Chapter 56: The Power to Defy Heaven

"Jasmine, what's going on?" Yun Che asked, raising his hands and staring at the flames covering his body, his face filled with shock.

Jasmine didn't answer him. From inside the Sky Poison Pearl, she quietly watched the flames surrounding Yun Che's body. "His profound veins have changed color," she murmured. "It seems that was indeed one of the five seeds left by the Heretic God. This means… this place is actually one of the Heretic God's five secret realms!"

"He actually found it just like that. Should I say he's incredibly lucky... or perhaps... it was the guidance of the Heretic God's profound veins?"

The flames on Yun Che's body grew more intense, quickly soaring to dozens of meters high. The surrounding walls and even the rocks beneath his feet slowly melted and collapsed in the inferno. The terrifying temperature of these flames was unimaginable, yet Yun Che remained completely unharmed and felt not the slightest discomfort.

As the flames enveloped him, he felt his profound veins violently fluctuating. With great effort, he calmed himself and quickly focused his inner vision on his profound veins... At that sight, he nearly cried out in alarm.

Because his profound veins... had completely turned crimson! Even all fifty-four opened profound entrances had transformed into a deeper shade of red.

What... was going on?

His profound energy began surging rapidly within his profound veins. Waves of profound energy, seemingly from nowhere, quickly poured in, causing the energy within his profound veins to swell and expand... until it reached the absolute limit his profound veins could contain...

Bang...

With a soft sound, Yun Che vaguely heard something break through.

The profound energy in his profound veins quickly receded, though its quantity remained unchanged, its density had significantly increased. This was clearly... the most significant sign of a profound energy realm breakthrough!

In an instant, his profound energy had directly jumped from the fourth level of the Elementary Profound Realm to the fifth!

But it wasn't over yet. The profound energy in his profound veins continued to expand rapidly, and profound energy from unknown sources rushed in like a torrent, once again filling his newly broken-through profound veins. Following this...

The quality of the profound energy within his profound veins underwent another qualitative leap. Its strength advanced from the fifth level of the Elementary Profound Realm to the sixth.

Yun Che's mouth hung open in astonishment. Even with the experiences of two lives, he could barely comprehend such an astonishing profound energy advancement. In less than half a minute since the flames ignited on him, his profound energy level had skyrocketed directly from the fourth level of the Elementary Profound Realm to the sixth!!

Not only had he never encountered such a thing, he hadn't even heard of it!

For a moment, he even felt like he was dreaming.

The two-level jump was still not the end. The crimson flames on Yun Che continued to slowly ascend, gradually bursting to dozens of meters high. The surrounding ground also significantly sank as it melted, and streaks of magma gathered at Yun Che's feet, yet they caused him no harm whatsoever.

The profound energy from an unknown source continued to furiously surge and fill his now crimson profound veins, causing his profound energy strength to experience incredibly terrifying explosive growth...

...Seventh level of the Elementary Profound Realm!

...Eighth level of the Elementary Profound Realm!

...Ninth level of the Elementary Profound Realm!

...Tenth level of the Elementary Profound Realm!

"Jasmine... what exactly is going on?" Yun Che bit his tongue hard. This was the third time he'd tried to confirm he wasn't dreaming! These few short minutes felt like a fantasy to him. Before he could even recover from the shock of his profound energy rising by two levels, it had already surged wildly... directly reaching the tenth level of the Elementary Profound Realm!!

Even a genius growing up in a major sect with abundant resources and excellent mentors would need at least three years to go from the fourth to the tenth level of the Elementary Profound Realm! According to rumors he had heard, Xia Qingyue took three and a half years to advance from the fourth to the tenth level of the Elementary Profound Realm, a feat considered a once-in-a-century occurrence in the small Flowing Cloud City! She was hailed as Flowing Cloud City's number one genius!

Yet he had taken less than five minutes!!

This didn't just shatter Yun Che's understanding; it completely overturned the fundamental rules of profound energy growth on the Profound Sky Continent!

Thus, while Yun Che's heart was filled with immense surprise, it was even more overwhelmed by immense fright!

What was even more terrifying was that the expansion of profound energy still hadn't stopped, nor had its speed slowed down! The profound energy, already at the tenth level of the Elementary Profound Realm, was still rapidly increasing.

"Indeed, there's no mistake. What you consumed was one of the five seeds left by the Heretic God! This princess searched for so long in the east of the Azure Cloud Continent without finding it, yet you, with your meager abilities, stumbled upon it unknowingly! Your luck is so outrageously good, it's practically heaven-defying!" Jasmine's voice carried a hint of gritted teeth.

"...This Heretic God's seed, whatever it is, can make profound energy skyrocket?" Yun Che asked, his face still full of astonishment.

"It's likely that the Heretic God's seed contains a small amount of his power," Jasmine slowly explained. "Now that it has found the successor to the Heretic God's profound veins, it has simultaneously transformed your profound veins to the fire attribute and bestowed its power upon you. Rest assured, this somewhat exaggerated profound energy increase will have no side effects!"

"Transformed my profound veins... to fire attribute?"

Boom!!

A sensation of a barrier being directly broken through came from deep within Yun Che's profound veins. The crimson flames that had been burning on him for so long finally extinguished at that moment.

In that instant, Yun Che clearly felt his entire profound veins undergo an almost sublime transformation, becoming tougher, more expansive, and hotter. The profound energy within them was incredibly dense and rich, to an unbelievable degree. Even every meridian, every bone, and every piece of flesh in his body seemed to undergo a metamorphosis, filled with a formidable power far exceeding anything before.

His eyes became clearer, his hearing sharper, and even his perception of the world underwent a significant change. This sensation of being reborn, thoroughly transformed from inside out, almost made him cry out in pleasure. Yun Che tilted his head back, slowly exhaled, and immediately, a profound energy aura, many times stronger than before, emanated from him!

"First level of the Nascent Profound Realm! Congratulations, you've entered the Nascent Profound Realm. You can finally call yourself a true profound practitioner. Reaching the Nascent Profound Realm at sixteen years old shouldn't be very common in this land, right?" Jasmine said indifferently.

All his previous shock, awe, and apprehension vanished the moment he stepped into the first level of the Nascent Profound Realm. He raised his hands, then extended a finger. With a thought, a small flame ignited on his fingertip. The flame was intensely hot, yet it didn't burn his skin in the slightest. Looking at this flame, born from his own profound energy, he smiled silently.

Is this heaven's compensation for me? For letting me be a cripple for sixteen years... yet in this single day, it has returned everything that should have been mine, multiplied many times over!

Yun Che silently looked inward, seeing his profound veins had become completely crimson, as if carved from a flawless, translucent ruby. Not just his profound veins, but even his meridians, blood, and every cell contained traces of crimson.

"By the way, will my body be immune to fire from now on?"

Yun Che knew how astonishing his question sounded, but it was a deeply genuine sensation conveyed to him by his current body and profound veins.

"That's correct," Jasmine said, a strange note in her voice. "In ancient legends, the Heretic God possessed the most powerful elemental force in the Primal Chaos. He could manipulate natural elements with his profound energy and even convert his profound energy into elemental power at will. The memory imprint within that drop of Undying Blood clearly records that the five seeds left by the Heretic God contain the 'source power' of his formidable elemental abilities. If one obtains this source power, not only can they control the corresponding element, but they will also gain 'absolute' immunity to it!"

"It was also because of this record that, although this princess didn't use the Heretic God's Undying Blood herself, she ventured to this continent at great risk to search for the Heretic God's secret realm mentioned in the memory imprint. The allure of controlling elements and being immune to them was something even this princess couldn't resist. Because, now that true gods have long since fallen, this ability is, in the truest sense..."

"...A power against heaven!"

Jasmine's voice suddenly turned chilling. "At the same time, this is a forbidden Pandora's Box! Now, this box has been opened by you. No one knows what kind of chain reactions this divine ability, which should have long been extinct, will cause by reappearing in the world. Perhaps you will suffer a heavenly tribulation, or perhaps it will bring you endless disasters and calamities. Because, if your secret is ever exposed, countless people in this world will want to kill you and seize your heaven-defying power... If this princess didn't share a life with you, even I would want to kill you and seize your power."

"...Hey! You're not trying to scare me, are you? Even though I suddenly reached the Nascent Profound Realm, it's just the Nascent Profound Realm. Forget 'heaven-defying'; any random profound beast here could still finish me off." Yun Che slightly recoiled, feigning fear.

Although he said this, the confirmation from Jasmine about his ability to control fire and his complete immunity to it left his heart trembling uncontrollably. Never fearing fire... this was indeed an ability that only legendary gods could possess! Not to mention humans, even the mighty Flame Dragon that Jasmine had killed, despite its fire attribute, could never achieve complete fearlessness of fire. If it encountered fire power far superior to its own level, it would still be incinerated into nothingness.

"This princess isn't trying to scare you! So, don't slack off just because your profound energy soared. You must rapidly improve your strength; at the very least, you need enough self-preservation ability. Now that your profound energy level has reached the Nascent Profound Realm, for the time being, you need to consolidate your current profound energy. And this princess can also start teaching you some profound arts you can learn... Before that, dispose of this Flame Dragon. Its corpse is a huge treasure trove for you right now!"

Jasmine's tone remained as cold, indifferent, and emotionless as before. However, hearing it, Yun Che felt something distinctly different from before. From Jasmine's words, he no longer detected the subtle disdain, contempt, and occasional annoyance that had always been present. Although her tone was still firm, there was a faint hint of... concern?