Five Years! Initial Fusion!

At the bottom of the sea, within the Great Rift Valley.

Lei Wen had turned into an underwater statue.

For five whole years.

He had not moved an inch.

The surface of his body was even covered in a thin layer of marine microorganisms.

From afar, he looked like a reef encrusted with barnacles.

Yet beneath that lifeless exterior—

Lei Wen's spiritual sea was roiling with monstrous waves.

"Water is utmost softness."

"Ice is utmost sharpness."

Lei Wen's consciousness stood at the center of his spiritual sea.

He looked at the Ice Spear in his left hand, flickering with cold light, then at the water sphere in his right hand, constantly shifting forms.

The two things were like natural enemies.

Forcing them together would only result in an explosion.

It was like trying to fuse a raging flood with a blooming flame. No matter how one tried, they would clash.

"I've taken the wrong path."

Lei Wen thought to himself.

If he had been an ordinary native divine cultivator, he might truly have been stuck here.

Or perhaps he would need to spend hundreds or thousands of years slowly seeking out the point where they could merge.

But Lei Wen was different.

His mind held knowledge from another world.

"Who says water can't have sharpness?"

Lei Wen's thoughts stirred.

On that small broken planet from his previous life, there was a weapon called a high-pressure water jet.

When the speed of flowing water reached its limit and the pressure became terrifying—

Even the softest water could cut through gold and jade, more frightening than the sharpest alloy blade!

That was the sharpness of water.

That was a perfect point of fusion!

There was no need to turn water into ice.

Instead, he needed to give water the same penetrating force as ice.

"Ha!"

The spiritual sea trembled.

The water sphere in Lei Wen's right hand began spinning and compressing madly.

The originally pale-blue sphere grew increasingly transparent, while its volume shrank smaller and smaller.

From the size of a basketball to that of a fist, then to the size of a fingernail—

Until finally—

The water sphere turned into a dark-blue water needle as thin as a strand of hair!

The space around the water needle rippled with faint distortions, as though reality itself could not bear its existence.

"Now!"

Lei Wen's eyes blazed.

The Ice Spear in his left hand instantly shattered, turning into countless fragments of ice-law power.

Rather than colliding head-on—

They followed the spinning direction of that high-pressure water needle and silently merged into it.

Like throwing a grain of salt into a swirling whirlpool.

There was naturally resistance.

There was naturally rejection.

But in the end, it was all crushed apart by that force!

Boom!

A terrifying wave of energy exploded from Lei Wen's body.

Divine Power surged.

The thick layer of marine growth covering Lei Wen's body was instantly blasted into powder.

Lei Wen suddenly opened his eyes.

Two beams of icy light pierced through the dark seawater in an instant, shooting hundreds of meters away.

"It worked."

Lei Wen's voice was hoarse, but it carried irrepressible delight.

He had merely found that point and had not yet fully fused them, but this was already a good beginning.

Lei Wen raised a hand.

His index finger pointed forward.

There were no fancy movements, nor did he use much Divine Power.

Whoosh!

A faint purple water needle shot from his fingertip.

A hundred meters ahead, a black reef as huge as a small mountain was silently split open.

The cut was smooth as a mirror.

Even the seawater failed to react at first.

Only two seconds later—

The seawater that had been cut apart suddenly crashed together, producing a muffled explosion.

"So this is the power of fused profound mysteries?"

Lei Wen looked at his finger, his eyes gleaming.

It was only an initial fusion.

Yet its power had increased severalfold.

If the two were completely fused together—

He did not even dare imagine the power.

"Grrr..."

Just then—

A strange sound shattered the cultivator's reverie.

Lei Wen rubbed his stomach.

It was not his stomach growling.

Every cell and every inch of his soul was screaming madly with hunger.

Hunger!

That bone-deep starvation was enough to drive someone mad.

The process of fusing profound mysteries consumed an astonishing amount of mental power.

And hunger was the most basic of all bodily instincts.

Five years without food.

Though he would not starve to death as a divine cultivator, that sense of weakness and emptiness was more unbearable than death.

"Time to eat."

Lei Wen stood up, and every bone in his body cracked like firecrackers.

Outside the rift valley.

An enormous Icefrost Giant Dragon was lying on the seafloor.

It used its massive claws to toy with an Emperor Crab riddled with holes, beating the unfortunate armored sea creature until it foamed at the mouth.

"Five years already..."

"Master has been in seclusion for far too long."

"If he doesn't come out soon, this old dragon is going to starve to death."

Xiao Bai yawned.

It could naturally hunt for food itself.

But most of the magical beasts in the surrounding sea were at the Saint Domain level.

With Xiao Bai's current strength, it had no absolute confidence in taking them down alone.

For example, half a year ago—

Xiao Bai had fought a Sacred Beast.

It had been a Saint Domain peak deep-sea octopus.

If Xiao Bai had not run fast enough—

That mid-Saint Domain Icefrost Giant Dragon would have been left behind in the opponent's grasp.

"Roar!"

Suddenly—

A terrifying aura rose from the depths of the rift valley.

Immediately after—

A human figure shot out like a sharp arrow and appeared atop Xiao Bai's head in an instant.

That cold, razor-sharp pressure made Xiao Bai shiver from the depths of its heart.

"M-Master?"

Xiao Bai widened its dragon eyes, feeling that it could barely recognize Lei Wen anymore.

If Lei Wen five years ago had been an unsheathed blade, sharp and dazzling—

Then the current Lei Wen was like a bottomless cold abyss.

He looked calm.

Yet the moment a stone was thrown inside, not even the sound would be heard before it was swallowed whole.

It was terrifying.

"Let's go."

Lei Wen did not explain.

He leaped directly onto Xiao Bai's back.

"Where to?"

Xiao Bai asked instinctively.

Lei Wen licked his somewhat dry lips.

A faint purple glow quietly bloomed in his deep eyes.

It was the glint of a predator.

In the days that followed—

The Saint Domain magical beasts of this sea region faced a nightmare with no end in sight.

That human riding an Icefrost Giant Dragon spread through the sea like a plague.

There was no conversation.

There was no mercy.

The moment they met, they fought. Once the fight was over, they ate.

A venomous jellyfish hidden in the depths of a trench was skilled at creating illusions and trapping prey before delivering a fatal strike.

But it encountered Lei Wen.

Before its illusion could even fully unfold, it was scattered by the terrifying aura around Lei Wen.

The hunger abyss opened.

What venom, what illusion—everything was merely seasoning.

After devouring that jellyfish, Lei Wen's Destruction's Illusory Profound Mystery grew stronger.

A sea centipede with nine hearts possessed an undying body.

As long as even one heart remained, it could be reborn.

Lei Wen sneered.

He directly connected all nine of its hearts to its body and sent them together into the hunger abyss.

Let's see how you revive inside my stomach.

That feast caused Lei Wen's comprehension of the Water High-Pressure Profound Mystery to soar.

There was a massive clam whose shell was so hard that even Xiao Bai could not bite through it.

Lei Wen pointed at it.

The clam shell, capable of withstanding the attacks of Saint Domain experts, was directly pierced with a tiny hole.

For a time—

Time flew by amid endless slaughter and devouring.

Lei Wen was like an untiring reaper.

He did not need rest, nor did he need to settle his mind.

Every battle gave him a deeper understanding of the laws.

The visible changes made him completely lose himself in it.