For the first few hours, Ling Feng and Shi Lei just rested. They shared a nutrition bar, checked the seal of the abandoned observation room, and hastily reinforced the only entrance with some metal parts.
Shi Lei's tense nerves, after confirming their temporary safety, finally relaxed completely. He soon leaned against a corner and fell into a deep sleep.
But Ling Feng felt no desire to sleep.
He stood before the huge radiation-proof glass, looking down at the roiling sea of magma below, which was like the blood of the planet.
He could clearly "see" the endless, violent, crimson "Pneuma" energy particles rising from the abyss of the earth's core, turning the entire cavern into a high-concentration ocean of energy.
Absorb it directly?
The thought was dismissed as soon as it arose.
That would be like an ordinary person trying to drink a flooding, muddy river dry. The only result would be to be burst open, polluted, and utterly destroyed.
But fortune always favors the bold.
He stepped out of the relatively safe observation room and onto the maintenance path, exposed to the scorching air.
He chose a spot closest to the lava abyss, where the structure was most stable, and sat down cross-legged.
"Feng... what are you doing?!"
Shi Lei was startled awake by the heatwave. Seeing what Ling Feng was doing, he was scared out of his wits.
"Cultivating."
Ling Feng turned his head and gave him a reassuring look.
"Don't worry, I'm not trying to get myself killed. I have... a 'filter'."
As he spoke, he gently pressed the jade pendant on his chest to his forehead.
The "Stellar Transformation" technique began to slowly circulate within him.
The next second, a strange sight occurred.
Ling Feng's body seemed to become a miniature gravitational singularity. The violent, crimson "Pneuma" particles in the surrounding air, like a hundred rivers drawn to the sea, frantically converged towards the jade pendant on his chest!
The jade pendant, at this moment, erupted in a brilliant, gentle white light!
Like the most efficient, most precise energy converter, it greedily absorbed all the surging, violent crimson particles.
And from its other end, streams of "Pneuma" essence, perfectly purified, with all harmful impurities removed, now a pure, silver-white color, flowed like a gentle stream, slowly into Ling Feng's body, nourishing his parched mental sea.
Shi Lei watched this scene, completely stunned.
He saw Ling Feng's brow sometimes furrowed, sometimes relaxed. Large beads of sweat constantly seeped from his forehead, only to be instantly evaporated by the surrounding high temperature.
He knew that his friend was undergoing a transformation that ordinary people could not imagine, one that was both painful and joyful.
Time passed, day by day.
Shi Lei became Ling Feng's most loyal guardian. He was responsible for keeping watch and for rationing their meager food and water, leaving the vast majority for the cultivating Ling Feng.
And Ling Feng's progress was visible to the naked eye.
On the first day, he still needed to expend great effort to just barely maintain the conversion and absorption of energy.
On the third day, he could already spare a sliver of his mind to practice fine control of his telekinesis. He could levitate an ordinary iron sheet in the air and, with pure mental force, slowly squeeze and fold it into a sharp throwing dart.
On the fifth day, his energy absorption speed increased several times over. He no longer even needed to actively draw it in; the jade pendant would spontaneously purify and transport the energy for him. His spiritual energy, which had been a small stream, had now gathered into a rushing, small lake.
On the evening of the seventh day, Ling Feng, who had been sitting motionless, suddenly began to tremble violently!
An aura several times stronger than ever before erupted from him as the epicenter!
The jade pendant on his chest shone with a brilliant light, illuminating the entire dim maintenance path as if it were daylight!
Shi Lei was pushed back several steps by this aura. He was shocked to see Ling Feng's body slowly... float up from the ground!
After an unknown amount of time, the light faded.
Ling Feng silently landed back on the ground.
He slowly opened his eyes.
At that moment, Shi Lei felt that he was no longer looking at a familiar partner.
But at a peerless divine weapon... freshly quenched and sharpened.
His eyes no longer contained just simple wisdom and determination, but a profound sharpness that seemed to see through the essence of all things.
"Second-Tier..."
Ling Feng whispered to himself, feeling the transformative power within his body.
If the realm of a "First-Tier Apprentice" had taught him how to "see" the world, then the realm of a "Second-Tier Cultivator" had given him the qualification to begin to "touch" and "change" the world!
He stood up, walked to the edge of the cavern, and reached out his hand towards the roiling sea of lava below.
In his palm, a ball of air began to be highly compressed and distorted, forming a visible, high-speed rotating vortex.
"Go."
The vortex shot out like an invisible cannonball!
BOOM!!!
On the surface of the lava lake, dozens of meters away, the invisible "air cannon" blasted a huge crater over three meters in diameter! Golden-red lava shot into the air, a terrifying sight!
Shi Lei's jaw had completely dropped to the floor.
Ling Feng withdrew his hand and let out a long, hot breath.
He knew that the time for hiding and cultivating was over.
He turned his head and looked at his friend, who was already speechless with shock, a confident and cold smile on his face.
"Shi Lei,"
"Tell Auntie Wang and the others to prepare to receive a batch of... 'supplies'."
"And while you're at it,"
"Help me send Mr. Buck and his 'Cleaners',"
"A long overdue... 'return gift'."