Another stretch of time passed.
Jie Ming finally completed a stage of his research into the Mustard Seed Dao-Holding True Body Art.
“That wasn’t easy. At this level, I shouldn’t need to worry about the true body becoming unstable after the refining.”
With that thought, Jie Ming left the laboratory without hesitation and headed into the cosmos of the Infernal Sulfur Plane.
He was going to refine his Third Layer Dharma Form completely into his true body.
This was something that had in fact been put off for a long time.
It was just that, with his previous understanding and degree of practice in the Mustard Seed Dao-Holding True Body Art, had the true body refined the Third Layer Dharma Form, there was a real chance the excessively strengthened power would have left the true body unable to sink back into the inner world.
Now, his understanding of the Mustard Seed Dao-Holding True Body Art had improved further, and he had advanced to the Great Ascension Realm besides; his Dao Integration state had been greatly strengthened and his control over himself raised another step, which made it just the right time to complete the next transformation.
Although the Mustard Seed Dao-Holding True Body Art was not yet fully cultivated, the parts of it concerning the separation of the true body from the inner world and its return into storage were ones he had long since mastered to a considerable degree of proficiency.
As for the part about refining the Dharma Form and letting the true body grow further, the conditions for that were now sufficient too.
So, this time, he would completely fuse the fifty-thousand-kilometer true body with the two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-kilometer Third Layer Dharma Form.
The Dharma Form, originally a manifestation of external power, would truly become a part of himself.
After arriving at the predetermined position, Jie Ming first checked the surrounding environment.
This spot was far enough from the Infernal Sulfur continent, and there were no other intact planets nearby, so there was no need to worry that the appearance of the enormous true body would affect the plane’s internal workings.
Only after confirming there was no problem did he begin casting.
The spatial structure of the inner world opened accordingly.
The puppets Jie Ming had originally stored inside it he moved into a deeper storage area.
Right after, an enormous figure slowly surfaced from the depths of the inner world.
That was Jie Ming’s real body.
The fifty-thousand-kilometer true body gradually detached from its “sunken” state and, following the outside coordinates, slowly left the inner world and reappeared in the void outside.
Seen from afar, his body was like a vast mountain range floating in the cosmos, dazzling light flowing over its surface.
But this was not yet the final form.
Jie Ming raised his head, and in the next moment, an enormous dark-golden light expanded rapidly through the void.
The Third Layer Dharma Form manifested all at once!
The two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-kilometer Dharma Form unfolded layer upon layer, enclosing Jie Ming’s true body at its center.
Compared with the true body, its frame was far more enormous.
Jie Ming did not begin the refining immediately.
He first checked the connection between the Dharma Form and the true body.
Although the two could form a stable partnership, there remained a clear distinction between them after all.
The Dharma Form carried power far beyond the true body’s, yet it needed particular structures to maintain its shape.
The true body, for its part, bore and circulated that power, while its own rate of growth was limited by its structure and energy capacity.
Refining the Dharma Form completely into the true body was precisely meant to break that boundary.
Only when the power within the Dharma Form truly fused with his own true body could Jie Ming convert that enormous law structure into the foundation of his own life, raising the true body’s scale and carrying capacity a step further.
After confirming that all the structures were stable, he began to run the incantation.
The improvement in nature cultivation that the Great Ascension Realm had brought kept his mind clearer than ever before.
Every law structure unfolded one by one in his perception, and the once complex process of conversion became clear as well.
He no longer needed to adjust every single detail over and over as he had in the past; he could grasp the most crucial link between the Dharma Form and the true body directly.
As the incantation ran, the Third Layer Dharma Form began to change.
Its once solid dark-golden outline gradually grew heavier, and the law light flowing over its surface contracted steadily inward.
At the same time, the true body enclosed within the Dharma Form began to turn insubstantial, as if its once fixed material structure were gradually melting into the Dharma Form’s energy structure.
As time went on, the boundary between the two blurred more and more.
Jie Ming was in no hurry to speed things up; following the predetermined steps, he kept adjusting the rhythm of the energy flow and the structural conversion.
The Dharma Form grew ever more solid, the true body ever more insubstantial.
Great numbers of golden runes extended out from inside the Dharma Form and linked up with the corresponding structures in the true body.
The power once scattered through the Dharma Form was guided step by step into the true body, converted into something he could control directly.
This process went on for a considerable stretch of time.
Until, at a certain instant, Jie Ming suddenly felt the last barrier that had stood between the Dharma Form and the true body vanish completely.
Boom!!!
An invisible force spread outward with him at its center.
The Dharma Form abruptly contracted inward; all the dark-golden light condensed in an instant into a single dazzling core, then melted completely into Jie Ming’s true body.
Right after, the true body began to grow rapidly.
The enormous body kept expanding as the power and law structures once carried by the Dharma Form were converted completely into a part of himself.
At last, Jie Ming’s true body stabilized at a scale of two hundred and fifty thousand kilometers tall!
A moment later, the six eyes on his two faces, front and back, opened at the same time, and an almost inexhaustible light radiated from the pupils.
Even so simple an act as opening his eyes was enough to send the energy radiation in the surrounding space soaring.
Jie Ming did not act at once; he first took stock of his own body.
And once he had a clear grasp of his own strength, even he could not help showing a look of astonishment.
Power!
Power like never before!
In the past, although he had been able to bring out combat power far beyond that of his true body through the Third Layer Dharma Form, that had still relied on the Dharma Form’s structure to carry and mobilize it.
Now, that power had fused completely into his true body.
The power that once had to be mobilized indirectly through the Dharma Form had become something he could control directly.
“Whew…”
Jie Ming adjusted his breathing slightly.
And at just that slight breath, the elemental tides around him shifted.
An enormous flow of energy surged in response, and the spatial structure of the cosmos trembled faintly under the invisible pressure.
If this power were allowed to spread unchecked, the energy tide set off by a single ordinary breath would be enough to tear a planet apart.
Fortunately, the characteristics of the Great Ascension Realm were right there, letting Jie Ming rein in his power at once.
Feeling this power that could tear a star apart at will with the lift of a hand, Jie Ming nodded slightly.
The strengthening of the true body was a genuine increase in “base values”; at his current size, he was no less than some of the smaller-framed plane wizards!
And this was only the result of completing the current stage of transformation.
As his mastery count in the Spiritual Qi Law continued to grow in the future, he could construct a Dharma Form on an even larger scale!
Jie Ming gazed at the boundless void in the distance and clenched his fist.
“My power now… might be able to stand against an eighth-level wizard who isn’t using Leap Power!”