Zhang Lan's will was like an insignificant hand trying to pry apart two battling beasts.
It had little effect.
Just as he was about to reach his limit, the Star of Eden moved.
The next second, it appeared at the very center of Zhang Lan's dantian.
His martial soul changed form, transforming from a scepter into a sphere with deep blue light flowing inside.
It no longer resembled a bead, but had become a fist-sized orb of light, azure throughout, with fine gravitational ripples spreading constantly across its surface.
A gravity source.
It rotated silently at the center of Zhang Lan's dantian, releasing wave after wave of gravity.
Those gravitational waves did not dissipate upon reaching the edges of his dantian. Instead, they folded back along its walls, forming a closed loop.
Under the pull of this gravity, the two forces of ice and fire that had been rampaging through his meridians abruptly slowed.
The icy force was drawn to the left side of the gravity source, and the fiery force to its right. Helpless against the pull, both converged toward the center of his dantian.
Then they began to orbit the gravity source.
Ice on the left, fire on the right-the two streams of energy, one blue and one crimson, circled the azure gravity source like two planets tethered by the same rope, revolving along their respective paths.
At first, their revolutions were chaotic. Their orbits swelled and shrank unpredictably, and the two forces flowed at uneven speeds.
But the gravity source kept rotating steadily between them, its gravitational waves pulling equally on both sides. Gradually, the two orbits grew steadier and rounder.
Zhang Lan felt the tearing sensation in his chest disappear.
In its place came a strange balance. The forces of ice and fire spun rapidly along their respective orbits, their edges touching once with every revolution.
At the instant they touched, ice and fire eroded and wore away at each other, only to be forcibly pulled back by the gravitational field and separated again.
This repeated over and over, each contact stripping an exceedingly fine layer of "fragments" from the two forces.
The gravitational field ground those fragments even finer, mixing them into the soul power vortex in his dantian until they became Zhang Lan's own soul power.
Without him noticing, the outer edges of the two forces had become indistinguishable-there was no longer any telling ice from fire.
A faint crimson tint spread along the edge of the icy orbit, while strands of silvery-blue light lined the edge of the fiery one.
The two forces continually exchanged fragments as they orbited, each carrying a part of the other, their boundary growing ever more blurred.
Nourished by these two forces, Zhang Lan's body improved at an extremely slow but steady pace.
The fused power of ice and fire washed through his meridians again and again, strengthening their resilience and widening them.
The soul power vortex in his dantian spun faster. The gravity source compressed his liquefied soul power more densely, pressing layer after layer against the walls of his dantian.
At that moment, the level-thirty bottleneck loosened completely. His soul power broke through to level thirty-one, and its momentum had yet to stop.
Although he had not obtained his third soul ring, his total soul power continued to rise.
After some time, Zhang Lan rose from the lakeshore.
After undergoing the Ice and Fire Golden Body, his physical prowess had reached a truly terrifying level.
He now possessed the physique of a Soul Saint.
The meridian strength of a Soul Saint, and a dantian of the same caliber.
Aside from his cultivation, Zhang Lan was now no different from a Soul Saint.
Zhang Lan stood beside the lake a little longer, waiting for the gravity source in his dantian to stabilize completely.
The two streams of ice and fire energy had become indistinguishable. Drawn by the gravity source, they formed a perfect ring, icy blue and crimson flowing through it in alternating currents, like a two-colored band encircling the gravitational core.
His soul power stood at level thirty-one and was still slowly climbing. Although he lacked a third soul ring for now, his total soul power continued to increase.
He stretched his limbs, his joints giving off a series of crisp cracks.
The changes to his body were undeniable.
After repeated washings by the power of ice and fire, his meridians had become incredibly resilient. His dantian's capacity had nearly doubled, and the gravity source rotated steadily within it, giving him an unprecedented sense of solidity.
Zhang Lan clenched his fist, then released it. The air squeezed in his palm gave a soft pop.
A Soul Saint's physique.
Although his cultivation still stood at level thirty, in terms of physical strength, meridian resilience, and dantian capacity alone, he was now no different from a Soul Saint.
Time to go down.
Zhang Lan walked to the lakeshore, crouched, and reached into the icy-white half of the lake.
The cold pierced to the bone, but no frost formed on his hand.
In the past, that chill would have frozen him into an ice pop in an instant. But now that he had achieved the Ice and Fire Golden Body, the extreme temperatures of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well felt merely a little cool to him.
He dipped his left hand into the fiery-red half as well. The water was scalding, but his palm only reddened slightly, without suffering any burns.
Time to go down and find the remains of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings.
Zhang Lan silently repeated the words to himself.
"Little Lan, what are you going to do?"
The Snow Empress's voice came from behind him.
She had been standing on the shore of the icy-white half all along. Though she appeared to be resting with her eyes closed, not a single movement of Zhang Lan's had escaped her perception.
Zhang Lan stood and glanced back at her.
"I'm going down to take a look, Sister Xue'er."
"Going down?"
The Snow Empress's brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.
"The core of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well is a hundred times more dangerous than the water on the surface."
"Deep in the center of the lake, the forces of ice and fire clash directly. Even I wouldn't venture lightly into the turbulence they create."
"I've already achieved the Ice and Fire Golden Body. The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well can't hurt me anymore."
Zhang Lan said,
"For a treasure ground like the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to have formed, there must be an incredibly powerful treasure at the bottom."
"I can feel it. It's deep in the center of the lake."
"Don't worry. I'll come back up if I run into danger."
The Snow Empress watched him, silent for a moment.
She sent her spiritual power probing toward the lakebed, but the chaotic power of ice and fire deep in the lake's center repelled it. All she could sense was a mass of chaos; she could see nothing clearly.
"As long as you know your limits."
In the end, that was all she said.
The Ice Empress said nothing beside her, but her gaze remained fixed on Zhang Lan, something stirring faintly in the depths of her emerald eyes.
Zhang Lan turned to face the lake.
He drew a deep breath, spread a thin barrier of Gravity Dome around himself, and took a step forward.
His entire body slipped beneath the water without raising so much as a splash.
"Has that human lost his mind?!"
The voice of the infernal delicate apricot burst from the shore.
She had only just recovered some of her vigor, her fiery-red leaves unfurling once more. When she saw Zhang Lan jump into the lake, her entire body shook three times.
"Even I wouldn't dare go to the bottom of that lake!"
"When that great one was here, even he only drew water from the outskirts. He never dared venture into the depths!"
"And he just jumped in as a level-thirty-one Soul Elder?"
The aromatic silk beauty also leaned over, extending her flower head toward the lakeshore to look down.
Deep beneath the water, Zhang Lan's figure had already vanished. Only a faint, deep blue glow continued to sink slowly, growing smaller and smaller.
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