The three stones entered Ye Chen’s body on their own. Adding the two stones from before, his body already had five life-and-death stones at this point. Four stones were enough to raise his realm to the third layer while the last one could refine his mental state, making the process of reaching the peak of the third layer easier.
Once he reached the peak of the third layer, he would merely be a step away from reaching the Life-and-Death realm.
‘Life and Death Secret Realm will close in more-or-less twelve days, which should be enough to reach the third layer. Meanwhile, I can use this opportunity to comprehend some water profound as well.’
Inside the palace was a strange garden. Every flower, every plant, every mountain, and every water body inside the garden was mysterious and strange. They not only contained the cycle of reincarnation, but also the essences of various profounds. In a while, all of them would be transported to this garden, and they would remain there until the realm closed again.
As Ye Chen was contemplating, the stelle suddenly erupted with a bright light and soared high in the sky, then expanded a million folds, looking like a lofty mountain. Even the young experts in the outer region of the secret realm could see the large names written on the stelle.
“What! Ye Chen is the first name! Who is Ye Chen?”
“Marquis Sword Star has actually been pulled down to the fourth place. What the hell happened in there?”
“Lu Tiandu has also been pulled down. He is not even in the top five.”
The young experts in the outside and internal regions were stunned. The new rankings unexpectedly had five new names in the top ten, and four of these names were in the top five. How could they not be surprised? In fact, it was surprising enough to make them panic.
“Ye Chen, haha…It’s Ye Chen from our True Spirit Continent.”
“When Ye Chen left True Spirit Continent, I thought he would be more silent from now on. Who would have expected that he will be even more terrifying and secure the first rank in the substitute list!”
The young experts of True Spirit Continent were especially moved. It did not represent their adoration for Ye Chen, but their admiration for the birth of a peerless genius. After all, Ye Chen originated from True Spirit Continent. A dozen years ago, True Spirit Continent produced the Mysterious Queen, and now there was Ye Chen. This kind of collective glory was hard to understand.
The young experts inside the palace didn’t know what kind of storm was brewing outside. Anyhow, even if they knew, they wouldn’t care at all.
Buzz!
Everybody was transported from their small chambers to the main chamber. Immediately afterward, the front wall opened, and blinding rays assaulted their eyes.
Right across them was a garden that seemed endless. What their eyes could see only seemed like the tip of an iceberg.
“It’s the Life and Death Palace Garden!”
Life and Death Palace Garden was the essence of Life and Death Secret Realm combined together. In here, one could experience the life-and-death cycle and the workings of various profounds.
At this moment, even the calm and staunch ones like Marquis Sword Snow, who looked like an easy-going next door neighbour. had a twinkle in their eyes. Even the cold-faced Dugu Jue’s eyes seemed to have a fire burning inside them.
Without a word or sign, everybody entered the garden side-by-side.
“Senior Sister Xu Jing, let’s go.” Ye Chen took Xu Jing’s seemingly boneless little soft hand.
“Yeah!” Xu Jing faintly nodded.
Once everybody entered the garden, the passage behind them closed again.
“What a marvelous place! These flowers wither and die immediately with a momentary touch, then regrow again.” Xu Jing’s palm touched a flower growing beside her, but it immediately withered unexpectedly. In the next moments, it again regrew to its previous state.
“Life and death reincarnation cycle plus wood profound!” Ye Chen sighed with emotion.
Entering the Life and Death Secret Realm was a rare opportunity that only came once every ten years. The two had no time to waste on romance, so they exchanged a few moments of affection, and then went their separate ways.
Feeling the lingering softness and sweet fragrance from his hand, Ye Chen took in a deep breath, feeling satisfied. ‘The current separation is for the sake of later reunion. Increasing the strength comes first.’ Discarding all distracting thoughts, Ye Chen carefully observed every flower and plant.
As he walked, he could see that many people were already in the midst of comprehension. Some were comprehending before a stone, some before trees and flowers, while some were entering underground caves. The entrance of these caves were hot, signifying lava underneath.
“My metal profound is already at ninety percent completion, and any further advancement will be extremely hard. Thunder profound is also at seventy percent completion and won’t easily increase either. Wood and water profounds are both at sixty percent completion, the fast profound is at fifty percent, and slow profound is almost at thirty percent. Meanwhile, the space profound is at forty percent and shadow profound at thirty percent.”
“Fast profound, slow profound, space profound, and shadow profound are too fleeting. I’m afraid twelve days is too small a period to have any results. In any case, I have the fundamentals of space profound with me, and I’m not in any sort of hurry to increase the level of space profound either. Now, among the remaining water and wood profounds, comprehending the water profound seems a bit more practical.”
Waning Moon consisted of ninety percent metal profound as well as sixty percent water profound, making it quite disharmonious. If both were equivalent, its might would increase by several folds, and would surpass the current Bewitching Mirror Shattering for sure.
Marquis Sword Snow’s Freezing Sword Point contained eighty percent water profound and eighty percent ice profound. This was the reason behind its might. However, Ye Chen had discovered that the former was not able to integrate the two profounds, only managing a preliminary integration. If he could increase the level of integration, the might of this move would multiply by many folds and reach a frightening state.
“There is no hope to increase my water profound’s level to ninety percent completion. I will be satisfied as long as it increases by ten percent.”
Ye Chen was not one to bite off more than he could chew. The time period of twelve days was too short after all.
Once he decided on his plan, Ye Chen looked for a place with water and stopped before a huge lake after a short while. On the lake were a lot of people in the midst of comprehension; nobody was disturbing the other. The lake was vast, and Ye Chen easily found himself a secluded spot.
As his feet landed on the lake, intense turbulence occurred in it. One ripple spread out and vanished, then another one immediately replaced it without any pause in between.
Just like that, three days passed by.
“Death dao…So this is the Death dao.” On a desolate mountain, an intense death aura emanated out of Dugu Jue’s body. Coupled with his head full of white hair, it created a hair-raising, chilling sight. The changes around him attracted many people, and dozens of soul power probes swept by at once.
“It’s him.”
Dugu Jue had a lot of fame amongst the thirty-six of them. His blade arts operating on his despair intent had left a deep impression on many. Moreover, at twelfth, his ranking was not low either
“Death aura suppressing life aura?” Ye Chen’s attention was also focused on Dugu Jue with a strange expression on his face.
Upon attaining the realm of life-and-death chamber, a life-and-death aura would appear on everybody’s body. The life-and-death aura naturally comprised of the pure life aura and death aura. At this moment, Dugu Jue’s death aura was suppressing his life aura, indicating that he had gained some comprehension of death dao, quickly catching up to Marquis Sword Star.
Swish!
Dugu Jue thrust his blade out, and his pale-white blade aura turned increasingly dense. As soul power made contact with the blade light, he immediately felt an intense crisis of death.
“Didn’t think he was comprehending Death dao.” After a momentary thought, Ye Chen could understand why Dugu Jue chose this option. The Despairing blade intent was close to the Death aura. Compared to others, Dugu Jue could comprehend Death dao much more easily, and this was his advantage.
“The current Dugu Jue could somewhat threaten the top five. His rank can easily be sixth.”
To have such a large progress at the beginning, Dugu Jue was most likely the first person.
Ye Chen calmed his mind and expelled all distracting thoughts, continuing his comprehension of the water profound.
After the third day…
The ripples under Ye Chen’s feet intensified by several folds, attracting other people’s attention.
“His water profound has increased so quickly!”
“Worthy of being the first ranked on the substitute list.”
The expressions of these people turned fervent as they continued their own water profound comprehension.
“Seventy percent…It was much quicker than I expected. Seems like it’s because of the reincarnation cycle in this garden.” Profound and life-and-death reincarnation cycle were intertwined, making comprehension of profound much easier. Of course, the other reason was also Ye Chen’s high comprehension due to his exceptional soul power.
“In that case, let’s aim a bit higher and increase the water profound to eighty percent completion realm.”
Opting for a different place, Ye Chen left the lake. After all, he had already become familiar with the lake, and the garden had many other water bodies.
…
“Wind profound, this is it.” On an elevated ground, Lashan Mei was unceasingly waving her blade. In her blade arts, in addition to vibrational power and dark profound was now the wind profound as well.
Wind profound complemented the vibrational power quite well. Every swing of her blade gave off a strong feeling of tearing apart something.
“So frightening!”
Nearby people retreated one after another, increasing their distance from Lashan Mei.
Although Lashan Mei had been suppressing her power while creating blade Qi, blade arts containing wind profound produced even more frightening vibrations that could be transmitted to long distances. The trees and plants around her were fragmenting and growing again and again.
“This Lashan Mei… she might have become even stronger than Marquis Sword Star.”
“She might even be able to fight Marquis Sword Snow and Ye Chen on even grounds.”
…
A waterfall smashed onto Ye Chen, who had his eyes closed. The previous lake was stationary, and the current waterfall was dynamic. One stationary, one dynamic—both represented the water profound, but in their own ways.
Soon, two days passed by.
Ye Chen opened his eyes and suddenly waved his swords.
Rip!
The Evil Shattering Sword pierced through the waterfall while gleaming with a bright light.
“Not right!” He closed his eyes again.
The garden had everything. In a certain corner was a lake, where the water and ice blended together. At a glance, one could see water and ice completely separate, but when observed closely, one would find no distinctions. This was because at any point, water was turning into ice and ice into water. Such a sight could only be found in the Life and Death Palace Garden.
“Ice and Water Fusion!”
On a chunk of ice, Marquis Sword Snow pulled out his white longsword and thrust out. This thrust was the Freezing Sword Point, but this time, it was much more repressed and without a single leak. This represented that the integration of his water and ice profound had reached a much higher degree.
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