Saint Rank Peak, Water and Fire in a Combined Attack

Qie Qiong's figure silently appeared in the Space Gate inside the mine.

Having just returned from another world, he immediately released his powerful spiritual force, sweeping across the entire Qie Clan mine in an instant.

As far as he could sense, the mine was completely peaceful.

The guards and miners who had survived earlier were now outside, each going about their own business. They had already been told that they could not leave the mine for the next few years.

Fang Yun and the most trusted knights stood guard at the mine entrance.

"Phew..." A wave of exhaustion washed over him. That final move, the Extreme Metal Flowing Light Sword, had consumed a tremendous amount of energy, but the joy of what he had gained was enough to dispel all his fatigue.

He walked out of the mine. Under Fang Yun's awestruck gaze, he ordered, "Maintain your vigilance. Anyone who approaches the core area must not leave the mine. Otherwise, kill them without mercy."

"Yes, Clan Head," Fang Yun replied respectfully. The sight of dozens of invaders being wiped out in an instant had long since made him realize that the young Clan Head before him was no longer merely a Title Knight. He had probably become a Transcendent.

Qie Qiong nodded slightly. His silver-robed figure flickered, turning into an almost transparent streak of Flowing Light, and he quietly returned to the meditation room deep within the Qie Residence in Cloud Sea Prefecture City.

Sitting cross-legged, he sent his Dou Qi into the newly acquired Space Ring on his finger.

This ring was far more advanced than Qie Qiong's own, even considerably better than the Space Ring passed down through the Qie Clan.

By rights, a small Transcendent World that had yet to make contact with the outside world should not have had Dou Qi, much less such an advanced Space Ring.

However, Qie Qiong had no time to think about that now.

His Dou Qi easily erased the remaining imprint, and Qie Qiong's spiritual will surged inside.

The space suddenly opened up before him!

The space inside the ring was even larger than he had expected.

He casually swept his gaze over the Transcendent materials within. Though they were precious, they would be of little use to Qie Qiong unless they included a heavenly treasure like the Nine-Leaf Gold-Veined Grass.

He did not linger over these Transcendent materials.

His main target had always been the Origin Stones.

The next moment, his consciousness locked onto a region at the very heart of the ring's space.

Even though he had already anticipated it, Qie Qiong still drew a sharp breath when he saw the sight with his own eyes.

A small mountain built from pure Origin Stones!

Qie Qiong instantly gauged the total amount with precision.

A full twenty thousand pounds of Origin Stones!

What an immense fortune.

A Sky Realm Transcendent would be doing well to be worth a few thousand pounds. Even a Saint Rank Transcendent could not possibly produce so many Origin Stones at once.

Over the past ten years, with resources scarce, Qie Qiong's Dou Qi realm had advanced only from the early to the middle stage of the Sky Realm. But these twenty thousand pounds of Origin Stones would be enough to support his rapid cultivation from the middle stage of the Sky Realm to Saint Rank Peak.

Qie Qiong's lips curled upward as he transferred the Origin Stones into his own Space Ring.

Only after transferring the Origin Stones did he turn his attention to the scroll containing the information recorded by the God of Vajra.

After all, the God of Vajra had been one of the five strongest people in the Extreme Thunder World.

The scroll might contain the reason why this Extreme Thunder World was so unusual.

He casually flipped through several scrolls, but they contained only miscellaneous matters recorded by the God of Vajra.

Finally, Qie Qiong turned his attention to a dark golden scroll, which looked the most ancient and solemn.

A thought stirred in Qie Qiong's mind. He took it from the ring and held it in his hand.

"Buzz—"

The instant his fingers touched the scroll, a stream of information surged into his mind.

This was indeed what he had been looking for. Qie Qiong now understood why this small Transcendent World was so unusual.

As it turned out, the Extreme Thunder World had originally been no different from an ordinary Transcendent World.

But countless years ago, a group of mysterious people suddenly descended. They killed the native Transcendents they encountered, but in the end, they were killed by the ancestors of Vajra and the other four.

Afterward, they obtained things like Dou Qi manuals from those mysterious people.

Once Qie Qiong had absorbed this information, he already had an answer. He had read the original work, after all.

After all, if a Transcendent World was not connected to the Material World, then no matter how powerful the people in the Material World became, they still could not enter it.

Those mysterious people had been able to enter. They were probably a Transcendent squad from the Space-Time Temple, surrounded and killed by the natives while carrying out a mission.

This also explained why the natives of the Extreme Thunder World had possessed a Dou Qi system for many years, yet their civilization and alchemy seemed so crude to Qie Qiong. They had only obtained basic techniques.

But their foundations were ultimately insufficient, and they lacked guidance from a more complete inheritance.

Three months later.

The Qie Residence's meditation room.

Over the past three months, he had absorbed fifteen hundred pounds of Origin Stones, raising both his body and Dou Qi to the Transcendent Peak.

Dense Heaven and Earth energy, almost liquefied, filled the room. At its center floated a pile of Origin Stones, vanishing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Qie Qiong sat cross-legged beside the Origin Stones, his eyes closed, the aura around him undergoing a certain kind of transformative change.

Dim space was filled with interweaving dark golden sharpness and golden Thunder. This was Qie Qiong's Transcendent Dou Qi.

After more than ten years of arduous cultivation and absorbing Origin Stones, this Dou Qi had long since reached the limit that the Sky Realm could contain.

As a thought passed through Qie Qiong's mind,

countless strands of Dou Qi immediately underwent a qualitative transformation.

They became a dazzling crystal sphere composed entirely of highly compressed Golden Thunder Dou Qi.

Under Qie Qiong's command, the Dou Qi in the crystal sphere took the form of a lifelike miniature Qie Qiong.

"After entering Saint Rank, Transcendent Dou Qi really is different," Qie Qiong exclaimed as he sat cross-legged in the meditation room. "Once Dou Qi is refined to this degree, combining it with the power of the soul can create a Dou Qi clone."

"First, I'll nourish my body and soul."

Qie Qiong put aside all other thoughts.

He guided the Golden Thunder Saint Rank Dou Qi, which had completed its qualitative transformation in his dantian, to nourish his soul in turn.

This was also the most important step. Otherwise, the divided-off Dou Qi clone would be nothing but an empty shell.

In less than an hour, Qie Qiong had completely broken through and become a Saint Rank Transcendent.

But this was not the end.

Qie Qiong continued taking out and absorbing Origin Stones.

These Origin Stones were enough to advance his Dou Qi to Saint Rank Peak, with plenty left over.

Another three months passed, and Qie Qiong's Dou Qi realm had astonishingly reached the peak of Saint Rank Transcendent!

Even after absorbing the Origin Stones this way, a full ten thousand pounds remained.

But even that many Origin Stones could not break through Qie Qiong's physical realm again.

Advancing from Transcendent Peak to early Saint Rank required a full fifty thousand pounds of Origin Stones.

Now, Qie Qiong thought that if he could bring the God of Vajra back to life, he would want to kill him all over again.

He had wasted a full fifty thousand pounds of his Origin Stones!

They were all Qie Qiong's Origin Stones.

But now was not the time to think about that. He should be thinking about how to spend his Origin Stones, which he would soon get back.

Before fighting the God of Vajra, Qie Qiong had already figured out what kind of people the so-called Five Gods of Extreme Thunder were.

The notes he had found with Vajra only further confirmed his guess.

In his notes, Vajra had said that he ranked among the top three of the Five Gods.

Everyone knew that if someone claimed to rank within a certain number from the top, then he was probably right at that number.

If Vajra could rank third, then aside from the God of Extreme Thunder, the rest were no more than seventh-grade, third-layer Myriad Existences Realm cultivators.

If the God of Extreme Thunder could only fight evenly against a Saint Rank Peak cultivator of that caliber, then at most he had a seventh-grade True Meaning Embryo.

One had to understand that complete True Meaning and the Myriad Existences Realm were worlds apart, one in the heavens and the other on earth.

Take Qie Qiong now, for example. If he were to fight the God of Vajra again, he definitely wouldn't need a second move.

Half a year later.

Qie Qiong finally consolidated his Saint Rank Peak realm.

Sitting cross-legged in the meditation room, he had completely drawn in the surging Dou Qi around him.

The most immediate benefit of a powerful soul was that his perception of True Meaning had become sharper and clearer than before.

That final step before the Myriad Existences Realm of Space was finally kicked wide open during these six months of comprehension!

Buzz!

The space in the meditation room seemed like the surface of water struck by a pebble, rippling outward in a faint silver ring visible to the naked eye.

Qie Qiong opened his eyes and lightly tapped the air with his fingertip.

A Space Gate appeared before him—the first layer of the Myriad Existences Realm of Space, achieved!

"The mine... the Transcendent World." Qie Qiong's eyes shone brightly.

These six months of arduous cultivation had not only consolidated his realm but also allowed him to comprehend the mysteries of space. Next, he had to deal with matters concerning the small Transcendent World.

He stood up, and his figure silently vanished from the meditation room.

Deep inside the Qie Clan mine.

He had not come here for a year, but the mine was still under Fang Yun's strict guard, and nothing had gone wrong.

Supplies were all personally delivered by Qi Lingfei.

In Cloud Sea Prefecture City, this was the person Qie Qiong trusted most.

When Fang Yun saw Qie Qiong's figure silently materialize in the core area, he immediately bowed and saluted.

"Clan Head!"

Qie Qiong nodded, his gaze fixed on the Space Gate.

Without saying another word, he stepped through, and the Space Gate swallowed his figure.

A familiar sensation of spatial transfer washed over him, and Qie Qiong returned to the same primeval forest as before.

The Space Gate could only be seen with the naked eye, and it lay hidden in this forest, so it had gone undiscovered over the past year.

All he could say was that those dozen or so people who had passed through the Space Gate had truly been lucky.

"Phew—" He drew a deep breath.

Golden Light flickered in Qie Qiong's eyes. His formidable spiritual power instantly spread out from him in every direction like a surging tide, covering a thousand-mile radius in the blink of an eye.

But even the spiritual detection range of someone as powerful as a Peak Saint Rank was ultimately limited.

That made it impossible for Qie Qiong to easily locate the Four Gods.

"Looks like I can only search for them one by one." Qie Qiong's expression remained calm; he wasn't discouraged.

A thought stirred in his mind, and he made his decision.

Buzz!

Vast golden lightning-element Saint Rank Dou Qi surged out of his body.

It gathered beside him and, in the span of a breath, took the shape of a Dou Qi clone almost identical to Qie Qiong himself, though its aura was slightly weaker.

An ordinary Saint Rank Transcendent's Dou Qi clone, since it had no equipment, was lucky to possess half its original's strength.

But Qie Qiong's strength lay almost entirely in the True Meaning of Metal, so his Dou Qi clone was nearly as powerful as his true body.

"Go." Qie Qiong's voice was low, and he gave no further instructions.

The Dou Qi clone nodded slightly, then turned into a blurred golden rainbow and shot toward the three Gods' territories as remembered: the sea to the northeast, Hurricane Canyon to the northwest, and Flame Mountain Range to the southwest.

The clone had a simple goal: find the three "Gods," then kill them.

That was Qie Qiong's confidence now. Before his breakthrough, he had to use all his strength just to fight the "God of Vajra."

But now, Qie Qiong was confident that his Dou Qi clone alone could kill all three "Gods."

Qie Qiong set his sights on the due east, where the Extreme Thunder Mountain Range lay. The God of Extreme Thunder had to be there.

His figure blurred, and he too became a streak of golden thunder and Flowing Light, racing toward the Extreme Thunder Sacred Mountain in the east.

Qie Qiong's Dou Qi clone became a sharp golden rainbow, heading straight for the territory of the "God of Hurricanes."

Divide and conquer. Naturally, he would kill the one who was theoretically the fastest first.

Because the clone had made no attempt to conceal its aura,

just as it neared the edge of Hurricane Canyon, three powerful auras abruptly locked onto it.

"Who is it?"

"His aura is similar to the one at Vajra Castle. The God of Vajra's death must have something to do with him."

"Form the array, or we'll all die here."

The Fire God's furious shout rang out from the canyon.

The "God of Hurricanes" shot into the sky first, followed closely by the Sea God, and then the Fire God, who had spoken last.

The three Gods weren't in their own territories. Instead, they had gathered in Hurricane Canyon.

Clearly, the fall of the "God of Vajra" had made them sense danger, so they had chosen to band together.

That was why the clone had run straight into all three of them.

Facing Qie Qiong's clone as it approached with killing intent,

the three Gods didn't hesitate for an instant. They immediately unleashed their trump-card combined technique, a secret art they had studied over countless years to resist the threat of the God of Extreme Thunder.

Only, back then, the "God of Vajra" had still been alive, so the three of them had never revealed it.

They hadn't expected that in the end, this technique would be used not against the "God of Extreme Thunder," but against this mysterious man.

"Wind fans the flames, water and fire unite, the three Gods become one, and all laws are annihilated!"

The God of Hurricanes roared. He drove the wind element to its utmost, turning it into a medium for guidance and amplification.

Guided by the hurricane, water and fire fused with the raging flames in an abstruse manner.

Water and fire were naturally incompatible, but under the exquisite control at the hurricane's core, they miraculously merged, forming a destructive vortex of energy.

A knockoff fourth-grade "True Meaning of Water and Fire"—but since the three of them ultimately didn't share a single mind, they could only force the elements together with wind. Its power was equivalent to only the second stage of the Myriad Existences Realm of Water and Fire.

The vortex's core was the clone.

BOOM—RUMBLE—!!!

A tremendous roar erupted.

Hurricane Canyon was utterly destroyed.

The mountains within hundreds of miles crumbled to dust beneath the silent energy shock wave. The earth collapsed, and the sky took on the bizarre appearance of shattered glass.

The terrifying, turbulent energy turned into thick clouds of chaos, rendering all attempts by the three "Gods" to detect anything useless.

"Did it work?" The Fire God's voice was hoarse.

"Our technique could probably even withstand the God of Extreme Thunder. He's no different." The God of Hurricanes looked at his collapsing lair, regret flashing through his eyes.

For some reason, the unease in the Sea God's heart hadn't faded. "Better to be cautious. This enemy is uncanny... Hm?"

Her words abruptly stopped.

The thick smoke, dense enough to block all perception, was suddenly pushed aside as if by an invisible hand.

Within the smoke, a humanoid silhouette abruptly came into focus.

It was Qie Qiong's clone.

Sure enough, it was the first law of the heavens: where there's smoke, there's no injury.