Volume 1: Bo'an Awakening & The Calamity Storm
Chapter 62
Dual-Element Ascension, Approaching Intermediate Tier
Hundreds of feet beneath the foundations of the Nourishing Spirit Spring Tower, the subterranean chamber existed in total isolation from the sun and the bustling clamor of Bo’an City. Four sheer precipices of ancient black obsidian monoliths enclosed the space, their surfaces densely etched with deep azure sealing runes dating back to the city’s founding. They cast a gentle, phosphorescent glow that illuminated the circular sanctuary, spanning roughly thirty paces across.
At the very center of the chamber rested a lotus dais sculpted from deep emerald jade, nestled within a bottomless natural spring pool.
This was the veritable cradle of the Nourishing Spirit Spring.
The liquid welling up within the pool was by no means ordinary spring water. It was the concentrated essence of the subterranean earth vein, gathered over thousands of years beneath the roots of the Cang Lei Ridge, congealed into thick, viscous streams of liquefied mana that shimmered with crystalline emerald brilliance. Every gentle ripple lapping against the stone rim released plumes of ethereal mist, carrying the faint, earthy yet pristine scent of ancient mineral veins. Merely drawing a deep breath in this sanctum caused every pore across the body to instinctively flare open, greedily drinking in the purest vital essence of heaven and earth.
Lin Feng sat cross-legged atop the jade lotus dais. His eyes were half-closed and his hands rested in a meditative mudra upon his knees, each measured breath drawn out until it synchronized with the deep, rhythmic pulse of the subterranean waters.
Outside, Bo’an City was likely seething with shock over his crushing defeat of Han Yi, or gripped by unease beneath the unnatural canopy of slate-gray clouds and the bizarre drizzle of diluted blood falling from the sky. But in the fathomless silence of this subterranean vault, Lin Feng had completely cast aside every worldly distraction.
Only a single purpose remained etched into his mind: to seize every fleeting second of these seven precious days of cultivation, to shatter the shackles of the Novice Tier and hammer upon the threshold of an Intermediate Mage!
Gurgle... gurgle gurgle...
The tranquil mirror of the Nourishing Spirit Spring abruptly began to churn with violent fervor.
From beneath the jade lotus dais where Lin Feng meditated, concentric ripples surged outward, crashing violently against the surrounding stone walls. An invisible gravitational vortex radiated from the youth’s frame, waking like the gaping maw of an abyssal leviathan rising from ocean trenches, pulling the entire subterranean current into motion.
The whirlpool’s rotation accelerated at breakneck speed. The pool water whipped into frothing white crests, erupting into furious watery spouts that slammed rhythmically against the stone perimeter. Within mere breaths, the entirety of the Nourishing Spirit Spring had morphed into a titanic vortex of emerald spiritual energy!
The roaring vortex surged fathoms into the air, completely encasing Lin Feng at the very eye of the tempest. Flecks of jade mist scattered before being yanked backward by the irresistible pull of magic, penetrating straight through his thin garments and seeping into flesh, bone, and bloodstream.
A suffocating, heavy pressure clamped down abruptly upon Lin Feng’s chest. The stifling sensation felt like a cascading cataract of molten metal hammering straight down upon his skull, threatening to crush the unrefined meridians and bones of a Novice Mage whose physical form had yet to undergo tempering. Had an ordinary student ventured into this chamber, they would have recoiled in terror, severed their mental connection, or coughed blood under the sheer weight of the spiritual pressure.
Not Lin Feng.
His thick brows knit slightly, yet his spine remained ramrod straight like an iron tree rooted deep within a mountain cliff. Having survived countless brushes with death in the wild, having felt the jagged fangs of magic wolves tearing through his flesh, this measure of physical strain could not shake his will of steel in the slightest.
He gave a low command within his soul:
Open for me!
Boom——!
Lin Feng’s consciousness plunged in an instant into the boundless expanse—his very own Sea of Consciousness!
If an ordinary mage were to gaze into their own spiritual sea, they would witness only a desolate, pitch-black void, anchored by a lone, flickering cluster of Stardust floating adrift at the center.
Yet the inner realm of Lin Feng’s soul was an unprecedented marvel.
Amidst the infinite cosmic dark, two completely independent magical Stardust domains held dominion over opposing quadrants, resplendent and magnificent like twin miniature galaxies orbiting in parallel.
To the left was the Fire Stardust! The entire expanse burned with a violent, deep crimson blaze, within which seven dazzling golden Stars spun in mystical, mesmerizing orbits. Having refined and fused the soldier-beast soul essences from the Primordial Dragon Pendant, these seven Stars had ascended to Tier-4 Strengthened status, radiating a blistering heat that scorched the void like seven miniature suns churning with molten magma.
To the right was the Lightning Stardust! A domain cloaked in mysterious, brooding, and furious violet-black mist. Seven dark violet lightning Stars flickered relentlessly, discharging jagged arcs of electricity that slashed across the silent dark. Every burst of purple lightning carried cataclysmic destructive power, snarling violently like a pack of furious dragons bound in chains, baying to be unleashed to ravage the world.
Innate Dual Elements! His greatest trump card, the most lethal secret he guarded rigorously from the eyes of all humanity!
Under ordinary circumstances, wielding two elements simultaneously meant expending twice the time and resources of ordinary mages just to nurture both Stardust domains. Each standard meditation session was akin to mere droplets trickling onto a parched desert.
Yet right now, the miraculous gates of the Nourishing Spirit Spring were flung wide open!
Rumble, rumble, boom——!
A colossal deluge of emerald energy roared down into Lin Feng’s Sea of Consciousness. The millennial essence accumulated beneath the subterranean veins of Bo’an City possessed mana so concentrated that it materialized into physical substance, billowing into an ocean of surging spiritual mist the moment it flooded his soul.
Nourished by this endless celestial nectar, both Stardust domains within Lin Feng’s Sea of Consciousness went completely mad!
The survival instinct and primal hunger for evolution inherent to the magical elements drove both the Fire Stardust and Lightning Stardust to unleash an unprecedented frenzy of gravitational pull.
The two Stardust clusters transformed into twin cosmic black holes, spinning at terrifying velocity. The Fire Stardust coalesced into a colossal vortex of flame, ravenously devouring vast swathes of emerald mana. The moment the spiritual mist touched the deep crimson flames, the terrifying heat refined it in an instant, burning away every impurity and retaining only the purest core essence to nourish the flame’s origin. The brilliant crimson light grew progressively denser, glittering with golden flecks like star dust strewn across the cosmos.
Simultaneously, the Lightning Stardust refused to be outdone! Violent violet-black thunder roared furiously, brewing an electromagnetic tempest that shredded the emerald mist into a thousand wisps. Every thunderbolt that crashed down scooped up an immense quantity of mana, pulverizing and absorbing it into the heart of the storm. The violet hue of the stardust deepened further, turning so dark it bordered on obsidian, radiating a numbing, hair-raising suppression.
On one side burned the pinnacle of raging fire! On the other snarled the wrath of wild thunder! The two supreme destructive forces of natural magic surged simultaneously, devouring the energy of the sacred subterranean spring at a breathtaking, spine-chilling pace.
Crack... crackle crack...
Within the absolute stillness of his mind, Lin Feng suddenly caught the crisp sound of fracturing.
It was the boundary of his Sea of Consciousness!
Ordinarily, the domain of a Novice Mage’s Stardust was extremely restricted. Even with Lin Feng’s exceptional talent and battle-hardened foundation, the surface area of each Stardust domain spanned merely a few square meters, resembling a modest courtyard adrift in the vast night. That was the invisible barrier that capped the quantity of mana his body could store.
Yet at this moment, overwhelmed by the bursting flood of energy from the Nourishing Spirit Spring, the two Stardust clusters could no longer maintain their original size!
They began to expand! A violent, aggressive, and imperious expansion!
Boom——!
A silent clap of thunder resonated in the deepest recesses of Lin Feng’s soul.
The invisible boundary wall penning in the Sea of Consciousness was struck head-on by the surging deluge of magic, instantly splintering into tens of thousands of spiderweb fractures. The Fire Stardust swelled outward like an exploding fireball in deep space, its fiery crimson frontier sweeping aggressively through the surrounding darkness, doubling its expanse!
And it did not stop there! The adjacent Lightning Stardust detonated with an ultra-powerful electromagnetic shockwave, tearing the ink-black veil of the consciousness in the opposite direction. The domain of lightning expanded at blinding speed—from three square meters leaping to six, then to nine square meters! Doubling... and then tripling in size!
Wherever the Stardust frontier pushed forward, the dazzling radiance of magic followed, claiming the territory. The cramped confinement of the past vanished completely, replaced by an unprecedentedly vast and boundless magical expanse!
However, the price for carving open the Sea of Consciousness at such breakneck speed was by no means pleasant.
Outside atop the stone lotus dais, Lin Feng’s entire frame trembled violently. The muscles across his arms and shoulders locked tight as boulders; thick veins bulged across his temples, throbbing with sharp stabs of agony. Forcing open the Sea of Consciousness felt as though thousands of steel drill bits were boring directly into his brain matter, prying apart every inch of cranial bone to stretch the space within. Waves of soul-rending agony crashed over him like tidal surges, forcing Lin Feng to clamp his teeth together so hard that blood began to seep from his gums, staining the corners of his lips crimson.
Cold sweat poured down him like rain, yet the moment it touched the ambient air, it was instantly vaporized by the invisible furnace heat radiating from his body, dissipating into thin wisps of white steam.
What is this trifling pain... compared to the three years of humiliation my father suffered before the Ling Clan!
Lin Feng roared silently in his chest. His unyielding will did not flinch in the slightest; on the contrary, it forged itself even harder:
Devour for me! Keep devouring!
Tightening his mental focus, he forced himself to maintain absolute clarity amidst the tempest of agony, channeling every ounce of concentration toward the fourteen Stars spinning at the focal centers of the two Stardust clusters.
At this juncture, the metamorphosis of the Stars truly reached its most breathtaking, heart-stopping phase!
Looking upon the Fire Stardust, the seven Tier-4 Stars that already gleamed golden were now bathed in the millennial earth dragon essence. Whisps of emerald energy from the Nourishing Spirit Spring penetrated into the core of each Star, compressed and tempered relentlessly by the raging fire.
Under that grueling refinement, the golden luster on the seven Fire Stars became increasingly pure, translucent, and dazzling to the extreme! They were no longer merely floating motes of light, but had condensed into seven scintillating, multifaceted fire diamonds. Every single Star was engorged with mana, radiating a searing aura several times more suffocating than when he had clashed against Han Yi upon the arena. With a single thought, these seven golden Stars could instantly align into a flawless Star Orbit in the blink of an eye, unleashing a flame potent enough to reduce any Minion-class monster to ash!
Meanwhile, across the divide, the seven violet-black Lightning Stars were undergoing an equally terrifying transformation!
Unlike fire that erupted outward, lightning was characterized by insidious compression and explosive violence. Absorbing the endless, pure terrestrial energy, the seven thunder Stars swelled visibly, growing half again as large as their original size. Their outer shells were laced with intricate webs of crackling lightning, discharging a relentless fusillade of crisp detonations.
Bolts of electricity snarled within each Star, ramming against the astral shell like feral beasts trapped within an iron cocoon. Waves of violet-black electrical surges thrashed with violent turbulence, like thunder butterflies clawing desperately at their thick chrysalis to break free, awaiting only an opportunity to tear the shell apart and soar into the high heavens!
The pinnacle! This was the absolute pinnacle of the Novice Tier Level 3!
Both of Lin Feng’s elements, Fire and Lightning, bolstered by the nourishing spring, had simultaneously shattered all conventional boundaries of a Novice Mage. The mana reserves stored within the two Stardusts—now expanded threefold—were so vast that they could rival the combined mana of four or five peak Novice Mages put together!
Yet Lin Feng knew full well that this was still not the finish line.
Between the Novice Tier and the Intermediate Tier lay a chasm ten thousand fathoms deep!
A Novice Mage possessed only Stardust with a mere seven Stars, casting spells based on a single Star Orbit. But once one crossed into the prestigious ranks of an Intermediate Mage, the Sea of Consciousness underwent a qualitative leap: Stardust would transform into a Nebula, the number of Stars would skyrocket to forty-nine, weaving into a majestic Star Pattern! A single first-tier Intermediate spell could effortlessly level an entire city block, possessing the catastrophic might to crush a Commander-class demon in a single blow—the kind of monster that required dozens of Novice Mages risking their lives just to hold at bay!
In Bo’an City, only those who attained the Intermediate Tier were truly revered as pillars of power, possessing the standing to negotiate as equals with the ruling powers, no longer mere disposable pawns upon the chessboard of patricians like the Ling Clan.
Only one final step remains...
Lin Feng held his breath, his mental perception sweeping across the outer perimeters of both Stardust domains.
There, encapsulating the entire brilliant realms of Fire and Lightning, was a hazy, translucent membrane, supple as a water bubble yet extraordinarily resilient.
The Intermediate Tier barrier!
It was this unyielding membrane that had imprisoned thousands of mages at the bottom of the Novice chasm for their entire lives, preventing them from condensing a Nebula. Some squandered decades of grueling effort and millions of magic coins on breakthrough potions, only to watch in despair as that barrier remained utterly unyielding.
But right now, under the immense pressure of the surging mana from the Nourishing Spirit Spring, the membrane in Lin Feng’s Sea of Consciousness began to balloon outward!
Crack... Snap...
Crisp, delicate sounds echoed in the depths of his soul.
Across the surface of the translucent barrier, a hairline fracture suddenly emerged! Immediately following it, a second and a third fracture rapidly spiderwebbed outward. The roaring Fire energy and the raging Lightning within spotted an outlet, madly surging toward the fissures. The entire dividing barrier shook violently, appearing as though a single final shove would shatter it into oblivion!
An opportunity of a lifetime!
Joy surged through Lin Feng as unyielding courage flared within him. He knew the destiny-defining moment had arrived. While the vortex of the Nourishing Spirit Spring outside remained at its fiercest, he had to muster all his spiritual force, fusing the twin torrents of Fire and Lightning into a peerless magical drill, striking a fatal blow to tear apart the Intermediate barrier!
Unite for me! Break——!
Lin Feng unleashed an earth-shattering roar within his Sea of Consciousness.
The twin Stardust clusters responded in unison. The seven golden Fire Stars and the seven violet-black Lightning Stars howled simultaneously. Mana from both poles twisted together, forging into a razor-sharp thunder-flame drill that hurtled straight toward the focal point of the boundary membrane!
However...
At the razor-thin precipice of that very instant, when the magical drill was less than a hairsbreadth from the barrier—
Buzz——! Boom——!
An earth-shattering anomaly abruptly erupted, completely blindsiding Lin Feng!
Against his chest, the ancient jade pendant pressed against his skin—the Primordial Dragon Pendant—suddenly flared with blistering heat like a glowing ember just dredged from a forge of purgatory!
The terrifying heat permeated straight into his chest, jolting Lin Feng’s entire body violently. The fused thunder-flame drill in his Sea of Consciousness was instantly snapped apart by an invisible force, disintegrating into scattered motes of light!
Before Lin Feng could even gather his wits, from deep within the dark ash-gray jade, a profound, primordial dragon roar—echoing as if from the desolation of the primordial era—suddenly detonated!
“ROAAAR——!”
The dragon roar did not emanate through the physical air; it slammed directly into Lin Feng’s soul, sending his entire Sea of Consciousness into violent convulsions, churning waves of mana into total disarray!
Across the surface of the Primordial Dragon Pendant, the ancient coiled dragon patterns suddenly came alive. A beam of deep, overbearing, and insatiably ravenous black light shot straight out from the dragon’s eyes into physical reality!
Rumble, rumble, crash——!
The entire subterranean chamber beneath the Nourishing Spirit Spring Tower shuddered violently; gravel and stone showered down from the vaulted ceiling.
The massive emerald vortex swirling around Lin Feng froze dead in midair. Instead of continuing to permeate his meridians to feed his Sea of Consciousness, the entire body of water in the subterranean spring pool fell under the absolute dominion of the black light from the Primordial Dragon Pendant!
A pitch-black abyssal vortex manifested right before Lin Feng’s chest.
The suction force erupting from that black vortex was terrifying beyond belief! It was like a colossal dragon awakening from millions of years of slumber, opening its yawning abyssal maw to swallow the heavens and earth whole!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh——!
The entire millennium-accumulated sacred earth spring of Bo’an City—a priceless treasure that both the City Lord’s Manor and the military guarded with their very lives—transformed into a raging emerald river, relentlessly swallowed inch by inch by the Primordial Dragon Pendant!
“What?!”
Lin Feng’s eyes snapped open, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks in sheer horror.
Why had the Dragon Pendant suddenly hijacked the Nourishing Spirit Spring at the exact moment he was poised to break through?
What would this bizarre anomaly bring him in the end—or would it reduce his chance of breaking through to the Intermediate Tier to nothing more than vanishing foam?!