54: Fire Guiding Technique

At the beginning, Guan Yi was still very interested, rushing up to verify every flower he encountered with a small wooden stick.

Each time, he got the same result as before.

As they encountered more flowers in the mirror, he lost interest. Dejectedly following Hong Yu, he said, "Junior Brother, you say there are so many flowers in the mirror, and they all look identical from the outside. Which one is the true fire? The Mountain Master said refining a Fake Fire is certain death, but right now we can't even find the true fire."

Hong Yu was also somewhat surprised. All the flowers in the mirror they encountered along the way were exactly the same, and even the cleanliness within their range was almost identical.

Moreover, along this path, he hadn't seen any traces of human activity, or rather, any non-natural products appearing in the Secret Realm.

All there was was an increasingly thick haze.

A bad premonition rose in Hong Yu's heart. He then took out some clothing and heavier sundries from his Storage Pouch, placed them on the ground to mark the spot, and pulled Guan Yi back along the original path toward the entrance of the Secret Realm.

Guan Yi was initially confused and asked in bewilderment, "Junior Brother, are you going back? Aren't you going to keep looking?"

"Senior Brother, haven't you noticed? We're returning the way we came, but we only encountered fifty-seven flowers in the mirror along the way—exactly half as many. And look..."

After speaking, Hong Yu pointed directly to the place where they had found the first flower in the mirror, but there was nothing there anymore.

Guan Yi rubbed his eyes in disbelief and exclaimed, "Damn it, what's going on? Could it be a ghost?"

Hong Yu pinched his chin, pondering for a moment, then pulled Guan Yi again and sprinted toward the place where he had dropped the sundries.

This time, he counted the flowers in the mirror encountered on the way; there were only twenty-nine in total.

When they reached the previous location, the sundries Hong Yu had dropped were gone. Aside from the haze that seemed to have grown thicker, there was nothing else in the air.

"Junior Brother, what's going on?" Guan Yi scratched his head and asked in confusion, "Where did the trash you just threw away go?"

Hong Yu's tone revealed an unprecedented gravity as he slowly said, "What I dropped wasn't trash, but a specific marker. The Secret Realm isn't large, and we haven't run into a single fellow disciple besides ourselves, which suggests there's likely no one else here. But since the items disappeared, there's only one possibility."

Guan Yi's face instantly turned pale. He quickly ran to Hong Yu's side and crouched down, grabbing the corner of Hong Yu's clothes with his large hand, his lips trembling. "C-c-could... could there be a ghost in here?"

Hong Yu looked at the big guy, somewhat speechless. "No, Senior Brother, we are both Cultivators. How can you still be afraid of ghosts?"

"W-w-who's... afraid of ghosts?" Guan Yi stiffened his neck stubbornly. "I-I-I... am not afraid at all."

"Sigh, Senior Brother, let's go back." Hong Yu sighed and continued, "The flowers in the mirror in the Secret Realm are probably moving constantly. Moreover, I smelled a slight burnt scent just now; it's very likely the markers I left were burned away by a flower in the mirror."

"You should have said so earlier; so it wasn't a ghost." Guan Yi breathed a long sigh of relief, then stood up and said with delayed realization, "What? Junior Brother, are we not going to look for the real flower in the mirror? This is a treasure!"

"Even if we encounter a real one, how would you know it's real?" Hong Yu said helplessly. "Besides, my intuition tells me that it's not safe inside the Secret Realm."

"If it's different from the fake ones, isn't that the real one?" Guan Yi argued, but he still chose to respect Hong Yu's choice. After all, he was only here on this trip to protect Hong Yu's safety.

Having decided to go back, Hong Yu no longer hesitated and followed Guan Yi, quickly running toward the exit.

To be honest, this place did make him feel oppressed.

As the two of them were running one after the other, a pure white flame shaped like a lotus suddenly appeared in front of Guan Yi. Neither of them saw how the flame appeared, yet it was already right before their eyes.

"Senior Brother, watch out!"

Because Hong Yu was behind, he hurriedly reached out to pull Guan Yi. The scene of the big guy using a piece of wood to test it earlier was still fresh in his mind.

It had caught fire before even getting close. If they actually touched this flame, even as Qi Refining Cultivators, it would definitely not be pleasant.

However, this flower in the mirror had appeared far too strangely and was far too close.

In the blink of an eye, Hong Yu could only watch helplessly as Guan Yi's massive body crashed straight into the flame.

"Ah, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!"

Guan Yi fell to the ground, an earthy yellow light glowing around him as he cried out in pain.

The iron chains bound to him rattled loudly, unexpectedly turning a few shades darker, with Traditional Runes continuously flying off them.

"Senior Brother, what are you doing? That fire didn't even burn you," Hong Yu said helplessly.

"Ah, what? I'm actually okay?"

Guan Yi scrambled up from the ground, patted the dust off his clothes, and smiled sheepishly. "I thought I was going to be burned to death. So I'm fine, hehe."

Hong Yu rolled his eyes. "If I hadn't realized the yellow light on you was your Protective Spiritual Power, I would have thought you were going to be burned to death too."

Guan Yi scratched his head and laughed loudly, then pointed at the flower in the mirror in the air. "Junior Brother, look, is this one real? I told you, the real one would definitely be different from those fakes."

Hong Yu also curiously sized up the flame before him. Could this big dummy have actually guessed right?

They were very close to the flower in the mirror, but they didn't feel any heat from the flame at all. If they closed their eyes, they might even think there was nothing in front of them.

Guan Yi looked around and, finding no suitable tools on the ground, pulled a piece of yellow paper from his Storage Pouch and carefully brought it close to the flame.

As the yellow paper passed through the flame, a scene appeared that left both of them dumbfounded.

The yellow paper was unharmed, and the flame continued to burn vigorously.

Guan Yi pulled his hand back and rubbed the yellow paper repeatedly to confirm. "Junior Brother, this Talisman Paper hasn't changed at all. It seems this flower in the mirror is real."

Hong Yu also tried taking things out to confirm; none of the items he took out were affected by the flame.

That flower in the mirror seemed as if it wasn't in this space, like a mirage-like phantom.

"Junior Brother, since we've encountered the true fire, why don't we try to collect it?"

"This flower in the mirror can be seen but not touched. How do we collect it?"

"Use the Fire Absorption Guiding Technique!"

"What is the Fire Absorption Guiding Technique?" Hong Yu asked curiously.

Guan Yi stared with eyes as wide as copper bells and said in disbelief, "You're an Alchemist, and you don't know the Fire Absorption Guiding Technique?"

Hong Yu smiled awkwardly, not knowing how to explain.

"Oh, that's right. The Mountain Master said you've only just started with Alchemy, so it's normal that you haven't had time to learn Fire Control Techniques yet." Guan Yi naturally found an excuse for Hong Yu, then took a Cultivation Technique book from his Storage Pouch and said, "Luckily, I tried to learn Alchemy before. Although I didn't learn how to refine pills, I kept the Fire Absorption Guiding Technique. Now it happens to come in handy."