In a desolate wilderness on the outskirts of town, Rhett found a secluded corner where there were no living beings within a hundred miles and landed.
To avoid causing too much commotion, he deliberately chose an uninhabited place.
Rhett sat on a pile of grass, closed his eyes, and methodically cut off a small portion of his spiritual power within his sea of consciousness, discarding it into the external world.
It felt as though a piece of flesh had been forcibly gouged out, and he had done it willingly. A trace of struggle flashed across Rhett's face, but it quickly vanished.
This process had already been repeated hundreds of times. Although uncomfortable, he had become quite adept at enduring it.
In the sea of external elements, as the small wisp of spiritual power dissipated, it was quickly absorbed by a few grains of fire elements. The energy material derived from the elemental essence instantly became ethereal.
This strange reaction between the two elements still baffled Rhett.
But that didn't stop him from making good use of it. With his wealth of experience, Rhett easily drew these few fire elements into his sea of consciousness.
In the next moment, several red dots of light quietly floated in the empty space above his sea of consciousness.
Without pausing, Rhett extracted more spiritual power and drilled it into the elements, following the intricate trajectory of the mysteries of heat, either twisting and turning or vibrating at high frequencies.
Under this rhythmic motion, the elements seemed to assimilate rapidly, dissolving into the spiritual power.
A wave of warmth spread through him, and Rhett could sense a subtle change in his sea of consciousness, an infusion of fiery will.
He opened his eyes, his gaze flickering. "Not enough. It's still not enough. The amount of fire essence is slightly less than the earth essence. If I proceed recklessly, it will cause another imbalance in the elements!"
Thus, he repeated the process again, cycling through it dozens of times.
Rhett's chest rose and fell as he panted, the high-frequency cutting of his spiritual power taking a toll on his mind.
Abandoning spiritual power wasn't without cost; it required long periods of meditation to slowly replenish.
Only a person in the Holy Domain, with their meticulous and absolute control over spiritual power, could accomplish this feat. But aside from Rhett, who would go to such lengths...?
Even if there were others, the total number of people who had reached the Holy Domain throughout history could be counted on one hand.
Given such small numbers, it was no wonder no one had ever explored the path of elemental fusion...
Next, Rhett did not rush to fuse the elements. Patience was required before taking the next step, as he needed to adjust his spiritual power to peak condition without any damage.
After all, this was equivalent to a breakthrough, crossing a bottleneck. It demanded his utmost attention.
Half a month quietly passed.
During this time, Rhett meditated in silence, slowly smoothing over the scars on his spiritual power until it operated without any stiffness or obstruction.
Only when his spiritual strength was brimming and his mind clear did Rhett fully concentrate on the two streams of elemental essence in his sea of consciousness—one leaping like fire, the other heavy as a mountain.
Under Rhett's control, the two sources of elements slowly approached the centerline until they made initial contact.
At this critical moment, Rhett's heart tightened again. It was at this very step last time that there was a massive disturbance, causing intense pain. This time, he was determined to prevent that.
Recalling his conclusions and reflections from the past three years, he first worked to calm the fire essence while invigorating the earth essence, aligning them closer to a neutral state.
At the moment of contact, Rhett's heart leaped into his throat.
And then, it fell back.
"Phew!"
The instant the two touched, a huge tremor still occurred.
Rhett couldn't suppress a muffled groan, vaguely sensing a tremor in his very essence of life.
But to his surprise, after the tremor, not only was there no damage to his body, but there was also a slight positive change.
Although he couldn't quite pinpoint what it was, he felt an improvement on a fundamental level. It was akin to a genetic enhancement, making him feel more comfortable overall.
It seemed the path he was on was the right one!
Rhett was overjoyed, filled with even greater motivation to persevere, continuing to control the fusion of the two elemental essences.
A few minutes later, the fusion process was still ongoing, but the tremors grew increasingly intense.
Gradually, Rhett's very life essence was on the verge of being unable to withstand the shaking, as if it was about to collapse.
He panicked once more. Was he going to fail again this time?
Where was the problem?
The two elemental essences were clearly balanced in strength, so why was there still such violent conflict?
Moments later, Rhett noticed that the surrounding spiritual power was being completely absorbed by the fusion, like a pump draining water. All the free-floating spiritual power was sucked in, but it wasn't enough.
It seemed… spiritual power was the fuel for elemental essence?
Rhett's spirits lifted with this newfound realization, and he immediately set about experimenting.
He gathered all the spiritual power from his sea of consciousness and concentrated it around the elemental essence. The fusion process, as if supplied with ample fuel, instantly accelerated by about three times.
The nearly tangible spiritual power was absorbed wildly, allowing the earth and fire essences to seamlessly blend and merge...
Under this intense pressure, the complex trajectory of the elements constantly changed and pulsed like a rapidly beating heart, as if on the verge of exploding at any moment.
Rhett watched with bated breath. At this moment, the two sources of elemental power seemed to be adjusting and changing for each other—either they would successfully merge, or an irreconcilable conflict would cause a direct explosion.
To be honest, Rhett wasn't completely certain whether the elemental essences would fuse. Much of what he had told Jeanka had been conjecture.
Having the two elemental essences balanced in strength was just a necessary condition, one piece of the puzzle.
After filling in this gap, whether there were other issues, Rhett couldn't say for sure...
The process that followed was entirely uncharted territory.
As the fusion deepened, and with more than half of it completed, a sudden and intense tremor struck once again after a period of calm.
It turned out that the trajectories of the two elemental essences had overlapped, no longer colliding or rubbing against each other as before.
If the trajectories of the essences overlapped, forced fusion would prevent normal operation, causing an irreconcilable conflict.
Rhett's heart grew anxious again. What should he do? Even different elemental forces shared a small amount of commonality in their operations...
He had been careless, not considering this earlier.
With the conflict escalating, the balance between the two elements teetered on a narrow precipice, neither giving way, as if they were about to engage in a battle where only the strong would prevail.
Rhett was naturally unwilling to let that happen. He had a terrible premonition that if he let the two forces develop naturally, it would lead to unpredictable consequences, likely resulting in a more catastrophic failure than last time!
With his large heart, Rhett fearlessly gathered a sturdy spiritual force and plunged it into the fire essence without hesitation.
He forcefully severed the trajectory that clashed with the earth essence with a crisp "snap"!
He wasn't sure why this idea had come to him—it was simply a matter of necessity. Seeing them about to collide, he needed to clear the path.
As for whether it would work… how could he know?
Fully focused on monitoring his sea of consciousness, Rhett quickly realized that his action had not caused any problems. In fact, it made the fusion smoother!
The earth essence flowed into the fire essence, and the latter welcomed it, relinquishing its fiery pride!
A smile crept across his face. Who would have thought such a spontaneous move would be effective?
From here, Rhett once again tightened his focus, constantly on guard for a second wave of elemental conflict.
Unexpectedly.
The rest of the fusion process went much more smoothly. Although there were still frequent collisions and friction between the elemental trajectories, the kind of irreconcilable conflict that had occurred earlier did not happen again.
After about half an hour, the entire elemental fusion process finally reached its conclusion.
Rhett let out a long sigh of relief. The heavy weight that had been pressing on his heart was finally lifted. Only then did he realize, even with his robust constitution, the intense tension had caused him to sweat profusely.
Now that he had come back to his senses, he quickly wiped away the sweat and began to appreciate his "masterpiece" with joy!
Suspended in the air above his sea of consciousness was a slightly thicker stream of energy, its color indescribable, flickering between red and yellow.
The terrifying aura it emitted made Rhett involuntarily click his tongue in awe.
This fused elemental essence contained the mysteries of heat from the fire element and the mysteries of condensation from the earth element.
Now fused together, Rhett could feel the unique traits of both, yet it was something entirely different.
"This is a kind of power that allows me to command the mysteries of heat and condensation with absolute authority!"
Staring at the stream, Rhett felt a connection, instinctively sensing the power within it.
Rhett opened his eyes and noticed once again a change in the way he perceived the earth and fire elements around him.
The earth elements continued to evolve, displaying trajectories of dispersal, condensation, oscillation, gravitational space, and disintegration. The mysteries of fire, with its flickering, still evolved in heat and explosive trajectories.
But now, under Rhett's control, the earth and fire elements collided, blending seamlessly into a new element.
The power contained within this new element far surpassed the individual strength of the earth and fire elements by several levels, exhibiting the principle of one plus one being greater than one.
Rhett's heart raced, eager to test this newfound authority of elemental fusion.
He controlled the stream, letting it flow across his body, using it to condense a spearhead in the same way he would with a single element.
Only this time, though the spearhead appeared identical to before, everything else was vastly different.
From the external hue to the terrifying power contained within, to the intense heat surrounding it, it was nothing like in the past.
Waves of heat radiated from the air, instantly igniting the surrounding grass into a blazing sea of fire.
With a wave of his hand, Rhett summoned a mist of water to lower the temperature around him, then fired the spearhead toward an empty patch of ground.
Whoosh!
This time, it shot forward like a rocket, moving as fast as a flaming meteor, crashing into the earth and emitting a cloud of black smoke.
Countless underground insects were instantly incinerated.
The soil was scorched black, leaving a deep pit, its bottom unseen.
The fusion of the mysteries of heat and condensation had raised its destructive and penetrative power by several levels!
Rhett watched with astonishment, his eyes gleaming. Practical experience is the best test of truth. At this moment, he was absolutely convinced that the path of elemental fusion was the correct one!
And this was only the fusion of two mysteries, just one part of elemental fusion, not the complete fusion of all the mysteries of fire and earth.
What kind of terrifying power would be created if all the mysteries of the different elements were fused together?
Just thinking about it caused Rhett's heart to flutter...
Even though the Underworld had always struck him as deeply mysterious and filled with strange methods, in the face of the ultimate power of elemental fusion, it would probably be like throwing a nuclear bomb—obliterating an entire world...
Shaking his head, Rhett took a deep breath, pressing down his distant thoughts of the future.
This was just the first step.
Confidence was good, but overconfidence was dangerous.
What if future fusions of other mysteries brought even more challenging conflicts?
The smile on Rhett's face gradually faded, and he calmed down, focusing on solidly planning his next move.
The current fusion of elements could only be considered a preliminary grasp. Creating a single spearhead was the limit of this new authority's power. In actual combat, it was still somewhat limited.
To enhance the power of this authority, he needed to do the work of water dripping on stone—continuously repeating the fusion of the two mysteries, strengthening the foundation of this authority until it was as boundless as his spiritual power, allowing him to control any single-element mystery at will.
In other words, Rhett needed to transform his sea of consciousness into an Elemental Core.
The Elemental Core, a name he had given to the result of elemental fusion, was a fitting term for being the first person in the world to pave this path, wasn't it?
Although the process was far more difficult than meditation, once he succeeded the first time, with caution, he could replicate it again and again.
However, another thought crossed his mind—while the path of elemental fusion wasn't particularly difficult for him, for others, it would be akin to ascending to the heavens.
The first step alone, comprehending the mysteries of different elements, was already a major hurdle.
Rhett could easily understand other elemental mysteries through the simulated world, but for others, they would have to slowly savor the mysteries of different elements by gathering them into their sea of consciousness in a short amount of time.
This process was extraordinarily difficult.
Even without a time limit, ordinary people might never comprehend a mystery. Although those in the Holy Domain had a much easier time with it, the strict time constraints of this step would undoubtedly eliminate most of the Holy Domain individuals as well.
Only those with the highest level of talent would have a chance to take this step. The percentage of such people wasn't much higher than the chance of picking out someone from the masses who could reach the Holy Domain...
——The pinnacle of the pyramid is always lonely and rare.