In the sky, Killer Queen cackled as she toyed with the elemental spirits. The more lightning-based attacks landed on her blade, the stronger she became. This sentient sword devoured the element energy into herself and converted them to counterattack against them. She simply chased after the two spirits, threatening to consume them.

The wind and lightning spirits got their hands full trying to avoid KQ. Trails of colorful energy painted the sky as the three beings chased each other in a dogfight.

With the saboteurs out of the way, Cao Mao concentrated on condensing two centers of gravity in his dantian.

The task was impossibly difficult since Cao Mao had never done something like this before. He was clueless about what he was doing, but he kept pushing, compressing the Yang Essence Water as if they were baked ginsengs in a pill cauldron.

Inside Cao Mao’s dantian, the 50 liters of essence water shrank. From a mass bubble of liquid floating aimlessly in the dantian space, it transformed into a condensed water ball, rotating like a planet.

During the compression, the bubble of yin essence water floated closer to the yang essence. At first, Cao Mao kept it away from the yang water ball since it might complicate the job. But now, the yin liquid beelined toward the yang water planet as if they wanted to consume it.

“Hold!”

Cao Mao forced the yin essence water to shrink and compress itself. Then, he repeated what he did to the yang essence.

Everything seemed to be under his control. As long as Cao Mao could turn the yang water ball into a small planet and the yin ball into a moon, he could maintain both types of essence in his dantian and breakthrough.

But the road of cultivation wasn’t easy. When Cao Mao was relieved, his heart suddenly thumped. All stored wooden Qi and half of his blood rushed toward the dantian space without Cao Mao’s consent. The dryad queen’s Chloro Tattoo also detached from his heart and moved to the dantian.

Ding

[Warning, the heavenly fate power is controlling your blood and your wooden element Qi.]

[Warning, the Will of Heaven has noticed the stolen fate power inside you. They are pissed!]

[Warning, a new wave of Hell Tribulation is coming within five minutes!]

Being caught off guard, the wooden element Qi and Cao Mao’s blood entered the subspace and merged with the essence!

Then, both yang essence and yin essence combined!

BOOM

The energy detonated inside the subspace. Cao Mao’s dantian shook, and he coughed a mouthful of black blood. Red blood vessels became visible under his skin while he sweated bullets.

Although an explosion injured Cao Mao a bit, the yin and yang essence water devoured the red blood and the green energy, transforming them into yellow liquid. Everything became one, and the water volume expanded.

The Chloro Tattoo dove into the pool and sucked half of the essence water into itself.

A green essence crystal within the yellow liquid pool was born. It generated a magnetic force, keeping all the essence around itself. Then, it released a portion of its absorbed essence, feeding the pool of energy.

Instead of having two water balls rotating around each other, the yellow water gathered in one spot as if they were under a container. The volume increased as the wood Qi degraded into essence water, expanding the size of the essence pond.

When everything subsided, Cao Mao couldn’t believe what he was sensing. Instead of having 50 liters of yang essence water and a few liters of yin essence, he now had 1,000 liters of yellowish essence, forming a small pool inside the dantian subspace.

Moreover, the liquid didn’t resist his will anymore. They turned into a calm energy pool, which produced yellowish miasma into his body systems. His previous injuries, burned wounds, and scars healed as soon as the gas spread through every blood vessel and meridian.

Cao Mao opened his eyes and slowly exhaled, breathing out yellow smog.

Ding

[You have merged half of your blood, Chloro Tattoo, Yang Essence, and Yin Essence.]

[You have successfully mutated your dantian.]

[You have successfully condensed a wood element crystal in your dantian.]

[All your Yin and Yang Essence have transformed into Life Essence.]

[From now on, all essence generated from the system and newly cultivated Yin Yang Essence will be converted into Life Essence.]

[You can now use wood element power without using wood Qi.]

[Your dantian can now naturally produce wood Qi.]

[You haven’t formed an elemental continent. All produced wood Qi will leak out of your body.]

Ding

[Congratulations, you have advanced to the half-step Essence Gathering Realm.]

[Warning, a new wave of tribulation has arrived. Be prepared for the Great Trial.]

[Your Sponsor prays for your success. Good luck!]

RUMBLE

Cao Mao hadn’t adjusted or stabilized his new power yet, but the sky was roaring. Another wave of thunderstorm appeared. Moreover, glowing lightning in the cloud merged, and a humongous yellowish eye appeared at the center of the storm, glaring at him.

“Holy shit. That’s freaky.”

As if the Eye of Sauron was watching him, Cao Mao had goosebumps. Yet, he wasn’t scared. For some reason, his self-confidence increased.

Yellowish miasma continued to leak out of Cao Mao’s mouth, nostrils, and pores. Soon, the gas enveloped him the same way the mysterious yellow fog in the dryad’s orange farm did to the orange field.

Meanwhile, White Album and Killer Queen could sense the changes in their master’s body. Their energy also evolved from either Yin or Yang Essence into Origin Essence.

‘HAHAHA! THIS IS AMAZING, HOOMAN! THIS FEELS THE SAME AS DEMONIC ESSENCE!! HECK, AM I SENSING THE WOOD QI!? THIS IS TOO DELICIOUS!!’

Killer Queen cackled as her power suddenly increased. She punctured through the wind spirit’s head. The humanoid spirit dispersed into particles, but they flew toward the giant eye, merging its remnant energy to the storm.

The lightning spirit and earth golem also retreated. They flew toward the eye and disintegrated.

White Album and KQ withdrew to Cao Mao’s sides, waiting for his command.

Cao Mao stood and stretched, getting ready for another fight against the mysterious nature and the Will of Heaven.

Ding

[The Wood Element Crystal has imparted a memory fragment of Emerald Hopea to you.]

Before the eye could unleash its strength on Cao Mao, the remnant of Chloro Tattoo messed with his mind, injecting a portion of memory into his brain. Fragments of the dryad queen’s memory flashed before him. He also heard her voice.

‘If you can hear my voice, then, you must have already ingested my blood essence and the Chloro Tattoo.’

“What!? The queen!?”

Cao Mao recognized the voice. He closed his eyes and tried to listen to her amid chaotic memory.

‘Humans and orcs don’t cultivate element Qi before they reach the 5th-stage. But if you can comprehend and master the wood element early, you should be able to upgrade it or acquire the advanced element, the Chloro element, when you are stronger. If you master any advanced element before the 6th-stage, no one among your peers can be your opponent.’

Cao Mao snapped open his eyes in shock. It seemed that the queen had gifted him something grand. Still, he couldn’t guess what her real motive was.

‘When you master the Chloro Element, you can establish a mental connection with me. Once I know where you are, I might be able to open a dimensional gate and send my people to your world.’

“Oh?”

‘Don’t worry. I mean no harm. If that day comes, I’ll compensate you. For now, I’ll give you some of my experience, so you can master the Chloro Element faster in the future.’

Fortunately, the dryad queen wasn’t trying to take advantage of Cao Mao. She only wanted to create a portal to this world, so Hopea and her people could migrate to his place in case of an emergency.

As soon as Hopea’s messages ended, a flood of memory forced its way into his mind again.

Cao Mao had a sense of déjà vu. The process was similar to the time when Cao Mao fused Death Fortress Sword Style. This time, the data was smaller since the wooden Qi comprehension was easier than the complex magic swordsmanship.

Getting used to the memory implant process, Cao Mao managed to recover faster than before.

For the first time, Cao Mao circulated his Life Essence through his meridians. Strangely, it didn’t hurt like when he moved wood Qi or when he tried to use strong force. Everything was gentle and smooth. The life essence drops invigorated every muscle fiber and organs, increasing his vitality.

Furthermore, one droplet of life essence was as strong as a drop of demonic essence. Therefore, each drop was 20 times stronger than a drop of yin or yang essence. But the difference was, life essence water didn’t lose the properties that yin and yang essence had while demonic essence was just another cluster of raw power without yin and yang characteristics.

In summary, Life Essence was an upgraded version of Demonic Essence.

Cao Mao paced his breath as he began to feel the connection with the yellow smog around himself. They were a part of his natural Qi, which was produced by his own dantian. This fog could be consumed or used as fuel to spells or techniques that required wood Qi. Also, once Cao Mao could reach the 5th-stage and form an elemental continent in his dantian, this wood Qi wouldn’t leak from his body anymore.

His confidence grew. He didn’t fear the eye of heaven now.

Meanwhile, the eye in the sky began to move.

RUMBLE

The thunderstorm condensed into a ball of energy before the eye, charging its power. It glared at Cao Mao and exploded its killing intent.