Within half an hour, Wei Xiao Bei recovered, from just a head, to a skeleton.
However, it was not the end yet. After all, the bones had regrown, but the flesh began to gradually regenerate. Connective tissues began to form, as well as his organs, blood vessels, ligaments, muscles, and so on.
After the skin grew back, Wei Xiao Bei stretched a little. He touched his skin, and it felt much smoother than before. There was a tinge of fire red beneath the skin.
He knew how he looked, even without a mirror.
Next, his hair grew back. As he stayed in the magma, his ability to absorb the heat energy from the magma increased.
Wei Xiao Bei did not know when the bead would stop, but he knew the pool of magma started to solidify into volcanic rocks, beginning with him as the center, trapping him inside.
“Open!”
Wei Xiao Bei shouted as he channeled energy outward from his body and broke free from the volcanic rock.
However, it was quite a futile attempt, as he was trapped again immediately when the magma touched him and solidified again into volcanic rock. After a few tries, he stopped such useless acts. He was like a rod stuck into the volcanic rock, waiting hopefully for the bead to stop.
“Are you okay now?”
Ao Yan’s voice came, which sounded even weaker than before.
Wei Xiao Bei turned and saw that the flames on Ao Yan’s body were slowly subsiding. Even the dragon scales turned greyish white from fire red. They were like rocks that were weathered.
“What did you spit out for me? Heart blood?”
Wei Xiao Bei was not a fool who needed to slowly investigate what happened. He understood what happened immediately.
Heart Blood, to put it simply, was the entirety of one’s essence.
It usually does not reside in one’s body, but when in times of need, one could concentrate and form it.
Simply put, a gulp of Heart Blood was at least a tenth of one’s essence.
This meant that Ao Yan paid a huge price to save him.
“You fool!”
Wei Xiao Bei felt the sudden heaviness in his heart, and tears began to well up in his eyes.
When Wei Xiao Bei became friends with Ao Yan, a part of his intention was for his own benefit.
Of course, this was something that no one could avoid.
But now, Wei Xiao Bei felt more guilty toward Ao Yan.
“I’m not a fool. The transformation is such great suffering anyway, spitting out some Heart Blood made me feel more comfortable instead.”
Ao Yan glanced at Wei Xiao Bei, with an expression like he believed it regardless of what Wei Xiao Bei thought. He spoke as if the Heart Blood was something without value.
Wei Xiao Bei did not speak further but nodded, seemingly believed in what Ao Yan said.
Next, Ao Yan seemed a little unwell. He laid down and twirled his body in a ball, but he did not stop muttering, “You are so lucky to find such a treasure. What a pity, if I knew about it, I would have surely snatched it from you, so that I wouldn’t have to go through this ordeal now.”
“Stop saying these kinds of useless things. Is this bead really no longer of any use to you?”
Wei Xiao Bei understood Ao Yan’s intention. Ao Yan was trying to make him feel less guilty with such words.
“Useless. The treasure has determined its owner.”
Ao Yan’s body was trembling in pain, but he smiled slightly.
Those who do not understand would have thought the bead recognized its owner the moment Wei Xiao Bei took hold of it.
However, only Wei Xiao Bei knew that the bead would not have activated if not for Ao Yan’s Heart Blood. About determining its owner, its current status might be still in the process of determining its owner.
Wei Xiao Bei sighed quietly and fell silent. The whole place quieted down. Only the hissing sounds of magma solidifying into rocks could be heard. Ao Yan no longer spoke either.
As time passed, all the magma surrounding Ao Yan cooled. The giant pool of magma now turned into a volcanic ground.
Wei Xiao Bei struggled and broke free from the rocks. He briskly walked over to Ao Yan and sat down in front of him.
Before Ao Yan, he looked like an ant, but the atmosphere between the two of them was very harmonious.
Wei Xiao Bei opened his mouth to first wear his storage bracelet on his right hand, but right when he was about to spit out the bead, it fell right in along his gullet.
His tongue didn’t move in time to stop it.
“Don’t waste your effort.” Ao Yan muttered.
Wei Xiao Bei was sure that the bead was helpful for Ao Yan. He quickly submerged his consciousness and started searching in his body.
But what shocked him was, even though the bead went down his gullet, it ended up neither in his stomach nor intestine. It ended up in his dantian!
All acupuncture points such as dantian that formed the blood channels were ethereal in the body.
They were semi-independent from the human body.
As such, Wei Xiao Bei had no way to retrieve the bead.
Speaking of the bead, its appearance was totally different from before.
The bead was merely a small black sphere previously, but now, although it was still spherical, it was entirely fire-red. A miniature Fire Dragon circled around the beak. It entered into the bead at times and then reappeared from the bead.
What shocked him the most was, the Inner Qi in his own blood channels had turned into fire red entirely, which could be caused by absorbing the heat from the magma. Moreover, the mini Dragon was consuming the Inner Qi as it moved around.
Wei Xiao Bei did not feel good about it, but after seeing that the mini Fire Dragon only consumed a small amount of Qi, which was less than dantian’s production, he was relieved.
[Enlightening] activated!
Since the bead was activated and determined its owner, it was about time to see something.
But as [Enlightening] was activated, nothing appeared before his eyes.
[Enlightening], which could inspect all things, failed… it could not even identify the name of the bead.
Well, maybe I should ask Ao Yan about this?
Wei Xiao Bei did not look at Ao Yan. He was afraid that [Enlightening] would have negative effects on Ao Yan.
At this moment, Ao Yan was scratching the Dragon Scales on his head. According to him, it was the place where horns would grow, and it was really itchy right now. Ao Yan even wanted to peel off all the Dragon Scales.
But unfortunately, the scales on his head were the most sturdy of all. Even when Ao Yan used all his strength, he could not peel them off. Doing so only helped relieve the itch a bit.
Wei Xiao Bei could not help in relieving Ao Yan’s suffering. He could only do something to distract Ao Yan.
Wei Xiao Bei began telling Ao Yan everything that had been happening to him, and this successfully distracted Ao Yan’s attention. He glanced at Wei Xiao Bei and said, “I always felt that something bad was going to happen.”
“Tell me about the owner of this bead?”
Wei Xiao Bei did not know whether Ao Yan’s instinct was accurate either, but he did not sense anything dangerous coming.
“What does the person who gave you this bead look like?”
Ao Yan became very solemn at this moment, as though he matured a little from his painful experience.
“It was an old guy who flew over in the air with a carriage driven with four horses…”
Wei Xiao Bei did not hide anything about this. He described in detail the old man and the carriage.
After hearing Wei Xiao Bei’s descriptions, Ao Yan seemed to have confirmed something.
“Just as I thought. The bead has a familiar aura.”
Next, Ao Yan shared his guess.
Ao Yan believed that the old man who gave Wei Xiao Bei the bead was Chi Song Zi!
Chi Song Zi?!
Wei Xiao Bei’s mind processed the name as soon as Ao Yan said it, and he found the background of the name immediately.
Chi Song Zi was an ancient immortal in the Chinese legends.
He held the title of Zuo Divine South Polar Mountain Daoist, as well as Great-Void Daoist Immortal.
Legend had it that he was the Rain Master during the period of Farmer God. He was immune to fire, storm, and rain were under his command. He was an important guest to West Empress and taught the Farmer God how to extend his life. He also took Farmer God’s daughter as his disciple to teach her how to come an immortal.
Chi Song Zi was no ordinary immortal in the Chinese legends.
In fact, one can know how extraordinary he was just by his title: Zuo Divine South Polar Mountain Daoist
“Divine” was the sacred title that was given by Zhou Emperor Ji Fa. Amongst the immortals, those who had the title “divine” were of such a high status that exceeded the imagination of ordinary men. Moreover, “Zuo” was considered supreme.
All in all, this immortal had extraordinary status, but Wei Xiao Bei only knew as much as the Chinese legends recorded it.
“You know Chi Song Zi?”
Wei Xiao Bei remembered Ao Yan having said that the bead was emanating a familiar aura.
“I don’t know…”
Ao Yan spoke with slight pain in his expression, as though there was a painful memory.
This made Wei Xiao Bei a little confused.
However, before Wei Xiao Bei probed further, Ao Yan began to reveal it himself.
The truth is, Chi Song Zi had an identity not known by most people!
Fire Dragon!
Chi Song Z’s original form was a Fire Dragon!
And Ao Yan’s mother was one of the descendants of Chi Song Zi. Of course, Ao Yan did not know which generation of descendants she was.
This was precisely the reason why after a Fire Jiao Dragon and Dragon King of the West Sea consummated, they gave birth to a true Fire Dragon, Ao Yan.
After Ao Yan was born, troubles came.
Chi Song Zi was an Ancient Rain Master.
What was a Rain Master? An immortal that commanded the storm and rain.
And it was said that the Rain Masters who came after him were all his disciples or grand disciples.
But after the Jaded Emperor took charge of the heavenly court, he set some laws. One of them was to make the Dragon Kings of the Four Seats be fully in charge of storms and rain.
Of course, after this heavenly law was given, the role of Rain Masters still existed, but it was gradually voided. The true authority regarding storm and rain was in the hands of the Dragon Kings.
After knowing that the Fire Jiao Dragon was a descendant of the Ancient Rain Master and if Ao Yan turned out to be like his ancestor, a Fire Dragon, would the Dragon King of the West Sea still treat Ao Yan well?
