Three days passed, and Xiang Shaoyun won all three duels during this time. Including his previous two victories, he had now won five duels. His rank on the Serpent Fowl List had now reached 392nd place. On the sixth day since he started his daily duels, there were no longer any challengers.
It wasn’t because Xiang Shaoyun was now acknowledged as unrivaled. Rather, it was because a vast majority of the actual experts were in secluded cultivation and were too busy to deal with him, giving him an opportunity to take a break from dueling.
Currently, he was in his villa’s gravity room, analyzing all the gains from the five battles he had gone through. Apart from the first battle where he had comprehended some of the profundity of earth, he found that he had not comprehended anything new during his other battles.
That wasn’t to say that a problem had occurred with his comprehension capability. Rather, the profundity of the elements represented absolute truth. Apart from comprehension capability, one also needed an accumulation of experience before comprehending the truth of the elements.
As for his feat of comprehending the profundity of earth, apart from luck, it was also due to the fact that earth was everywhere. So long as one lived on the land, one would be able to sense the boundless power of earth. As for the other powers, although they were also present in the air, they could never be felt as vividly as the earth. In a way, this was an environmental factor.
Xiang Shaoyun had just come to understand this point. For example, flame cultivators would be stronger in an area with a dense flame element. That was the so-called environmental factor at work. In other words, to comprehend the profundities of the elements, one had to become one with the world.
Of course, Xiang Shaoyun had still gained a lot from the battles. He gained firsthand experience of the tricks the young geniuses had up their sleeves. Almost all of them were capable of punching above their weight. From that, it could be seen that the so-called geniuses of the dominion were really quite capable.
If it wasn’t for his superiority in speed and the teachings from the gravekeeper elder, it would be almost impossible for Xiang Shaoyun to defeat his opponents by relying on a single power. For now, he did not want to focus too much on the profundity of the elements. He wanted to first grow his cultivation level. That way, he would be better equipped to face his coming trials.
He was sure that the next time a challenger appeared, that challenger would be much stronger than those he had faced thus far. Seated in the cultivation room, he started circulating his nine astral energies again and again.
Apart from gravity suppression, a powerful presence suppression existed in the room as well. The environment here was similar to the stairs he had climbed when taking the academy entrance test; the only difference was that the room’s presence suppression was much harsher.
In such an environment, the energy he gained during cultivation would be purer and stronger. This was a unique benefit only core disciples could enjoy. As Xiang Shaoyun circulated his energies, he found that his accumulation had reached a critical point. He could now attempt to transform his energies into draconic aura and get started on reaching the Dragon Ascension Realm.
As for how the draconic aura could be formed, that relied on one’s grasp on one’s astral energy. The better the control one had, the easier it would be to form one’s draconic aura. One without good control would have a problem forming draconic aura, and by extension, one wouldn’t be able to reach the Dragon Ascension Realm. That was the main reason why so many peak Kings were stuck at the same cultivation level for life.
The so-called Dragon Ascension was a process of condensing one’s energy into a dragon. With a spine akin to a dragon, one could soar above the sky and become an Emperor among humans.
After gathering the energies of his nine stars, Xiang Shaoyun attempted to transform them into draconic aura. However, the process wasn’t smooth, and he kept failing as if he was unable to find the trick of success.
Initially, he suspected that his failures were due to the fact that his Heaven Conquering Overlord Manual was incomplete. But he then recalled that the version he had should be sufficient for him to reach peak Emperor. Thus, it couldn’t have been the cultivation method.
Ultimately, he concluded that the failures were due to his insufficient grasp on the powers he cultivated. At that realization, he calmed down and started studying all his powers once again, practicing his control of each, one by one. The so-called control wasn’t as simple as wielding them. Instead, he needed to control the powers’ every detail, using them like they were an extension of his body, fully becoming one with them.
He had the best control over the power of lightning, which was the first power he cultivated, followed by the powers of gold and flame. As for the other powers, he needed more time to improve his control over them. He spent an entire month before he was done deepening his control over all nine powers.
It was worth noting that if not for the Nether Soul Domain and filthless soul that gave his comprehension a boost, he would have taken a much longer time. However, this was only a tiny issue for one cultivating nine powers. The biggest issue was the act of fusing all nine powers together to form draconic aura. Forming his draconic aura with only one power would not work in this situation.
Xiang Shaoyun’s spine was an innate lightning bone covered in dragon scales. That was why he was able to form dragon projections after he had gained control over the power of presence. But that dragon projection wasn’t exactly draconic aura. The very nature of the two was different.
Xiang Shaoyun tried using his lightning power as the base for the other eight powers to work on, but he still failed, as the nine powers still separated at the end. He had no way of forming his draconic aura. Even with great control over his nine powers, he still encountered the same result, and it filled him with indignation.
If he couldn’t form his own draconic aura, he wouldn’t be able to transform his astral energy. In that situation, his cultivation level would be stuck. Finally, he recalled the ancient mantra. When he tried using the mantra while fusing the nine powers, something unexpected happened. The nine powers indeed fused, but something crucial still seemed to be missing, preventing a complete fusion.
However, Xiang Shaoyun had still gained some vague insight during the process, an insight that signified that he would be able to fully display the strength of the nine powers in the future. It was also closely related to whether he would be able to proceed further in his path of cultivation. After spending some time in thought, he shifted his focus to his astral cosmos sea.
In the records he had read, the astral cosmos sea was something a cultivator formed to serve as a special storage space. However, he had not once read that the astral cosmos sea could also store life. His astral cosmos sea was obviously different from others’, as he could store living beings in it. It seemed more like an independent space filled with vitality.
He had never understood the reason. But now, he started having a feeling that to form his own draconic aura, he would have to do it through the astral cosmos sea because a complete fusion of the nine powers had never succeeded outside of it.
Inside the astral cosmos sea, however, the nine powers seemed capable of changing automatically, turning into the nine-colored fog that could also be considered a new power that was a perfect fusion of the nine powers. That new power represented both life and destruction. Additionally, the new power was also capable of unleashing an unimaginable might.
