Chapter 337: Fusing Spiritual Stoves (II)
If one kept assimilating spiritual stoves even after that, there could be complications for his body. Only with a very deep understanding of spiritual stoves, and in particular, a perfect understanding of the properties of his own spiritual stoves, was it possible for a human to wield four or even five spiritual stoves.
In the history of the Temple Alliance, there existed some past records of powerhouses who fused with a particularly high number of spiritual stoves, and all had left significant traces in history. However, even more records described cases of an excessive number of absorbed spiritual stoves negatively influencing their wielders lives. To really absorb more spiritual stoves, there existed another method, and that was to fuse spiritual stoves with each other. Fusing already assimilated spiritual stoves would lessen the number of spiritual stoves in one’s body, and thus create more space available to absorb other spiritual stoves.
After fusing, spiritual stoves would produce an effect of accumulation, and this would increase their efficiency. This was absolutely a good thing for anyone, but was it really so easy to fuse spiritual stoves? Getting the opportunity to fuse spiritual stoves was first of all extremely hard, to say nothing about the fact that the fusion itself involved an enormous part of uncertainty and risk.
Long Haochen’s group had obtained such a great opportunity, but it was still too early to say whether they would be able to benefit from it.
Soaked in the green pool, Long Haochen was in a sudden calm state of mind. After his awakening as a god’s chosen one, his mind was even more focused, and reached an optimum state very easily.
Immediately, he sensed his own body being wrapped in the vital energy, permeating him gently.
This energy of life entered his body slowly, or at least it felt like it. This harmless and beneficial energy merged with Long Haochen’s liquid spiritual energy, enforcing his body and mind, and soon he reached a complete level of relaxation. All his muscles and energy channels actually went all limp at this time.
Gradually, this soft vital energy covered his whole body, before slowly rushing into his chest. There, it slowly subsided.
The Light Elemental Fairy Yating was seated inside the Saint Spiritual Stove as this thin green-colored vital energy was poured into the Saint Spiritual Stove. Immediately, a mysterious change was produced.
Both of Yating hands started to adopt a particular pose. As her face revealed a happy expression, she entered a special state.
A soft white radiance was emanated by the Saint Spiritual Stove, producing white circles which spread inside Long Haochen who suddenly felt his own brain go dizzy. On his chest, he felt a heating sensation, but this didn’t affect his focused state. The liquid spiritual energy in his body was noiselessly consumed at an astonishing speed under this cozy feeling, and in this green pool, his vital energy kept strengthening. But this didn’t help in increasing his internal spiritual energy.
It seemed that time didn’t pass in this place, and Long Haochen felt the warmth in his chest increasing until it reached a burning hot level. After gradually reaching this state, it produced a blazing feeling, as if a fireball was violently ignited inside his chest.
However, he felt no worries at that time. If even after his awakening as a god’s chosen one and with his level of understanding regarding his two spiritual stoves, he was still unable to fuse them, who would be able to achieve the fusion? This wasn’t arrogance but self-confidence. However, Long Haochen was still nervous; not for himself, but for his comrades.
This fusion of spiritual stoves brought forth pain that far exceeded his imagination. On top of that, since practically nothing of his internal spiritual energy was left for self-protection, after it had been totally absorbed in the process of fusion, all the pain was left for his body to bear.
Long Haochen actually looked forward to see what kind of change would appear after the fusion between Yating and the Saint Spiritual Stove. All he wished for was that the Pull ability of the Saint Spiritual Stove wouldn’t disappear.
In truth, even given his intelligence, Long Haochen forgot the fact that after completing his awakening, his mental state hadn’t recovered yet.
The pain he had to bear indeed grew stronger and stronger, reaching the point at which he had to clench his teeth to barely be able bear it. Don’t forget that although he only had two spiritual stoves, these were two evolved spiritual stoves!
Unevolved and evolved spiritual stoves were absolutely not the same.
As a simple example, a Saint Spiritual Stove that never evolved was only a spiritual stove of the fifth tier, but after evolving, it could already be called a spiritual stove of the fourth tier. After two evolutions, it even reached the peak of the fourth tier. And furthermore, these evolved spiritual stoves would become a lot more stable and intertwined with the body, making the process of the fusion a lot more difficult.
And moreover, he still had the fairy of light, Yating.
After following Long Haochen, Yating had already evolved three times. Let alone him, even a lot of powerhouses that reached the eighth or the ninth step didn’t necessarily make their spiritual stoves evolve that often.
Three evolutions gave Yating a nearly corporeal body, and in the Illusory Paradise, she had managed to obtain vital energy of her own. In some kind of sense, she was already not as simple as a mere spiritual stove, and her intelligence was substantial. As long as she kept evolving, she would one day finally reach the level of an intelligent spiritual stove which Long Haochen had mentioned before. And that day, she would reach the highest possible tier as a spiritual stove.
For this reason, when Long Haochen fused his Saint Spiritual Stove and his fairy of light Yating, the difficulty was a lot harder than for anyone else.
Of course, the pain Long Haochen had to bear was absolutely not the fiercest; at least Cai’er had an even harder time than him.
……
At the same time, Cai’er was also seated in the green pool. She was a bit pale and sweat was rapidly dripping down from her face. Around her, some grey streams of air were undulating, and the breath of life felt somehow incompatible with the intense killing intent.
Under her terrifying killing intent, her clothes had actually completely faded away, and her pure white skin was continuously covered with sweat. It could be clearly seen that at the middle part of her chest a surge of ash-grey glitter emerged unceasingly, causing the surrounding killing intent to rise continuously.
Although Long Haochen’s spiritual stoves had both evolved several times, Cai’er after all had three stoves, of which one had just evolved.
The difficulty of fusing three spiritual stoves was exponentially higher than doing the same with two of them. Thus, even though Long Haochen’s two spiritual stoves had evolved for a total of five times, the pain he had to bear was far from the one endured by Cai’er. Different people were bound to have totally different experiences during the fusion of their spiritual stoves, and this was still valid even if two people didn’t differ so much in cultivation, or in the spiritual stoves they had assimilated. This was because the state of mind had a great impact on the process of fusion.
Cai’er was undoubtedly filled with an unswerving determination, and this became the case especially after she followed Long Haochen. The gloom in her had gradually been illuminated by his radiance, which could be said to have improved her nature.
Indomitable when facing difficulties, she would keep fighting as long as it was for Long Haochen’s sake, and never slack off at anytime.
Her three spiritual stoves were the Spiritual Stove of Samsara, the Thousand Strikes Spiritual Stove and the newly obtained Spiritual Stove of True Shadow. Undoubtedly, the Spiritual Stove of Samsara occupied the leading position among the three. At the split second the process of fusion started, the terrifying power of the Spiritual Stove of Samsara burst out instantly, immediately overpowering and crushing the other two spiritual stoves, before starting to assimilate the other two. Absorbing the fragments and energy from the other two, the Spiritual Stove of Samsara was indeed tyrannical. One may well ask what sensation it would be to have two spiritual stoves breaking into pieces inside your body.
At that time, it wasn’t only Cai’er’s clothes that were annihilated, but even her whole body showed signs of not being capable of bearing it. It was fortunate that her assimilation of the Spiritual Stove of Samsara had taken place long before, and that she could fully use its devastating power. After passing through ten years of fusion, the Spiritual Stove of Samsara gained perfect harmony with her body, thus even when her body was breaking apart, the Spiritual Stove of Samsara gave off some energy to protect her.
However, even so, the Spiritual of Samsara was only protecting her body and didn’t lessen the pain.
Just think, what kind of pain would come out from having your own body being torn to shreds?
Thus, at that instant, Cai’er’s body felt extremely numb, before an incomparable pain hit her, plunging her in an even more terrifying state than at the time of her initial assimilation of the Spiritual Stove of Samsara.
Even if it was Long Haochen instead of Cai’er, he would perhaps have screamed miserably. However, Cai’er didn’t. Having been tormented by the Spiritual Stove of Samsara since being a three years old girl, she was extremely tenacious, and kept clenching her teeth and bitterly bearing the pain.
The fusion between three spiritual stoves was just far too challenging. Even with the lead of the Spiritual Stove of Samsara, she still faced an extreme and unavoidable danger.
Because the others had just absorbed their newly obtained spiritual stoves, the process of their fusion wasn’t as hard for them as for Long Haochen and Cai’er. However, this was the first time obtaining a spiritual stove for all of them, and the familiarity of their contract with their brand new stoves was limited. Thus, the process of fusion wasn’t a breeze for them either.
To the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad, this trial could only be described as an extreme challenge. Their strength, their willpower as well as their determination permitted them to face it, but in case of failure, they would very probably not only lose their spiritual stoves, but also their qualifications to remain a team of equal peers. Everyone clearly understood this, and thus absolutely didn’t give up.
Wang Yuanyuan was waiting silently, surrounded by a boundless sight of green, as a dense vitality was emerging from her body. She could even sense her own external spiritual energy being imperceptibly strengthened. However, she was not in the mood to immerse herself in enjoying the benefits from having her external spiritual energy go up.
