Chapter 105 Water & Ice

Rebirth.

As soon as Xuan realized the meaning of all this, he ran as fast as he could towards the ember until he was close enough to wrap his fingertips around it. As the flame was crushed in his hand, energy rippled through his body, and the white walls around him crumbled away. The next thing he knew, as he opened his eyes, he was staring at the same room of fire he had been in before dying.

"Hah… what an experience."

[Ember of Rebirth (Tenth Layer Fire Law) — Comprehended.]

Even through all that, Xuan was unfazed. Although he had learned the tenth layer of the Law of Fire now, rebirth, it wasn't like he couldn't die anymore. It was just… excruciatingly difficult for him to die. Those wanting to kill him would have to spawn-kill repeatedly, until one of those times he became unable to find the flame of rebirth within the realm between life and death before his time ran out. Of course, given his extraordinarily powerful Soul Strength… he had a lot of time.

Having conquered the Law of Fire, Xuan stepped through the door on the other side of the room to reach the next area. In this case, it appeared to be a temple of sorts. Yet again, across from him was another door, this time marked with a deep blue roman numeral reading (I). To his left and right, four large pillars reminiscent of an ancient Roman palace rose from the water that surrounded the pathway. Gathering all these clues, it was clear what this room was meant to be.

'… The Law of Water, huh?'

The Law of Water was somewhat of a special one… but Xuan would only be able to see that if he could make it that far. Without any further ado, he began the challenge.

The first layer was not too bad. Without warning, the ceiling opened up and a wave of ice-cold water came crashing down on Xuan, but he didn't even flinch. Instead, as each and every water particle coursed down his skin, he noticed the Qi hiding within the atoms, and absorbed it all. This wasn't just any water—this was magical water that allowed for the instant comprehension of the Laws. Perhaps it was due to the paracausal nature of the environment, but Xuan found himself instantly enlightened.

'Was this the test?'

To see if the ice-cold water would daunt him? What a joke.

'Give me something harder,' he thought, and the roman numeral above the door switched to II.

[Droplet of Resistance (First Layer Water Law) — Comprehended.]

The pillars around him suddenly rotated, and four cannons emerged. Xuan, however, was not at all surprised by this. He'd already memorized all the Laws like the back of his hand from all his experience fighting against them in his past life. This was the Second Layer of the Law of Water — the Droplet of Protection.

With a swipe of his hands, Xuan commanded the water all around him to converge and form a large dome around him. His Soul Strength was simply too strong, allowing him to control natural elements like these with extreme ease when compared to other cultivators studying laws for the first time. Moreover, Xuan didn't know what kind of place this was, but the setting definitely had something to do with this ease of comprehension as well.

The incoming barrage of attacks was successfully repelled by the dome of water with ease, and the roman numeral above the door quickly shifted to III. In this manner, Xuan completed the next three exercises with ease as well—the Droplet of Command, the Droplet of Tides, and the Droplet of Embodiment respectively. The first allowed Xuan to manipulate water freely, the second allowed him to create waves that slow things down, and the last turned his entire body into water when he willed it.

The instant the roman numeral above the door turned to VI, however, something incredible happened. As a majestic light shone through the room, the water surrounding Xuan's pathway instantly froze over, and the air became threateningly cold. In contrast, however, Xuan showed barely any reaction. Instead, it seemed like he had been expecting this all along.

"Finally, huh?"

It was here that the Law of Water's interesting quirk became apparent. Halfway through it becomes the Law of Ice. Of course, that is to be expected given the two are quite literally the same thing, looking at it from an atomic chemistry perspective. One is just in the solid state, while the other is in liquid. However, the two have quite different properties… and when it comes to their Laws, they are very much different as well.

The temperature dropped even further. Frost formed on the pillars, but Xuan did not even budge. After all, his Divine Dragon Body encompassed the resistances of all dragons—that is, from the ones that breathe fire to the ones that breathe ice. When it came to natural elements, the only thing that could potentially hurt him would be poison, since strangely enough, poison-breathing dragons were not immune to poison themselves.

The first test was quite simple—it was known as the Shard of Conversion. All Xuan had to do was show the temple he could change water to ice. Given the cold environment inside the room, that was beyond easy—it was practically done for him.

The second layer (seventh layer overall) was the Shard of Temperance. It granted Xuan the power to freeze things, and the third layer—Shard of Shattering—gave him the power to break them. Together, they were a powerful combo, but the final two layers were leagues above even that.

IX. When the roman numeral above the door switched to that, Xuan couldn't help but feel somewhat nervous. Reason being, he wasn't sure if he could master the ninth layer Law. In fact, the people who could were pretty much limited to those who had been studying the path of ice cultivation since a very young age, and often possessed ice-affinity physiques as well. Xuan was the exact opposite—although the Chaos Devouring Body was inherently neutral, the Divine Dragon Body tended to lean towards the heat side.

As for the reason, well… the ninth and tenth layers had to do with the cultivator's body itself—cryogenic blood.