Chapter 1294: Chapter 34: Earth Cave and Heavenly Furnace Creation
To open up an Earth Fire Sky Furnace, if one is a cultivator of the Cave Heaven Realm, then one only needs to use Great Dharma Power to hook and stir the earth fire and forcibly create a Heavenly Furnace.
Apart from the time it consumes, there is nothing particularly unusual about it.
But even if one does not have the abilities of a Cave Heaven True Master, it is not that there is no way at all.
For instance, that Dragon Country sea boat of Zhang Yan’s was originally crafted by the Yin Family of the East Sea, and was likewise refined in an Earth Fire Sky Furnace. That furnace was made after the Yin Family’s ancestor found a naturally formed earth grotto, then used a clever method to draw the earth fire up.
This was to borrow the force of the land’s configuration and make it serve one’s own use.
Though there were still many unsatisfactory aspects, with this one furnace in hand, it caused untold numbers of sects to envy them.
This sort of Dharma technique is not secret; the key is to find the right terrain. In East Splendor Continent, any place of this sort has long since been taken by sects great and small, whereas East Divine House Mountain stretches on for tens of thousands of li, vast and boundless, sparsely populated, so there is no fear of anyone interfering.
Zhang Yan wandered through these mountains for more than half a month, and carefully inspected dozens of river valleys and caves, yet none pleased him. On this day, however, he came to the mouth of an Earth Cave.
It was a coincidence that this was precisely the Desolate Tomb where Zhang Boyant had previously captured the Ghost Sunflower.
Zhang Yan stepped on the cloud-top, observed from above for a while, then pointed with his hand, and several Array Flags drifted down.
He had always been accustomed to caution; though no living people could be seen here, he still set down protective Prohibitions within more than ten li around.
After making all preparations secure, he then took out a set of Banners he had refined in advance, scattered them with a wave, planting them separately on the mountain ridges. Then he drew a seal to activate them, and heard a series of soft popping sounds as dozens of strands of green smoke instantly spurted out from the Banners.
He formed seals and clicked his teeth, circulating his spiritual mechanism, and after a short while those wisps of smoke condensed into a hundred immortal cranes, their feathers bright and distinct, crane cries ringing out. As soon as they appeared, they spread their wings and plunged one after another into the pit of the cave. He then drifted away, choosing a nearby mountain peak to descend upon, sat down cross-legged there, and patiently waited.
After Zhang Boyant captured the Ghost Sunflower last time, he had also driven Devils to go down and scout, but after traveling for several hours they still had not reached the end, and it was unknown how deep it extended. If they went further in, the Devils would lose his sense of them, and since they had not seen any rare flowers or strange herbs, he had no mind to keep exploring and withdrew his Daoist Skill.
As for these spirit smoke cranes, once they went down, there was no news for three days and nights. However, this thing was drawn with talisman seals and then manifested by relying on the Banners; though it had no Divine Power Transformation, by depending on the Mana attached to the Banners it was enough to fly for half a month, so Zhang Yan was not impatient.
After yet another day, he suddenly heard an unusual sound, and opened his eyes to look toward his left hand. He saw that one Banner over there had ignited without fire, and in a moment turned into a lump of ash.
His expression moved slightly; he calculated on his fingers, and after a moment, smiled and said, "This does save me a round of trouble."
Just now that spirit smoke crane had been scorched by fiery qi, which caused the Banner to burn up in an instant. That meant this Earth Cave was very likely to reach deep to the Earth Lungs, which for him was a good thing; it would make it far easier to draw the earth fire.
He rose with a single leap, turning into a winding sword light, and shot like lightning down into the deep cave.
He had previously probed and found that there was nothing unusual beneath the Earth Cave, so he flew extremely fast. In just over an hour, he felt as if he had rushed into a furnace chamber: all four walls were scarlet, sparks and smoke flew everywhere, dust and ash filled the air. Even with his Protective Treasure Light, the skin of his cheeks was scorched hot, his hair and beard seemed about to ignite, and he knew he had reached the place where the spirit smoke cranes had touched the earth fire.
This fiery qi was not only fierce, it was also mixed with the fire poison of the Earth Lungs. If a cultivator’s Daoist Cultivation was a bit low, a single roasting by this qi would cause flesh and skin to rot through in an instant; a slight inhalation would make the viscera all burn with fire.
With Zhang Yan’s cultivation at this time, he naturally did not fear it, but if he wanted to smoothly carry out Artifact Refining, that was out of the question. Therefore, he needed to use several methods here to suppress it.
He swept his sleeve, and a gigantic tree trunk a hundred zhang long flew out.
This wood was called Qingming Wood, a Treasure Material as renowned as Cangzhu Wood. A single severed branch could burn for over a hundred years without going out; it could also dispel evil and preserve good, nourishing Clear Qi. This time he intended to use it to draw the earth fire and thereby eliminate and neutralize the fire poison.
He then took out a sheet of apricot yellow talisman paper, forced a drop of Essence Blood from his fingertip, drew a spell upon it, slapped it onto the wooden stake, and gave it a light push. The wood then drifted down toward the depths of the Earth Cave.
Afterward, he stood where he was without moving, focusing his mind to sense it. After a short while, he perceived that the talisman paper had turned to ash and scattered, and knew that it had reached the end. He remotely exerted his Mana, and only heard a rumbling sound as that length of Qingming Wood lodged crosswise into the wall at the bottom of the cave.
