Kai sat quietly on the floor of the cave. Gritting his teeth, he tried to regulate the amount of energy he released. It was difficult enough. He felt as if he were balancing on a thin rope across a precipice.
The slightest mistake would cost him his life. If he suddenly stumbled and inadvertently lost control, the Astral Fire of Sacrifice would consume him.
On his first attempt, Kai didn't realise that it wasn't his body that took the brunt of the damage.
"Damn, it keeps trying to get into my head and brain. It's like it's trying to consume my soul..." - Gritting his teeth thought Kai.
He remembered, the words of the Astral Alchemy Emperor. He had said that his Heavenly Fire developed by absorbing other souls. Thus, the main defence, had to be directed at the body.
Thinking about this, Kai continued to change the balance of the energy released. He redirected the bulk of it to his head and mind. He needed to strengthen this particular aspect of himself as much as possible first.
"Thank the King of Terror that my mind is as hardened as my body... Oh, and my training in Array Mastery has helped a lot too" - Kai thought.
- Damn... It's a good thing I decided to maximise my preparation for the legacy first. Otherwise, I would have hardly been able to sustain it. - Said to himself, Kai popped another fruit into his mouth.
Through his Mastership training lately, he had learnt to manipulate his energy much better. He now had a better understanding of how to control it.
This skill, right now, was helping a lot. It was now much easier for him to distribute the energy throughout his body and to control the concentration of energy being poured into each part of his body. As well as its proportions.
Maybe it all sounded easy... But in a normal situation, ordinary masters released their energy evenly throughout their bodies. Some, of course, could also amplify a particular part of the body. But that couldn't be compared to what Kai was doing now.
Thus, in incredible concentration, which Kai could not lose for a second, days languidly passed.
After a week, it was clear from the look on Kai's face that he was feeling better now.
Though he was still in incredible, unrelenting pain. But he had finally caught the balance he needed. If he maintained it carefully, the fire would no longer consume his soul, and at the same time, his energy would not be depleted lightning fast.
"Good... That's good... We should get used to it." - After thinking about it, Kai popped the fruit into his mouth again.
Kai needed to consolidate his progress, and get used to holding this balance. When he could finally hold it subconsciously, he would be able to try absorbing the Astral Sacrificial Fire.
He could feel the Heavenly Fire continuously trying to penetrate his body and absorb his soul. But under the protection of Kai's terrifying energy, the fire could only destroy the surface of his body, and did not have time to penetrate inside.
Thankfully, through Kai's incredible regenerative abilities, he was constantly regenerating. Thus, it was as if he was continuously burning and regenerating. With such a delicate balance, all he had to do was keep his balance, and endure the pain.
Kai continued to sit in the lotus position and anchor his sensations on a subconscious level. Several more days passed in this manner.
"Okay, let's try this!" - Said Kai in his thoughts.
He now had a free thinking resource. He didn't need to think about confronting the fire all the time now. He could try to absorb it.
Thinking about it, Kai opened up a small area of his body from the energy. That spot was the size of the eye of a needle. But as soon as it appeared...
Boom!
Fire quickly began to ooze into Kai's body. The Astral Sacrifice Fire seemed to have an incredible instinct to devour.
- Aggh! - Shouted Kai.
Right now, he felt all of his energy channels begin to burn. He quickly closed the passage for the fire into his body. And quickly began to recover.
"There! I think I'm doing something wrong... The body literally immediately started to collapse from the inside out. It's not like absorption at all. It's like the fire is naturally rejecting my body and trying to burn it to the ground..." - Kai realised that his first attempt, had completely failed.
Now he began to take the absorption process even more seriously. He seemed to have underestimated the danger again.
"We have to keep trying, we can't stop... Even though I have plenty of fruits from the Astral Garden. But not indefinitely!" - Kai got a little nervous, but then started to regain his equanimity.
- Well, I'm really on the verge of life and death right now. Isn't that what I wanted? Hehehe. - Said Kai, laughing ironically to himself.
Kai slowly began to try and open passages for fire all over his body. He created slits even smaller than the first time, so that the fire could barely get through.
Every time the energy started to rush in and destroy his body, Kai would close the passage and start to rebuild. Then he would open a new passage in a different place on the body.
In this way he had been experimenting for several days now. All the times were useless. The fire just destroyed Kai's body.
- Damn! It seems there's no other way out... - Kai said in a low voice.
Over the past few days, he had tried almost every part of his body. He had even tried injecting energy separately through each meridian. He had a hunch that with Heavenly Fire, it might be like a cultivation technique. One must find the right route.
But, not a single meridian was suitable! He had tried everything!
Now there was one last option left that he hadn't tried... But he really didn't want to test it out....
The only place Kai absolutely refused to fire was his head and brain. If he received such devastating damage to his organs and body, but directly into his brain already.... Kai was afraid that then he might instantly die, or become an idiot by destroying his mind.
"Of course, I assumed from the beginning that it would have to be absorbed through my mind. Even the emperor spoke of it. That if I absorbed the Astral Sacrifice Fire, I would become its central soul and gain full control over it..." - Pondered Kai, grudgingly accepting reality. And what he would need to do next.
He realised from the start that he would most likely need to engage his brain.
"Old man Mo said that masters of a higher order, can open their Spiritual Sea. He said that's where all your consciousness and your very soul resides..." - Thought Kai.
In the world of martial artists, there were three main zones in the body. The Energy Centre, the Heart and the Spiritual Sea.
The Spiritual Sea was not a physical part of the body. It seemed to be in the forehead area, between the eyes. The very soul and thoughts of a person were centred there.
When a master reached a high level, he could even mentally move into it, creating a projection of his real body there. There, he could revisit any of his memories.
Master Mo said that it had other useful properties as well. But he didn't tell Kai anything about it. Arguing that he was still a long way away from that stage.
- Fuck, old man... You better tell me more about it! Otherwise, your student might die soon! - Kai said through his teeth, frantically thinking about what to do next.