Aiming for the Extreme, First Cultivation

Of course, there is another crucial point: if the innate attribute of a martial soul can approach or reach the ultimate level, it naturally cannot be countered.

This point was proven to the fullest by Shui Bing'er when she battled Tang San in the original work.

Even though Tang San had consumed immortal herbs and possessed the ability to be immune to fire and ice, he was still suppressed completely by Shui Bing'er's near-ultimate ice. The so-called immunity was rendered nothing more than a facade.

Ultimate attributes are enough to ignore the rules.

Unfortunately, Huo Wu was not so lucky.

Her pride and joy—her flames—hardly caused any effective damage in front of Tang San. One could even say the power of her flames was inferior to the grass chicken martial soul of Ma Hongjun.

The reason for this is simple: the purity of her attribute was insufficient.

If one were to divide the ultimate elemental attributes into four clear tiers:

The first tier is the legendary "Ultimate Attribute," such as Ultimate Fire or Ultimate Ice. They are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns, one in ten thousand.

The second tier is the "Near-Ultimate Attribute." Although not perfect, it is far beyond the mundane and is only found in true top-tier martial souls, specifically those with a single elemental attribute.

Then, the third tier is the category Huo Wu belongs to.

The innate attribute brought about by a martial soul mutation is considered high-tier, far exceeding ordinary fire-attribute spirit masters, yet there remains an insurmountable chasm between it and true top-tier geniuses.

The fourth tier, naturally, is the most common and ordinary elemental attribute.

And his current situation is so similar to Huo Wu's.

Also an innate attribute brought about by a beneficial martial soul mutation, the light attribute inherent in the Light and Shadow martial soul can, at best, only be counted in the "high-tier" category.

It is more than enough to deal with average spirit masters, but if he were to encounter a spirit master burdened with a top-tier attribute, his fate would likely be no better than Huo Wu's.

At that time, his light attribute might just be a joke in front of the opponent.

It seems his primary goal from now on is to do everything in his power to purify and evolve his light attribute until he can strike at that ethereal "Ultimate Light."

Otherwise, let alone pursuing further progress, he likely wouldn't even have the qualifications to be a true opponent to such people.

With this thought, the fog in Ye Feng's heart was completely cleared away, and the path ahead became clearer than ever before.

Slowly retracting the Light and Shadow martial soul, a wave of intense exhaustion instantly swept over him—the inevitable reaction after such a long period of high mental concentration.

Ye Feng could no longer hold on; he collapsed onto the crude wooden bed, and the moment his head touched the pillow, he fell into a deep sleep, snoring loudly.

In the blink of an eye, two months passed by in a flash.

During these two months, Ye Feng's life was exceptionally fulfilling.

By day, he was the most diligent waiter at the Red Romance Hotel, serving tea and water, welcoming guests, and performing his humble duties without a single flaw.

By night, he transformed into the most studious student, pestering Manager Wang Dali to help him chew through the common language of the Douluo Continent, one character at a time.

Wang Dali also looked at this genius waiter with seven levels of innate spirit power in a new light, seeing it as an investment in the future, and taught him with endless patience.

Relying on the soul and comprehension of an adult from his past life, combined with this desperate drive, Ye Feng finally managed to move past the category of being illiterate and could read books independently.

Today, for him, was a day worthy of being recorded in history.

The night was deep and quiet.

Ye Feng took the Basic Meditation Method, which had become somewhat frayed from his constant flipping, out of his inner pocket.

This was the only cultivation resource he had managed to get from Su Yuntao, and it was incredibly precious.

He did not rush to begin; instead, he sat cross-legged on the bed, using the moonlight filtering through the window to read it carefully from beginning to end, three times over.

Every character, every sentence, and every circulation route for his meridians was pondered repeatedly until it was deeply branded into the depths of his mind, ensuring there wouldn't be the slightest error.

"Hoo..."

Exhaling a long, stale breath, Ye Feng put the booklet away solemnly and then slowly closed his eyes.

According to the general outline at the beginning of the meditation method, the first step of cultivation is to "cleanse the dust of thought and sense the heavens and earth."

In plain terms, it meant calming the heart and then attempting to perceive the energy drifting in the air.

For Ye Feng, whose mental state was already far beyond his peers, this was not a difficult task.

Emptying his brain and discarding all distracting thoughts, his entire consciousness gradually sank into a boundless darkness.

Time passed second by second.

A quarter of an hour.

Half an hour.

An hour.

The surrounding air seemed to have no changes, and that so-called "heaven and earth energy" was ethereal and left no trace to be found.

For an ordinary person who had never come into contact with cultivation, wanting to sense spirit power on the first try was no different from a pipe dream.

This required the work of grinding a pestle into a needle; it required persistent patience.

He continued to immerse himself in the meditative state, his consciousness like a lone boat floating in a dead, black ocean, attempting over and over again to establish that faint connection with the outside world.

He did not know how much time had passed, just as his spirit was about to reach its limit and his consciousness began to drift, suddenly—

In that eternal, unchanging darkness, a minuscule, almost imperceptible speck of golden light flickered without warning.

Although it vanished in a flash, it was instantly captured by the highly focused mental energy of Ye Feng!

That's it!

Ye Feng's mind shook violently, all his consciousness condensing frantically at that moment as he probed toward the direction where the speck of light had appeared.

Sure enough, a moment later, another golden speck emerged.

Following that, a third, a fourth...

More and more golden specks began to surface in the dark world he "saw"; they were like fireflies on a summer night—sparse and faint, yet truly existent.

These were the energy particles of heaven and earth!

Success!

Ye Feng suppressed the wild joy in his heart and immediately began to attempt the second step recorded in the meditation technique: "Guiding Qi into the Body."

He cautiously split off a wisp of mental energy, like an invisible tentacle, and slowly, tentatively, reached out toward the golden speck closest to him.

The speck seemed to have a consciousness of its own; sensing the approach of the mental energy, it gave a slight sway and dodged away.

Ye Feng was not surprised; he once again manipulated his mental energy, wrapping it around the speck even more gently.

Once.

Twice.

Ten times.

Over a hundred times.

This tedious process tested the limits of patience and control.

Finally, through unremitting effort, the golden speck seemed to give up its resistance and was successfully "stuck" by his mental energy.

Ye Feng dared not be the least bit careless; he immediately followed the path of the cultivation technique, using his mental energy to pull this hard-won first energy speck slowly toward his body.

This process was even more difficult than he had imagined.

The speck felt as heavy as a Thousand Jun; with every fraction of movement, Ye Feng felt his mental energy being consumed violently.

Fine beads of sweat seeped from his forehead, and his face turned somewhat pale.

Closer.

Even closer.

The moment that golden speck finally touched his skin.

"Hum!"

An indescribable sensation of coolness instantly spread from the point of contact, as if a long-parched riverbed had finally received its first drop of sweet rain.

Ye Feng's spirit lifted, and without hesitation, he immediately followed the instructions of the meditation technique, guiding this extremely faint wisp of energy to crash toward the first meridian gate of his body!