Chapter 42: Perfecting the Five Elements Wheel, Success

After the Longevity Fruit was auctioned off, there were still many good items left.

Before one knew it, the final grand finale item was brought out.

The beautiful auctioneer lifted the red cloth covering the auction item, revealing the true appearance of the finale item: it was a tree branch.

"Next up for auction is an S-rank Wood Element material—Undying Tree Branch. Although it is only a single branch, its value is no less than other S-rank Treasures. The starting bid is 20,000 Battle Merit!" the beautiful auctioneer shouted.

The East Sea Fortress does not allow shops to sell materials or Strange Arts above A-Grade, but it does allow them to be auctioned at auctions.

Because most items auctioned at auctions are not the auction house's own goods, but rather items consigned by others, they can circumvent the East Sea Fortress's orders.

Therefore, the East Sea Fortress would not interfere with the appearance of an S-rank Treasure at this auction.

All major factions wanted to obtain an S-rank Treasure; after all, a single S-rank Treasure could potentially create several Ability Grandmasters, so who wouldn't want one?

Consequently, a group of Ability Grandmasters began to compete frantically.

"Twenty-one thousand Battle Merit!"

"Twenty-five thousand Battle Merit!"

"Twenty-six thousand Battle Merit!"

These people called out one exaggerated price after another.

Ye Tian was incredibly envious; he could not scrape together that much Battle Merit, and only the major factions could easily bring it out.

After a round of intense competition, it was finally won by someone for over 53,000 Battle Merit.

In reality, an S-rank Treasure could only be used for enlightenment a dozen or so times before losing its effect, so this price was actually reasonable.

After the auction ended, Ye Tian went backstage to pay his Battle Merit and obtained his Five Elements Wheel Fragment.

……

Emerging from the auction house.

Qin Susu said: "Ye Tian, it wasn't worth it for you to spend so much Battle Merit to auction the Five Elements Wheel Fragment. It would have been better to save the Battle Merit and, once you gathered over 3,000 Battle Merit, apply to contemplate an S-rank Treasure instead!"

"Senior Sister Qin, the Five Elements Wheel Fragment is useful to me!"

Ye Tian did not explain further, and Qin Susu did not ask any more questions.

After the two parted ways, Ye Tian returned to his residence and began to study the Five Elements Wheel Fragment.

The Five Elements Wheel Fragment contained a great deal of knowledge, as well as Grandmaster Li Fengxing's understanding and insights into Five Elements Extraordinary Art.

The Five Elements generate and overcome each other, and can also be converted into one another; the difficulty lay in how to translate this theory into reality and truly apply it within Extraordinary Art, allowing the Five Elements extraordinary power to fuse together perfectly.

Grandmaster Li Fengxing had been researching this constantly and had attempted to create a Five Elements Wheel Variant Extraordinary Art for this purpose, but what he created was merely an incomplete variant Extraordinary Art.

According to the description above, the Five Elements Wheel Fragment could be used to cultivate the Five Elements Wheel, but it was unstable and could not be maintained for even a second, which is why it was called a fragment.

After studying for a while, he had not figured anything out.

"I still have to rely on the Enlightenment Technique!"

Immediately, Ye Tian activated the Enlightenment Technique, absorbing the source of his Darkness Talent Ability to cause his comprehension to skyrocket.

After his comprehension soared, the Five Elements Wheel Fragment that he had not understood before gradually became clear.

As he continuously contemplated the Five Elements Wheel, he was even able to see some loopholes and flaws in the Five Elements Wheel Fragment; if these loopholes and flaws were not resolved, continuing to create would only be a futile effort.

Subsequently.

He studied and modified the Five Elements Wheel Fragment, analyzing and researching the creation bit by bit.

Gradually, he became obsessed with the creation process.

Days passed by one after another.

Ye Tian's research into the Five Elements Wheel grew deeper, and his insights into Five Elements Extraordinary Art also grew deeper.

Amidst this realization and understanding, his Five Elements Artistic Conception was also slowly improving; although it did not improve by much, it had improved nonetheless.

Half a month later.

Ye Tian had thoroughly perfected the Five Elements Wheel and created a complete Five Elements Mutation Strange Art.

Although it was perfected on the foundation of Grandmaster Li Fengxing, it was also the result of his own efforts.

Immediately, he unleashed the Five Elements Wheel Variant Extraordinary Art.

Hum!

The Five Elements extraordinary power within his body gathered together, forming a five-colored precious wheel that circled around him, creating an indestructible defense.

Seeing this, he moved his mind, using Object Control and Object Manipulation Technique to control the Blood Copper Flying Sword to stab at himself.

Swish!

The Blood Copper Flying Sword struck the Five Elements Wheel and was directly deflected away.

"What a terrifying defense!"

Ye Tian was incredibly satisfied with the defense of the Five Elements Wheel.

Moreover, the Five Elements Wheel Variant Extraordinary Art was not just simple defense; he could also make the Five Elements Wheel continuously grow larger, with its power radiating outward to form a simple Five Elements Wheel Domain, capable of suppressing others' strength and restricting their speed.

Especially after the Five Elements Wheel was integrated with the Five Elements Artistic Conception, its power became even more terrifying.

However, he had just created the Five Elements Wheel Variant Extraordinary Art, and it was still at the Entry Level, so its power was not yet too formidable.

Thus, for the next half month, he worked hard to cultivate the Five Elements Wheel, gradually training it to the Small Success Realm, and then to the Great Success Realm.

At this moment, an awkward situation arose.

His resources were exhausted!

In order to research and create the Five Elements Wheel, he had continuously devoured the source of his Darkness Talent Ability; the six Dark Stones he had originally obtained were long since exhausted, and he had been forced to sell other materials on his person to purchase Darkness-type Material.

Just like that, he was now out of materials and could be said to be completely broke!

This resulted in him being unable to raise the Five Elements Wheel to the Consummation Realm in the short term; he had to find resources or obtain Battle Merit to purchase Darkness-type Material, recover his Darkness Talent Ability, and then activate the Enlightenment Technique to boost his comprehension.

"I am at my poorest right now!"

Ye Tian thought to himself.

……

Earth Cave World, Gengjin Mountain.

Gengjin Mountain is more dangerous than the Luo River; Primary Strange Art Masters rarely come here because it is very dangerous, and if one is unlucky, they might encounter a Peak Ability Master or even an Ability Grandmaster.

Humans frequently clash with the Scale Clan in Gengjin Mountain, and every month, Grandmaster Level powerhouses engage in combat and slaughter.

Gengjin Mountain is not just a single mountain peak, but a mountain range; there are many ore veins here, and mine tunnels are everywhere.

Due to the frequent clashes between humans and the Scale Clan, it is impossible to mine the veins normally.

Consequently, many Talented Ability Users secretly mine the veins here, among which is the A-Grade Metal, Geng Metal.

If one can dig up a piece of Geng Metal Ore, they would make a huge profit!

Ye Tian is currently lacking Battle Merit and money, so he came to Gengjin Mountain, preparing to find more Geng Metal here and, incidentally, kill some Scale Clan members to obtain some Battle Merit.

Gengjin Mountain.

In a mine tunnel, Ye Tian enters and uses the power of his Metal Intent combined with his spiritual power to sense the aura of the ore.

It can be said that in terms of searching for ore, he is definitely more likely to find good ore than others.

"This mine tunnel is truly riddled with holes!"

Ye Tian muttered.

He walked to the depths of the mine tunnel, using the power of his Metal Intent to break open the stone walls to search for useful ore.

He also wanted to use the Earth Escape Technique to travel through the ground, but the ore here contains metal, and the Earth Escape Technique cannot pass through metal; this is also a limitation of the Earth Escape Technique.

Bang, bang, bang!!!!

The stone wall shattered continuously, and in a short while, he found a piece of ore.

"It's Blue Iron Ore, C-Grade ore; the value is not very high!"

Ye Tian still put it away.

However, at this speed and efficiency, it is unlikely for him to earn a large amount of money.

It is still faster to kill the Scale Clan.

And so.

He left this mine tunnel and went deep into the Geng Metal Mountain Range.

Not long after, he sensed the aura of a Peak Ability Master of the Scale Clan.

This Scale Clan member was actually mining.

"Found you!"

Ye Tian ran over quickly.

When that Peak Ability Master of the Scale Clan saw Ye Tian, a Golden Needle pierced through his head, killing him instantly.

Following that, Ye Tian took the other party's Identity Token and valuables, and quickly left the area.

For the next few days, Ye Tian spent his time hunting the Scale Clan, and he succeeded every time; occasionally, when he encountered a Scale Clan Grandmaster, he would directly retreat and not engage with them.

With his current strength, it is not that he fears the Scale Clan Grandmasters, but there is no need to take risks!

Wouldn't it be better to face the Scale Clan Grandmasters once his strength becomes even more powerful?

Gradually, his harvest grew larger, the Battle Merit he accumulated increased, and his personal wealth became more abundant.

……

On the other side of Gengjin Mountain.

Five Ability Masters were mining in a very deep mine tunnel.

These five people were all students from Donghai University, all juniors, and all women; one of them was Qin Susu.

The five of them were a small team that often worked together to venture into the Earth Cave World, and their Innate Abilities complemented each other, allowing them to avoid crises many times.

They had been mining in the Geng Metal Mountain Range for several days, and this was a new ore vein they had accidentally discovered, which was highly likely to yield good things.

Even if they didn't dig up anything good, this place was relatively remote, and the possibility of encountering danger was not high; if they kept mining, each person could earn at least five hundred Battle Merit per month, which was the guaranteed minimum.

Therefore, they were happy to mine here.

The strongest among the five was Xiao Ya, an Advanced Ability Master, but she had comprehended Earth Artistic Conception; although the other three had not comprehended any intent, their cultivation had reached the level of Peak Ability Master.

The one with the lowest strength was actually Qin Susu, but Qin Susu possessed Wood Element and Water Element Innate Abilities and was skilled in various recovery-type Strange Arts, serving as the support in the team.

If others exhausted their ability power, she could consume her own ability power to cast recovery-type Strange Arts to restore power for her teammates.

If they were injured, she could heal her teammates.

"Dig, keep digging; I feel that this time we will definitely be able to dig up A-Grade ore!"

Xiao Ya revealed a money-grubbing look on her face.

Crack!

Some stones shattered and fell down with a clatter.

At this moment, a ray of light spread out.

Immediately, the gazes of the five were attracted by the corner of an ore that had just been revealed.

"This is..."

They recognized it one after another.

Top-grade Geng Metal Ore; this quality of ore reached the S-level ore standard and could be refined into S-level metal—Top-grade Gengjin!

"We're rich!"

Xiao Ya and the others were incredibly excited.

This was S-level metal!

At the East Sea Fortress, a piece of S-level metal of ordinary size is worth tens of thousands of Battle Merit.

Currently, they did not know how large this piece of ore was or how much Top-grade Gengjin could be refined from it, but it was definitely not a small amount; if they were lucky, it might be worth one hundred thousand Battle Merit, though that was hard to say for sure.

With this much Battle Merit, each person can receive twenty thousand Battle Merit, which can be used to purchase resources or contemplate an S-rank Treasure, both of which can cause their strength to skyrocket.

"Hurry and dig, then leave here quickly; it will only be safe once we return to the East Sea Fortress!"

Qin Susu urged.