Alchemy Emperor of the Divine Dao
chapter-33

Ling Han's opening up his Dantian could only be considered as being halfway to Element Gathering Tier. He had only raised the upper limit of his internal storage of Origin Power--the power upgrade depended on whether he could form the origin nucleus or not.

The number of those in the ninth layer of Body Refining Tier who had been stuck on this step is unknown, but definitely very big.

Martial artists of the Element Gathering Tier could form a total of nine origin nuclei. Once they had succeeded in forming the ninth, they'd be able to start the process of breaking through to the Gushing Spring Tier.

However, for Ling Han, forming an origin nucleus was only a small issue. After all, he had already done it nine times in his last life.

He started to form the nucleus. The powerful Origin Power stirred, gathered, intertwined and melded together. He was very familiar with this process and, very quickly, the Origin Power within his body solidified into a nucleus form, as tiny as a hair's breadth.

But, he immediately experienced a great shock, for within his Dantian, there actually appeared five origin nuclei!

How was this possible!

He had only just broken through to Element Gathering Tier, and now he had already reached the fifth layer of Element Gathering Tier?

No, no, no... this was an impossible thing, because these five origin nuclei were much too small, and were still very far from reaching their pinnacle--he had never heard that anyone had ever managed to form five origin nuclei in one go and simultaneously expand them to their pinnacle form.

Additionally, the gaps between these five origin nuclei was much too small. They had a mutual attraction and repulsion relationship, forming a subtle balance. They were also differently colored--gold, green, white, red and black, respectively.

Ling Han's heart skipped a beat. These were the solid forms of the five different elemental alignments. These five nuclei represented Gold, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth, respectively.

Could it be that a Spirit Base with multiple elemental alignments could form multiple origin nuclei?

But how was it possible that he had never heard of such a thing in his last life?

'That's not right!'

Ling Han carefully examined them and concluded that these five different origin nuclei had achieved a perfect balance. Should any of these five nuclei be even a little bit stronger, it would destroy that delicate balance. Thus, there would only be one origin nucleus, the strongest, that could "survive" in the end, while the other origin nuclei would be pushed aside and shatter.

Following this line of deduction, for someone to be able to form two, three, four, or the maximum of five origin nuclei, the elemental alignments of their Spirit Base had to achieve a perfect balance. This would allow the origin nuclei that had been formed to also be perfectly balanced with one another, none of which would be able to swallow the others and vice versa.

There were many in this world who possessed two elemental alignments, or even three or four. But those who had multiple elemental alignments and actually managed to achieve a perfectly balanced relationship between the multiple elemental alignments in his Spirit Base were few and far between. Thus, it was a pitiful few that could actually possess two or three origin nuclei.

In his last life, besides burying himself in alchemy, Ling Han had also buried himself in cultivation. He took part in very few actual battles, and so not coming into contact with martial artists that had multiple origin nuclei was nothing strange. Moreover, multiple origin nuclei could become anyone's hidden trump card to turn over the tables and obtain victory, and who would reveal their trump card easily?

'The five origin nuclei would combine together to form a large origin nucleus, which means that I will have Origin Power five times stronger than anyone else!' Ling Han thought. This was something very terrifying.

For a martial artist to completely exhaust the Origin Power within his body, they'd need at least hundred plus moves, or even thousand plus moves. But should he be able to discharge this energy at five times the speed?

This would mean that the power of every attack would be increased by five times!

If the power of Element Gathering Tier was shown with numbers, the first layer would be 'one', then the second layer would be 'two' and the third layer would be 'three', but the fourth layer would be 'six'. There would be a leap after every three layers, separating the entire tier into the three major stages: early, middle and late, respectively.

With this kind of representation, the advantage of Five Elements origin nuclei was obviously without compare.

'No, no, no, the Five Element Origin Nuclei have also achieved a perfect balance as they are mutually interdependent, thus the power they can generate would definitely not be just five, but six times, or even ten times stronger! Should I reach the peak of the first layer of Element Gathering Tier, I'd at least be able to fight on equal footing with someone in the fourth layer of Element Gathering Tier!

How much power would I actually have... I'll have to reach the peak of the first layer of Element Gathering Tier to find out.'

So this was the true power of an Immortal Grade Spirit Base!

However, to simultaneously expand and strengthen five origin nuclei would definitely be much slower than expanding just one, so the advantage of cultivation speed of an Immortal Grade Spirit Base was thus evened out. Moreover, to be able to discharge Origin Power at five times the speed would require for the space within his Dantian to be simply colossal. Otherwise, he would only have the opportunity to make a few moves before exhausting all of the energy stored in his body, so how could he continue to play like this?

'Never mind if there's no advantage of fast cultivation speed. After all, I would obtain power that would make me practically invincible amongst all those within the same cultivation level in exchange for it. Moreover, I am the Alchemy Emperor, so I'll still be able to maintain a high speed of cultivation and progress through the tiers. Even if I can only reach Heaven Tier by two hundred years old again, that'd still be the fastest record in history!

No, no, no, I already have a complete understanding and comprehension of the different tiers, so I definitely would not need as long as two hundred years to break through to Heaven Tier.

The world is fair. To be able to obtain stronger power, one must make twice, or even ten times the sacrifice. Moreover, the space within my Dantian is still too small, so I still do not have the ability to battle for too long.

According to my understanding, only those Spirit Bases that have multiple elemental alignments that are also perfectly balanced can be labeled as an Immortal Grade Spirit Base. However, Immortal Grade Spirit Bases can also be separated into various categories, and my Five Elements Mix Chaos Lotus is the strongest!

That's because there cannot be a Spirit Base with six elemental alignments in this world, as it would then be impossible to achieve a balance between the various elemental alignments.

No wonder I had a strange feeling when I previously read the second layer of this Five Elements Heaven Grade Skill. I had initially thought that the creator of this skill arts had made some kind of a mistake, but now it seems that this is because the Five Elements Mix Chaos Lotus is able to form Five Elements Origin Nuclei. If it's the simultaneous circulation of the five origin nuclei, there are no problems with this skill arts.

So, it seems that an Immortal Grade Spirit Base definitely needs a specific kind of skill arts to be able to release its full prowess. Otherwise, if I were to use an ordinary skill arts to stimulate the Five Elements Origin Nuclei... I really have no idea what would happen.

It seems that in this life, all my conditions are the best. If I still can't shatter the void and become a god with all those advantages, then I really should find a piece of tofu and knock myself to death with it.

Taking advantage of the fact that the medicinal effects have not been completely exhausted, I'll cultivate for a while longer.'

Ling Han guided the remnants of the medicinal effects from the Green Spiritual Fruit to expand his Dantian and strengthen his origin nuclei.

The cultivation process of Element Gathering Tier was to expand one's Dantian and strengthen the origin nucleus as much as possible.

The larger the Dantian, the more Origin Power it could store and accumulate. Meanwhile, the larger the origin nucleus and the faster its rotation, the stronger the power that could instantly erupt from it would be. Thus, even if two martial artists possessed the same cultivation levels, there would still appear a large gap between their individual battle prowess.

Of course, the number of origin nuclei also had to be taken into consideration now.

Ling Han was like an excavator, enlarging his Dantian to enable it to store even more Origin Power and stimulating the rotation of his origin nuclei at the same time. With every rotation, the speed would increase by just at little bit more, and as strands of Origin Power twined around the origin nuclei, the origin nuclei would also become larger in size.

He had to be very cautious when strengthening the origin nuclei in his Dantian, because there needed to be an absolute balance amongst the five origin nuclei. Otherwise, if there was even the slightest bit of difference, this balance would collapse. The earlier the stage, the more there could not be any minuscule bit of difference, for the foundation was still much too weak.

Because of his thirst for power, Ling Han diligently continued to cultivate with utmost concentration.

'What?!'

While he had been energetically "excavating", he suddenly stopped, and an inconceivable expression appeared on his face.

A black tower was drifting within his Dantian, exuding a golden light that stirred slightly. It gave off a desolate, primitive air, ancient and dignified. There were nine levels in this tower, and from the angle of Ling Han's mind's sight, this black tower had a height of ten thousand metres, connecting the heavens and the earth.

Even though it had already been ten thousand years, Ling Han could still identify this black tower with one glance. In his words, even if this tower had been burnt to ashes, he'd still be able to identify it! Because, this black tower was the culprit that had "killed" him in his last life!

Curses, how could this tower be inside his Dantian? Could it be that killing him once in his last life was not enough so it had chased after him to this second life, planning to kill him a second time?

You can't play the game like that!