Chapter 274

Chapter 274: Methods

The sixth floor was terrifying. But Li Shuang still had some chance to clear it.

If she relied only on herself, maybe in a few decades, she would succeed. But trying to do it this time felt like a wild fantasy.

A Cultivator clearing the sixth floor of the Golden Soul Altar at age thirty five might not have existed since Myriad Arts City was founded.

If she had more time, she felt she could clear it before she turned one hundred. But she did not want to wait that long.

For a Cultivator, one hundred years is not very long. Even so, a tight urgency pressed on her heart: [I cannot wait that long.]

Opportunities she could take, she would seize. Resources she could fight for, she would fight for.

Otherwise, if the Great Calamity truly fell, an ordinary Cultivator like her would only be swept along by it.

Li Shuang drew in a deep breath.

In these three days, what she gained was far more than anyone imagined.

The reason was simple. She had used the Heaven and Earth Furnace again. At the cost of fifty thousand Value Points, she took a Seventh Tier Enlightenment Fruit and forced her comprehension to its limit.

Three days passed. The fruit’s effect had long faded, but her grasp of the five elements had climbed to a higher step.

So she chose to go all out.

At the instant the tribulation took form, vines surged from every corner and lashed toward her like a flood.

A shell of hard ice wrapped Li Shuang’s body.

Before the massive vines, that lump of ice seemed tiny. She was like the little boat Lin Qing Ling once conjured, pushing through storm waves.

But the waves were too fierce, and her boat could sink at any moment.

Sink beneath the water. So what?

[If I truly understand all things, then the boat is water. A boat entering water is like water entering water. What is there to fear?]

Silently sensing the vast wood energy that filled the golden altar, she held on until the ice around her was about to shatter.

Then, faint green light rippled over the ice, and the vines slowed a little as if confused.

At the Water Screen, people cried out in surprise: “What… what is happening?”

The Five Element Tribulation never shows mercy to anyone. It is formed by natural elements. The Heavenly Dao is merciless, and so is nature.

Yet just now, the vines clearly eased up.

Someone muttered in disbelief: “What is this, do the vines like her because she is charming?”

Another voice snapped: “This is not fair!”

A third voice accused, voice lowered but sharp: “Did the City Lord make it easier for her on purpose?”

More joined in with sour guesses: “Myriad Arts City and the Soul Prison are both under the City Lord. Maybe she opened a back door for Li.”

Cang Yin glanced over with open scorn, then said in a flat tone: “Fools.”

Several Trialists bristled but did not dare argue with Cang Yin.

Expressionless, You Lan explained: “See the green specks on the ice. Li wrapped the ice element with her insight into wood energy.”

Some people suddenly understood. Others were still lost. They knew every word, but strung together, it sounded like a language from another world.

Feng Yu gave a calm smile and said: “She is young, but her feel for all things is already above ours.”

As a Cultivator with an Ice Spiritual Root, Li could not truly wield other elements. But she separated out her understanding of them and used that insight to disguise ice as wood.

At first, the wood tribulation had locked onto Li. When her elemental aura changed, the green vines lost their target for a moment and did not know whom to strike.

Mo Li sighed as he watched and said: “This kind of method is subtle. Anyone a bit short sighted would fail to notice it.”

Those who had been whispering ugly guesses fell silent: “…”

[Should he just point at their noses and scold them?] Someone swallowed the thought.

Li Shuang’s trick only fooled the vines briefly. Once they adjusted, they slammed down again and crushed the ice shell to pieces.

She had expected this. Calm faced, she drew the Black Abyss Sword. Her edge flared, and she carved through vine after vine.

The Black Abyss Sword was not high grade. Luckily, she and Li Li were perfectly attuned, and the power of Black Abyss far exceeded what its rank should allow.

At the same time, she added the sharpness of metal she had newly grasped.

Metal cuts wood. The five elements give birth to each other and restrain each other. Answering with metal insight was the best choice.

Of course, everyone knows the five elements’ cycles. When facing the Five Element Tribulation, Cultivators always find it easier if the current calamity is restrained by their root. Next easiest is a calamity that matches their root. Hardest is a calamity that restrains their root.

But the tribulation appears at random. All five kinds must be faced sooner or later.

And being able to do what Li Shuang did, to fuse insight into her soul and add it to her own root at any time, was rare beyond rare.

You Lan watched Li’s moves in silence.

At Li’s age, You Lan had been wildly proud. She believed her talent unmatched and vowed to walk an invincible path.

So when she cleared the Sixth Peak of the Grand Dao Mountain, she also refused to advance to the Integration Stage.

Rumor said that if one fully comprehended the five elements, then at the moment of breaking through to the Integration Stage, one could achieve Perfect Advancement. A Perfect Advancement Integration Stage would merge with all things at the very step of entry and stand as a peerless force among Integration Stage experts.

At the beginning, she truly thought she could do it.

But day by day passed, and deeper insight grew harder. Even though she won the Golden Soul Altar every time, her progress slowed and slowed.

In the end, she chose to advance to the Integration Stage.

She comforted herself: although it was not Perfect Advancement, the Tribulation of All Things she faced was already extremely strong. Even her master said it was a once in a hundred years, super strong tribulation.

A tribulation that strong proved her Integration Stage was rare in this world.

Her comfort was not wrong. If the Tribulation of All Things had been even a little stronger, she would have died on the spot.

But now, she saw Li.

Li was much younger than her, and had entered the Golden Soul Altar only once. Yet Li’s five element insight faintly surpassed her own.

Even more shocking, Li turned insight into real application with frightening speed.

A bitter smile touched You Lan’s lips. Pride can be shattered in a single moment.

[Then please, Li, go higher and farther. Walk to the end and become a legend. If I was crushed by a legend, that is not shameful.]