Volume 3: Global Vanguard & The Advanced Pinnacle
Chapter 278
Fire Star Sea Breakthrough to Advanced Tier Three (Primordial Dragon Flame Perfection)
Deep within the spiritual sea, the dark purple thunder rumbles had just subsided following a harrowing seismic shock.
The vast Lightning Star Sea had fully condensed, its magical waves churning and surging like tides in a boundless ocean. Three hundred and forty-three lightning star seeds drifted across the mental void like three hundred and forty-three blocks of flawless, crystal-clear amethyst, radiating the stern, awe-inspiring electrical brilliance of the Advanced Tier Three Peak. Every single pulse of the lightning sea echoed with a profound, resonant roar—akin to the heartbeat of an ancient Thunder God reigning supreme within Lin Feng’s chest.
The sensation of holding such explosive, destructive power in the palm of his hand caused his soul to surge with extreme exhilaration. Yet, that brief moment of tranquility had barely lasted three breaths before another violent upheaval struck instantly—fierce, brutal, and tenfold more urgent.
“Roaaar——!”
A furious, earth-shaking dragon roar ripped from the deepest strata of the soul, shattering the fragile silence that had just been restored.
In the opposite corner of the spiritual sea, the Fire Star Sea—which had been churning with blazing red firewaves—suddenly boiled like a cauldron of oil meeting a violent blaze. The Primordial Dragon Flame, that arrogant divine fire carrying the supreme bloodline and dignity of the patriarch of all dragons, seemed frantically provoked by the soaring breakthrough of the Lightning Star Sea.
Lightning and fire elements were inherently the two most violent extremes in the natural order of magic. When the Lightning Star Sea leaped to the Advanced Tier Three Peak, the overwhelming electrical pressure it emitted had inadvertently encroached upon the territory of the Fire Star Sea. For an ancient spiritual fire with such towering pride as the Primordial Dragon Flame, being overshadowed by its companion was nothing short of the ultimate insult to its dignity!
It refused to yield. It roared, struggled, and frantically demanded a corresponding breakthrough!
“Puff!”
A scarlet flame edged with a golden sheen suddenly surged from Lin Feng’s chest, piercing straight through his magical robe and scorching the surrounding air with crisp, crackling sounds. All the blood within his meridians felt as though it were being boiled at tens of thousands of degrees Celsius. The scorching hot blood surged through his heart, carrying a destructive wave of heat that burned through every single tendon and fiber of his flesh, spreading all the way to his fingertips and toes.
The piercing pain deep within his bone marrow forced Lin Feng to clench his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned ghostly pale, popping continuously.
If an ordinary mage were caught in such a severe imbalance between two magical systems, their body would have long since exploded into a hundred fragments from the elemental collision. Mortal meridians were as delicate as silken threads; how could they withstand the horrifying pressure of tens of thousands of rumbusing thunderbolts on one side and a scorching celestial inferno on the other?
Yet, Lin Feng was no ordinary mortal.
After undergoing bone-cleansing and marrow-washing with the millennium-old Kunlun Ice Marrow, his Dragon God physique had attained a resilience and sturdiness comparable to the primordial beasts of antiquity. Every muscle fiber in his body strained like the cord of a divine bow; his cells not only refused to be incinerated by the flames but greedily expanded, hungrily absorbing the scorching thermal energy to continue the second tempering of his physique.
“Want to break through? Excellent! Let’s see just what realm you can burn your way to today!”
Lin Feng growled in his consciousness, his gaze as steadfast as an ancient rock standing alone amidst wind and storms. He neither evaded nor used his lightning magic to suppress the rebelling flames. Instead, he proactively opened every single portal of his meridians, allowing the Primordial Dragon Flame to roar freely and guiding it to surge toward his chest.
For he knew very well that the ripest moment to re-establish the dual-system equilibrium had arrived!
“Hum——!”
Just as the temperature within Lin Feng’s body reached its critical tipping point, the ancient dragon-shaped jade pendant pressed against his left chest suddenly trembled violently.
The Primordial Dragon Pendant blazed with light!
An ancient golden halo from the jade face pierced straight through his skin and flesh, illuminating his entire chest like a miniature sun. From the surface of the jade pendant, moss-covered ancient dragon patterns began peeling away, shedding layers of illusory iron chain runes.
That was the third layer of the seal!
Ever since Lin Feng embarked on the path of magic, the Primordial Dragon Pendant had unlocked its seals three times. Every single layer unwrapped brought about world-shaking transformations for him. And now, under the resonance of his perfected Dragon God physique and the ultimate craving of the Primordial Dragon Flame, the linchpin of the third seal completely shattered into pieces!
“Crack... BOOM!”
A pure, primordial dragon breath, ancient and suffocatingly heavy—like a torrential flood breaching a dam—poured out in torrents from within the Dragon Pendant.
This was not ordinary elemental magic floating between heaven and earth, but the true dragon essence condensed from the dawn of the cosmos! The moment that breath appeared, it shook the entire space surrounding Lin Feng’s spiritual sea violently, carrying the absolute majesty of the lord of all creation, before which ten thousand beasts must prostrate and the firmament must bow its head.
Without a moment of hesitation, Lin Feng channeled his entire spiritual will, guiding that boundless, endless torrent of primordial dragon breath to pour straight into the Fire Star Sea!
The instant the primordial dragon breath touched the sea of fire, all three hundred and forty-three Fire Element star seeds—which had been shaking frantically—froze for a split second.
Next came an unprecedented frenzy within the spiritual sea!
Like a litter of dragon whelps starving for a millennium finally encountering the first drop of their mother’s blood, the three hundred and forty-three star seeds simultaneously roared, opening wide to devour the golden dragon breath. They spun at a velocity that tore through the mental void, forming a gigantic, blazing vortex right at the center of the sea of fire.
As every single inch of dragon breath energy poured in, the surface of each star seed burned ten times more fiercely than before. The primordial deep red of the flames gradually transformed, with streaks of brilliant golden light weaving into the core of the star seeds, forging their outer shells into flawless, transparent crystal-clear dragon-flame glass. Across the surface of each magical star, exquisite dragon-scale patterns gradually emerged in crisp detail, radiating a supreme, peerless aura.
At the same time, at the bottom of the Kunlun Divine Spring.
The surface of the lake, which had remained as smooth as a mirror for tens of thousands of years, suddenly churned with violent waves. Waves surged in swells several meters high, crashing fiercely against the surrounding granite cliffs with booming echoes.
The lake water—crystallized from millennium-old ice marrow that could chill to the bone—now began to boil furiously. Millions of giant bubbles rose from the depths to the surface and burst, emitting crackling, roaring explosions. Steam billowed upward, transforming the snowy mountain valley into a blindingly white, scorching fog akin to a volcanic crater on the verge of eruption.
Standing on the shore, Qing Yuan’s expression turned gravely solemn. She tightly gripped her magical longsword, her slender fingers trembling slightly as her clear eyes stared fixedly at the epicenter of the lake.
“This aura... how can it be scorching to such an extreme degree?”
Qing Yuan whispered, the depths of her clear eyes filled with unconcealable shock.
She could clearly sense that deep beneath the lake bed, a destructive energy was frantically accumulating. This was not the ordinary fire of Advanced mages she had witnessed in the past; this flame carried the breath of an ancient dragon—tyrannical, disdainful, and refusing to be bound by any rule.
The millennium frost of Kunlun Mountain was usually enough to freeze the soul of a Commander-level creature in the blink of an eye. Yet now, facing the expansion of the fire beneath the water, layers of ice dozens of meters thick on the surrounding mountain slopes were melting at a visible speed! Torrents of melted water cascaded down the slopes, forming roaring rivers of mud and water.
“Crack! Crack! Crack!”
The ground beneath Qing Yuan’s feet shook violently. Cracks hundreds of meters long jaggedly tore through the icy stone foundation, and glowing red magma began to ooze from the fissures.
Qing Yuan instantly tapped her toes, her graceful figure retreating backward over a hundred meters while waving her hand to erect a dense wind-magic barrier to fend off the terrifying wave of heat sweeping toward her. She looked toward the hazy figure sitting cross-legged at the bottom of the lake, a turbulent storm rising in her heart.
That fellow... had clearly just finished breaking through his lightning system, yet without taking a single second to rest, he was now forcibly triggering the evolution of his fire system!
Such madness and ambition—how many throughout history had ever dared to attempt it?
Deep beneath the lake, Lin Feng was entirely isolated from the outside world. His consciousness had merged into a single entity with every star seed in the Fire Star Sea.
The process of absorption had reached its decisive climax.
The first seven star seeds linked together to form a Starlike radiant with dragon brilliance. The seven star tracks intertwined to form a Starmap as majestic as an ancient battle array. And those forty-amp-nine Starmaps, under the frantic propulsion of the endless dragon breath, roared as they connected to complete the supreme Constellation!
Yet, the wall blocking the path between Advanced Tier Two Peak and Advanced Tier Three was as solid as an iron gate cast from extraterrestrial meteorites.
It stood imposingly across his spiritual sea, blocking the surging flow of magical energy. This was the exact bottleneck that had buried countless peerless geniuses of humanity, causing them to spend ten years, twenty years, or even a lifetime in closed-door meditation without ever breaking through.
“Just a rotten gate, what can it block?”
Lin Feng roared within his soul, his fighting spirit blazing sky-high!
He did not choose the gradual grinding method of ordinary mages. In Lin Feng’s dictionary, facing a bottleneck had only one path: Crush it!
“Primordial Dragon Flame, merge as one!”
“Boom——!”
All three hundred and forty-three Fire Element star seeds received a supreme command, simultaneously erupting with blinding golden light too dazzling to look upon. The remaining primordial dragon breath in his meridians was completely drained, blending absolutely into the primal flame.
A gigantic Fire Dragon taking the form of a Primordial True Dragon materialized right within his spiritual sea! The dragon’s body spanned tens of thousands of meters, its scales forged of blazing gold, its claws tearing the void apart, and its dragon eyes burning like two divine torches filled with a gaze of utter contempt for all things.
“ROAAAAAR——!”
The fire dragon raised its head and roared long, carrying the full might of the Fire Star Sea and Lin Feng’s indomitable will as it charged straight into the solid bottleneck wall!
“CRASH——!”
An earth-shaking explosion resounded from the depths of Lin Feng’s consciousness.
The sound was so violent that it shook his soul, making his eardrums feel as though they were about to split. The Advanced Tier Three bottleneck wall, enduring the destructive collision of the Divine Dragon, sprouted thousands of spiderweb-like cracks in the blink of an eye!
“Break for me!” Lin Feng tightened his mind, roaring a second time.
“CRACK... SHATTER!”
The bottleneck gate completely exploded into millions of fragments of light, dissolving into nothingness!
The moment the barrier collapsed, a brand-new magical energy—pure, brutal, and ten times hotter than before, like an ocean breaching a dam—flooded the entire space of his spiritual sea!
THE FIRE STAR SEA OFFICIALLY BROKE THROUGH TO ADVANCED TIER THREE (PEAK PERFECTION)!
The three hundred and forty-three Fire Element star seeds were no longer ordinary flames. They had completely shed their old shells, transforming into three hundred and forty-three brilliant golden fireballs, each star emitting a deep, resonant dragon roar and linking together to form a flawless, immaculate True Dragon Constellation!
The fire-system magic energy within Lin Feng’s body surged exponentially. Each droplet of magical fluid condensed, becoming so pure it was nearly solid, churning through his meridians with terrifying might.
Yet the transformation did not stop there!
When the Fire Star Sea reached the Advanced Tier Three Peak, the Primordial Dragon Flame parasitic within Lin Feng’s soul also officially entered the stage of ultimate, perfected evolution!
“Swoosh... Puff!”
The deep red hue of the flames vanished entirely.
In its place was a bizarre and unprecedentedly magnificent color: a flame carrying the dazzling golden hue of an emperor, yet edged along its borders with the deep, dark purple hue of destruction.
This was the Primordial Dragon Flame in its Perfected state!
The thermal energy radiated by the flames now far exceeded all conventional standards of the magical world. It was so hot that the surrounding space began to distort and warp like water being stirred. Magical dust particles floating in the air evaporated into nothingness the moment they touched the edge of the flame, leaving not even a single speck of ash!
Even the highest-grade magic crystal ores and the hardest diamond crystals buried deep beneath Kunlun Lake softened instantly upon contact with this heat, rapidly melting into a blazing, viscous liquid!
This was a flame capable of incinerating all things, melting metals and stones, and burning away every elemental barrier!
“Flame Realm... Open!”
Lin Feng suddenly snapped his eyes wide open!
In the depths of his pupils, two golden fire dragons coiled and roared, releasing a supreme pressure that turned the firmament upside down.
He waved his hand and slashed fiercely forward!
“BOOM——!”
The Dragon Flame Domain—his unique domain ability, which had previously been restricted to a radius of 800 meters—now, under the eruption of the Advanced Tier Three Perfected Fire Star Sea, instantly launched an unprecedented, frantic expansion!
Eight hundred meters...
One thousand meters...
Twelve hundred meters...
Golden firewaves surged like a tsunami swallowing heaven and earth, sweeping across the lake bed, tearing through the water surface, and shooting straight into the nine heavens! The water of the Kunlun Divine Spring vaporized at a horrifying rate, creating a gigantic column of white steam thousands of meters high that pierced the gloomy sky!
Fourteen hundred meters...
And finally, the boundary of the domain stopped at a figure that would leave any Archmage struck dumb with terror upon hearing it:
FIFTEEN HUNDRED METERS!
The entire fifteen-hundred-meter radius surrounding Lin Feng completely transformed into a True Dragon Sea of Fire!
Within this fifteen-hundred-meter range, all other magical elements—from Wind, Water, and Earth to the Light system—were burned away and driven out entirely by the terrifying heat of the Dragon Flame! Only a single rule existed here: The rule of the Primordial Dragon Flame!
Any creature stepping into this range, unless granted permission by Lin Feng, would suffer the continuous incineration of the true dragon flame, with their magical energy suppressed by seventy percent, their movement speed burned away, and their flesh and bones melted second by second!
This was no longer an ordinary magical Domain.
This was the Absolute Fire Realm! The forbidden ground of a True Dragon reigning among mortals!
At this moment, within Lin Feng’s spiritual sea, a grand and unprecedented spectacle was unfolding in human history.
At the highest position in the mental sky, the two most powerful major star seas—the Lightning Star Sea and the Fire Star Sea—presided together.
Both had reached the highest pinnacle of the Advanced Tier: Advanced Tier Three Peak Perfection!
The dark purple Lightning Star Sea glittered with Ninth Heaven Divine Lightning, brutally destructive and carrying unmatched piercing power.
The golden Fire Star Sea burned with Primordial Dragon Flame, incinerating all things and carrying the disdainful majesty of the patriarch of all dragons.
The two most extreme energies of heaven and earth no longer clashed or repelled each other as they once did. Under the harmonization of the Dragon God physique and the Dragon Pendant essence, Lightning and Fire began to revolve around one another, forming a gigantic, mystical, and breathtakingly perfect Lightning-Fire Tai Chi Diagram!
With every revolution of the Lightning-Fire Tai Chi Diagram, the magic energy was purified and compressed another notch, producing destructive power far exceeding the conventional logic of modern magical systems.
And that was not all!
Directly beneath that Lightning-Fire Dual-Pole Diagram, Lin Feng’s four other major star seas shone brilliantly, forming a rock-solid foundation:
The Shadow Star Sea, deep as eternal night, carried invisible, traceless assassinating power.
The Summoning Star Sea, vast and mysterious, closely linked to the dimensional summoning plane.
The Space Star Sea, pristine silver, circulating ripples of rules capable of bending reality.
The Chaos Star Sea, mystical ash-gray, holding the power to overturn order and convert damage.
All four auxiliary systems, after being cleansed by the Kunlun Divine Spring and Ice Marrow, were now firmly stationed at the Advanced Tier One realm!
Six major star seas!
Six regions of magical energy coexisting within a single body!
Dual Lightning-Fire Systems simultaneously reaching Advanced Tier Three Peak!
Four Shadow-Summoning-Space-Chaos Systems all reaching Advanced Tier One!
A total of over two thousand star seeds operated day and night without rest within the spiritual sea of a youth not yet twenty years old!
The aggregate magic energy Lin Feng possessed at this moment, compared to ordinary Advanced mages, surpassed fifty times over! Even mages who had just stepped through the gates of Super Tier One, purely in terms of the density and purity of their stored magic energy, might not match this monster before them!
He was not yet a Super Tier Mage.
Because he had not yet awakened a Star Palace, nor touched the Forbidden Domain of Super Tier magic.
Yet, with Dual System Tier Three Peaks, possessing dual Domains (Lightning Domain and 1500m Dragon Flame Domain), combined with four versatile Advanced sub-systems and a blade-and-bullet-proof Dragon God Physique...
Lin Feng, at this very moment, officially became:
”THE STRONGEST ‘HALF-STEP SUPER TIER’ IN ENTIRE HUMAN HISTORY!”
An existence defying the heavens that completely transcended all measuring rules of modern magic!
If he were thrown into a large-scale magical battlefield right now, merely opening the 1500m Dragon Flame Domain combined with destructive Lightning, he alone would be entirely capable of slaughtering tens of thousands of War-lord-level demonic beasts within a few breaths!
Even facing a pack of Commander-level creatures, or clashing head-on with a brutal early-stage Great Monarch, Lin Feng currently possessed absolute confidence to crush his opponent into ashes without needing to resort to any desperate measures!
“Puff...”
Lin Feng slowly exhaled a breath of stale air. The breath escaping his lips instantly transformed into a tiny golden flame, vaporizing a patch of lake water before him into glowing bubbles.
He slowly stood straight up.
Under the influence of his will, the overwhelming Long Flame Domain within a radius of fifteen hundred meters began to retract, like a gigantic pod of whales diving deep into the ocean. All the terrifying thermal energy receded into his body, burying deep within every cell and acupoint.
The bottom of the Kunlun Divine Spring finally calmed down, though the water temperature remained as warm as a natural hot spring.
Lin Feng lowered his head to look at his hand. He gently clenched it, an invisible shockwave instantly exploding in his palm, indenting the surrounding water surface into a deep circular depression. The sensation of overflowing strength and absolute control over every spark of magic made the corners of his lips curl into an arrogant smile.
“Primordial Dragon Flame Perfected... Fifteen-hundred-meter domain...”
He clenched his fist and muttered, “This trip to Kunlun Mountain has yielded harvests that far exceed all expectations.”
With this strength, whether facing the monstrous threat of the Black Vatican in the North, or the looming shadow of the Sea Monster plague lurking off the East China Sea coast... Lin Feng finally had sufficient capital to step onto the highest stage, using the thunder and fire in his hands to dictate the life and death of an entire era!
Thinking of this, Lin Feng withdrew his aura, lightly tapping his toes, his figure like an arrow tearing through the warm water as he shot upward toward the surface.
“Swoosh!”
The water split apart, and Lin Feng’s tall figure glided into the air, landing lightly upon the granite slab on the shore where Qing Yuan was still waiting with a stunned expression, unable to recover her wits.
The hem of his black robe fluttered gently in the cold Kunlun wind. Although he had just undergone two earth-shattering breakthroughs, the aura around him now was extraordinarily calm and serene, deep as a bottomless abyss.
“Miss Qing Yuan, sorry to have kept you waiting so long.” Lin Feng smiled, his warm voice shattering the quiet atmosphere.
Qing Yuan stared at him with an extremely complex look in her eyes. She saw that deep within Lin Feng’s eyes seemed to lie two blazing suns and moons, an invisible pressure causing even a peerless prodigy like her to feel a slight tightness in her chest.
She gently raised her hand gripping the sword hilt, regulating her disordered breathing: “Congratulations to Daoist Lin for your cultivation advancing in leaps and bounds. Just now, with such an earth-shattering commotion, if not for the ancient barriers of Kunlun shielding this place, I’m afraid powerhouses across half of Huaxia would have been alarmed and rushed over.”
Lin Feng smiled faintly, about to reply when suddenly——
“BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!”
A series of urgent, piercing, and sharp alarm sounds rang out from the spatial ring on his finger!
That was the confidential highest-level Secret Transmission Jade Talisman of the Capital Military Command and the Forbidden Curse Council!
This jade talisman was activated only under two sole circumstances: either the Capital defense line had been completely breached, or humanity’s survival was facing the brink of extinction!
Lin Feng’s expression instantly turned solemn. With a wave of his hand, the transmission jade talisman flew out, hovering mid-air.
The moment Lin Feng’s spiritual sense touched the jade talisman, a blood-red light suddenly shot forth, condensing into the hurried, hoarse, and death-imbued voice of Commander Xiao Lingyun:
“Lin Feng! Emergency! Leave Kunlun immediately!”
“The Black Vatican has colluded with the Sea Monster Empire, activating the ‘Origin Blood Sacrifice Array’ off the East China Sea! The entire coast of twelve provinces is submerged in a sea of blood, and three Forbidden Curse Mages from the Presidential Palace... have just been ambushed and fallen!”
“Their next target... is to shatter the Kunlun Divine Pillar, releasing the Primordial Demon God sleeping underground! The Black Vatican Pope’s legion has crossed the border defense line and is marching straight toward your mountain peak...!”
The transmission ended abruptly, and the magical jade talisman mid-air snapped with a ‘crack’, shattering into fine, blood-red powder!
Simultaneously, from the depths beneath the thousands of miles of snow-white Kunlun Mountains, a gloomy, evil, and chillingly ultimate shockwave suddenly rumbled upward, like a prehistoric fiend waking from an eternal slumber!