Chapter 16: The Fire-consuming Animal Bone (2/2)

Clusters of the red clouds in the flamecloud gem vanished at a speed visible to the naked eye.

“Eee?!”

Nie Qian also perceived the anomaly and hurried over to Nie Tian’s side, observing the animal bone with great curiosity.

All the red clouds in the flamecloud gem disappeared in a short period of time.

She knew very well that those small clusters of red clouds were the flame power embodied in the flamecloud gem.

KAAA! KAAA!

After its red clouds completely vanished, the fist-sized flamecloud gem suddenly cracked open.

As it split into smaller flamecloud gems, the pieces went from being dark red to a lifeless pale white, as if they had become normal stones.

On the other hand, the dark-brown animal bone gradually turned bright red, like a heated piece of steel ready to be forged. It grew so scalding hot that Nie Tian quickly let go of it.

“Little Tian, you…” Nie Qian burst into ecstasy, as her bright eyes glittered with excitement. “Have you started to resonate with the spiritual power of the animal bone? Is your cultivation attribute fire?”

She had always been anxious about the fact that Nie Tian had neither showed any kind of unique cultivation attribute, nor resonated with the animal bone.

Seeing the bone turning completely red today made her think that Nie Tian had caused it, and thus she instantly became overjoyed.

“It has nothing to do with me.” Nie Tian shook his head with a bitter smile. “If it was I who caused the bone to change and my inner spiritual power had the fire attribute, I should have been able to hold on to it.”

“Then…” Nie Qian asked after being disappointed. “What was that?”

“It was the flamecloud gem that caused the animal bone to change.” Nie Tian explained the details of the unusual changes in the animal bone the night after his fight with Yun Song and said, “This animal bone appears to be able to absorb power of fire. I wasn’t so sure before, but after this experiment, with the flamecloud gem’s flame power drained by the animal bone, I am quite certain of it.”

As they spoke, the bright, fiery animal bone lost its energy and once again turned dark-brown.

“Why did it change back again?” Nie Qian asked curiously.

Nie Tian said, “When it finishes absorbing the fire energy it will regain its original look. It needs to continue to consume more fire energy in order to change again.”

“Let me see.” Nie Qian grew more interested.

She picked up the cloth bag of flamecloud gems from the table, took out a bigger flamecloud gem, and passed it to Nie Tian. “Try again.”

“OK.” Nie Tian did as she said and made another attempt.

BZZZ BZZZ!

The moment the animal bone touched the flamecloud gem, sparks erupted out, and the bone turned bright and red.

Once more, in front of Nie Tian and Nie Qian’s eyes, the larger flamecloud gem had its flame power rapidly drained by the animal bone, before it cracked open.

Dots of fiery light, like tiny red stars, flashed out of the animal bone one after another.

Nie Qian had been eager to touch it. She gradually reached out her hand and gently touched the animal bone with her translucent white fingertip, wishing to discover the secrets within.

“Ouch!” The moment Nie Qian made contact with the bone, she let out a shout and retracted her hand in a flash.

Her finger was unexpectedly burnt in that split second.

By the time she gathered her water-attributed spiritual power and tried to touch the animal bone again, it had returned to its normal state and became ordinary again.

“One more time!” Her curiosity was aroused, so she took out another flamecloud gem and placed it on the animal bone. The animal bone once again turned red.

This time, she condensed her water-attributed spiritual power onto her fingertip and touched it again.

PTSSS! PTSSS!

Strands of steam rose from the contact point between her fingertip and the animal bone. She only managed to hold on for three seconds before she no longer could bear the burning temperature of the bone, and retracted her hand.

“Come on!” Nie Qian tried again and again. One by one, all of the flamecloud gems cracked after their flame power was drained by the animal bone.

Every time, she couldn’t bear to press her finger on the bone for more than a few seconds. She always had to retract her hand, just as her spiritual sense permeated the animal bone.

Before long, all of her flamecloud gems had turned into a pile of pale-white gravel.

Nie Qian’s forehead was covered in sweat as she looked at the animal bone, somewhat disheartened. She shook her head and sighed, “This thing is a bit weird.”

Perhaps, because it had absorbed a vast amount of fire energy, the animal bone didn’t immediately return to normal after the last flamecloud gem cracked. Instead, it remained bright and red, like a piece of steel ready to be hammered.

“Let me have a try.” Nie Tian extended his hand towards the animal bone abruptly.

“Don’t! It’s too hot! You’ll get burnt!” Nie Qian yelled, and tried to stop him.

After numerous attempts, she was absolutely certain that the more flame power the animal bone absorbed, the hotter it got. Therefore, after the first few attempts, she could no longer bear the increasing heat, even though she had condensed a huge amount of water spiritual power on her fingertip.

At this moment, the animal bone must be at its hottest, after absorbing flame power of all the flamecloud gems, so Nie Tian was asking for trouble by touching it.

However, Nie Tian reached out his hand faster than she thought.

By the time the warning came out of her mouth, Nie Tian’s finger had already reached the animal bone.

“Stop!” She cried out loud.

Yet, Nie Tian didn’t shriek and retract his hand as she expected.

Surprisingly, Nie Tian had his finger on the animal bone, with absolutely no sign of pain. Instead, his eyes became bright, as if he had made a shocking discovery.