Ian Song had no idea about the other students' schadenfreude or the instructors' worries.
Right now, he was completely absorbed in the process of fusing fire and metal elemental energy.
He soon realized he'd been way too optimistic—fire-attribute elemental energy and metal-attribute elemental energy were not just hard to fuse, they actively repelled each other.
After several failed attempts, he noticed his true qi was getting dangerously low—what started as full power was now down to just thirty percent.
He quickly grabbed a handful of Xuan Pills from his Storage Ring and swallowed them. Instantly, his depleted true qi began to recover.
Again!
Once his true qi was replenished, Ian started fusing the two elemental energies again.
"Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!"
With a series of sharp explosions, the fusion failed yet again. The tiny flame in his half-formed domain dimmed even further, teetering on the brink of extinction.
Seeing this, Ian grew a little frustrated. Was he really going to fail?
Thinking about it, Ian almost wanted to give up on condensing a dual-attribute domain and just settle for a single-attribute one.
"No way. I can't quit now! Cultivating the martial path means having a fierce, unyielding heart. Even if I fail this time, so what? Worst case, I’ll just start over!"
As for heaven’s backlash, Ian honestly didn’t care. With Radiance of Life, what injury couldn’t he heal?
That thought fired him up again, but this time, he didn’t blindly try to fuse the two elemental energies.
Why couldn’t they fuse?
Why did they repel each other?
Ian’s mind was burning with inspiration. He’d always been sharp, and as soon as he started thinking it through, he figured out the key.
The Five Elements theory wasn’t just a thing in this world—even in his past cultivation experience, it was a major topic, and he’d studied it in depth.
Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth make up the Five Elements. Each generates another: wood creates fire, fire creates earth, earth creates metal, metal creates water, water creates wood. At the same time, they restrain each other: wood restrains earth, earth restrains water, water restrains fire, fire restrains metal, and metal restrains wood.
Realizing this, Ian almost wanted to slap himself. Of course fire restrains metal—how did I ever think they could fuse directly? It’s like trying to force two magnets together at the same pole. No wonder it wasn’t working!
Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Ian forced himself to stay calm. If fire and metal elemental energy couldn't fuse, then all he needed was to bring in earth elemental energy as a mediator.
With that thought, Ian began absorbing earth-attribute elemental energy from the world around him.
Noticing this, the Melody Empress frowned again, muttering to herself, What's this kid up to now? Is he really trying to condense a three-attribute domain?
"No, we can't let this kid keep messing around!"
The blue-robed Martial Saint waved his hand heavily, about to block Ian from absorbing any more earth elemental energy.
At the last moment, the Melody Empress called out, "Wait, Senior Brother Dragon—let's see what happens first!"
The blue-robed Martial Saint looked back at the Melody Empress. "You can't seriously think this kid can pull off a three-attribute domain, do you? The more attributes, the worse the backlash. If we let him keep going, even we might not be able to save him!"
The Melody Empress just smiled. "Maybe we can't save him—but what if we bring in Senior Brother Nangong from Heavenly Dragon Sect?"
Before she even finished speaking, a white-robed man drifted over and landed beside them.
He glanced at Ian, who was sitting cross-legged, and said playfully, "This kid is definitely the boldest—and luckiest—I’ve ever seen. Breaking through to Grandmaster with three Martial Saints standing guard for him!"
The Melody Empress nodded in agreement. "Senior Brother Nangong is right. But if he succeeds, our academy could gain not just another Martial Saint, but maybe even a Martial God!"
"Martial God?" Tanner Nangong’s expression grew complicated. "It’s been centuries since our Human Race produced a Martial God. If that kid really becomes one, our people will rise again!"
"Let’s just wait and see!"
The Melody Empress smiled and quietly began helping Leon draw even more earth-attribute elemental energy into his forming domain.
Within Leon’s still-unformed domain, the surrounding buildings had already turned to ash. The tiny flame flickered weakly, as if a single breeze could snuff it out.
No one in the crowd could look away—they were afraid that if they blinked, the flame might disappear for good.
Yoon Zhengyang frowned and asked, "Senior Sister Murong, you’re the most knowledgeable here. Is there really nothing we can do to help Junior Brother Huang?"
Celine Murong shook her head. "We can only leave it to fate."
Suddenly, a group strode over. It was the five Core Disciples from Pristine Way Sect—Skyler Sikong, Ryan Li, Harriet Gu, Howard Gu, plus Elite Disciples Zoey Zhou and Leo Li.
Seeing the dying flame, Skyler Sikong couldn’t help but frown.
Ryan Li feigned concern, sighing, "Ah, my junior’s ambitions are just too wild—trying to condense a Heaven-Rank domain!" He might have looked worried, but inside he was secretly delighted.
"Hehe!" Zoey Zhou couldn’t help but mock, "I knew he was unreliable. Didn’t I say so? He made such a huge fuss, but in the end he failed to condense a domain. Not only did he lose face, he embarrassed our whole Pristine Way Sect!"
Zoey Zhou wanted to keep taunting, but Skyler Sikong turned and shot her a cold look. After all, they were all from the same sect, and her constant ridicule of Leon made him uncomfortable.
Just then—
Whoosh!
The flame, which had looked ready to die out, suddenly flared up, and in an instant grew back to the size of a clenched fist.
"Ah!" Wan’er Shentu jumped up, clapping her hands. "Look! Senior Brother Yoon, Senior Sister Murong, Harriet—look! Senior Brother Huang has recovered, he’s back in the fight!"
"Haha, that’s great!" Yoon Zhengyang laughed loudly. "I told you, our Junior Brother Huang would never go down so easily!"
"Exactly! He’s never let us down." Even Harriet Gu’s frosty face broke into a rare smile.
As for the older student who’d mocked Leon earlier, he was left utterly dumbfounded, mumbling, "Impossible... How did he recover? This makes no sense!"
As for those who’d been gloating, their expressions froze.
Liamson Liang’s face grew dark again, while Lynette Ji let out a soft laugh. "He really is the one I picked!"
"Way to go, Junior Brother Huang!"
Howard Gu glanced at Zoey Zhou, smiling brightly as he spoke.
Zoey Zhou felt as if she’d just been slapped. She’d mocked Leon, only for him to bounce back so quickly. Was this kid born just to mess with her?
She muttered to herself, "He’s just having a last burst of energy—he’ll run out of steam soon enough!"
But just as she thought that, the flames suddenly surged, and in an instant, the unformed domain turned into a sea of fire.
"Good kid, he really did it!"
On the rooftop, the Venerable Dragon Sword couldn’t help but praise him.
"Absolutely! This kid is defying the heavens!" Tanner Nangong nodded in wholehearted agreement.
The Melody Empress smiled gently, her gaze fixed on Leon, eyes full of admiration and relief.