Inside Lin Xiao’s dantian, the cosmic fire roared to life.
For months following his first breakthrough at the Grand Desolate Defile, Lin Xiao’s internal dantian had looked like a calm, deep-blue ocean beneath a sky of pure starlight. At its center rested the golden chaos lotus, upon which sat his Nascent Soul. A chubby, semi-clear blue slime infant that spent most of its time dozing peacefully or practicing tiny somersaults.
Now, that calm ocean was churning with boundless, elemental majesty.
The staggering volume of earth-fire ingested from the underground magma chamber had spiraled into a blazing vortex of pure crimson and amber fire. Millions of calories of raw earth-heat enthalpy, stripped of all dirt by his Primordial Chaos digestion, swirled around the golden lotus in dense, nested rings. The sheer crushing weight of this packed energy created a steady inward pull. It packed the heat energy into a singular, radiant point.
Then, the critical threshold was breached.
Inside the dantian, the tiny blue slime infant opened its wide, starry eyes.
Instead of being burned by the swirling inferno, the infant stretched out its plump arms with a happy giggle. It pulled the blazing crimson sphere directly into its tiny belly.
