808 Extraordinary Effects

Not long after, there were only two of them left in the room.

Wang Zhong, who was in a state of meditation on the sofa, seemed extremely focused and serious. A serious and focused man always had an invisible charm and attractiveness to a woman. Unfortunately, Lan Daier was already past the age of being attracted by appearance and temperament. She might have a certain appreciation for this kind of charm, but what she valued more was the feeling she would get and the other party's innermost being or perhaps, the person's vibe. There was once…

Lan Daier gently sighed. Regardless of how powerful one became, human beings would eventually be unable to escape the shackles of their past; this was true even for the legendary Holy Saint Teacher.

There would always be some kind of fate between two people, but she couldn't tell what kind of fate existed between herself and Wang Zhong. Maybe it was because he was present when she drank the Samsara wine, or it was due to emotional resonance, or it was because she could see her ex-lover in him… She could feel that she had started to develop little feelings for this somewhat reckless and confident apprentice. No, in fact, as they spent more time together, her feelings were growing more and more obvious, and these feelings were obviously not just a little.

If it was a few years ago, perhaps she would go against all odds and go into a relationship with him, but now, this kind of indulgence was no longer suitable for her. Her previous impulsive behavior was mostly due to the Samsara wine opening up her heart.

Truth be told, before this, Lan Daier was in a dilemma. She wasn't sure whether to take a step further or take a step back.

For the past few days, she had actually done comprehensive research on Wang Zhong through various channels. It could be seen that he had similar feelings for her but had not taken any action in consideration of her feelings. However, she also found out what the girl named Scarlet girl did for him. Honestly, compared to Scarlet, her feelings seemed superficial and feeble.

This information led her to a decision.

That Scarlet was indeed not too bad. She had a Dharma Idol that possessed powers of the natural order and was already a Successor Disciple of a 7-star Great Teacher. It was obvious that she was thought highly of by her teacher as they had already gone to the Dimensional World to train for more than half a year. Lan Daier was very aware of the problems in the Holy Land, especially the authority of a teacher. If Wang Zhong was too weak, then he and Scarlet would have no possibility of being together.

Lan Daier was a very flexible and decisive person; otherwise, she would not have been able to gain such a strong foothold in the Holy City. In fact, Ella had misunderstood her intentions. This time, her determination to help Wang Zhong become a Holy Disciple was not because she wanted to gain anything from him, but because she wanted to help him close the distance between Scarlet and him. This could also be considered a perfect ending for this relationship, which she had yet to sink deeply into.

Gourmets were mostly emotional practitioners; otherwise, they would not be able to advance on this path. As such, only they would help others at their own expense.

This time, Wang Zhong's meditation should take a long time, probably three to five days. The longer he took, the more energy he would absorb.

Lan Daier stood up, took out the Tranquility Incense that she had prepared long ago, lit two of them, and placed them beside Wang Zhong.

"I'm rooting for you, kiddo." Lan Daier, who had finished laying out the incense, returned to her carefree and smiley self. She yawned and prepared to go upstairs. "I'm leaving now!"

The feeling Wang Zhong experienced in his meditation was very strange. It was different from the tranquility and loneliness he had experienced in the past. This time, the meditation was filled with all kinds of excitement and fluctuations.

Currently, the thermal energy from the Phoenix's Nest was spreading to all the limbs of his body, warming him and being extremely active at the same time.

Lan Daier had already informed him about the normal absorption process in advance. He had to utilize his Soul Power to control the thermal energy so as to retain it in his body for a longer period of time.

For this step, most Heroic Souls had to do everything in their power to do so. After all, every corner of the body had to be taken into account, and the requirement for Soul Power control was relatively high. But for Wang Zhong, such Soul Power manipulation was considered basic and simple, and it even made him feel a little bored.

With extra energy, he could do some additional things. While he maintained basic control, Wang Zhong suddenly came up with an extraordinary idea: he wanted to use this huge amount of energy scattered throughout his body to practice Cellular Cosmology.

He tried to go beyond basic meditation control, expanded the scope of meditation, and spread the thermal energy more meticulously to his whole body using his control of Soul Power.

An uncontrollable situation appeared, and the consumption of heat began to accelerate rapidly. This seemed to run counter to Lan Daier's request to keep the energy in his body for a longer time, but Wang Zhong felt that this was a more delicate experience and touch, and it might be an even more direct way to advance his power.

The deeper the penetration of energy, the greater the contact would be between the thermal energy and the body. Although the speed of consumption was increasing, the effect of tempering was increased by a geometrical factor. Wang Zhong could feel that with the deepening of his meditation, his body's thirst for thermal energy was becoming more and more intense. At the same time, the thermal energy seemed to be willing to cooperate as well, happily trying its best to drill deeper into his body.

It was so much so that every time his Soul Power returned to its core, Wang Zhong could feel that his Soul Core had become more distinct and that his overall Soul Power was also increasing rapidly.

A practitioner had to have the courage to open up and try new things. Although following the standardized way of cultivation would help keep one from making mistakes, doing that would never result in the production of a true expert.

Wang Zhong felt that this way was better than Lan Daier's normal absorption method. Adhering to his inner voice, he decided to let go and give it a try.

Now, the microscopic world in his meditation was becoming clearer and clearer. Every single moment was surpassing his previous limits. This feeling made Wang Zhong enjoy himself so much that he didn't want it to stop, and it went on until his body completely absorbed all the thermal energy. By the time he woke up, it was already the afternoon of the next day.

In the morning, Lan Daier had already realized Wang Zhong's absorption abnormality. It was different from the usual slow and steady absorption of the Phoenix's Nest. This guy took a reverse path and actually made rapid progress to accelerate the energy consumption of the Phoenix's Nest. At the same time, it surprisingly enhanced the absorption effect.

This discovery made Lan Daier extremely stunned. The slow-absorption theory of Phoenix's Nest was obtained after thousands of refinements by gourmets in the Holy City. It was supposed to be like brewing soup: cooking it over low heat and boiling it under high heat were two absolutely different concepts. It was not like the soup would taste better if one cooked it over higher heat. Every single thing would have its own unique rules, and the same was true for Phoenix's Nest.

However, these regular 'facts' were broken one after another by Wang Zhong. First was the Palulu Turkey, and the second was this time. Even though slow absorption was the effective way that gourmets had tried and tested, it would already be considered remarkable if a Heroic Soul could soak up 50% of the energy in the Phoenix's Nest, but this guy did the exact opposite, and he actually absorbed 90% of the energy within a day and a half!

At this point, his Soul Power had actually surpassed the 8,000 Grassos mark!

This…

Lan Daier was a little bewildered. How could he have casted such a weak Dharma Idol with such extraordinary talent?

Although the thermal energy was exhausted, he still needed to consolidate his gains. Soul Power actually had some especially prominent characteristics, particularly its flexibility and elasticity, as shown when Wang Zhong established his Soul Core. These were also universal for ordinary Soul Power cultivation.

Even if it was just ordinary Soul Power cultivation, one would need a lot of practice every day to maintain one's progress. Otherwise, if one did not practice for three days, it would be like sailing against the currents. Even subtle changes could lead to drastic effects, let alone this kind of sharp fluctuation. One would definitely need a lot of spiritual practice on a daily basis to consolidate one's gains; otherwise, there might be a possibility of going backward. This was common knowledge for every practitioner.

He took a long time to stabilize his power. When Wang Zhong woke up from his mediation, Lan Daier had already left, but Ella was still around. This Senior Sister shot Wang Zhong a very unfriendly look and told him to consolidate his gains properly so as to not let Lan Daier's efforts go down the drain. She also hoped that he could be promoted to a Holy Disciple and expressed that if he couldn't achieve that, he deserved to be struck by lightning.

In this regard, Wang Zhong could only respond by agreeing with her. Although Sister Ella had a rather bad temper, she definitely had a good heart. She was just like Lan Daier: both of them weren't interested in listening to how they could be repaid. Anyway, Wang Zhong was not one to make empty promises; it was nothing for him to be able to advance to Holy Disciple. It might be quite an exaggeration to say that he was now enduring hardships to plan retaliation, but he was absolutely being forbearing. He had to have sufficient power. The best scenario was to gain a foothold in the upper part of the hierarchy of the Holy Land; only then could he exert power. His status in the Holy Land would affect many things, like Gong Yi's and Ma Dong's situations.

Commitment was not something that could be proven with words. Currently, he wasn't powerful enough; he had to become stronger!

In the Life and Death Realm, the strength Mo Wen demonstrated was a wake-up call for him. It reminded him that even the Mo family could produce people with such high combat power. How could he overestimate the Holy Land now?

When Wang Zhong returned to the warehouse, he temporarily put aside all his other matters and focused on the consolidation of Soul Power. Having experienced the torture of increasing it by only a hundred Grassos after slogging his guts out for a month, he definitely cherished what he had now; therefore, it was impossible for him to waste even a tiny bit of his gains. Anyone else in his shoes would also do the same.

In the past, when he was a Casted Soul, he focused on stopping at each step to internalize his gains thoroughly, but now, he had to reach the peak within the shortest time possible. In fact, this change in mindset would have made many newcomers from the Federation feel very uncomfortable. But in the Holy City, not adapting meant that one would face elimination. Wang Zhong was considered the kind of person that could adapt to new things quicker than others, and he did not have any limitations when it came to his thinking. To him, whatever was beneficial to him was the correct way of doing things. Now that he had found an accurate direction of cultivation, he was ready to go at it.

"Ready! Set! Charge!"

As Wang Zhong immersed himself in his meditation, his new home, aka the warehouse, was very lively. Simba's voice never stopped echoing in the hall downstairs. The second floor was reserved as a space for Wang Zhong to meditate, while Simba was given full authority over the first floor. He was riding Big White to race Bolsanches while Salamander served as the referee, using his black iron chain as the so-called runway finish line. In the end, when the race had just begun and when Big White had yet to take a single step, Bolsanches had already run past the finish line.

"That doesn't count!" screamed Simba. "You cheated. You started early!"

Bolsanches probably wanted to shake his head to deny it, but unfortunately, he didn't have a head; thus, he just stood there like a statue.

"Let's go again! Let's change the rules this time. Whoever crosses the finish line first loses!"

With basic wisdom, Bolsanches could understand what Simba meant. As a former king, it didn't matter what he did, but even if it was just a game, he would not lose! There was no such thing as 'losing' in Bolsanches's dictionary. As such, when the game started, he stood far away from the starting line, afraid that he would accidentally charge to the finishing line again if he exerted strength. Anyway, didn't Simba say that whoever ran past the finishing line first would lose? This was certainly a piece of cake for the powerful Headless Knight.

Then, he saw Simba riding Big White across the finishing line.

Bolsanches produced a 'gu gu' sound, revealing his happiness. It was clear that he had won again.

"Yeah! I won!" Simba laughed loudly at the finishing line, clearly pleased with himself. "All's fair in war. I lied to you, and you actually believed it! How can the slower one be the winner in a horse race? You're so stupid, haha! The great Simba is indeed the invincible god of war!"

Bolsanches stood there with green smoke coming out of his neck. As a dead man who had already lost his soul, his wisdom was obviously not enough to handle such complicated logic…

The noise downstairs was never-ending, but it had no effect on Wang Zhong. If one was really immersed in deep meditation, everything around would disappear. His 8,000 Grassos Soul Power limit obviously allowed him to explore further into Cellular Cosmology as well as take a step further in the establishment of his Soul Core. Unlike the previous times when he only faintly knew the direction for his cultivation, Wang Zhong felt that he could even see his end position. He probably only needed a little more time. If he could reach the Heroic Soul limit of 10,000 Grassos, then everything would no longer be a problem. He couldn't wait to know what it felt like to be at the peak.

...…

Windstorms had always been violent, in the eyes of humans. Few people would ever see a peaceful 'windstorm', but at this time, around Laura's body, a peaceful 'windstorm' was being generated.

Laura spread out her arms, and a small spiral of wind current under her feet held her up, allowing her to levitate in mid-air. At the same time, that storm goddess Dharma Idol who wore revealing clothes mirrored Laura's actions, as though she was supplying Laura with energy. Then, several spirals of wind waves began to spread from her and the Dharma Idol, forming a wind ward which was about 10 meters in size.

Laura carefully immersed herself in this, and she could feel that the wind waves spreading from her body contained a certain healing effect. As it came into contact with her body, it felt very cooling, at the same time accelerating her skin and muscles' metabolism. Surprisingly, there was also the effect of nourishing her Soul Power and restoring her consumption of it. Also, because of the wind waves, this entire area was under the control of her consciousness, making her feel that she could easily push out anything that existed within the ward with the power of the windstorm.

A slight smile finally appeared on her face. This was the result of her closed-door cultivation these days. She couldn't speak while she was activating her powers; thus, she could only put her will into thoughts. Following that, she immediately felt a strong nudge — or perhaps a force of repulsion — which pushed her out of the realm of her ward as though she didn't have a choice.

Then, the windstorm stopped, and her Dharma Idol disappeared. Laura's forehead was dripping with sweat, but she clenched her fists happily.

It was done!

She had finally developed her own Soul Domination ability!