Fusion

The return trip took a few days longer than the outward journey. Since there was no need to hurry back, Bastian had the ship travel through the Dark Universe at its most economical speed.

Back in his Training Room, Bai Muye sat cross-legged and reviewed the life-or-death battle once more. He had already done so several times aboard the ship.

Only when he could no longer find any shortcomings in his performance did he stop and turn his consciousness inward, toward his Consciousness Sea.

"Xiao Si, show me the memories first..."

After a hearty meal, Xiao Si decided not to hold the way he'd been addressed against him this time. It extended its roots and poured Sweep's memories into Bai Muye's consciousness.

Sweep had been born into a branch of a Domain Lord family in a middle-level cosmic civilization within the Wild Peak Universe Kingdom.

His cultivation talent had first become apparent at the Star Rank. When he reached the eighth order of the Star Rank, he had chanced upon an insight into a domain, then smoothly advanced to the Universe Rank.

But after entering the Universe Rank, cultivation had become difficult. It took him several hundred years to reach the third order of the Universe Rank, and at that pace, breaking through to the fourth order seemed a distant prospect.

Later, Sweep had gone to visit the Domain Lord Rank elder of his family. When Sweep asked about his slow cultivation, the elder had offered him two options.

First, he could go to the Outer Battlefield. With a death rate exceeding ninety-five percent, anyone who managed to survive until retirement would grow immensely stronger, perhaps even surpassing the family's elder.

Second, he could join the Giant Axe Arena's life-or-death battles. After a thousand consecutive victories, he would earn the title of Giant Axe Warrior. After more than a thousand life-and-death fights against opponents of the same rank, as long as he survived, his chances of becoming a Domain Lord would be high.

Sweep had ultimately chosen the life-or-death battles. Sure enough, after dozens of fights, he had broken through to the fourth order of the Universe Rank. He had now cultivated all the way to the peak of the fifth order.

His greatest gains had been in his domain and his ability to wield a Telepathic Weapon. At the fifth order of the Universe Rank, with a Fourth-Order Domain, he had won more than seven hundred battles in a row.

The last memory was of a whip made of lightning piercing his brow, after which he had fallen into eternal darkness.

"Nothing surprising..."

Bai Muye had hoped to discover some incredible secret in Sweep's memories, like the location of a hidden treasure or information about some kind of inheritance.

But he had found nothing.

"Xiao Si, I have a question. If I fuse the parts of these memories concerning cultivation and combat, will his Wind Domain conflict with the Lightning Domain I cultivate?" Bai Muye asked uncertainly.

"Of course not." Xiao Si answered with complete confidence. "In the end, you have to bring all the laws together. You've only reached the domain stage. What could possibly conflict? Once you cultivate the Wind Domain, you can try fusing it into your existing Lightning Domain..."

"Domains can be fused?"

"Of course. If laws can be fused, then domains are even less of a problem... But that requires exceptionally precise control over your domains. It's not easy."

"If I fuse them, will I become a Psychic?"

Bai Muye had suddenly had the idea. Becoming a Psychic wouldn't be bad.

"You're getting ahead of yourself," Xiao Si scoffed. "You're only fusing memories. Afterward, you'll be able to cultivate a Wind Domain with ease, but that's not enough to make you a Psychic... Anyway, it doesn't matter whether you become a Psychic. As long as you have a Telepathic Weapon, wielding it within your domain is no different from what a Psychic does... And once you reach the World Lord level and wield it with World Force, it matters even less whether you're a Psychic..."

"Fine." Bai Muye shrugged. "Start separating the memories..."

"Put a little more effort into it this time. Don't botch it again..." He couldn't help reminding Xiao Si.

"Relax, relax." Xiao Si chuckled. "It was an accident last time... I guarantee it'll be fine this time."

It extended its roots and took... one second longer than last time, then pulled them back. "Done."

"That was only a little longer than last time?" Bai Muye couldn't help expressing his doubt.

"Heh. One second is a very short unit of time to the weak, but for the strong, a lot can happen in that time..."

After Xiao Si had shown off right in his face, Bai Muye ignored him and immersed his consciousness in the "purified" memories.

Time passed quickly. A little over a month later, Bai Muye opened his eyes.

He held out his right hand, palm up. The air in the Training Room suddenly began to move, then started swirling, as though a tiny tornado had formed around him.

The wind gradually died down. Pale-green secret patterns began to appear beside him, along with a few silvery-white ones, but he forcibly pushed the latter back.

The pale-green patterns gradually deepened, layering one over another until they formed a Wind Domain that covered only a tiny area.

Then silvery-white secret patterns began to appear within the green domain. But as soon as they emerged, the green domain trembled, showing signs of instability.

He withdrew the Wind Domain and unfolded his Lightning Domain, then tried to unfold the Wind Domain as well. The result was the same.

"I can't test this here..." Bai Muye looked around the modest-sized Training Room and shook his head. He wouldn't be punished if he accidentally damaged it, but the miserly Bastian might dock the twenty days of Virtual Universe time he'd just earned.

He connected his consciousness to the Consciousness Sensor and entered the Virtual Universe Martial Arena again.

He didn't rush to set an opponent. First, he experimented on his own, unfolding his Lightning Domain and then trying to fuse the Wind Domain into it. After more than a hundred attempts, he hadn't succeeded once.

Only after half a day did he finally manage to work the Wind Domain into the Lightning Domain. The combination was crude, though. He tested it and shook his head repeatedly.

"This combination is too clumsy. The domain's power has gone down instead of up."

After experimenting on his own for a day, he finally asked the Martial Arena to set an opponent.

"Set the opponent to have a Fourth-Order Lightning Domain and a Fourth-Order Wind Domain, with the two domains perfectly fused..."

The moment the opponent appeared and unfolded its domain, Bai Muye's spirits lifted. He carefully studied the pale-green secret patterns that enveloped him and focused on sensing them.

"It's about fifty percent stronger in pressure and restraint than a single Fourth-Order Domain..." he assessed, then unfolded his Lightning Domain and clashed with the opponent's Fusion Domain.

"I'm being suppressed pretty badly..."

The opponent attacked. Bai Muye wasn't trying to defeat it; he wanted to study how it fused the two domains, so he stayed on the defensive.

But under the domain's suppression, he couldn't focus. Distracted, he was soon killed by his opponent.

"Looks like I was reaching too far..."

He shook his head and dutifully requested a new opponent.

"Set the opponent to have a First-Order Lightning Domain and a First-Order Wind Domain, with the two domains fused to an ordinary degree, and make it first order of the Universe Rank."

With his own fifth-order Universe Rank strength, he could defeat a first-order opponent even if its domain suppressed him.

Sure enough, the opponent's fused domain was much easier for Bai Muye to study. Its many methods and techniques for fusing the domains opened his eyes and inspired him with countless new ideas.

"Set the opponent to have a First-Order Lightning Domain and a First-Order Wind Domain, with the two domains perfectly fused..."

"Set the opponent to have a Second-Order Lightning Domain and a Second-Order Wind Domain, with the two domains fused to an ordinary degree..."

Whenever he gained some insight and succeeded in testing it in the Virtual Universe, he would leave and return to reality to experiment on a small scale.

He had no choice. His time in the Virtual Universe was limited, so he needed to save as much of it as possible for cultivation.

After half a month of "studying" in the Virtual Universe, he was finally able to fuse the Wind and Lightning Domains fairly well. Though the fusion wasn't perfect, it increased the domain's power by about forty percent.

But as he looked at the pale-green secret patterns beside him, he frowned. Everything about him was still under someone else's control. It would be best to keep this as a trump card; otherwise, it might invite trouble.

So he spent the next few days reducing the Wind Domain's share of the Fusion Domain, incorporating only a small part and keeping the domain's color true to the Lightning Domain.

Though its power increased by only five percent, he could increase the degree of fusion whenever he wanted.

Nine months after his last life-or-death battle, the Martial Arena arranged a new opponent.

The second battle had arrived.