Blackstone Market, Earthfire Hall.
Chu Bai had sealed the earthfire in the stone chamber once more. Its restless heat had faded, leaving a deathly stillness in its place.
Chu Bai sat cross-legged on a cushion, eyes closed, his expression solemn.
This was the third day of his seclusion.
For an ordinary person cultivating the Great Five-Phase Annihilation Light, merely comprehending its obscure incantation for reversing the flow would likely take months.
Even after grasping it, rebuilding a circulation route through the meridians that defied all common sense would require painstaking work. The slightest mistake would tear those meridians apart.
But Chu Bai was different.
The Subtlety Divine Sense he had cultivated through the Keep One Scripture let him look within and see every thread of spiritual power moving through his body as clearly as lines in his palm.
More importantly, his Cosmic Cycle Wheel Dao Foundation was itself the ultimate expression of the Five Phases brought into perfect balance.
The Annihilation Light demanded "reversal," but like the two faces of yin and yang, forward rotation brought endless renewal, while reverse rotation brought destruction and collapse.
For Chu Bai, who had long since mastered the essence of the Five Phases, the change took only a thought.
The Five Phases turn against their order, breaking apart and returning to the void...
Chu Bai silently recited the incantation. He slowly raised his right hand, curling his five fingers as though gripping something unseen.
Hum!
Five streams of spiritual power, each a different color, surged wildly through the meridians in his arm and into his palm.
The five utterly distinct forces did not merge there. Instead, an overbearing Divine Sense forcibly pressed them together.
They repelled one another with a teeth-grating hiss, as though he held a thunderball on the verge of exploding.
"Compress!"