Cao Yun didn't want to disturb the couple. Considering how they were dressed, they clearly weren't from any powerful tribe. In fact, they were probably from a very tiny tribe, even smaller than the Ancient Obsidian tribe. Many Flameborns lived in small groups that could barely be called tribes. Most of those were allowed on the territory of stronger tribes as they didn't pose any threat and wouldn't consume many resources. In fact, some were more akin to medium-sized families than tribes. And they were mostly nomads.
Both the man and the woman were wearing particular symbols drawn on their bodies with various ashes. Even Cao Yun could tell that the products mixed with the ashes to make those paintings were expensive and rare for this couple. For the Ancient Obsidian tribe, they were common, but they came from dangerous places and fire beasts. Thus, Flameborns outside of larger tribes probably couldn't easily get them. However, Cao Yun was more interested in the shapes of the paintings than the mixture of the ash with some blood and specific soils. Indeed, he realized that they were somehow following the heat meridians he had imagined.
The paintings were extremely stylized, but now that he had invented his heat meridian system, Cao Yun could clearly see the paths. Of course, they weren't exactly identical. In fact, some meridians were combined, and others were split into more parts. Here and there, he could even see variations of the pathway itself. Obviously, this was extremely useful to Cao Yun. He carefully studied the paintings and focused on the ritual of the couple.
Slowly, the woman began to turn into flames. Sparks spread throughout her body. Her hair danced in the wind like tongues of fire. All the heat converged in her belly and womb. Then, her entire belly became pure flames as the mixture of her life fire and her mate's life fire began to float outside of her. Immediately, the man spread his own flames around the mixture. At this point, Cao Yun could feel life emanating from this ball of fire, but he couldn't see any human shape at all.
Delicately, the man and the woman lowered themselves. The man guided the ball of fire toward the ground, where the white ashes were. Alongside the ball of fire, the woman also lay down in the white ashes as if she was trying to embrace the ball of fire. The man's flames spread around the ball of fire and around the chest of the woman. Soon, the ball was completely covered in the white ashes.
Cao Yun could sense something in the white ashes, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was. Somehow he could feel the presence of the Dao of Fire, but it was impossible to tell where it was coming from. The world all around Cao Yun seemed to be full of the Dao of Fire at that moment, but it was diluted everywhere.
Suddenly, this presence disappeared. In fact, Cao Yun wondered if he had felt it at all. His thoughts were interrupted as he heard the cries of the baby. From the white ashes, the woman appeared with a baby covered in ashes and sparks. She was holding the baby in her arms, against her chest.
Obviously, Cao Yun wanted to study the phenomenon even more. However, he had already figured out a few things about how Flameborns were born. He had already read about this ritual in Emperor Nuwa's journals, but experiencing it himself was different. Humans, demons, and even devas were born from the mixture of the Jing of both parents in the woman's womb. This mixture would produce the pre-natal Jing and the Po, the Corporeal Soul. There were, however, discussions as to how the Hun was produced. Many thought that the Hun, the Ethereal Soul, came directly from the Heavenly Court when another being was reincarnated into a new life. The interaction of the Po and the Hun would then fashion this new life with a completely new personality, even if remnants of the past lives could sometimes be felt.
Other thinkers had imagined that the Hun itself didn't come from some external source but was also somehow created by the parents or maybe emanated from the Po in some way. Among the thinkers who thought it came from another source, some believed that this wasn't a reincarnated soul, but a part of the Dao. In fact, this reminded Cao Yun of Feng Yingyue's ideas. Maybe the soul could be a part of the Dao trying to experience this world. This didn't seem completely implausible.
To be fair, Cao Yun hadn't thought about the origin of this Ethereal Soul. After all, he had always been raised with the idea that the Hun was the part of the soul that reincarnated. When someone died, this Hun left their body and quickly disappeared, so it made sense. However, the Hun could also linger and become Ghost Energy, giving birth to actual ghosts under specific circumstances. Slowly, Cao Yun began to wonder about this Hun. The fact that it left the body didn't necessarily mean that it had originated outside of it or that it would go anywhere. It might simply dissipate into other forms of energy.
In this case, Cao Yun was absolutely convinced that the Dao of Fire had given birth to the Flameborn. Like humans, the couple had given life to their child by mixing their life fire. However, it would never have turned into an actual baby without the Dao of Fire. At this point, Cao Yun wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but he knew that the Dao was indirectly involved through the Dao of Fire. Most likely, the ashes had merged with the ball of fire, the life fire of the unborn child, to produce a new body for him. If his assumptions were true, the bodies of the Flameborns were literally made of ashes, which made sense with the way they died. What magically turned ash into flesh was either a mixture of this life fire and the Dao of Fire, or just the Dao of Fire itself.
Depending on the answer, Flameborns might actually be able to exist without a body, by being pure flames. Of course, this would fundamentally change Cao Yun's cultivation system. Unfortunately, he couldn't be sure. Even observing more births wouldn't help much. Cao Yun had ideas about what could help him come up with an answer, but those weren't very good options. Moreover, experimenting on babies wasn't really something he wanted to do, to say the least. Hopefully, understanding the Dao of Fire better would help Cao Yun come up with answers. And he would not stay here for months or years to observe couples giving birth.
Since the couple had indirectly helped Cao Yun, he waited some time. He didn't want to disturb them. When they were ready to leave, Cao Yun gave some things to Yanzhen. Yanzhen wasn't too surprised. Cao Yun had given him some meat, wine, and a few precious coins. This wasn't excessive. Even though the human could have made the couple rich, this would have brought disaster upon them, as they would never have been able to protect such wealth. What he gave them was a lot by their standards but not enough to attract dangerous predators from large tribes.
Yanzhen approached the couple and gave them Cao Yun's offering. Of course, they were a bit shocked. Quickly, they remembered to bow down and to thank Cao Yun. By the time they looked up, Yanzhen was already back with his master, and Cao Yun was leaving.
Cao Yun, Yanzhen, and the twins traveled through the Ash Cradle while being extremely respectful. Hongyu was also walking by their side. Despite her stature, she seemed quite small. It hit Jinyue that she had become used to Hongyu with her wings open. When her wings were fully closed around her body, and her tails were not whipping around, Hongyu looked smaller. Of course, she was still very big.
It took the group a bit more than a day to finally get out of the Ash Cradle. Cao Yun had observed a few other couples and had not found anything more. In fact, he didn't even stop to look at anyone, he simply kept on walking while spreading his senses. At some point, he considered grabbing some white ashes, but he stopped himself before he even tried. For the Flameborns, they were absolutely sacred, and they were used to bring life to their newborns. Honestly, Cao Yun would have easily disregarded their traditions if he had been alone, and it could have helped him. However, the fact that it was essential to form the bodies of their babies gave him pause, and he didn't do it.
All that being said, Cao Yun sent his senses inside the white ash. There were definitely traces of the Dao of Fire, even if they were extremely faint.
-
At last, Cao Yun's group was out of the Ash Cradle. When they were far enough, they went back on Hongyu's back and flew around. As they were leaving, Hongyu suddenly changed her trajectory. Immediately after her, Cao Yun also sensed something. He heard a scream. A woman was screaming. Yanzhen barely heard anything, and the twins didn't hear anything at all.
In an instant, Hongyu broke the speed of sound. Space was dangerous in the Broken Fire World, but Hongyu seemed to be much better suited to it than in the Piaolu Planet. The twins were looking at the scenery when everything changed. Before they even understood that something was going on, they were hearing a woman scream. On the ground, they saw a man who was bleeding a lot. His right arm was torn apart. It was a miracle that it was still attached to his body. And the woman behind him was holding a small baby.
This was the couple Cao Yun had thanked.
In front of them was a large creature, the size of two horses. This was a fire beast Cao Yun had heard about. Its body was completely covered in brown fur with a few patterns of bright colors that almost formed flames on its body. It looked like a large rat but with a smaller tail and more massive limbs. Its forelegs were terrifying, with sharp claws covered in the blood of the Flameborn man.
This was an Incandescent Rat Tiger. Honestly, this usually wasn't a very dangerous fire beast. However, the couple was quite weak, and they had no tribe to defend themselves. Cao Yun looked at the scene and could kill the Incandescent Rat Tiger in an instant. Cao Yun and Hongyu were both ready to act because they couldn't bear to watch parents being slaughtered in front of their child. After all, they had both suffered it. Even though Hongyu had not yet hatched at the time, she had been intelligent enough for quite some time to understand what had happened to her.
As the two of them were ready to kill the fire beast, Cao Yun had an idea. He looked back at Jinyue and Jinyang.
"Go kill that beast."
The twins looked at each other for a moment. Hearing the screams of the woman, they quickly steeled their resolve and jumped down toward the fire beast. Yanzhen was ready to go after them, but Cao Yun stopped him.
"Let them deal with it, they can win. Besides, I'm here, they aren't risking anything at all."
As he was saying this, the screaming woman, her baby, and the injured man appeared out of thin air on Hongyu's back. It was so fast that Yanzhen had barely seen it. Even the couple was shocked. They recognized Cao Yun and Yanzhen. Immediately, the woman rushed toward her bleeding husband. Although Cao Yun wasn't as familiar with the bodies of Flameborns, he was still able to stop the bleeding. However, he wasn't sure whether he could fully reattach his arm. Considering his status, the man might not live very long if he had a missing arm. And his wife might not be able to protect their child either. If Cao Yun left him in this condition, he might as well not have saved him at all.
With all the knowledge that he had, Cao Yun tried to reattach his arm. What he was truly worried about was those heat meridians he had imagined. While working on the man's arm, he asked Yanzhen for help controlling fire and heat. Together, they did their best. The man's arm was functional, but he couldn't fully move it, and he was still in pain. It would take time to heal. For an alchemist like Cao Yun, there were ways around that as well. But it could wait now that the emergency was over.
On the ground, Jinyue and Jinyang were fighting the Incandescent Rat Tiger. The beast was large but incredibly fast. It jumped all over the place, used its forelegs to slash and its hind legs to strike.
The twins weren't very strong individually. However, their teamwork was perfect. Both of them were using a sword. Despite the swift movements of their opponent, they were dancing all around the fire beast. They were slicing at the Incandescent Rat Tiger without trying to stab because they didn't want to remain stationary for even an instant. Indeed, a single strike from its massive limbs could severely injure or even kill them. Even when Cao Yun had been treating the man, a large part of his mind was focused on the fight. On the other hand, Hongyu was fully focused on the fight. In an instant, she could completely slaughter the Incandescent Rat Tiger.
Jinyue and Jinyang's swords were creating arcs of fire in the air. The more Cao Yun looked at them, the more he saw dancers. This wasn't bad at all, but there were still too many useless movements. Elegance was one thing, but it was sometimes impractical.
The Incandescent Rat Tiger lunged at Jinyue, its massive foreleg sweeping toward her chest. She twisted aside, but her sword was already moving in the wrong direction. For an instant, she had no way to defend herself. Jinyang slashed at the beast's flank, forcing it to shift its weight. Jinyue seized the opening, jumped backward, and brought her blade down across one of its claws. A severed digit struck the ground as she barely escaped the next swipe.
Finally, Jinyang jumped over the Incandescent Rat Tiger when it was tired and distracted by Jinyue. Jinyang's sword danced in the air, forming a magnificent ribbon of flames. The next moment, the head of the Incandescent Rat Tiger fell to the ground, and its body stopped moving.