Five Elements Cycle, Domain Prototype

Lin Feng had originally planned to enter seclusion here and attempt Five Elements fusion after absorbing the soul ring, but that was only a passing thought. Although the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eye was abundant in heaven and earth energy, the Five Elements here were unbalanced, with the ice and fire attributes far stronger than the others. Five Elements fusion was too important; to be safe, it was better not to attempt it here.

After absorbing the soul ring, Lin Feng went down the mountain and returned home to enter seclusion.

Lin Feng had previously attempted to fuse mutually generating attributes, so this time, the beginning went very smoothly. He quickly fused the five elemental attributes into one: Gold generated Water, Water generated Wood, Wood generated Fire, and Fire generated Earth. Just as he had predicted, starting with the Gold Attribute, by the time he fused in Fire, the power had increased eightfold; after adding the Earth Attribute, it increased sixteenfold. (Chapter 11, Attribute Fusion.) Yet the pressure radiating from this wisp of Earth Attribute Soul Power was far beyond what could be achieved by simply gathering sixteen times as much Earth Attribute Soul Power. This was an improvement in quality. Through Five Elements Mutual Generation, the quality of this wisp of Earth Attribute Soul Power was now clearly a level above the Earth Attribute Soul Power currently in his Dantian.

When the Five Elements had been incomplete before, mutual generation could only increase power and might. He had never expected that once all five elements were complete, it would improve quality instead. No wonder Five Elements Mutual Generation was said to be incomparably powerful. So this was the source of that power.

Lin Feng tried again, continuing to merge this wisp of Earth Attribute Soul Power, which had absorbed the four attributes of Gold, Water, Wood, and Fire, into a wisp of Gold Attribute Soul Power. Sure enough, its power increased greatly again, but the quality of this Gold Attribute Soul Power only rose to the level of the Earth Attribute Soul Power from before. It did not improve further.

Lin Feng fell into confusion. Could its quality not be continuously improved? After thinking it over, he used Five Elements Mutual Generation to produce five wisps of Soul Power—Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth—whose quality had each been enhanced. He then fused them into a single wisp of Earth Attribute Soul Power. Sure enough, the quality of that Earth Attribute Soul Power rose another level. It seemed that for quality to improve, all five attributes needed to be of equal quality.

In a daze, Lin Feng found the path of attribute evolution. If he continued cultivating this way, raising the quality of every attribute, then in the end, he would possess five ultimate attributes.

It was just that this method consumed far too much Spiritual Power. Lin Feng's Spiritual Power had already surpassed that of a Soul King, yet after producing only this small amount of fused Soul Power, it was nearly exhausted.

His Spiritual Power was insufficient to support further exploration of attribute fusion, so Lin Feng simply returned this wisp of high-quality Earth Attribute Soul Power to the Earth Attribute Soul Power in his Dantian and observed the changes. Slowly, the high-quality Soul Power began to be diluted and spread through the Soul Power pool, its quality gradually assimilated by the pool. However, Lin Feng also noticed that while this wisp of Soul Power was being diluted, it raised the quality of the surrounding Soul Power. Its quantity was simply too small to upgrade the entire Earth Attribute Soul Power pool. Still, it confirmed that high-quality Soul Power could indeed raise the quality of the whole. Knowing that was enough.

His Spiritual Power still needed time to recover, so Lin Feng did not cultivate any further. He lay down on his bed, intending to sleep. Sleep was the best way to restore Spiritual Power. Before falling asleep, he was still wondering how this Five Elements Cycle was supposed to work. The Soul Power of the five attributes in his Dantian was clearly separated, each operating independently. How could he make them cycle?

After recovering his Spiritual Power, Lin Feng continued studying how to make the Five Elements attribute Soul Power form a cycle. As he thought, he muttered, "Cycle. Cycle. Cycle." Then, as he repeated the word, inspiration suddenly struck. Huh? It seems there's a way I can try.

Once more, Lin Feng drew a wisp of Soul Power from each of the five Soul Power pools, deliberately stretching every wisp into something like five long threads. He first brought the front end of the Gold Attribute Soul Power into contact with the tail end of the Water Attribute Soul Power to begin the fusion. The fused Soul Power of Gold generating Water gradually spread forward from the tail end of the Water Attribute Soul Power thread.

At that moment, he used the front end of the Water Attribute Soul Power to contact the tail end of the Wood Attribute Soul Power. Likewise, the fused Soul Power of Water generating Wood began spreading forward from the tail end of the Wood Attribute Soul Power thread. Using the same method, Wood generated Fire, and Fire generated Earth. As the fused Soul Power of Fire generating Earth began spreading along the Earth Attribute Soul Power thread, Lin Feng hurriedly controlled the front end of the Earth Attribute Soul Power to touch the tail end of the Gold Attribute Soul Power thread, which had not yet completely fused into the Water Attribute Soul Power, forming a closed loop. (The author designed a concept diagram and placed it in the author's notes at the end of this chapter.)

Next, Lin Feng began observing the ring. As the mutually generating attributes connected end to end and began to fuse, they grew stronger and continued fusing forward. Gold generated Water, Water generated Wood, Wood generated Fire, Fire generated Earth, and Earth generated Gold. It went on without end, truly forming a cycle. Once this cycle formed, Lin Feng discovered that the fusion of the Five Elements attributes consumed less of his Spiritual Power than in his previous experiments.

As the cycle continued, the quality of each attribute's Soul Power also improved. However, since he had only drawn out a single wisp of Soul Power from each, the total amount was limited. As their quality continuously rose, the energy was about to run out, so Lin Feng hurriedly mobilized the Soul Power in his Dantian to replenish it. At this point, replenishing the Soul Power was no longer restricted to a single attribute. Any one of the five attributes—Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, or Earth—could be directly fed into the circulating loop.

As Soul Power continuously poured in, Lin Feng felt the circular ring of Five Elements rotation gradually expand outward from within his body, spreading around him. Within the expanded area, Lin Feng sensed an endless, unceasing flow of power.

In that instant, Lin Feng seemed to sense a trace of intent probing him, or perhaps a trace of intent making contact. But when he felt for it more carefully, it vanished again, as though it had never appeared at all. Since he could not sense it, he set it aside for now.

Lin Feng continued silently sensing the changes within the area. It could transform at any moment into any one of the Five Elements attributes, allowing him to use that attribute to unleash skills, attack, or defend. The Wood Attribute could even heal injuries and restore vitality. If allied soul masters were covered by the area, they could receive corresponding enhancements as well, though he would need to test it later to learn exactly how great they were.

Lin Feng knew that he had touched upon the prototype of the legendary Five Elements Domain, though it was only a Domain Prototype. A true Five Elements Domain should not only contain Five Elements Mutual Generation, but also Five Elements mutual restraint. The next stage after Five Elements Mutual Generation was creation, but the quality and quantity of his Soul Power, along with his Spiritual Power, were not yet sufficient to reach that stage. Five Elements mutual restraint, meanwhile, was destruction. He could not sense destruction within this Domain Prototype. He wanted to try reversing the Five Elements Cycle, but he could not do it yet. He did not know whether his method was wrong or his ability was insufficient.

With Lin Feng's current strength, he could only maintain the Domain Prototype within a three-meter radius centered on himself. Within those three meters, with his current strength as a Soul Ancestor, he could easily kill a Soul Emperor. Beyond three meters, he would either have to chase them down or rely on other methods.

Slowly, Lin Feng withdrew the Domain Prototype back into his body. It returned to its initial state: a circle formed by wisps of Soul Power, suspended above his Dantian and slowly rotating. It absorbed the Soul Power aura drifting from the attribute Soul Power pools below, maintaining the circle's rotation and preventing it from dispersing. Yet because it could only passively absorb the drifting Soul Power aura, it was difficult for it to grow stronger.

However, as the Five Elements ring rotated, an extremely faint and sparse aura with a pale milky-white tint gradually began to radiate from it. It diffused through Lin Feng's Dantian and entered his flesh and meridians. Lin Feng mobilized his Spiritual Power and focused it on the flesh that this aura had entered. After carefully sensing it, he discovered that the aura was strengthening his bloodline and enhancing his constitution. It was simply too weak, so the effects appeared very slowly—so slowly that without carefully probing deep with Spiritual Power for a long time, he would not notice even the slightest change.

Having concluded his exploration of the Five Elements Cycle, Lin Feng left the training room. It was not that he did not want to continue exploring the Five Elements Domain. After all, the Five Elements Domain was vast and profound; even among the great fantasy cultivation novels he had read in his previous life, it would have been a top-tier existence. How could he not want to delve deeper into it?

But a person needed self-awareness. With his current strength, being able to touch upon its prototype was already an enormous stroke of luck. How could he possibly reach the next stage with his current power?

Lin Feng had wanted to find his parents and share the gains from this period of seclusion, to share his joy. But then he suddenly remembered that his parents were both in seclusion, breaking through to Soul Douluo. They had no time to pay attention to him. Fine, then he could only be happy by himself for now.