Fusion Again

Rumble...

Thunder spread across the sky. Deep within the dark clouds, streaks of bright silver wound forward, lighting the dense cloud cover for a moment before it sank back into darkness. Whenever heaven and earth flashed bright, countless fine threads of rain could be seen falling from the clouds. At a glance, a hazy, mysterious veil seemed to have been added between sky and earth.

Christiana sat at the balcony entrance, a layer of white gauze draped over her body, her long black hair falling naturally loose. Flecks of bleakness shone in her beautiful eyes, as though she were absorbed in admiring the scene of thunder and torrential rain.

Her smooth, fair little feet were naughtily exposed to the air, unconsciously swinging back and forth. She let the splashing raindrops scatter over them and paid them no mind at all.

After letting out a long sigh, a smile suddenly appeared on Christiana's face. Diya really was an interesting fellow. Talking with him felt very comfortable, with no burden at all.

If he truly went to Tax within three years, and his strength began to grow powerful, then there would be nothing wrong with being with him. If he could not, then perhaps they were destined to meet but not to be together.

Diya hid in the crevice beneath the huge rock, his eyes tightly shut. He had long since entered the state of cultivating battle energy. All sounds outside drifted far away, becoming faint and barely audible, until they fell into complete silence.

The torrential rain lasted an entire night before it ended. When the rain stopped falling, the edge of the sky had just begun to brighten. Diya opened his eyes; they were clear and deep. Although after another whole night of cultivation he still had not sensed the existence of energy in his muscles, Diya felt that he was getting more and more into the proper state. Last night, he had not felt cold either.

Bending over, he walked out of his little nest. Diya jumped onto the huge rock and gazed into the distance. After the torrential rain, Crouching Dragon Ridge had gained a few shades of fresh green, brimming with vigorous vitality, thriving upward in surging waves. Heaven and earth seemed to have been thoroughly washed clean. Everywhere was crisp and clear. A light breeze blew past, bringing an even moister freshness as it skimmed across his face and body, sending waves of comfort through him from head to toe.

At the eastern edge of the sky, a touch of ruddy warmth gradually showed itself, setting off that side of the heavens. The morning sun was slowly rising. A faint outline emerged, and strands of warm light spilled down, adding a little more warmth to this stretch of heaven and earth.

Standing on the huge rock, Diya twisted his body. His bones let out a series of explosive cracks. Then he did some more loosening-up movements before drawing his longsword and beginning to practice basic sword techniques.

So-called basic sword techniques were very simple. They were nothing more than the fundamental methods of using a sword. First was gripping the sword, and Diya had long since grasped that. After becoming proficient at gripping the sword came using it. On the Brahma Continent, there were only a few simple methods of using a sword: thrusting, hacking, slashing, and blocking.

Of course, according to differences in direction, thrusting could be divided into straight thrusts, diagonal thrusts, and so on. Hacking and slashing were the same. However, in broad terms, the difference between hacking and slashing was not great; the movements merely differed slightly.

After practicing thrusting movements for a while, Diya began practicing hacks and slashes, things like diagonal hacks and horizontal slashes. Only when the morning sunlight had grown somewhat fierce did he stop, jump down from the huge rock, and search the surroundings for dead branches and withered leaves. However, last night's torrential rain had soaked almost all the branches and leaves through.

After much difficulty, he finally found some dry firewood in relatively hidden cracks and the like. Carrying the firewood back, he crawled into the crevice and dragged out the Azure Tiger's corpse. After one night, because the temperature at the mountaintop was relatively low and there had been torrential rain, the Azure Tiger's corpse showed no signs of spoiling.

Once again, he cut off a hind leg. Diya discovered that he really did have a special fondness for this hind-leg meat. He skillfully lit a fire, then processed the hind leg a little and set it over the flames to roast. Before long, the fragrance of meat spread everywhere, but Diya no longer had that same feeling as before. Just think—after eating roasted meat without seasoning for several days in a row, even if it tasted good, one would still get sick of it.

But there was no helping it. In order not to go hungry, he could only force himself to eat it. After finishing off the roasted meat, Diya stood up and slowly walked around the mountaintop. As the saying went, a walk after a meal helped digestion and benefited one's health. When he felt it was about enough, Diya returned to his little nest and continued cultivating battle energy.

With this cycle repeated, another day passed. Diya spent most of his time sensing battle energy, and a small portion of his time cultivating basic sword techniques. His foundation grew steadier and steadier.

Another night passed. On the second day, the sunlight returned to its scorching fierceness. Aside from the necessary search for firewood, Diya stayed in his little nest cultivating until night fell.

Tonight, the sky was full of stars, with no moon. Diya lay on the huge rock, both hands propping up the back of his head, his eyes staring fixedly at the sky. His heart was utterly calm. He thought of nothing and cared about nothing. Everything around him seemed to have vanished.

"Wahahaha, I, Hu Hansan, have returned again!" Abruptly, a loud voice rang out in his mind. Diya first froze, then revealed a faint smile. At last, he had waited until Diablo awakened.

"It hasn't even been a full four days yet. You've recovered?" Diya asked with a smile.

"That's right, I've recovered. Where are we now?"

"At the top of Crouching Dragon Ridge."

"Why are we still at Crouching Dragon Ridge? It's already been several days."

"I stayed here specially to wait for you to wake up. We'll go down the mountain after fusing with the fragment. That way, my strength will be a little greater," Diya replied.

"Mm. Take out the fragment. Begin the fusion," Diablo said at once.

An irregular fragment abruptly appeared in Diya's fingers. It was the same gray, except there was a hint of dark red within that gray. The moment the fragment appeared, rings of strange power fluctuations spread outward.

"In this fusion, the pain you suffer will be lighter than last time. There should basically be no problem."

"Then begin."

As soon as Diya's words fell, a ball of Hellfire abruptly surged up from the fragment and enveloped it completely. Then it floated up naturally, drifting above Diya's head. A few minutes later, the Hellfire gradually dimmed, while the fragment turned mercury-like and dripped toward the top of Diya's head.

Drop after drop followed closely, pouring down like a thin thread. Before long, the liquid formed from the melted fragment had already enveloped Diya's entire head, and that liquid also showed a tendency to spread over his whole body. Once Diya's entire body was completely wrapped by the liquid, a cry of alarm abruptly sounded in his mind.

Diablo was startled and hurriedly asked what was wrong.

"I forgot to take off my clothes. Once the fusion is finished, I won't have anything to wear," Diya replied.

Diablo was speechless. Ignoring Diya, he focused on controlling the Hellfire, which blazed fiercely over Diya's body. The gray liquid burrowed bit by bit through the pores of Diya's body. Although he had already endured it once, the tearing sensation of his pores being forcibly squeezed open was still so unbearable.

Fortunately, Diya's current physique far surpassed what it had been before, so naturally, his resistance was much stronger as well. The feeling of pain was reduced by several times. When all the gray liquid had burrowed into Diya's body, Diya's body was left completely bare, and the six Flick Swords fell to either side of his left and right hands.

This time, after the gray liquid entered his body, it did not seep toward his bones, marrow, meridians, internal organs, and so on. Instead, after circling once inside his body, it transformed into a stream of energy that was clear and cold yet carried a burning heat, rushing toward his brain.

Diablo left behind only one sentence, saying that he was going to fall into slumber again, and then he truly sank into sleep. The energy stream entered Diya's brain. Instantly, Diya felt as though an iron lump had been forcibly squeezed into his head. It was heavy and muddled beyond measure. The tearing sensation of being forcibly propped open struck his spiritual world, and Diya felt as if his head were about to explode.

As soon as the energy stream entered his mind, it transformed into waves of invisible power fluctuations and gradually fused with the spiritual power within Diya's mind. As the energy stream decreased and the fusion increased, the pain in Diya's mind grew lighter and lighter. Instead, waves of comfort spread out, as though his whole head had been immersed in a hot spring. An incomparably warm and comfortable feeling welled up.

In this comfort, Diya relaxed his mind and let those energy streams continuously enter, continuously transform, and continuously fuse. He forgot everything and thought of nothing. Before he knew it, he had fallen into deep sleep, leaving only the sky full of scattered stars, starlight shining upon the earth and bringing a flickering, gleaming brightness.

The night gradually deepened. The wind slowly grew stronger, and the temperature slowly dropped. Outside Diya's bare body, a transparent outline suddenly surfaced, wrapping around his body. No matter how the mountain wind blew, the tips of his hair did not move at all. His whole body was protected by that transparent thing, and inside, it was as warm as spring.

The dark night passed, and daylight arrived. The transparent liquid outside Diya's body gradually shrank with the appearance of the first ray of sunlight. In the end, it burrowed into Diya's mind and disappeared from sight. Diya opened his eyes and only felt refreshed in spirit, as if there had never been a moment as clear as this one.

Even with his eyes closed, Diya could clearly "see" everything within a radius of a dozen or so meters around him. Every blade of grass, every tree, every stone, all appeared down to the finest detail. Even the path of the mountain wind as it blew past could be faintly grasped.

Taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling, Diya smiled. He finally knew what ability this Hell Fragment fusion had brought him this time. Although it differed from what he had imagined, it could still be counted as the thing he needed most at present—spiritual power strengthening.

All along, aside from the spiritual-power overdraft training method, Diya had not known how to train his spiritual power in order to strengthen its intensity. But spiritual-power overdraft training required half a month of rest before it could be used once, and the increase it brought was not particularly obvious either, troubling Diya endlessly. Now, things were finally better.