Chapter 261: Fusion

Xu Jin's recovery using Wen Meng took much longer than planned.

His spirit power was more than half depleted, and his star force was also half drained; his original plan was to restore part of it with elixirs, then let Wen Meng sleep for thirty minutes, after which his spirit power would return to peak.

But in reality, he was startled awake over ten times by the alerting Mingji Star Pattern.

Fire Spirits kept passing by, causing Xu Jin to be repeatedly jolted awake.

Not being on guard wasn't an option.

As a result, this time it took Xu Jin just over an hour to fully recover.

This made Xu Jin urgently need a star technique or array for alerting and protection.

But for now, he could only hold onto this thought.

Xu Jin didn't rush to leave; instead, he dragged out the Fire King's corpse and extracted its star core.

He was pleasantly surprised.

Two of them.

After placing them in the Can Dou Platform and examining the two Fire King star cores, Xu Jin was even more astonished.

【High Fifth-Rank Fire Spirit: Can obtain protection, Mid-Rank Fire Source, Mid-Rank Fire Form, Flame Dragon】

【High Fifth-Rank Fire Spirit: Can obtain protection, Mid-Rank Fire Source, Mid-Rank Fire Form, Fire Shadow】

He barely glanced at them, yet was stunned.

Indeed, the rewards from a King's star core were always substantial.

Flame Dragon was the very technique the Fire King used to attack Xu Jin—extremely sharp.

But what delighted Xu Jin most were the two Mid-Rank Fire Forms and two Mid-Rank Fire Sources.

As for Fire Form, no explanation was needed.

Among the many Fire Spirit star cores Xu Jin had obtained, Fire Form was extremely rare; the few he'd acquired were only Low-Rank Fire Form.

This was his first time using a Mid-Rank Fire Form Star Pattern.

Without hesitation, Xu Jin replaced the two High Fifth-Rank Fire Spirit star cores, swapping out his original High Fourth-Rank and Mid-Fifth-Rank Fire Spirit star cores.

In the protection Star Pattern obtained, the Low-Rank Fire Form was upgraded to Mid-Rank Fire Form.

For the other one, Xu Jin conducted a brief test.

After replacing the Low-Rank Fire Form with Mid-Rank Fire Form, Xu Jin felt the power of his fire star techniques increased by more than ten percent—likely over fifteen percent.

During testing, Xu Jin also discovered that the Mid-Rank Fire Source provided by the High Fourth-Rank Fire Spirit star core was clearly weaker than that provided by the High Fifth-Rank Fire Spirit.

It made sense: the Mid-Rank Fire Source Star Pattern from Low Fourth-Rank was the same as that from High Sixth-Rank.

The High Fifth-Rank Fire King's star core was stronger.

After testing, Xu Jin replaced the Mid-Rank Fire Source with Mid-Rank Fire Form.

Xu Jin found that two Mid-Rank Fire Forms were slightly stronger than one Mid-Rank Fire Form and one Mid-Rank Fire Source.

Compared to his previous combination of one Low-Rank Fire Form and one Mid-Rank Fire Source, the power increase exceeded twenty percent.

Even more astonishing was the Fire Shadow protection.

Fire Shadow allowed Xu Jin to form a Fire Shadow clone.

If Xu Jin was willing to sever a thread of his spirit, he could form a freely controllable clone.

Of course, the inferior Spirit-Splitting Technique he obtained from the Huixuan Star Region wouldn't work.

That rushed method had too many flaws.

But that wasn't a problem—the Spirit Secrets from the Lingji Star Palace included orthodox Spirit-Splitting Techniques.

They were just complex and required considerable time.

Xu Jin searched the Fire King's corpse thoroughly but found nothing of value.

Perhaps the Fire King, feeling invincible, wore no star armor or similar gear.

However, on the Fire King's finger, Xu Jin discovered a giant crimson jade ring.

Inside the crimson jade ring, flickering firelight swirled, resembling a crimson dragon gliding within—brilliant and awe-inspiring.

The instant Xu Jin's mind-spirit sank into it, the dragon-like crimson light surged toward him, intent on devouring his spiritual perception.

But at that moment, the Fire Spirit Heart in Xu Jin's Central Star Palace blazed with radiant light.

The crimson dragon within the ring instantly calmed, as if submitting.

After studying it with his mind-spirit, Xu Jin was stunned again.

All this time, the crimson jade ring was the greatest reward from slaying the Fire King.

The dragon-shaped crimson light inside the ring—its origin unknown—somehow amplified fire star techniques.

When worn, as long as a sliver of mind-spirit remained sunk into the ring while activating fire star techniques, the power of all fire techniques increased by ten percent.

Every fire star technique gained a ten percent boost in star force.

Xu Jin tested it—his Xuan Zi Tianhuo even gained a ten percent boost.

This was truly a divine artifact.

The dragon-shaped crimson light inside the ring was likely not a dragon spirit, but something akin to the will of heaven and stars.

Only such entities could produce such broad-spectrum amplification.

Crimson Dragon Ring.

Xu Jin renamed it.

After imprinting his mind-spirit onto it, he slipped it onto his hand.

This was a precious item.

But when he later sank his mind-spirit into the Central Star Palace to organize the various heavenly and stellar wills, the two newly acquired Low-Rank Fire Cloud Hearts amplified his fire techniques far less than twenty percent.

Only about fifteen percent.

This puzzled Xu Jin.

After careful sensing, he quickly found the reason.

Overlap.

The Mid-Rank Crimson Scale Heart, two Low-Rank Fire Bamboo Hearts, two Low-Rank Fire Cloud Hearts—all were fire-related heavenly and stellar wills, but they overlapped.

The power signatures within these fire heavenly wills contained overlapping elements.

As he organized them, Xu Jin suddenly had an idea.

If these different fire heavenly and stellar wills overlapped, could they be fused together?

If fused, activating them would be simpler.

Instantly, he tried it.

He activated his spirit power, attempting to fuse the Mid-Rank Crimson Scale Heart with the Low-Rank Fire Bamboo Heart.

The two heavenly and stellar wills from different star regions resisted fiercely upon contact.

But when Xu Jin forcibly suppressed them with his spirit power, under the operation of his Mingji Star Pattern, he instantly located identical power signatures within both wills.

He triggered them instantly.

The next instant, the Low-Rank Fire Bamboo Heart flowed into the Mid-Rank Crimson Scale Heart like rivers merging into the sea.

The purest fire heavenly and stellar will force became one in an instant; their unique star region traits were compressed into two halos encircling the fused will force.

Like star auras.

One fire heavenly and stellar will, wrapped in a two-layered aura.

One layer represented the unique heavenly will trait of the Huixuan Star Region, the other the unique trait of the Fire Bamboo Star Region.

The fused fire heavenly and stellar will force was significantly stronger than the original Crimson Scale Heart.

But it still fell far short of the effect of four Fire Bamboo Hearts or four Low-Rank Crimson Scale Hearts.

It was certain: it had surpassed Mid-Rank.

Based on Star Pattern rank rules, Xu Jin understood roughly.

The fusion combined pure fire heavenly and stellar will—its power increased.

But the rank didn't rise much, likely because it was Mid-Rank.

Mid-Rank spans Fourth to High Sixth Rank; the difficulty of advancement had changed.

Fourth-Low. And the two-layered aura, bearing the unique traits of two star regions, also had utility.

If Xu Jin ever returned to the Huixuan Star Region, the heavenly will trait from the Crimson Scale Heart would prove useful.

He would still be its King!

Summary: Fire-related heavenly and stellar wills with identical star cores represent fire power.

Xu Jin preferred to understand them as rule-based power.

He called them Fire Spirit Hearts.

The two-layered aura formed by the unique heavenly and stellar traits of two star regions represented authority over a specific star region.

He confirmed the rank as Fourth-Low.

Quickly, Xu Jin fused the second Low-Rank Fire Bamboo Heart.

With experience, this fusion was faster.

The Fourth-Low Fire Spirit Heart became Fourth-Mid.

Half a quarter-hour later, Xu Jin fused the two newly acquired Low-Rank Fire Cloud Hearts.

The Fourth-Mid Fire Spirit Heart barely reached Fifth Rank, but not Fifth-Low.

During fusion, Xu Jin sensed more clearly that some fire heavenly and stellar will force overlapped.

Simultaneously, this Fire Spirit Heart now bore three auras, signifying Xu Jin held authority over three star regions, though the weight of each authority differed.

After this, Xu Jin imitated the method.

He also fused the earth-elemental one.

Two low-grade Sand River Hearts and one low-grade Stone Forest Heart were combined into a single third-rank or higher Earth Spirit Heart, with two layers of stellar halos.

As for the rest, there was no need yet to refine or fuse them.

After organizing his gains, Xu Jin was thoroughly satisfied.

This expedition, in killing the Fire Spirit King, yielded immense rewards.

Adding the Crimson Dragon Ring and the mid-grade Fire Xiang Star Pattern's protection, Xu Jin's fire-star technique power increased by thirty-five percent.

This level of enhancement was extraordinary.

Xu Jin felt that if he encountered the Fire Spirit King again, he could now kill it outright with Xuan Zi Tianhuo alone, without needing to use Killing Dream.

Xu Jin's only regret was still the Fire Xiang Star Pattern.

Merely through the protection of the Can Dou Platform, the Fire Xiang Star Pattern significantly boosted Xu Jin's combat power.

If Xu Jin learned the Fire Xiang Star Pattern and engraved it, his strength would become even more extraordinary.

Moreover, Xu Jin possessed the Gold Star and the Can Star; even if he obtained a low-grade Fire Xiang Star Pattern, he had confidence he could evolve it to sixth or even seventh rank within a short time.

At that point, its power would truly explode.

Currently, there appear to be three ways to obtain the Fire Xiang Star Pattern.

The first is to acquire it from the Tianyang Star Temple—this is virtually impossible. Capturing a Tianyang Star Temple disciple and interrogating them for the pattern is even less possible.

In Chen Guo, when disciples learn mid- to high-grade star patterns, the Grand Master personally imposes sealing inscriptions using the Nine Sheng Bells, to prevent leaks and to stop them from being forced to reveal the pattern if captured.

Tianyang Star Temple must have similar methods.

The second method is to capture an alien possessing the Fire Xiang Star Pattern and extract it through interrogation.

This method, on balance, seems quite feasible.

But among aliens, those possessing the Fire Xiang Star Pattern are not only powerful but also of high status—like the Fire Spirit King—making capture extremely difficult.

Especially within the star domain.

However, once Xu Jin reaches the Star River battlefield, he might try it.

There may be a chance of success.

The third method is reverse-engineering.

Xu Jin would use the protection granted by the Can Dou Platform from the Fire Xiang Star Pattern to reverse-engineer it.

But the difficulty is immense; at least, not within the short term.

The difficulty is like being given a nuclear bomb and being asked to reverse-engineer its exact manufacturing process.

There is a possibility of success.

But it requires profound accumulation and deep research.

At least, Xu Jin at this stage cannot do it.

Xu Jin sank his thoughts into the celestial will of the Fire Cloud Star Domain he had previously obtained, faintly sensing five suppressed energies.

These must be Ye Anshi, Yang Miao, and others.

All five were present; that was still safe.

Xu Jin had no intention of seeking them out.

The distance between them was considerable; chasing each one individually would waste too much time.

Xu Jin was considering his next target: the territory of the Wind Spirit Leopard Tail Clan, or the territory of the Fire Tiger?

Ideally, Xu Jin wanted to go to the Fire Tiger's territory, where he could at least obtain one low-grade Fire Tiger Heart, perhaps even two.

These could be used to further strengthen and enhance his Fire Spirit Heart, boosting his power.

But the Fire Spirit King's words before battle still lingered in Xu Jin's mind.

A high-level figure behind the Leopard Tail Clan?

That statement had two meanings.

One: the Leopard Tail Clan had a strategic or tactical mastermind behind them, like a general.

The other: the Leopard Tail Clan had an even more powerful entity behind them.

Which one it was, he could not yet judge.

But it was certain that the Leopard Tail Clan's territory was the largest in the Fire Spirit Star Domain.

After thinking it over, Xu Jin made his decision.

First, enhance his power.

He would go to the Fire Tiger Clan's territory first; after killing the Fire Tiger King, his fire-star technique power should increase by another ten percent.

But just as Xu Jin was about to act, he suddenly saw from afar a flood of blue starlight rolling toward him.

Tens of thousands of blue spiritual lights were sweeping across the sky, heading straight for the Fire Spirit City.

They were only a few hundred li from Xu Jin.

They were barely over a thousand li from the Fire Spirit City.

It was clear that the Fire Spirit Clan's vanguard had been defeated.

Large numbers of Fire Spirit Clan members were fleeing.

But even Xu Jin knew: once the Fire Spirit Clan fled, they were finished.

Because the Wind Spirit Leopard Tail Clan's advantage lay in speed.

They typically surrounded fleeing Fire Spirit warriors in groups of three or five, annihilating them without loss.

"The Wind Spirit Leopard Tail Clan's grasp of battlefield timing is precise, and their intelligence is formidable."

Less than two hours after Xu Jin slew the Fire Spirit King, the Wind Spirit Leopard Tail Clan had already mobilized their army and arrived.

Swift indeed.

This convinced Xu Jin that the Wind Spirit Leopard Tail Clan truly had a high-level figure!

But the Fire Spirit King's implication was that this high-level figure had been hiding all along!

Then why was this Wind Spirit Leopard Tail Clan's high-level figure hiding?

Moments later, flames erupted around Xu Jin, and he instantly stepped on the stars, racing toward the Fire Spirit City.

Since the Wind Spirit Clan had arrived, Xu Jin would hide within the Fire Spirit City and wait for an opportunity.

Now that Xu Jin had refined the celestial and stellar will of the Fire Cloud Star Domain, he could conceal himself completely—no one could detect him.

Xu Jin estimated the Wind Spirit Leopard Tail Clan's main force would reach the Fire Spirit City in about half an hour.

Half an hour should be enough time to ransack the Fire Spirit City's storage, right?

He wouldn't let the Wind Spirit Clan get away with it!

(End of Chapter)