Chapter 142: One More Time The twelfth prince smiling face changed right after Alan and Damian were out of sight. He only put up a facade when they were around to put up a good impression. “Hmph! We’ll deal with them later, for now, we need to stay together,” The twelfth prince said. Although he hated Alan’s arrogant attitude, he couldn’t allow the others to go ahead and attack them for now. They still have almost four more months to stay here, and since the conflict with the Azure empire has escalated to this stage, they need every single member of their empire. “Which Academy are they from?” Neil asked. He too wanted revenge on Alan and Damian, he felt they might have been watching the battles previously but only intervened when things were too difficult for them to handle. The reason he felt this way was because of the direction Alan and Damian came from. This compound had a single entry, and they were fighting close to it. “I recognize the summoner from the competition, he’s from the Lunar Academy. Since he’s close to the other guy, then there’s a chance they’re from the same Academy,” The youth from the Starlight Academy said. “The Lunar Academy, they’ve been pretty cocky lately. Once we get out of here, we’ll put them in their place!” A youth from the Royal Academy declared. They all heard about the incident where Blake charged up to the Starlight Academy and injured their instructors, they also heard about the incident with Chris. “They’re a bunch of arrogant ingrates.” The youth from the Starlight Academy said hatefully. Had Alan and Damian still been present here, the chances of Alan attacking them all would be very high. But, he wouldn’t be surprised by how ungrateful these people were though. Damian was the only reason he even helped them anyway. “That’s enough! We’ll settle this after leaving this place.” The twelfth prince ordered. The others immediately stopped speaking about the matter after hearing the twelfth prince’s order. But, they kept the grudge in their hearts. ____ The next day. ‘Hmm, blue. Well, it’s better than purple, so I’m okay with this.’ Grey thought while staring at the result of his test. He was currently in the chaos space checking how high the grade of his wind element increased. His wind element was originally in the orange grade, but after absorbing the drop of the Great Earth Essence Liquid, it went up two grades. With the increase in his grade, his stage also saw an improvement and he had broken through to the Second stage of the Origin Plane. Now of his five elements, his fire element was of cyan grade, his lightning and wind element were blue grades, and his earth and water element were purple. If one has a purple grade in one element, one would already be considered a genius and be vied for by the Academies. Having a blue grade would put one at the very top, yet, Grey had five elements, one of them had a grade he had never heard of, two were of blue grade, and the other two were purple grade. If news of this spreads out, then there’s a chance all four empires would try to kill him at all costs. The reason the Qilin empire was added to the fray was simple, they wouldn’t allow someone they couldn’t control to grow too powerful. Chris was enough headache for them. ___ Leaving the chaos space, Grey realized everyone else was still absorbing their drops of Great Earth Essence Liquid, Void included. “This is expected,” Grey said before walking out of the room. Looking around, he felt very bored. It took Grey just over six hours before he completely absorbed his drop, so, it should take the others twelve hours or so. This means he still had to wait for six hours. ‘Hmm, what should I do?’ Grey thought rubbing his chin. He had been cultivating for so long, so naturally, he wouldn’t want to continue cultivating. The only thing that made him feel slightly better was that after the first round where he recovered, he had some fun with Quinn and his group. He couldn’t help but stare at the forest once again. ‘That truly was a powerful move.’ He thought before bringing out the technique. He decided once he awakens his darkness element in the future, he’ll learn the technique. ‘*Sigh* It’s best I train while waiting for them.’ He sighed before walking out of the building. Had he been alone, he would’ve already continued exploring the trial land. At least, he would get to face different challenges on the way, but since he had to wait for his friends, he decided to do his physical exercises. Besides, it’s been over two months since he last trained his body. If not for strengthening it with fire previously, then its strength would have remained stagnant. Two hours later. Grey could be seen sweating profusely, but his breathing was still light. ‘This isn’t that bad.’ Grey thought pleased with the outcome of his training. He was currently behind the compound, and for the past two hours, he had been training none stop. Yet, other than sweating, he didn’t really feel tired. When Grey was about to take a seat, a thought suddenly came to him. He had only seen the chaotic essence form of elemental fusion but had tried seeing its physical state. There are some cases in nature where elemental fusion actually takes place. He hadn’t thought of it before, but now, he suddenly recalled it. Take, for example, mud is actually a combination of two different elements, the earth, and water element. There are other cases of it as well. Since he could make earth walls appear at will, and also make a ton of water appear, doesn’t that mean with his ability to fuse elements he could turn the ground into mud? 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺 Thinking about all this, he felt his reasoning was plausible and since he currently had nothing to do anyway, he’ll try to work on it. If he could successfully make it, then he would gain a new trump card. When fighting, all he had to do was turn the ground into mud and his opponent would sink downwards. The sudden disruption would then give him the upper hand, and also this would make escaping almost impossible for them. The thought of it excited him, and he quickly went to work. Thirty minutes went by without Grey getting any results. But didn’t give up, he knew what he was attempting wasn’t something he could get instantly, so, he was slowly taking his time. ‘Hmm, my first hypothesis was wrong. Rather than creating the mud element instantly, I should try influencing the state of the ground with the water element.’ Grey thought while staring at the ground. Normally, before the ground turns muddy, it required being soaked by or in water. So the first thing he decided to do was channel water essence into the ground and see the outcome. When he tried it the first time, the result showed him he was heading in the right direction. Although the ground didn’t turn into mud, he was softer compared to before, but it immediately hardened the moment he stopped channeling his water essence into it. “Haha, I’m such a genius,” Grey laughed happily. The result of his test was very pleasing with this, he knew his theory wasn’t wrong. ‘But how come no Water Elementalist ever thought of this?’ He questioned thoughtfully. From his current theory, he didn’t even need to use the earth element on this. The earth was already available, all he had to do was add in the water element. This was something every Water Elementalist could do later in the future. ‘Hmm, I won’t think about that for now.’ He dismissed the thought and focused on his training. Another one hour went by with Grey performing multiple attempts. Although he hadn’t gotten the required results, he knew he wasn’t far from it. “The amount of essence I put in is too small, and I also need to channel it in quickly. This is quick taxing though,” Grey said rubbing his head. After multiple trials, he felt the reason he wasn’t getting the desired result was due to his speed in channeling in the water essence and also the amount of essence he channels in. ‘I still have about three hours or so before the others wake up. With my current progress, I should be able to succeed before that time. Well, even if I don’t succeed now, I can always continue another time.’ He tried to keep himself calm. When doing something like this, rushing oneself isn’t the best decision. Although sometimes it’s quite helpful, it’s not always good. One hour later. “*Sigh* I should take a rest, attempting it too much will not get anywhere.” Grey shook his head and went to take a sit. Even after trying for two hours, he still hadn’t gotten it. Although he tried to stay positive, failing repeatedly is quite frustrating especially within such a short time. “I should try it one more time before I stop,” Grey who just sat down stood up again opting to try it out again. Who knows, maybe he could get lucky!