Chapter Forty-Seven: Balance of Water and Fire

"Your Chaotic Fire has only just awakened; mastering it won't be so easy." Ling's tone was calm, but her words nearly drove Hu Mo mad.

"What should I do then? I can't go around without clothes for the rest of my life. Sister Cang, Aunt Cang, Mother Cang, I'm begging you, please help me!" Hu Mo was so desperate that tears threatened to fall. He covered himself with his hands, his face full of grievance and helplessness as he looked at Cang Ling.

Cang Ling shot him a glance, gave a faint snort, and said, "The Five Elements restrain each other; water and fire cannot coexist. All things in the world are governed by Yin and Yang, by the Five Elements; balance is paramount. That's all I have to say."

She turned away and walked straight through the door.

Hu Mo stared blankly at the wooden door, inhaling the lingering fragrance in the air as his heart gradually calmed. Though Cang Ling hadn't pointed things out directly, she had guided him from another angle. Balance between Yin and Yang, balance between the Five Elements—in essence, balance between water and fire.

Water and fire are mutually opposed, even if it is Chaotic Water and Chaotic Fire. Just as Hu Mo had endured the torment of blazing flames before his breakthrough, and had it not been for King Holy Water's timely release of Chaotic Water to mingle with Chaotic Fire, he would have been reduced to ashes long ago.

"If fusion happened once, it can happen again, and again—I refuse to believe I can't master them!" A fierce determination suddenly surged in Hu Mo's heart, even as the upper half of his shirt was burnt to ashes.

He sat cross-legged on the floor and immersed himself wholly in King Holy Water. After refining the Fire Battle Soul, the balance between Chaotic Water and Fire had tilted dangerously. Therefore, what Hu Mo needed most now was to refine the Water Battle Soul.

A cascade of sky-blue light poured down from Hu Mo's crown, draping him in a veil of azure. His jaw clenched tight—unlike last time, this was no pleasure but a sharp, burning pain.

The Fire Battle Soul, with its domineering power, seized control of Hu Mo's body, while Chaotic Water struggled to permeate within. Though both forces originated from the Three Treasures, they repelled each other fiercely, unable to tolerate the other's presence.

Their clash was exhilarating, but Hu Mo truly felt the agony of being caught between fire and water. When one is roasted like a suckling pig, then frozen into an ice block, how could he not howl? Such an extreme environment kept Hu Mo's nerves on the verge of collapse, yet he could not break.

He didn't know whether to be grateful or miserable. Grateful, because he couldn't die—the Wood Qi from King Green Wood maintained his thread of vitality, preventing him from succumbing to the torment of Chaotic Water and Fire. Miserable, because wasn't this just cruel? To endure an ugly woman, one might say, "You'll get used to it." But now, he had to suffer until pain itself became familiar!

Were it not for the stubborn resolve in his heart, Hu Mo might have already passed out, limbs sprawled.

"Damn it, I'll endure even if it kills me!" Hu Mo roared, pouring his entire will into King Holy Water.

Chaotic Fire was now utterly out of control, living up to its reputation as a rebellious force. Hu Mo steeled himself: if it showed no mercy, he would show none in return!

When his consciousness fully entered King Holy Water, the Water Divine Art accelerated, torrents of Chaotic Water surged forth. If the earlier flow was a stream, now it was a mighty river.

Behind him, a towering sky-blue giant shadow formed, equal in size to the earlier flame shadow, but of opposite aura.

"So this is the Water Battle Soul?" Hu Mo murmured.

As soon as the Water Battle Soul appeared, the once-dominant fire force was suppressed. Hu Mo felt as if he'd fallen into an ice cellar; ice began to form beneath his legs, spreading upward.

Unhurried, Hu Mo recited the incantation, his hands weaving complex seals, his will drifting from King Holy Water to hover in the center of his body.

Everything proceeded as expected; water and fire waxed and waned, difficult to control. Hu Mo's task was to combine these forces—balance between water and fire, that was the true path!

"First Transformation of the Fire God!" Hu Mo barked, and a surge of Chaotic Fire burst from his limbs, shattering the ice on his legs.

Chaotic Fire, as if invigorated, launched a fierce counterattack against Chaotic Water. Hu Mo smiled faintly, changed his seals again, and rapidly enhanced the power of Chaotic Water.

"First Transformation of the Water God!"

As Chaotic Water's power rose, a strange equilibrium formed between water and fire. Both the flame shadow and the sky-blue shadow appeared together, not contending but calmly gazing at each other. Even Hu Mo hadn't expected this.

"It's time to end this rebellion," Hu Mo said with a smile. For the first time, he felt he had absolute control. While the battle souls of Chaotic Water and Fire possessed their own will, the constraints of the Five Elements meant they could not defy Hu Mo's intent.

Seeing both battle souls placid, Hu Mo's heart settled. The true stabilization of Chaotic Water and Fire marked his formal entry onto the path of cultivating the Five Element Transformation—though for now, only the Fire God's First Transformation and Water God's First Transformation.

The Five Element Transformation comprised the First, Second, and Third Transformations, representing ever-growing battle soul power and evolving states. Although Hu Mo could only manage the First Transformation, its explosive power was terrifying.

Yet Hu Mo was full of doubts. Cang Ling had just said that battle souls only begin to condense when a warrior reaches the Battle King realm, but he was merely at the third level of the Ripple Art. By his earlier guess, nine levels of the Ripple Art corresponded to the nine ranks of this continent. But matching them up, it made no sense—his cultivation should be at the Berserker level, yet he possessed powers only Battle Kings could wield. It was baffling.

Gradually, the water and fire battle souls faded, and the oppressive heat and bone-chilling cold vanished. Hu Mo examined his body—after alternating stimulation from ice and fire, he had changed greatly.

His skin remained fair, but beneath that fairness was no longer frail thinness. Healthy muscles shaped an aesthetically pleasing physique—balanced, not exaggerated or explosive. In every movement, water and fire energies flowed ceaselessly, as if he wore an inner armor woven from fire and water.

Cang Ling was nowhere to be found, so he had to bury his questions for now; only that witch might know the answer.

He frowned, compared his own form, and muttered angrily, "If this counts as small, what does 'big' mean? Must every man be built like a donkey?"

With a sigh, Hu Mo stood, found a random garment in the wardrobe, and dressed to cover his dazzling physique.

He pushed open the wooden door to find the moon high overhead. Silvery moonlight poured from the night sky, bathing the courtyard's stone slabs like a waterfall, adding infinite imagination and mystery to the night.

He had thought Cang Ling would be gone again, but to his surprise, she was the first thing he saw.

She sat serenely atop the blue stone, her white robes fluttering in the breeze. Moonlight, white dress, blue stone—together, they formed a perfect tableau.

Cang Ling's expression shifted, returning to how she looked when Hu Mo first saw her. It was a beauty capable of captivating the world; any man faced with such a woman would lose all resistance, much as Hu Mo now stood, mesmerized, as if turned to stone.

"Moon bright as water, mist like gauze—if this is a dream, where is the horizon?" Cang Ling murmured, her eyes seeming to pierce through past and present, brimming with centuries of loneliness.

Hu Mo's heart trembled, overcome by a profound sadness. Once, he hadn't believed in reincarnation or karmic cycles, but after repeating lifetimes, he had grasped this truth—though it brought only desolation.

In this world, he was just an outsider, so small, so insignificant—like a drifting leaf on the sea, a grain of sand in the desert. Where was the horizon? Where was home? Where would his next reincarnation lead?

He recalled memories of previous lives, immersed in the river of time, as if lost in a dream spanning three lifetimes.

"Have you stared enough?" A cold voice suddenly sounded at his ear, jolting him from his reverie.

Startled, Hu Mo looked up and met Cang Ling's crystal eyes. In that instant, he felt an inexplicable unease.

"Ah? I... I wasn't staring at you..." Hu Mo felt his tongue twist, his words awkward.

Cang Ling smiled faintly, unexpectedly without her usual coldness.

"Who'd have thought a little punk, a petty rogue, could be shy? Truly, the world is full of surprises." Her smile was warm, but her tone was full of mockery.

Hu Mo's face changed colors, finally settling into a look of astonishment.

A punk? A petty rogue? That wasn't this life, nor his last. Who was this woman? Did she know all his past?

Hu Mo's mood shifted ceaselessly. Now, he felt like a bashful maiden stripped bare, while Cang Ling before him became a lecherous old uncle, gazing at him with a look intent on deep "communication," making his skin crawl and nerves jitter.

"How do you know? Was all this orchestrated by you?" Hu Mo suddenly stepped forward, closing the distance between them until they were pressed together, the faint fragrance perceptible in each breath. Time froze in that second; all was silent.

Hu Mo was about to rise to the occasion—brothers, what are you waiting for? Votes, favorites, clicks—make them fly!