Asura Emperor Venerable
Chapter 359: The Essence of Heaven and Earth

Chapter 359: Chapter 359: The Essence of Heaven and Earth

As long as it was a Fire Attribute Martial Artist, they could easily communicate with the Fire Element and form flames.

However, these flames were relatively ordinary.

If one’s cultivation was high and their soul quality was high, the resulting flames would have high temperature, but this did not represent a fundamental change; it was merely the density of the Fire Element that caused the temperature to soar.

Shi Hao, following the methods of Fire Scorches the Heavens, began to unravel the fire like peeling a cocoon.

Boom, the flames surged wildly, as if they did not want Shi Hao to penetrate their essence and burned toward him.

This surprised Shi Hao.

Theoretically, since he had summoned them, they should not have been able to hurt him—otherwise, the Elemental Power would be too insignificant; who would dare to use it? In battle, before harming the enemy, it would first injure oneself.

But now, the fire was clearly backfiring, launching an attack at him.

Luckily, it was just an ordinary flame; even though it was conjured by Shi Hao, its power was much stronger than typical ones from the Four Islands, yet it still couldn’t change its nature.

Shi Hao easily suppressed the flames and continued to unravel them.

Eventually, the flame disappeared, transforming into a few incomplete runes, which were relatively simple.

"The essence of the flame is just a rune?"

Shi Hao was astounded; a surge of tumultuous thoughts flooded his mind as Yuan Chengmie’s fragmented memories were triggered, suddenly opening a brand-new door.

From Soul Nurturing, Martial Artists mainly cultivate their souls.

And why do souls become strong?

This is because, during the process of cultivation, Martial Artists understand the natural laws of heaven and earth and harness the power of heaven and earth to strengthen their souls.

This is the cultivation process of Soul Nurturing and Other Shore.

But at the level of Self-Observation, Martial Artists need to see the essence through the phenomena.

Why does water flow downward? Why is iron hard? Why does flame burn people?

Because the laws upholding the entire world in motion are at play.

Self-Observation is about observing the natural laws.

The laws are numerous, including those of flames, water, and metal; countless laws interweave to form the foundation of the world and maintain the operation of heaven and earth.

This is the essence of the world.

The ultimate purpose of a Martial Artist’s cultivation is to perceive the essence of the world; the closer to the essence of the world, the stronger one naturally becomes.

Bringing the topic back, the essence of Fire Scorches the Heavens is to extract the laws within the flames, and the more laws integrated and extracted, the more powerful the resulting force naturally becomes.

This sounds simple, but the laws are not easily integrated, are they?

—Only the secret techniques of the Phoenix Clan can achieve this, but with incredible difficulty.

"This is an incomplete rune, which means I haven’t fully perceived its essence,"

Shi Hao murmured.

If others heard this, they would definitely find it incredible.

Because understanding the essence of heaven and earth is something that could only be achieved above Self-Observation, and even those at the level of Self-Observation are just beginning to touch upon the laws and certainly can’t extract them in the form of runes.

Thus, if someone else had obtained the secret technique of the Phoenix Clan, they would definitely be completely baffled and ignorant of how to utilize it.

But Shi Hao was different; he possessed the martial arts insights of Yuan Chengmie and was essentially positioned near the Peak of martial arts from the beginning.

"Again."

He reignited a flame and once again unraveled it.

The flame of course retaliated, but Shi Hao easily suppressed the mere Mundane Fire.

This time, he obtained another incomplete rune.

Comparing two runes and filling in the missing parts, a complete rune gradually emerged.

Again and again.

After seven attempts, Shi Hao finally extracted a complete rune.

He was able to complete it so quickly because the flame was just mundane fire, making the rune relatively simple.

"Let’s test its power," he said.

Since there was only one flame rune, there was no issue of fusion, and he threw a punch that instantly sent a fierce flame striking the wall, sparking a blaze.

"It’s a bit stronger than normal flames, but just slightly," he murmured. Yet, he was not disappointed because this technique was growth-oriented; the more types of fire it merged, the greater its power would become, eventually reaching the ability to "burn the azure vault. "

He set aside his research on "Fire Scorches the Heavens" and took out the piece of silver paper.

He did not know what material it was made from. It had a metallic texture yet seemed like ordinary paper, covered with complex formation patterns, bitter and hard to understand.

He struggled to read it, but often he was deriving conclusions, making slow progress.

—Alas, if only Yuan Chengmie had spent a bit more time on the Array Path in bygone years.

After a while, Shi Hao surprisingly found the air filled with mysterious energy.

This was different from the power of heaven and earth and was far more intense.

He hastily cultivated using the Nine Revolutions Sky-Plundering Scripture, and after nine revolutions, he had almost completely absorbed the energy in the room.

His cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds!

Though not enough to jump from the late stage of the Four Islands directly to the Peak, the progress was still very apparent. If he could do it ten or so more times, he might indeed reach the Peak of the Four Islands.

That was still quite an exaggeration, given that it had only been a few days since his breakthrough in the Four Islands.

Shi Hao ignored that for now and continued to study the formation patterns on the silver paper.

A day passed, and the room was again filled with mysterious energy.

Thinking that someone had mentioned trials after the three towers, was he now waiting for other trialists who had passed through the three towers?

So, passing the trials of the three towers first was very beneficial.

He did not know how many people had already passed or how much longer he would have to wait.

Thinking of this mysterious energy, Shi Hao smiled. However long it was, so be it.

At his level of cultivation, his need for food was already very low; in extreme cases, just having clean water and absorbing the power of heaven and earth was completely sufficient to sustain life.

He devoted all his attention to researching the Ten Formidable Arrays, making progress with each passing moment.

Ten days passed, and he finally had a substantial grasp.

This was just one part of the Ten Formidable Arrays, but even this part alone could set up a Minor Ten Formidable Array, still possessing great power.

"This sheet of silver paper is a treasure in itself," Shi Hao nodded, because it was a formation base, already covered with formation patterns.

"It’s a pity one sheet isn’t enough; I must gather ten sheets to assemble a simplified version of the Ten Formidable Arrays."

Ten days passed, and he encountered another bottleneck in his cultivation.

Peak of the Four Islands.

He could break through now.

But, Shi Hao did not do so, because advancing through the third and fourth islands successively in such a short interval required restraint to avoid impacting his foundation.

—If he was greedy for a bit of time now and it affected his later rush to the tenth island, that would truly be a loss not worth the gain.

Just then, a door silently appeared in the wall.

Huh, can he leave now?