Chapter 46: Yin Yang Five Elements
"This is a Deep Sea Demon Whale with a million years of cultivation. It's incredibly powerful, no weaker than the Beast God. I had to use the Rakshasa Demon Scythe to finally kill it."
At the mention of that battle, Ye Xishui's expression turned grave. It had been incredibly difficult, and she had nearly been killed instead. Recovering from her injuries alone had taken more than a month.
"A million-year-old Deep Sea Demon Whale."
Yang Hao understood. It had to be the Demon Empress from ten thousand years later.
"And this Reverse Scale of the Beast God's, which contains his power of Ultimate Darkness, is perfect for strengthening the dark attribute of your Soul Bone.
"Last is this Ice Fire Spring Water. It contains powerful forces of Ultimate Ice and Ultimate Fire, which can temper your Soul Bone. Once you've devoured and refined the Soul Bones from those two Ice Fire Immortal Grasses, you should be able to absorb it."
Ye Xishui took out a bloodstained, shattered Dragon Scale, then pointed to the old blood pool.
Only then did Yang Hao notice that the blood pool had become a pool of Ice Fire Spring Water. Clearly, it had come from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
"The power in this water is so strong. It even feels holy."
Feeling the power within the pool, Yang Hao couldn't help yearning for it.
"This is one of the things we gained at the Place of Becoming God. The Immortal Grasses there were all over a hundred thousand years old. I hunted them for their Soul Rings, and you can devour their Soul Bones.
"There was also a Divine Thought left behind by Sea God Tang San at the bottom of the spring. We destroyed it, and the Sea God's Light that separated from it was absorbed into this water.
"Like the Angel God, the Sea God possesses three Ultimate Attributes: Water, Holy, and Light. They're perfect for your Soul Bones and Holy Sword Martial Soul to absorb."
Ye Xishui explained.
They had gained an enormous amount this time—not only the Soul Rings and Soul Bones from those Immortal Grasses, but also the remnants of two Dragon Kings' souls and bodies at the very bottom of the spring. She planned to use them as the foundation for creating her tenth Divine Ring.
Of course, they had paid a heavy price, too. To destroy the Divine Thought the Sea God had left there, the Angel God and Rakshasa God had both expended Divine Power to activate two Main God artifacts. Only then had they managed to suppress and destroy it.
"Devour them here. I'll keep an eye on you."
She motioned for him to devour and refine them on the spot. She wasn't at all certain that the Soul-Devouring Demon Spider Soul Bone would evolve successfully.
According to the Godhood Notations, Sea God Tang San had relied primarily on the baptism of Divine Power during his God Trial to rapidly evolve his Eight Spider Lances Soul Bone into a God-Level Soul Bone. The few spiders he had devoured wouldn't have been nearly enough to achieve that on their own.
Hao'er's Soul-Devouring Spider Leg Bone was also very different from those Eight Spider Lances. It had gained a full ten elemental attributes: Light, Darkness, Wind, Thunder, Ice, Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. It had them all.
Its evolution would surely demand even more, and be much more difficult. It might even be dangerous.
She had to keep a close watch.
"Mm."
Yang Hao nodded. First, he devoured the Gold of Life, allowing the Gold of Life within his Soul-Devouring Spider Leg Bone to grow considerably. He used it to temper the Spider Leg Bone once more, then began devouring the other Soul Bones.
He started with the Soul Bones from the Immortal Grasses at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, then moved on to the rest. Finally, he devoured Di Tian's Reverse Scale, strengthening the Spider Leg Bone's dark attribute until it evolved into Ultimate Darkness.
That was the power of devouring: it could directly plunder and assimilate. This was especially true after Yang Hao had added the Chaos Attribute, which had greatly increased the Soul Bone's capacity.
Of course, it was still an external force. Perfectly mastering it would be difficult and would require prolonged study and adjustment.
"Teacher, what was the unexpected gain you mentioned back in the Star Dou Forest?"
After getting used to the evolved Soul Bone, Yang Hao remembered what his teacher had said about an unexpected gain.
"This is it. It contains an exceptionally powerful force of the Chaos Attribute."
Ye Xishui took a Soul Beast out of her Active Storage Soul Tool. It was a black-and-white bird.
A Chaos Yin Yang Bird!
Looking at the black-and-white bird, Yang Hao immediately thought of the Chaos Yin Yang Bird that would appear in the future.
Although he didn't know whether it was the same one, the power of Chaos and Yin Yang it carried was undeniably real.
The Yin Yang Chaos Bird lineage had come into being when the remnants of the Chaos Yin Yang Two Energies left over from the birth of heaven and earth had taken root in birds. Only one existed on a planet at any given time.
He couldn't believe his teacher had captured one of these things. No wonder Di Tian had gone berserk and even wounded her.
Looking at the Yin Yang Chaos Bird, Yang Hao came up with a bold idea.
He acted at once, driving the Soul-Devouring Spider Leg Bone into the Yin Yang Chaos Bird's body and devouring it along with the Chaos Yin Yang Two Energies inside.
He immediately entered the Ice Fire Spring Water and circulated the forces of Ice and Fire through his Soul Bone to temper his body.
The many Soul Bones from the Immortal Grasses he had devoured earlier naturally included those from the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot. By devouring them, the Spider Leg Bone had effectively consumed the two Immortal Grasses themselves.
That meant Yang Hao could temper his body with Ice and Fire, just as God King Tang had done back in the day.
But that wasn't all. The Spider Leg Bone absorbed the power in the Ice Fire Spring Water—power left behind after the Ice Fire Dragon Kings' Divine Power had been diluted. It was true God-level power, a great boon to the Spider Leg Bone.
Even more importantly, the water contained the Sea God's Light, which had merged with God King Tang's Divine Thought. It bore three Ultimate Attributes: Holy, Light, and Water. That was the true nature of the Sea God's Light.
Yang Hao took out his Holy Sword Martial Soul and tempered it in the spring, absorbing the Holy Attribute at the same time.
He also took out his Demon Blade Martial Soul and God-Slaying Spear Martial Soul to temper them in the Ice Fire Spring Water.
Ye Xishui quietly watched from the side. Only after seeing that her disciple's tempering was going smoothly did she finally relax.
But Yang Hao was no one to sit still. He started a bold experiment.
He separated and broke off the Spider Legs with the attributes of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth, then folded and embedded them around the base of the Soul-Devouring Spider Leg Bone. The five attributes formed a cycle of generation.
Water generated Wood, Wood generated Fire, Fire generated Earth, Earth generated Metal, and Metal generated Water. The Soul Power of the five attributes circulated in a cycle of mutual generation.
He also drew out the Chaos Yin Yang Two Energies he had devoured earlier, compressing them into two yin-yang fish eyes at the base of the Soul Bone. The Light and Darkness attributes transformed into a Taiji diagram to carry them, forming a complete Taiji symbol.
And he wasn't finished. He guided the Yin Yang Attributes to fuse with the Five Elements Attributes, dividing each element into its Yin and Yang aspects: Yin Metal and Yang Metal, Yin Wood and Yang Wood, Yin Water and Yang Water, Yin Fire and Yang Fire, and Yin Earth and Yang Earth.
For this, he drew inspiration from the future evolution of Tang Yuge's Five Elements Qilin Martial Soul.
In the future, Tang Yuge would use the power of a Yin Yang Chaos Bird to evolve her Five Elements Attribute into Chaos Five Elements. Her potential was practically limitless.
Yang Hao wanted to follow that same path, evolving the Soul-Devouring Spider Leg Bone into a true Chaos Attribute.
However, this forced inlaying was unstable. Yang Hao already had a countermeasure: he hadn't yet devoured the Demon Empress's Million-Year Soul Bone.
At the same time, he circulated the Five Qi Converging to Origin technique from the Mysterious Heaven Skill, guiding the power of the Five Elements Soul Bone to resonate with his five organs and strengthen their Five Elements Attributes.
The Mysterious Heaven Skill included the techniques of Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown and Five Qi Converging to Origin, but they could only be mastered after reaching a high level.
With his Golden Finger-enhanced comprehension, Yang Hao had grasped the secrets within. Now, he was using the power of the Soul Bone's Five Elements to cultivate the technique, binding the Soul Bone's power more closely to his body.
Then he guided the Yin Yang Attributes into himself as well, strengthening and nourishing his own Chaos Yin Yang Two Energies.
Once the power of the Five Elements and the five organs' Five Qi had fused and stabilized, the five detached Five Elements Spider Legs quickly grew back, aided by the powerful life force of the Gold of Life.
Without pausing, he took out a secret-technique Soul Bone that carried the aura of death.
He had found this secret-technique Soul Bone in the Holy Spirit Cult's reserves. At first, he had only wanted to study the power of death, but now he had a better idea.
He used one of the Spider Leg Bones in the second row to devour and assimilate it, gaining the Death Attribute. Then he brought out the Lovesick Heartbreak Red Soul Bone he had deliberately saved and used another Spider Leg Bone in the second row to devour it, gaining the Life Attribute.
Thus, the Spider Legs in the second row formed a structure balancing life and death. It would greatly help him study the powers of life and death, whose limits were incredibly high.
Chapter 47: Chaos Eight Wings
Yang Hao used Metal Control to make the rare metals he had long ago selected and nurtured quickly attach to the Spider Legs, matching each to its corresponding attribute.
For instance, he fused Cold Heart Iron Essence into the Ice-attribute Spider Leg, allowing it to better carry and unleash the power of Ultimate Ice.
The others were the same. As for the base, he fitted a large piece of Chaos Silver there—the only rare metal with the Chaos Attribute.
Finally, he used the Metal Control Soul Bone Skill to manipulate the rare metals and make fine adjustments to the Spider Legs' structure, shaping them into blade-like wings. These were the Chaos Eight Wings he had been planning for a long time.
That's right: he was modeling them on God King Tang's Sea God Eight Wings, which were one form the Eight Spider Lances could take.
There was no helping it. Spider Leg-shaped Soul Bones were awkward to use in battle and didn't suit Yang Hao's fighting style. Turning them into wings would be much better.
They could also incorporate the principles behind Flying Soul Tools to achieve greater speed, making them useful for chasing down enemies and fleeing alike.
Only after finishing all that did he begin devouring the Demon Empress's Soul Bone.
The energy contained in a Million-Year Soul Bone was immense, especially considering its level of existence. It finally allowed the Soul-Devouring Spider Leg Bone—or rather, the Chaos Eight Wings—to break through its limits and reach the million-year level, only one step away from true godhood.
A million years of cultivation and a Soul Master's hundredth rank were at the same level; neither was god-level. They could only be called demigod-level. Only those who went further could attain true godhood. It was the same difference as that between a million-year Soul Beast and a divine beast.
As it broke through to the million-year level, the Soul Bone itself underwent a transformation. The base began to extend, covering Yang Hao's entire back and forming a set of shoulder armor.
During this process, it also covered and fused with the embedded Five Elements Spider Legs, making the Five Elements cycle even more perfect and stable.
It also fused with the rare metals, forming a unified whole.
Yang Hao had anticipated this change. Ten thousand years ago, God King Tang's Eight Spider Lances Soul Bone had evolved in the same way. That was why Yang Hao had dared to use the Spider Legs to form a Five Elements cycle.
By the time he had finished these changes, the forces of Ice and Fire and the Sea God's Light in the pool had been completely devoured, leaving only clear water.
But Yang Hao's Soul Bone and body had also been tempered immensely. His physical strength was now formidable, and the Soul Bone was infinitely close to god-level.
Seeing that the devouring and evolution had gone fairly smoothly, Ye Xishui finally relaxed.
"Let it settle for a while. Once you've raised that Cyclops Martial Soul to its limit, you can fuse it with the source of the Soul-Devouring Spider God Martial Soul and complete its God-level evolution. That should help you raise the Cyclops Martial Soul even further, evolving it into a Titan Giant Martial Soul.
"You still haven't mastered these attributes in your Soul Bone, either, so it's hard to predict what will happen when you evolve it.
"But if you can raise these attributes to their Ultimate levels, then when your Soul Bone undergoes its God-level evolution, you might be able to evolve them into Law Power. That would be the foundation of your godhood."
She reminded him of this. On the way back, she had discussed his ideas in this area with him and knew they were quite feasible.
She had also learned a great deal about the divine realm from those two gods, and understood how one could become a god and what mattered most in a god's cultivation.
"Understood, Teacher. I won't rush."
Yang Hao nodded seriously. He understood that haste made waste; otherwise, he'd only end up eating fake, factory-made stinky tofu.
The Soul-Devouring Spider Leg Bone had improved too quickly and too much over the past year or so. The leaps had been enormous, and he had nowhere near enough time to gain control of it or get used to it. Even with a cheat, it wasn't possible.
Besides, the deeper his foundation, the greater the gains when he transformed.
According to Qian Renxue, becoming a First-Level Main God required mastering three kinds of Law Power. That meant cultivating three attributes to their Ultimate levels, then transforming them into laws upon becoming a god and fusing them into the divine position to form one's authority.
The Sea God had done the same, focusing on the attributes of Water, Holy, and Light, fusing them into the Sea God's Light. Then, with the faith of the Sea Soul Beasts, he had gained control over the authority of the sea.
That was why Yang Hao had chosen to devour and assimilate so many attributes.
Three Ultimate Attributes were enough to create a First-Level Main God. If he cultivated all of these attributes to their Ultimate levels before becoming a god, he might even be able to rival the Dragon God.
Besides, his Golden Finger enhanced his comprehension, making it perfect for understanding these powers. That was his advantage, and he had to make the most of it.
"It's a pity you haven't refined Soul Bones for all six body parts. Otherwise, you could definitely have formed a Soul Bone Set."
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