It took me a total of five years to understand how to control the fire seed. In that time, I focused on almost nothing else. No one hassled me about contribution points, and the deacons were very free with sharing information. The elder must have made it clear that I was to be allowed to focus on my task.
I talked to the deacons about how to use a spirit fire, and the answer I got was something I didn’t expect. Usually, when a disciple absorbs a spirit fire, they flood their body with a low level of energy. Every part of their body will then possess a trace of the spirit fire. When they want to use it, they do not even try to control it directly. They lack the necessary affinities, so it would be impossible. Instead, their control comes through how they feed it qi.
Fire produces earth. When fire qi is applied to the earth energy of the spirit fire, flames of earth energy burst forth. So, if they want to create a flame in their palm, they direct fire qi to the spirit fire energy in the palm of their hand. They are not controlling the flame itself. They only control where that flame is created.
What I did, expelling the energy of a spirit fire from my body and letting it dissipate, was seen as an incredibly wasteful thing to do. If someone without a seed did that, they would permanently lose that energy, and doing so repeatedly would mean a complete loss of their spirit fire.
When I had opened my soul, the energy of the fire poured into my chest. From there, it would be nearly unusable. That gave me two options. To slowly pull it to my hand and use it from there, or just flood my body with the energy like a normal disciple. Both of these options seemed bad. They threw away any advantage I might get from having a fire seed and turned what I thought was an advantage into a liability.
Instead of pursuing these paths, I decided to try to perfect a different option. The system had given me the most basic of basics for opening my soul to extract energy. Using this knowledge, energy would enter my chest, but I doubted that was the only place I could extract it. Instead, I believed that I could open a pathway for energy anywhere in my body, and it was the low cost I paid for my ability that caused me not to know how to do so. I just needed to learn how to do it on my own.
This search for a way to expel the spirit fire energy anywhere in my body was what took five years of my time. When my training was complete, I was able to create flames of the Cold Mountain Fire anywhere on my body, and I had decent control of the fire’s intensity. It wasn’t yet perfect, but when combined with my earth affinity, I was sure my control of the spirit fire was a match for anyone at my level.
During this time, I didn’t bother creating any pills. There wasn’t much left for me to learn about concocting Rank 1 pills, and it had become clear that learning to make Rank 2 pills even a little sooner was considered far more important than making low-level pills.
When I needed a break from working with the fire seed, I cultivated. I didn’t rush my cultivation because that wasn’t important, but I was able to break through two stages, reaching Martial Master 3.
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After learning to control the fire seed and ending my seclusion, the first place I visited was the elder’s pill hall. When I walked in, I saw a deacon tending the shop.
“Hello, Deacon Liu,” I said. Deacon Liu was the manager of the elder’s pill hall and had been extremely helpful when I was trying to learn how to control the fire seed. Having been informed of my situation, he did everything he could to help me. This mainly just involved telling me about how regular disciples controlled their spirit fires, but I was still grateful.
“Little Fang,” he said, “how are you doing today?”
“Very good, deacon. I have finished my training, and I believe I have my seed under control. I am ready to begin working on pills.”
The deacon laughed at that. “Not so fast, boy. Don’t worry about jumping into alchemy right away. Follow me for a bit.”
The deacon led me out and into a different cave. This one was much more spacious, but the walls were roughhewn stone with an assortment of random objects placed around the room. These included a large tree trunk, a block of dirt, and coils of ropes.
“The elder doesn’t have many disciples, so this place isn’t used much. There isn’t a deacon permanently stationed here, so if you want to use the place you should just grab anyone who is free,” said Deacon Liu.
“Okay, what is this place?”
“This is where we can test your abilities with your spirit fire. This can be considered your first competition against your fellow disciples. The more promise you show here, the more resources you get, and everything you do here will only be known by us, so you can openly display your abilities without worry.”
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“Is that still a problem? I thought everything was settled after I officially joined the elder.”
“Normally you would be right, but we still can’t let anyone know about your fire seed. That would cause problems. People would begin to ask questions about where it came from. The Twin Mountains Sect has the only recorded seed of the Cold Mountain Fire, and people would be very interested to learn how you, a Martial Master, both found and bonded a second one.”
“So, I just need to make sure what I display lines up with possessing a common spirit fire?”
“Exactly, and that is why we are here. We need to know what you are capable of. Where do you need to hold back, how much you need to hold back, and where your current skills lag behind other disciples.”
“Sounds good,” I said. “How do we start?”
The deacon pointed at a massive log of wood. It was a meter round and over three meters long. From my position, I could see several deep holes drilled into the end.
“We will start with something you should excel in. Power. Every disciple of the elder uses the Cold Mountain Fire. Wood depletes earth, and that is an earth-attributed spirit fire, so a good material to test its power is wood. All you have to do is drill a small hole through the log. The further it penetrates, the better. For now, just do the best you can.”
I nodded and approached the log. I only needed to create a small hole, so I touched the end of the log with the tip of my index finger. I opened my soul in that spot and allowed flames to gush out freely. The energy for the flames was provided by the spirit seed, but I used a thin tendril of qi along with my affinities to try and guide it forward in a straight line. After the flames got too far from my body, I was no longer able to control them, so the total depth I could drill was limited.
When I finally cut off my flames, I backed away and allowed the deacon to approach. He took out a rod and measured my work.
“A good bit over two meters deep,” he laughed. “A normal disciple has difficulty reaching forty or fifty centimeters, and from the looks of it, control was your problem, not total power. This is certainly an area where you will have to limit yourself. The fire seed can provide you much more power than someone at your level should have.”
He nodded at the log and turned to a brick of dirt.
“Let’s get to the second test. I expect you will find it much more challenging.”
I looked at the brick but wasn’t sure what to expect.
“This is a test of your isolation ability. This is a one-kilogram block of ice that has been covered in a thin layer of earth. Your fire will be able to destroy the earth with a bit of effort, but earth obstructs water. If your flames touch the ice, it will quickly destroy it. Your result will be based on how much the block weighs after you have removed all the dirt.”
This test was impossible. With significant effort, I could release just enough flames to barely engulf the dirt without touching the ice, but they weren’t hot enough to remove any. If I increased the energy to make the dirt disappear, the flames quickly ate into the ice. The problem was, I had near-zero isolation ability with my spirit fire. My qi couldn’t help me block its energy, it only intensified it, and my earth affinity was too low to have much of an effect.
“Zero kilograms remaining. It’s not surprising. Most disciples feel this is the hardest of the tests. Let’s move on.”
Saying this, the deacon moved to a rope and shaped it into a coil on the ground.
“For the test of speed, you need to use your fire to burn this rope. It is somewhat wood-aligned, so it won’t be the easiest thing to burn, but it doesn’t take too much effort. Start at the outside end. You must burn it by following the path of the rope, like a candle wick. If you lose control and destroy an inner part of the coil before you reach that point, the test is considered a failure.”
I considered how to approach the task but went with my first idea. I put my index finger above the rope and released a small amount of fire. I then just used my hand to trace the coil. Once I locked in the right amount of energy to use, the test wasn’t too difficult. I singed the inner coil a couple of times, but I never destroyed it.
“Twenty-three seconds,” said Deacon Liu, “Not bad. That’s in line with where most disciples are. It was a little sloppy though, you should work on that. Let’s get to the final test, accuracy.”
He took me to a small desk upon which sat a few sheets of paper. The paper was stamped with a red wax seal, and the grooves in the wax were inlaid with small shards of wood.
“The red wax is infused with cinnabar, a fire-attributed material. The goal is to destroy the seal without damaging the wooden inlay or the paper beneath. The wax will not be difficult to destroy, and the wood of the inlay and paper will resist being burned by your fire. However, fire produces earth, so the cinnabar in the wax will naturally increase the intensity of your spirit fire.”
The last test wasn’t too difficult for me. The only hard part was the wax trapped between the inlay and the paper. I destroyed a few shards of the inlay before I got the fire under control, but near the end, I didn’t have any problems.
“Thirty percent damage,” declared the deacon. “It isn’t bad for your first attempt, and I am sure you will do better in the future.”
“What’s next?” I asked.
“Now we talk. Except for your power, everything else was mediocre, though in line with other disciples. Before you can compete openly, you need to understand your strength and the strength of a regular disciple better. After you practice, come back and use the testing log a few times. You should appear to struggle to reach past forty centimeters.”
“What about the other tests?”
“You didn’t appear to have any advantage over normal disciples in any other area. Your isolation is a problem though. Most disciples have problems with it, but yours are more pronounced. That is an area to work on.”
“So, I just need to go practice my fire skills more now?”
“No,” he responded, “your skills are sufficient to move on. You need to improve before you directly compete with other disciples, but you can move on to the next step. Come back to the pill hall with me and we will get you started with Rank 2 pills.”