The instant the panel appeared.
Jiang Tian's consciousness was yanked from his body by an invisible hand and plunged into an endless void.
It wasn't like the starry sky he had seen last time.
This time, there was nothing.
No up or down, no left or right, no front or back.
No light, no sound, nothing to serve as a point of reference.
It was as if he had fallen into a black hole.
He drifted through that nothingness for an unknowable length of time.
Perhaps the span of a finger snap, perhaps the passage of seas turning into mulberry fields.
Then.
"Vmmm!"
A low hum rang out, like the first thunderclap when heaven and earth were born.
A ball of light appeared in the void.
The light came from nowhere. It was the void itself.
It slowly spread, like a drop of ink falling into clear water, or a stone tossed into a lake, sending out ring after ring of ripples.
Where the ripples passed, nothingness receded. Space appeared, time began to flow, and all things sprang to life.
Jiang Tian saw it.
He saw mountains and rivers take shape, plants and birds come into being, the sun, moon, and stars wheel through the sky, and spring give way to summer, autumn, and winter...
He saw the laws of this world.
Why did a river flow east? Why did a leaf fall in autumn? How could a seed grow into a towering tree...
"World-Shocking Wisdom..."
Jiang Tian murmured to himself.
He slowly opened his eyes. A glimmer of wisdom surfaced in their depths, then quickly sank from sight.
He had also gained another trait.
[Whenever the host possesses a golden trait, he will gain a new trait]
[Sword Heart Clarity (Purple)]
Jiang Tian slowly pushed open the door to the second-floor loft and stepped onto the open-air terrace. More than half of the sun had already sunk below the horizon.
A glimmer of wisdom lit the depths of his pupils once more as he stared straight at the sun.
In his eyes, the setting sun was no longer a simple golden disc. It was a colossal sphere woven from billions of golden threads, layered over one another and interlaced.
At the very center of the sun, a gigantic heart seemed to beat. Thump, thump, thump. With every beat, countless golden threads trembled together, scattering light and heat over the world.
Jiang Tian took a deep breath and began adjusting his breathing according to the instructions in the Sun Heaven-Burning Qi Gathering Method.
His breaths grew longer and deeper. Between each inhale and exhale, they somehow fell into an uncanny rhythm with the beating heart at the sun's center.
"Vmmm—"
The sun, far beyond the horizon, seemed to notice him.
The sunlight shining on him suddenly blazed several times brighter! The air before him turned a vast golden red.
He opened his mouth and drew in a deep breath.
The great mass of golden-red air poured into his belly.
"It worked..."
The corner of his mouth had only just curled upward when his expression changed. He couldn't help letting out a curse.
"Damn it!"
The Solar Qi he had gathered with the Sun Heaven-Burning Qi Gathering Method had barely entered his belly before it began rampaging!
What made Jiang Tian curse was that it had dissolved a small portion of the Gold Qi in his body.
He had gathered that bit of Gold Qi by harvesting two small mountains of gold.
His face twitched with heartache.
Jiang Tian's face turned pale, then green. He clenched his teeth and forced himself to steady his mind.
Solar Qi needed to be stored in the dantian, but this stuff was far too domineering. It wouldn't tolerate Gold Qi of a different level sharing its space.
A glimmer of wisdom flashed through his eyes as World-Shocking Wisdom began to work.
It took no more than a breath for him to think of a solution.
The five elements and the five viscera.
The liver governed wood, the heart governed fire, the lungs governed metal, the kidneys governed water, and the spleen governed earth.
If he stored Qi of different attributes in their corresponding organs, using each organ as a furnace, the five elements could coexist without interfering with one another.
But Solar Qi was too scorching and violent. He didn't dare move it recklessly into his heart.
The heart was the ruler of the five viscera. If anything went wrong, the consequences would be no joke.
With that in mind, he first suppressed the mass of Solar Qi that was baring its fangs at the Gold Qi within him, then slowly moved the Gold Qi toward his lungs.
The process went surprisingly smoothly, without a single obstacle.
But once all the Gold Qi had entered his lungs, things changed.
The Gold Qi seemed unhappy with its new home and began rampaging through his lungs.
Every time it crashed around, Jiang Tian's lungs and viscera throbbed with pain.
"Stay down!"
Jiang Tian's eyes glinted fiercely. He drew on an infinitesimal strand of Solar Qi and cautiously moved it toward his lungs.
This is my body. How could I let a little Gold Qi run wild?
The instant the Solar Qi entered his lungs, the Gold Qi was like a beast meeting its natural enemy. Its arrogance was immediately crushed.
Just a sliver of Solar Qi was enough to subdue the whole mass of Gold Qi.
"Cough, cough!"
Jiang Tian coughed violently and spat out a mouthful of blood. His face had gone pale, and a fine sheen of cold sweat covered his forehead.
Though the Gold Qi had been suppressed, its rampage had still damaged his lungs. The strand of Solar Qi had scorched them as well.
"Gold Qi can stay in my lungs. That proves 'the five viscera storing the five elements' is workable..."
Jiang Tian's eyes flickered slightly, and a thoughtful look appeared on his pale face.
But according to Elder Long-Brow, the Qi gathered by the Sharp Metal Brilliant Qi Gathering Method was of low grade.
If low-grade Qi acted up this badly when moved from the dantian to the lungs, what about the other four kinds of top-grade Qi?
The thought gave Jiang Tian a headache.
He shook his head, clearing away the distracting thoughts. While the sun still had a last sliver of light, he used the Sun Heaven-Burning Qi Gathering Method again and gathered a few more wisps of Solar Qi.
Golden streams of Qi drifted in from the horizon, slipped into his nostrils, and flowed into his dantian, merging with the mass of Solar Qi there.
After the sun had completely set, a full moon rose slowly into the night sky. Its cool light spilled like liquid silver, enveloping the entire Heavenly Fire Sect in a pale, silvery glow.
Jiang Tian's eyes shifted.
He really wanted to try using the Lunar Profound Heaven Qi Gathering Method to gather a wisp of Lunar Qi and move it into his kidneys. If he put it in his dantian, the two kinds of Qi would surely clash!
He used the Lunar Profound Heaven Qi Gathering Method and took a deep breath toward the full moon.
A thread of silvery Lunar Qi separated from the moonlight and drifted into his mouth.
Then he moved it toward his kidneys.
"Hss—!"
Jiang Tian sucked in a sharp breath. His entire lower back turned painfully cold, as if it had frozen solid!
Even his Martial Dao Sacred Body, powerful as it was, could barely endure the chill.
The veins on Jiang Tian's forehead bulged. He clenched his teeth and roared, "Get out of me!"
The kidneys were second only to the heart in importance. He couldn't let this thing run wild inside them.
He forced the strand of Lunar Qi out of his kidneys, opened his mouth, and spat it out.
"Whew—"
Jiang Tian clutched his lower back and let out a long, shaken breath of relief. Wisdom glimmered in his eyes as he murmured, "Could it be... my body isn't strong enough to withstand it yet?"
Perhaps because of his internal injuries and exhaustion, he drifted off to sleep as he pondered the problem.
The next day.
After waking, Jiang Tian sat cross-legged and used the Sun Heaven-Burning Qi Gathering Method to continue gathering Qi.
Solar Qi was inexhaustible. In just one morning, he filled his entire dantian.
Golden-red Solar Qi surged through his dantian like a golden-red sea, every wisp containing scorching, violent power.
According to Mu Sining, he could now begin compressing the Solar Qi into liquid form.
But Jiang Tian didn't act rashly.
He had a feeling—no, he was certain—that once the Solar Qi was compressed into liquid, moving it into his five viscera would be even more troublesome. The difficulty would increase by leaps and bounds.
But he also had a feeling that if he upgraded his Martial Dao Sacred Body to gold, the problem of "the five viscera storing the five elements" would resolve itself.
He also took the opportunity to cultivate the several fire-attribute techniques he had bought to perfection.
He wasn't sure if those techniques were too low-grade or if World-Shocking Wisdom was simply too absurd. He had only practiced briefly before bringing Flame Bullet and Magma Armor to perfection.
But he hadn't yet started on the Nine Heavens Sword Control Art. That technique required him to buy a Sword Pellet before he could control a sword.
Before long, afternoon arrived.
Jiang Tian reached the foot of Sky Cloud Peak and looked up at the towering mountain.
The peak speared into the clouds. Above the halfway point, it was shrouded in mist, its summit hidden from view.
His eyes flickered as he murmured, "Could I get a few more red traits this time... I hope it doesn't let me down!"
With that, he stepped onto the stone stairs leading up the mountain.
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