The Invincible Dragon Emperor

“How to integrate the line diagram?”

That was the question that had been troubling Lu Li lately. He cultivated day in and day out in the Wicked Bead. Apart from generating more Xuan Energy to dissolve the seal of the Wicked Bead, Lu Li had spent all his time trying to integrate the last component.

It was unfortunate that…

The line diagram was not a puzzle that he could force the pieces together. But this was where it became the most confusing for Lu Li. He had learned the 15 components from a big diagram one by one. In other words, the 15 components were all from the big one. He had integrated the first 14 together without a hitch. And yet, with the last one, he was not successful.

In cultivation, he felt no passage of time which flew by quickly. Soon, 10 days had passed since Lu Li started cultivating. It was a pity that he had accomplished nothing, which made him more impatient.

Once people became stuck, maintaining inner peace could be daunting, which would make it harder to find the solution. A vicious cycle was thusly formed. It was inevitable. Not even a saint could break this circle.

Five more days had passed, Lu Li opened his eyes. He knew he could not continue in this way. Otherwise, he might have this mental disturbance and end up in complete failure.

He wanted to have a few days of rest, to wander around. Maybe, he would be inspired and find a way to solve the problem.

Lu Li took a look at Bai Qiuxue and Jiang Qiling in the inner hall. They were cultivating. Lu Li decided not to wake them and to go out on his own.

“What?”

He threw a sudden glance to Bai Qiuxue and noticed that she was short of breaths. It was hardly distinguishable, but he did feel it. She still had her eyes closed as if she was still cultivating.

Lu Li felt a spread of warmth in his heart. He smiled. Bai Qiuxue was not cultivating. She merely was pretending to be so, and he understood the reason.

Bai Qiuxue was so afraid that she could not hide her unease, so she pretended to be cultivating to lessen the pressure for Lu Li, so he could go forward with his burdens discarded.

“Just for my three loving wives I will have to learn the line diagram. I must kill the Asmodian Lord and protect the Great Land.”

Lu Li promised to himself. He was determined. He came out of the Wicked Bead and walked out of the cave alone.

He did not use any Xuan Energy, he just walked on foot. He had restrained all his energy as he roamed about like an average human being.

Outside the cave was a mountain range with fragmented landform. There were many Xuan Beasts around, but they were all scared away by Lu Li and the other’s energy when they arrived. None of the Xuan Beasts dared to come close.

“Whoosh~”

Lu Li hopped onto the peak of a mountain. Standing at the top, he gazed into the distance. The wind was strong, blowing up his hair and robe. He looked around in a daze, frowning. Evidently, he was still thinking about integrating the line diagram.

“Let me take a look around.”

After a while, Lu Li flew down and went to another hill. He did not fly over, still just walking on foot.

There was a series of mountain ranges in this area. Lu Li ran into many Xuan Beasts along the way. However, they all ran away in fear after Lu Li demonstrated his strength.

Slops, valleys, trenches, basins, cliffs, the riverside…

Lu Li had been in the mountains for three to four days. He had covered over half of this area. Xuan Beasts scattered to all directions.

On the sixth day, Lu Li reached a ridge. Here was a rock that stretched to the peak. An idea suddenly came to his mind when he saw this dragon-shaped rock.

“This rock looks much like a puzzle…”

The rock was covered in cracks. Lu Li did not know how the rock came into being. The cracks divided the rock into dozens of pieces but when looked from the distance, it appeared to be in one piece. The rock meandered to the peak like a dragon.

It was similar to the line diagram. Lu Li was inspired. He observed the rock on the ridge for two hours and then dashed to the peak.

There were a few trees. Lu Li cut off a board from one of them.

Then, with a knife, Lu Li cut the board into 15 pieces and turned the board into a puzzle. He began to put the puzzle together. Since his dagger was sharp, the cuts were clean. To put the pieces together was easy. They fit completely and perfectly.

Lu Li seemed to be zoning out. He took the pieces apart and then put them back together, again and again repeatedly, like a small kid who had recently found his favorite toy…

The sun was setting. The twilight cast a red hue over the sky and shone on Lu Li’s face. His eyebrows were dotted with the red glow. His crystal-clear eyes were filled with confusion.

Night had fallen. The wilderness sunk into darkness. Lu Li was still sitting on the peak, putting the pieces together, moving them apart and putting them back again.

It was now winter at the Eastern Land of Oceans. Frost fell in the night. Lu Li’s hair and eyebrows and his face were covered in snow but he did not mind. He continued his actions with the pieces like a machine.

Time moved on. A glow rose up from the east. The day had come!

For the first time, Lu Li looked away from the board and to the glow at the east. Snow was still visible in his eyebrows, but his eyes were glaringly bright as if a ball of fire was dancing in his eyes.

“Puzzle? No… this is not a puzzle! I have been treating the line diagram as a puzzle and tried to put the pieces together. I was wrong, absolutely wrong!”

“The line diagram is not a diagram. It is a Profound Meaning. It is the truth of nature, the law of heaven and earth. How can I think I can ever knock something like that together? To throw them into one piece?”

“I have always regarded the line diagram as a picture. No… it is not. It is an embodiment of the truth in nature, or rather, the essence of heaven and earth. This is the origins of the Profound Meanings, the inborn nature of the Profound Meanings. It is something more… more powerful than Profound Meanings!”

“All the Profound Meanings have their own line diagrams. Only the warriors do not know. The reason why low-level Profound Meanings can evolve to big ones is that the line diagram becomes more complicated as it extends out, more sophisticated. Take Ming Yu’s ‘Force’ as an example. At the very beginning, there is only one small component, but his Space Seal Profound Meaning have four or five components. Ming Yu does not know the existence of the line diagram. He just stumbled into it.”

“This line diagram is valuable. If one can find the line diagram in his Profound Meaning, he can extend that line diagram out, which will evolve his Profound Meaning, from the third rank to the fourth, to the fifth, seventh and ninth!”

“I see it. Finally, I see it. Ha, ha, ha—”

Like a lunatic, Lu Li laughed loudly alone on the peak. His laughter shook heaven and earth and echoed in a large area. But he did not mind. He was absolutely sure that he could integrate this big diagram.

“Cultivate!”

Lu Li did not go back to his Wicked Bead. He sat down on the peak and started to cultivate right away. He had seen the truth. The next step was not difficult. He had already studied the 15 components. To put them together would not take long.

He believed that he would witness a huge step forward in his abilities rather soon. This time… it would definitely be substantial progress!