Chapter 228: Chapter 228: Growth is the Result of Helplessness

Lin Shen first activated the Super Base Pattern, Super Base Change, and Super Base Recast. On the black, ash-gray crystalline carapace, pictographic text began to glow and heat up.

The entire carapace also started to redden gradually, and before long, it turned golden yellow, becoming more and more resplendent. Finally, after suddenly cooling rapidly, Lin Shen’s carapace turned crystal clear, as flawless as transparent crystal.

Within the crystal, each pictographic character took on a three-dimensional form, constantly rotating, each emitting a brilliant radiance, like ancient, mysterious incantations.

With all his skills fully activated, Lin Shen seemed like a deity from ancient times, radiating a sacred aura entirely different from his usual black carapaced appearance.

In this state, Lin Shen could only sustain some scratches from Death Powder’s full-powered strike, unable to deal him a severe blow, not even fully penetrating the carapace.

“Come on,” Lin Shen fixed his eyes intently on the Six Paths Phoenix in the sky.

“Be very careful,” Lin Miao repeatedly cautioned before communicating with the Six Paths Phoenix and permitting it to launch an attack on Lin Shen.

Six wings shook, transforming into a bolt of golden lightning, flashing instantly past Lin Shen.

Lin Shen’s body was sent flying backward, the carapace on one side of his chest shattered, and blood splattered.

Lin Shen flew back hundreds of meters, crashing onto a sand dune, creating a large crater, with sand scattering everywhere.

“Little Five!” Lin Miao was startled and quickly rushed over.

“I’m fine,” Lin Shen climbed out of the sand pit, his wounds and carapace visibly healing at a rapid pace, allowing Lin Miao to relax upon seeing this.

“No good, my speed is still quite inferior compared to an Ascension Level; I can’t just stand and wait to be hit. I can only start moving to stand a chance against Ascension Level,” Lin Shen knew where his problem lay.

This time, holding the Death Powder, he used the movement technique of Stepping on the Immortal Court, his figure rapidly shifting positions, as he launched another attack on the Six Paths Phoenix.

Lin Miao communicated with the Six Paths Phoenix once more, instructing it to strike Lin Shen again.

The flash of golden lightning passed by, and Lin Shen’s hand wielding the Death Powder didn’t even have time to swing as his shoulder was torn.

However, the wound this time was clearly much lighter than the last, and he didn’t fall like he did before.

“Again!” Lin Shen knew he was on the right track. Using the technique of Stepping on the Immortal Court, he had a chance to contend with Ascension Level.

With each subsequent battle, Lin Shen sustained injuries, but he was also constantly improving.

Lin Shen continuously integrated various skills into Stepping on the Immortal Court, the unorthodox rhythm, aerial leverage techniques from Stairway to Heaven, and the momentum-building of Overlapping Waves Skill.

Lin Shen needed to be able to fight Ascenders in the air; relying solely on ground combat skills would never let him touch an Ascender’s body.

Ascenders could simply watch the battle from the sky and slay Lin Shen using their Spirit Base. In that case, Lin Shen stood no chance at all.

Stabbing techniques, Finger Skills, and Rod Skills—Lin Shen was gradually mastering them. He would ignore what he couldn’t comprehend or execute and focus solely on practicing what he could understand and knew how to use. In his hands, the Death Powder turned soft and hard unpredictably, stabbing and whipping, with all sorts of techniques—unpredictably insidious.

Just with this one technique, there were probably already few among the Mutators who could pose a challenge to him, but his opponents were Ascenders, so this alone was not enough.

Watching Lin Shen getting injured by the Six Paths Phoenix time and again, and then getting back up to fight each time, Lin Miao felt very conflicted.

“Growth is the product of helplessness,” Lin Miao sighed inwardly. If given the choice, she wished Lin Shen would never have to grow up.

“`

In the desert environment, the World’s Force absorbed by the Super Base Pattern allowed Lin Shen to maintain his Super Base Change state for nearly an hour.

Then he could only withdraw from the Super Base Change state, rest for a few minutes, wait for the Super Base Pattern to absorb enough World’s Force to replenish the consumption, and then he could use the power of Super Base Change again.

During this time, Lin Shen discovered another characteristic of the Super Base Pattern.

The more intense the battle, the stronger the power fluctuations produced in the fight, the more World’s Force it absorbed.

Once, Lin Shen had a few tough exchanges with the Six Paths Phoenix, and the shock waves from the power vibrations were severe, noticeably increasing the amount of World’s Force absorbed by the Super Base Pattern.

Of course, what’s called a tough exchange was actually Lin Shen being unable to evade the Six Paths Phoenix’s attacks, forcibly confronting them while getting injured himself, resulting in no damage to the Six Paths Phoenix but serious injuries to Lin Shen.

If it wasn’t for his Recast talent ability, he might not have been able to get out of bed for ten days to half a month.

As time passed, Lin Shen was able to maintain the battle against the Six Paths Phoenix for longer periods.

He also gradually realized that the Six Paths Phoenix didn’t rely solely on speed, but also had its own movement techniques, which were quite strange and mysterious.

To understand the behavior patterns of the Six Paths Phoenix, Lin Shen tried mimicking its movements and found that some poses allowed him to move more fluidly in the air, but only a small part of the movements were useful, most were of no use.

This discovery immensely excited Lin Shen, and he promptly integrated it into the Stepping on the Immortal Court, making his aerial combat more fluid.

With deeper research, Lin Shen increasingly felt that he only had a chance of winning in close combat with Ascenders, and absolutely could not afford to distance himself, or else he would definitely suffer a great loss.

Although Stepping on the Immortal Court also required distance to increase speed, Lin Shen could move in a comparatively small space, not needing such a long straight-line distance.

As long as he could hit an Ascender, Lin Shen was not afraid of not being able to kill them.

Typical Ascenders have an attribute limit of 80, but most First Turn Ascenders definitely do not reach this limit.

Only Ascenders with multiple Turns can break through the limit of 80.

Lin Shen’s current Strength attribute was 56, which was because the Death Powder was continuously growing, and influenced by the Boundless Strength Contract, Lin Shen’s Strength was also constantly increasing.

With a Strength of 56, plus the enhancement of Super Base Change, Lin Shen’s Strength attribute was already no less than that of an average Ascender, and even stronger than some with lower Strength.

Paired with the skills of the Death Powder and his own Strength enhancement, piercing through the carapace of a typical Ascender was no problem.

Even if he couldn’t pierce through, there was Acupoint Sealing to use.

The only concern was whether he could get close enough; if he couldn’t get close, Lin Shen’s disadvantage became too great, and he didn’t have a Life Base to use for long-range strikes against Ascenders.

Luckily, Wan Guotao and the others were definitely waiting in the room for Lin Shen, so initially, there was no problem with getting close.

A few days later, Lin Shen was still no match for the Six Paths Phoenix, but it wasn’t so easy for the Six Paths Phoenix to injure him either.

Lin Shen attempted to battle with the Six Paths Phoenix from the moment he initiated Super Base Change, instead of waiting until the final form was complete before taking action, which greatly extended the duration of Super Base Change.

However, at the beginning of Super Base Change, the enhancing effect on the body was not as strong, resulting in lower defense and more severe injuries for Lin Shen.

Yet, Lin Shen also discovered a very peculiar phenomenon because of this, a phenomenon that could only possibly occur during the warming phase of Super Base Change.

“`