At the heart of the valley, the storm began to swirl once more. The power of heaven and earth above the mountains grew unstable again. Thick clouds rotated lower and lower, thunder rumbling deep within their layers. Spiritual energy in the air churned violently.
Zhang Wen sat cross-legged in midair. After stepping into the Half-Step Saint King realm, he was now preparing to comprehend the laws of heaven and earth and form a fragment of a small world in order to truly advance into the Saint King realm. The power within his body had completely transformed. His meridians had expanded severalfold. His heartbeat slowed, yet each beat carried immense weight. With every breath, heaven and earth energy flowed into him without conscious effort.
Pale blue flames drifted slowly around his body. The ground beneath him cracked outward in wide circles. Massive amounts of water vapor rose into the sky, only to be incinerated into pure energy mist.
Zhang Wen remained motionless at the center of the surging energy. His expression was calm, his eyes tightly shut, yet inside his body, chaos raged as though an ocean and a blazing sun were colliding without end.
The power of the Emperor Phoenix Flame Pill he had consumed earlier had melted into a red-golden liquid, seeping into every particle of blood, bone, and soul. The violent fire energy did not burn his body in the slightest. Instead, it fused perfectly with his water-based physique.
Water that did not extinguish fire.
Fire that did not evaporate water.
Two opposing forces rotated as one.
Zhang Wen slowly opened his eyes. Within them, there was no longer black or white. Only a pale blue vortex of water and faint flames revolving in perfect balance.
Laws were not something to seize.
They were something to harmonize with.
The moment understanding dawned, fragments of the Laws of Water and Fire trembled together. Heaven and earth responded instantly. Rain began to fall from the sky, yet the droplets were not cold. They were warm and brimming with vitality. The pale blue flames around his body did not weaken at all. Instead, they mingled with the rain in perfect harmony.
Within his consciousness, the entire world changed.
He no longer saw things as objects, but as laws.
The falling rain was no longer ordinary water, but power that nourished heaven and earth.
The blazing flames were not meant for destruction, but for accelerating transformation.
Water represented nourishment, protection, restoration.
Fire represented destruction, purification, rebirth.
When the two revolved together, they formed a cycle.
Suddenly, both powers began to rotate faster and faster around his body, forming a colossal vortex. All spiritual energy was drawn toward its center, gradually condensing into something entirely different from ordinary power.
A cracking sound echoed within his body.
It was not bone. Not soul. But limitation.
The power of a Half-Step Saint King was compressed to its absolute limit before exploding outward as waves of blue flame laws. Spiritual energy from heaven and earth surged madly into his body. Dark clouds gathered as the sky roared. Lightning and rain collided violently, as if the world itself was expressing its fury.
Within Zhang Wen's body, something began to condense.
It was not a core. Not a soul.
But a fragment of a small world.
A tiny stretch of land appeared within the void. Droplets of water gathered into a flowing stream. Pale blue flames hovered above the land like a newborn sun. Though this world was incomparably small, not even a fraction of the real world, its laws were astonishingly complete.
When the fragment of the small world took shape, a shattering sound echoed within Zhang Wen's body. The boundary that had restrained him was torn apart completely.
The fragment of the small world was born.
Yet his body remained motionless. The power around him continued to surge uncontrollably. Blue radiance intertwined with sacred flames, shooting toward the heavens. The flames did not burn anything. Instead, they warped the air itself, bending all things around him like reflections on water.
His Half-Step Saint King body could no longer withstand that power.
His bones began to crack. Meridians expanded until blood seeped through them. Golden fissures spread across his skin.
The power within him refused to calm.
It demanded to step into the Saint King realm.
Within his consciousness, the newly formed fragment of the small world began to tremble. Water and flame spun violently. Both laws tried to pull him into alignment, to force him to become part of them.
But Zhang Wen opened his eyes.
Cold light shone within them.
He did not wish to become part of the laws.
His voice resounded within his soul.
"If I submit to the laws, I will only become their user, no different from any ordinary Saint King. But if I control them…"
In that instant, the heavens were provoked.
All clouds tore apart at once as five massive bolts of lightning descended from above. Each carried a different color: blue, red, white, purple, and gold. Their power was so dense that the laws of heaven and earth trembled.
It was a warning from the heavens.
And a punishment for one who dared defy the world's laws.
Boom!
The first lightning bolt struck. Zhang Wen took it head-on. His body was scorched black as every muscle nearly ceased functioning.
Boom!
The second bolt followed without mercy. His origin power erupted into chaos. Meridians across his body tore apart.
Boom!
The third bolt struck directly at his soul. The fragment of the small world within his sea of consciousness split open with deep cracks. Zhang Wen spat blood as his vision blurred.
Heaven and earth wished for him to fail.
But if he sought to stand above all others, he could not stop.
Zhang Wen raised his hand instead.
He opened his own cracked fragment of the small world.
In an instant, an overwhelming gravitational force erupted. Pale blue flames and sacred water spiraled together, forming a colossal vortex. The final two bolts of lightning that were charging toward him were forcibly dragged into the fragment of the small world, pushing it to the brink of collapse.
Zhang Wen intended to use those two lightning bolts to seize control over the laws within his small world fragment.
During that moment, his physical body began to disintegrate. His soul was on the verge of dispersing. All five senses faded into nothingness, vanishing completely for an instant.
Then, within a breath of time, the thunder cut off.
The clouds froze.
The entire world seemed to hold its breath.
Within that absolute silence, the laws of the small world fragment inside Zhang Wen's body began to transform, shaped by the lightning that enforced control.
The laws of water and fire that had once resisted him were slowly suppressed, forced down, compelled into submission.
They were no longer in harmony with Zhang Wen.
They were being controlled.
Boom!
The pressure of heaven and earth was torn apart. An aura of pure blue exploded outward in massive waves. The power of a Saint King surged from Zhang Wen's body without restraint. Mountains cracked apart. The ground collapsed into deep craters. The sky itself split into layered fractures.
His body began to recover.
From the brink of death, his flesh regenerated. His skin smoothed over, returning to a youthful, flawless state. Zhang Wen opened his eyes fully.
His aura had changed completely.
It was far stronger than before.
Yet it carried a crushing weight, as if an entire world stood behind him.
The gate to the Saint King realm had been reached.
At the Saint King level, one must comprehend certain world laws and condense a fragment of a small world to advance. From the knowledge passed down within the Zhang clan, most Saint Kings chose to align themselves with the world's laws.
Zhang Wen closed his eyes once more and examined the fragment of the small world within his body. Though it was only a fragment, it was astonishingly stable.
At the same time, he sensed something immediately.
This place was no longer safe.
The violent disturbance earlier had triggered uncontrollable natural phenomena. Heaven and earth were still in turmoil. The auras of countless beings were moving from afar. If he remained, it would inevitably draw the attention of existences he should not encounter yet.
Zhang Wen rose to his feet.
The pale blue flames gradually faded, transforming into clear droplets of water that drifted around him. With a single step, his entire body turned into flowing water before dissolving from the spot without leaving a trace behind.
All that remained was a massive crater, shattered land, and a world that continued to tremble.