Chapter 740: Terrifying Absorption Rate (1/2)

One whole day quickly passed in this fashion, and when Nong Zaitian opened his eyes, he saw that the fire was still raging strong. The temperature in the entire area was still as high as ever, and he could not help but ask Lu Yin, “Hey, a day’s already passed. Why hasn’t the fire died down?”

“I’m not the one who released it, so how should I know?” Lu Yin replied.

Nong Zaitian was taken aback, but then he angrily replied, “You’re just messing with me!”

Lu Yin shouted back, “Shut up!”

Nong Zaitian was furious, and he really wanted to go over to give this bastard a kick. However, after thinking it over, he quickly abandoned the thought. The ambient star energy had also formed a small vortex over him, reducing how much the high temperature was affecting him by quite a bit. Also, he didn't dare to move out of fear that the vortex would vanish, leaving him to be instantly incinerated. He could only grind his teeth in anger and continue to endure.

Soon, three days passed in the same monotony, but the blaze still did not diminish, and they could only see a dark expanse outside of the furnace. The space within the furnace was thoroughly isolated by now, and Nong Zaitian was worried that even if the fire did not burn them to death, it would be difficult for them to leave this place.

The only way for them to survive was to persevere until their time ran out, and then they would vanish from the Daosource Sect's ruins.

But when Nong Zaitian calculated his time, he realized that he still had twelve days left before his time expired. Could he last for that long? He looked over at Lu Yin and then rubbed his eyes. Could he be mistaken? This guy actually looked like he was smiling!

Nong Zaitian had not seen wrong, as Lu Yin was indeed smiling. During the previous four days, he had absorbed an amount of star energy that would have normally taken him years to absorb, and his absorption speed was still rising.

This was unimaginable, as his normal star energy absorption rate was already dozens of times faster than others’ to begin with, but what he was doing at this moment could not even be considered cultivation anymore. It would be more accurate to say that he was simply swallowing the star energy and allowing it to be poured into his body. If he tried to calculate his current cultivation speed, then it should be around 600 times faster than his speed with his Cosmic Art in normal circ.u.mstances.

In other words, Lu Yin’s current absorption rate was the same as if he were revolving more than 40,000 stars with the Cosmic Art, which meant that he was gaining star energy 40,000 times faster than a normal cultivator.

40,000 times. Lu Yin did not even know if the Cosmic Art could cultivate that number of stars. This speed could safely be considered the very peak of his generation, but it was only for this time. As soon as he left the furnace, without this fire and the incinerated natural treasures, his speed would definitely revert back to normal. Even if he encountered another inferno, it would be useless without a comparable number of natural treasures.

As he thought of this, Lu Yin’s breathing grew a bit ragged. He did not want to cultivate slowly, and even if he cultivated his Cosmic Art to 100 stars, its speed would still be significantly inferior to his present cultivation speed.

He had decided—he would attempt to reconstruct this environment, and he would place more importance on searching for natural treasures when he returned home.

“Hey, how much longer before this fire dies out?” Nong Zaitian urgently asked when he saw that Lu Yin had opened his eyes.

Lu Yin casually replied, “Ask it yourself.”

Nong Zaitian choked on his next words, as he felt that this fellow was quite revolting. First, he had stolen Nong Zaitian’s hoe, then he had followed Nong Zaitian to this hidden place, but that still wasn’t enough! Now the bastard even dared to tease Nong Zaitian. Was this really the time to crack jokes?

Nong Zaitian sulked by himself while Lu Yin was suddenly feeling rather conflicted, as he had forgotten an important detail. With his level of physical strength, it would not be simple to find a flame that could threaten him. He had lucked out to stumble upon this blaze that had been left behind by an ancient powerhouse which was able to rapidly raise his cultivation. A normal fire was simply of no threat to him, and it would similarly be unable to burn any natural treasures, let alone create an isolated, restricted space.

This was becoming a troublesome task, but he had to find such a fire.

Outside the furnace, Mr. Bai had returned. His clothes were tidy, and he looked as if he had not fought at all.

He saw the furnace and the completely isolated space within, and he stared at the blaze with regret. He did not dare to touch such an inferno, which meant that those two were dead beyond a shadow of a doubt.

There had been many natural treasures within the furnace, and they had released an exorbitant amount of star energy after being incinerated. Even with Lu Yin’s hugely increased rate of absorption, he still could not completely absorb all of the ambient star energy despite Nong Zaitian also absorbing a portion.

The star energy had even formed vortices, isolating the two youths from the high temperature, which allowed them to survive inside of the furnace. These circ.u.mstances persisted for ten days, after which the vortex of star energy surrounding Nong Zaitian’s body started to slowly shrink.

He started panicking. “Hey, slow down! You’re taking all of it.”

Lu Yin opened his eyes to glance at his companion. “A decent harvest, huh?”

“Decent your ass! I don’t want this kind of harvest. Slow down and don’t take away all of the star energy,” Nong Zaitian hurriedly replied.

Lu Yin did not want to harm this person. Even though Nong Zaitian was from the Sixth Mainland, Lu Yin felt that Nong Zaitian was his lucky star, as something good happened every time Lu Yin ran into him. Because of this, Lu Yin reduced his speed of absorption.

Nong Zaitian’s star energy vortex persisted for another two days, and after that, he laughed maniacally. “My time’s up! I’m leaving first. Thank you, bro, as without you, I would have been burned to a crisp. I hope that you can leave soon too.” He then vanished and left the Daosource Sect's ruins.