My fingertips brushed the seventeenth step, and the world exploded into golden light.


    Heavenly mes erupted around me, more intense than any fire I''d ever encountered. This wasn''t the lightning from before—this was something far worse. The sacred fire of heaven itself, meant to cleanse impurities...or destroy those deemed unworthy.


    I screamed as the mes consumed me. Unlike normal fire that burns from the outside in, these celestial mes ignited my very essence, burning me from within. My blood boiled in my veins. My organs smoldered. My bones charred ck.


    "He''s burning alive!" Sofia''s horrified voice barely reached me through the roaring inferno.


    Mariana stood frozen, her eyes wide with disbelief. "The Heavenly Tribtion Fire. It hasn''t appeared in ten thousand years..."


    Through the golden ze, I glimpsed Mr. Snyder rushing toward the stairway, his face twisted with determination. He couldn''t allow me to seed.


    But I couldn''t focus on him. The mes were devouring everything—my flesh, my blood, my very existence. In moments, nothing would remain.


    "I won''t die here," I growled through clenched teeth, even as my skin ckened and peeled away.


    With my physical body failing, I made a desperate gamble. I projected my divine sense outward, pushing it beyond my burning flesh. My consciousness hovered above my crumbling form, watching as the heavenly mes consumed what remained of my mortal shell.


    But divine sense alone couldn''t save me. As I floated above the inferno, I felt myself beginning to dissipate. Without an anchor, my consciousness would scatter to the winds.


    Below, Mariana sensed what was happening. "His divine sense has separated from his body, but it''s unstable. He can''t maintain it!"


    In that moment of desperation, an idea surfaced—insane, impossible, yet my only hope.


    I called to the blue spirit fire within me, the mysterious me that had been my most loyalpanion since my awakening. It responded instantly, surging upward to meet my hovering consciousness.


    "What is he doing?" The Fifth Elder''s voice sounded distant, muffled by the roaring mes.


    What happened next defied all knownws of cultivation. My divine sense—pure consciousness—merged with my spirit fire. The union was excruciating, my awareness screaming as it fused with living me. But it worked. My consciousness took on form—a humanoid shapeposed entirely of brilliant blue fire.


    Mariana gasped, herposure finally breaking. "Impossible! He''s created a spirit fire body!"


    My fiery form hovered above my burning physical body, observing the golden heavenly mes that continued to consume my flesh. I should have been terrified. Instead, I felt something unexpected—hunger.


    Without conscious thought, my me body descended, not away from the heavenly fire, but toward it.


    "No!" Mariana shouted. "Don''t touch it! Even in spirit form, those mes will annihte you!"


    I ignored her warning. Something deeper than logic was driving me now—an instinct, apulsion I couldn''t resist. My me form plunged into the golden inferno, and instead of being destroyed, I began to consume it.


    The heavenly mes fought back violently, trying to burn away my spirit fire. Golden and blue mes battled for dominance, creating waves of energy that shook the entire staircase.


    "He''s... he''s trying to absorb the heavenly fire," the Guild Lord whispered, materializing beside Mariana. "It''s never been done before."


    Pain unlike anything I''d ever experienced ripped through my consciousness as the two fires warred within me. Golden tendrilsshed out, trying to purge my spirit me. My blue fire responded by enveloping them, consuming them, making them part of itself.


    Below, the spectators watched in awe as my physical body continued to burn while a battle of cosmic fires yed out above it.


    "The heavenly fire is weakening," Sofia observed, her voice filled with wonder. "He''s actually absorbing it!"


    Indeed, the golden mes were dimming, being drawn into my spirit fire form. But the process was far fromplete. My consciousness strained under the pressure, threatening to fragment as I tried to contain two opposing forces.


    "His spirit is fragmenting," Mariana said, her voice tight with concern. "He can''t hold them both!"


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    She was right. I couldn''t maintain separation between the two fires. They would either have to merge or destroy each other—and me along with them.


    So I made another impossible choice. I stopped fighting to keep them apart and instead forced them together.


    The pain was indescribable. If I''d still had a physical body capable of producing sound, my scream would have shattered the heavens. The golden heavenly fire and my blue spirit me twisted together, fighting, merging, transforming.


    For a moment, it seemed like both would extinguish, leaving nothing behind. My consciousness flickered, on the verge of dissolution.


    Then something miraculous happened. The two mes ceased their battle and began to dance together, intertwining in a deadly but beautiful harmony. Blue and gold swirled together, creating something entirely new—a brilliant purple me that pulsed with power unlike anything I''d ever felt.


    "Purple spirit fire," the Guild Lord breathed, falling to his knees in reverence. "The legendary me of the immortals."


    My consciousness stabilized within this new purple me. I felt stronger, more focused than ever before. The pain was gone, reced by a sense of power that bordered on euphoria.


    Below, my charred physical body had all but disintegrated. Only a ckened husk remained, barely recognizable as human.


    "His body is gone," Sofia sobbed. "Liam..."


    But I wasn''t done. With newfound control over my purple me form, I descended toward my ruined physical shell. As I approached, the me body began topress, condensing into a brilliant purple orb.


    The orb hovered over my charred remains for a moment before sinking into what was left of my chest. The moment it made contact, a pulse of energy erupted outward, knocking back everyone watching.


    When they looked again, they gasped in shock. My body was regenerating. The purple me worked outward from my core, rebuilding bone, organ, muscle, and skin in rapid session.


    "The me is reconstructing his physical form," Mariana exined, her voice thick with emotion. "I''ve only read of such things in ancient texts."


    Within moments, my body was whole again—not just healed, but transformed. My skin glowed with a subtle inner light. My eyes, when they opened, shone with a purple fire that matched the me now contained within my core.


    I rose to my feet on the seventeenth step, feeling stronger than I had ever been. The heavenly mes that had nearly destroyed me were now part of me, a new power forged in the crucible of near-destruction.


    "He did it," Sofia whispered. "He actually did it."


    I turned my gaze upward. Beyond the seventeenth step, I could see the final tform where the cultivation method awaited. Just one more step.


    My foot lifted, ready to take that final stride. Victory was within reach. The power I needed to save Isabelle was just moments away.


    Then, from the shadows above, a furious voice roared: "YOU DARE!"


    An enormous hand, crackling with dark energy, materialized from nowhere, pping down toward me with murderous force.


    I barely had time to raise my arms before the impact hit me like a mountain, driving me back down to my knees.


    The triumph I''d felt just moments before evaporated as I found myself fighting for my life once again. Whoever—whatever—was attacking me didn''t want me to im the prize I''d suffered so much to reach.


    As the gigantic hand pressed down on me, threatening to crush me back into nothingness, I caught a glimpse of my attacker''s face in the shadows. My blood ran cold.


    This wasn''t over. Not by a long shot.