It was a stalk of blaze flower, which was an extremely peculiar and rare flower. It was capable of resisting the extreme temperature of lava, and it grew through feeding on the flame energy within lava. In fact, it looked more like a pulsing clump of flame than a flower. In such an environment, it would be rather hard to separate this flower from just another clump of flame.
It had a fiery shape, and its entire body was scarlet red in color with no other colors mixed in. The most wondrous part of this flower was its petals. They spread out and closed in repeatedly, seemingly constantly absorbing the flame energy in the air. The constant movement caused the flower to look extremely lively.
This was genuinely a top-tier king medicine. It was above these petals that Yun Flame had grown previously. This flower was very beneficial for those cultivating the power of flame. It could also transform one's physique, allowing one to have a physique possessing high intimacy with all flames, increasing the speed in which one could absorb flame energy.
Apart from that, a peak King Realm cultivator could directly enter the Emperor Realm by relying on it. Thus, this flower was deadly enticing to any King Realm flame cultivators. Xiang Shaoyun came from a tier-7 sect and had seen many king medicines before. Still, it was his first time seeing a blaze flower. It was apparent how precious this flower was.
If it was blended with other king medicines into a king-grade medicinal concoction, even more people could benefit from it. A wide grin was plastered on Xiang Shaoyun's face as he stared at this stalk of blaze flower. His joy was understandable. Anyone would be overjoyed upon encountering a top-tier king medicine like this.
"Now that my astral cosmos sea has a space of 100 square meters, I can store even more items. I won't have a problem storing this blaze flower, but I don't have anything capable of storing a flower with such extreme flame power. The moment this flower leaves the lava, without proper preservation, it will start losing its medicinal power and wither away. Therefore, I need to store some lava together with the flower, allowing it to stay fresh. Only then would I be able to use it whenever I want in the future," Xiang Shaoyun muttered.
However, he was worried that his astral cosmos sea was unable to resist the temperature of the lava. What if the lava destroyed his astral cosmos sea?
After thinking about it for a bit, Xiang Shaoyun slapped his head and said, "Why am I so stupid? I have already fused with Yun Flame. I had even used a large amount of Yun Flame's energy to expand the astral cosmos sea. Therefore, the astral cosmos sea now has a considerable resistance to fire. It won't have any problem storing some lava and this blaze flower."
Right after reaching that conclusion, Xiang Shaoyun prepared a space of 10 square meters in his astral cosmos before storing both the blaze flower and the lava around it. His conclusion was proven correct: when the blaze flower and lava entered his astral cosmos sea, he only felt a slight warmth and nothing else. His astral cosmos sea was completely unharmed.
"Hahaha, I now have the vicious tiger gold lotus and blaze flower in my possession. I won't have any trouble in the future when it's my time to advance into the Emperor Realm!" Xiang Shaoyun laughed heartily.
He would not give regular herbs his time of day, but these two herbs were precious enough to fill him with joy. Now that his cultivation level had soared straight to seventh-stage Transformation Realm, with his history of punching above his level, what would his current combat prowess be? He had the urge to leave and fight it out with a King Realm cultivator as soon as possible.
"No, I have to be patient. Although I am now equipped with the power of flame, I have yet to cultivate any flame battle techniques. I need to take some time and enrich myself with more battle techniques. In any case, Kings are capable of flight. I will be greatly disadvantaged since I can't fly. To really possess the ability to battle a King, I need to prepare accordingly," Xiang Shaoyun muttered to himself after calming down.
He then emptied his mind of all emotions and sank into his cultivation once again. This time, he was not growing his cultivation level. Rather, he was cultivating battle techniques and increasing his combat prowess.
Firstly, he needed a flame battle technique. His head was filled with battle techniques of tier-4 and above. In the past, he wasn't able to practice these techniques as he was still too weak. Now that he had grown somewhat, he would be able to handle the might of king-grade techniques.
He searched his mind and found a bunch of tier-4 battle techniques. They were the lowest of tier-4 techniques, and he had nearly forgotten they existed. Fortunately, he had an astonishingly powerful memory. After thinking for a bit, he recalled all of them in their entirety.
"Of the tier-4 flame battle techniques I know, there are Raging Spear Technique, Flame Wave Compounding Saber Technique, Seven Yang Restoration Swords...All these are decent techniques, but I have already comprehended saber intent. In the future, I will be further improving my saber intent. The main elements of the Overlord Skyslaying Saber are gold and lightning, so I can't practice a flame saber technique," Xiang Shaoyun muttered to himself. After a slight pause, he smiled and said, "Right, there's the Seven Scorching Sun Claws! It is a top tier-4 claw technique with astonishing might. Coupled with Yun Flame's power, I will possess the might to part mountains and rivers!"
Xiang Shaoyun then started chanting the mantra of the Seven Scorching Sun Claws.
The Seven Scorching Sun Claws were separated into the following stances: Iron Tearing Stance, Silver Tearing Stance, Gold Tearing Stance, Jade Tearing Stance, World Tearing Stance, Moon Tearing Stance, and Sun Tearing Stance.
Iron Tearing Stance: Attaching flame to one's claws, creating claw energy as hard a steel. Capable of tearing apart stone and iron.
Silver Tearing Stance: The claws assume an ashy silver color, seemingly having turned into a silver weapon. Capable of penetrating all equipment to directly tear an opponent apart.
Gold Tearing Stance: This was the stage where the claw energy had become as hard as gold, capable of overcoming all defenses.
Jade Tearing Stance: A stage where no weapon in existence was comparable.
World Tearing Stance: With a claw, earth would split, river would form, an attack akin to a natural disaster.
Moon Tearing Stance: Near the top of this claw technique. With a claw, one could crush the moon hanging in the sky.
Sun Tearing Stance: A stage where one would be able to destroy suns and moons, possessing incredibly destructive power.
Xiang Shaoyun was extremely satisfied with the Seven Scorching Sun Claws. He thus started cultivating.
Finger and claw techniques had high requirements in terms of one's finger bones. Without sufficiently strong finger bones, one would not be able to unleash the real power of finger and claw techniques.
Xiang Shaoyun knew himself well. With his physique, cultivating the Seven Scorching Sun Claws was nothing difficult. He started practicing from the first stance, the Iron Tearing Stance. He practiced each of the moves in an orderly and methodical manner, demonstrating a textbook-perfect version of the stance.
He was not in any rush for quick results. After all, step by step progress was what was important in any battle technique one practiced. It was even more so for high-level techniques.
Only by building a stable foundation would one be able to better unleash the power of the practiced battle technique. This place was filled with lava and was not an environment anyone else could cultivate at. But Xiang Shaoyun was able to ignore his environment as he waved his hands in the claw form over and over.
At first, the claw he formed looked rather stiff. But after many repetitions, his motions became smoother. Due to his outstanding talent, he was able to easily discover the technique's key points.
Time passed, and finally, he was able to fully complete the entirety of the first stance.