The advantage of Heartfire lies in its complete control.
A cultivator doesn’t need much knowledge of the Fire Realm or cultivation techniques to have full control over Heartfire naturally.
He can make the most meticulous fine-tuning, keeping every bit of the Heartfire’s heat under his reign.
Such Heartfire is naturally suited for Alchemy and Artifact Refining!
Because of this innate talent, Gongsun Yan chose Artifact Refining from the Cultivation Hundred Skills. Also, due to this talent, he chose to affiliate with the Lin Family—he needed Thunderstruck Wood, Spring Thunder, to mitigate the drawbacks of Heartfire.
The more often Heartfire is used, and the longer it is used, the more it can disrupt the balance of the Five Elements within the human body, easily causing imbalance and various ailments.
Therefore, the inhuman appearance of Gongsun Yan, with bronze skin and dark golden muscles and bones, are all changes made out of necessity.
This imbalance affects not only the cultivator’s physical body but also their spirit. Prolonged use of Heartfire can make a person irritable, aggressive, obstinate to the end, anxious for success, and lose their calmness.
This is even more fatal.
Because even the most basic cultivation, if one’s mentality is unstable, there is a risk of deviation.
Not to mention Artifact Refining, which requires endurance and patience; being impatient for success is bound to fail.
It is precisely because of this negative impact on a cultivator’s mentality that Gongsun Yan, when carefully choosing his cultivation direction, abandoned Alchemy and chose Artifact Refining.
This is because, compared to Alchemy, Artifact Refining requires more delicate control. In comparison, Artifact Refining is rougher and has a higher tolerance for mistakes.
Gongsun Yan was worried about his unstable mentality, failing in Alchemy, and all would be in vain.
The consequences of failure in Alchemy are often more severe than in Artifact Refining.
Valuable medicinal materials mixed together, with their properties penetrating each other; when Alchemy fails, it often results in waste.
But Artifact Refining is not like that; sometimes, even if it fails, some cost can be recovered from the waste, reducing the loss.
Do not underestimate this loss.
A cultivator’s life is not short, and the times of Artifact Refining and Alchemy can be many. Each accumulated loss over a lifetime would result in a huge number.
And this huge loss could represent the height of a cultivator’s life cultivation achievement and accomplishments in various aspects.
Gongsun Yan held his breath and focused, slowly stimulating his innate ability, summoning his own Heartfire.
The Heartfire was cast into the Thunderstruck Wood, Spring Thunder before him, quickly igniting it.
The charred outer shell of the Thunderstruck Wood emitted a slight cracking sound, and the treasure material burned, dyeing the orange-red Heartfire into a bluish-black color.
Gongsun Yan carefully retrieved the Heartfire.
Of course, it was only a small part of the retrieval.
The bluish-black Heartfire merged into his body, bringing the life and death power of Spring Thunder. The Heartfire circulated through his body, leaving countless fine, azure light flashing burn marks wherever it passed.
These scars appeared and were then quickly healed under the unique vitality of Spring Thunder.
The necrotic tissues were instantly broken down and reshaped by the vitality of Thunder’s power, as if undergoing an internal and external thunder baptism and accelerated growth.
Each instance of destruction and subsequent establishment brought Gongsun Yan immense pain in both body and mind. But as he healed, a sense of transformation arose from deep within, as if he was reborn.
The bluish-black Heartfire entered his Divine Sea Upper Dantian.
A large amount of miscellaneous thoughts, anxiety, irritability—everything—were dispersed under the power of Spring Thunder, as if washed away by a vast spring rain, leaving no trace.
Gongsun Yan felt increasingly light, his mind gradually approaching the state of "a clear, mirror-like tranquility after a rainstorm on an empty mountain."
But at this moment, a laugh suddenly came from behind him.
"Hehehe."
Gongsun Yan’s eyes snapped open, his pupils constricted to pinpoints! All his hairs stood on end; he never expected that someone had sneaked into his cave mansion, reached his back, and he was completely unaware.
The intense sense of crisis prompted Gongsun Yan to instinctively activate his protective measures.
At the same time, he anxiously turned to face his ambusher.
But just as he was halfway through turning, his vision went dark, and he completely passed out!
Sun Lingtong whistled.
Gongsun Yan’s cultivation level was not powerful, being only at the Foundation Establishment Stage.
Sun Lingtong had the ability to deal with Golden Core Cultivators, much less a being of the same level.
At Ning Zhuo’s request, he effortlessly knocked Gongsun Yan unconscious.
Sometime after.
Slap, slap, slap.
A series of slaps landed on Gongsun Yan’s face. The latter opened his bleary eyes, his mind in a daze.
But the next instant, Gongsun Yan remembered, his body jolted as if electrocuted. If he weren’t already tied up, he would have leapt up.
"Who are you?!" he shouted angrily at Ning Zhuo before him.
"Don’t move, don’t move around." Sun Lingtong stood behind him, placing his small hands on Gongsun Yan’s shoulders, directly restraining him.
Within a few breaths, cold sweat already beaded on Gongsun Yan’s forehead.
He scrutinized Ning Zhuo, seeing him in a white robe, looking bright and youthful, but with a slightly large head, exuding an amiable and approachable aura.
Gongsun Yan was not swayed by this aura.
What a joke!
Would an amiable and approachable person sneak into others’ cave mansions and ambush other cultivators?!
Ning Zhuo smiled at Gongsun Yan: "Don’t be afraid; I’m here to heal you."
His smile and words only heightened Gongsun Yan’s fear: "Could this young cultivator have some kind of mental illness?"
"Or perhaps he is a twisted demon cultivator who takes pleasure in tormenting others?"
Though Gongsun Yan was burly and inhuman in appearance, he actually had little combat experience, focusing more on Artifact Refining. His cultivation resources mainly came from exchanging his Artifact Refining results.