Fire Spirit Mountain.
If at this moment, one was standing at the circular rings atop of the Fire Spirit Mountain, he would be able to see a strange ball of red light appearing and disappearing right in the center of the Fire Spirit Mountain, even through all the thick billowing smoke that obscured the vision… as if a massive precious gem was glowing right in the middle of the broiling volcano.
Of course, the truth of the matter was that it was not possible for such a gemstone to exist here… in the unbelievable heat of the magma here, even the toughest gemstone would have melted.
Within the thick, sticky and scorching lava, a gleaming,, slippery bald head popped out like a sore thumb, looking extremely strange and out of place. After all, having a bald head there seemingly floating on such a terribly hot lava, what kind of picture did that paint?
The flickering light was indeed coming from the surroundings of this bald head, and the staining red of it was naturally due to the colour of the magma.
To be more accurate, it was the body connected to that bald head, submerged deep in the magma, that was shining so brightly… along with the refraction from the magma… that caused this rather peculiar sight.
This day would be the thirty sixth day since Zhou Weiqing had been submerged in the magma. Looking at the Little Fatty still submerged in the lava, Long Big Fatty who had also been here for thirty six days couldn’t help but occasionally give a big grin… a grin that showed his happiness and satisfaction.
Right above where Zhou Weiqing’s now-bald head was, a clear black tiger was there, its huge twin wings spread apart. At the same time, coiled around was a massive red dragon. Both looked unbelievably realistic, vivid and lifelike, and though their sizes were perhaps not what they were supposed to be, at only a metre long, but they just seemed just so real.
If Long Shiya had to describe Zhou Weiqing’s current state, perhaps the words Dragon-Tiger Integration was the most suitable.
Within this thirty six days, the Four Saint Attributes which had appeared without warning had helped merge the two stubborn forces which had originally been at odds with each other. The power of the Solidified Dragon Spirit and the Dark Demon God Tiger bloodline had finally been fused together to form a single entity, accepting of each other… becoming a whole new bloodline power that was the sum of both… and perhaps more.
Even with Long Shiya’s cultivation level of Heavenly Emperor, he could not clearly sense what this power was, but the only thing he was sure about was that with these two unbelievably powerful bloodline powers integrated together, it was not just so simple as a matter of one plus one equals two.
In this thirty six days, Zhou Weiqing had grown greyish black hair, almost fur… and he had also grown some fiery red scales, while his body had gone through the multiple changes intermittently. However, the most obvious thing was that the pain shown on his face had never dropped. After eighteen days, nothing else grew on the head, as the two powerful energies in his body finally settled down and started a stable merging process.
At last, after the next eighteen days, Long Shiya could finally sense that the bloodline power in Zhou Weiqing had reached a perfect state, and it looked like the fusion of the two was finally reaching completion.
However, that did not mean that Long Shiya could feel relaxed by any means. Instead, his expression grew more serious and imposing. He knew that when the two powerful bloodlines finally merged for good, it would definitely evoke another evolving of Zhou Weiqing’s body. That was to say, for this Awakening of Zhou Weiqing’s to succeed, there was the last hurdle he had to get past… and that was his body had to actually withstand the evolving power of the bloodlines.
The stronger the final fused bloodline was, the more difficult it would be withstand the final step. Although Zhou Weiqing had already evolved twice due to his Demonic Change State, and his body was already extremely strong, but the bloodline power would be even more terrifying. More importantly, in Long Shiya’s memory, this was something that he had never met with before, or even heard of, so everything was unknown. Many times, it was the unknown that was the most terrifying thing.
Just as Long Shiya was examining Zhou Weiqing’s face and expression, all of a sudden, Zhou Weiqing opened his eyes, that had been closed for all this time.
Two brilliant and dazzling rays of light shone from Zhou Weiqing’s eyes, and it pierced through all the fire and thick smoke easily, all the way up into the skies.
A strange vortex of air appeared right above Zhou Weiqing’s head, and the black tiger and red dragon which had originally been hovering above seemed to be sucked right into the whirling winds, before they all bored right into his head from the top.
Long Shiya could clearly see that currently Zhou Weiqing’s eyes had changed colours, one was a total pitch black, while the other was an eerie crimson red, the strange beams of bright light still emitting from them was also now one icy cold and one fiery hot, but there seemed to be no emotion within.
Not good, he has lost hold of his mind’s core! Long Shiya was taken aback, and a light flashed in his eyes as his powerful spiritual force pressured down upon Zhou Weiqing instantly. At the same time, he shouted out loud: “Little Fatty, calm down! Regain control!”
As he shouted, his spiritual energy swarmed into Zhou Weiqing’s mind to help him pacify the scattered and messy internal spiritual reverberations.
However, to Long Shiya’s great surprise, as soon as his spiritual energy entered Zhou Weiqing’s brain, he sensed an unbelievably crazed aura bursting forth from Zhou Weiqing. Although his spiritual energy was far from being close to being as strong as Long Shiya’s, Long Shiya could sense that if he tried to forcefully help, it could actually cause Zhou Weiqing’s entire mind and spirit to crumple instead, destroying him.
As a result, he had no choice but to retreat out of Zhou Weiqing’s mind.
Right at this moment, Zhou Weiqing’s body started to change and evolve.
A moment ago, he was still submerged in the magma, but now his body started levitating upwards, floating up from within the lava to hover in mid air.
The greyish black tiger tattoos instantly covered his entire body, and at the same time, on Zhou Weiqing’s back, two strange protrusions suddenly appeared as his entire body seemed to give a weird creaking sound that resounded from his very bones… a sound that could almost cause one’s teeth to ache.
At this point, Zhou Weiqing’s face was twisted and warped, showing that he was enduring massive pain. Even the tiger tattoos on his body seemed to be writhing violently, extremely unstable, and the red and black light in his eyes shone bright in an intermittent, interchanging way. Every time the light changed, the tiger tattoos on his body would undulate even more violently, almost frantically.
The next instant, crimson red scales seemed to slowly break out of ZHou Weiqing’s skin, and his hands and left foot seemed to be warping shape… changing from a tiger’s palm to a dragon’s claws constantly as if it couldn’t decide upon a shape.
One had to know that such a changing of shape was not just a mere illusion, but an actual warping of skin, flesh, bones, muscles and even down to his meridian channels… and one could imagine the sheer agony that this constant change was bringing to Zhou Weiqing. The dark red scales and the greyish black tiger tattoos were now clashing violently, and the two protrusions on his back seemed to grow larger as the bloodline power aura from his body seemed to be even more chaotic, violent, complex and … crazed.
Long Shiya started worrying once more. He knew that Zhou Weiqing was on the verge of succession, and by Awakening his Solidified Dragon Spirit and merging it with his bloodlines, this was at the last stage… but also the most dangerous stage. If he failed now, then Zhou Weiqing would implode from the sheer power and die… even if he somehow survived, he would become an inhuman creature, an existence perhaps lesser than even a Heavenly Beast, no longer able to resume his human form.
As he could not use his spiritual energy to intervene after failing previously, Long Shiya could only watch and wait anxiously, not able to do anything. What could he do besides wait? The only thing Zhou Weiqing could depend on now was himself and his own willpower. Only if he could protect the last bit of clarity in his own mind’s core would he be able to wake up at the last critical moment. For now, Long Shiya could only attempt to comfort himself with the thought of the Four Saint Attributes that had appeared earlier.