Chapter 315: Transdimensional Epiphany State!
Yao Chen's guess was spot on—Jiang Lin had truly begun to devote himself to cultivation.
Before refining the Metal Element Core, Jiang Lin only had the Fire Spirit Lotus, the Water Core, and the Wood Core—three in total—serving as his "external dantians." At the Great Battle Master stage, he practiced the Forging Fire Art, which Jiang Lin himself named the Fourth Stage Forging Fire Art. Even after subtracting the triple negative pressure, he still had to endure a half-strength debuff while cultivating his battle qi.
During the cultivation of the Forging Fire Art, the upper limit of his battle qi realm was destined to never surpass that of his physical body's constitution.
Take the Fire Spirit Lotus as an example: if Jiang Lin were to gather all spiritual roots, his cultivation speed at the corresponding realm would be 1. But his body, imbued with multicolored attributes, would also be 1! Although both were "1," the body with its dazzling rainbow skin could completely suppress Jiang Lin's battle qi. To put it bluntly, the body was like a golden SSR card, while battle qi was like a handful of ordinary R cards.
If you tried to bully Jiang Lin's fragile battle qi, then "Daddy Physique" would thrash you mercilessly on behalf of his delicate little battle-qi wives!
Ugh… what kind of absurd CEO-bodybuilder-with-his-fragile-harem nonsense is this?!
Anyway, back to the point—before, Jiang Lin's cultivation speed was only half. The other half was stolen away by his "hungry and insatiable" physique. Beside it lay three battle-qi wives of different colors. And now, Jiang Lin had even offered up a fresh, playful blonde little wife to "Daddy Physique." Finally satisfied, it stopped tormenting Jiang Lin, allowing him at last to enjoy his full 100% innate cultivation talent.
Blonde Little Wife (teary-eyed): Sob… for the sake of letting you cultivate properly, I'll endure it in your place, little brother!
Jiang Lin: Uh… with you describing it like this… aren't you afraid of being censored???
"The Forging Fire Art is unlike any other cultivation method. It's not about right or wrong—rather, it's an entirely new frontier explored by the ancient sages," Jiang Lin muttered as he returned to his 404 room, sitting cross-legged on a specially crafted heat-resistant stone bed to begin cultivating.
"Controlling battle qi and controlling the vessel are two distinct paths. Humanity's ancient sages clearly chose the first. That's why humans are the only race in this world without magic cores—or, in other words, energy seeds."
That elder from the Beast Domain had no reason to deceive Jiang Lin, so much of what he said was true. For instance, those proud descendants of the ancient golden bloodlines all shared a near-identical myth: at the dawn of creation, there were no significant differences among living beings. Time shaped their forms, years forged their wills, and only then did various races emerge. Humanity, too, was just one among many—until, at a certain moment, humans suddenly changed. Practically overnight, they were severed from the magic-core system.
"It's said that if a being ascends to Emperorhood, their powerful bloodline could reshape heaven and earth itself, birthing an entirely new race infused with a mighty will of energy. Humans call them Emperor Clans, while beasts call them Golden Bloodlines."
"So…" Jiang Lin, quietly cultivating, suddenly trembled inside as a startling possibility crossed his mind—a possibility beyond what this world should even allow.
"To undergo large-scale bloodline advancement in such a short span… isn't that, in itself… a form of ascension to Emperorhood?!"
The instant this thought—one he should not yet have even touched—surfaced, Jiang Lin's soul trembled. In the void of his soul platform, the little chubby Lin was suddenly engulfed in thick gray-white flames. Cracks appeared on his arms, chest, and even spread across his plump cheeks like twisted roots. From within those cracks, a radiant, spiritual light flickered.
At the same time, Jiang Lin felt the world around him sink into an indescribable silence. The energy veil swirling around him froze in midair, its dazzling colors fragmenting into strange pixelated points in his perception. Dust in the air, microscopic organisms, particles dancing on the breeze—all of it seemed suspended in time. Jiang Lin's very thoughts halted, as if he could see everything, yet nothing at all.
His consciousness rose higher and higher. The Refining Guild shrank beneath his vision, the Holy City of Jia Ma grew tiny like dust, then the entire Jia Ma Empire, and finally even the Dou Qi Continent itself dwindled into a speck among countless stars. Then, darkness swallowed all. A massive hand stretched across the starry sky, only for both it and the cosmic expanse it grasped to be swallowed again into an even greater darkness. His sight was consumed. A darkness beyond comprehension enveloped everything.
He didn't know how much time passed. On the void platform, the dazed little chubby Lin's eyes finally flickered with light again. He glanced down at the snake-shed cracks on his body, touched the fissures creeping up his cheek, and after a long silence, slowly returned to himself.
He had taken another step closer to the Soul Realm.
Or rather, he was now just one step away from shedding his mortal shell, transcending the ordinary, and affirming his true soul.
But this was not the kind of soul metamorphosis he had imagined.
"Although… I don't know how a soul in Mortal Realm Perfection should transform into Soul Realm, it definitely shouldn't be like this," Jiang Lin whispered as he slowly opened his eyes in his room. A sharp flash of crimson-gold light flickered across his gaze. He stared blankly at the sunlit window, lost in thought.
He didn't know exactly what had just happened to him, but he understood one thing: he had once again surpassed the fundamental knowledge of this world. In other words, his thoughts had transcended what this world itself allowed.
It was as if he were a short program of just a few characters running on a pixel game console—only to suddenly realize one day that beyond the console existed a far greater world.
"Am I a fish in a jar… or a fish within a jar inside a jar? Or perhaps… am I that one hidden variable beyond Heaven's calculation?" Jiang Lin murmured, dazed as he gazed out at the sunlight. Before long, he shook his head, washed up, and began another day of cultivation.
(END CHAPTER)
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