The micro-realm secret chamber was divided into two levels—the central level and the lower level. The central level had existed from the beginning. Lin Lei was currently cultivating in this level, while on the lower level, Dilia was hard at work.
Dilia finished her cultivation and opened her eyes.
She gazed at the spatial turbulence beyond the membrane in front of her. The first time she had seen it, she was utterly stunned. Now, it no longer fazed her.
Tilting her head back, she could see Lin Lei's cross-legged silhouette through the passageway above. Just looking at him filled Dilia with a deep sense of peace that came from the heart. A gentle, serene smile appeared on her face before she closed her eyes once more, sinking back into the unfathomable ocean of magic.
"Dong!" "Dong!" …
The peculiar melody of the earth's pulse was at times like rolling thunder, at times like a murmuring stream flowing through the heart. Lin Lei understood the mysteries contained within it all too clearly, and the two hundred and fifty-six waves of vibration were being demonstrated over and over in his mind.
The secret of the earth's pulse—all of it resided within those 256 waves of vibration.
Yet in truth, the earth's pulse that originated from heaven and earth itself contained every mystery of the earth's pulse within each and every individual wave.
Lin Lei had trained bitterly for nearly twenty years, advancing from the first level all the way to the 256th level.
"Two hundred and fifty-six waves of vibration are barely enough to express the secret of the earth's pulse. Now I need to reduce the number of waves, while still containing all the mysteries within them!" Lin Lei's mind constantly shifted and evolved, every possibility streaking past like a shooting star.
None of them were right!
Wrong!
Wrong!
They were all wrong!
Countless theoretical approaches surfaced in his mind, one after another only to be rejected by Lin Lei. His mind had reached its maximum speed, continuously demonstrating and deducing. Other approaches might have increased his strength to some degree, but Lin Lei knew perfectly well that those were not the correct path.
"No, no." Lin Lei's forehead was drenched in sweat, yet he was completely unaware of it.
He did not know how much time had passed, nor how many possibilities he had rejected.
Suddenly—
The cross-legged Lin Lei's brow twitched. He sprang to his feet in an instant, and with a flip of his hand, the Black Jade Heavy Sword appeared in his grasp. Eyes still closed, he began wielding the sword, though he was not fully unleashing the earth's profound mystery.
"Dong!" A single vibration resonated through Lin Lei's heart like a bell.
"Yes, that's it." Lin Lei's eyes snapped open, filled with delight.
In that brief instant, Lin Lei had fused the mysteries of the first and second waves of vibration into a single wave. "Merging two into one…" His eyes shone with wild joy. "Yes, one step at a time. I won't try to merge all 256 at once. First, merge two waves into one. Work through every pair."
The first and second waves merged into one.
The third and fourth waves merged into one.
The 255th and 256th waves merged into one.
In the end, it would be entirely possible to reduce the 256 waves of vibration down to 128 levels of the earth's profound mystery!
Studying them in pairs made the task far more manageable. Besides, Lin Lei had already succeeded in merging the first and second waves.
"Yes, this has to be right." Lin Lei was brimming with confidence in his approach. After all, the ultimate goal of cultivating the earth's pulse was to merge all 256 waves into one. That meant… any two waves could definitely be merged. The difficulty of each merge was simply greater.
However, with the success of his first pair as proof, Lin Lei now had the confidence to continue.
Each wave of vibration contained different mysteries, and every time he attempted a merge, Lin Lei needed to expend enormous mental energy to speculate, deduce, and experiment.
"Lord Lin Lei!" While Lin Lei was completely absorbed in his deductions, a familiar voice suddenly reached him.
Lin Lei opened his eyes. The newcomer was Buck. Below, Dilia had also awakened from her cultivation and leaped directly up to the second level. The two levels were only about two meters apart, so with her strength, she could come up with ease.
"Buck, what are you doing here?" Dilia asked with a smile.
Lin Lei finally allowed his mind to rest after the prolonged deduction and experimentation. By now, he had managed to merge the third and fourth waves as well. His plan was to continue one step at a time, all the way until the 255th and 256th were merged.
When that was done, the 256 levels of the earth's profound mystery would advance to 128 levels, and Lin Lei estimated his strength might increase several fold.
"Two waves into one was already this hard. Merging 128 back down to 64… the difficulty will probably be far greater."
This kind of merging could be illustrated with a simple analogy: imagine stuffing items into boxes. If you had four boxes and tried to cram the contents of two into one, it might be difficult—but if you succeeded, you would have consolidated four boxes' worth of items into two.
But then trying to compress those two boxes into one? The difficulty would be ten times greater than the first attempt!
The difficulty increased exponentially!
This was not something that could be solved by sheer force of thought. It required a deeper comprehension of the earth's pulse. The process of deduction was, in fact, a process of understanding.
"Buck, what happened?" Lin Lei asked.
"Lord Lin Lei, Cassrot from the War God's Gate is outside right now. He came on the War God's orders to find you," Buck reported immediately.
The moment Lin Lei heard "War God," his brow arched. He rose at once. "Let's go. We should go see."