Chapter 10: The Ancient Flame Bird (Part 1)

Guo Shieru asked anxiously, “Master, is it serious? I can sense the pain of the fire bird…” The fire bird flapped its wings violently, unleashing waves of flames that scattered as it moved. Fortunately, the area below was also filled with flames, so the falling flames quickly merged with thesymbol (symbol) flames shooting upward.
The flames around them surged, combined with the fire bird’s power, creating an earth-shattering atmosphere.
Kumu sighed, “Rare!”
Zhu Juan said, “Shieru is really lucky. This ancient fire bird’s spirit is even luckier—none of us expected such an outcome.”
Monier laughed and asked, “Baby, who told you to release the fire bird?”
Guo Shieru replied, “It was Uncle Fat. He reminded me to release it. Hehe, I never thought the fire bird would absorb thesymbol (symbol) flames here and even evolve.”
Kumu said, “The fire bird in this talisman… was already on the verge of dying. Without thesesymbol (symbol) flames, its spirit would have dissipated within a hundred years… After this transformation, its spirit can grow stronger, and the quality of this talisman will also improve.”
The fire bird let out a long cry, and the flames around it suddenly rose, rushing into its body and igniting violently.
“A transformation through fire!”
Kumu’s expression showed clear excitement.
As the flames burned, the fire bird’s size gradually decreased, returning to its original form as a large fire bird over two meters long. Its once enormous body became even more solid, making it impossible to tell it was formed from a spirit.
The fire bird let out another long cry, and the flames surrounding it vanished instantly, all absorbed by the bird.
Monier looked around and said, “The fire bird has completely absorbed all six flame zones around us!”
The area covered by flames was about a hundred square kilometers, with many flame zones. Guo Shieru estimated there were at least six hundred such zones of varying sizes. An ancient fire bird spirit, once sealed, had absorbed so muchsymbol (symbol) flame at once. After this transformation, its strength had increased countless times over.
The fire bird circled in the air once. An idea was sent into Guo Shieru’s soul—the fire bird wanted to return to the talisman. Guo Shieru immediately recalled it.
The fire bird transformed into a multicolored flame and rushed into Guo Shieru’s mouth, disappearing mysteriously.

The moment the Fire Bird entered the True Ancient Talisman, a great deal of information surged into Guo Shier’s soul. Only then did he realize that the original Fire Bird Talisman had almost become useless due to the passage of time. Fortunately, it was absorbed by Guo Shier’s life talisman sphere for nourishment, preventing it from being completely ruined, though it could no longer exert its original power. This time, with Zhu Juan’s reminder, Guo Shier released the Fire Bird. With the unparalleled power of the talisman fire, its original strength was restored, and it even underwent a mutation, greatly enhancing the power of the Fire Bird within the talisman. The information related to this talisman was also awakened. “Ancient Flame Sparrow.” The Ancient Flame Sparrow was born in fire and grew within it; it was essentially a spirit nurtured by the essence of fire. Thus, even after being sealed by the True Ancient Talisman, its strength remained unchanged. This Ancient Flame Sparrow was a very rare fire spirit, and with proper care of the talisman, it could continue to evolve and grow stronger. The true name of this True Ancient Talisman was the Flame Sparrow Talisman. Thinking of the name he had given it—Fire Bird Talisman—Guo Shier felt a bit embarrassed. Fire Bird Talisman, or simply Bird Talisman, with a question mark added at the beginning—what kind of bird talisman? It was downright awful. Guo Shier was very happy. Although he still didn’t know what use collecting talisman fire might have for now, upgrading this seemingly useless Flame Sparrow Talisman was an unexpected surprise, meaning his strength had risen again. A talisman master relied on his talismans, and possessing powerful talismans could greatly enhance one’s strength. Ku Mu turned and left, saying only, “Keep digging for talisman jade!” Zhu Juan shook her head and also walked away. Monier smiled and said, “Baby, go prepare some talisman food for the master mother. Ugh, we’ve been eating so poorly these days…” Guo Shier replied, “Okay, it’s a good chance to celebrate. I’ll go prepare the talisman food.” Monier was overjoyed. She hugged Guo Shier tightly and kissed him, saying, “Baby, call me when it’s ready!” As a princess of the Chenxiao Sect, she had never endured much hardship since childhood. If it weren’t for the scarcity and preciousness of talisman fire, she wouldn’t have stayed here. Other difficulties could be overcome, but the food was simply too poor. After seeing Guo Shier’s cooking skills, she had been eager to improve their meals. Fortunately, Guo Shier was also a glutton who hadn’t had a good meal in days and had long wanted to prepare some talisman food. Even if Monier hadn’t asked, he would have done it to treat himself, so he agreed readily.

He took out several kinds of vegetables from the Planting Talismans, along with some seasonings like scallions, ginger, and garlic—essential ingredients for making talismanic food. Unfortunately, there was no rice. He also took out large pieces of fresh animal meat, including a small amount of meat from talismanic beasts, and Guo Shier began preparing the food.

Eagle Demon helped set up a large tent. Guo Shier brought out a stove specifically designed for cooking talismanic food. The local version of talismanic food was actually just ordinary stir-fried dishes from his past life, but the vegetables were grown using Planting Talismans, making them far superior in quality. The vegetables harvested from these talismans didn’t need to be washed and could be eaten raw.

Guo Shier first cooked several large plates of braised pork ribs, then stir-fried some delicate vegetables. He also made a big pot of thick soup using the method from his past life for borscht. Finally, he cooked plain boiled meat, which was Eagle Demon’s favorite—something he could never get tired of eating. It took several hours of hard work to prepare all these dishes.

“Uncle Eagle Demon, go call the masters over to eat!”

Eagle Demon picked up a large pork rib and chewed while saying, “This is delicious! Wait a moment, I’ll go call them!”

Monier returned first, followed closely by Zhu Juan. Neither of them acted like seniors. They each grabbed a large pork rib and praised it as they ate. Moments later, Kumu also returned. “It smells so good…” He rushed to the table and started gnawing on a pork rib as thick as a child’s arm.

Everyone enjoyed the meal immensely and gained a clear understanding of Guo Shier’s cooking skills—his dishes had a truly unique flavor. Kumu said, “From now on, it’ll be Shier who cooks!”

Guo Shier said with a pained expression, “Master, I’m fine cooking, but I don’t have many Planting Talismans. The vegetables grown in them are almost gone. It will take at least ten days before new vegetables grow, and even then, there won’t be many—just enough for a couple of meals.”

Kumu handed over two Planting Talismans and said, “Here, these are Spirit-Level Planting Talismans. Nothing is planted in them yet. Take them…”

Zhu Juan added, “I also have a Planting Talisman. It’s a True Treasure Talisman. Hehe, quite a few things can be grown in it.”

After thanking them, Guo Shier stored the three talismans in his life talisman sphere. Monier said, “Planting Talismans are rare. Your future wife will help you collect more.”

Having gathered three Planting Talismans from one meal, Guo Shier was very satisfied. He said, “Hmm, finally some good Planting Talismans to store in my life talisman sphere.” The talismans he had collected before were of low quality and couldn’t be stored there; the vegetables and plants grew very slowly.

After tidying up, Guo Shier asked, “Master, have you found the mutated talisman fire?”

Withered Wood said, “It’s not that easy.”
Guo Shier said, “The Flaming Sparrow found a mutated talisman fire and mutated right away. Hehe, it was a green flame. It’s a pity it swallowed it before I could stop it.”
Withered Wood said, “Your… Flaming Sparrow still needs a large amount of talisman fire. Once it has digested and absorbed the talisman fire collected so far, you can release it… We can never collect enough of this talisman fire, and it will be hard to find places where it gathers in the future.”
Guo Shier asked, “Do we also need to report this place of talisman fire to the Chenxiao Sect?”
Zhu Juan smiled and said, “Shier, of course. It’s impossible for just a few of us to collect all this talisman fire. There’s too much of it. We definitely have to report it to the sect so they can send people to guard it. Hehe, before that, let’s collect as much as we can. If we can collect it all, I have no objections… Of course, that’s impossible.”
Monier nodded and said, “Even if we can’t collect it all, we can’t give it to others. It can only be given to the sect, as only the sect has the strength to protect this treasure land.”
Guo Shier understood that the Yanhu Secret Realm had nothing to do with the Northern Talisman Sect anymore. The Northern Talisman Sect had possessed the Yanhu Secret Realm for thousands of years without ever realizing that this fire was a treasure, wasting this treasure trove needlessly.
…
Time flew by, and half a year passed in the blink of an eye.
Guo Shier listlessly directed the Flaming Sparrow to fly over the flame area. After absorbing talisman fire for a long time, the Flaming Sparrow had advanced again some time ago. After this advancement, it could now freely form flames and even help Guo Shier collect them.
Suddenly, a chirping sound was heard as the Flaming Sparrow circled above a flame. An idea reminded Guo Shier that there was a pure flame here, asking if he wanted to collect it.
After more than half a year of struggle, Guo Shier had lost all sensation toward the flames everywhere. He lazily said, “Little bird, if you want it, go ahead and collect it. Why ask me… Alright, alright. If you don’t want it, then give it to me.”
The Flaming Sparrow chirped softly, and the orange-red flame was quickly drawn out, turning into a small reddish-brown bead. Guo Shier reached up and grabbed it. He no longer put these beads formed from talisman fire into his life talisman sphere but collected them instead and stored them in his talisman bag. He had already collected hundreds of such beads.
Of course, the beads formed from golden and purple flames were still put into his life talisman sphere. He wouldn’t waste high-quality talisman fire beads.
“Little bird, sigh… Still no news from Master or Grandpa Nanshan. Where do you think they could be?”

The Flaming Sparrow flew around Guo Shier, sending back thoughts that made no sense. Guo Shier couldn’t help but smile bitterly; he knew that although the Flaming Sparrow had some intelligence, it was still like a child of five or six and couldn’t understand what he said. Gathering another pale green talisman fire bead, the man and the bird flew to an open area. There, the Eagle Demon was wielding an axe, continuing to dig for the purple talisman jade. The ground was full of pits and holes. The Eagle Demon was determined; over the past half year, he had been helping Guo Shier dig for purple talisman jade and black talisman jade.