Apocalypse: Become stronger by absorbing flames at the start; my name is the Flame Emperor.

After absorbing the energy of ten fifth-order crystal cores, Lin Yu was quite certain—

His own strength in all aspects has become much stronger, but it is still far from reaching the level of advancement.

At this moment, he was still at the fourth rank, level ten, and had not successfully broken through to the fifth rank.

Or rather, he had one foot in the fifth tier, but the other was still outside, just a tiny bit short of completing the leap.

But even a tiny bit off is still a bit off.

"What's going on?" Lin Yu frowned.

Is it because there isn't enough energy?

But how is that possible?

I've already devoured ten fifth-tier crystal cores, including one dragon core, so there's no reason I shouldn't have enough energy!

I thought about it for a long time.

Lin Yu couldn't figure it out either, so he had to give up.

Then, a cold glint flashed in his eyes: "Let's go hunt a few more fifth-tier crystal cores and see how it goes."

They were just one step away from succeeding, but it didn't work out.

He guessed that the energy absorbed might not be enough to reach the required level for advancement, which was why the breakthrough failed.

Thinking of this, Lin Yu couldn't sit still any longer and immediately got up.

……

Four days later, on the eleventh day of the third battle.

Lin Yu obtained six more fifth-order crystal cores.

"This time, there shouldn't be any surprises, right?"

He muttered to himself as he sat cross-legged.

He launched another attack, refusing to believe that six more attempts wouldn't be enough to break through.

As before, the energy of the crystal core transformed into a torrent, once again rupturing his meridians and flowing wildly into the white mist.

As the third crystal core turned to dust, the white mist in Lin Yu's dantian became increasingly turbulent.

but--

There is still no sign of progressing.

This immediately made his expression turn somewhat unpleasant.

But since things had come to this, he had no choice but to continue.

"Bang!"

The fifth crystal core turned to dust, and an incredibly terrifying aura emanated from Lin Yu.

Extremely intense and surging.

But they still couldn't cross that threshold.

However, Lin Yu's heart calmed down at this moment.

"Even if I don't break through, it doesn't matter. At least my physical strength and magic power have increased a lot. This is a real improvement. No matter how difficult the fifth rank is, it can't stop me in the end."

"Fifteen Tier 5 pills won't work, then thirty. Thirty won't work, then three hundred. Three hundred still won't work, then—"

"Three thousand!"

Lin Yu's eyes flashed with a sharp light, and his whole body exuded a vast and inexplicable domineering aura. The restlessness in his heart had been completely eliminated.

All that's left is—

Domineering and confident.

Without the slightest hesitation, he picked up the sixth and final fifth-order crystal core and began to absorb it.

At the dantian, white mist was boiling violently.

Endless energy surged into it, then transformed into an extremely pure power that flowed out, merging into the limbs, bones, meridians, and flesh of the entire body.

This allowed his body to undergo transformation time and time again.

"boom--"

Suddenly, a huge thunderous explosion resounded from his dantian.

then.

An incredibly terrifying power surged forth from the white mist, purer, more immense, and even more— than before.

High-level!

They quickly spread throughout the body, merging into every inch of flesh and skin, and began to undergo a qualitative change.

If the previous phase was about strengthening, then this phase is about transformation!

Breaking through a level!

In that instant, Lin Yu felt an unprecedented sense of comfort.

His bones and meridians were glowing, with white flame energy and lightning flowing within them.

An incredibly terrifying magical power surged uncontrollably into the sky at this moment, forming a magical light pillar several meters high. The immense pressure spread outwards like a tidal wave.

White flames automatically appeared around him, igniting all around him.

"finally--"

"It's a success!"

Lin Yu slowly opened his eyes.

His eyes showed neither joy nor sorrow; everything seemed normal, as if it were simply a natural progression.

next moment.

Lin Yu's mind raced.

The pillar of magical light around him vanished in an instant, and the white flames instantly subsided.

"Is this the power of a fifth-tier being?"

He clenched his fist and felt an unparalleled power.

It actually took a total of sixteen fifth-tier crystal cores to break through from fourth-tier level ten to fifth-tier.

This was something Lin Yu hadn't expected.

According to memory and convention, isn't it usually enough to advance to the next level with ten stones?

Could it be that I ate too many attribute fruits in this life, resulting in an overly strong foundation, which makes the power required for advancement too great?

He quickly realized this possibility.

The memory of what Chen Jing'er had told him about the Gate of Evolution immediately came to mind.

The Gate of Evolution has five levels: white, green, yellow, red, and gold. The higher the level, the stronger the foundation and base. The only way to improve the foundation is to consume attribute fruits at level 0.

perhaps--

My guess was correct.

Because the foundation is too strong, the energy required for advancement to the fifth tier is too great, exceeding the standard of ten.

It's important to understand that the energy contained in a single fifth-order crystal core is far greater than that of a fourth-order core, almost 100 times greater. Therefore, 16 cores would contain 1600 times that amount of energy.

Although a lot of impure and violent energy is released during the absorption process, the amount that can be converted into pure energy is still an incredibly large number.

"Only four days left before this trip ends."

"Time is running out!"

Lin Yu glanced at the points leaderboard.

At this moment, only 27 people remained on the list; the others were either dead or forced to use life-saving cards to teleport back.

The remaining 27 people are almost all among the strongest.

On the leaderboard, my score is as high as 476300, ranking first and unshakeable.

Dawn, ranked second, has 368600 points. It seems like there's still a gap of over 100,000 points between them and themselves, but it's not actually that big.

after all--

With 100,000 points, you should be able to hunt down about three mid-level Tier 5 ferocious beasts.

With Dawn's strength, it shouldn't be too difficult.

Moreover, as they hunted ferocious beasts, everyone's strength increased rapidly.

It's not impossible to reach the fourth tier and tenth level.

"Next, we should go back to the Vermilion Bird's lair and see if there's any opportunity."

A glint flashed in Lin Yu's eyes.

In a flash, he sped toward the location he remembered.

Two hours later.

Lin Yu avoided all the ferocious beasts and returned to the area where the Vermilion Bird was.

This place seemed to be the territory of the Vermilion Bird; no other demonic beasts were found along the way. This was a true king-level demon; within its territory, no demon dared to approach.

He was extremely careful throughout the journey, concealing his aura to the extreme, not daring to reveal even a trace of it.

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