Yu Ya'er benefited from the situation. In just that short while, she absorbed quite a bit of residual spiritual power from that area, the Bamboo Continent. When she reappeared before Ji Changkong and Meng Gang, her spiritual power was clearly greatly replenished. Even her materialized appearance seemed to suddenly glow with vitality, giving the impression of being even more beautiful.

Having absorbed some of the spiritual power left behind by the three Eight Trigrams Heavenly Masters after their demise, Li Yan'er’s heavily wounded soul experienced significant recovery. Ji Changkong covertly investigated and found that Li Yan'er’s soul power was now comparable to Meng Gang’s before he had devoured the souls of the other two Eight Trigrams Heavenly Masters.

Of course, because Meng Gang had advanced further, Li Yan'er was still inferior to him now, and even more so to Ji Changkong, who had benefited from the soul purification power of the Tian Yuan Pearl.

However, even so, Li Yan'er was no longer someone who could be toyed with carelessly. Now that her soul was only lightly injured, she possessed the strength to fight back. If Meng Gang had tried to force the issue with her at this moment, it likely wouldn't have been so easy for him.

As Li Yan'er approached, a bright smile constantly played on her lips. Her eyes shimmered with brilliance as she fixed her gaze on Ji Changkong, appearing increasingly intrigued by him.

Ji Changkong frowned slightly, sensing that this woman was not benevolent. Originally, her severe injuries were less of a concern. Now that she had mostly recovered, keeping her nearby seemed inappropriate.

Therefore, Ji Changkong pondered for a moment, then suddenly said, "Your injuries have mostly healed, and you now have the ability to protect yourself. Those two fellows who held ill intentions toward you have also been dealt with by us. If there is nothing else, perhaps we should part ways here."

"Oh, in such a hurry to send me away?" After gaining that influx of spiritual power, Li Yan'er’s entire demeanor shifted. She was no longer the picture of delicate fragility. She looked at Ji Changkong with a smile, saying, "I haven't even thanked you yet."

"No need for that," Ji Changkong shook his head. He signaled to Meng Gang with his eyes, and the two suddenly turned and flew rapidly in the same direction, clearly intending to shake off Li Yan'er.

In an instant, he and Meng Gang were far ahead. Li Yan'er reacted and hurriedly chased after them. Unfortunately, having only just recovered, she simply couldn't match the speed of Ji Changkong and Meng Gang. The distance between them actually grew wider until she was completely left behind.

When Li Yan'er realized she could no longer sense their presence, she finally stopped, letting out a hateful snort. Then, with a sudden chuckle, she murmured to herself, "Quite an interesting fellow. Others cling on with shameless persistence, yet he dodges me as if I were a plague. Could it be that he saw through my identity?"

Li Yan'er considered this, then shook her head. "Impossible. These two are clearly rookies; how could they know of my infamous reputation beyond the Sun?"

"Little brother, why the evasiveness?" Meng Gang walked shoulder-to-shoulder with Ji Changkong, laughing heartily. "That woman might not be a saint, but you are a cold-blooded killer yourself. Why avoid her? If she's keen to enjoy your company, just accept it and be done with it. I'll be right here watching; do you really think anything could go wrong? You have no idea the pleasure of merging souls upon the Moon, let me tell you..."

Meng Gang rambled on, enthusiastically explaining things to Ji Changkong.

"Stop, stop," Ji Changkong grew impatient, forcing a wry smile. "I have my own objectives and plans here on the Sun. I don't have the luxury of wasting time on such matters. It's clear that woman has ulterior motives for sticking around, and since we don't know what they are, parting ways with her sooner rather than later is the wisest course."

"What is your objective here on the Sun?" Hearing this, Meng Gang dropped the subject of Li Yan'er and inquired about the main business.

After a moment of thought, Ji Changkong replied, "I'll explain it to you later. Right now, our primary task is to properly refine our souls once more. Only when we have both fully acclimated to the environment of the Sun can we discuss anything else."

Meng Gang readily agreed with his decision. Hearing this, he asked no further questions. The two selected a secluded spot where the power of the Sun was slightly stronger, maintained an appropriate distance from each other, and resumed the tempering of their souls.

Having tasted the benefits of using the power of the Heavenly Fire, he realized just how incredibly potent it was. A single Heavenly Fire could incinerate three Eight Trigrams Heavenly Masters into puffs of smoke, and that was using only half of one Heavenly Fire’s power—it was even more formidable than the Soul Radiance or Destruction Net techniques from his Nebula Soul Refining Art.

The only drawback was that refining a Heavenly Fire required time. The previous battle had occurred precisely after he had finished refining one. He had immediately deployed that Heavenly Fire and received immediate, remarkable effects.

Once a Heavenly Fire was formed, even without actively attacking, it required a massive expenditure of spiritual power just to maintain its form; otherwise, it would disperse and slowly vanish.

Even with his profound spiritual power reserves, he couldn't maintain the Heavenly Fire indefinitely. Doing so would drain his spiritual power too quickly, preventing him from sustaining it for long periods. Consequently, in normal circumstances, unless he was engaged in combat,

Only when encountering an enemy, and only when that enemy was clearly overwhelmingly powerful, would he condense a Heavenly Fire. However, the condensation process required a buffer period during combat—time for him to successfully manifest the Heavenly Fire.

Silently transforming his spirit into three flames, Ji Changkong secretly kept time, condensing one Heavenly Fire in his palm using the previous method. He calculated that even with all his spiritual power focused, it took at least four minutes to fully refine the Heavenly Fire.

During a confrontation, remaining stationary and intently focused on condensing a Heavenly Fire for four minutes was enough time for an enemy to kill him dozens of times over!

Ji Changkong felt a slight headache coming on. He needed to devise a suitable method to see if he could shorten the refinement time for the Heavenly Fire.

First, he tried reducing the power of the Heavenly Fire, gathering only half the energy from a spark split off after a flare explosion. This method seemed promising; the speed at which the Heavenly Fire condensed noticeably quickened, succeeding in just over a minute.

However, this drastically reduced the power of the Heavenly Fire.

The newly formed Heavenly Fire contained less than a quarter of the original energy. A Heavenly Fire of this magnitude could not deliver a devastating blow to an enemy. Even if it struck their soul, it likely wouldn't be enough to instantly incinerate it.

In that case, he might as well stick to using the Soul Radiance from his Nebula Soul Refining Art for attacks.

This approach was clearly unworkable, so he began seeking alternative methods to reduce the condensation time for the Heavenly Fire.

His second idea was to speed up the rate at which his spiritual power fused with the spark.

This method showed some promise. However, forcing this acceleration of the Heavenly Fire's refinement required him to expend more than triple the normal amount of spiritual power!

On the Sun, spiritual power was the ultimate safeguard for the soul and the fundamental force in combat. Condensing a Heavenly Fire already consumed vast spiritual energy; accelerating that condensation by forcing the fusion required three times that extra expenditure—this was a heavy price to pay.

But since Ji Changkong discovered this method could reduce the condensation time to mere seconds, he resolutely chose it!

Lost spiritual power could be replenished by slaying enemies, but if he was killed, everything would be lost, and his remaining spiritual power would fall into the hands of his foe.

Thinking it through, Ji Changkong solidified his resolve and adopted this method as his primary means of engaging enemies in the future.

Aside from its slow condensation speed, the Heavenly Fire had another significant flaw: its method of attack was too conspicuous.

Once a Heavenly Fire was formed, it continuously released chaotic, violent energy, much like a solar flare. This power was too ostentatious. The Eight Trigrams Heavenly Masters on the Sun were highly sensitive to the aura of this Heavenly Fire, mixed with the power of flares; the moment a Heavenly Fire appeared, the enemy would immediately sense it.

In other words, Heavenly Fire attacks were always done above board; they lacked any element of surprise.

If an opponent sensed that they could not withstand the power of the Heavenly Fire, or witnessed its terrifying might, they would immediately and desperately flee from its range. This made it difficult for the Heavenly Fire to achieve its purpose.

The reason the previous confrontation with those three was successful was that those fools underestimated Ji Changkong, and they were also influenced by the compulsion of the Nebula Soul Refining Art, causing them to fall into the trap at the critical moment and be enveloped and burned to ash by the Heavenly Fire.

But if his opponent was someone who also understood soul manipulation, or possessed an unshakeable, iron-willed resolve, the soul-controlling technique of the Nebula Soul Refining Art might easily fail. Since the Heavenly Fire’s attack speed wasn't inherently fast, landing a decisive hit on an opponent who was actively evading would become exponentially harder.

In terms of deviousness, unpredictability, and sheer speed among all the soul techniques he mastered, the Soul Radiance from the Nebula Soul Refining Art ranked first.

Because the Soul Radiance was incredibly tiny, it required little spiritual power to control. Not only was its speed often beyond anticipation, but it was virtually invisible. Careless individuals might not even detect the Soul Radiance until it struck. Even those with powerful soul perception could only discover it when it was nearly upon them.

It was precisely because of the Soul Radiance’s unpredictable nature and high degree of suddenness that, while traversing various stars, he favored utilizing this secret technique and consistently achieved remarkable results.

The sole drawback was that due to its minuscule size, the spiritual power attached to it was too limited. No matter how fast or how deceptive its movements, its power remained constrained by this limitation. Dozens of Soul Radiance strikes could only manage to heavily injure or lightly wound an opponent; it was difficult to extinguish a soul instantly.

What if the Heavenly Fire could combine the advantages of the Soul Radiance while minimizing its drawbacks? Wouldn't that be perfect, allowing him to become invincible on the Sun?

This thought suddenly occurred to Ji Changkong.