An all-encompassing, golden flame erupted, enveloping his entire body and causing his features to scrunch up in sheer agony.
The sensation was so excruciating that he stood on the precipice of losing consciousness, his screams gradually devolving into something feral.
It hurts.. It hurts so fucking much.. I'm burning alive..!
Just as he was about to succumb to the darkness, a sharp "ding" suddenly rang inside his head.
The transparent screen of the system materialized once again before him, though this time the interface was not its usual calm blue, but a pulsing, urgent red.
[WARNING: HOST IS RECOMMENDED TO STAY CONSCIOUS THROUGHOUT THE INTEGRATION PROCESS. FAILURE TO DO SO MAY RESULT IN DIRE CONSEQUENCES.]
STAY CONSCIOUS?! ARE YOU CRAZY!! HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?!
He grit his teeth as his expression contorted into a mask of madness. His screams grew increasingly hoarse, echoing the sounds of a beast being led to the slaughter.
Thankfully, the system provided a method to contain his cries of anguish by isolating him from the outside world within a transparent blue barrier.
Even though his former self—the person he was before reincarnation—was not weak-willed by any stretch of the imagination, he was not some inhuman entity immune to pain.
In fact, by every conceivable metric, he had been a normal human being.
Naturally, when a normal human is suddenly subjected to the sensation of being incinerated, they will inevitably begin to descend into insanity.
It hurts.. It hurts so fucking bad… I'm being burnt alive.
Despite his internal protests, he fought with everything he had to hold on. He possessed an intuitive feeling that if he surrendered now, he would forfeit the heaven-defying opportunity the system had bestowed upon him.
Even if he were granted another chance to repair his broken meridians through a different quest, there was no guarantee the reward would ever reach the same caliber as the one he was currently receiving.
A heavenly physique.. It's a heavenly physique for God's sake.. even if I don't know what the hell that is.. this level of suffering must mean that it is something completely amazing.
If I manage to survive this ordeal, my life will completely change. I will not only be able to survive the cruel nature of this world, but also thrive and eventually conquer it… I need to endure.. I need to hold on..
Fortunately, the system was not entirely merciless; it suddenly released a pale blue light that shrouded his body, slowly tempering the intensity of the pain he was enduring.
While it still felt as though he was being burnt alive, the sensation no longer carried the immediate sting of death. It still felt as if the skin was being peeled from his very bones, but the torment had finally become bearable.
Now that he had gained this brief respite from the agonizing pain, he quickly inspected the profound changes that were occurring within his body, and he found himself utterly shocked.
His meridians, which were previously a jumbled mess full of broken connections and hidden injuries, were slowly reconnecting with one another and being reforged in a crucible of golden fire.
In fact, for the most part, his meridians weren't merely being fixed per se, but were more like they were being rebuilt from the ground up.
It's like I have an entirely new spiritual vein network…
He felt a surge of excitement at this revelation as he quickly began to analyze what other changes had happened to his body aside from the reforging of his spiritual veins, and he soon noticed something peculiar inside his dantian.
What are those?
His eyes squinted internally as he observed a total of nine different floating circular objects, each burning with golden fire, centered within his dantian.
After contemplating the sight for a few moments, he finally realized what they were, and he was struck by the shock of the revelation.
Are those… miniature suns?!
This realization quickly made him ecstatic; despite not knowing exactly what these things inside his body were, he was certain they couldn't be anything simple, as just staring at the objects gave him the distinct sensation of being burned.
After thinking for a couple more seconds, he decided to take a closer look at the budding suns inside of his dantian, and he quickly realized a couple of things.
For one, each of the nine different suns was adorned with strange glowing runes surrounding them, and he could not for the life of him understand any of it; it was as if they contained the very secrets of the universe within them.
I guess those runes are related to the powers these suns will give me in the future? Hopefully?
He wasn't entirely sure, but he knew that the mysteries of these suns would reveal themselves to him in due time, so he didn't truly mind the ambiguity.
The second thing he noticed from staring at these suns was the fact that he couldn't actually control any of them at the moment and, therefore, couldn't use them to defend himself if he encountered an enemy.
What a pity..
After feeling a slight pang of regret at this realization, he quickly calmed his mind and focused on the present, especially as the pain that the system had tried to alleviate once again started to ramp up, making it feel as though his body was being seared.
Hopefully it's going to end soon..
Gritting his teeth and pushing through the torment, he quietly endured the pain while trying to restrain himself from screaming in agony.
Of course, he wasn't entirely successful and continued to scream like a maniac, but at the very least, he had tried to exert some control over his reaction.
After roughly thirty minutes of this prolonged suffering, the golden flames that surrounded his body finally started to dissipate as the transformation was completed.
He knew the process was finished because of a familiar sound that once again rang through his ears.
Ding!
[INTEGRATION COMPLETE]
[CONGRATULATIONS HOST, YOU HAVE RECEIVED THE NINE PRIMORDIAL SUNFYRE PHYSIQUE]