410: Chapter 410 Five Elements War God Fist

"Five Elements Shield?" Lin Yue frowned. "Is it that kind of turtle shell that no single-attribute attack can pierce?"

"Yes. It requires an attack of Five Elements Fusion to break." Chu Lan drew a complex Five Elements Fusion model on the ground. "I've deduced this model based on my experience from the sixth floor. It might not be entirely accurate, but the direction should be correct."

Tian Xin crouched beside her, using the patterns on her Talisman paper to fully replicate the Five Elements Fusion model Chu Lan had drawn. "Five Elements Fusion is also recorded in the Scripture Pavilion of the Wuxiang Sect, but there are no cases of practical application.

The Wanfa Sect is famous for its myriad Spells, and Five Elements Fusion is a mandatory course for their high-level Disciples." She looked up at Gao Feng. "But none of us specialize in Spells. You use martial arts, and we use Talismans, swords, music, spiritual plants, and space. For us, Five Elements Fusion is even more difficult than it is for the Disciples of the Wanfa Sect."

Gao Feng didn't answer immediately. He walked to the base of the Wanfa Tower, pressed his palm against the stone wall of the tower, and closed his eyes.

The silver-white light of the seventh floor glowed quietly above his head. He could feel the fluctuations of Origin Qi within the tower, where the five attributes were fused together—it was an order he had never felt before, five distinct energies coexisting in a subtle ratio without repulsion or conflict, like five rivers flowing into the same lake. He opened his eyes and withdrew his hand.

"The essence of Five Elements Fusion is the precise control of the Origin Qi ratio." Gao Feng turned to his teammates. "It's not something only Spells can achieve. My War Gods Unity is about fusing different powers into one. The power of the Five Elements is also a type of power."

The challenge for the seventh floor was set for the following afternoon. Master Lieyang did not appear; Elder Xuanqing stood by the tower door, holding a recording Jade Slip, his expression calm, but the fingers holding the Jade Slip were slightly pale—the seventh floor was the watershed of the Wanfa Tower, and in the history of the Wanfa Sect, no more than a hundred people had passed it.

Gao Feng was in no hurry to enter the tower. Instead, he sat cross-legged on the stone slab in front of it, closing his eyes to focus. He mentally calculated the ratios for the Five Elements Fusion—Metal is sharp, Water flows downward, Wood grows, Fire is hot, and Earth is heavy. The Five Elements generate and overcome each other; overcoming leads to conflict, while generating leads to Fusion. What he needed to find was not a fixed ratio, but a dynamic point of balance.

Tian Xin drew a model of the Five Elements Fusion on the ground, marking the spiritual power fluctuation frequencies of the five attributes. Luo Li tried playing several chords with music, each chord consisting of five notes sounding simultaneously, attempting to find the most harmonious combination.

Su Ning used the Space Power to extract Origin Qi samples of the five attributes from the tower for Gao Feng to perceive. Chu Lan grew several spiritual plants that could simultaneously absorb Five Elements Origin Qi, observing their growth states to judge the quality of the Origin Qi ratios.

An hour later, Gao Feng stood up and walked into the seventh floor.

The tower door closed behind him. The space on the seventh floor was smaller than the previous six, only about thirty meters in diameter, with a low dome, bare walls, no formation patterns, and no decorations.

The Puppet in the center of the formation was completely different from the one on the sixth floor—its body was made of translucent crystal, silver-white all over, with no limbs or facial features, only a perfectly round torso floating above the formation.

Surrounding it was a five-colored light shield. That shield was very thin, almost transparent, but Gao Feng could feel the defensive power it contained. A Five Elements Shield, exactly as Chu Lan had predicted. Any single-attribute attack hitting it would be absorbed or neutralized by the shield.

Gao Feng did not rush to attack. He released his spiritual power, testing the shield's reaction with the five attributes: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. When the Metal element sword glow struck the shield, its silver-white luster dimmed for a brief moment before returning to its original state.

Water element palm force struck the shield, causing ripples on its surface that soon calmed down. Fire element punch energy hit the shield, raising its temperature slightly before it cooled. Wood element spiritual plant seeds took root on the shield's surface, only for their roots to be shattered by the shield. Earth element gravity pressed down on the shield, increasing its brightness slightly, but the Puppet remained motionless.

Five attributes, each ineffective on its own. It wasn't a lack of power, but the wrong attribute. The essence of the Five Elements Shield was to force the attacker to use all five attributes simultaneously, and the energy of these five attributes had to reach a specific ratio.

If even one attribute was missing or the ratio was unbalanced, the shield would disperse and absorb the attack energy, converting it into its own defensive power—the fiercer the attack, the stronger the shield.

Gao Feng withdrew his spiritual sense and closed his eyes to concentrate. He thought of the ninth style of the Nine Styles of the War God—War Gods Unity. The essence of that style was to fuse all the power within the body into one, transforming it into a pure War God Power. The power of the Five Elements was also a form of power and could be fused using the same logic.

Spiritual power condensed in his Dantian, and Origin Qi of the five attributes was drawn from the surroundings, gathering in his palm. Metal Origin Qi was sharp as a sword, Water Origin Qi was soft as silk, Wood Origin Qi was full of vitality, Fire Origin Qi was scorching hot, and Earth Origin Qi was heavy as a mountain. The five powers collided, repelled, and conflicted within his palm.

Their mutually overcoming nature clashed violently without any means of reconciliation. The light in his palm flickered a few times before exploding. Gao Feng was knocked back three steps, his palm numb. The Fusion had failed.

He was not discouraged, adjusting the ratios of the five attributes and trying again.

With a bit more Metal, the light in his palm became sharp for an instant before going out of control. With a bit more Wood, the fused mass became unstable and expanded like a wild weed. With a bit more Fire, the temperature in his palm rose abruptly, igniting the surrounding air. With a bit more Water, the other four attributes were diluted, significantly reducing the fused mass's power. With a bit more Earth, the fused mass became too heavy, making it difficult even to lift his hand.

Attempt after attempt, failure after failure. His palm was covered in burns from the spiritual power backlash, and the back of his left hand was still bleeding, cut by the rampaging Metal Origin Qi. Outside the tower, Tian Xin sensed the abnormality in Gao Feng's spiritual power fluctuations and whispered, "He's forcibly fusing the power of the Five Elements, but the ratios are wrong. The backlashes are becoming more frequent."

Elder Xuanqing sensed all of this from outside the tower and remained silent, but his fingers tightened slightly around the Jade Slip.

Tian Xin took a blank Jade Slip from her sleeve, recorded the Five Elements Fusion model in the form of runes, and then pressed it against the tower door. The spiritual power of the runes passed through the tower wall into the seventh floor—it wasn't direct help, but rather showing the model to Gao Feng. Luo Li also plucked her strings, transmitting the rhythmic frequency of the Five Elements' mutual generation into the tower through music.

It wasn't about transmitting spiritual power, but letting Gao Feng perceive that dynamic ratio. Chu Lan grew a "Five Elements Flower," a rare spiritual plant with petals of five colors, each corresponding to an attribute. She pressed the Five Elements Flower against the tower door; the color changes of the petals reflected the ratios of the Five Elements Origin Qi within the tower in real-time. If one attribute was too strong, the corresponding petal would be too bright; if too weak, it would be too dim.

Perceiving this information inside the tower, a light flashed in Gao Feng's eyes. He decreased the ratio of Metal Origin Qi by one part and increased Wood and Water by half a part each. The Five Elements Fusion mass stabilized in his palm for a breath before starting to tremble again.

It wasn't a complete Fusion; water mist was mixed in the flames, and the sharp edge of Metal was mixed in the water mist. He continued to adjust: Metal down by two parts, Wood up by one, Fire kept the same, Water down by half, and Earth up by one and a half.

The light in his palm no longer trembled. A halo of five colors rotated slowly in his palm, forming a complete circle. Metal was sharp but not piercing, Water was soft but not limp, Wood was full of life but not overgrown, Fire was warm but not scorching, and Earth was heavy but not crushing. Five Elements Fusion—initial success.

The Five Elements Fusion mass rotated slowly in his palm. Gao Feng took a deep breath and clenched his fist. He pressed that five-colored light into his fist, and a faint five-colored halo appeared on its surface. It wasn't fire, nor was it a sword glow, but a pure power—the power of the Five Elements had condensed into form within his fist.

He stepped forward and slammed a punch into the Puppet's Five Elements Shield. It wasn't a casual strike; it was the injection of all the previously calculated ratios into this single punch.

Boom!

The Five Elements Shield trembled violently, with countless fine cracks spreading outward from the center. But it did not shatter. The cracks in the shield healed at a visible speed. It wasn't that the punch lacked power, but that the power of the Five Elements in the punch had become unbalanced the moment it hit the shield—Metal was too strong, Water was too weak, and the chain of mutual generation broke at the last moment.

The Puppet's counterattack was faster than ever. The shield exploded with a ring of five-colored shockwaves, sending Gao Feng flying several meters until his back hit the tower wall. A sweet taste rose in his throat, and he swallowed the blood. He thrust the vajra sword into the ground and used it to pull himself up.

After the five-colored shockwave passed, a dull sound came from the tower door. Lin Yue was the first to step in, not to provide support, but to protect the formation. The Rock Demon Phantom emerged from behind him, enveloping the entire space of the seventh floor within its defensive range. He didn't care if Gao Feng was still testing; he didn't want his teammate to be sent flying by the shockwaves again.

Tian Xin was the second to enter. She took a blank Talisman paper she had never used before from her sleeve, spread it on the ground, and used a Talisman pen dipped in cinnabar to draw the "Five Elements Fusion model" on the spot. That pattern was not a traditional Talisman; it integrated Chu Lan's spiritual plant perception, Luo Li's musical frequencies, Su Ning's spatial analysis, and Gao Feng's own Fusion data, expressing them through runic patterns. She pushed the Talisman paper toward Gao Feng.

"Try with this ratio. Metal 0.24, Wood 0.21, Water 0.18, Fire 0.22, Earth 0.15. These are the optimal values measured by Chu Lan's Five Elements Flower." Tian Xin usually didn't say much, but her voice was exceptionally firm at this moment.

Luo Li said nothing, merely placing the flowing sound zither across her knees and playing a melody. The rhythm of that tune was perfectly aligned with the frequency of Gao Feng's fist fusing the Five Elements Origin Qi. She used music to help his body "remember" that rhythm, rather than just calculating the ratios in his head.

Gao Feng closed his eyes and focused, committing Tian Xin's ratios, Luo Li's rhythm, Chu Lan's data, and Su Ning's structure to memory. Then he opened his eyes, pulled the vajra sword from the ground, and returned it to its scabbard. His hands moved away from the hilt, fingers interlaced, and fists clenched. The vajra sword was his strongest weapon, but for this punch, he didn't need the sword.