Chapter 503: The Divine-Tier Assessment
In an instant, Jiang Ye’s consciousness descended into the Martial Dao Heavenly Ladder, reaching the seventh level.
He had visited this place before the Great Stellar War, but fearing he would miss the conflict, he hadn’t participated in the examination.
You are about to enter the divine-tier assessment. The assessment time flows at the same rate as real-world time. If you are prepared, you may begin the assessment.
A message appeared before him.
“What exactly is this divine-tier assessment?” Jiang Ye wondered, his curiosity piqued.
The fact that the assessment time flowed at the same rate as real-world time was unprecedented in the Martial Dao Heavenly Ladder.
The term “divine-grade” also suggested this assessment would be extraordinary.
“Sister Caiyi only gave me a month,” Jiang Ye thought. “If I spend more than a month in the divine-tier assessment, I’ll miss the chance to inherit True Divine Qiufang’s inheritance.”
“But what if I skip the divine-tier assessment?”
“Will I still be able to participate after my sixth breakthrough?” Jiang Ye pondered.
The Martial Dao Heavenly Ladder assessed based on one’s current strength. If his strength changed, the assessment might change accordingly.
Yet Jiang Ye didn’t want to miss the divine-tier assessment.
After a moment’s deliberation, he decided, “Forget it.”
“The Martial Dao Heavenly Ladder unlocks new assessments upon breaking through to a major realm,” Jiang Ye reasoned. “But the Qiufang inheritance is a one-time opportunity.”
“I’ll focus on achieving my sixth breakthrough first.”
With that thought, Jiang Ye closed his eyes and instantly withdrew from the Martial Dao Heavenly Ladder space.
Returning to the Inheritance Space, Jiang Ye composed himself and prepared to continue his cultivation.
Suddenly, he paused.
“Hmm?”
“This spleen earth?” Jiang Ye’s expression shifted slightly. “It’s emitting some kind of faint spiritual fluctuations?”
He could clearly sense it.
The newly condensed earth-yellow spleen earth was radiating faint spiritual fluctuations, so subtle that no ordinary person could detect them.
But Jiang Ye, as the spleen earth’s host, could vaguely perceive them.
“What is this?”
“Subservience?” Jiang Ye’s face showed astonishment.
That’s right!
From the spleen earth, he sensed spiritual fluctuations of subservience!
This was utterly inconceivable. By all logic, spleen earth should lack consciousness or thought.
How could it emit such fluctuations?
Yet the reality was undeniably miraculous.
“The spleen earth’s creation process has always been shrouded in divine mysteries,” Jiang Ye mused, though he remained puzzled.
But soon, he realized:
“Wait.”
“This spleen earth isn’t submitting to me,” Jiang Ye exclaimed in disbelief. “It’s submitting to my heart fire?”
“What’s going on?”
Jiang Ye was completely bewildered.
Spleen earth submitting to heart fire?
Even according to the Five Great Mysteries’ principles of mutual generation and restraint, fire restrains metal, not earth.
“Could it be?”
“Because my heart fire’s rank is too high?” Jiang Ye’s mind raced with possibilities. “But didn’t Sister Caiyi say that these four primordial treasures were already at the highest rank?”
At that moment, an incredible hypothesis began to form in Jiang Ye’s mind.
Having been upgraded by the system, Jiang Ye’s heart fire was likely now at the legendary highest tier!
Otherwise, it wouldn’t have caused such bizarre phenomena.
“Let’s try the other primordial treasures first,” Jiang Ye thought to himself. “Once I condense the lung metal, kidney water, and liver wood, surely they won’t all submit to the heart fire, right?”
With that thought, Jiang Ye put the matter aside.
“metal dao primordial treasure,” Jiang Ye said, flipping his palm.
A treasure materialized—a solid gold object with a metallic sheen, radiating an intense metallic aura.
It looked utterly inedible.
Fortunately, Jiang Ye didn’t need to consume it.
Crack! He crushed the golden treasure in his hand.
A torrent of golden light erupted, forming countless shimmering particles that enveloped Jiang Ye completely.
“Absorb,” Jiang Ye commanded, activating the True Divine Manual to absorb and refine the golden particles.
Whoosh!
The golden particles converged, giving Jiang Ye an otherworldly appearance.
As they entered his body, they transformed into specks of Golden Spirituality, which settled within his lungs.
“Golden Spirituality,” Jiang Ye sensed.
Spiritual essence and divinity are essentially the same thing, though the latter exists on a far higher plane.
The difference between them is akin to the gap between spear art spirit resonance and Spear Art Divine Resonance.
Why, for instance, does heart fire aid in comprehending the mysteries of fire?
Why can it dramatically enhance the power of the fire dao?
The answer lies in the ‘spiritual essence of fire’!
When vast quantities of fire’s spiritual essence converge, it naturally becomes easier to tap into the mysteries of fire.
The same principle applies to Golden Spirituality.
“metal dao primordial treasure contain vast amounts of Golden Spirituality,” Jiang Ye murmured, focusing intently on refining them. “Only by refining them and integrating them into myself can they be transformed into ‘lung metal’.”
“However…”
“Spiritual essence, like stellar energy, dissipates over time,” Jiang Ye recalled from his studies.
Both spiritual essence and stellar energy are extraordinary energies of the cosmos, sharing a similar nature.
Before the Guanyuan Acupoint is formed, the human body cannot contain stellar energy.
The same holds true for spiritual essence, though the process is even more complex.
This is because spiritual essence exists in many forms—metal, wood, water, fire, earth—none of which the human body can naturally accommodate.
Only by cultivating the corresponding ‘vessel’ can one truly absorb it.
This led to the concepts of heart fire, liver wood, spleen earth, lung metal, and kidney water.
“Can I condense lung metal?” Jiang Ye wondered. “It depends on whether my compatibility with the mysteries of gold is high enough. The higher my compatibility, the slower the Golden Spirituality will dissipate.”
Even with the aid of a primordial treasure, successfully condensing lung metal wasn’t guaranteed.
It all came down to innate talent.
Time flowed onward.
Within the Inheritance Space, Jiang Ye diligently refined the metal dao primordial treasure.
Another day passed.
Buzz~
Suddenly, a blinding golden light erupted from Jiang Ye’s body.
“Damn it,” he thought, “I’m probably going to fail.”
He knew that such a violent burst of golden light was a bad sign, indicating a massive leakage of Golden Spirituality.
The metal dao primordial treasure before him was now reduced to its final sliver.
“It seems my innate talent for the Path of Metal is quite poor,” Jiang Ye sighed inwardly.
Yet he wasn’t discouraged.
Most people could only comprehend one mystery of heaven and earth. Over ninety-nine percent of eighth breakthrough powerhouses failed to grasp a second.
If it were otherwise, ninth breakthrough experts on Blue Star wouldn’t be so rare.
Jiang Ye’s innate talent for the path of earth was already astonishing.
As for the path of metal? It was perfectly normal for his talent to be lacking.
“The lung metal… I’m afraid it can’t be refined.”
“There’s only a trace of the metal dao primordial treasure left,” Jiang Ye thought, a daring idea flashing through his mind. “Why not refine it into the heart fire and see what happens?”
Even the spleen earth had submitted to the heart fire.
After the system upgrade, the heart fire now possessed numerous divine abilities.
With this in mind, Jiang Ye immediately began his bold experiment.
Whoosh!
At his mental command, the metal dao primordial treasure instantly transformed into a ball of golden light, completely disintegrating.
Guided by Jiang Ye, the golden light burrowed into his heart.
The moment it entered…
Buzz!
The formless, immaterial flame within Jiang Ye’s heart suddenly trembled, sending out invisible ripples.
Whoosh! Jiang Ye’s body erupted with an overwhelming suction force.
(End of the Chapter)