Surges of golden energy slammed against the supernatural lock. While this energy was milder, its ramming effects were better. It seemed to be more forceful than regular mysterious power.
The sound of chains shifting traveled into Wang Ming’s ears. The chain that’d manifested on his left arm was thinning from the endless waves of golden energy washing over it. As it grew fragile, so did joy intensify on Wang Ming’s face. His chances of success seemed particularly high!
While he rammed the lock again and again, Yuan Shuo suddenly spoke from outside the door. He’d been quiet for a very long time.
“If you trust me, meld the lock’s fragments into your other locks when it breaks!”
Wang Ming shook with shock!
Meld the broken lock with his other locks? That would increase the difficulty of opening the other locks. Supernatural looks were fetters and a special energy. Under normal circumstances, it dissipated after it broke. And yet, the professor wanted him to gather the fragments and incorporate them into the locks that were still intact!
Numerous thoughts flashed through Wang Ming’s mind, some of them quite uncharitable. But they quickly faded away into nothing.
“Okay... thank you... teacher!” he responded with difficulty. He didn’t know if this was the right course of action, but there was no reason for Yuan Shuo to lie to him. As for whether or not this would make future ascension harder, that was a matter for the future. Who knew how long it’d take to ascend to Solar after he reached Sunflare? There were many Silver Moon Sunflares, but only two Solars in the Night Watchers. He was young, there was time to slowly look into this later.
Wang Ming continued attacking the lock, but in a slightly different way from before. He’d sought to just ram it open in the past; it was fine if it completely shattered to smithereens in the process. This time, he controlled himself more and fixed his target in one location. That would prevent the lock from scattering too much when it was broken, preserving the rest to be incorporated into his other locks.
Although that would make the remaining locks harder to break, he would follow things through to the end since he trusted Yuan Shuo. Otherwise, he’d just meld a tiny portion of his broken lock.
Outside the door, Yuan Shuo breathed out gently when he finished speaking. He’d said his piece and wouldn’t interfere with how Wang Ming decided. Wang Ming was not Li Hao. If it was Li Hao in there, he would issue a command instead of advice.
Li Hao continued to extract more metal attributed mysterious power. Thirty cubes, forty cubes... he soon reached fifty cubes. It was an astounding speed; Wang Ming would never absorb so much under normal circumstances. But not only did the handsome supernatural inside the training room absorb energy swiftly, the rumbles of ramming the lock and shaking of chains also persisted.
Li Hao had to continue.
Rustle rustle rustle.
Chains shook and trembled as Wang Ming howled with pain. Outside, Li Hao pondered—is a normal ascension supposed to be this painful?
Ascension was an extremely natural process in his view. Just as his teacher and Liu Long hadn’t experienced any discomfort when setting foot into Dominator, it was supposed to be an extremely comfortable process.
Sunflares and Dominators were theoretically the same level, but if breaking supernatural locks was always this painful, it rather did seem that supernaturals were defying heaven’s will and going against the natural order.
“Give me more at one time,” Wang Ming suddenly roared. “I’m going to make my final attempt!”
Li Hao increased his extraction speed without a word and shoved all of the metal energy into the room. The more he sent in this manner, the more dissipated, but that wasn’t anything to be concerned about in this moment.
The sound of chains rattling grew clearer and crisper to the ear. It was accompanied by increasingly loud howls from inside. Just as one hundred cubes of metal mysterious power were almost completely exhausted, Wang Ming shouted with ferocity!
CRACK! came a clear breaking sound. As Wang Ming howled with agony, metal power burst in the room. Yuan Shuo waved the door open, giving Li Hao a clear look.
A chain was breaking. The second it broke, a massive surge of strength erupted from the left arm to meld with the energy in Wang Ming’s body and spontaneously strengthen the young man! His metal mysterious power absorbed a great deal of energy in a split second.
In Li Hao’s eyes, Wang Ming morphed from a bright moon to a small sun. The broken chain was apparent in front of him and beginning to dissipate.
The newly ascended supernatural grit his teeth and circulated his mysterious power, shunting all of the broken chains into the locks around his legs. Two more chains manifested on his legs, ones that kept him constrained. They grew clearer with the incorporation of the broken chain from his left arm.
Wang Ming didn’t care. Mysterious power burst through his body and increased rapidly. There seemed to be a massive pool of energy sealed within the left arm—all of it surged out now to become one with him.
Wang Ming brightened with resplendence! His cries of pain were heightened by excitement; he was so agitated that he wanted to crow with joy!
He’d really done it and it’d taken only one try! The golden energy from an unknown source had been domineering beyond imagination. It wasn’t painful, just dominating enough that it rammed straight through the supernatural lock. This had been a much simpler process than when he set foot into Darkmoon.
Wang Ming continued absorbing energy and grasping after what wanted to dissipate into the surroundings. The golden mysterious power in his body continuously grew stronger.
It was a very fast process; the energy in the air dispersed before long and his left arm returned to normal. It no longer felt like it was erupting with power.
Even Wang Ming’s pupils were golden in color. He heaved a long exhale and looked around, eyes dancing with excitement. “Teacher, Li Hao, I’ve... I’ve ascended!”
“So you have!” Yuan Shuo sighed instead of congratulating the supernatural. He’d witnessed a few things when Wang Ming smashed through the lock and was of the increasing opinion that the supernatural locks should not be brashly opened.
A great deal of energy surged out of Wang Ming’s left arm after he opened the lock. The young man absorbed it in full to help him swiftly develop to Sunflare. But while he was stronger, Yuan Shuo had a hunch that the handsome supernatural had further depleted his potential.
The lock and chain seemed more like a nurturing mechanism, one to nourish the body! Although Wang Ming’s left arm hadn’t been able to deploy much strength prior, could the special force it contained have naturally undone the lock if the lock hadn’t been forcefully ripped through?
Would that result in even greater strength?
Would martial masters have to feel for their supernatural locks to take another step forward? Not in the sense of breaking them, but to encourage them to open on their own? Would that create greater potential and strength?
Yuan Shuo sank into deep contemplation, feeling a distinct absence of joy for Wang Ming’s ascension to Sunflare. It was Li Hao who flashed a broad grin.
“Congrats, Ole Wang!”
Wang Ming beamed widely, delight written all over his face.
“I’m only twenty, so I might be the youngest Sunflare in the province!” He might’ve set a record today!
“Then that’s even more cause for celebration!” Li Hao laughed. “You’re the youngest Sunflare, Sunflare Wang!”
“It’s all good!” Wang Ming was beside himself with happiness, but could tell that Yuan Shuo didn’t seem to be as happy as he portrayed himself to be. “Teacher, I know that you think the supernatural may not be the proper path, but I’m thinking that the legitimate way and future you speak of might be very far off! They might be beyond, or far beyond Solar, but can I make it to that step?
“Now that there are powerhouses above Solar in the supernatural world, my dream is to catch up to them! I don’t ask anything of the future, only that I live a magnificent here and now! If there comes a day in which it’s possible to make up for my potential, it might be easier to do so if I’m stronger. If it’s impossible to recover, then I have no regrets in life either. At least it was a magnificent one!”
These didn’t sound like sentiments Wang Ming would hold. Li Hao grew lost in thought as he listened—I only ask that I live a magnificent here and now... The future was unfathomably remote!
Would the straight-shooting, at times oblivious Wang Ming harbor this kind of awareness?
That seemed beyond Li Hao’s imagination.
Yuan Shuo also started and looked at the honorary disciple he didn’t pay much attention to. I don’t ask anything of the future, only that I live a magnificent here and now!
“You...” the professor laughed a different laugh from usual. “Well said! I’m the one who is stuck in a mental loop. That’s true, leading a resplendent present and sweeping through the land is just as well! Martial masters—regular martial masters—are riddled with old wounds by the time they reach Sunderer. The stronger the martial master, the greater the latent wounds. I was so injured when I was a peak Sunderer that I could not make it to Dominator. Did I never think about this before I reached Sunderer? That the more I battled, the more I would be injured?”
But even so, he still issued challenges all over the place. As he thought of his younger self and how he advised Wang Ming and the others now... he suddenly found himself laughable. These were all youngsters!
He felt they should not be implementing their current course of action because he’d been in their shoes before. But who wasn’t in their youth? Any regrets later on could be addressed, with no losses suffered if they could not be recovered from.
“Not bad, Little Ming!” Yuan Shuo smiled and nodded in approval. Wang Ming also chuckled happily.
Li Hao, however, muttered, “Are these words really from you?”
“......” Wang Ming’s expression dimmed and he huffed after a while, “No, they’re from Director Hou. I’m just borrowing them. Some say he was injured when he was younger and thus impeded his future, that he shouldn’t have reached beyond himself in the field. The director says that he once shone with so much brilliance that even Ying Hongyue had to bow his head. That is enough, he has no regrets!”
The leader of one of the three great organizations had to give way in front of Hou Xiaochen. He retreated without the enemy he’d come for. It was one of the few times that Red Moon suffered a defeat.
On the other hand, Hou Xiaochen walked away with an injury that he could not recover from. Some felt it wasn’t a worthwhile trade, but he did not agree. He’d once reigned over Red Moon—not a branch, but its headquarters!
Yuan Shuo sank into thought once more, it was Li Hao’s turn to laugh.
“That’s more like it, I was wondering how Ole Wang could say something so heroic!”
“And why can’t I?” Wang Ming half rolled his eyes. “Li Hao, I’m a Sunflare now!”