Time seemed to lose all meaning amid the deep contemplation and agonizing torment.
No one knew how long had passed. Nearly a third of the cursed substance on the Reverse Scale had been devoured, exposing broad swaths of the dark gold scale beneath, which flowed with pure waves of time.
Fang Chen's deductions had also reached a critical juncture.
After countless impacts, distortions, and adjustments, the Seven-System Fusion Cycle had finally formed the faint outline of a framework capable of briefly containing a trace of Thunder Origin Power. It was as fragile as a candle flame flickering in a storm, liable to collapse at any moment. But it existed.
Fang Chen seized that fleeting chance. From the energy fed back by the Floating Immortal Sword, he separated out the purest strand of purified Thunder Concept and carefully guided it toward the newly formed framework.
Crackle!
For the first time, a faint spark of purple lightning lit up inside the Chaos cycle Fang Chen had built from the seven Origins.
It was thinner than a hair and vanished in an instant. It did not even increase his power. Yet its appearance was a milestone: Fang Chen's Fusion Dao had finally touched the threshold of the Thunder Origin and found a possible way in.
It worked. There's a Nascent Form!
Excitement surged through Fang Chen. A long road still lay between him and perfectly fusing the Thunder Origin into a stable eightfold cycle, but he had taken the hardest first step.
Yet the instant his focus slackened at that small breakthrough, disaster struck.
The remaining two-thirds of the cursed substance on the Reverse Scale seemed to sense a threat to its Core Origin, or perhaps the fleeting aura of the Thunder-System Fusion Nascent Form within Fang Chen had provoked it. It erupted