Transmigrating Into a Fantasy World: Signing in During Pregnancy, Reaching the Summit with My Childhood Sweetheart

219: Chapter 219: The Four-Key Cycle and the Secrets of the Fiery EyeThe moment the fire star key merged into his Dantian, Nangong Xuan felt a thunderous roar like a giant bronze bell resonating deep within his Divine Soul! An unprecedented, majestic power surged like a river bursting its banks, instantly rushing through every meridian and acupoint in his limbs and bones.

Within the Dantian’s Qi Sea, the scene changed drastically.

Originally, the phantom star key, sharp metal star key, and water star key had coexisted while remaining independent, maintaining a delicate balance. Now, with the addition of that brilliant and blazing star key symbolizing endless fire essence, the four star keys seemed to have found the final missing piece of the puzzle, instantly creating an incredibly profound resonance!

Buzz—!

The four star keys were no longer simply close to each other; instead, in a manner containing the ultimate truths of heaven and earth, they began to slowly rotate around the nirvana true seal fragment at the center. The phantom star key cast a hazy silver glow, stabilizing space; the sharp metal star key erupted with sharp golden light, governing slaughter; the water star key flowed with azure water light, nourishing and harmonizing; and the newly added fire star key bloomed with scorching red flames, providing nearly infinite explosive power and vitality.

The four colors of light intertwined and flowed, generating and overcoming one another, forming a preliminary stable yet incredibly powerful energy cycle system. This cycle was self-contained; as it slowly rotated, it automatically extracted and refined the external Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi at an efficiency far exceeding Nangong Xuan’s usual cultivation by ten or a hundred times! It even faintly produced a subtle resonance with some of the Origin Laws of this Xianxia world!

A surging sense of power filled his entire body. The injuries from the fierce battle just now healed rapidly under the nourishment of pure fire essence, and even some deeply hidden chronic ailments were calcined and purified by the scorching power. His cultivation Realm was completely stabilized at the Late Golden Core Stage, making solid progress toward the Bottleneck of the Golden Core Great Perfection. His Divine Sense power also skyrocketed, his Perception range expanding several times over, and his resistance to the chaotic force field here was greatly enhanced.

More importantly, his understanding of Nirvana Sword Intent also deepened. It was not merely destruction and nothingness; against the backdrop of the four-symbol cycle, it revealed a deeper Profound Truth—only after Nirvana can there be rebirth. Within extreme destruction, there also lies a sliver of opportunity for creation. The Chaos characteristic in his Sword Intent, produced after devouring a massive amount of Fire Fiend Qi and the power of the dark side, also became more condensed and docile, as easy to use as his own limbs.

After a long time, Nangong Xuan slowly opened his eyes, a divine light contained within them, as if phantom images of stars being born and destroyed and the rotation of the four symbols flashed by. He lightly clenched his fist, feeling the vast, sea-like, and ceaselessly cycling power within his body, and an unprecedented sense of powerful confidence welled up.

But now was not the time to be intoxicated by the increase in power. He immediately looked beside him.

Su Muxue was still unconscious, her face pale and her aura weak, but fortunately, a faint trace of Taiyin Star Power was circulating on its own through her Meridians, protecting the Origin of her heart’s Meridians. Zi Linger’s situation was much worse; her Wood Spirit Origin was severely damaged, and her life force was dim, like a candle in the wind.

Without hesitation, Nangong Xuan immediately mobilized the power of the Four-Key Cycle within his Dantian. He carefully guided the nourishing power of the water star key and the life energy of the fire star key, mixed with a trace of pure energy purified by his Nirvana Sword Intent, and slowly channeled it into the two women’s bodies.

The gentle yet majestic energy was like sweet rain, nourishing Su Muxue’s parched Meridians and Sea of Consciousness. Her face regained its color at a speed visible to the naked eye, and her breathing became steady and long. As for Zi Linger, Nangong Xuan was even more careful, using the gentle power of water to nourish her damaged Origin and the life force of fire to stimulate the hidden Wood Spirit vitality deep within her; the process was slow but effective. Zi Linger’s furrowed brows gradually relaxed, and her weak life force began to grow tenaciously.

While Nangong Xuan was fully focused on healing the two women, the chaos star core floating nearby also completed its final devouring. The mass of energy collapsed from the monster was completely absorbed by it. The light on the surface of the star Core became entirely restrained, its volume seemed to increase slightly, and its entire body took on a dark golden-red color. Those profound patterns seemed naturally formed, deeper and more complex. The black vortex at the Core rotated slowly, emitting a peaceful yet heart-palpitating fluctuation.

It slowly flew back to Nangong Xuan’s side, circling him once and transmitting a steady intent of ”satisfaction” and ”protection” before hanging quietly at his shoulder, no longer making any movement. Nangong Xuan could feel that the trace of Lin Mo’s consciousness inside the star Core had condensed quite a bit after this process of devouring and purification; though still slumbering, it was more stable and more closely integrated with the star Core.

About half an hour later, Su Muxue gave a soft moan, her long eyelashes fluttered, and she slowly opened her eyes. What met her gaze was Nangong Xuan’s concerned look and the feeling of being nourished by gentle power within her body.

”Nangong...” Her voice was still somewhat weak but filled with pleasant surprise, ”You succeeded... the star key...”

Nangong Xuan nodded, signaling her not to speak more, and continued to guide the energy to help her recover.

After another fifteen minutes, Zi Linger’s breathing also became stronger. Although she had not yet woken up, her Origin injury had stabilized, and recovery was only a matter of time.

Su Muxue was already able to sit up and circulate her power. She looked at the star Core with its drastically changed aura on Nangong Xuan’s shoulder, then felt the vast power within him that even made her heart palpitate, her beautiful eyes sparkling: ”For the four keys to gather, to think it would have such a divine effect... Your power is likely no less than that of an ordinary Nascent Soul Early Stage Cultivator.”

Nangong Xuan nodded slightly, but his gaze turned toward the gradually calming Lava Lake and the vaguely visible, even deeper and darker passage in the center of the lake—that was the true path leading to the Primordial Fire Eye.

”How do you feel? Can you continue forward?” Nangong Xuan asked. Although this place was temporarily safe, it was by no means a place to stay for long. The Tiangong Sect would certainly know of the changes here; they had to uncover the truth as soon as possible.

Su Muxue took a deep breath, feeling the spiritual power in her body had recovered by nearly half, and said firmly: ”It’s fine, I can already protect myself.”

Nangong Xuan glanced again at the still-sleeping Zi Linger, carefully placed her on his back, and protected her with a gentle surge of Sword Essence. ”Let’s go, the answer should be down there.”

He took the lead and walked toward the edge of the Lava Lake. At this moment, although the lake’s surface was still churning with golden-red liquid fire essence, those black vein-like impurities had disappeared, becoming much purer. With the fire star key returned to its place, the energy here was slowly purifying itself.

With a thought from Nangong Xuan, the fire star key vibrated slightly, and the surface of the Lava Lake ahead automatically split to both sides, forming a stepped passage leading to the depths of the lake bottom. With the four keys gathered, he was already able to preliminarily control a portion of the fire essence here.

The two of them descended along the passage. The surrounding temperature was high enough to instantly vaporize metal, but with the protection of the fire star key, the scorching heat instead turned into a warm nourishment. The chaos star core floated at Nangong Xuan’s shoulder, its chaotic halo smoothing out all the remaining traces of chaotic will.

At the end of the passage was a grotto that was not very wide but permeated with an indescribably ancient, primitive, and majestic aura.

In the center of the grotto, there was no volcanic crater spewing flames as expected, but instead a dark red pool only about ten feet across that was incredibly calm. The pool water was thick like mercury paste; though it appeared calm, it gave an terrifying feeling of containing enough power to destroy the world. It was as if every one of its subtle fluctuations affected the entire Fire Essence of the Earth Veins of the Southern Desolation.

This was the Core location of the Primordial Fire Eye, not a site of violent eruption, but the most primitive and original ”Eye of Silence” of the earth’s fire veins.

However, on the edge of this Eye of Silence, there were obvious artificial traces remaining. Several broken altars with a style ancient and distinct from the current era were arranged around it, covered in complex runes that had long since lost their effect. There were also some broken fragments of vessels, neither metal nor jade, scattered on the ground.

And on the rock wall directly above the pool, several huge murals were carved, still clear despite the passage of endless ages!

The first mural: Depicted an ancient tribal people kneeling in worship under a massive Flame Banyan Tree that reached the heavens. There were three suns in the sky, and the light of one seemed to be merging with the ancient tree. The second mural: Cracks appeared in the sky, a black rain of filth fell, the land withered, and the Flame Banyan Tree burned with black flames as the ancient people wailed in pain. The third mural: A wise man among the ancient people led his tribesmen, using a massive, compass-like Magical Artifact (its Core pattern extremely similar to the star keys) to guide the power of the earth’s fire veins, sealing and suppressing that burning ancient tree along with most of the black filth deep underground, forming the initial Heart of Molten Fire Seal. The Core of that artifact then turned into several streaks of light and scattered in all directions. The fourth mural: The image became blurred, seemingly depicting later arrivals (whose clothing was somewhat similar to the Tiangong Sect) discovering this place; instead of reinforcing the Seal, they seemed to be... extracting and utilizing the power of the sealed black flames?

The murals ended abruptly there.

Nangong Xuan and Su Muxue looked at these murals, their hearts filled with immense shock.

So, the source of the Primordial Fire Eye’s disturbances and the dark side’s pollution was far more ancient than they had imagined! It could actually be traced back to the Ancient Era, and might even be related to the disaster of the ”dark side” descending from beyond the heavens! Was that Flame Banyan Tree the predecessor of the Fire Banyan Forest outside? And the star keys were actually formed from the key Magical Artifact used by the ancient people to Seal this place?

The Tiangong Sect were not guardians, but a group of greedy people coveting and trying to control this sealed power! Their so-called trial was likely not just for collecting fire smelting stones; its deeper purpose was either to use human lives and souls to wear down the ancient Seal, or to try and use the power of the dark side to pollute the star keys and ultimately gain complete control over the power of the Primordial Fire Eye!

”What a Tiangong Sect! To think they would commit such a Heaven-Defying act!” Su Muxue’s teeth were clenched, her pretty face covered in frost.

Nangong Xuan’s gaze was cold. He walked to the side of the Eye of Silence, crouched down, and lightly touched the dark red pool water with his finger. A surge of incredibly pure, ancient, and even slightly sorrowful fire essence power rushed into his body, but it was easily absorbed and converted by the Four-Key Cycle.

At the same time, he also felt that in the deepest part of the pool, within the Core suppressed by the ancient Seal, there was still a mass of incredibly tenacious black energy filled with madness and malice—that was the source of the dark side’s pollution. Although it had been sealed for ten thousand years, it had not been completely destroyed; instead, under the Tiangong Sect’s restless movements, it showed signs of recovery.

The chaos star core transmitted a complex intent of both instinctive desire and wariness toward the source of the dark side deep within the pool.

Just then, Zi Linger on Nangong Xuan’s back, seemingly touched by the incredibly dense yet sorrowful Earth Fire Spirit aura of this place, unconsciously let out a low groan, her long eyelashes fluttered, and she actually slowly opened her eyes.

The first thing she saw was the mural on the rock wall of the towering ancient tree burning with black flames.

Tears instantly slid from the corners of her eyes.

”Mother Tree... it’s the source of the Mother Tree’s sorrow...” she murmured to herself, her voice weak but filled with endless compassion, ”I heard it... it’s crying...”