The control granted by the Second-Stage Gene Lock let him freely command every inch of his flesh.
His body assimilated the Chakra Seed.
It provided ample nourishment for the seed's growth.
His highly refined will, meanwhile, exerted the finest control over the Chakra Seed.
The chill inside the cabin kept deepening.
A thin layer of ice covered the table, then crept up the walls and across the ceiling.
Lie Yang raised his right hand.
Water-nature chakra surged from his palm.
At the same time, chakra of an entirely different nature flowed into it.
Wind.
Water.
The two nature transformations did not simply overlap.
Under Lie Yang's control, they touched, then separated, again and again.
If the chakra ratio strayed even slightly, the newly formed ice crystals shattered on the spot.
If his mental control lagged for even an instant, the water vapor became nothing more than ordinary frost.
Lie Yang had failed many times over the past few days.
The cracks left in the cabin floor marked one such loss of control.
That time, the two kinds of chakra had clashed.
A sudden surge of cold had split the planks and nearly pierced the bottom of the boat.
But every failure taught Lie Yang a little more about how the two natures connected.
Water gave it form.
Wind stole away heat.
The two were not opposing forces.
True fusion did not mean forcing Wind Release and Water Release together.
It meant making the two natures an inseparable whole before either transformation was complete.
Lie Yang slowly curled his fingers.
The water vapor drifting through the cabin went still.
The next moment, glittering specks appeared in the air.
Not frost.
Nor ordinary shards of ice formed by the cold.
As soon as the snowflakes appeared, they began circling Lie Yang on