The elders were all confused.
In the end, it was the first elder who made the decision.
"To us, the earth fire is only used for alchemy. Most of the time, it's idle."
"Rather than leaving it there doing nothing, why don't we let Li Ming try whatever it is he's planning to do?"
The rest of the elders agreed.
Indeed, there was no loss in letting Li Ming cultivate in the earth fire spiritual land.
If he could really break through, it would be a pleasant surprise.
Elder Lin and the other elders finished their discussion.
He then came to Li Ming and said gently, "The sect has agreed to let you use the earth fire spiritual land. Follow me."
Li Ming's eyes flashed with joy.
With the help of the earth fire spiritual land, he was even more confident in being able to reach the martial dao foundation establishment stage.
"Thank you, Elder Lin."
Elder Lin waved his hand. "There's no need to thank me. The sect's resources are meant to help the disciples cultivate."
Following Elder Lin, Li Ming arrived at the foot of the main peak.
In the crack in the mountain, he continued to head down along a small path.
The mountain range where the Divine Will Sect was located was the essence of the land and had all kinds of spirit veins.
And this earth fire spiritual land was a blessed land that the elders had opened up to nurture fire essence.
Otherwise, with the dangers of the earth fire spiritual vein, ordinary cultivators might be burned if they got too close.
When they arrived at the entrance of the earth fire spiritual land, Elder Lin gave Li Ming a reminder, "Li Ming, you can move around freely in this spiritual land, but remember not to run around. The real power of the earth fire is definitely not something you can resist!"
The elders only wanted to provide resources, not waste an immortal seedling.
"Alright," Li Ming replied cautiously.
"Then you should focus on your cultivation." Elder Lin also left in relief.
As long as Li Ming did not rush into the earth fire to die, nothing should go wrong.
After Elder Lin left, Li Ming took a deep breath and walked into the entrance of the earth fire spiritual land.
When he was outside, he could already feel the hot wind coming from the spiritual land.
As soon as he entered the earth fire spiritual land, he felt as if he had stepped into a fiery red world. It was as if there was lava boiling right underneath the ground, causing the surrounding stone walls to turn hot red.
One could vaguely see earth fire spewing out of the crevices in the spiritual land.
"Phew..."
After staying in the center of the spiritual land for a while, Li Ming's forehead was covered in a layer of sweat, and there were small holes in his clothes.
In this environment, the Blazing Sun Body Tempering Art in his body circulated rapidly. The blazing sun true qi in the air here was very dense, making it the best place for fire-attribute cultivators to cultivate.
Li Ming did not waste any time. He sat down directly and began to temper his body with the help of the earth fire.
Starting from the earth fire's external flame, a stream of fiery red flame qi was absorbed into his body.
His body that had been tempered for a long time trembled slightly with the absorption of the flame qi.
"Continue. This is the effect I wanted."
Although the brutality of the earth fire was more than he initially expected, Li Ming was happy with this discovery.
The flames began to intensify, and his body turned as red as burning charcoal, emitting a white mist.
Blood changing and bone forging!
The earth fire hissed and flowed through his bones and muscles, and a pain that went deep into his bone marrow began to spread and intensify.
The fire burned in his body like gangrene, as if it would not stop until his bones were burned to ashes.
In the midst of the intense pain, Li Ming also discovered that... His cultivation stage had begun to loosen!
He guarded his dantian and circulated the Blazing Sun Body Tempering Art. He seemed to have raised the boiling point, and his boiling blood gradually calmed down.
He circulated the cultivation technique over and over again, trying to break through to the martial dao foundation establishment stage.
The originally stable realm began to loosen.
It was as if a pool had suddenly expanded into a large lake.
The fire essence flowing from the earth fire was what Li Ming really needed.
While it was extremely dangerous to cultivate here, absorbing the fire essence of heaven and earth could speed up his cultivation.
However, if the fire essence went on a rampage, the restless fire essence would not stay still in the body.
It would destroy everything, and it could cause him to suffer from serious injuries or even death.
Fortunately, Li Ming was well prepared and carefully guided the earth fire to temper his body.
He carefully circulated it through the routes that he had long memorized.
Under the searing pain of the earth fire, his body continued to burn.
Li Ming felt that his sense of touch had been heightened, and he came to have a deeper understanding of pain.
In this kind of painful torture, every second felt extremely long, and the passage of time gradually blurred.
He only had one thought now, and that was to bathe in the fire to temper his body and reach the foundation establishment stage.
...
Time passed unknowingly.
A month had passed in the outside world.
It was also getting closer and closer to the time when the sect would hold the inner sect grand competition.
On this day.
On the main peak's square.
The disciples sat in different areas, either silently cultivating their qi or discussing the dao with their fellow disciples.
The entire square was filled with a scene of prosperity.
Elder Mo, who was on duty, was sitting quietly in the hall.
All of a sudden.
A huge tremor came from the bottom of the mountain.
"Boom!"
The continuous shaking reverberated above the main peak.
The disciples in the square were shocked and began to discuss amongst themselves.
"What happened?"
"Why is the main peak shaking?"
"The movement is coming from the foot of the mountain. Could it be that the earth fire erupted?"
The disciples were bewildered.
In the main hall, Elder Mo, who was on duty, suddenly stood up.
"Could it be that something has happened to the earth fire spiritual land?" He mumbled with a serious expression.
At this moment, within the earth fire spiritual land.
An extremely violent and terrifying figure was slowly walking out of the flowing lava.
As if shaking off water droplets, he splashed hot lava onto the ground.
Immediately after, his aura began to gradually withdraw and calm down.
In the blink of an eye, Li Ming had changed into a long robe.
He walked out of the crevice, his clothes fluttering.
In the mountain range, he walked alone on the mountain path, his aura majestic.
He had reached the martial dao foundation establishment stage!