The piece of animal bone was obtained by him from the a.s.sembly of the Drawing of Lots, when he was only one year old.

Since he had picked up the animal bone, his grandfather and auntie had hoped that he would, one day, be able to develop a spiritual power connection with the animal bone.

Unfortunately, until today, he was unable to rouse any change at all in the animal bone and he had already given up hope long ago.

He had kept the animal bone on him and would occasionally take it out to play in the dark and silent night, while hoping that he would, one day, be able to feel the wonder of the animal bone.

Unfortunately, throughout the years, the animal bone had continued to remain ordinary.

However, it was obvious that today the animal bone appeared to be vastly different from the past.

He looked attentively and carefully and saw that the animal bone seemed to be radiating strands of red light.

A warmth which became stronger and stronger, which was accompanied by a reddish bright light, slowly radiated from the animal bone, causing him to press the animal bone tightly against his waist, even though he could hardly bear the heat.

“This is strange…”

Nie Tian had a doubtful expression, as he placed the animal bone on his forehead in an attempt to use his inner spirit qi to sense any changes.

Using his inner sense, he could see that there were many fragments of little red lights in the animal bone, which were emitting tangerine-red flames that seemed to be burning.

“Tangerine-red flames. When I was fighting with Yun Song previously, didn’t he condense fireb.a.l.l.s of this colour?”

His expression slightly changed.

At that moment, he temporarily shifted his focus away from the animal bone and instead thought about the details of his fight with Yun Song.

He suddenly remembered, that when he had flung out those tangerine-red fireb.a.l.l.s, most of the flames within the fireb.a.l.l.s had flown out of the fireb.a.l.l.s.

However, it seemed as if some of the flames had flown towards his animal bone instead of shooting out into the open.

It seemed like some of the flames were left behind.

“Could it be that the tangerine-red flames have been absorbed by the animal bone?” Nie Tian gradually stabilised his blood vessels.

Just as he was silently thinking, the animal bone grew hotter and hotter. The originally brown animal bone appeared to be like a brightly burning piece of steel that shone bright red.

The abnormally high temperature caused great pain to his palm, as he couldn’t help but stand up and place the animal bone on the stone table.

He opened his eyes widely and discovered that the animal bone appeared to be forged by the flames and that light would occasionally shine from it.

The unusual state of the animal bone didn’t persist for long, and after a while, the animal bone became dull again. It appeared as if the flame left behind by Yun Song had already finished burning.

Once the temperature lowered, Nie Tian tried to put his finger on the animal bone once again.

He closed his eyes and used his finger to sense. He could see that there was still a bright flame shining inside the animal bone .

After some time, the bright flame in the animal bone also slowly vanished and the animal bone regained its former colour, as nothing special could be seen about the animal bone.

Nie Tian continued to play with the animal bone for some time, as he tried discover the secret, but was unable to find anything.

After a long time, the animal bone had no new changes, and so he could only give up and put it away.

However, this unusual event had caused him to become extra conscious of the animal bone.

…...

In the following days, Nie Tian was strictly forbidden from leaving the household, because Nie Donghai had discovered that there were several Lianqi warriors, whose origins were unknown, patrolling the borders of the Nie Family household.

Nie Donghai made it very clear, that these Lianqi warriors of unknown origin were most likely from the Yun family or were acting on the orders of Yuan Qiuying of the Yuan family.

Even if it was the Yun family or the Yuan family, they didn’t dare to openly attack Nie Tian in Black Cloud City.

The only thing that they could do, was to find some unknown faces. Once the deed was done, they would break off all relations and communications with these unknown people, who would then forever leave Black Cloud City.

In order to prevent any harm to Nie Tian, Nie Qian kept a close watch on him everyday and forbade him from even taking one step out of the Nie Family household.

Due to that, Nie Tian didn’t leave the Nie family household in three months and continued to cultivate his spirit qi without any worries. He even hoped that he could quickly improve in this short time.

Three months later, the foreigners still didn’t have a chance to strike and gradually left the Nie Family household.

“I am so tired.” Nie Qian’s face was full of fatigue, as she walked into Nie Tian’s bedroom while simultaneously throwing a cloth bag onto the table. “I’ve been busy for three days in order to finish counting the Fire Cloud stones that we’ve picked up. We’ve already sent most of them to the Lingyun Sect. The remaining portion of the Fire Cloud stones has been stored in the warehouse of the family and I was only able to get a small bag full of them.”

In front of the door, a sunset-red glow seeped in and Nie Tian also woke up from his cultivation.

“Is that the Fire Cloud stone?” Nie Tian curiously looked at the few stones that had rolled out of the cloud bag and onto the table.

"En, this is the Fire Cloud Stone, a lower-level fourth grade spirit material." Ni Qian picked up a fist sized Fire Cloud Stone and threw it towards Nie Tian, "Spirit material is used to refine spirit equipment, which is used for constructing spirit arrays of special materials. Once a Lianqi warrior has cultivated to the third heaven realm, they can use these stones. Here, come and have a look.

Nie Tian lifted his hand and caught the piece of fire cloud stone, then he bent his head down to examine it carefully.

The Fire Cloud stone was about the size of a fist and emitted a dark red colour. Its interior appeared to have a red cloud cl.u.s.ter, and inside that red cloud cl.u.s.ter, it appeared to be hiding flame energy.

After looking at it for some time, Nie Tian’s expression changed slightly and he took out the animal bone.

In front of Nie Qian, he slowly moved the fire cloud stone towards the animal bone and tried to direct the flame energy inside the Fire Cloud stone towards the animal bone.

Last time, due to his fight with Yun Song, the fireball from Yun Song had left remnant flame energy inside the animal bone, which caused a change in the animal bone and led Nie Tian to pay extra attention.

He wanted to see if the animal bone would act like last time and absorb the flame energy.

“Chi Chi!”

Sparks of fire shot into the point of contact between the animal bone and Fire Cloud stone, and soon the dark animal bone became the same colour as the fire cloud stone.

Nie Tian opened his eyes widely. By pressing his finger on the animal bone and the Fire Cloud stone, he could clearly feel that there were strands of flame energy flowing quickly from the fire cloud stone into the animal bone.

Inside the animal bone, one by one, the red cloud cl.u.s.ters, were immediately vanishing at the speed of sight.

“Ah!”

Nie Qian also sensed that things were unusual and immediately went to Nie Tian’s side. She stared at the animal bone with curiosity, just like Nie Tian.

She could see that in a very short time, the red cloud cl.u.s.ters within the fire cloud stone had totally vanished.

She knew very clearly that those little red cl.u.s.ters, which were like the clouds, were the flame energy hidden within the Fire Cloud stone.

“Ka Ka!”

The fist sized Fire Cloud stone actually cracked open after the red cloud cl.u.s.ters inside it had totally vanished.

The smaller fragments of the Fire Cloud stone were no longer a dark red colour, but had become a greyish white and dull-like stone.

On the other hand, the dark coloured animal bone gradually became bright red, as if it was a piece of hot, burning, red metal. It was so hot that Nie Tian quickly let go as he was burned.

“Litte Tian, you…” Nie Qian was very happy and showed signs of excitement. “Could it be that you have started to develop a Lianqi connection with the animal bone? Is your cultivation attribute fire?”

She had always been unhappy that Nie Tian was unable to show his unique cultivation attribute and had no connection with the animal bone.

Now, looking at the animal bone, which had become totally red, she mistakenly thought that this was caused by Nie Tian and immediately became very happy.

“It had nothing to do with me.” Nie Tian painfully smiled and shook his head. “If I had caused the change in the animal bone, my attribute would be fire and I would be able to hold it without letting go.”

“Then…” Nie Tian was extremely disappointed and asked, “What was that?”

“The Fire Cloud stone caused this animal bone to change.” Nie Tian explained the details of the unusual change in the animal bone that night after the fight with Yun Song and said, “This animal bone appears to be able to absorb flame energy. I wasn’t that sure before, but this time, the Fire Cloud stone’s flame energy has been absorbed by the animal bone. I’m very sure of that.”

As the two of them were talking, the brightly shining animal bone gradually became a dark-brown colour again, which was extremely puzzling.

“Why has it changed back again?” Nie Qian curiously asked.

“After absorbing the flame energy, it has returned to its original state. If we wish for future changes, it must continue to absorb flame energy,” Nie Tian said.

“Let me look at it again.” Nie Qian’s interest was piqued.

She took the cloth bag from the table and took out a bigger fire cloud stone, pa.s.sed it to Nie Tian, and said, “Try again.”

“Ok.” Nie Tian tried again per her words.

“Chi Chi!”

The contact point between the animal bone and the Fire Cloud stone once again emitted firelight and the animal bone once again became bright red.

In front of Nie Tian and Nie Qian’s eyes, the bigger fire cloud stone also had its flame energy absorbed rapidly by the animal bone and it cracked within a short period of time.

The inside of the animal bone had sparks of firelight, as though there were little red stars, and one by one, they flickered and disappeared in the animal bone.

Nie Qian had long been prepared and extended her hand. She used her sparkling, translucent finger to lightly press the animal bone, as she wished to investigate the secret within.

“Ah!”

The moment she touched the animal bone, she screamed shrilly and immediately retracted her hand.

Her finger had been burnt in a instant.

After she had gathered a concentration of water spirit qi, she wanted to attempt it again. however, the animal bone had already returned to its original state.

“Once more!”

Her fighting spirit was aroused, and she took out another fire cloud stone and put it on the animal bone. The animal bone once again became red like fire.

This time she gathered her water spirit qi on her finger and tried again.

“Chi Chi!”

Strands of mist suddenly rose from the contact point between her finger and animal bone. This continued for about three seconds, before she couldn’t bear the red hot temperature of the animal bone and had to retract her hand again.

“Once more!”

Nie Qian tried again and again and one by one, the fire cloud stones had their flame energy absorbed by the animal bone and they cracked.

Every time she put her finger on to the animal bone, she was unable to hold it for long. Just as her spirit awareness entered the animal bone, she already couldn’t bear it and had to retract her hand.

Half an hour later, all the fire cloud stones had become greyish white cracked stones.

Nie Qian’s forehead was full of sweat and she vexedly looked at the animal bone, shook her head and said, “This thing is a bit weird.”

Perhaps it was due to the fact that it had absorbed a great amount of flame energy in a short amount of time, but after the last fire cloud stone had cracked, the animal bone didn’t immediately regain its original state and continued to be bright red like a piece of metal being forged.

“I shall also try.” Nie Tian aggressively moved towards the animal bone.

“Stop! It’s too hot! You will get injured!” Nie Qian loudly warned and tried to stop Nie Tian.

She had tried many times and was already extremely sure that the more flame energy that the animal bone absorbed, the hotter it would become. Even after she had gathered a large amount of water spirit qi on her finger, she was still unable to bear it.

At this moment, the animal bone had finished absorbing all the flame energy within the Fire Cloud stones and was at its hottest. Nie Tian was asking to suffer if he wanted to try it now.

However, her warning was slower than the speed of Nie Tian.

Just as her warning sounded, Nie Tian’s finger had already reached the animal bone.

“Let go of it quickly!” She hurriedly shouted.

However, contrary to her expectations, Nie Tian didn’t immediately cry out and let go of the animal bone.

The extraordinary thing was, that although Nie Tian’s finger was pressing on the animal bone, he seemed to feel no discomfort and his eyes seemed strangely bright, as though he had made a shocking discovery.

……