Chapter 1245, Subduing

Yang Kai was also quick shocked at this moment. He discovered that this Artifact Refining Furnace contained an intense Fire Attribute energy that made freezing it quickly impossible.

Even as the heat blast struck towards him, Yang Kai didn’t dare to move; after all, his intentions had been exposed. This Artifact Spirit’s intelligence was quite high, so once he left the Artifact Refining Furnace, it would be extremely difficult to approach it again.

Staring at the blistering-hot blast, Yang Kai’s expression became solemn as he stretched out his other hand and fiercely tore open a Void crack.

This Void crack was twice as large as the previous one Yang Kai had opened.

The heat blast arrived in front of Yang Kai at that moment and poured into The Void, becoming exiled forever and failing to bring any harm to Yang Kai at all.

However, the Void crack Yang Kai opened immediately began to destabilize. Although Yang Kai’s understanding of the Dao of Space and his ability to manipulate Space Force had improved greatly, he was still a fair distance away from reaching the grand accomplishment stage. Forcibly ripping open a Void crack to confront an enemy was a measure of last resort. When this Void crack was struck by the pure fire aura contained in the heatwave fired by the Artifact Spirit, it instantly warped and appeared to be on the verge of collapsing.

Yang Kai’s face sank. Leaving one hand on the Void crack, trying to maintain its stability and stalling for as much time as possible, he used his other hand to desperately pour his ice-cold Saint Qi into the Artifact Refining Furnace.

Like a dam had burst, Yang Kai’s Saint Qi flooded out of his body, causing the black frost on the surface of the Artifact Refining Furnace to rapidly expand.

The Artifact Spirit could see that the Void crack Yang Kai opened was crumbling and a look of joy flashed across its small eyes; however, when it glanced over at Yang Kai desperately trying to seal the Artifact Refining Furnace in ice, panic once again filled its face and it poured even more energy into its heat blast.

It seemed to realize that after this battle, either it would be frozen or Yang Kai would be incinerated, so it held nothing back.

The battle in the stone chamber instantly reached a deadlock. As the heat blast continued pouring out from the Artifact Spirit’s mouth, the surrounding space became extremely hot, but at the spot where Yang Kai stood, the unstable Void crack intercepted and devoured this blast. At the same time, crackling sounds came from the Artifact Refining Furnace behind Yang Kai as a layer of black ice gradually spread across its surface and cold energy seeped into its insides. Although this process wasn’t fast, it wasn’t slow either.

As time passed, the Void crack warped further and became more and more unstable.

Eventually, under the pressure of the Artifact Spirit’s heat blast, the Void crack collapsed, exposing the figure of Yang Kai behind it.

Seeing this, the Artifact Spirit showed a look of pleasant surprise. Without the strange black crack that could devour its heat blast, it had full confidence to incinerate Yang Kai in one shot.

A cruel and violent light flashed across its eyes and the Artifact Spirit opened its mouth wider, concentrating an intense ball of red light that caused shocking waves of heat to spread across the shaking stone room.

Seeing that it was about to shoot this blast, the solemn look on Yang Kai’s face suddenly morphed into a grin as it gave a faint glance towards the Artifact Spirit before letting out a hearty laugh.

Along with his laughter, there was a sudden cracking noise as the huge Artifact Refining Furnace became completely encased in a layer of ice that blocked even the slightest bit of aura from leaking out.

The moment this layer of ice finished forming, the Artifact Spirit acted as if it had been struck by lightning, its huge body seemingly losing all strength. As it fell from the sky, the mass of Fire Attribute energy it had condensed in its mouth exploded, causing a backlash that blasted apart its entire head.

However, this explosion didn’t kill the Artifact Spirit since it did not possess a true physical body. It was inherently proficient in Fire Attribute principles, so such a backlash wasn’t capable of taking its life.

Nevertheless, although it didn’t lose its life, the Artifact Spirit’s massive body quickly shrank down and, after landing, it had returned to its original size. On top of that, its newly reborn head was quite dim and it had difficulty standing up; obviously, it had been severely weakened.

It stood there silently, staring at Yang Kai with hatred and resentment, it’s two small eyes shifting back and forth, its thoughts at this moment a complete mystery.

Suddenly, it spread its wings and transformed into a streak of red light that rushed towards the Artifact Refining Furnace.

It wanted to return to the vessel it was born from.

Naturally, Yang Kai wasn’t about to let it succeed. After carefully plotting against it and finally managing to obtain a decisive advantage over this Artifact Spirit, if he allowed it to return to the vessel, all his efforts would have been in vain.

Jet black Demonic Flames poured out from Yang Kai’s body and swiftly gathered into fireballs that floated around him. Under the guidance of Yang Kai’s Divine Sense, these strange black fireballs circled slowly as they released an astonishing cold aura.

Tracking the rushing red light with his eyes, Yang Kai flicked his wrist and sent out one of the ice-cold black fireballs to intercept it.

Whether it was because it hadn’t yet recovered its strength or because its foundation had been damaged, the Artifact Spirit didn’t even attempt to avoid this black fireball and was hit by it directly.

With a loud blast, alternating hot and cold impact waves spread out fiercely and the Artifact Spirit’s body manifested once again, tumbling through the air before directly slamming into the stone walls, its red glow dimming significantly once more.

Struggling back up, the Artifact Spirit transformed into a red streak again and shot out.

Yang Kai coldly snorted and sent out another ball of cold flame.

*Hong Hong Hong…*

Inside the stone chamber, the Artifact Spirit suffered almost inhumane torture. Each time it was hit by the cold flames, its body dimmed, and after seven or eight times, it even began having difficulty maintaining its form. Its two wings had shortened dramatically, and its signature three long tail-feathers had also disappeared.

With its container frozen, and having suffered a severe battering, the once-mighty Artifact Spirit’s mood became anxious as it lost all ability to fight back against Yang Kai, degenerating into a sandbag to be beaten.

However, this fellow was remarkably tough. It had been corroded many times by the cold flames but was still intact and its spirituality had not been lost. This secretly startled Yang Kai and also strengthened his idea of ​​subduing it.

This time, if he had not successfully removed the firewood from under the pot by cutting off the Artifact Spirit from the Artifact Refining Furnace, with the strength and resilience this Firebird displayed, Yang Kai knew there would have been no way he could conquer it. But with its vessel now under Yang Kai’s control, if he still couldn’t subdue it, it would be too much of a waste.

After being easily knocked off again, the Artifact Spirit stood up tenaciously and let out a low, miserable sounding chirp from its mouth.

Yang Kai narrowed his eyes, his expression neither happy nor sad as he indifferently spoke, “Since you’ve achieved sentience, why don’t we talk this over? I don’t want to destroy you, and I’m willing to let you keep your life, but you must submit to me!”

The Artifact Spirit cried out repeatedly, its two small eyes glaring at Yang Kai angrily.

Yang Kai just chuckled, “You’d best think about it carefully. In any case, I don’t need to subdue you, I can just destroy you here and erase your existence. It wasn’t easy for you to be born, as for how long hard you needed to endure to do so, you understand far better than I do, so why not accept my proposal?”

“Naturally, submitting to me isn’t necessarily a bad thing for you. As far as I know, Artifact Spirits like you should have strong growth potential. I’ll bring you out of this place and will even find ways to help you grow.” Yang Kai understood that hard and soft selling went hand in hand. When dealing with highly sentient races, a big stick and candied fruit was the surest way to succeed, let alone dealing with an Artifact Spirit.

Sure enough, the Artifact Spirit, which had been utterly opposed to the idea at first, heard Yang Kai’s last words and it’s small eyes slowly began turning, seemingly thinking over the pros and cons of this deal while trying to evaluate if Yang Kai was just trying to deceive it.

Seeing a chance of success, Yang Kai struck while the iron was hot and said enticingly, “You’ve been stuck here for tens of thousands of years and the Earth Lung Fire Pond is the source of your birth, so presumably it can’t help you grow any further. If you refuse to follow me, you’ll be stuck here for who knows how long. The next time someone comes here though… heh, they may not be as accommodating as I.”

After saying so, Yang Kai’s voice sank, “I’ve made my offer, whether you submit or perish is up to you. Just know that I have little patience and time, so when I get up to leave here, if you haven’t made a decision yet, you won’t have another opportunity.”

Saying so, Yang Kai sat down cross-legged down next to the Artifact Refining Furnace. After delivering such an ultimatum, Yang Kai believed this Artifact Spirit would make the smart choice, all he had to do now was wait.

The Artifact Spirit stood in the corner of the stone room, its eyes shifting back and forth between Yang Kai and the Artifact Refining Furnace which was sealed in black ice, its expression changing constantly as it weighed its options.

The stone room suddenly became quiet. Yang Kai didn’t try to urge the Artifact Spirit further as he believed that after suffering so much and with the damage to its strength, it wouldn’t dare try to overtake him again and would remain where it stood.

Half a day passed by before Yang Kai opened his eyes once more, glanced over at the Artifact Spirit coldly, and stood up.

This time, without waiting for Yang Kai to say anything, the Artifact Spirit let out a crisp cry.

Although Yang Kai couldn’t tell what it meant exactly, he could still figure out its intentions and nodded, “I mean what I say. As long as you are willing to follow me, I will definitely help you grow and evolve. En, right, I forget to tell you, I have another companion like you that, after many years managed to obtain sentience, a Divine Tree, but right now it’s in a deep sleep as it evolves. You’ll be able to meet it in the future and communicate with it, and at that time you’ll be able to know what kind of person I am.”

The Artifact Spirit once again tweeted, but this time it had a docile tone to it.

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Yang Kai grinned and said, “Good, since you’re willing, let go of your Soul’s defences so I can place a restriction on you. You can rest assured that this won’t harm you, it’s just a little method to protect against contingencies.”

The Artifact Spirit hesitated for quite some time before finally releasing its Soul’s defences.

Yang Kai immediately sent a burst of Spiritual Energy into its soul.