Radiation world
After returning from Green Ore Town, Rain approached the chief and requested a break. He timed this break to coincide with his clone in the Star Immortal World entering a week-long retreat to comprehend the 'Vitality Flame' and the 'Thunder Sword Technique.' The clone planned to emerge from the retreat fully prepared to step into the domain.
Rain himself embarked on a week-long retreat to study the genetic inheritance of the 'Super Healing Lizard.' Even his clone in the Alchemist World joined the effort, dedicating itself to assisting in refining their understanding. Rain's determination was evident—he declined every distraction, even turning down the princess, who had invited him to fight beneath the giant tree.
If Rain hadn't entered this retreat and instead asked Siobhan to accompany him somewhere, she likely would have agreed, given the numerous hints she had dropped during their return journey to Martin City. However, Rain's priorities had shifted.
For the first time since his rebirth, Rain had tasted defeat—twice in the same realm. These experiences ignited a burning resolve within him to grow stronger, both in skill and power.
Rain re-entered the inheritance space, determined to fully accept the inheritance. For three uninterrupted days, he absorbed the knowledge and power of both the 'Vitality Body' and 'Energy Bomb.' However, he deliberately chose not to focus on the 'Vitality Body', which would enable him to step into the 'True Body Realm.'
The purpose of this retreat wasn't to advance his cultivation but to bolster his clone's strength in the 'Star Immortal World.' Enhancing his understanding of the 'Vitality Rule' or progressing to the 'True Body Realm' would do little to immediately increase his clone's combat capabilities.
The looming threat of the secret realm weighed heavily on Rain's mind—not only would he and his clone face its dangers, but they would also contend with participants from the 'Earth Devil Palace.' If these adversaries possessed power comparable to 'Lu Yan' or 'Liang Ji,' survival would be impossible without significant improvements in strength.
The inheritance of the 'Energy Bomb' proved to be a rare and potent attack technique, increasing in power relative to the energy invested.
Rain discovered that if he poured all his energy into the 'Energy Bomb,' its destructive force could severely injure a mid-' True Body Realm' or 'Beginning C-rank' opponent.
However, the technique could only reach its full potential after being completely mastered. With only four days remaining, Rain knew he wouldn't have enough time to achieve full mastery.
Despite the agreement he had made with his clones not to share information during their week of retreat, Rain chose to send the Energy Bomb inheritance data to his second clone in the Alchemist World.
His reasoning was straightforward: if the clone and himself could master the Energy Bomb technique, it would significantly bolster the first clone's chances of survival within the secret realm.
The stakes couldn't be higher. In the secret realm, his first clone in the Star Immortal World would face not only participants from the Earth Devil Palace but also the demons and monsters that inhabited the realm.
The highest allowable strength for entrants was 2nd rank, meaning adversaries—including demons and monsters—could exist at the peak of that threshold. Rain's first clone, in the middle stage of late 2nd rank, was strong but not invincible.
Against such formidable foes, the clone might struggle to retaliate, and his only option could be deploying the Energy Bomb as a last-ditch effort to take his enemies down with him.
Yet, there was a crucial complication. The Energy Bomb technique could only be used effectively if fully mastered.
The differing rules between the Radiation World and the Star Immortal World meant that only a fully mastered spell could be modified to suit the first clone's environment. Determined to make progress, Rain dove headfirst into comprehending the Energy Bomb spell.
After a couple of hours of focused effort, he opened his panel to check for signs of improvement. While he was confident he had made progress, seeing cold, hard data always provided a different kind of reassurance.
However, to his frustration, the panel displayed no progress data. The only entry was a simple "Energy Bomb," with no details of his improvement. Frowning, Rain inquired of the soul chip for an explanation.
The answer revealed a disappointing truth: no one had ever uploaded the fully mastered Energy Bomb data to the network. Without such data, the soul chip could not quantify his progress.
Realizing he could not rely on the panel for feedback, Rain decided to measure his progress directly by testing the power of the Energy Bomb. Fortune seemed to favor him, as the third retreat room he had chosen included a power dummy—perfect for evaluating attack strength—and was spacious enough for him to unleash the spell without restraint.
Standing at one end of the room, Rain turned to face the power dummy at the far end. He raised both palms, focusing his energy, and released the Energy Bomb. The moment the energy touched the dummy, a powerful explosion erupted. As the smoke and debris cleared, Rain's gaze locked onto the numbers now glowing on the dummy's chest: 2512.
The result placed his attack in the range of a peak D-rank, which spanned from 2400 to 2800. However, to injure a C-rank opponent, the power of the Energy Bomb would need to reach a minimum of 4000. He still had a long way to go. Without wasting a moment, Rain resumed his meditation, striving to deepen his understanding of the spell.
An hour later, Rain's efforts bore fruit. A breakthrough in comprehension allowed him to push the Energy Bomb to the familiar realm of understanding.
As his understanding of the spell deepened, he began to notice an intrinsic connection between the Energy Bomb and the vitality rules.
His suspicions were confirmed the next day when he progressed to the proficiency realm of the technique. The spell not only absorbed energy but could also draw from the external vitality of the caster's body.
He realized he should have guessed this connection earlier, given that the Energy Bomb was one of the innate spells of the super-healing lizard, a creature intrinsically tied to vitality.
However, while the spell didn't enhance his understanding of vitality itself, it broadened his awareness of how the vitality rules could be applied in more complex and creative ways.
Eager to test his progress, Rain stood and faced the power dummy. With precision, he channeled the Energy Bomb and launched it toward the target.
The explosion left a trail of heat and pressure rippling through the room. When the smoke cleared, the dummy displayed the attack power of 2702.
Notably, Rain had only used 5% of his genetic energy to generate this result—a significant improvement from when the spell was in the familiar realm.
Now that it had reached proficiency, he could increase the energy investment behind the attack, exponentially boosting its power. However, for this test, he deliberately used the same energy input as before to assess the relative improvement.
Satisfied with the results, Rain did not linger on the spell's current power. Instead, he resumed his meditation, diving once again into the intricate mechanics of the Energy Bomb, determined to refine his understanding even further.
By the fifth day of his retreat and the third day of comprehending the Energy Bomb spell, Rain had not yet reached the master realm of the technique.
However, he was far from discouraged—he could feel steady improvement, and the spell's power had increased to 2784.
With just a few more hours of focus, he believed he could surpass the upper limit of peak D-rank attack power. Determined, he pressed on, delving deeper into the intricacies of the spell.
Late on the sixth day, Rain's understanding finally advanced to the master realm.
The breakthrough was achieved after sharing his memories with his second clone, whose perspective and insights helped solidify the final piece of the puzzle. Eager to test the results, Rain once again attacked the power dummy.
The impact displayed an attack power of 2900.
Instead of resuming comprehension of the spell, Rain raised his right palm toward the dummy. Concentrating, he condensed energy into a focused beam and released it toward the dummy's head.
As the attack struck, he noted the power values displayed on the dummy's chest. Testing energy investments, he observed that for every 5% of energy invested, the power increased by 40 points. At 25% energy investment, he stopped to conserve his reserves and sat down, analyzing the implications.
Rain realized the Energy Bomb spell had evolved into something more versatile. The focused energy attack resembled a beam rather than an explosive, prompting him to consider it the Energy Beam spell.
From the foundational Energy Bomb, he had already envisioned several variations of the spell, each with unique applications. However, he set these ideas aside for now—his top priority was to fully comprehend and refine the original spell before exploring its offshoots.
As time passed, Rain had to halt his comprehension of the spell. The moment to share memories with his first clone in the Star Immortal World had arrived, leaving him only six hours before the clone was set to join the team and enter the secret realm. A frown crossed his face; despite his relentless efforts, he had not completely mastered the spell, even with the assistance of the second clone in the Alchemist World.
Lost in thought, a notification from his soul chip interrupted his deliberation—it had received the latest memory transmission from the first clone. Rain did not immediately absorb the memory but instead focused on sending his past week's memories to the clone. Once the transfer was complete, his thoughts shifted to the dangers awaiting his clone in the secret realm.
He considered the Earth Devil Palace's cultivators, the demons, and the monsters that inhabited the realm. From the information he had gathered, the secret realm's environment resembled a grassland biome, offering no unique advantages or disadvantages but making survival even more unpredictable.
Frustration crept into his mind as he reflected on his inability to fully prepare. But he quickly shook it off, determined to stay composed. After a moment of self-reassurance, Rain reminded himself that he had done everything possible. Even if the clone were to face danger or perish, he knew he had given his best the outcome would not be his fault, and he resolved to face whatever challenges lay ahead with unwavering resilience.
Rain decided to avoid exploring the depths of the secret realm for now. Instead, he would focus on gathering resources from the perimeter while advancing to the Organ Realm of Grandmaster before attempting to venture deeper. With that plan in mind, he absorbed the memory transmitted by his first clone, eager to assess its progress.
As the memory unfolded, a slow smile spread across his face, growing wider as he reached the sixth day of the recollection and saw how far the clone had come. The first day held little of note—the clone had begun comprehending the Thunder Sword Technique.
By the second day, realizing that mastering the technique within the given time was unlikely, the clone shifted focus to the Vitality Spell, which synergized with body refinement.
Although the sword technique offered only mediocre combat capabilities on its own, its refinement aspect promised long-term benefits, making it a worthwhile endeavor.
While its attack power didn't initially match its rank, the technique bore the name Thunder Sword Technique for a reason. The addition of bioelectricity enhanced the sword's speed significantly, and every strike inflicted temporary paralysis on the target for a few seconds.
The core movements of the sword technique remained unchanged, but the added speed and power effectively doubled its combat efficiency. However, mastering the control and generation of bioelectricity was a demanding process.
The process required not only a profound understanding of his body but also exceptional diligence and the resilience to endure significant pain during body refinement.
For the Thunder Sword Technique to become truly useful within the secret realm, it would take more than a week to achieve the necessary level of mastery. Recognizing this, he shifted his attention to the Vitality Flame, a second-rank spiritual item.
With his advanced understanding of vitality and fire rules, he realized that fully comprehending the Vitality Flame itself was unnecessary.
Much of its essence overlapped with his existing mastery of those rules. Instead, his focus needed to be on learning how to merge the two rules seamlessly. This merging process held immense promise. Once refined, the Vitality Flame could be used to enhance his heart, allowing him to advance to the Organ Realm.
Additionally, he discovered a unique property of the Vitality Flame: rather than reducing objects with vitality to ashes, it absorbed and plundered their vitality, growing stronger in the process. This made the Vitality Flame a powerful tool, enabling him to rapidly extract energy from living things and accelerate his cultivation.