By the time the stars in the sky had faded, Lu Xiaotian had absorbed only three drops of star liquid. Refining a single star source required nine hundred and ninety-nine drops. At his current rate, under normal circumstances, he would need eight years to gather enough for a single use of the Eight Trigrams Star Source Mountain-Shaking Array.
It took quite a while, but considering the array's power, the cost was understandable. Thinking of that monster Ban Qianzhi, Lu Xiaotian smiled to himself. If he taught Ban Qianzhi the method and added his own Lotus Avatar and Illusionary Spirit Avatar, gathering the two remaining star sources would not take too long.
Refining star liquid into a star source was harder than extracting star liquid directly from the void, but took less time. The main difficulty lay in gathering starlight into liquid. It did not consume much magical power, but required undivided concentration—a formidable challenge for most people, yet one that came relatively easily to Lu Xiaotian.
With his earlier experience to guide him, over the next few days Lu Xiaotian used a secondary Primordial Spirit to control the Illusionary Spirit Avatar, while also having the Lotus Avatar extract star liquid from the void.
He focused mainly on cultivation during the day. At night, setting aside several secondary Primordial Spirits did not greatly affect his cultivation either. By the time Ban Qianzhi returned, Lu Xiaotian had already gathered more than a dozen drops of star liquid.
"How did it go?" Lu Xiaotian asked, cracking open his eyes slightly as he sensed Ban Qianzhi approaching. He had not moved from his spot in several days.
"I haven't found any Dragon-Patterned Dark Crystal yet, but a fellow cultivator mentioned materials for the Dragon-Patterned Hundredfold Refining Pill. I wonder if you're interested, Fellow Daoist