Star Fragments!

"Rumble~~"

A thunderous explosion rang directly in Zhou Hao's soul.

His dantian, which had been an expanse of chaos, was like the world Pangu had opened up: a vast, boundless void had appeared!

It was a strange place, suspended between the unreal and the real. His Xiantian True Essence flowed in like water pouring into the sea, rushing into the void with a "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh."

The moment the Xiantian True Essence entered, it transformed into endless purple mist that filled the void. This was the Purple Mansion.

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

"Glug~~~" Zhou Hao opened his mouth, and the Origin Liquid on the stone platform flowed into it continuously, like wine.

As the Origin Liquid entered his body, it became True Essence, then flowed toward the Purple Mansion and transformed into Origin Power.

Vast quantities of Origin Power gathered without pause. A small pool began to form in the Purple Mansion, soon becoming a little lake...

The Origin Power continued to gather and accumulate, and the lake kept expanding...

Gradually, a small sea formed entirely from Origin Power began to take shape.

"Whew."

Zhou Hao stopped circulating his cultivation art and opened his eyes. He glanced at the hole in the stone platform beneath him and saw that some Origin Liquid remained. Hearing the white cat Ou Huang still snoring, he took out another gourd.

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

Only after finishing all this did he let out a quiet breath.

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

In less than an hour, he had not only successfully opened his Purple Mansion, but also stabilized it at the early stage. He couldn't help but marvel at the effects of the Origin Liquid.

He shook the gourd in his hand. It could hold ten jin of wine, and was now about half full—with roughly five jin of Origin Liquid.

He planned to give it to Blue Flower Boss.

After all, further cultivation might let him expand his Purple Mansion Origin Sea and reach the middle stage of the Purple Mansion realm. But the art he practiced was only the Water Source Sutra, a rather rudimentary method cultivated by the outer disciples of the Jade Dragon Sect.

It was good enough to break through to the Purple Mansion realm, but if he continued cultivating with it, the Origin Power he condensed would be impure, and his Purple Mansion Origin Sea would never reach its full potential. That would waste the best opportunity to lay the foundation for becoming a Celestial Immortal—a prospect he absolutely couldn't accept.

"Good thing Ou Huang fell asleep. If it had seen the Origin Liquid behind the statue, it would probably have taken it and wasted it again." Zhou Hao muttered as he put the gourd of Origin Liquid into his Mustard Stone Space.

These days, he liked to keep the things he often used in his Mustard Stone Space. Since he had refined it through his bloodline, it always felt more convenient to use. Only larger items went into his storage treasures.

"Now that I've successfully opened my Purple Mansion Origin Sea, I can start cultivating the Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Light. It's just a shame that Cold Fiend and Earth Fire are so hard to find."

Zhou Hao had been looking forward to this secret art, which Loose Immortal Hongchen had spent his entire life creating.

He now had the art, and his strength met the requirements, yet he still couldn't cultivate it. It was truly frustrating.

"I'd advise you to first raise your God-Devil Body Refining to the peak of the Xiantian realm, then cultivate the Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Light."

A lazy voice came from the statue. Zhou Hao looked up and saw Ou Huang sprawled across the Red Dust statue's shoulder, peering down at him.

"When did you wake up?" Zhou Hao panicked, as though he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't.

But then he reconsidered. He'd already used the Origin Liquid, and put the rest away. There was no way he'd take it back out now. Pretending nothing had happened, he asked, "Why?"

"Why?" Ou Huang scoffed. "Do you even know what Cold Fiend and Earth Fire are?"

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

He only remembered that, in the original story he'd read in his previous life, the original Ji Ning had nurtured two kinds of Cold Fiend and Earth Fire. But perhaps he hadn't had any suitable divine abilities or secret arts later on, so they'd been of limited use to him, and the story hadn't gone into them in detail.

As for Master Jingzhi's lesson that day, he had mostly covered basic information about cultivation realms. He'd only briefly mentioned Cold Fiend and Earth Fire, saying they were powerful auxiliary forces nurtured within the Purple Mansion. As their grade rose, they could rival a divine ability or secret art. But beyond that, Zhou Hao really only knew a little.

"You know a little? I'd say you only know that these things exist." Ou Huang exposed him without mercy.

"You're an Immortal Mansion Spirit. Do you actually know?" Zhou Hao shot back deliberately.

He'd figured it out: there was no point being nice to this narcissistic cat. The more attention he gave it, the more it would take advantage.

"Of course I know." Ou Huang raised its head and sat proudly atop the statue. "After Pangu opened the world, the primal chaos energy gave rise not only to the world, the stars, and all things, but also to many natural forces—water, fire, thunder, light, wind, and so on. Sha is simply the condensation of these natural forces born from heaven and earth."

"The God-Devil Body Refining art you cultivate is the Chiming Nine Heavens Map. When you entered the Xiantian realm and formed your God and Devil Body, the two Supreme Stars, Taiyin and Taiyang, sent down a wisp of Lunar True Water and Solar True Fire to help nurture it, didn't they? Lunar True Water and Solar True Fire are also natural forces."

"Of course, Lunar True Water and Solar True Fire are of such a high grade that even Celestial Immortals can't absorb and nurture them. You can forget about those. But there are always places of extraordinary beauty and spiritual splendor in the world, where special forms of water, fire, thunder, light, and wind are born."

"Fire, for instance, can be divided from lowest to highest into Human Fire, Earth Fire, Heavenly Fire, and, at the very top, True Fire—that is, the Solar True Fire I just mentioned. The same goes for water, thunder, light, and wind."

As he spoke, Ou Huang saw Zhou Hao nodding along, looking as if a veil had been lifted from his eyes. This made it even more pleased with itself, and it continued:

"Human Fire is the ordinary flame used by mortals in the human world. It's the most common kind and useless to cultivators. Earth Fire is a special kind of flame nurtured by the earth."

"Earth Fire has nine grades, from ninth grade all the way to first! Ninth, eighth, and seventh grade are low-grade. Sixth, fifth, and fourth are middle-grade. Third, second, and first grade are high-grade!"

"First-grade Earth Fire represents the pinnacle of Earth Fire. Absorb just a wisp of Heavenly Fire, and the Earth Fire within your body can evolve into Heavenly Fire."

"The same goes for water, thunder, light, and wind."

"Whether you want to nurture Earth Fire or Cold Fiend, Wind Sha, or Light Sha, you first need to find a naturally occurring Earth Fire Vein, Cold Fiend Vein, or the like."

"If you want to cultivate the Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Light, you need to absorb at least one Five Elements Sha and plant it in your Purple Mansion to get started. Only once the 'planting' succeeds and you have a seed within you can you continue cultivating."

"Finding a Five Elements Sha isn't hard. This Water Mansion was built at the site of the Mystic Crystal Sea Eye, where the Mystic Yin Cold Sha Vein is an excellent source of Cold Fiend. It has tremendous potential and can be nurtured all the way to first-grade Cold Fiend. Most importantly, it matches your cultivation art, so it's a very good fit."

"But your strength is too low! In theory, Purple Mansion Cultivators can absorb a wisp of Cold Fiend and nurture it within their Purple Mansion. But it's far too dangerous, so most people wait until they reach the Wanxiang level before absorbing Cold Fiend."

"Since you cultivate the Chiming Nine Heavens Map, your God and Devil Body has been tempered and nurtured by Lunar True Water, so you have some chance of succeeding. Even so, you'll need to wait until your body reaches the peak of the Xiantian realm before it can withstand the invasion of Cold Fiend. Otherwise, you'll freeze to death before you can even plant it successfully."

Zhou Hao ignored Ou Huang's talk about how he'd freeze to death. The moment he heard the words "Mystic Yin Cold Sha Vein," his eyes lit up, and he asked to confirm, "You're saying there's a Cold Fiend Vein here in the Immortal Mansion? And it's a high-grade Mystic Yin Cold Sha Vein?"

"Otherwise, why do you think the seawater outside is so cold?" Ou Huang said with a smile.

"Back then, quite a few Wanxiang Adepts and even Primordial Spirit Daoists came to investigate the sea. But Hongchen had already sealed that Cold Fiend Vein away with the Immortal Mansion. Unless you found the Immortal Mansion, you'd never discover it. You could dig three feet into the ground and still not find it."

"That's wonderful! Senior Hongchen truly saw everything coming. He prepared a Cold Fiend Vein long ago," Zhou Hao said happily.

The best way to cultivate the Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Light was naturally to cultivate all five elements together and advance them in tandem. But, for one thing, natural forces such as Cold Fiend, Earth Fire, Wind Sha, and Light Sha were hard to find. For another, cultivating the art required a certain level of insight into the Dao: he had to comprehend the True Meaning of the Dao for at least one of the Five Elements before he could begin.

So there was nothing wrong with starting with one element and slowly making up the other four once his strength and cultivation realm improved.

He had already comprehended a trace of the True Meaning of the Dao in both water and fire. As long as he could find an Earth Fire Vein or a Cold Fiend Vein, he could start cultivating.

Now that Zhou Hao had heard there was a prepared Cold Fiend Vein right in front of him, he was naturally overjoyed.

But before he could enjoy his happiness for long, Zhou Hao thought of another difficulty.

"I'm afraid it'll take a year or two just to cultivate the Chiming Nine Heavens Map to the peak of the Xiantian realm by absorbing the Power of Taiyin and the Power of Taiyang. Sigh, I still can't start cultivating right away."

"A year or two? No need!" Ou Huang said smugly, pointing at the stone platform beneath Zhou Hao's feet. "Why do you think Hongchen put 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 treasures Hongchen ever obtained. Even after he failed his tribulation and became a Loose Immortal, and could no longer use it, he still couldn't bring himself to sell it and exchange it for other Immortal Artifacts."

Ou Huang enunciated each word. "This stone is a Chaos Star Fragment. Practicing on it can strengthen your ability to sense the stars in the chaotic void several hundred times over."

"If you're drawing on the power of the stars, increasing your speed a hundredfold is easy."

"You'd normally need a year or two to absorb the Power of Taiyin and the Power of Taiyang. On this stone platform, five or six days would be enough."

Zhou Hao stared in shock at the black stone platform, riddled with holes and fissures. He hadn't expected that this was the most tangible benefit of his Immortal encounter.

Forget dozens of jin of Origin Liquid—even thousands, tens of thousands of jin couldn't compare!

Why were there fewer and fewer powerful God-Devil Body Refiners at the higher levels?

Aside from the monstrous demands that powerful cultivation arts placed on one's comprehension and constitution, the main reason was that, unlike the Qi Refining Path, body refiners couldn't rely on Origin Liquid to skip the hard work of slowly breathing in and accumulating power.

Many body-refining cultivators who reached the Purple Mansion or even Wanxiang realms might still not have accumulated enough divine power to break through before their lifespans ran out.

Thus, as they reached the later stages, many God-Devil Body Refiners saw no hope of breaking through and switched to the Qi Refining Path.

Of course, another reason was that the Heavenly God Tribulation was harder to overcome than the Celestial Immortal Tribulation for body-refining cultivators.

But there was no denying that the need to accumulate divine power alone blocked countless body-refining cultivators from advancing.

Those who truly reached an exceptionally high level in the Body Refining Path were all genuine prodigies.

A God-Devil Body Refiner at the Void Return realm was as powerful as a Celestial Immortal on the Qi Refining Path.

And a Heavenly God could even match a Pure Yang True Immortal.

From this, it was clear how difficult it was to reach the higher realms of the God-Devil Body Refining Path.

With this Chaos Star Fragment, it was as if a Qi Refining cultivator had an ample supply of Origin Liquid. From now on, Zhou Hao wouldn't need to endure the long grind of accumulating divine power; he only had to improve his comprehension of the Dao.

The value of this stone platform... was simply beyond measure!