Chapter 4886 — Merging Spirit Roots

Because of the subtle influence of the Lightning-Commanding Banner, everyone's lightning tribulation was stirred up far faster than usual this time, which suited Bao Zuoliang and Su Kesheng perfectly. Had the crowd all been unable to summon their tribulations for a long while, the two of them would have been utterly helpless, still waiting anxiously with their ingredients ready and the pot on the fire—after all, it took considerable effort to keep so many tribulations under control with the banner.

At last, they both felt it was about enough. By now, counting Wei Zhao's own, the Lightning-Commanding Banner was manipulating the tribulations of a full ten people!

Having gathered such an immense charge of lightning energy, even the Lightning-Commanding Banner itself could hardly bear it—this was nearly the limit of what it could control. Had it been otherwise, Bao Zuoliang and Su Kesheng would likely have gone on gathering more with mad abandon, for Wei Zhao had displayed such appalling strength that if this strike failed to kill him, the consequences would be endless.

"This will do it. He's dead for sure—that fellow surnamed Lin!" Su Kesheng urged, his eyes gleaming.

"Heh heh, just you watch—the moment of miracles has come!" Bao Zuoliang was even more impatient than his companion. Gazing at the towering, dense layers of thunderclouds overhead, he felt as though he were looking upon a beauty stripped bare, and he itched to throw himself upon her and plant two fierce kisses—all of this was his handiwork!

At that moment, Wei Zhao in the tribulation node remained wholly unaware of any of it, still puzzling in silence. He could clearly sense that a powerful lightning field had gathered overhead and was constantly stirring, yet for some inexplicable reason it simply would not descend!

"What the devil is this?" Wei Zhao was utterly baffled, but something else troubled him even more than this. The greatest problem he faced at the moment was which spirit root attributes he should condense for the fusion.

Ordinary people never suffered such distress. Those with a single spirit root attribute need not even consider it, for they lacked the qualifications to attempt the Xuan Sheng breakthrough at all. Of course, nearly everyone who could enter East Continent Academy possessed dual-attribute spirit roots, and such people had little to agonize over—they simply fused the two attributes together.

As for those with triple spirit root attributes, even in the genius-gathering East Continent Academy they were uncommon, and their options were limited besides—merely pairing three attributes two at a time, then choosing whichever scheme was optimal.

But Wei Zhao was different. He did not carry three attributes, but a full eight: beyond the five fundamental attributes of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, he also possessed ice, mist, and lightning. Choosing among them truly made one's head ache!

If it were possible, Wei Zhao would naturally have loved nothing more than to fuse all his spirit root attributes into one, but that was simply unrealistic. The ghostly thing had told him long ago that though his constitution was special and the possibility of unifying eight attributes did theoretically exist, that possibility was so infinitesimal as to be negligible.

What limited this was not talent but purely a lack of motive force. Fusing spirit roots of different attributes into one was an exceedingly difficult and complex process—in a sense, it was destruction before creation.

To destroy the original multiple spirit roots and remold a new, fused spirit root—both processes required the aid of an extremely powerful external force, and that force came precisely from the lightning tribulation!

To the vast majority of people, the lightning tribulation was indeed a destructive force capable of reducing a person to ashes in an instant, yet it was also an exceedingly rare creative force. Under the supreme tempering of such power, it was no wonder that anything at all might be born anew—including spirit roots.

Yet however earth-shaking the lightning tribulation might be, the lightning power each person could summon was ultimately limited. After all, if it truly exceeded the limit, it would be a lightning burial rather than a tribulation—and no ordinary person, no matter how many Thunder Mystic Pills he clutched, could ever hope to survive the fury of a lightning burial.

By the ghostly thing's estimate, a normal person's tribulation power was generally only sufficient to fuse two spirit root attributes. Only in extremely rare cases was there a chance to fuse three—and that was already the limit!

It was precisely for this reason that throughout the five great Cloud-Tier Islands, triple-spirit Xuan Sheng cultivators were rarely seen. A so-called triple-spirit Xuan Sheng expert was one who had fused three spirit root attributes into one; ordinary Xuan Sheng experts were merely dual-spirit.

Geniuses bearing three spirit root attributes were uncommon, to be sure, but not so rare as all that—the lightning tribulation's limit was the true crux.

Counting all the Xuan Sheng experts who had successfully advanced, those with three spirit root attributes numbered at most ten percent, and among that tenth, those able to fuse three attributes in a single attempt were fewer than one in ten.

Thus, wherever one went, triple-spirit Xuan Sheng experts were rare treasures, for like the perfect golden core and the perfect nascent soul, they were all but absolutely dominant against experts of the same tier. And as for an eight-spirit Xuan Sheng expert? What in the world was that!

Never mind an eight-spirit Xuan Sheng expert—simply possessing eight spirit root attributes, Wei Zhao was likely the only one under heaven. Ordinary people had never even heard of such a thing.

So Wei Zhao's most vexing problem now was choosing three from among his eight spirit root attributes—and even then he had to be prepared for the threefold fusion to fail, in which case he might well end up with only a twofold fusion.

In truth, Wei Zhao had also considered another method. At first glance it seemed rather feasible, but the ghostly thing snuffed it out with a single simple sentence.

Wei Zhao's notion was simple: put plainly, he would fuse in multiple rounds, two attributes at a time, and after repeating seven times, would that not amount to an eightfold fusion?

No ordinary person would ever conceive such a bizarre idea, for to them the assault on the Xuan Sheng stage was a one-time affair—succeed or fail, that was that. Only a freak like Wei Zhao, bearing eight spirit root attributes, would be so ingeniously unconventional as to think of repeating it again and again.

In that case, each repetition would amount to a fresh assault on the Xuan Sheng stage. The thunderclouds here were dense enough, and his spirit root attributes numerous enough; in theory, it was indeed not impossible.

But when the ghostly thing caught wind of it, it nearly laughed itself to death: "Do you think fusing spirit roots is stir-frying? Add oil when you want oil, add vinegar when you want vinegar—and if it's not cooked through the first time, you can just toss it back in the wok and heat it up again?"

"Uh... so it won't work?" Wei Zhao scratched his head again and again.

"Of course it won't work, you fool! Fusing spirit roots is a one-time opportunity—after that, there's no fusing again. In all my long life I've never heard of anyone's spirit roots being fused over and over. Otherwise, triple-spirit Xuan Sheng experts would have been everywhere long ago—they wouldn't have become the rare animals they are today." The ghostly thing roared with laughter.