Chapter 204.2: Eight Years in Seclusion, Dao Fruits Finally Formed! (II)
At last, Lu Changsheng's eyes snapped open.
"Finally! Let's call it... Mental Black Hole."
Built upon the foundation of the Mental Millstone and reshaped through countless rearrangements and recombinations, the technique felt, by Lu Changsheng's own estimation, vastly more powerful than the Mental Millstone had ever been. By how much exactly, he could not yet say.
With the Mental Black Hole now complete, he needed to practice it. And with his greatly elevated Perception, it took him only a few hours to bring the Mental Black Hole to Perfection.
[Mental Black Hole divine technique reached Perfection. Perception increased by 10,000 points]
At that, Lu Changsheng froze. Ten thousand Perception points?
He was not surprised by how fast he had pushed the Mental Black Hole to Perfection. In fact, he was well aware that a technique personally devised by him would be easy to bring to Perfection. However, gaining 10,000 Perception points was something else entirely.
When he practiced the Mental Millstone to Perfection, it had only granted him 1,000 points. Even the Lesser Five Elements Annihilation, his supreme compound divine technique built from five Principles, had only granted 5,000 points upon reaching Perfection.
But now, the Mental Black Hole had just given him 10,000 points in a single step. To Lu Changsheng, it felt surreal. He also understood that the more Perception a divine technique granted, the more powerful it would be. So, the mere thought that the Mental Black Hole could surpass even the Lesser Five Elements Annihilation was terrifying.
But I created this divine technique from just one Principle... How could it grant 10,000 Perception points, even more than a supreme compound divine technique built from five Principles...?
Lu Changsheng took a few moments to compose himself. Then, he sorted through his memories, carefully retracing every step he had taken to create the Mental Black Hole.
Six whole months...
The Lesser Five Elements Annihilation had taken thirteen months to devise, but that was a compound divine technique built from five Principles, incomparably more complex than a divine technique derived from a single one.
Lu Changsheng went over it again and again, and he eventually arrived at the following conclusion: the Mental Black Hole was the most powerful mental divine technique he was capable of deducing at his current level of Perception. Even given another year, two years, or even ten years, he would not be able to produce anything beyond this tier. It was essentially the ceiling of the Praised for a Hundred Generations stage.
Having reached that ceiling, Lu Changsheng no longer hesitated.
Let's begin. I'll attempt to condense a Dao Fruit and see what kind of Divine Ability Dao Fruit I can produce.
Lu Changsheng made up his mind. Using the Mental Black Hole as his foundation, he would attempt to condense a mental-type Divine Ability Dao Fruit!
Hum...
His Mind Space manifested, his Perfection-level Mental Principle filling every inch of it.
To condense a Divine Ability Dao Fruit, he had to bring his Principle into collision with the corresponding Principle of heaven and earth. Only by withstanding that collision and ultimately drawing out a sliver of the external Principle could his own Principle undergo a true transformation. And only then could Lu Changsheng attempt to condense the Divine Ability Dao Fruit from the transformed Principle.
Rumble...
Lu Changsheng deliberately opened his Mind Space wide. In that instant, he sensed the Mental Principle of the outside world, boundless and inexhaustible, saturating every corner of heaven and earth.
His own Mental Principle shuddered violently in response. Even at Perfection, it offered no resistance whatsoever against the vast Mental Principle of the outside world. The Mental Principle collapsed instantly. Like an avalanche, it simply gave way. However, his expression did not change in the slightest, as he had expected this.
After all, how large was his Mind Space compared to the world itself? If the Principles of heaven and earth were like the vast expanse of a starry sky, the Principles within his Mind Space were like a speck of dust. However, even something as small as a speck of dust could stand unmoved like a reef in the ocean.
Indeed, Lu Changsheng's Mental Principle had scattered almost entirely, but its innermost core remained standing, immovable. This was where his extraordinary Perception came into play. Almost at a glance, he perceived the profound mystery of the world's Mental Principle and found that at its core, it was fundamentally the same as the Mental Principle within his own Mind Space. The only difference was the magnitude.
All Lu Changsheng needed now was to draw out the faintest sliver of the world's Mental Principle and fuse it into his own, gradually transforming his Principle until it became the true Principle of heaven and earth.
It was an agonizing process, and a dangerous one. The slightest misstep, the faintest failure to hold his Principle together, and the Principle of heaven and earth would shatter it in an instant. Should that happen, his Principle would collapse entirely, and the destruction could spread to his very Mind Space.
That would mean failure! He would lose all possibility of ever advancing to the Divine Ability Realm, and very likely his life along with it.
Many supreme Dao Foundation martial artists who had reached the threshold of condensing a Divine Ability Dao Fruit had failed at precisely this step, unable to endure the Principle transformation, and had ultimately fallen short at the final hurdle.
But Lu Changsheng's extraordinary Perception allowed him to perceive the profound mystery of the world's Principles almost instantly, and even to identify their weakest points. His Mental Principle then began actively absorbing the Mental Principle of heaven and earth.
The process was long and agonizing. But his Mind Space was formidably strong, unrelentingly supporting his Mental Principle. As long as the Mind Space held, the Principle would hold with it.
This was the value of his foundation. Having cultivated eight Principles and forged a Mind Space of extraordinary strength, the advantage of that foundation was now showing itself in full.
Two hours passed, then four hours, six hours...
For fourteen to sixteen hours straight, Lu Changsheng's Mental Principle continued absorbing slivers of the world's Mental Principle, and after those hours of absorption, his Mental Principle finally completed its transformation.
Boom!
His Mental Principle shuddered violently, and his Mind Space trembled with it. Then everything settled, and the world fell still.
Lu Changsheng withdrew his Mind Space, but even then, a single Principle remained visible before him, hovering by itself.
It was the Mental Principle.
Finally, the Mental Principle has transformed, becoming the true Mental Principle of heaven and earth. Even if it's only the faintest sliver of the world's Mental Principle, it's still enough. It can now exist independently outside the Mind Space, no longer confined within it..."
His lips curled into a slight smile. The Principle transformation had gone smoothly.
With the transformation complete, Lu Changsheng began his attempt to condense a Divine Ability Dao Fruit. Although this was his first attempt, with his extraordinary Perception, coupled with the dozens of divine ability manuals he had studied and the accumulated insights of dozens of Divine Ability Realm predecessors recorded within them, he had long since become intimately familiar with the process.
His Principle had already transformed into a true Principle of heaven and earth. Condensing a Divine Ability Dao Fruit using the Mental Black Hole as its foundation felt distinctly different from anything before.
His mind seemed to drift into the space between heaven and earth. The Mental Principle floated before him, and within it, forces related to the nature of the mind were endlessly arranging and rearranging themselves, reconverging again and again, much like the process of deducing a divine technique.
Following the structure of the Mental Black Hole, Lu Changsheng began rearranging and recombining his Mental Principle. But this time, the process stretched on far longer than anything before.
One month passed, then three months, six, eight, eleven...
As time passed, countless streams of the Mental Principle within him began to coalesce, faintly forming a mass of radiance. The light carried the barest hint of gold, and it was gathering steadily, growing denser and more solid with each passing moment. The more it condensed, the more clearly the light revealed itself to be the Mental Principle itself, crystallizing toward its ultimate form.
Boom!
A shockwave passed through Lu Changsheng, and even the air itself shuddered as though the light he was condensing had stirred the entire fabric of heaven and earth. This was no illusion. It was very much real.
Lu Changsheng's cave residence sat in a rather unassuming and somewhat secluded corner of the sect. However, the moment that golden radiance condensed within him, a massive vortex formed in the sky directly above his cave residence. It expanded rapidly, blotting out the sky, and the tremendous pressure it exuded sent a tremor of unease through the hearts of everyone nearby.
The Ancient Region Heavenly Sect's base was home to many Divine Treasury and Dao Foundation martial artists, and in that moment they all felt it simultaneously: an oppressive, suffocating weight bearing down on them like a mountain pressing down from above. They snapped their heads upward and saw the enormous vortex churning in the sky, as though some terrifying force was on the verge of being born into the world.
That bone-deep sense of dread was unmistakable.
"What's going on? What's happening to the sky?"
"This is more than just storm clouds. I've never heard of a heavenly phenomenon like this?"
"That direction... Isn't that where Senior Brother Lu Changsheng's cave residence is?"
"Lu Changsheng? You're right. That enormous dark vortex has formed directly above Senior Brother Lu's cave residence."
Only those at the Dao Foundation Realm understood what this meant. They raised their heads, their entire bodies trembling with barely contained excitement.
"A divine ability... Could it be that Lu Changsheng is condensing a Divine Ability Dao Fruit?"
"That kind of presence... It almost certainly is. It matches the descriptions in the ancient records exactly."
"No, wait. Something's still not right. Would condensing a Divine Ability Dao Fruit really cause something on this scale?"
"The ancient records mention heavenly phenomena, yes, but a disturbance and presence of this magnitude is something I have never heard of..."
The commotion was so great that even some of the Divine Ability Realm grand elders within the Ancient Region Heavenly Sect were roused. Compared to the Dao Foundation and Divine Treasury martial artists, they understood far more about what condensing a divine ability entailed. Perhaps that was why they were shaken the most.
"With a heavenly phenomenon of this magnitude, what kind of Divine Ability Dao Fruit is Lu Changsheng condensing?"
"Could it really be a Major Divine Ability Dao Fruit?"
"No one in the entire Ancient Region has ever condensed a Major Divine Ability Dao Fruit. Does Lu Changsheng genuinely have a chance at it?"
"I still find it unlikely. Lu Changsheng is incredibly talented, yes, but a Major Divine Ability Dao Fruit is an entirely different matter. Most likely it is a supreme Minor Divine Ability Dao Fruit, perhaps stronger than any of ours, but still falling short of a major divine ability."
"Lu Tong, you have had direct dealings with Lu Changsheng. In your estimation, does he really have a chance at condensing a Major Divine Ability Dao Fruit?"
All the grand elders turned their gazes toward Lu Tong.
Grand Elder Lu Tong simply stood there in silence, his gaze fixed in the distance.
"Lu Changsheng... is someone full of hope and miracles. With him, anything is possible!"
With that, Lu Tong said nothing more.
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