Tower of Heaven

"KEUGH…!"

Atlas didn't understand what happened. In one moment, he was trying to shatter the beast egg, and in the next, he was in a world of flames.

The flames around him were like tails snapping from left to right. His consciousness awakened to the feeling of pain coming from his entire body.

But, it also was not a pain coming from his body at all.

It was searing, blistering pain. It felt like his skin and flesh were being melted away. He viscerally felt as his eyes and other parts of his body were heated beyond their limit and turned to liquid.

However, he could still see, and if he just looked at his body within the flames, he could see that he was completely unaffected.

"This is…khhh! …a mental realm?!"

His thoughts were confirmed when they were voiced as words despite him never opening his mouth. When he compared his pain to the world around him and the state of his body, the only thing Atlas could think of was a mental realm.

The inner world of a Divine Beast was something different, but in essence, the concept was the same. His spirit had been separated from his body and dragged into a metaphysical plane.

If he died here, his body in the outside world would be left as a husk and would die off as it slowly lost its vitality. All of the damage he took was impacting his mind rather than his body. If it was allowed to shatter…

That wouldn't happen.

[Perfect Adaptability has activated.]

[Perfect Adaptability has resisted the [Divine Mirage] status effect.]

[Perfect Adaptability has resisted the [Divine Mirage] status effect.]

[Due to repeated contact, Perfect Adaptability has analyzed the [Divine Mirage] status effect.]

[You have developed a partial immunity to the [Divine Mirage] status effect.]

Atlas didn't have to do anything. The pain in his body automatically disappeared after a certain period of time. After all, this kind of flame that existed only in the mental world could also be considered a type of illusion.

'The Divine Mirage status effect…'

It had a grandiose name, unlike the [Enchantment] he'd resisted from the Elder of the Feng Clan. More importantly, unlike that status effect, he was unable to develop a complete resistance to this one after contacting it for a similar amount of time.

The Elder was also a Divine Beast; a Phoenix at that. But, unlike her techniques, this status effect was used by a beast who did not know anything about techniques. It was a trait that came directly from its bloodline, so its inherent potential and potency would be far beyond anything that a technique could be.

[Perfect Adaptability] didn't activate again, as if it was telling Atlas that he would not receive any more aid in this situation.

'I can still feel the heat of the flames, but it is only warm. Now, if these flames are directly controlled…'

He must have forgotten that his thoughts would always be vocalized in such a realm. The moment he said those words, the situation in question manifested itself.

Boom!

The tails of fire around Atlas started to violently lash from side to side. As they struck each other, they created massive waves of flame that charged in every direction.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Atlas raised his arms in front of his body as the waves hit him one after another.

"Khhh…!"

He was pushed back each time with force rattling through his body.
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As expected, [Perfect Adaptability] had only evened the playing field. If the beast tried hard enough and he did nothing to avoid or block, it could absolutely kill him.

'This is a mental realm or something similar.'

He knew about mental realms. In fact, he'd fought in many of them in the past. Mental realms were not a common place for battles to occur, but there were certain cultivators who specialized in techniques of the mind.

As a high authority in the Mortal Realm of that time, Atlas was, of course, going to come in contact with some of these highly specialized practitioners.

'There are benefits and detriments to mental realms.'

On one hand, the one who manifested it had great power that others could not match without special means.

On the other hand, people with special means could execute them to much higher levels in such realms where the limitations of one's body were a nonissue.

Atlas was a person with special means. His means could even be considered more special than the majority of people.

Because he was a reincarnator. His soul was that of someone who had already lived ten thousand years.

That soul, that spirit had been sucked into this world.

So, the current Atlas was not just the man he was in this life, but he was also the man he was at the peak of his past life.

Voom!

As he looked at his own hands, the clothing on his body changed.

He'd become accustomed to wearing white in this life. His usual attire matched his hair. Though he stood out a bit more in certain environments, that in itself provided him a type of camouflage.

Those white clothes were being shredded away and replaced by an elegant black and gold garb. His hair changed into the same inky black color, but his face did not change. He was a combination of his two selves.

Atlas could feel both the power of his current life and the power of his past life's Dao of Fire.

So, when he faced those flames again, he saw them differently.

Voom!

The beast attacked again. Its form had not been revealed yet. It hid itself behind the flames and shot attacks at Atlas one after another, attempting to shatter his brain over and over and over again.

'I have become the representation of all evil in its mind.'

Atlas was now the face of the organization that had tormented this beast.

'I'll have to change that to get anywhere.'

He held his hand out to the approaching waves of fire.

He closed his eyes. The qi in his body was different, but still familiar. It was much stronger, and more importantly, it had a depth that it didn't possess before.

Atlas could feel that this beast was going to be born at the World Core Realm. It was a powerful entity indeed.

However, it did not have delicate control over its flames.

It had not even been born yet, nor had it been taught. The beast learned how to use raw power to its advantage and raw power alone.

Boom!

The waves of qi slammed into Atlas' palm and shattered one after another. The space in front of him kindled and blazed with great heat.

A slight smile appeared on his face.

'It has been a long time.'

He didn't realize how much he'd missed the qi of his past life until he met it again in this world.

In order to calm the beast down and reveal its form, Atlas had to fight and defeat it regardless of his own desires.

What caused him agony just some moments ago had transformed in his mind into a much more positive thing.