Stardust Fragments!

"Boom!"

The explosion echoed as if it had detonated directly within Zhou Hao's soul.

His dantian, previously a singular, chaotic void, was now like Pangu splitting the heavens and earth, carving out a vast and boundless expanse of nothingness.

This was a strange place existing between the ethereal and the physical. The Xiantian True Essence within his body surged into this void like water flowing into the sea, accompanied by a rushing sound.

As soon as the Xiantian True Essence entered, it transformed into endless purple mist that permeated the void. This was the Purple Mansion.

Soon, the countless purple mists gathered and grew denser, until the first drop of Origin Power finally condensed within the Purple Mansion.

"Whoosh!" Zhou Hao opened his mouth, and the Origin Liquid on the stone platform flowed into him like wine.

As the Origin Liquid entered his body, it transformed into True Essence, then flowed into the Purple Mansion to become Origin Power.

Massive amounts of Origin Power gathered continuously, forming a small puddle in the Purple Mansion, which quickly expanded into a small lake...

The Origin Power continued to gather and accumulate, and the lake expanded in turn...

Gradually, a small ocean formed entirely of Origin Power began to take shape.

"Hoo."

Zhou Hao stopped circulating his technique, opened his eyes, and glanced at the hole in the stone platform beneath him. Seeing that some Origin Liquid remained, he listened to the white cat, Ou Huang, still snoring, and pulled out a gourd.

"Glug, glug..." Zhou Hao downed the rice wine in the gourd, then used his divine sense to collect all the remaining Origin Liquid.

Only after finishing this did he let out a light breath.

"Purple Mansion!" Zhou Hao's lips curled into a smile.

In just an hour, he had not only successfully opened his Purple Mansion but also consolidated the early stage. This made Zhou Hao marvel at the efficacy of the Origin Liquid.

He shook the gourd in his hand; it was a ten-pound capacity vessel, now half-full with about five pounds of Origin Liquid.

He had set this aside for Blue Flower Boss.

After all, while further cultivation might expand his Purple Mansion Origin Sea to the middle stage, the Water Source Sutra he practiced—a technique for outer sect disciples of the Jade Dragon Sect—was relatively shallow.

It was fine for breaking through to the Purple Mansion, but if he continued to use it, the condensed Origin Power would be impure, and his Purple Mansion Origin Sea would never reach its maximum potential. Wasting the best opportunity to lay a foundation for a Heavenly Immortal was something he was unwilling to do.

"Good thing Ou Huang is asleep. If it saw there was still Origin Liquid behind the statue, it would probably waste it all," Zhou Hao muttered as he tucked the gourd into his Mustard Stone Space.

He preferred keeping his frequently used items in the Mustard Stone Space now. Because he had refined it with his own blood, he found it much more convenient to use; only large items were stored in his storage Dharma Treasure.

"With the Purple Mansion Origin Sea successfully opened, I can finally cultivate the Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Light. It's just a pity that the Cold Sha Earth Fire is so hard to find."

Zhou Hao was extremely expectant of this secret technique, which the Loose Immortal Hongchen had spent his entire life creating.

Now that he had the technique and his strength met the requirements, the fact that he still couldn't practice it was truly frustrating.

"I advise you to raise your God-Devil Body Refining to the Xiantian peak before cultivating the Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Light."

A lazy voice drifted down from the statue. Zhou Hao looked up to see Ou Huang perched on the shoulder of the Hongchen statue, peering down at him.

"When did you wake up?" Zhou Hao felt a jolt of panic, as if he had been caught doing something wrong.

But then he thought, the Origin Liquid was already used, and the rest was tucked away; there was no way he would take it out again. He acted as if nothing had happened and asked, "Why?"

"Why?" Ou Huang sneered. "Do you even understand what Cold Sha Earth Fire is?"

"Uh, I know a little." Zhou Hao said sheepishly.

He only remembered that in the original story he had read in his past life, the protagonist Ji Ning had nurtured two types of Cold Sha Earth Fire. However, perhaps because he lacked a suitable supernatural secret technique later on, they had limited effect, and the book hadn't gone into much detail.

As for the lecture Master Jingzhi had given, it focused more on the basics of cultivation realms; he had only briefly mentioned Cold Sha Earth Fire as a powerful auxiliary force that, when nurtured in the Purple Mansion and upgraded, could rival a supernatural secret technique. But as for the specifics, Zhou Hao really only knew a little.

"A little? I think you just know the name exists," Ou Huang exposed him without mercy.

"You're an Immortal Mansion Spirit, surely you know?" Zhou Hao retorted intentionally.

He had figured it out: this narcissistic cat couldn't be treated with kindness. The more he cared, the more it would climb all over him.

"Of course I know." Ou Huang lifted its cat head, squatting proudly on the statue. "After Pangu split the heavens and earth, the chaotic Origin Power evolved into the world, stars, and all things, but it also naturally birthed many natural forces. Water, fire, thunder, light, wind, and so on. What is called 'Sha Qi' is the condensation of these naturally generated forces."

"I see you practice the Chiming Nine Heavens Map for God-Devil Body Refining. When you stepped into the Xiantian realm and achieved the God and Devil Body, it was the two Supreme Stars—the Taiyin and the Sun—that transmitted a wisp of Lunar True Water and Solar True Fire to help you nurture your God-Devil body. That Lunar True Water and Solar True Fire are also types of natural forces."

"Of course, the grade of Lunar True Water and Solar True Fire is extremely high; even a Heavenly Immortal cannot absorb and nurture them, so don't even think about it. But there are always places in the world with unique spiritual energy that birth special water, fire, thunder, light, and wind."

"Take fire, for example. From low to high, it is divided into Human Fire, Earth Fire, Heavenly Fire, and the highest, True Fire—which is the Solar True Fire I mentioned earlier. The same applies to water, thunder, light, and wind."

At this point, seeing Zhou Hao nodding along as if he had suddenly understood everything, Ou Huang felt even more smug and continued:

"Human Fire is the fire of mortals, the most ordinary, and useless to cultivators. Earth Fire is the special fire birthed by the earth."

"Earth Fire is divided into nine grades, from the lower nine grades all the way up to the first grade! The ninth, eighth, and seventh grades are low-grade. The sixth, fifth, and fourth are mid-grade. The third, second, and first are high-grade!"

"First-grade Earth Fire represents the pinnacle of Earth Fire. Once you absorb a wisp of 'Heavenly Fire,' you can evolve the Earth Fire within you to the 'Heavenly Fire' level."

"It is the same for fire as it is for water, thunder, light, and wind."

"Whether you want to nurture Earth Fire or Cold Sha, Wind Sha, or Light Sha, you must first find a naturally occurring Earth Fire vein or Cold Sha vein."

"If you want to cultivate the Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Light, you need to absorb at least one type of five-element attribute Sha Qi to 'plant' in your Purple Mansion. Only after successfully 'planting' it and having the seed within your body can you continue to cultivate."

"The five-element Sha Qi is easy enough. This water mansion was built right where the Mystic Crystal Sea Eye is located. The Mystic Yin Cold Sha Vein within it is an excellent source of Cold Sha. Not only does it have high potential—it can be nurtured up to a first-grade Cold Sha—but most importantly, it is compatible with the technique you practice. It is very suitable."

"But your strength is too poor! Although, in theory, a Purple Mansion Cultivator can absorb a wisp of Cold Sha to nurture in their Purple Mansion, it is extremely dangerous. Usually, one waits until the Myriad Phenomena level to attempt absorbing Sha Qi."

"It is only because you cultivate the Chiming Nine Heavens Map, and your Gods and Devils body has been tempered and nurtured by Lunar True Water, that you have any chance of success. Even then, you must wait until your body reaches the peak of the Xiantian stage to withstand the invasion of the cold Sha. Otherwise, you would freeze to death from the cold Sha before the planting could even succeed."

Zhou Hao ignored Ou Huang's talk of him freezing to death. Upon hearing the words "Mystic Yin Cold Sha Vein," his eyes lit up, and he confirmed, "You said there is a Cold Sha Vein here in the Immortal Mansion? And it's a high-quality Mystic Yin Cold Sha Vein?"

"Why else do you think the seawater outside is so cold?" Ou Huang laughed.

"In the past, many Myriad Phenomena cultivators and even Primordial Spirit Daoists came to the sea to investigate, but that Cold Sha Vein had long been suppressed by Red Dust using the Immortal Mansion. Unless one finds the Immortal Mansion, they could dig three feet into the ground and never hope to find it."

"That's wonderful! Senior Red Dust truly anticipated everything; he prepared the Cold Sha Vein so long ago," Zhou Hao rejoiced.

When cultivating the Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Light, the best scenario is to cultivate all five elements simultaneously. However, natural forces like cold Sha, Earth Fire, wind Sha, and light Sha are hard to find. Furthermore, there is a requirement for one's level of Dao: one must at least comprehend the True Meaning of the Dao for one of the five elements to even begin cultivation.

Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable to start with one element and slowly fill in the other four as one's strength and realm increase.

Now that he had already comprehended a trace of the True Meaning of the Dao for both water and fire, he could begin cultivation as long as he had an Earth Fire vein and a Cold Sha vein.

Hearing that there was a ready-made Cold Sha vein right in front of him, Zhou Hao was naturally overjoyed.

However, before his joy could last long, Zhou Hao thought of another difficulty.

"If I want to cultivate the Chiming Nine Heavens Map to the Xiantian peak, I fear it will take a year or two just to absorb the Lunar and Solar energies. Sigh, I still can't cultivate immediately."

"A year or two? No need!" Ou Huang pointed triumphantly at the stone platform beneath his feet. "Why do you think Red Dust placed this stone platform here?"

The stone platform?

Zhou Hao looked at Ou Huang expectantly. "Is there something special about it?"

"This stone platform was one of the greatest gains in Red Dust's entire life. Even after he failed his tribulation and became a Loose Immortal, and could no longer use it, he couldn't bear to sell it for other Immortal artifacts."

Ou Huang said word by word, "This stone is a Chaos Star Fragment. Cultivating on it strengthens one's connection to the stars in the chaotic void by hundreds of times."

"If you are absorbing star energy, your speed will easily be a hundred times faster."

"What would normally take you a year or two to absorb in terms of Lunar and Solar energy will take only five or six days on this platform."

Zhou Hao stared in shock at the black stone platform, riddled with pits and cracks. He never expected this to be the most practical benefit of this Immortal encounter.

Forget about a few dozen catties of Origin Liquid; even thousands or tens of thousands of catties could not compare to this!

Why are there fewer and fewer experts in the Gods and Devils Body Refining Path as the tiers get higher?

Aside from the insane requirements for comprehension and physique demanded by powerful techniques, the main reason is that they cannot rely on Origin Liquid to save the painstaking effort of slow accumulation, unlike the Qi Refining path.

Many body-refining cultivators, upon reaching the Purple Mansion or even Myriad Phenomena stages, may not have accumulated enough divine power before their lifespan reaches its limit.

Therefore, as they reach the later stages, many Gods and Devils body-refining experts see no hope of breaking through and switch to Qi Refining.

Of course, there is also the fact that when a body-refining cultivator undergoes a Heavenly Tribulation, the Heavenly God Tribulation is much harder to pass than the Heavenly Immortal Tribulation.

But it cannot be denied that the mere accumulation of divine power blocks the path forward for countless body-refining cultivators.

Those who can truly reach a high realm in the body-refining path are all genuine monsters.

A Gods and Devils body-refining expert at the Void Return realm has strength equivalent to a Heavenly Immortal of the Qi Refining path.

And a Heavenly God is equivalent to a Pure Yang True Immortal.

From this, one can see how difficult it is for the Gods and Devils Body Refining Path to reach a profound realm.

With this Chaos Star Fragment, it is equivalent to a Qi Refining cultivator having an abundant supply of Origin Liquid; in the future, he won't have to suffer through the slow accumulation of divine power, only needing to improve his Dao comprehension.

The value of this stone platform... is simply immeasurable!

First update. The next chapter will still be around 6 PM.

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Suifeng bows in thanks!