I will eventually become a god through sheer hard work.

"The current Flower Goddess Project has only one guiding principle."

“Leave 1,000 points for regular skills that may be upgraded at any time, and put the rest into [Shadowflame] as soon as possible to get 'Divine Avatar'.”

Having made his decision, Xue Jing immediately pressed the upgrade button for Shadow Flame.

【Shadowflame Lv8 (1178/4500)】

"The next upgrade will cost 4,500... so upgrading from 9 to 10 will cost 6,000."

"Adding the two thousand needed to activate the divine avatar, a total of twelve thousand five thousand more divine essences are required..."

"Fortunately, it's not too far away. The Qingcheng government still owes me ten divine relics. Even if it's five thousand divine essence, plus the one thousand I have now, the shortfall is only a little over six thousand."

"However, there's no guarantee that I won't waste time on other skills along the way... If only I could go into a place like 'Roaring Waterfall' where I could earn a lot of divine resources."

He shook his head, deciding to stop thinking about it.

Xue Jing snapped his fingers, unleashing Shadow Flame to draw out black energy from the shadows of the training room, igniting a ball of black flame in his palm.

Perhaps because he has reached Lv8, the black flames he is currently conjuring seem to be getting increasingly dark.

Ripples spread around it, like a black hole, almost sucking in all the light around it.

Having briefly experienced the changes in Shadow Flame after the upgrade, Xue Jing was about to test its power when a thought suddenly struck him.

He instinctively looked at his arm.

The next moment, his arm... melted.

The entire arm vanished instantly, transforming into—black flames!

"coax--"

Xue Jing blinked, staring in astonishment at the arm that had lost its physical form and completely transformed into black flames.

"This is... elementalization?"

Without any hesitation, Xue Jing reached for the eight-sided Han sword on the weapon rack next to him and held it in his hand in reverse.

Then he forcefully stabbed himself in the stomach.

"呲-"

Without any obstruction, the eight-sided Han sword pierced straight through his body, entering from his abdomen and exiting from his back.

However, no blood flowed from Xue Jing's abdomen; only wisps of black flame emanated from the 'wound'.

"This……"

Xue Jing's eyes widened.

As soon as the eight-sided Han sword was drawn, countless black flames condensed and filled the 'wound' on his abdomen, restoring it to its original state.

Even the clothes weren't damaged.

"Hmm? A Logia-type Shadow Flame Fruit user?"

Xue Jing scratched his head, put the eight-sided Han sword back on the weapon rack, and then sat down cross-legged.

After calming his somewhat excited emotions, Xue Jing focused his mind into his consciousness space.

Countless tiny pixels swept across the scene like a storm, creating a desolate landscape.

Xue Jing himself materialized in the consciousness space, clenched his palm to confirm that the data was correct, and then had a thought.

Dozens of opponents began to appear around him, all of whom were his past enemies, including Li Chengxuan, Jiao Hongyuan, Yan Xiangweng, the leader of the Sky Pirates, the man with four-dimensional senses, Du Mingluan... and even various different dragon species and cockroach monsters.

All the humans and beasts who appeared were filled with rage, and various dragon lightning, flames, and bursts of energy immediately attacked Xue Jing.

Without making any move, Xue Jing simply stood with his hands behind his back, calmly watching all the violent attacks coming toward him.

"Boom boom boom boom——!!"

He was instantly engulfed by countless attacks, blasted into dust on the spot, and vanished into nothingness.

However, the next moment, countless wisps of black flame gathered towards the center of the huge crater blasted out by countless attacks on the battlefield.

All the black flames coalesced and slowly took shape, transforming into a human form.

Then, the humanoid black flames slowly transformed, restoring Xue Jing to his unharmed state, not even his clothes were disheveled.

"What? Are you guys tickling me? Haven't you eaten? Can you tickle me a little harder?"

Xue Jing picked at his ear with his little finger, looked around, and raised an eyebrow.

"Roar--!!"

An angry dragon roar resounded through the heavens and earth, and countless attacks rained down once more.

Xue Jing chuckled lightly, no longer enduring the attacks. Instead, he opened his arms, his entire body transforming into black flames that scattered in all directions.

The scattered black flames flew one after another to the back of a cockroach monster, where they converged and coalesced into Xue Jing's figure.

Raising his right fist, Xue Jing unleashed a Thunderfire Cauldron strike that blasted the cockroach monster in front of him into dust. Looking at his fist, Xue Jing muttered to himself:

"Now... we're truly invincible."

……

Chapter 210 Yuancheng, Zhou Yinglin, the Dragon Cult's Divine Child, Otogi Suzuka, and the reactions of various parties to Xue Jing (4K)

He pulled the nine-foot-long spear from Li Chengxuan's chest and swung it sharply to the side.

The spear tip extended over ten meters, sweeping across the dozen or so cockroach monsters, drawing a pale golden fan-shaped trajectory, and severing all the cockroach monsters in half, leaving dark green slime flowing all over the ground.

He wielded the spear with dazzling skill, creating afterimages as he repeatedly stabbed or swept his opponents to death.

Soon after, there were no more enemies on the battlefield. Xue Jing stretched out his spear to the side, pointing it diagonally at the ground. His whole body, face, chest, abdomen... were covered with deep 'wounds', but not a single drop of blood flowed from the wounds. Instead, boiling black flames continued to burn from them.

As the black energy continuously transformed into black flames to heal his wounds, he quickly recovered to a completely intact state, without even his clothes being damaged.

Relying on Shadowflame's new ability 'Elementalization', Xue Jing calmly and steadily dealt with all the enemies present without dodging or avoiding them.

"...This new ability is practically cheating."

"Although I don't know if there are any specialized attacks in reality that can target me... at least magical attacks like 'Dragon Lightning' cannot break my 'Elementalization'."

"The only problem is that the consumption is too high."

Xue Jing frowned slightly.

While invincible, he is not invincible without any limitations.

After he was annihilated by countless attacks for the second time, turning into nothingness and then reforming his body, it was discovered that Shadowflame's 'mana bar' was almost empty.

This is a Lv8 level Shadow Flame... Ever since this skill was upgraded to Lv4, Xue Jing has used it in various Gundam battles, and it is rare for it to be completely depleted. As long as the surrounding shadow area is large enough, the mana bar will grow ridiculously long.

However, even though Shadowflame's level has reached Lv8 and its mana bar is more than double that of Lv4, it was drained after just a few elemental transformations.

If this weren't a consciousness space, Xue Jing could restore his mana bar with just a thought. In reality, he wouldn't be able to stand still and pierce through all his enemies so arrogantly.

"But it's alright, the consumption of 'Elementalization' varies according to the severity of the injury... Although repairing the whole body will drain your mana bar after only two uses, if it's just repairing the head, it can be used at least five or six times."

Xue Jing pondered.

"In that case, in emergencies, for minor injuries, I can just activate my life force to recover, saving every bit of energy. I'll only use 'Elementalization' when faced with a fatal blow that I can't avoid..."

"In any case, with this new ability, my survivability has improved by several levels. I don't know how many extra lives I have. Apart from not being able to delay resurrection and not being able to resurrect at full health, it's even more useful than 'Twins'!"

Xue Jing let out a long breath, and with a thought, withdrew from the consciousness space.

"Next, we'll just have to wait for the U19 finals in a few days."

……

The fifth metropolitan area, Yuancheng.

Inside a skyscraper that is hundreds of stories high, with floor-to-ceiling windows filled with pale gold and holographic advertisements of various colors constantly rotating around it.

In the room on the top floor, by the floor-to-ceiling window, stood a boy with a youthful face and sharp, eagle-like eyes.

At first glance, his appearance was unremarkable. He was wearing white hotel pajamas, was a little over 1.8 meters tall, and apart from his eyes and his slightly long arms that almost reached his knees, there was nothing special about him.

But only those in the know can understand how exceptionally talented this young man is, and how noble his status is.

A middle-aged man standing not far behind the boy was nervously placing his hands in front of him, looking somewhat uneasy and tense.

The disciple of Wu Xuanzhu, the 'Eternal Master of War' and 'Gun Saint'... This title alone is enough to make anyone who understands its concept go weak in the knees on the spot.

Not to mention, her aura doesn't stop there; she herself comes from the Zhou family, one of the four most prestigious families among the thirteen powerful clans...

Although not a direct descendant, he still has an exceptionally formidable background. Moreover, he is a close friend of Zhu Daizhao, the third son of the Zhu family's capital branch, who is also one of the thirteen powerful families. They grew up together and are as close as brothers.

If we include others, there are also 'Vice President of the Night City Branch of the Martial Arts Association', 'Leader of the Eastern United Youth Martial Arts Alliance', 'Core Member of the Secret Martial Arts Society'...

All sorts of identities and titles, any one of which could be mentioned would be something that ordinary young people could hardly achieve... or even something that most people could never obtain in their entire lives.

Such a person, who possesses countless honors, suddenly summoned him for a private meeting... The middle-aged man felt immense pressure, his body covered in cold sweat, fearing that he had offended him in some way he hadn't noticed.

As time went by, the boy remained silent, only looking up at the floor-to-ceiling window in silence, while the middle-aged man felt increasingly pressured.

His breathing became increasingly rapid, and just as he was about to faint from overbreathing due to the immense pressure, the young man precisely timed it, speaking softly:

"Mr. Li, what are you doing standing there? Please sit down."

These words seemed to possess a special magic. The middle-aged man named Li Ziyuan felt as if he had drunk a glass of iced juice in the middle of summer. All the pressure on his body was swept away in an instant, and he felt extremely relaxed.

It was as if the immense, invisible pressure had never existed.

Although he felt physically relieved, Li Ziyuan became increasingly cautious.

Although he has never practiced martial arts, as the head of the U19 Unrestricted Elite Fighting Tournament, he has a sufficient understanding of martial arts and its various systems, even without practicing martial arts.

The ability to influence someone's psychological or even physiological state with just a single sentence is a manifestation of an extremely high 'spiritual energy level'.

"Young Master Zhou, I'll be fine standing," Li Ziyuan said modestly.

Zhou Yinglin didn't pay attention. He just looked through the floor-to-ceiling window at the building in the far distance that was surrounded by clouds and mist and was so huge that it looked like the 'Jianmu' from mythology.

Due to the extreme distance, the specific details were unclear, and only a blurry expanse of darkness could be seen. However, its immense size truly reached the heavens and the earth, penetrating tens of thousands of meters into the clouds.

The hundred-story building where Zhou Yinglin was located was nearly 450 meters tall, but compared to it, it looked like an ant under an elephant's foot.

"This is the first time I've ever seen a 'skyscraper center' in the fifth metropolitan area."

Zhou Yinglin spoke casually.