After taking care of all the Ghost Mustache of Remnant Visage and the Meat-Winged Monsters, Xiang Beifei collected the Yin Ice, using a bubble to contain it. Regardless of where this mass of black mist originated, it was certainly a good thing.
When Xiang Beifei returned within the range of the mound spirit, the White Flame Skeleton, unable to leave the range of the mound spirit, had been anxiously waiting on the periphery for them.
"Fire Ancestor, sir! I have seen the Fire Ancestor!"
The moment he saw Xiang Qingde, his whole being became excited. He hurried over and knelt down respectfully, performing a devout greeting to Xiang Qingde.
"Rise, I never taught you this formality; there's no need for this," Xiang Qingde, who naturally recognized the White Flame Skeleton, said. His consciousness usually just stayed dormant.
The White Flame Skeleton said in a rough and gruff voice, "You are our entire tribe's lifesaver; this is the highest form of respect we could think of to express to you."
After saying this, he also performed a courtesy to Xiang Beifei and said, "And thank you, for helping us fend off a formidable enemy."
"No need, it was just a helping hand," Xiang Beifei replied.
He went back to the vicinity of the magma. By now, the power of the Yin Ice was fading away, and the magma was surging once again. This magma could be controlled using the blood altar.
Now, he also needed to think of a way to counter the Yin Ice. Clearly, magma was no longer an invincible defense; if they found Yin Ice to attack again next time, the skeletons probably wouldn't be able to hold them off.
However, fortunately, the use of Yin Ice seemed to carry a significant cost. Judging by Ye Ji's condition, he apparently wasn't able to completely control the Yin Ice, which was the reason they initially didn't intend to use it.
After all, without Xiang Beifei intervening, using a feigned retreat to deceive those naïve skeletons was the easiest choice, not needing the troublesome effort of using Yin Ice.
Skeleton Village held a grand bonfire celebration to commemorate their victory, and the appearance of the Fire Ancestor excited the entire village. Xiang Beifei, being the Fire Ancestor's grandson, received immense respect.
The bonfire event was magical, the most unique bonfire celebration Xiang Beifei had ever seen.
Whereas others celebrate around the bonfire with singing and dancing, the skeletons danced directly in the flames, each scooping out a bit of fire from their eye sockets to join together into a sea of fire.
The sea of fire was colorful, with flames of every hue that wouldn't merge with each other, creating a dazzling spectacle.
In celebration, every Skeleton Village villager also lit various foods as part of the evening feast, burning leaves, ores, plants, and such, consuming the flames of these burning foods.
It was natural for Xiang Beifei and his companions not to eat flames; they needed to eat meat. Since all the desolate beasts within a thousand miles had been slain, Erha excitedly ran beyond a thousand miles to catch many two-headed cows to slaughter and feast on beef.
Erha quickly discovered that the quality of the meat grilled with different colored flames was actually different. Beef grilled with orange fire was rich without being greasy, red fire gave the meat a fragrant spicy taste, green fire made the meat taste like it was steamed, and beef grilled with blue fire was tender and tingling, as if electrifying the tongue...
All night, Erha excitedly grilled meat with skeletons of various colors, studying its recipes, which made him extremely happy.
Xiaohei, on the other hand, played in the flames everywhere, finding that being toasted by the skeletons' flames was quite comfortable, akin to taking a fire bath. It had every skeleton burn it a bit to experience the sensation of being engulfed in flames.
Different colored flames burned with different sensations, and Xiaohei greatly enjoyed this process, feeling much more spirited.
In the end, it set its sights on the village chief of Skeleton Village, the White Flame Skeleton, wanting to try out the White Flame Skeleton's white fire.
The White Flame Skeleton, being the most powerful, took burning seriously and was worried about hurting Xiaohei, so he hesitated to perform the action.
"Woof woof—woof woof!"
But Xiaohei persistently nagged and pleaded, claiming it often had an itchy hide that only burning could relieve. Now that itchy problem had recurred, and it wanted to see if the white fire had any effect on relieving the itch.
Unable to resist Xiaohei's insistence, the White Flame Skeleton spoke in his coarse language, "Alright then! If it helps you, but the temperature of the flame—mine is quite high, so brace yourself."
Xiaohei indicated that this was no problem at all, and the White Flame Skeleton carefully breathed white fire onto Xiaohei. Seeing that Xiaohei was unharmed, he gradually increased the intensity of the flame.
Xiaohei comfortably rubbed its fur, signaling that the white flame was very comforting to roast around, as if the body was being punctured by toothpicks or electrified by electric eels, with a mix of numbness and crispness, utterly delightful.
The entire bonfire celebration was very lively, some skeletons even shot flames from their eye sockets to set off fireworks, performing various extraordinary acrobatic acts to show their gratitude to the Fire Ancestor and his grandson.
After thinking for a while, Xiaohei felt it couldn't just watch others perform and had to contribute an act itself, so it controlled the monsters in the Yellow Springs water, letting those ferocious and evil spirits, full of murderous aura, do a set of broadcast exercises and even dance a square dance.
This left every skeleton utterly dumbfounded.
Those brainless monsters from the Yellow Springs probably never dreamed that one day they would obediently perform a dance for everyone to see. A group of Yellow Springs monsters clumsily stretched their hands and feet, spinning, jumping, doing splits, standing on one foot...
That being said, if one didn't consider the true nature of these monsters, their broadcast exercise routine was actually quite cute.
Youmong didn't like flames and kept following Xiang Beifei around, and it wasn't until Xiaohei told it that green flames could promote its growth that it cautiously went to get burned by the green flame and then joyfully discovered that it had indeed sprouted tender branches!
The Green Flame Skeleton was also very friendly towards Youmong, thus it held Youmong and burned it for an entire night.
The celebration lasted an entire day and night before it ended, but Xiang Beifei had left early; he needed to cultivate.
His current cultivation level was actually only at the mid-stage of Orifice Transforming, and his ability to deal with Ye Ji and Brain Deficient relied on his trump cards and his grandfather's guidance.
Xiang Qingde required him to continue cultivating, and he was not allowed to proceed further if his cultivation didn't reach the Heavenly Connection realm.
Xiang Beifei didn't haggle over this point with his grandfather; he was now in the desolate outlands far beyond Jiuzhou, where he faced very powerful opponents; strength was indeed very important.
He returned to his cultivation.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, half a year had passed.
Warming the Orifice Soul didn't pose much difficulty for Xiang Beifei; in his journey of cultivation, he had always progressed faster than others, not to mention now that he had the guidance of a powerful figure like Xiang Qingde.
Through absorbing spiritual power crystals, Xiang Beifei's Orifice Soul was cultivated to a very harmonious state. His body only had two Orifice Perceptions, but these two Orifice Perceptions kept his strength always in a balanced position.
Xiang Qingde seemed unsurprised by Xiang Beifei having only two Orifice Perceptions, as his own Orifice Perceptions were also different from others.
In Jiuzhou, martial artists typically opened seven orifices, yet Xiang Qingde opened nine orifices! That's two more than ordinary people.
Xiang Beifei was even more peculiar; he only had two orifices!
"Why are our Orifice Perceptions different from others?" Xiang Beifei, sitting cross-legged in the void, asked in confusion.
Xiang Qingde looked up at the stars in the sky and shook his head slightly.
"Now that you've cultivated to the later stage of Orifice Transforming, the next step is to prepare to step into the Heavenly Connection realm," Xiang Qingde said.
Xiang Beifei's spirits lifted!
During this half year, Xiang Beifei had been immersed in arduous cultivation, not going out, without rest, and his cultivation had reached the Great Perfection of the late Orifice Transforming stage!
He was just a step away from the Heavenly Connection realm!
"Grandfather, how should I step into the Heavenly Connection realm?" Xiang Beifei asked.
It was a very serious question and one that frequently troubled him.
Just as he didn't understand how to perform Meridian Opening, how to do God Refining, how to do Orifice Transforming, without systematic help, he still didn't know how to become a strong practitioner of the Heavenly Connection realm.
All martial artists in Jiuzhou had systematic plans for improving their cultivation, but Xiang Beifei was different; this was an unknown weakness of his.
But fortunately, this time he had a grandfather with him.