Flame path: the struggle
In the verandah, outside the sitting room, Sou Long gazed at the glistening moon with a complex expression. Something no one could explain with a palatable word. "since the lad had passed this trial, he could succeed in the following ones." Sou Long muttered with a heavy expression; it was also the first time he displayed his emotions to such depth. Other times his sentiments appeared like flashes; insensible people wouldn't notice.
After eating, Karl Zeal slept without cultivating. He damned cultivation! The whole thing was as impossible as traversing hell naked. Although Zeal doubted Sou Long's generosity, he didn't care whatsoever. He indeed needed a long rest. However, that very night the agony of that reconstruction training and his outcry of pain plunged him into a morbid fear. Zeal sweated profusely and felt confused about what to do. Death was now closely hanging around him.
....
On a proud bright morning—two people (big and small) stood outside. They were Karl Zeal and Sou Long. Both of them looked like they were listening to the wind. They stood gazing forward with occasional whispering.
"Brat, listen carefully! The place I will send you to is as dangerous as Ashura forest, and you will have to spend two days there." Sou Long expressionlessly passed scrutinizing gaze on Zeal before he continued: "However, unlike Ashura forest, it had a different characteristic. It is not wildlife like the Ashura forest, but a climatic (hot and cold) area. Sou Long explained. He continued after a thought, "I want to teach you how to overcome this climatic environment." Instantly Sou Long gathered a white energy glob on his index finger and fired it between Zeal's brows. Immediately, inside his mind, the nine-heavens Divine sutra appeared panicked and ruffled. That sudden force instantly unlocked a section of the sutra. That section was Yin-yang supreme cultivation.
After observing the dazed Zeal for a while, Sou Long gracefully spoke. "Do you remember the energy separation technique I taught you earlier?" he passed an asking gaze.
"Yes, master Sou!" Zeal nodded affirmatively.
"So with the cultivation technique I've unlocked for you, it will be easier. When you get to the hot region, cultivate your yang energy by transferring your yin energy to your brain and internal system. Do the reverse when you get to the cold region. Then I shall begin!" When Sou Long saw that Zeal had no question, he began his portal opening technique; he instantly disappeared in lightning flashes and appeared in his favorite verandah position. His white jug of tea already lay ready before him; he sat and poured himself a full cup. Sou Long gulped fiercely, which was in contrast to his usual behavior. Just how bad did he miss his tea? However, after savoring the tea's taste, he snapped his fingers and immediately white gate with a height of ten feet and a width of five feet fell down.
Zeal stepped forward unceremoniously, and the gate instantly disappeared.
Karl Zeal appeared in a fiery hot forest. With an instant world overturning view, Zeal noticed that trees in the forest grew from the constant scorching flame of the forest; it was a morbid imagination. Zeal thought, 'why does everything related to that old thing—unordinary?' Even before entering the gamut of the flame, it had already begun to scorch Karl Zeal. So he sat with his leg crossed. He formed hand gestures and began to chant Yin-yang supreme mantra, recorded in the Yin-yang sutra. Zeal unknowingly appeared in the middle of the world. Above him was the scorching sun, and below him was the cold-biting moon—everything was as authentic as life's suffering. Zeal floated in the middle with his eyes blindfolded as usual, but the scene he saw was as lucid as the white cloud. The energy of the Sun and Moon began to impact his skin. They each struggle to destroy Zeal's mortal flesh, but unknowing to them, they offset each other, giving Zeal the perfect opportunity to absolutely absorb their natural energy.
After a while, Zeal woke from his cultivation with a humph. He made fast full gestures with his two hands, and instantly something inexplicable appeared: the head of the black snake biting the tail of the white snake. At the same time, the head of the white snake biting the posterior of the black snake—they balanced each other like darkness and light, heat and cold. In general, all Saints are sinners, and all sinners are saints. All terrible minds can conceive something good, and all decent hearts have the ability to develop something terrible; life has two directions and two faces—it's all banked on options. In fact, life and death are true friends. All these lines appeared in the mantra of the Yin-yang sutra. After a while, a sacred circle encased the white and black snake. In the halo, the black snake has white eyes while the white snake has black eyes.
With another humph and various fast gestures, the sacred circle encasing the white and black snakes induced a centripetal movement due to the sudden rotation of the black and white snake. However, as Zeal formed an Anjali mudra, the Yin energy in the form of a black snake entered his head, and the yang energy furtively disappeared. The sudden external force shook Zeal's entire body, and he unintentionally felt cold.
The old thing asked him to savor the pain; Zeal felt he wasn't a masochist. Why would anyone want to enjoy pain? Zeal felt whatever reason that Sou Long decided this thing had to be unreasonable. But in any case, he still had to walk through the path slowly. Because that's the only way to grow and perfect his strength; Karl Zeal strolled, but the distance seemed unending and frustratingly vexing; he could only endure it. The whole place was like a pathway of yellow fire. Also, everything within this pathway was born of fire. Be it animals or plants. They were indeed lifeless. However, each step Zeal took, the yellow fire sparked with interest. This yellow fire didn't threaten Zeal much as he constantly circulated his Yin energy. So his Yin energy counterbalanced the yellow flame. But soon, Zeal got to another different stage.
On this terrible hot road, Zeal walked on a single secluded path. It was still like the previous walkway. But this time, it was a walkway of red drooling fire. By the left and right of the lonely walkway was a red molten river of fire. It was a convulsing frightful sight to behold. The floor of the red drooling walkway was a red molten fire of about half a foot. Occasionally, there would be red molten volcanic jetting. Zeal really witnessed the barren land of chaos. The heat the place generated was higher and denser than the yellow flame site. And the place was sincerely the sedated terrible land of death; there was no atom of breath found in this site too. "This old thing isn't satisfied in humanely murdering me. Now, he wants to cook me to charcoal?" Zeal muttered lividly.
However, walking at a moderate fearful pace, Zeal secretly forewarned himself to tread carefully. He wasn't about to fight nature, was he? Zeal felt his throat dry like a desert without a single hope of an oasis. Although Sou Long had forewarned Zeal not to drink water; however, didn't he confiscate Zeal's belongings? How would he ever drink the water even if he wanted to? So Karl Zeal thought that even though the fire couldn't burn him to death—his body might first die of thirst. Perhaps, when he finally saw water (that's if he could survive), he would appreciate it like a life-given exotic material from the temple of God of life. So the only way Zeal could endure was the precisely neat control of his Yin-yang energy. If not, he would not only die but die more shamefully: naked and bald. So he fervently circulated his Yin energy to his robe and hair as he walked forward cautiously.
The more Zeal walked forward, the hotter the region; his foot received almost half of the yin energy because he had to dip them deep into the terrible red molten flame. However, he preserved it till he got to another division. This place appeared like a calm blue cloud; it also seemed like a steady blue sea with visible calm burning flame tongues scattered across it. However, just as Zeal put his feet on the weakly harmless clouds—he blanched. There was panic deep in Zeal's recess because this flame glued to him like a parasitic worm; he morbidly pulled back his already placed foot.
Zeal felt that dreadful conscious flame intended to fry his brain for a pancake. But fortunately, the pure heavenly energy that Master Sou infused his brain had guarded it possessively. That energy was constantly boosting Zeal's evolution to godhood and mental power. But of course, he didn't know about these things. His brain system (the only thing the reconstruction trial didn't destroy) had also evolved alongside the Zeal's supreme frost bone. His brain at any time could be rigid or flexible according to the situation. So it had its high unbreakable defense too. Zeal drew in a breath and exhaled; he rigorously circulated his yin energy around him before he decided to step into the blue flame again. The royal blue fire was unusually calm and steady, not even the wind could easily sway it, but it couldn't burn Zeal nonetheless.