A Life Planet No. 3 covered in ocher.
On the open ground outside the temple, where the mountain peaks had been leveled.
Jiang Luo wielded an iron sword with wild abandon. His movements were like rain falling from the sky, and each strike unleashed a torrential downpour.
He performed the first eight forms in succession: Drizzling Rain, Rainstorm Curtain, Water Curtain Sky, Endless Trickle, Impenetrable Drop, Silk Rain Thread, Flowing Water Never Stagnates, and Heartless Flow.
This sword technique was the very art he had brought into being over the past ten years: the Dripping Water Sutra!
It was the sword technique Ji Ning had studied when he was young in Desolate Era.
He had been stuck at Heartless Flow for a long time. Each time he drew his sword, his strike was as fleeting and unpredictable as a flash of lightning!
Yet he had never been able to break through to the final move—Dripping Water Pierces Stone!
He knew he had hit a bottleneck, and that breaking through wouldn't be easy. So, instead, he had set the sword technique aside for three years and focused on cultivating his state of mind.
That was until he had just brought the Nuwa Map into being. His soul was nourished constantly, and he had glimpsed a trace of the truths of the Water Origin Law within the map.
After comprehending the Nuwa Map for half a day, Jiang Luo had an epiphany. He picked up the Dripping Water Sutra again after leaving it untouched for three years.
Jiang Luo didn't rush to force out the ninth form. Instead, he practiced the first eight forms over and over.
On his ninth repetition, as his sword moves progressed from Flowing Water Never Stagnates to Heartless Flow, inspiration suddenly struck.
The sword in his hand seemed to come alive. Following the moves of Heartless Flow, it continued to change naturally.
As the sword technique evolved, it stirred a trace of the Water Origin Law, and the sword energy that had filled the sky like raindrops suddenly converged in one place.
It condensed into a crystal-clear drop of water!
A drop formed from countless strands of sword energy!
The ninth form, Dripping Water Pierces Stone.
The water droplet shot out like an arrow loosed from a bowstring, silently piercing the boulder at the edge of the cliff.
Jiang Luo smiled.
This was the true meaning of the Dripping Water Sutra: transforming gentle, ethereal flowing water into a drop capable of piercing stone.
It unleashed an indestructible attack through the Water Origin Law!
"Three years at a bottleneck, and then I broke through in a single day. Hard work really can't beat cheats!" Jiang Luo sighed.
Without contemplating the Nuwa Map, breaking through this bottleneck and touching the Origin Law would probably have required countless battles and decades, perhaps even a century, of refinement.
That was how it was for the geniuses stuck at the ninth level of Domain, a hair's breadth away from the Origin Law.
When all was said and done, even though he had trained the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map to the fifth stage, he still couldn't compare with a life-form like the Golden Horned Beast, which had peak bloodline potential.
Its life level alone was ten times that of a human.
And although the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map had made his body exceptionally strong, it had not yet done much to improve his Gene Level.
After reaching the fifth stage, his life level was now about one and a half times that of a human.
He estimated that he would need to reach the seventh stage before seeing a significant improvement.
I've already begun to grasp the ninth form, Dripping Water Pierces Stone, and touched the true meaning of a drop of water. At this rate, I should be able to cross the threshold of the Water Origin Law in a month at most.
Jiang Luo pondered silently. Although he could comprehend both the Water and Fire Origin Laws,
it was definitely best to focus on one for now. Once he crossed the threshold of a single law, he could break through to Star Level and join the ranks of peerless geniuses in the Gulun Universe Kingdom.
Even in the oldest Universe Country, there were only a few hundred Star Level cultivators who had crossed a law threshold.
"Hm?" Jiang Luo had been about to practice the Dripping Water Sutra once more when he suddenly froze.
Someone had emailed him, urging him to log into the Virtual Universe right away.
Virtual Universe, Gulun Sacred Island.
Jiang Luo left his villa and saw nearly a hundred geniuses from the Huanming Star Sector, all members of the Hall of Myriad Laws, gathered by the lake.
"Jiang Luo?" Suo Bu, whose long tail trailed behind him, called out as soon as he saw Jiang Luo. "Come on over. Lord Bu Li is here."
Over the past ten years on Gulun Sacred Island, Jiang Luo had made a few friends, most of them geniuses from the Huanming Star Sector like him.
Most of the geniuses on the island lived in groups according to their home regions. It was only human nature.
Bu Li? Jiang Luo spotted the familiar figure standing on the surface of the lake.
It was the silver-skinned old man who had guided him into the Sacred Hall at the Huanming branch hall back then.
Of course, over the past ten years, he had learned quite a bit from his friends.
Bu Li was indeed a World Lord, and a subordinate of Marquis Huanming, the ruler of the Huanming Star Sector. He held a distinguished position and was responsible for overseeing geniuses from the Huanming Star Sector who had joined the Huanming branch hall and the Gulun Sacred Hall.
Every few years, he came to the Sacred Island to inspect and check on the cultivation progress of the geniuses from the Huanming Star Sector.
"It's been five years since I last saw you. I'm here today to see what you've accomplished in your cultivation over the past few years, so I can report back to the ruler."
Bu Li's cold gaze swept over the nearly one hundred Star Level and Universe Level geniuses from the Hall of Myriad Laws. When he saw Jiang Luo, he frowned slightly.
Jiang Luo was the only Planetary Level member on the island, so Bu Li had naturally kept an eye on him.
The Gulun Kingdom Lord placed great importance on nurturing geniuses. Accordingly, the rulers of its directly governed star sectors and the leaders of its vassal states all took the cultivation of their own geniuses very seriously.
The Huanming Star Sector had always contributed a relatively large number of geniuses to the Gulun Sacred Hall. Of the nearly two hundred thousand geniuses in the Hall of Myriad Laws, ninety-five came from the Huanming Star Sector, accounting for five ten-thousandths.
Among the fifteen thousand star sectors in the Gulun Universe Kingdom, it had consistently ranked near the top.
This had always been a source of pride for the Huanming Star Sector.
It would be a disgrace if one of their people were expelled from the Sacred Hall.
And in Bu Li's eyes, Jiang Luo was the genius most likely to be expelled.
Planetary Level members who entered the Sacred Hall had to break through to Star Level within fifty years.
And to remain in the Hall of Myriad Laws, a Star Level genius needed to reach at least the seventh level of Domain.
"Jiang Luo, you haven't challenged the Myriad Laws River much in the past ten years, and you rarely attend lessons given by the World Lord instructors. Are you confident you won't be expelled forty years from now?"
Bu Li's voice carried a trace of anger. He truly felt Jiang Luo was wasting his potential.
It was indeed difficult for someone who entered the Hall of Myriad Laws at Planetary Level to reach the seventh level of Domain within fifty years. Many people didn't think much of Jiang Luo's prospects.
But there was a difference between failing after trying and giving up without a fight.
The other geniuses watched coldly from the sidelines.
As a Planetary Level cultivator, Jiang Luo was an oddity here. In the eyes of most geniuses, he was just a lucky fellow who had somehow made it into the Sacred Hall, and he would be expelled before long.
Jiang Luo himself didn't care much.
For most of the past ten years, he had been busy establishing a faith on those five Life Planets, so he had indeed neglected his cultivation.
Even when he did cultivate, most of his effort went into the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map.
Compared with spreading faith, nothing else mattered!
"Show me your Domain," Bu Li said coldly. "Let's see how much you've improved over the past ten years."
Jiang Luo remained calm and focused his mind.
"Boom!" "Boom!"
A massive fire dragon and a massive water dragon appeared out of thin air,
coiling around him.
Water-Fire Lotus! Jiang Luo's eyes narrowed.
Then the fire dragon became a leaf of flame, while the water dragon became a leaf of flowing water.
The leaf of flowing water was below, and the leaf of flame above.
Together, they resembled a millstone, rotating slowly and radiating a terrifying aura.
"What kind of Domain technique is this?" Bu Li exclaimed.
What shocked him wasn't that both of Jiang Luo's Domains had reached the third stage. It was that his dual Water and Fire Domains could even produce a technique like this!
Although they were only at the Third-Stage Domain level, their might was no weaker than that of the Fifth-Level Domain!
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