As the bone thorn entered her throat, Xiao Xue immediately clamped her lips shut.
A frigid current, cold enough to freeze a human body, surged through her lips and burrowed into her body.
At the same time, Xiao Xue trembled violently, as if struck by lightning.
Her face, which had still possessed some color, instantly turned deathly pale.
Xiao Xue felt as if she had just swallowed a mouthful of liquid nitrogen.
As the bone-chilling current passed through her throat, she felt as if that section of her throat had been frozen into a lump of ice.
Xiao Xue shivered slightly, and crystalline strands of ice began to coil around her long hair.
The cold current rushed into her body, then flowed along her Meridians, spreading in all directions.
Wherever this cold current passed, a layer of milky white ice would rapidly cover her Meridians and bones.
Then, in the next moment, the "liquid nitrogen" transformed into a pool of molten iron, erupting with terrifying heat.
As the bone thorn traveled along its path, it clashed with the layer of ice clinging to the walls of her Meridians, the two mutually dissolving each other.
Faint white mist swirled within her Meridians; a moment later, the white vapor transformed back into tiny ice crystals, repeating the cycle.
Even with the protection of the green lotus pill, Xiao Xue still could not ignore the temperature of the Bone Chilling Flame.
Enduring the waves of scorching pain radiating from within her body, Xiao Xue slowly closed her eyes and gradually submerged her consciousness into her body.
Immediately, a misty sensory interface appeared within Xiao Xue's mind.
The eerie white bone thorn that had previously entered her body had already divided into strands of tiny, eerie white flames.
These flames, containing terrifying energy, were rampaging through her Meridians.
Anything that blocked their path was instantly incinerated into nothingness.
Under the roasting heat, Xiao Xue's originally spacious and tough Meridians had twisted into the shape of a dried twist.
This sight looked extremely bizarre and terrifying.
Naturally, the pain caused by her Meridians being roasted into such a twisted state directly caused Xiao Xue's body to twitch slightly and continuously.
Water and fire are inherently incompatible; even the Bone Chilling Flame, with its ice and fire attributes, is essentially fire.
Exotic Fire is a supreme treasure of the world for those who Cultivate fire attribute Qi; however, for the Water Attribute, it is a fatal poison.
For the Water Attribute, let alone refining it, having Exotic Fire enter the body could cause irreparable damage.
Therefore, the difficulty Xiao Xue faced in refining the Bone Chilling Flame was much higher than that of an ordinary person.
If not for her high "Elemental Affinity" and the fact that the Bone Chilling Flame also possessed ice and fire attributes—which shared certain commonalities—Xiao Xue would never have taken such a risk.
Yet, even with full preparations, her current state was still far from optimistic.
Within her Meridians, the eerie white flames were rampaging wildly.
In just a few minutes, the inside of Xiao Xue's body had been thoroughly devastated.
Moreover, the worst part was that the medicinal power of the green lotus pill had already been gradually exhausted through its consumption by the Exotic Fire.
There was no longer enough medicinal power to support the repair of those dissipating energy crystal layers.
Even with the protection of the crystal layers, Xiao Xue's body had still been reduced to this nearly crippled state by the terrifying Exotic Fire.
If the energy crystal layers were to disappear, her Meridians, bones, heart, and so on would likely be incinerated into nothingness by the Bone Chilling Flame within a very short time.
By then, having lost these vital organs that sustained life, she would only be able to live as a Soul and become neighbors with Ah Li.
Xiao Xue gritted her teeth and directly activated the ice spirit cold marrow within her body.
If Xiao Yan, or anyone else, were to refine Exotic Fire, they would likely choose to use energy to protect their body while guiding the Exotic Fire to circulate through their Meridians to increase mutual familiarity; after completing the circulation, they would wrap the Exotic Fire in Qi, guide it to follow their own Cultivation Technique path, and then consume it.
However, Xiao Xue was different.
After all, she had not even prepared a spirit storage.
What Xiao Xue wanted was to directly integrate the Exotic Fire into her own body!
For one thing, she intended to assimilate the Exotic Fire into a "Water Source".
If she followed the rules and used a spirit storage to contain the Exotic Fire in the traditional way, then even if the Bone Chilling Flame or future flames like the Sea Heart Flame were successfully refined, staying inside the spirit storage, they would still be fire in essence.
And as long as they were fire, they would cause an "allergic reaction" with her Water Attribute Qi.
This problem was almost unavoidable, even for the Sea Heart Flame, which possessed the Water Attribute.
Therefore, what Xiao Xue wanted was for these Exotic Fires to become a part of her own body.
"The so-called Exotic Fire is nothing more than a permanent buff for my Water Attribute Qi."
In this way, after completely assimilating the Exotic Fire, her control over it would be greatly increased.
Secondly, if she used a spirit storage to contain the Exotic Fire, she would still need to use Qi to activate it whenever she used it in the future.
But if she assimilated the Origin Fire Seed, the energy consumed would be from the fire seed itself.
She only needed to issue a command, and the rest could be left to the Bone Chilling Flame to handle on its own.
There was actually more than one way to refine Exotic Fire.
The first method was to weaken the Origin Fire Seed to an extreme degree, then refine it, and use one's own Qi to activate the Exotic Fire; in the original novel, this was the method Xiao Yan used.
Whether it was the Green Lotus Core Flame, the Fallen Heart Flame, or the fire seed of the Three Thousand Burning Flame.
They were all "luckily" captured by Xiao Yan only when their strength was far inferior to what it had been.
Or rather, all fire-type experts on the continent refined Exotic Fire this way; even Yao Lao was no exception.
But by doing this, most of the energy of the Origin Fire Seed was consumed during the confrontation.
These energies were, without exception, wasted.
This resulted in the power of the Exotic Fire being greatly reduced after refining.
The power of the refined Exotic Fire was far inferior to before.
Take, for example, the riot of the Fallen Heart Flame, which left several experts at Jia Nan Academy helpless.
But Xiao Yan, having just refined the Fallen Heart Flame, definitely did not possess the Peak strength of that fire serpent.
After all, even if her Cheap older brother Xiao Yan was the Protagonist, being able to refine an Exotic Fire that was slightly stronger than himself was already quite good.
If it exceeded his strength by too much, he would very likely be burned into a pile of ashes.
"Beat the BOSS until it is nearly dead, and then refine that nearly dead BOSS."
If what Xiao Yan had refined at that time was a Fallen Heart Flame in its Peak period.
Then he would only need to release the Fallen Heart Flame to easily burn a Dou Zong to death.
And the method Xiao Xue was thinking of was to directly capture the complete Origin Fire Seed whole.
She wanted to directly capture this nearly full-health BOSS!
In this case, most of the energy in the Origin Fire Seed could be used directly.
If this plan could succeed, it would be equivalent to her gaining an trump card comparable to a Peak Dou Zong!
After all, refining Exotic Fire could not directly increase one's strength.
The reason Xiao Yan was able to Upgrade after refining Exotic Fire was that he had absorbed the energy in the Exotic Fire space.
Therefore, rather than letting most of the energy of the Origin Fire Seed go to waste, it was better to take a gamble.
A "Hello Kitty" that only moves when activated, versus an obedient, BOSS-level assistant; compared to the ordinary refining method, a cultivation-style process from scratch versus a ready-made Advanced combat power—the latter was undoubtedly better.
This method of refining was much more dangerous.
Others were dealing with an evenly matched opponent, while Xiao Xue intended to refine a nuclear bomb that far exceeded her own strength.
But correspondingly, the benefits it brought would also be greater.
If it didn't work, there was still time to settle for the next best thing.
As the ice spirit cold marrow was stimulated, an extreme low temperature spread from within her body.
Xiao Xue felt as if her Soul were about to be frozen stiff.
The cold air of the ice spirit cold marrow erupted fully; even a Dou Zong would be doomed.
But with the Bone Chilling Flame balancing it out within her body, this temperature was still within her range of tolerance.
Under the control of her powerful Soul Power, the cold air rapidly spread to every part of her body.
The rampaging Bone Chilling Flame inside Xiao Xue's body also "calmed down" quite a bit under the influence of the ice spirit cold marrow.
The next moment, Xiao Xue's eyes turned dark gold, and her Soul Power poured out frantically.
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