Ceceada is standing in a huge patch of destroyed land that is caused by his unexpected break through to the Elemental Formation Realm.
For kilometers around him, there is not a single tree in sight, making the entire place look barren and desolate. Aside from that, the soil around him is parched like they had been dried due to an extreme heat, some cracks can be seen on the surface.
Right now, he is still completely naked because of the robe that he just took off earlier to mitigate the fire that is still completely engulfing him, making some rocks around him turn into magma.
The air around him smells like burnt wood, making Ceceada believe that he caused all of these destructions in sight when he broke through, with the unorthodox fire burning him that also serves as a proof for this thought.
Just a few meters away from him, he can see the robe still burning and using mana to mend itself at the same time, serving as the perfect 'infinite' fuel for the fire.
"I hope this works," Ceceada wished while frowning, hoping that the plan he just formed will actually help him get out of life and death situation.
He breathed in and out for a few moment. After that, he suddenly gritted his teeth!
Although he is not that knowledgeable about the difference of realm between cultivators since he never thought that he will even leave the body refinement realm before, he still have some idea about the Elemental Formation Realm. For as long as he can remember on rumors, those who have broken through the Elemental Formation Realm will get the ability control the laws of nature. Conjuring and manipulate water, fire, rocks, breeze, etc., out of thin air!
In his fuzzy memory, it is also said that those who broke through such realm will have their core transformed, resembling the element that they can control.
In Ceceada's mind, since he broke through the Elemental Formation Realm and he can see that his core looked like a fire, he can conclude that maybe his core granted him the ability to use fire!
It's like a core within a core. With the latter acting like the container for the other burning core.
'Maybe this is my power...' Ceceada thought while looking at his core and visualizing in his mind that he control this power.
In an instant he thought about this, all the fire around his body, as if poured with water, instantly got extinguished!
Sizzle!
A few meters away from him, he can see a floating small fireball suddenly appearing out of thin air. He can sense that although it is smaller, it contains the same, if not more energy than the fire burning his body earlier!
It worked?
Ceceada thought as he felt relief washing the initial despair in his body, feeling grateful that his plan worked seamlessly!
Also, he can now see that his health bar that is now only at three percent stopped decreasing!
His lips curled slightly when he saw this. Right after that, he promptly closed his eyes and with his mind, he looked at his core to see if there is any changes.
What he saw is that despite the fact that the core is still burning, few black spots started to emerged on the surface of his core, slowly replacing the ember-looking surface.
Although it is just a few spots, it is more than enough to urge Ceceada to continue what he is doing. He looked at the floating fireball, visualizing that he can control the burning energy in his core and use it to manipulate the fireball.
A strand of thread-like red energy suddenly escaped from Ceceada's body and connected itself to the fireball.
Albeit inexplicable, he can suddenly feel that the fireball is now somehow connected to him, making him feel like it is no different from one of his limbs!
Excited by the feeling of connection between him and the fireball, he immediately consciously urged it to move forward, just like one of his limbs; purely innate and natural.
The fireball moved away from him, just like he initially intended. However, it just moved very slowly, not that different from ordinary walking speed.
All the same, Ceceada still kept moving it away, mesmerized by the fact that he can control such a thing like one of his appendage.
However, the more he move it away from him, the more he felt like it is harder to control. He attributed it to the scene where the strand of red energy that connects him to the fireball is thinning as it moves away from him, with the base on him being the thickest part of the transparent red energy.
After a while, it is already almost a hundred meters away from him and he felt like he can no longer move it at all. Concurrently, he also felt the connection being cut off.
Bang!
A loud explosion happened where the fireball is, instantly releasing the compressed energy within. Shockwaves emerged, making Ceceada's hair flutter.
Damn.
He looked at it with incredulous expression evident on his face.
Although it is not very powerful compared to when he use his physical strength, he felt like it is only a matter of time before the fireball can exceed that and it will be incomparable!
The thread-like red energy connecting them also retracted instantly and then entered Ceceada's core again.
Having fun with playing with the fireball, he wanted to keep doing it, however, he fought against the urge to do so, because right now, he doesn't have any mana in him and he is in dire need to heal himself.
Thinking of that, he closed his eyes and tried to gather mana from the air around him.
For kilometers around him, bluish mana started to swirl with him being the common center. However, when they are about to enter his core, they suddenly stopped.
Ceceada was confused when he noticed this. Because he felt like there is an obstruction on his core, preventing him from absorbing mana.
He promptly asked the system on what should he do, but the system didn't reply. As a matter of fact, throughout this entire time, he tried to ask the system for a solution multiple times. However, the system doesn't reply; this is also one of the reason why he felt despair consuming him earlier.
At first, he thought that the system is gone. However, he can still see his status intuitively. Because of this, and he can only conclude that the system is not the talkative one, making him feel that he can't fully rely on the system to solve all of his problems.
When he noticed that the system still doesn't reply, he frowned and tried to shake his brain for an idea, trying to identify the problem on why the mana can't enter his core.
He can see that his burning core is still ember-looking with some unburnt black spots. It is also completely taking up the entire space of his transparent core, making Ceceada think that this is the issue...
'Maybe the reason why I can't gather mana because there is not enough space for it to enter in the first place!' Ceceada thought of this and opened his glistening eyes, eureka can be seen.
He tried compressing the contained burning core first, but he felt like he can't directly control it. However, he can feel that he can control the container-like core.
Should I try compressing it?
Thinking of this In his mind, he immediately willed to compress his core. He imagined his transparent core getting smaller, as a result, the burning core inside will also get smaller.
Almost instantaneously of attempting so, he felt an intense burning pain in his chest!
"Argh!"
Ceceada muffled groan sounded while he gritted his teeth because of the intense pain of his feeling. He felt like lava is trying to melt his insides. Because of this sudden pain, he accidentally released his will to squeeze the transparent core and it immediately returned to its original size.
He tried to ignore the pain and checked his core to see any difference. Fortunately, he wasn't disappointed when he saw that even though his transparent core returned to its original size, the burning core is still compressed, not returning to its original size.
Simultaneously, he can see drops of pure mana in liquid state escaping from the surface of the burning core, merging at the bottom within the transparent core.
Seeing the result, he braced himself and prepared for another intense pain as he started to squeezing his transparent core again.
Shouts of pain consecutively echoed in the forest!
An hour later, Ceceada can be seen breathing heavily and lying on the cracked soil while clenching his chest in pain, his naked body full of sweat. Despite that, his eyes show enthusiasm. Because in his mind, he can see that his transparent core is now fully filled with liquid mana, not being absorbed by his burning core anymore.
His burning core is only taking up less than a quarter of his transparent core right now.
Right now, Ceceada can feel like he can absorb mana again from the atmosphere and immediately started doing so.
For kilometers, the mana around Ceceada swirled and started entering Ceceada crazily, but instead of becoming liquid, it directly entered his burning core.
So this burning core purifies impure mana?
Ceceada formed this question in his head the moment that he saw that it absorbs the mana from the atmosphere.
After just a few seconds, the burning core started grow in size again, the transparent core bulging like it is going to explode because the increasing size of the burning core within.
Seeing this, Ceceada immediately stopped absorbing the mana around him, having the notion that he need to balance the size of his burning core and not make it take up the entire space again.