All along, Ai Hui was under the impression that Vitality Branches were the purest form of wood elemental energy.
But, he saw the five different types of elemental energy—metal, wood, water, fire and earth—in the freeze frame right before his eyes.
All five elements were present!
His understanding towards the Vitality Branches was completely and fundamentally subverted. The Vitality Branches had already been in Ai Hui's body for a long period of time. In the past, he had also studied Vitality Branches on more than one occasion, so much so that he gained something from it.
However, the sight before him made him realise that his prior understanding of the Vitality Branches deviated fundamentally.
How was it possible?
At this moment, Ai Hui was both shocked and in disbelief. For so long he had been yet to realise the intricacies of it! But at this moment, he could not be bothered about all these things. Under the golden glow, the Vitality Branches were gradually being destroyed. Once he missed this opportunity, he would be incapable of prying into the marvel of the Vitality Branches.
The overbearing and ice-cold golden glow thoroughly destroyed the disguise and the outer shell of the Vitality Branches. It allowed all of the changes to appear as well.
Indeed, all five elements were present. Upon seeing the five types of elemental energy intertwine in an ingenious manner, Ai Hui could not help but to exclaim in admiration once again. He thought of fusion energy, but the composition of the Vitality Branches with the five types of elemental energy was even more outstanding by many folds. The five types of elemental energy were constantly revolving in the elemental energy cycle. It was an exceptional and elaborate ring of life.
The whole five elemental cycle's ultimate aim was to generate wood elemental energy.
At this moment, Ai Hui only now just realised where the astonishing healing ability of the Vitality Branches came from. In reality, the Vitality Branches were actually situated in the constantly revolving ring of life. This signified that regardless of what elemental energy was around, it would drag the Vitality Branches into the five elemental cycle, producing an unending stream of wood elemental energy. Yet peculiarly, the Vitality Branches constantly revolving ring of life had an invisible dividing line. It was as if the entire ring was submerged in water and only the wood elemental energy was revealed on the surface.
Ai Hui suddenly thought of Han Li's Path of Master, [Yin Yang]!
Metal, water, fire and earth belonged under Yin while only wood belonged under Yang.
Ai Hui exclaimed repeatedly to himself.
When the golden glow destroyed the Yin Yang divide, the other four types of elemental energy would then be revealed. It was no wonder why the Vitality Branches were rumoured to be the original source of wood elemental energy. It turned out that not only would the Vitality Branches transform, Yin would transform to Yang as well.
It indeed was a magical yet imaginative process, which allowed the wood elemental energy to become totally different and possess a miraculous healing ability.
Impressive!
The Vitality Branches were created by Lu Chen, who was the most powerful White-robed Divine Physician in this generation. He definitely lived up to his name!
This was the most unique and creative five elemental ring of life he had ever seen.
Under the golden glow, it was difficult for the Vitality Branches to sustain themselves. The last inches of the roots began to disintegrate into smoke. On the contrary, the shadow of the golden glow was exceptionally clear. Ai Hui was aware that when the last bit of the Vitality Branches was destroyed, the shadow within the golden glow would disappear without a trace.
Such a pity!
Ai Hui's heart ineffably felt a hint of regret.
At this point, he wasn't thinking about the terrible consequences that would befall his body once the Vitality Branches were destroyed. Rather, he felt it was such a pity that a perfect and magical five elemental ring was going to be destroyed.
Could he stop it from happening?
This intention flashed through his mind. All of a sudden, a red pillar of light was cast down from the sky, engulfing the shadows within the golden glow.
Ai Hui was expressionless.
He lifted his head and sure enough, the red light pillar was being projected by the giant blood eye above his head.
The golden glow seemed to be afraid of the beam of red light released by the blood eye and retreated as quickly as a receding tide.
The shadow of the Vitality Branches within the beam of red light transformed into a green glow. It did not enter the blood eye and the beam of red light subsequently disappeared.
It could turn out like that?
Ai Hui was overjoyed by the good news and thought of saving the sword clouds. He then looked towards the giant blood eye above him full of expectations.
The time passed by slowly.
Ai Hui's neck had already started aching and no light beam was cast yet.
He was a little flabbergasted, why was it not effective anymore?
Inexplicably, Ai Hui felt that the blood eye in the sky seemed to be mocking him.
Must've been an illusion!
Ai Hui consoled himself.
The God's blood, which lost its target on the Vitality Branches, channelled all its attacking power toward the sword cloud. Ai Hui noticed that the golden glow shining on the sword cloud became slightly more powerful all of a sudden.
The sword cloud, which were barely sustained, immediately became in danger.
The ferocious lightning seemed like it had lost its power and was unable to electrify the golden light pillar at all.
The glow from the lightning became weak as well.
Ai Hui's expression turned solemn as the lightning in the sword cloud wasn't cultivated by him. Rather, it was absorbed from the layer of clouds. It would be difficult to replenish once over consumed. The current situation of the sword cloud was evidence that over consumption of the lightning caused it to be powerless.
Despite the lightning's attack, the golden light pillar's constant approach was unstoppable.
The moment the golden light pillar shone on the sword cloud, the surging and roaring sword cloud briefly paused.
But the next change was different from what Ai Hui had expected.
A fine, silvery glow suddenly appeared from the sword cloud. It seemed as if it was going to escape without a trace. But the golden light pillar descended from the sky and firmly subdued it.
Ai Hui then saw clearly that this silvery glow was astonishingly a streak of silver lightning.
The lightning was like the thickness of a chopstick and had many fine bifurcations. It was fixed within the golden light pillar, as if it were cast from silver.
Ai Hui's acute vision allowed him to see the thin, silvery lightning in the golden light pillar. It seemed as if it was subdued, but it was still struggling like before. He could tell from its continuous swallowing and spitting of lightning and the occasional shattering of the golden glow.
The lightning sank into the same situation as the Vitality Branches. It had been confined by the light pillar release by the God's blood.
However, Ai Hui's gaze could not help but fall on the remaining sword cloud. The sword cloud, which lost all their lightning, were not as weak as what he imagined. On the contrary, their resistance was now even more intense.
The former sword cloud were formed by lightning and had shattered the sword embryo. Now, without the lightning, only the sword embryo's remains were left.
What was a sword embryo? It was difficult for Ai Hui to provide a clear and distinct answer, but he knew that the sword embryo cultivated the mind!
.
The opening of the remnant chapter had already explained that human's blood had a limit after all, but the cultivation of the mind did not have an upper limit.
Ai Hui fixated his attention on the surging sword cloud while deep in thought.
Purification and refinement were the crucial points for the mind, not quantity and strength.
It was obvious that the power of the sword cloud decreased significantly as they lost their lightning, but the sharp and ferocious aura was somewhat stronger than before!
The golden glow was just like an overwhelming siege machine, while the surging and spiraling sword cloud was like a capstan densely packed with blades.
It unexpectedly obstructed the advancement of the golden glow!
Ai Hui's mind jolted and he was astonished. He was suddenly aware that despite it being damaged, the sword embryo was an even more amazing existence than the Vitality Branches and lightning.
The Vitality Branch's imaginative and creative composition immensely shocked Ai Hui. In terms of complexity and value, the Circle of Life and Yin Yang's integration highly exceeded the God-subduing Peak and Hellfire Pagoda Cannon.
The Vitality Branches had the most outstanding elemental energy system that Ai Hui had ever seen.
Even though Lu Chen wasn't a Grandmaster, Ai Hui believed that Lu Chen already had one foot in the door based on the Vitality Branches.
Once Lu Chen opened that door, awaiting him would be a wide and boundless world.
But the stunning Vitality Branches completely lacked resistance against the God's blood.
The gradually weakening and further subdued lightning had once again confirmed the high level of power of God's blood.
And from Ai Hui's point of view, the weakest sword cloud, no, now it was sword embryo cloud, had displayed a much stronger potential. Ai Hui felt that his understanding of many things had been constantly subverted and overturned today.
He'd once inevitably believed that the reason why the sword cloud was so powerful was largely due to the lightning's strength.
A sword embryo which was cultivated using the remnant of swordplay manual, versus lightning which had never been conquered by any elementalist. The question of which was stronger seemed obvious at a glance.
However, the facts proved that he was wrong.
The confrontation between the sword embryo cloud and the golden light pillar made them appear as if they were on par. It was evident that a short period of time wasn't sufficient to determine the winner.
Ai Hui tried to restrain the shock in his heart. He turned his gaze towards the lightning which was confined by the golden glow.
He anticipated a little.
What exactly was the lightning? Ai Hui had yet to obtain any answers to this question as of now. Even though he was the first ever Lightning Master, he was still incapable of explaining this fundamental question.
The method he'd used to cultivate his lightning proved that he was just a conductor of the lightning. He transferred the lightning between heaven and earth to his own body. This could neither enable the lightning to be purer and more condensed, nor could it change the characteristics of the lightning.
Despite Ai Hui's power, he knew that his understanding of elemental energy was greatly inferior to that of the creator of Vitality Branches, Lu Chen.
The Vitality Branches had revealed their original state under the golden glow just a moment ago. It was in its purest composition, all of its disguise already destroyed.
He then clearly saw what had happened to the Vitality Branches.
In the event that the golden glow shone on the lightning, would the lightning, which was ultimately incapable of resisting the golden glow, expose its intrinsic quality too?
Ai Hui was full of expectation and opened his eyes widely. He stared at the continuously struggling lightning within the golden glow. Although it had been proven that the lightning was no match for the God's blood, the situation had benefited Ai Hui greatly in being able to solve the questions which had been bugging him for so long.
The lightning within the golden glow struggled continuously. However, Ai Hui noticed that every time it struggled, the size of the lightning would actually decrease a little.
Time always passed by quickly in the midst of concentration.
The lightning in the golden light pillar shrank from its beginning thickness of a chopstick to the mere thickness of a toothpick.
Just when Ai Hui thought that the lightning was about to reveal its true form, he found unexpectedly that the nearly dissipated lightning persevered longer than anticipated. Within the golden light pillar, the fine but illustrious lightning was exceptionally eye-catching.
It did not move a single bit.
Ai Hui had a lot of patience, his gaze did not waver the slightest bit. He was just like a patient hunter, camouflaged amongst the dense underbrush waiting for the appearance of his prey.
Pop!
A gentle popping sound rang from the golden light pillar.
Ai Hui's mind jolted!
It's coming!