895 Bottleneck



Not able to do anything other than do his best to use all of his strength to rush in the direction of the head where the exit out of the construct was located, Xuan Hao could not help silently cursing to himself as he discovered that he had no way to fully use his movement technique due to some sort of restriction on the space inside the construct.

In the end, this meant that he could only helplessly watch the tiny flame getting closer and closer to him. Not something he felt the slightest bit excited about. Especially when considering how he had just witnessed the tiny flame did to the black heart a moment ago.

Whoosh-!

Unable to escape the tiny flame as it caught up with him, just as he was about to reach the head of the construct, Xuan Hao got ready to resist it with all hist strength. Not having any plans of sitting back and just allowing the tiny flame to burn him like it had done to the black heart-

Whoosh~!

Using the power, he had just managed to recover after the black heart had been attacked by the tiny flame, Xuan Hao channeled his energy through his dao domain, creating a massive ice barrier to resist the tiny flame that was now only less than a hundred meters away from him.

At the same time, he also used his sword to launch several attacks towards the tiny flame in an attempt to hopefully slow it down, so he had more time to escape from the inside of the construct. Something that would hopefully allow him to make full use of his movement technique to escape back towards the spatial channel he had entered the ancient battlefield through.

Bang!

Despite all of this, the tiny flame easily brushed off the sword attacks, that were more than strong enough to kill off someone in the Soul Ascension Realm. Soon arriving directly in front of his ice barrier before colliding with it-

Fwoosh~

Easily burning through it, like it was burning through a simple piece of paper. Not even slowing down in the process as it kept moving towards him with the same speed as before. Making Xuan Hao feel the same level of helplessness that the black heart should have felt when engulfed by the tiny flame earlier without any chance to fight back.

Boom-boom-boom!

Of course, he still continued to attack the tiny flame in an attempt to slow it down… but it was all useless, as the tiny flame easily burnt through any attack of defensive technique he used-

"Wha-!?"

Unable to stop the tiny flame and thinking it was about to start burning him alive like it had done to the black heart earlier, Xuan Hao watched with a mix of astonishment and fear, as the tiny flame came to a stop in front of him for a short second before directly entering the feather imprint between his brows. 

As the tiny flame enters the mark between Xuan hao's brows, a profound transformation begins to take place inside the space where the blue divine energy was stored and soon spreads to the rest of his body-

"Ah-!"

Triggering a violent reaction from Xuan Hao, who barely managed to make his way out of the construct before landing a few hundred meters away. Not wasting a second before sitting down in a lotus position and closing his eyes. Focusing all of his attention towards the changes that had started to take place inside his body after the tiny flame had begun to change the hidden space of the feather imprint.

First, the tiny flame's heat spread throughout his body, permeating every cell and meridian. Second, the heat transformed into a scorching energy that was then infused into his muscles and bones, causing them to pulsate and glow with an ethereal flame surrounding them. Almost like they were being reforged… And in a sense, this was exactly what happened!

Xuan Hao could clearly feel that his physical form was being strengthened by the scorching energy coming from the hidden space between his brows. Making it more resilient and stronger with each passing second… But this did not make him relax. Instead, it made him more nervous, as the rate at which the scorching energy entered his body did not decrease with time, but instead seemed to increase.

Whoosh~

As the scorching energy coursing through his meridians increased, it started to stimulate the flow of qi inside them, causing the qi to surge with increased vigor and power.

At the same time, this also forced his meridian to expand and become more expansive to accommodate both his qi and the scorching energy that was now flowing through them. Releasing some of the pressure that the sudden growth in strength was putting on his body, while at the same time giving Xuan Hao some much needed control over the scorching energy coursing through his body.

Although this control did not allow him to forcible push the scorching energy out of his body to prevent it from killing him, it still allowed him to move it away from the places that had already been strengthened and wouldn't make it through another transformation by the scorching energy.

The first place that he redirected the scorching energy towards, was his internal organs-

"Mhm! This is far more painful than I expected...!" Feeling the scorching energy start refining his internal organs, Xuan Hao could not help exclaiming this to himself with a painful expression on his face. Even if he had already expected it to be painful, the pain of his organs being refined was far more painful than he had first expected.

However, he managed to bite the pain in him and continued. Soon seeing small impurities that he had never even known were present being purged by the scorching flame.

Slowly, his organs were strengthened in a far lengthier process than compared to the rest of his body, but when it was done, Xuan Hao felt a clear change in his strength compared to before. His heart absorbed the essence of the scorching energy, pumping with a fiery vitality, while his lungs were fully purified. Allowing him to easily absorb the qi between heaven and earth. 

In the end, his entire body started harmonizing with the scorching energy. Allowing him to pick up the subtle fluctuations of the Dao of Fire hidden deep inside the scorching energy. 

The crackling sound that could be picked up from the scorching energy transforming his body slowly became a symphony to his ears, guiding him closer to the Dao of Fire.

Unbeknownst to Xuan Hao, his appearance began to undergo subtle changes. His eyes taking on a fiery hue, reflecting the intensity of the scorching energy within. Wisps of ethereal flames started dancing around his body before gathering together on the feather imprint, causing it to change from a feather to a small flame with an even smaller phoenix inside it.

With each passing moment, Xuan Hao's connection to the Dao of Fire grew stronger and his comprehension of the Dao of fire itself deepened with the support of the endless supply of scorching energy.

Hm?

It was just at this point that Xuan Hao suddenly opened his eyes with a somewhat confused expression on his face. For some reason, he felt like he hit some kind of barrier, causing him to be forcibly pulled out of the wonderful state he had just entered.

A bottleneck?

As this thought occurred to him, Xuan Hao did not think about what to do for more than a few seconds before closing his eyes again to attack the barrier that had suddenly appeared in front of him and blocked him from improving.

If this had happened under normal circumstances, he might have tried to understand the bottleneck more and how to safely break through it… But considering that the scorching energy was still entering his body without any signs of stopping, Xuan Hao understood that he would end up dead if he could not find a use for this constant flow of energy-

Rumble-!

For this reason, Xuan Hao did the most obvious thing and prepared all of the scorching energy inside his body to attack the bottleneck with all his might. 

[Redeem Reward: Strengthen Dao Domain?]

Yes!

Not forgetting to redeem the reward from the system, Xuan Hao soon felt the strength of his dao domain start subtly increasing… But this was more than enough to loosen the bottleneck that had appeared in front of him. Giving him a perfect chance to attack the bottleneck head on!

Boom-boom-boom!

As the scorching energy bombarded the barrier blocking his path forward for a few minutes without progress, cracks soon started appearing before a loud cracking sound could be heard throughout his entire body before-

BOOOM-!

The barrier shattered under the constant flow of scorching energy. Not a second later, Xuan Hao felt his comprehension of the Dao of Fire start improving again before being integrated into his dao domain-

Whoosh-!

As a result of this, the core of his dao domain and soul started improving at a speed visible to the naked eye, Xuan Hao could even feel that that his dao domain covered had already doubled and looked like it was still expanding without showing any signs of stopping!