Five Elements Completion? Impossible!

Leading Xiao Jia by the hand, Qi Yuan walked through the trial ground. His gaze swept outward, and information popped into view. [Metal Spirit, Level 48. Can be converted into metal essence qi.] A shit-yellow monster came charging toward Qi Yuan. Its entire body was a golden yellow, seemingly formed with solid gold for bones, liquid gold for blood, and exhaling gaseous gold as its breath. Its appearance was somewhat sickening. Qi Yuan looked at the Metal Spirit with deep distaste and slashed out a casual sword strike. The massive Metal Spirit collapsed on the spot. [EXP +100.] [Metal Essence Qi +1 (wisp).] "Not bad, not bad. I just wonder how much metal essence qi I need to bring the metal element to completion." A single Metal Spirit provided Qi Yuan with one wisp of metal essence qi, which was decent enough for him. Once the metal essence qi was in hand, he could sense that his attacks seemed slightly sharper—faint, but definitely there. Holding his treasured sword and leading Xiao Jia by the hand, he headed deeper into the trial ground, where there were more spirits of the five elements, as well as more EXP and metal essence qi. He needed to collect more qi of the five elements and bring all five elements to completion. Once he did, the Five Elements Forbidden Ground would fall completely into his hands. The Heavenly Dao fragment would then be his as well. "Kill!" Qi Yuan took Xiao Jia along and slaughtered their way through the Five Elements Trial Ground for six hours. At first, Qi Yuan had not merged with Xiao Jia; he felt she had not rested enough yet and merging would take a toll on her. Later, however, he still chose to merge with her. Leaving Xiao Jia by herself outside was rather dangerous. With her airheaded nature, if she hid alone in some safe spot, she might just tumble headfirst into the water. Besides, the enemies he faced were nowhere near the level of the Ugly Robe Monster Sovereign. A moderate amount of merging caused virtually no wear on Xiao Jia. After merging, Qi Yuan could not help sighing in emotional satisfaction. "Spend enough time married, and feelings really do grow day by day." Of course, Xiao Jia had played an indispensable role in helping Qi Yuan conquer the Robe and Crown Forbidden Ground. Who wouldn't love a companion like this? If it were someone with less shame, they probably would have started calling Xiao Jia Mommy right then and there. Standing ten meters tall, Qi Yuan was like an unstoppable god of slaughter within the Five Elements Forbidden Ground. With a sweep of his sword, he annihilated two Earth Spirits in a single strike. Inside the game, he went into a blood frenzy. His only regret was that he encountered too few spirits of the five elements. Most of his time was spent searching for them. "Time to log off." As usual, Qi Yuan canceled the fusion with Xiao Jia. Today in the Five Elements Trial Ground had been quite a harvest for Qi Yuan. After slaying the Ugly Robe Monster Sovereign last time, he had been Level 91, very close to Level 92. Today, he had stepped into Level 92. Merging with Xiao Jia allowed him to unleash Level 97 combat prowess—the power of a Divine Domain titan. Not only that, he had harvested a great deal of qi of the five elements as well. He had obtained 20 wisps of metal essence qi and 11 wisps of wood essence qi. The essence qi of the remaining three elements fell within that same range. Having obtained so much qi of the five elements, Qi Yuan vaguely sensed that to bring the metal element to completion, he would need fifty times what he currently possessed. In other words, by slaying a thousand spirits of each of the five elements, he would achieve completion across all five elements. "It'll take at least fifty days of killing to reach full completion? Isn't that way too slow? "Was this game designed by someone from NetEase? Forcing players to hoard shards every day so you can't even get a kick out of paying to win! "I need to pick up the pace! "Right now, the biggest problem is that there don't seem to be many Five Spirits in the Five Elements Trial Ground. I wonder where they gather in large numbers. Otherwise, if I just grind hard for five or six days, I might be able to achieve full five-element completion and take control of the Five Elements Forbidden Ground. "If I remember correctly, there are other prodigies in the Five Elements Trial Ground. "They've been here a long time and know the Five Elements Trial Ground inside and out. "Tomorrow I'll look for them and ask where the nests of the Five Spirits are." Qi Yuan dug a hole, held Xiao Jia close, and burrowed inside. Cradling Xiao Jia, he opened the chat interface, checked the messages, and chatted away as usual. "I feel like I'll be beating the game soon." "Has the Robe Division Imperial Guard reached you yet?" "Their strength should be decent. Once things wrap up on your end, let's meet offline!" Leaving the game world, dusk had not yet settled outside. Qi Yuan glanced toward the peak of Seven Colors Peak. The pavilions stood like an immortal palace, and though the sky was not yet dark, a full moon seemed already perched above. "The moon beside Master is exceptionally bright," Qi Yuan murmured with inexplicable emotion. For some reason, after logging off, he felt a bit hollow inside. "Hmm...? The qi of the five elements really did feed back into reality." Qi Yuan's attention was quickly diverted. The cultivation art he originally practiced was fire-attribute. The spells he could cast were also related to fire. Now, he felt as though he could manipulate water, wood, and the like. "Now that I have water and wood attributes, can't I switch classes to physician? "Before, I was an obsessive cultivator, and secretly a sword cultivator too, which barely counted as dual cultivation. "Now, adding physician... what does that make me, a triple...?" Qi Yuan felt he was close to collecting all three types of cultivators you never mess with in the cultivation world. For three days straight, Qi Yuan lived on a regular schedule. By day, he ground the game; after logging off, he read through the manual scrolls brought over from the Black Mountain Sect. Life passed at a leisurely pace. Qi Yuan's only slight disappointment was that he still had not run into any of the other prodigies in the Five Elements Trial Ground. His collection of the five essence qis progressed slowly as well. The highest, the Metal Spirit essence, sat at only around seven percent. ... Five Elements Trial Ground. Three figures stood amid a world of wind and snow. A refined man in white robes was locked in combat with a Water Spirit. Not far off, two Divine Domain powerhouses kept watch around the perimeter, preventing other Water Spirits from entering and disrupting him. The refined white-robed man was a Divine Domain powerhouse; taking down an emperor-grade Ice Spirit should, by all rights, have been effortless. The reason it dragged on was that he needed to slowly comprehend the water essence qi and gain insights into the Divine Domain through prolonged sparring with this Ice Spirit, thereby raising his strength. Thus, he engaged in this deliberate, drawn-out battle. After an unknown amount of time, a deep blue hue flashed through the refined man's eyes. He struck a palm onto the Ice Spirit, and a wisp of ice essence qi fell into his grasp. Delighted, he could not resist letting out a long roar. Seeing this, the two nearby Divine Domain powerhouses showed envy in their eyes. A man in red robes said, "Brother Tang truly deserves Lord Yu's praise; his talent is no less than Yu's own. "In merely a single year, he has obtained a wisp of water essence qi. "I dare say that before the Demon Slaying Assembly begins, Brother Tang will step into a profounder realm and become a regional titan!" Within the Five Elements Trial Ground dwelled the Five Spirits. Yet extracting the needed essence qi of the five elements from them was exceedingly difficult. First, while fighting the Five Spirits, one had to focus one's mind on comprehension without outside interference. Second, slaying a spirit did not guarantee that one could successfully comprehend and condense a wisp of essence qi; the probability was terribly low. Precisely because of this, they stayed away from areas where the Five Spirits congregated and instead sought comprehension where few spirits roamed, though obtaining the needed essence qi remained arduous. It all came down to talent. The red-robed man's talent would be considered that of a prodigy in the outside world. Compared to Tang Yan, however, he was utterly eclipsed. It might take him three to five years to condense a single wisp of five-element essence. Tang Yan needed only one year, and sometimes even less. That was the gap between them. A young woman with hair buns also looked at Tang Yan with envy. "Among those in the trial ground, Brother Tang surely possesses the greatest talent!" Hearing this, the red-robed man recalled something and couldn't help saying, "I heard from Xiao Lü that someone else entered the trial ground, someone called the Master of the Robe Division." Tang Yan was surprised to hear that. "The Master of the Robe Division? The husband of the Bridal Gown Imperial Princess? "Who is he? It seems another powerhouse has emerged among our generation." Tang Yan appeared rather pleased. One more powerhouse meant one more ounce of confidence when facing the extraterrestrial demons. "He doesn't appear to be someone from our forbidden grounds. He's likely an outsider who entered the Robe and Crown Forbidden Ground by chance and received the legacy of the Robe Division," the red-robed man said, his tone somewhat sour. "This person... is different from us. His talent is indeed formidable, and having likely never suffered any setbacks in his life, he is terribly arrogant. "On his very first day in the Five Elements Forbidden Ground, he proclaimed that he would take control of it, and that the Five Elements Forbidden Ground should take him as its leader!" Tang Yan was taken aback. "That was merely a joke; it cannot be taken seriously!" To control the Five Elements Forbidden Ground required full completion of all five elements. Tang Yan possessed top-tier water-attribute affinity, making him a prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years. Even so, he needed a full year to gain a single wisp of water essence qi. The more one acquired, the harder it became to gain further. To bring the water element to completion would take at least three thousand years. And that was only the water element. To say nothing of the other four elements. That Master of the Robe Division would need comprehension in all five elements comparable to Tang Yan's water-element affinity, and then grind for another ten thousand years before achieving full five-element completion. On the face of it, that was utterly impossible. "That's why I say that Master of the Robe Division is young and ignorant, never having seen true prodigies, which is why he is so arrogant," the red-robed man could not help remarking. The bun-haired young woman covered her mouth and giggled softly. "It's fine to say things like that around us, but don't go saying them to the Master of the Robe Division's face." The red-robed man laughed heartily. "Of course. I'm not stupid. "We share the same ideals and will attend the Demon Slaying Assembly together. When I meet him face-to-face, I'll flatter him as needed. "Badmouthing is meant to be done behind someone's back." Both Tang Yan and the bun-haired young woman felt rather helpless. Just then, however, a lazy voice drifted over: "Didn't your mother ever teach you not to speak ill of people behind their backs?" The three froze, their eyes instantly darting toward the ground beneath the red-robed man. A hand had reached out from the dirt, gripping the red-robed man's ankle. All three were startled, though not panicked. The earth churned open, and a handsome young man emerged from the dirt, holding a bridal-gowned maiden in his arms. "The Master of the Robe Division!" Tang Yan blurted out Qi Yuan's identity, his gaze sweeping past Xiao Jia and settling on Qi Yuan's face. The red-robed man recognized him as well, his face twisting into an awkward grimace. To badmouth someone behind their back and be caught red-handed by the person himself was just... too mortifying! He forced a smile. "Ahem... my apologies, that was my fault just now." Still, why had this Master of the Robe Division buried himself in the ground instead of gathering five-element essence qi? Beside them, the bun-haired girl examined Qi Yuan with great curiosity and voiced the question on all three of their minds: "Master of the Robe Division, why... did you bury yourself in the dirt?" "Log... er, sleeping, that is." Qi Yuan decided it was best not to say too much gaming jargon to NPCs. What if an NPC became sentient? He had seen a movie where a game NPC awakened and fell in love with a human female player. "Sleeping?" The red-robed man's eyes widened. "Does a Divine Domain martial artist still need to sleep?" Upon reaching the Heavenly Domain, one no longer had any need for sleep. Resting through sleep was far too inefficient. "I originally wanted to sleep a bit longer, but you three kept chattering away. It was so noisy it ruined my peaceful slumber, so I had no choice but to come up. "As the price for disturbing me, you have to answer a question of mine." Qi Yuan rolled his eyes around, feeling that he was quite clever today as well.