Within his dantian, winds and clouds churned.
Crimson Earth Fire Astral Qi transformed into a roaring flaming tiger.
Icy-blue Mysterious Ice Astral Qi condensed into a coiling ice-crystal azure dragon.
Guided by Shen Che's will, the dragon and tiger finally touched.
There was no earth-shattering explosion, nor was there any violent clash of energy.
In that instant, time itself seemed to stand still.
Crimson and icy blue, two colors at their utmost extremes, did not annihilate each other upon contact. Instead, they began to slowly merge like water and milk blending as one.
The scorching fire did not melt the ice.
The frigid ice did not extinguish the fire either.
They were like a pair fated by heaven, finally finding one another after a long search.
The outline of a taiji diagram slowly emerged at the center of Shen Che's dantian.
On the left burned blazing flames; on the right condensed Mysterious Ice.
The phantoms of dragon and tiger joined head to tail within the taiji diagram, slowly beginning to revolve.
Their rotation grew faster and faster.
At last, the boundary between crimson and icy blue vanished completely, becoming a chaotic grayish-white expanse.
A thunderous boom like the creation of heaven and earth seemed to resound in Shen Che's mind.
That chaotic grayish-white suddenly contracted, then exploded with a deafening blast!
A brand-new energy, far purer and more powerful than Astral Qi, was born at the heart of the explosion and instantly filled his entire dantian.
Half of this energy was scorching like fire, and half was icy like water, yet they had fused together flawlessly, no longer distinguishable from one another.
Innate True Essence!
It had succeeded!
Shen Che felt his entire body lighten, as though he had broken free from some invisible shackles. His very level of life