The Refining Process

"...I guard eternity. Do you seek all living things?"

"...I want them all!"

"...Then come and take them!"

In a daze, Wu Pifu faintly heard this exchange. The language was certainly not one he could understand, yet merely catching those few words sent the madness within his sea of consciousness surging violently, nearly causing it to collapse. Even the tiger he had swallowed could not stop it.

But at that moment, a bolt of azure lightning suddenly thrust into his sea of consciousness. It treated the Tigers as nothing, treated the sea of consciousness's own defenses as nothing, and with a single flash, sought to flood into its deepest recesses.

This azure lightning was unlike any thunder Wu Pifu had encountered before. It possessed both the searing explosions of natural lightning and something supernatural within it. Most terrifying of all was its form, which ignored all defenses of flesh, spirit, and consciousness. It looked like lightning, but was actually something else—something that transcended both body and mind.

Yet this azure lightning had to penetrate deep into his sea of consciousness. The instant it entered, the negative madness there surged upward and actually collided head-on with it.

Blocked, the azure lightning seemed to fly into a rage. Deep within Wu Pifu's sea of consciousness, it transformed into a great azure Dragon, wisps of lightning coiling around it. Layers upon layers of intricate Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare formed its body. Though not large, it carried an imposing, majestic aura. Of all the dragon forms Wu Pifu had seen, this one possessed the greatest majesty of a true dragon.

It was like a true dragon entering the sea, only to battle that sea itself. Though it all took place within his sea of consciousness, what Wu Pifu "saw" was incomparably shocking.

Within