By the same reasoning, Simon inferred that the remaining Wind Element Profound Mysteries—Profound Mystery of Sound Waves and Profound Mystery of Sound Music forming the Profound Truth of Sound, Wind Movement Technique and Clone Technique forming Wind Body Technique, and the Profound Mystery of Dimension—were all different manifestations of wind elemental essence. Once he found those specific manifestations, he would find and comprehend the corresponding Profound Mysteries.
After reaching this conclusion, Simon felt that his understanding of the Law of Wind had deepened even further.
The Law of Water followed the same pattern.
Sure enough, within the elemental laws, the elements themselves were the most crucial.
With that thought, countless possibilities for fusing the Profound Mystery of Wind Element with the Profound Mysteries of Speed and Slowness burst forth in Simon's mind. With the right direction guiding him, Simon easily eliminated a vast number of impossible fusion methods. In the end, amid countless chaotic possibilities, he found the one correct answer.
At last, after understanding the core of the elemental laws, Simon spent only half a day successfully fusing the Profound Mystery of Wind Element with the Profound Mysteries of Speed and Slowness.
"Although I always knew that the basic elemental Profound Mysteries were important within the elemental laws, knowing was one thing. Only after truly comprehending them did I understand why. Fortunately, I didn't realize it too late. From now on, all law fusions should use the basic elemental Profound Mysteries as a link. Perhaps only then can one travel farther along the path of the laws."
Simon was glad for today's discovery. Compared to it, fusing three Profound Mysteries was merely a minor gain.
His Water Element Divine Clone also promptly adjusted its approach, prioritizing the fusion of Profound Mysteries compatible with Water Element Essence, such as Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness and Sharpness of Ice, while using Water Element Essence to seek their points of compatibility.
Simon had now fused more than half of Water Element Essence with Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness, and Sharpness of Ice had likewise fused more than halfway with Water Element Essence.
But Simon was in no hurry to continue fusing them. Instead, he patiently analyzed the commonalities between Water Element Essence and the other Profound Mysteries, trying his best to find the point of compatibility between Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness and Sharpness of Ice.
As Simon delved deeper into his research, he truly discovered that Mist Illusion brought the vaporization and dissipation aspect of water elemental essence to its utmost extreme.
The Profound Mystery of Round Softness brought the gentle yet resilient aspect of water elemental essence to its utmost extreme.
Sharpness of Ice brought the hard and icy aspect of water elemental essence to its utmost extreme.
Although the two were completely opposite manifestations of water elemental essence, both could be perfectly transformed through Water Element Essence. Based on this, Simon successfully found the faint, nearly imperceptible connection between them.
After grasping this point, Simon successfully made Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness compatible with Sharpness of Ice.
Continuing his deductions, Simon realized that the Water Body Technique, which he had yet to begin learning, manifested water elemental essence in the form of a body. To achieve that, the soul first had to completely fuse with water elemental essence, then the body had to fuse with it, and finally, by completely elementalizing both body and soul, one could reach the realm of merging oneself with water.
At that thought, Simon impatiently tried to first make his soul compatible with Water Element Essence. Because his soul was exceptionally powerful and he was extremely familiar with water elemental essence, after a few attempts, he successfully found a way to fuse his soul with Water Element Essence.
Simon then continued trying to fuse his body with Water Element Essence. With the experience of fusing his soul, this time Simon needed only one attempt to merge his body into water elemental essence.
Then, his soul and body simultaneously attempted to merge into Water Element Essence.
With his previous experience, Simon likewise merged both body and soul into Water Element Essence in a single attempt. This also meant that he had successfully entered the Water Body Technique.
Because beginning the Water Body Technique was closely related to Water Element Essence, not long after entering the technique, Simon successfully made it compatible with Water Element Essence.
With that, Simon had successfully made Water Element Essence mutually compatible with Mist Illusion, Sharpness of Ice, and Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness within the Law of Water!
Now, only the sole Profound Mystery of Water Ripple remained unlearned in the Water Element.
Simon was not in a hurry about that. After all, biting off more than one could chew would only lead to indigestion. What he had comprehended so far was already enough to keep him occupied for quite a while.
Simon felt that today had truly been a good day. Not only had he successfully fused three Wind Element Profound Mysteries, entered the Water Body Technique, and made four major Water Element Profound Mysteries completely compatible, but he had also made the newly learned Water Body Technique compatible with Water Element Essence in one stroke.
Once the Water Body Technique became compatible with the other three Profound Mysteries, Simon's Law of Water would have the possibility of completely fusing five Profound Mysteries.
Eve of the Assessment
All of this was thanks to his realization today of the importance of the basic elemental Profound Mysteries.
Although Simon had already comprehended both the Profound Mystery of Wind Element and Water Element Essence to completion, judging from the current situation, his understanding of these two basic elemental Profound Mysteries still remained superficial and insufficiently deep. There was still much left to excavate.
And those undiscovered areas were precisely where Simon would make future progress in the laws.
This made Simon sigh at the wonder of the world of laws and feel even more keenly how small he was.
The more he progressed, the more Simon felt that he knew too little.
This also allowed him to remain humble at all times. He would not become complacent over even a small amount of progress, nor would he become discouraged by temporary stagnation.
It was precisely this calmness without arrogance or impatience that allowed Simon to maintain a steady state of mind.
Even when he had previously faced the encirclement of more than a thousand Midgods, he had felt no fear.
Because he knew that it was not those thousand-plus Midgods who had surrounded him. It was he who had surrounded those thousand-plus Midgods.
It was also this unflappable bearing amid chaos that deeply fascinated Fanny.
Even though Simon had not displayed all of his strength, Fanny still felt that he was unfathomable. Anyone who underestimated him would surely meet a bad end. Those bandits were living examples.
Today's gains had already been considerable, so Simon stopped cultivating and instead walked into the courtyard to admire the flowers and relax.
It was early morning, and Fanny was also in the courtyard admiring the flowers.
She was quite surprised when she saw Simon. "Eh? Simon, you only cultivated for one day this time? I thought you would cultivate straight through until the day of the Fiend assessment."
"Cultivation needs both tension and relaxation. Besides, yesterday's gains were already substantial. Taking a rest and relaxing is good too."
"What kind of gain made even you think it was substantial?"
"I was just about to share it with you. Fanny, you cultivate the Law of Fire, so you should know how important the Profound Mystery of Fire Element is, right?"
"I do. My grandfather is a super expert who cultivates the Fire Element. He repeatedly emphasized that the Profound Mystery of Fire Element was very important, and he explained much of his understanding to me. But I always understood only half of it. I couldn't fully comprehend his insights either."
Fanny said with distress.
"So you already knew. Yesterday, I came to deeply understand the importance of the basic elemental Profound Mysteries. My strength made a major breakthrough, and I also gained a clear goal for future cultivation. That's why I said the gains were substantial."
"I see. My grandfather once said that anyone who could discover the importance of the basic elements on their own would not have low achievements in the future. He discovered it when he tried to fuse Profound Mysteries during his Midgod stage. From then on, he entered a fast lane of rapidly increasing strength. I really envy people like you."
Fanny also knew that there was an insurmountable gap between her talent and that of top geniuses, but when it actually happened, she still felt a little sad.
However, she was also very happy that Simon could understand this principle now. It proved that Simon had the potential to become a super expert.
Even if my talent for cultivation isn't good enough, having a good eye is enough, isn't it?
Fanny thought happily.
"Actually, there's no need to envy anyone. Everyone has their own path. Until the very end, no one can say whose path is the right one. Maybe they're all right, or maybe they're all wrong. What matters is persevering."
Simon sighed.
He also did not know whether the path he had discovered was ultimately right or wrong. He could only test it through practice.
He believed that even Paragons of the same element had their own unique understandings of the laws.
After all, every life was unique. What suited oneself was what mattered.
After having a hearty breakfast with Fanny in the dining hall, Simon returned to his room and continued consolidating his insights.
With the Fiend assessment drawing near, every additional bit of strength meant another bit of confidence. After all, he still did not know the specific contents of the assessment. Even if its difficulty exceeded expectations, as long as he was strong enough, he could handle it calmly.
Although he had fused the Profound Mystery of Wind Element with Speed and Slowness, he had yet to develop a new technique.
Over the following period, Simon refined Sigh of the Wind once more.
After the Speed Profound Truth and the Profound Mystery of Wind Element completely fused, both Simon's movement speed and attack speed became noticeably faster. His attack trajectories also became more elusive, while their destructive power soared along with them.
After Simon's focused experiments, several days later, version 2.0 of Sigh of the Wind was finally born. When unleashed with full force using Fusion Divine Power, a single sword strike actually tore open Hell's space!
Although it was merely a narrow spatial crack a few centimeters long, it represented that Simon had reached the threshold of a Six-Star Fiend in terms of material attacks.
One had to know that even if Fanny unleashed her material attack with all her strength, she still could not tear open Hell's space.
The Wind Element truly was one of the laws most adept at material attacks.
With this move, Simon now had the capital to exchange blows with powerful experts in terms of attack power.
Next, Simon continued refining Sigh of the Wind until its attack power could no longer be increased. By then, half a month had passed.
Over that half month, both Simon's main body and Wind Element Divine Clone studied offensive ultimate techniques. At the same time, they incidentally increased their speed by nearly double, with gratifying results.
The Water Element Divine Clone had not been idle either. It was fully focused on fusing Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness with Water Element Essence. After such a long period of deductions and insights, especially following its earlier realization, those two Profound Mysteries had now fused to their final bottleneck.
The material defense and soul defense produced on that basis both improved tremendously.
In the blink of an eye, another ten days passed. On this day, someone knocked on the small courtyard's gate.
Fanny opened the door.
"Hello, I am Tuwen, a staff member of the Fiend Castle. Did you register for the Fiend assessment?"
A male Midgod wearing standard black armor asked.
"Yes, it's us. My companion is still cultivating. Please wait a moment."
As she spoke, Fanny ran back into the courtyard and woke Simon, who was immersed in cultivation.
The two came to the gate and showed Tuwen their Fiend Badges. Tuwen accepted them and carefully verified them before speaking.
"The participants for the Fiend assessment have been gathered. Please assemble in the first-floor hall of the Fiend Castle before nine o'clock tomorrow morning. The specific mission details and other matters requiring attention will be announced then. Remember to bring your Fiend Badges. I wish you a pleasant life and a safe return."
After saying that, Tuwen turned and left without the slightest delay, seemingly in a hurry to notify the others.
"It's finally here! Simon, we're going to take the assessment. Are you scared?"
"Don't I have Lady Fanny protecting me? What do I have to be afraid of?"
"Haha, that's right! With a Five-Star Fiend-level expert like me here, a mere One-Star Fiend assessment will be easy as pie. Don't worry. Follow me, and I guarantee you'll pass the assessment!"
Hearing Simon flatter her, Fanny was delighted, and her habit of boasting flared up again.
"Hehe, then I'll be relying on Lady Fanny." Simon also played along with Fanny. The two looked at each other and burst into laughter.
Neither Simon nor Fanny worried at all about tomorrow's assessment, even though rumors outside claimed that the Fiend assessment had an extremely low success rate and an extremely high death rate.
But that was only in comparison to ordinary Midgods. With the strength of the two of them, as long as they were not sent to attack a Seven-Star Fiend, there would be no danger.
On the night before the assessment, Simon practiced and refined his defensive ultimate technique once more, ensuring that he could activate it immediately in a critical moment. At the same time, he took out the Wind-Annihilation Longsword that had accompanied him for centuries and carefully wiped it down, preparing for the upcoming assessment.
Back then, Simon had used this very longsword to kill Elodi and Lachlan. Now, this old companion was accompanying him as he ventured through Hell.
As if it could sense its master's restrained battle intent, the Wind-Annihilation Longsword trembled and rang incessantly, already eager to drink the blood of enemies.
The several battles since arriving in Hell had allowed the Wind-Annihilation Longsword to bathe in the blood of many God-Level beings, and its spirituality had grown increasingly stronger.
Feeling the battle intent transmitted from the blade, Simon looked forward even more to the upcoming Fiend assessment.
Early the next morning, the incredibly excited Fanny knocked on Simon's door, eagerly insisting that they leave early so they would not miss the time.
Simon looked outside and saw that the Blood Sun had not even risen yet. It was no later than six o'clock, and the trip from here to the Fiend Castle took less than half an hour. Even if they went later, how could they possibly be late?
But Simon did not expose her. Instead, he cooperatively got up early and packed his things.
Whenever Fanny encountered something she had never experienced before, she always acted like a curious child. During the previous million-plus years, she had lived in the greenhouse created by her family and had never experienced such things. To her, all of this was so novel.
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