It wasn't that the completed Element Fusion secret technique was divided into two waves of feedback. Rather, just seconds before Element Fusion's completion, the defensive supreme art: Instant Bloom upgraded first.
These two supreme arts were hung in his AFKing slots one after another after he advanced to Titled Douluo. The AFKing upgrade time for Instant Bloom matched the completion time for Element Fusion. After both upgraded and completed, their related insights were fed back to Chu Chengzhou sequentially.
This influx of information was substantial. It took over half an hour for Chu Chengzhou to fully absorb these insights.
Upgrading to Rainbow-Tier Super God-level skill, the protective divine light from the defensive supreme art: Instant Bloom saw further enhanced defensive capabilities. The soul power required to withstand damage decreased significantly. Previously limited to protecting only one target (including himself) at a time, it could now simultaneously protect multiple targets.
After the completion of Element Fusion—a Rainbow-Tier Super God-level secret technique—Chu Chengzhou finally achieved his wish, directly mastering the ability to perfectly fuse all elemental soul powers.
However, the specific situation seemed to differ somewhat from his expectations...
Extending his right hand, under Chu Chengzhou's near-MAX soul power control ability, eleven threads of soul power emerged from his index fingertip—gold, green, blue, red, yellow, cyan, purple, white, black, silver, and gray—representing the eleven basic elemental attributes: metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, light, darkness, space, and time.
With a foundation in Five Elements soul power, Chu Chengzhou first fused six elemental soul powers: metal, wood, water, fire, earth, and wind.
Then, lightning, light, and darkness elemental soul powers were successively fused.
The more elements participating in fusion, the greater the difficulty increased. But with perfect mastery of the Element Fusion secret technique, this wasn't particularly challenging.
Half an hour later, after fusing nine basic elemental attribute soul powers (excluding time and space), Chu Chengzhou suddenly felt the nine-colored light emanating from his fingertip enter a state of perfection—unable to continue fusing time and space elemental soul powers.
Sensing this completeness, Chu Chengzhou gazed at the nine-element fused soul power on his fingertip and the two unfused threads of time and space soul power. After a moment, he opened his attribute panel.
"Hmm? It didn't appear?"
Not finding a new law progress bar in the Laws section of his attribute panel—only the existing eleven basic elemental laws, Four Symbols Law, Five Elements Law, and numerous newly created fusion laws with fewer than four elements (such as Space-Time Law)—Chu Chengzhou couldn't help but frown.
After deep contemplation without reaching a conclusion, he closed the attribute panel and redirected his attention to the nine-element fused soul power glowing at his right index fingertip.
Nine-element fusion equals perfection?
I refuse to believe this nonsense! Forge it—I'll forge it with all my might!
Immediately, Chu Chengzhou merged the space elemental soul power thread at his fingertip into the nine-element fused soul power.
Suddenly, a heart-piercing sense of dread surged from his heart. Chu Chengzhou felt as though he was being targeted by some unknown, terrifying beast. Without hesitation, he activated the newly upgraded Rainbow-Tier Super God skill Instant Bloom using his nine-element fused soul power.
As a nine-colored soul power flower bloomed above his head, radiant protective divine light showered down. Chu Chengzhou secretly breathed a sigh of relief and extended his spiritual power to investigate the source of that heart-piercing dread.
Before he could determine the cause, he felt his internal soul power suddenly drop significantly. Then, a shocking scene unfolded before him.
"BOOM—"
An explosion-like sound echoed as the nine-colored protective divine light shattered violently. The brilliant nine-colored soul power flower above his head withered and dissipated.
"Shit—!"
Chu Chengzhou's eyes widened in disbelief.
Monstrous!
My supposedly invincible defense below god-level—even hundred-level soul masters might not break it—was shattered in an instant?
A cross-dimensional attack from a god?
Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
Chu Chengzhou admitted he had done many bad things, but he hadn't offended any god, had he?
Moreover, even if a god disliked him, they wouldn't attack so openly!
One must understand—the current God Realm wasn't like the Tang family God Realm from the original story's later generations, which prohibited gods from interfering in the mortal world unless there was just cause, such as mortals provoking first.
Otherwise, even if they wanted to act, they could only do so indirectly through divine position inheritors or divine priests on the continent.
Without time to think further, Chu Chengzhou felt a piercing pain from his right index fingertip, making his mouth twitch in agony.
Looking down, he saw a tiny hole had inexplicably appeared at the tip of his right index finger.
Strangely, after the flesh at the edge of this hole disappeared, no blood flowed from its edges—only faint traces of rainbow-colored light were perceptible.
Seeing this hole continuing to expand, Chu Chengzhou didn't hesitate. Soul power gathered at his left fingertip as he directly severed the tip of his right index finger.
"Hiss~"
Blood splattered as the severed fingertip fell. Chu Chengzhou sucked in a sharp breath from the pain. However, after severing his fingertip, he discovered that the previous heart-piercing dread had suddenly vanished.
"Damn it, what the hell just happened?"
Chu Chengzhou couldn't help but curse loudly.
Seeing blood still flowing from his fingertip, he activated the body-forging supreme art: Indestructible Golden Body. Surging blood energy flowed as soul power was consumed. Bones regrew and flesh regenerated at the severed finger—within moments, his right index finger was completely restored.
With Nine Breaths Qi Absorption upgrading to Rainbow-Tier and gaining the ability to refine all energy for personal use, the body-forging supreme art Indestructible Golden Body naturally developed a new characteristic upon its Rainbow-Tier upgrade.
This characteristic was nothing other than limb regeneration—its effect similar to the hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Emperor right leg bone's soul bone skill: Wildfires Cannot Burn It All Away, Spring Breeze Blows and It Grows Again.
"Could nine truly be the ultimate number?"
After pondering the previous abnormality for a moment, Chu Chengzhou frowned in deep thought.
If he hadn't guessed wrong, the feeling that nine-element fusion represented perfection was correct. The source of that inexplicable heart-piercing dread and "terrifying attack" was precisely because he fused a tenth elemental soul power. Ten-element fusion clearly exceeded the limits permitted by the Douluo universe's rules, resulting in great terror?
At this moment, Chu Chengzhou couldn't help but feel fortunate.
Fortunately, the Element Fusion experiment was conducted externally—on a non-vital fingertip rather than internally. Otherwise, fusing elements within his body might have left him without even ashes.
Every time he recalled that terrifying "dissolving" force, Chu Chengzhou shuddered with cold fear. Its power was truly terrifying—unable to withstand even a second against Instant Bloom activated by nine-element fused soul power.
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