Ti passed slowly, but for the disciples pushing themselves to the limit, it felt absurdly fast. On the surface of the calm lake, the Fire Elentals, which had been startled at first, gradually cald down.
The Elentals didn’t have true intelligence or even a soul, but they still moved instinctively when they sensed sothing good. So, one by one, under the waves of energy created by the disciples, they began to approach.
Simply not being ostracized by them was already extrely difficult. Making contact and drawing them to your side, even if it was just one of them, was far more complex than anyone could imagine.
Fifteen minutes passed...
One hour passed...
At that mont, a disciple finally managed to attract a new Fire Elental close to himself. There were two dancing around him. However, their dance was slow, and their movents kept changing, as if they could leave at any mont.
He let out a long sigh of relief as his concentration began to relax slightly. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the closest disciple had only one Fire Elental dancing around him. Another person ahead had two Fire Elentals, just like him. As he swept his gaze across the area, he noticed that so people already had three Fire Elentals.
His heart suddenly jumped when he spotted Herion and Lazaro in the distance...
Beside the two of them, there were five Fire Elentals dancing around each of them. Moreover, the Fire Elentals around them were much more lively.
The gap was enormous... Herion and Lazaro were far superior to the others. In this competition for the position of the Sect Leader’s direct disciple, the disciple ranked third in talent wasn’t even taken into consideration.
He let out a deep sigh as he finally gave up. The two Fire Elentals he had attracted with difficulty were dispersed by him, and he no longer cared about them. Instead, he focused on simply using the lake’s blazing energy to refine his body and cultivate; he would gain much more in the long run by doing this.
...
Almost half of the disciples had completely given up after one hour.
It was foolish to keep chasing sothing unlikely, and they had already wasted an hour of their ti inside the Golden Celestial Lake, which left them extrely regretful.
Becoming the Sect Leader’s direct disciple was one of the most important events in the sect, because in 90% of the ti the leader stepped down, the disciple took that position. On very rare occasions, this didn’t happen, but of course, sotis the Sect Leader had more than one direct disciple, so there would be competition among them.
...
Two hours had passed, and eighty percent of the disciples had already completely given up. However, there were still several hundred disciples who continued trying fervently.
All the big figures of the sect who were present were also silently absorbing the blazing energy of the Golden Celestial Lake. However, unlike the disciples, who were fully focused, they kept half of their awareness in the outside world, observing everyone’s actions the entire ti.
This was because the disciples were relatively weak to be there. As ti passed, they would no longer be able to endure remaining inside the Golden Celestial Lake and would have to be taken out in a hurry.
At the sa ti, everyone was watching the unprecedented battle between the Fire Elentals. The main focus of attention was, without a doubt, Herion and Lazaro.
The results were also not surprising. After two hours, each of them had ten Fire Elentals around them, standing on equal footing.
Although the other disciples had done everything they could, the third-place disciple had only seven Fire Elentals around him. Below them, those who had five Fire Elentals were also few and far between, and the gap between them was easy to see.
"Ah!"
A cry of pain suddenly echoed from below. In the middle of the Golden Celestial Lake, a disciple’s body twisted violently. His face was completely flushed, and he was beginning to lose control of the blazing energy invading him, on the verge of collapse.
The Palace Master, where he resided, imdiately opened his eyes and flew over, grabbing him and throwing him to the shore. Color instantly returned to the disciple’s face, and he stood up, embarrassed, and sat silently at the edge of the lake.
Each person’s strength, talent, physique, and ability to withstand the blazing energy were different. Once the limit was exceeded, the person had no choice but to leave. If they tried to forcibly return to the Golden Celestial Lake, they would end up seriously injured. However, the blazing energy at the edge of the lake, which was much more "gentle," was still exceptionally valuable.
As ti passed, more and more disciples began to be unable to endure. All they could do was leave the place and co to the shore.
Even so, even the disciple who stayed in the celestial lake for the shortest possible ti could clearly feel as if they had been reborn.
Refining the pure fire energy, it was far superior even to consuming thousands of high-level fire-elent pills. Moreover, they felt their cultivation rising very quickly.
...
Gradually, four hours passed.
The last disciple who still hadn’t given up opened his eyes. He soon saw that twenty Fire Elentals were dancing around Herion and Lazaro.
When he looked up and saw only fourteen Fire Elentals around himself, he grew discouraged and let out a light sigh. Accepting his fate, he waved his hand, instantly dispersing all the Fire Elentals around him.
There was no shortage of geniuses in the world. However, the number of peerless geniuses was insufficient. In front of those peerless geniuses, the other geniuses could only be supporting characters.
The competition had completely turned into a battle between Herion and Lazaro... This result, however, was no surprise.
At that mont, Darian had already entered an extrely peculiar ntal state... sothing no one could imagine or believe was possible.
Rewinding a few minutes.
After several hours absorbing the elental power into his body, Darian felt a very strange connection with it. It was a feeling he had experienced other tis in the past, but he had almost always ignored it. This ti...
He focused on his mind sea.
Inside it, there were dozens of tiny points of light floating gently like stars.
Darian focused on them until he finally found them.
The strange feeling was coming from not just one, but three of them. All of them gave him a sense of connection with this environnt and with the lake’s energy.
Without hesitation, Darian drew those three points of light toward himself, absorbing them completely.
At that mont, Darian began to see an absurdly detailed film playing extrely fast in his mind. Yes, those were mories of his past lives, released by his father.
All three of those lives were very short, and he didn’t live even 10 years in any of them. In all three, he t the sa fate...
...a life of suffering, torture, and pain.
In those three lives, he belonged to the Heavenly Elental Spirit race, more specifically, the fire, wind, and lightning elents.
Like almost everyone of that race, he was born and almost imdiately captured by soone who showed no rcy or restraint. He was sealed and slowly refined and absorbed. His death was not quick, and the pain and rage he felt daily were incomparable. It was like having his soul slowly shattered.
When Darian returned to the present, his breathing was ragged, and his heart was racing.
He had literally lived through all of that again and even felt everything again. Rembering sothing that terrifying was a truly unique experience. But...
After taking a deep breath and reconnecting with his current higher self, everything disappeared.
His mind reflected seriously. ’I... no wonder I created those two abilities...’
In the past, when he returned to Earth after becoming a Spiritual Guardian and visited that array, he needed to quickly develop, using only the elents of the environnt, a movent technique, and an attack technique.
The two techniques he initially created used exactly the fire, wind, and lightning elents in perfect union.
It was extrely easy and simple for him, almost instinctive. At the ti, he thought he had only managed it because of the knowledge from that book, but...
Who could do the sa using only what he read in a book? That was ridiculous and definitely not normal.
Later, those techniques proved to be absurdly useful and powerful, so much so that he improved and modified them, and technically, he still uses them to this day.
Now he understood. He managed it because he had once been one with those elents, and he understood them instinctively better than most. It was like soone born with a latent talent for sothing without ever properly studying it.
Besides...
’I rember how to rge and synchronize with the elent... Can I do that now that I’m human?’ he murmured thoughtfully.
Everyone was absorbing all the celestial power mixed with the lake’s fire energy. Then they moved only a thread of fire essence and nourished their bodies to improve their affinity. But now, Darian felt that was a complete waste.
He focused, recalling the feeling of being a Heavenly Elental Spirit, as if he wanted to return to that state.
When he moved the energy again...
In his veins, his celestial bloodline pulsed and activated automatically.
With Darian’s desire and the experience of soone who had once been that, the pure energy of the Golden Celestial Lake invaded his body through his pores at a speed incomprehensible to humans.
Darian guided the energy directly throughout his entire body; every inch of him was being nourished. His Celestial bloodline was distorting reality in his favor, making his human body rge with the fire elent.
Darian’s body beca completely covered by fire energy, as if he were a lava golem. At the sa ti, a blazing aura kept growing and growing around him.
As more and more hot energy entered his body, the flow of power in his veins beca even faster. Darian’s consciousness sank completely as he focused on guiding the external fire energy.
Under these conditions, as his consciousness faded more and more, he could no longer feel the passage of ti.
Suddenly, everything stopped.
Darian felt a sharp pain, as if millions of needles were piercing his body from every direction.
He was stunned. Then the energy surrounding him suddenly erupted, like a furious current rushing violently back into his veins. His consciousness also focused on his body, but before he could notice any anomaly, a deafening noise echoed through every corner of his awareness.
At the core of his body, it felt like sothing had exploded.
A reddish mist completely filled him, and that mist moved wildly, constantly dispersing and gathering. Sotis it shone with a scarlet glow. Sotis it bursts into flas. Sotis it flashed with white lightning.
It was like a small world that had suddenly collapsed due to a calamity...
In the end, everything completely collapsed, and all the original energy flowing through his body scattered and fled in all directions, but...
That was only a sensation. In reality, Darian was sure all of it had beco one with his body.
A mysterious and unusual sensation suddenly spread through his body and consciousness. This feeling was peculiar and indescribable. As if... everything was being enhanced, as if his body and soul were now in a completely different world than before. As if they were enjoying the aura and hearing the voices of another world...
The strange sensation in his body beca even more intense. His veins, skeleton, blood, hair, and even every cell pulsed intensely... Even his consciousness kept capturing different images.
In the Golden Celestial Lake, high above, the Dragoness’s gaze abruptly focused on Darian.
At that instant, Chrysos also turned and glanced at Darian... Countless strands of extrely high-level fire energy were being released over him, but were not dispersing. Instead, they ford a ring and spun rapidly around him, also causing chaos in the surrounding air.
At the sa ti, his body began to tremble violently, and ripple-like waves appeared across his skin.
Darian and Pyreus were extrely close to each other, and the intense shift in his aura made Pyreus snap awake. He saw Darian’s state and was about to say sothing when...
*Crack*
A muffled sound ca from inside Darian.
*Crack*
The next second, the sa sound ca again.
*Crack Crack Crack*
Darian was breaking through the levels of the Celestial Tribulation Realm in rapid succession.
Pyreus carefully backed away. His pupils dilated as he stared at Darian with wide eyes.
Even after hours, he had only broken through one level, and maybe by the end, he could reach another. But... Darian suddenly broke through five tis at once?
Moreover... Darian’s transformation instantly drew the attention of all the disciples at the lake’s edge.
These were not ordinary level-ups.
It was as if he were completely changing.
Or... as if he had undergone a rebirth.
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