Love Burning Amidst the Ashes. - Chapter 18 - Tempered in Thunder Pool

The corpse of “Mad Dog” lay crumpled on the arena floor. The gaping wound in his throat no longer spewed blood, only leaving behind charred, carbonized edges. Wisps of greenish smoke, mingled with the stench of burnt flesh and hair, curled upward. Xu Qing Feng knelt on one knee in a pool of blood. His breath came in ragged gasps; each inhalation felt like swallowing scorching grit, searing his already battered lungs.

“Victories: two.” The steward’s voice cut through the din, ice-cold and devoid of inflection. A pair of iron tongs plucked another crimson Blood Boiling Pill and precisely flicked it into Xu Qing Feng’s open, panting mouth.

Gulp.

The moment the pill slid down his throat, a wave of even more intense heat detonated within him. It forcibly suppressed his remaining vitality, numbing the agonizing pain of his searing meridians. But the cost was clear—the cracks spiderwebbing across his dantian’s walls seemed to widen a fraction more, emitting a faint, heart-stopping crack. Under the pill’s stimulation, the black markings of the Demon Seed on his right arm writhed like a waking creature, greedily devouring this perverse surge of energy and spreading even faster.

“No. If this continues, forget avenging my parents, I won’t even survive the next backlash on this arena floor. Think. What would my brother do?”

Xu Qing Feng’s head snapped up. His bloodshot eyes, wild with desperation, pierced through the frenzied spectators, fixing on a figure in the highest seat—the Golden Core elder who had just yesterday declared his foundation “ruined.” His throat gurgled with blood and the crackle of residual lightning. Mustering every ounce of strength, he let out a roar, but his voice emerged as a broken rasp, like sandpaper on stone:

“I… want to enter the Thunder Pool!”

The frenetic crowd went silent, as if strangled by an invisible hand. Countless gazes—astonished, mocking, as if looking at a madman—converged on the teetering figure at the center of the arena. Volunteer for the Thunder Pool? That place wasn’t for tempering the body; it was a furnace for the worthless. How many intact war slaves had been reduced to ash in there?

The elder’s shadowed visage shifted slightly. His icy gaze, tangible as a probe, swept over Xu Qing Feng’s charred, carbon-scored body before settling on the writhing black pattern on his right arm. That gaze lingered for a few heartbeats, as if assessing a defective product about to be thrown into a smelter, calculating its last shreds of value. The air itself seemed to congeal, broken only by Xu Qing Feng’s own hoarse, ragged breathing.

“Approved.”

A single, emotionless word, falling like a shard of ice.

Two scar-faced war slaves stepped forward, dragging heavy chains. They roughly secured new shackles around Xu Qing Feng’s ankles and wrists. The cold metal bit into his burnt skin, sending spikes of fresh pain through him. Dragged from the arena, his bloody footprints traced a winding path down the stone steps leading deeper into the earth. From countless iron cages lining the corridor like a honeycomb, numb or despairing eyes watched this newcomer who had “chosen death.” As he passed the cell where Scarface was held, Xu Qing Feng’s blurred vision caught a flicker of sharp light deep within those murky eyes—cold and focused, like a viper lurking in the depths of a swamp.

A heavy black iron gate groaned open before him.

BOOM—

It wasn’t a sound, but a physical shockwave. A torrent of thunder-aspected energy slammed into Xu Qing Feng’s chest like a tangible hammer. His vision darkened, a coppery taste flooded his mouth, and he nearly buckled under the assault of that devastating aura.

Beyond the gate was hell made manifest.

A colossal natural cavern, sunk deep beneath a subterranean lake of molten lava. From the vaulted ceiling hung countless sharp, dark purple crystal formations, each one madly discharging azure and violet serpentine lightning, casting the entire space in a surreal, flickering light. At the cavern’s heart, there was no pool of water. Instead, a terrifying expanse of Thunder Pool boiled—a mixture of pure liquid lightning and molten lava. The viscous fluid blazed a blinding bright purple, its surface constantly erupting with house-sized thunderballs. Each explosion sent waves of scorching air rippling outward, carrying fine plasma sparks and deafening roars of annihilation. The air was ionized, thick with the stench of ozone, sulfur, and a deeper, metallic scent like repeatedly smelted iron. Each breath brought a sharp, static tingle that seared the lungs.

Along the edge of the Thunder Pool, dozens of protruding stone platforms dotted the shore, each barely large enough for a single person to sit cross-legged—isolated remnants on hell’s own dining plate. Most sat empty, but a few held the charred, charcoal-like outlines of human forms, sitting motionless under the violent flashes like weathered statues, their life forces barely a flicker. On a platform closer to the pool, one such “charcoal” figure silently disintegrated, crumbling into a handful of fine ash that sparkled with minute electric threads before a turbulent gust swept it into the boiling thunder-lava. It vanished without even a ripple.

“Ding Wei Seven-Six, Bing Zi Platform Seven.” The steward’s voice was jarringly out of place amidst the thunderous roars. He pointed to a platform relatively close to the pool’s center, directly facing one of the most violently discharging crystal clusters. His eyes held undisguised indifference. “Last two hours, that counts as one tempering. Fail…” He grinned, revealing stark white teeth. “The Forge’s furnace won’t miss a bit of ash from you.”

The heavy ankle shackles were unlocked. The chains on his wrists were removed. The moment the restraints fell away, a wave of exhaustion threatened to buckle his knees. But Xu Qing Feng clamped his jaw shut, blood seeping from his gums. His dantian wailed in protest; the Demon Seed writhed eagerly under the charred skin of his right arm. The hope for the Tendon-Breaking Ointment was as distant and illusory as a reflection in a mirror. The Thunder Pool was a path of no return, but it was also his only path. His sole chance to strengthen his body, seize control of his power, and prove his “worth” to the Thunder Prison Sect.

Dragging legs he could barely feel, step by step, he approached the platform that awaited him like a guillotine. With each step closer, the ambient ionized particles in the air grew more violent, his skin prickling with intense pins and needles, every hair standing on end.

The moment his foot touched the cold stone platform…

Crack! BOOM—!

The largest crystalline pillar directly above him, as if thoroughly enraged, unleashed its accumulated cataclysmic lightning in a sudden burst! No longer scattered serpents of electricity, but a pillar of condensed, blinding white lightning as thick as a bucket—a spear of divine judgment—ripped through the searing thunder-mist, tearing apart the void itself with unstoppable might, and crashed down upon Xu Qing Feng’s crown!

“AAARGH—!!!”

Indescribable agony annihilated all consciousness in an instant! This was no mere external bombardment—it was a storm of annihilation erupting from the very depths of his soul! Every inch of flesh, every nerve, every cell convulsed in maddening terror! His vision was consumed by a searing, retina-scorching incandescence! His ears knew nothing but the earth-shattering, seemingly eternal explosion that burst his eardrums!

His body lost all control in an instant. The moment the lightning pillar touched his skin, it carbonized and sloughed away, revealing the crimson, writhing muscles beneath—only for them to be instantly electrocuted into smoking, charred ruin! His bones groaned in protest, on the verge of shattering with each passing second! The black Demon Seed markings on his right arm, beneath the assault of the savage heavenly lightning, suddenly ignited with an abyssal black light. They writhed and expanded like living creatures, greedily devouring the destructive lightning’s power! A strange force, far more sinister and bone-deep than the burning pain, shot through the black patterns like an icy venom, stabbing straight toward his heart meridian!

The medicinal power of the Blood Boiling Pill, under this baptism of destruction, activated as violently as boiling water splashed onto snow. The cracks along his dantian walls spread madly, teetering on the brink of total collapse. Xu Qing Feng’s body convulsed and twisted violently on the stone platform, like dough kneaded by an invisible giant hand. Viscous blood, crackling with tiny azure and violet electric sparks, gushed from his mouth, nostrils, ears, and even the corners of his eyes! Before the droplets could fall, they were vaporized by the surrounding raging currents into clouds of acrid blood mist!

“Haa… haaah…” An inhuman rasp was forced from the depths of his throat. His consciousness, engulfed by the tidal wave of agony, sank completely, leaving only the most primal instinct—survive! His elder brother’s face flashed before him amidst the blinding white lightning. He could still almost feel the cold touch of that small silver dagger at his waist, and his nose caught a phantom whiff of a faint, bitter medicinal scent, almost entirely smothered by the sulfur and stench of burnt flesh…

“Brother…”

Just before his soul was ground to dust, a final whisper escaped Xu Qing Feng’s very core!

ROOOAR—!!!

At the brink of death, the most savage, bestial ferocity hidden deep within Xu Qing Feng’s bones ignited! A force far more violent, far more indomitable than before erupted from his shattered viscera, from his scorched marrow—like a volcano dormant for ten thousand years finally unleashed! This was not spiritual energy; it was the frenzied will of one who charges toward death in pursuit of life!

Instead of being completely crushed by the lightning pillar, he defiantly raised his half-carbonized head against the torrent of destructive energy! His bloodshot eyes threatened to split at the corners; within his pupils, the berserk lightning had completely taken hold, transforming them into two madly spinning, blazing silver thunderstorm vortexes! Beneath his skin, the rampaging azure-violet lightning, under the combined pressure of the Blood Boiling Pill’s residual power, the sinister cold siphoned by the Demon Seed, and the crushing force of the heavenly thunder, began a violent, chaotic process of fusion and devouring!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The crystalline clusters above, as if enraged by the struggle of this mere ant, sent lightning pillar after lightning pillar crashing down without pause! Each strike was more powerful than the last! Bing Zi Platform Seven was instantly engulfed in a blinding deluge of thunder, appearing from a distance like a cocoon of pure, annihilating lightning!

Xu Qing Feng’s body became the most hellish of smelting furnaces! The external heavenly lightning savagely destroyed and carbonized what remained of his flesh and sinew; his out-of-control lightning spiritual root, driven by the near-death stimulus and his frenzied will, bit back like a wounded primordial thunder beast, forcibly devouring the invading heavenly lightning’s power; and the black Demon Seed markings, like insidious serpents lurking beneath the charred skin, greedily feasted on the overflowing energy from the collision, driving their cold, bone-eroding power deeper into his marrow and heart meridians!

Each collision and devouring of energies brought more violent disintegration and unimaginable suffering. Sheets of charred flesh sloughed away, revealing dark, writhing tissue beneath that was instantly electrocuted black anew, in an endless cycle. His bones groaned under the unbearable strain, riddled with cracks. What gushed from his seven orifices was no longer bloody flames, but plasma mixed with a viscous, purple-black substance—a fusion of the Blood Boiling Pill’s toxins and the Demon Seed’s corrosion!

Time lost all meaning. Two hours stretched like two centuries. Xu Qing Feng’s body had long surpassed its limits of endurance, held together solely by a stubborn refusal branded into his very marrow. His consciousness vacillated endlessly between the abyss of agony and chaos—now haunted by the bloodied faces of his parents, now hearing his elder brother’s cool whispers, now dragged back to the hellish reality by the soul-freezing cold of the Demon Seed in his right arm.

At the edge of the platform, the elder in black robes stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his dark purple robes utterly still amidst the raging currents. From beneath the shadow of his hood, his gaze pierced the blinding lightning and flying flecks of charred flesh, locked onto the faint, yet miraculously tenacious flame of life at the cocoon’s core—and the chaotic, violent, yet forcibly coalescing energy reaction within the boy. His stare lingered especially on that right arm, its scorched skin constantly sloughing off and forcibly regenerating under the thunder’s assault, the black patterns beneath growing clearer and writhing with increasing vitality.

Finally, the crystalline clusters above dimmed, their thunderous assault subsiding. On Bing Zi Platform Seven, the blinding cocoon of light dissolved, revealing the central figure—a curled, charcoal-black human form, wisps of green smoke rising from it. Its skin was like repeatedly incinerated coke, webbed with horrific fissures. Through the cracks, faintly visible dark red flesh sparkled with minute electric threads. On the right arm, large patches of carbonized layer had peeled away, revealing raw, dark red, hideous new skin beneath. And a spiderweb of black markings, clearer than before, pulsed faintly like something alive, deeply etched into the flesh—seemingly even seeping down to the bone!

Xu Qing Feng lay motionless on the icy stone platform, his body twitching unconsciously. His last shred of consciousness sank into the boundless dark. Just before unconsciousness claimed him, he seemed to hear a voice, impossibly distant yet startlingly clear, carrying a note of anxiety he knew all too well—as cold and pure as a mountain spring:

“Qing Feng… hold on…”